Pointed Discussion

I love how there's a day one errata on such an unassuming little Uncommon.

Also, for 1W you get a 3 mana creature - Darksteel Myr. Assuming you have a creature to spare, or if you want them to have one.

Cool flavorful removal. Nice to see Mirrodin back before... you know...

Love the flavor text. Ironically, it describes whatever creature that's enchanted with it perfectly.

Great concept! Turn a creature into a humble Darksteel bug.

(The name suggests an effect that's much more intimidating, though.
The creature undergoes a transformation that turns its body into the sturdy steel in the multiverse, after all.)

This could be considered a cheaper Sandskin/Heart of Light. For two mana, it's quite decent.
Less comboable with your creatures due to the ability-ripping ability, but that makes it an excellent target for your opponent's creature to strip it of all its power(s) and turn it into nothing more than a permanent chump blocker.

"Love the flavor text. Ironically, it describes whatever creature that's enchanted with it perfectly." -- Cynderias

Agreed, but I don't see what's ironic about that. Unless you consider the contrasting word combination in the flavortext itself ironic, but that's not the actual meaning of the word either :P

FOR MIRRODIN!

*casts on Jin Gitaxias, Sheoldred, and whatever the green one's name was*

After seeing the flavor text on Darksteel Ingot I promised myself I wouldn't cry... wizards y u do dis?

It's a great card regardless, enchant a crappy token for a great block or enchant your opponents commander. What a great, seemingly humble enchantment

Not quite a Pacifism variant, bit still really good at getting rid of annoying commanders and oozing with flavor. The flavor text is genius.

IRONICALLY, many people use the word "Ironically" when they really mean "Fittingly" XP


Now THAT'S irony. ^

Irony? It looks more darksteely to me

great way to neutralize commanders without angering the other player too much

If this isn't a Pacifism variant, I don't know what else to call it. It's different from Pacifism in that the creature can still block (and attack if there's a power boost or an attacking trigger useful to the creature's controller), but that difference from Pacifism is assumed in the whole "variant" thing. Generally it's weaker because it does leave the player a blocker, and that's probably why we see the card here, as it has the same "You know I have to answer this, but here's something in return" aspect as Arcane Denial, a reprint in this same set. I still prefer actual answers such as Arrest and Prison Term, but I am glad this is a choice for those who look for less harsh answers in their friendly games.

A card made to combat Voltron commanders or centerpiece commanders. A step above some alternatives because it removes ALL the text and doesn't make a sweeper of most kinds an out.

I'm looking forward to enchant Glissa with this and completely neuter such a deck.

My opponent thought he'd silenced my Rakdos, Lord of Riots forever, but PAH, I had a Hellrider on the field! You can never silence Rakdos! You just wait until he gets out of this bug thing… you just wait...

Does this work on hexproof commanders? Such as Sigarda or Uril? Not seeing the keyword "target" anywhere in the text.

No, Tuxedo, it doesn't. The fact of applying an aura enchantment to a creature requires to target that creature.

@canadiantuxedo: Auras target when they say enchant "___". So no, it does not work on Hexproven creatures.

How about casting this on a Vigean Hydropon or a Phyrexian Marauder?

Do note: The growth a Hydra gets stays with this. In fact, if you're the owner of the Hydra, then this is an enchantment that gives your creature +0/+1 and indestructible.

Be weary when they have creatures with counters on them: giving them this basically gives them a perfect blocker.

Pair this with Altar's Light or Act of Authority

Now you are indestructible! HaHa

This got played on my Crater Hellion (don't ask me why). I'm guessing that means the Hellion loses even the "Echo" triggered ability?

For commander this is better than anything like pacifism. No one plays vanilla commanders. They alwayd have something with an ability. Which makes this thing one of the few cards which can take it a commander. 5/5 for that. In any other format i wouldn't rate it that high, but this was reprinted in commander.

Also to add to the hexproof. You could use it on hexproof creatures, if it wasn't cast from you hand. Personally I the way enchantments work is pretty dumb (feel free to disagree). When you play an enchantment you select a target creature, then it attached to that creature. However when it enters the battlefield by other means, and has no target. You can choose any creature and it attaches to it without targetting it. I really have no idea why it work that way. It seems inconsistent with how the term target mormally works. So yeah you can use it on hexproof creatures, but not easily.

Turn your Avacyn into a Darksteel Relic.

Obvious comparison is with Journey to Nowhere:

Advantages:
+ Can be slapped on Hexproof/Shroud creatures if put directly into play (most relevant with Zur the Enchanter)
+ Can be put on your own creatures if necessary
+ Vigean Hydropon, lol (and any other shenanigans involving +1/+1 counters)
+ Anything with a -1/-1 counter on it dies, meaning they can't destroy the enchantment to get it back
+ Doesn't trigger "leaves the battlefield" effects
+ Misthollow Sphinx can go away
+ Interacts with Aura cards like...er...Aura Swap?

Disadvantages:
- Leaves them with a good ground blocker
- Bad against +1/+1 counters and any buffing abilities
- Can't do that trick where you remove it from play before Journey to Nowhere's second ability resolves, removing the target permanently
- Anything with a -1/-1 counter on it dies, meaning graveyard shenanigans can bring it back
- Probably most critically, the target can be bounced or given protection from white in which case this falls off.

All in all, it depends on what kind of deck you're running. Aura tech, -1/-1 and Zur are probably the ones that want this the most, although a lot of decks will simply run both since they're both good removal.

PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWERS!

itty bitty living space

No, this is not comparable with Journey to Nowhere. They're not even a little similar.

Fantastic card in Commander. There are only a few good ways to reliably keep a commander off the field for more than a few turns, the most popular being the ol stick-em-back-in-the-library trick via Condemn or something like that. My favorite trick historically has been mind controlling their creatures, as it forces them to use removal.

But this is unique in that you can reliably remove what's likely the most powerful creature on their field, for only two mana. What's more, unlike Mind Control, they can't just doom-blade the creature to get it back from you. The tradeoff of course is, enchantment removal gets their creature back completely. But that tends to run more rare than creature removal.
They get a great chump blocker sure, but if you're more afraid of a Darksteel Myr than you are of your opponent's commander... then something is horribly wrong.