Listen, listen, everyone arguing. I don't mean to take sides here. I don't think Control is Removal. However, I think that what Lyoncet was trying to say was that Unsummon counters this card even when one doesn't have it in their hand immediately when this card is first played. If one draws Unsummon at any time after this card is played, they can remove it. If one doesn't have Unsummon in their hand when Swords to Plowshares is played, they are SOL. But hey, at least they get some life, right? Hahaha...WRONG.
But aside, this is an excellent card. Quintessential Blue, well balanced, and very good. Green better have a Naturalize or a Beast Within if this is played against him.
4.5/5
Posted By:
gman92
(3/14/2012 6:15:38 AM)
The best removal spell in the game.
Edit: Thanks, kiseki, for both pointing out that certain static effects of creatures will still be around and for disproving Lyconet's idiotic assessment.
I still think you could classify this card as removal (though not strictly speaking, of course). Think about it: you're staring down the barrel of a blightsteel colossus and you're playing blue. Aside from bouncing the big creature, what can you do? This is one of the few ways you can insure that it won't hurt you right away.
Posted By:
AvatarOfHOE
(9/26/2011 9:02:39 PM)
Cheaper than Mind Control. I'd say that's a win, right?
I mean, it's the same thing. Like, exactly. Reverse power creep?
Posted By:
atemu1234
(6/3/2012 6:10:44 PM)
i have this and i stole my sisters card and it let me take another creater DUBBLE BOGGE !!!!!!!!!
Posted By:
crazysnake111
(10/28/2012 12:46:22 PM)
Whenever I see an old card with lots of rules text, I immediately see if the Oracle Text is shorter. If it isn't, I spend the next 10 minutes figuring out what the card actually does. See Necromancy and Animate Dead which to my understanding, do practically the same thing but with Animate Dead, the creature gets -1/0.
Posted By:
cheopsrule
(12/23/2012 6:21:56 PM)
Even if you count this as "removal", wouldn't Treachery or even Gilded Drake be better most of the time?
Posted By:
TheKazu
(1/1/2013 1:55:35 PM)
So cheap. (Mana cost, not secondary market.)
Posted By:
azure_drake222222
(2/1/2013 7:08:50 PM)
@cheopsrule Control Magic works on creatures in play, while Necromancy and Animate Dead work on creatures in the graveyard.
Posted By:
ChristopherPollard
(8/19/2013 8:34:54 PM)
I can tell by some of these comments that there are some players here not too familiar with the history of magic. Regarding clarification about the creature going to its owner's graveyard instead of to the graveyard of the guy that took control of it, you have to remember that when Magic began it was often played for ante, and there were cards that would allow you to exchange ownership with one of your opponent's cards - so unlike the way the game is played today, the cards you owned when you started the game were not necessarily what you owned when the game ended.
As for it costing less than Mind Control, that seems to happen a lot, but Control Magic isn't undercutting Mind Control (it came first) - you see the same sort of thing happen with Time Walk and Time Warp, or Black Lotus versus Lotus Petal - reprinting the same general mechanic, but slightly dumbed down, possibly because the original was too overpowered to reprint (and no, I don't think Control Magic is overpowered).
Posted By:
Phillbato
(9/8/2013 2:51:40 PM)
Getting a modern-frame reprint (!) in Commander 2013.
Posted By:
Continue
(10/17/2013 9:32:08 PM)