Pointed Discussion

worse than its kamigawa equivelent in cage of hands? Im ashamed Phyrexia.

Reusable Guard Duty. This is better than Cage of Hands because you can throw it down indiscriminately a turn earlier. Depends what you feel is more important: Not being blocked, or not being attacked.

So ridiculously good with Phyrexian Rebirth it kinda makes me want to puke (in happiness)

Awesome in limited, 'meh' everywhere else.

Han Solo

But... the flavor.

Jeez, I hate it when decent cards get below average ratings like this one... It is a great spell to put the beatstick of your choice on Guard Duty. This is fairly costed, and the ability to save itself from disenchantment, or to be able to take it back and use it on another threat is really a nice tool.

yes, I can understand why some people would prefer Cage of Hands, as it is more or less the same type of card, but this is still an effective alternative. It's all about your preference... I mean this is cheaper to cast, and of course the creature still has the ability to block. Not much of a setback if it fits your style of play anyway.

The flavor and artwork alone literally command respect... you gotta love phyrexian white. My only complaint with this is that it should have followed the trend and costed . This is a GOOD casual magic card, and a great common. 4/5

Funny story; every time I saw this played at the prerelease, someone playing would forget that it didn't prevent blocking.

This is better than people give it credit for for that alone.

@ R&D:
You should have use "has defender" to make it more clear that this creature can still block. In addition, anything about the card shouts "BLUE"!!!

Volrath's Curse, Lost in Thought and Ice Cage are good examples.

Please MaRo or anyone @ R&D, please stop reprinting the white pacifism. I know it's a cool gimmick, but it sucks. Swap colors of bounce and pacifism instead. If white uses auras, it should use them to enchant their own creatures.

Insane withsigil of the empty throne because it allows you to keep playing enchantments even when you don't draw any

Why?

I've bought about a half dozen of New Phyrexia boosters and probably have three or four of these. I'll stick with Pacifism, thanks - and I've been using less stuff like that in my white decks as of late for that matter. Offense > defense

I recently replaced guard duty with this in my luminarch ascension / sigil of the empty throne deck. Works rather well as a recurring enchantment.

Not a bad way to buy time for a day of judgment or to stop threats that you can fly over. Currently using with mesa enchantress for spendy but nice draw option along with o-ring and journey to nowhere. I would say Cage of hands is far better vs control and forced worship wins vs agro.

this little piece of work is a favorite of mine. i love slamming it on the table and shouting WORSHIP ME!

Hey, you dont see potencial of this card. You can re-use it and in deck vith lot of flyers is best choice

This card is broken with Mesa Enchantress. It is almost like having a Think Twice to flashback at the end of all your opponent's turn.

You get a nice control + draw combination with Forced Worship, Oblivion Ring, Mesa Enchantress and a few Sun Titans. There are other nice enchantments in white like Spirit Mantle and Angelic Destiny that will greatly help you ignore the fact that the creature you stalled is still able to block.

Clever flavor text. Well played, Wizards.

Is that carbonite?

The shadows of her hands are pretty long so I assume one of the suns is directly overhead. The weird thing is the shadow of her torso isn't nearly as long. Could be a mistake on the artist's part. Dunno.

I know it would make evasion-less battles difficult, but I can definitly see it fitting nicely into a white deck that needs to stall the opponent early on so it can summon its angels later in the game. Who cares if a creature can still block if your creatures have evasion? Assuming, of course, you're using it to lock down ground-based creatures without reach. Also, its bounce ability can save it from removal and be used to keep triggering "enter the battlefield" abilities on other permenants you control.

IMO:
- in the right deck, maybe even: 4.5/5
- in general, though: 3.5/5

In a deck that doesn't need to attack to win this is a strict improvement over Pacifism; same in any deck that has enough other control tricks to get its late-game attackers through but just needs to buy time until then by holding off attacks. Sure, a lot of decks would be happier with Pacifism but I think there's a wide enough range that don't need to prevent blocking that this card deserves a decent rating.