This card is amazing in multiplayer. Consider that you can steal creatures from one player to block those controlled by a third player who is attacking you. You get a surprise defense that wrecks the board position of two opponents, and the guy you stole from is tapped out and vunerable to any other players who wish to attack him.
That is, of course, in addition to occasionally just blowing one opponent out of the water with an alpha strike.
Posted By:
scumbling1
(3/6/2011 6:02:59 PM)
This card is insane in the Emperor format, or any other where the Deploy Creatures option is used. There, it effectively gets the additional wording:
"If you cast this spell during your main phase, instead target teammate gains control of all creatures target opponent controls. Tap these creatures."
Posted By:
Artscrafter
(5/9/2011 12:11:16 PM)
Well, Wizards did print Twist Allegiance as a red sorcery version of this, which feels a lot fairer. It's still an easy puzzle to solve but a lot of the madness goes away. This original version is just nuts.
Posted By:
Zindaras
(6/3/2011 2:11:08 PM)
@Aaron_Forsythe:
Since this card was in the Political Puppets deck, at Commander recently my friend cast this as a pseudo-Fog, and I can tell you I was glad our shop's resident rules guru was in our game, because there aren't many instant-speed effects like this to have given me an understanding of what would happen. Unfortunately he was using it to stop a flier, and no one else had any, because switching creatures with someone else to take out both of our guys would have been a more fun use of the card.
So this is one of those cards where it can be fun in some situations, but most often probably is used the way you describe.
Also, I would totally love a Red card that swapped two player's creatures. That would encourage even more crazy fun use than this card does.
Posted By:
sarroth
(8/1/2011 6:02:53 AM)
Flatten your opponent with his own creatures then proceed to feed them to your Phyrexian Dreadnought.
Posted By:
Kirbster
(11/28/2010 5:42:28 PM)
Fantastic for multiplayer:
Player A: "I'll swing at you with my big creatures because you've got no defenders"
Player B: "Okay, I'll play Reins of Power and block with Player C's even bigger creatures"
Player A: "...."
Posted By:
lukemol
(2/11/2010 11:14:27 PM)
Aaron’s Random Card Comment of the Day #75, 4/12/11
On its surface, this seems like a fun card to print. If two players have random representative decks and one of them has access to this card, I’m sure all sorts of interesting situations arise.
The problem is that, if you’re at all savvy at deck building, this isn’t a particularly difficult puzzle to solve. The obvious solution: Don’t play with creatures at all. In that sense the card reminds me a lot of Balance. It reads like, “Oh, you and I both are going to half to suffer the implications of me casting this,” but the truth is that decks containing the card are (likely) always built to avoid any such implications. Heck, they did it in one of the Stronghold preconstructed decks! That deck, called “The Sparkler” had Reins of Power as one of its rares, and had only two Walls and a Mogg Fanatic as its creatures. And guess what--you aren’t ever giving control of the ... (see all)
Posted By:
Aaron_Forsythe
(4/12/2011 11:59:23 PM)
Nothing tricky about it... toss in an Altar of Dementia and it becomes an instant speed, blue one-sided Wrath of God on your opponent's creatures. Try using it with Mycosynth Lattice and Time Sieve for even more fun... :)
Posted By:
ScrappyMcSlap
(5/13/2009 1:50:29 AM)
This + Soulblast.
Plus can save you from death for one turn. That and much more fun in multiplayer games.
Posted By:
jonnyrue2u
(9/21/2009 6:53:49 PM)
I run this in a U/R goblin deck with dracoplasm, and goblin bombardment. Include the goblin medic combo with paradise mantle and freed from the real, then throw in Kiki-Jiki and an intruder alarm just for fun.
Posted By:
roguepariah
(5/27/2010 8:35:04 AM)