Pointed Discussion

More Blue burn. Pretty good at slowing a player down.

protect it with Faith's Fetters or Interdict
Now Using Æther Vial or Belbe's Portal
you pretty much control the game. (with many many exceptions)

Might I suggest Pithing Needle.

I had a blue/red deck with this in it. I once pulled the combo of Frozen Aether, this, Goblin Assault. It's too bad that game had to be cut short, the next card I was gonna play was Shapeshifter's Marrow.

Edit: That's Goblin A-S-S-ault. Damned auto-censoring that doesn't do its job correctly.

Pithing Needle as per reins suggestion or faith's fetters
throw iron maiden and Wildfire a few times and...

All thats left is to watch those fires burn your opponents to a crisp

Enchantments can be regenerated?

Note that it's worded 'destroy' in the oracle text, meaning indestructibility would work too. The problem is, your opponent can just pay 4 life to destroy it in response to inestructibilty/faith's fetters/whatever. Trickbind solves this problem, Interdict doesn't (if your opponent is willing to pay more life).

@littlebeast: While I don't think there's anything that says "Regenerate target enchantment", it's possible to regenerate it as a creature if Opalescense is in play.
The reason they used that term is because bury was changed into either 'sacrifice' or 'destroy, it can't be regenerated'. Since your opponents can't sacrifice permanents you control, the destroy wording was decided to be simpler for this card.

@Reins: Wow... what a strong trick! I would hate the deck that tried this, but I have to concede respect for your evil, evil idea.

Use with Pithing Needle for craziness.

The flavor text on the Master's Edition doesn't match the Flavor Text on the card image. It's the Homelands Text.

I don't even need to combo with this, so far every time I've cast it opponents just don't cast creatures for a while, once they realize that I've taken control of most of their creatures they pay the 4 life.
but I would cast this even if they saw it and paid the 4 life right away.
4 mana 4 damage.
that's pretty good for blue.

i LOLed because pithing needle exists.

Possibly the only card (especially the only enchantment) that has an regeneration preventing clause for enchantments.

Hay guys.
Reknit.
Enchantments can totally be regenerated, now hush.

this card be nasty later in the game when you have a bigger creature than your opponent. you play this card and make them pay the 4 by lasting out longer and keep smacking them with 5s and 7s

Interesting new combo with Angel of Jubilation. Simply drop the angel, then the enchantment to prevent anybody else from activating the self-destruct ability- nobody can cast creatures.

On its own, its pretty weak. If your not burn its useless, and if their not playing with creatures its useless. If you are playing with burn, then red has stronger options at four mana.
Maybe merefolk beatdown? To give a blue a potential "Lava Axe" with a twist.

But yeah, johnny still likes this card.

@exterion
Trickbind does not solve this problem because your opponent can simply pay another 4 life after Trickbind has resolved while indestructibility is still on the stack.

On an an unrelated matter why mention interdict and not the much more commonly played/strictly better card Stifle?

@YertleTheTurtle

Read Trickbind there again Yurtle; "If a permanent's ability is countered this way, activated abilities of that permanent can't be activated this turn." And thus the opponent cannot simply pay the life again. Pretty good solution really.

Otherwise, I'll admit when I ran across this card here, I immediately thought of Angel of Jubilation, as Yoke pointed out.

Who errata'd the flavor text?

@Dr.Pingas: Aether Storm cannot be regenerated when its ability resolves. Boros Charm and Indestructibility would work, though. Pithing Needle is cheaper, though, and you can drop it prior to Aether Storm (making it impossible for them to respond by activating Aether Storm's ability). Of course, getting past a Boros Charm would take an extra four life...which is so much better than just burning them directly for four.

Mindslaver and Sorin Markov also seem potentially brutal here. Forcing it through is complicated, though. You need a Pithing Needle or a Trickbind into Indestructibility, but if you go with the Needle you would need to get rid of it before taking your opponent's turn. Or you could use Sundial of the Infinite, ending the turn if they try to blow it up in response to Indestructibility. You lose the Indestructibility, but you made them take another four. And, well, I guess that's something.

You could also Copy Enchantment until they don't have enough life to get through all of them. Then cast Aether Tradewinds whenever they try to blow one up.