The thing is, this is an instant, not an enchantment.
If Mind Control goes, you lose control of that creature. With this, you keep it, plain and simple.
Iktomi
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(2 votes)
Also, keep in mind this is a white card. How often does white get to perma-control a creature? This is good for the same reason sunlance is, it's an out of color ability.
Kryptnyt
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
The end step is after combat!
Palochka
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(5 votes)
Braid_of_Fire's Card of the Day #12
I have never been surprised by clicking "Random Card" on Gatherer before this card. I've seen many off-color effects from early Magic expansions that are over-costed and not very dramatic, but this one is both on-cost and as splashy as effects come.
The drawback is considerable, but if it's a creature you'd want to steal, they'll be attacking with it. At the same time, if it's a creature worth stealing, it's not going to be nice to get smacked by it.
The "Instant" part of the card is a bit of a misnomer; because they have to attack into you, there's no advantage to this over a Sorcery besides getting Haste creature.
Even so, this is a thrilling card for EDH and other multiplayer formats. Off-color effects are rarely expected and this one is very powerful. Just the threat of it within your own play group can scare people from attacking you once it becomes a known quantity. That it's a spell rather than an Aura is a reasonable benefit.
Overall, this fits into white flavor and I like the way the flavor of the effect matches well with the mechanics of the card. The art is great early-Magic fare. The non-white restriction is one that I like a lot; it feels much more in-tune with white than black and they make great use of it here as they did with Saltblast and Sunlance, two cards I like very much in white.
HuntingDrake
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Surprisingly, this is the only card that ever used -1/-0 counters. In constrast, 9 use +1/+0, 7 use -0/-1, and 7 use +0/+1 counters.
I have to wonder if this represents the weird counters' last hurrah. After Mirage, just 5 more such cards were printed, and they all used +2/+2 counters: The 4-card Chimera cycle, and finally Fungus Elemental.
Comments (8)
If Mind Control goes, you lose control of that creature. With this, you keep it, plain and simple.
I have never been surprised by clicking "Random Card" on Gatherer before this card. I've seen many off-color effects from early Magic expansions that are over-costed and not very dramatic, but this one is both on-cost and as splashy as effects come.
The drawback is considerable, but if it's a creature you'd want to steal, they'll be attacking with it. At the same time, if it's a creature worth stealing, it's not going to be nice to get smacked by it.
The "Instant" part of the card is a bit of a misnomer; because they have to attack into you, there's no advantage to this over a Sorcery besides getting Haste creature.
Even so, this is a thrilling card for EDH and other multiplayer formats. Off-color effects are rarely expected and this one is very powerful. Just the threat of it within your own play group can scare people from attacking you once it becomes a known quantity. That it's a spell rather than an Aura is a reasonable benefit.
Overall, this fits into white flavor and I like the way the flavor of the effect matches well with the mechanics of the card. The art is great early-Magic fare. The non-white restriction is one that I like a lot; it feels much more in-tune with white than black and they make great use of it here as they did with Saltblast and Sunlance, two cards I like very much in white.
In constrast, 9 use +1/+0, 7 use -0/-1, and 7 use +0/+1 counters.
I have to wonder if this represents the weird counters' last hurrah. After Mirage, just 5 more such cards were printed, and they all used +2/+2 counters: The 4-card Chimera cycle, and finally Fungus Elemental.
The most interesting part is that Mirage had exactly one card for each "unit counter":
Jabari's Influence | Wall of Roots
Consuming Ferocity | Wall of Resistance
Second main phase is after combat!