For The Brother's War, Wizards of the Coast had all its artifacts printed with the classic brown card frame. All, that is, save for one.
In 2022, Magic: the Gathering tackled a difficult concept - going back in the timeline of the Magic story and covering the famed Brother's War between Urza and Mishra. It is one of the big evens in Magic history that shaped the story -- especially in the early years. So, when harkening to the past, the Magic team decided to not only give the expansion the proper name of the event, The Brother's War, but also make everything about it retro, as if this was more like an early Magic set than one released after COVID.
While there were some things they couldn't do, like put in banned cards, use outdated terms, or bring back now awful mechanics (sorry banding fans), The Brother's War was made retro in other ways. Much of the new art echoed earlier Magic art designs, with many veteran artists being allowed to bring back some of that early Magic style.
Also being hyped up was the retro framing cards would be getting, meaning cards suddenly had the classic Magic look again for at least a little bit. They weren't all like this, but enough were that many newer fans wondered what the heck was wrong with their cards for a bit.
A big emphasis was put on artifacts for this, with all artifacts not only getting the frame design in the old style, but they made them all in colorless mana, something that had not happened for artifacts in the game since Shards of Alara in 2008. All in all, the classic feel was there.
Well, nearly all there. Because Magic did something clever that few noticed. ALMOST all the artifacts were retro styled. One wasn't. And that's because, in the story, Teferi and others use the Temporal Anchor to view the war in the past. Narratively, this artifact is in the present, so, it doesn't get the same treatment. Rather than looking retro, the card The Temporal Anchor instead gets the complete modern treatment, right down to the mana not being colorless - a subtle reminder of when it all takes place.
It isn't a bad card either. But, for The Brothers' War, it does, nonetheless, stand out as the lone artifact in the entire expansion that looks extremely different - for a good reason. The one colored artifact is essentially a time machine from modern-day Magic to experience Magic long past.
