Six mana may look bad, but this enchantment can
steal any permanent, even planeswalkers. If
you've got to six mana, your opponent is likely
close to that amount too and will almost
certainly have something impressive to steal. It
even untaps the permanent it steals, so you can
snag a Baneslayer that just swung at you last
turn and have it available as a blocker just as
if you'd cast it yourself. Would you pay 3UUU
for Banslayer Angel? I would, especially if my
casting it caused my opponent to no longer have
his.
The downside here is that Scars of Mirrodin
block has encouraged people to have plenty of
artifact hate on hand, and most of the best
artifact hate also hayes enchantments. If your
opponent deals with the Reins by destroying
whatever they're attached to, you still denied
them whatever it was you stole from them and
made them spend further resources to kill
whatever it was. If they just kill the Reins,
they just get their permanent back.
Remember all those times you were playing a deck
with Confiscate, stole something that had just
attacked you, but the opponent still had another
creature and so was able to attack you anyway
because the one you Confiscated was still
tapped? Actually, maybe that was just me.
Regardless, Volition Reins is as useful and
versatile as its ancestor. Stealing effects have
always been game-changing, and one that lets you
turn opponents' planeswalkers against them will
only become more relevant. And maybe sometimes
it'll untap a creature you need to block with!
Today's card of the day is Volition Reins which
is a six mana enchantment that gains control of
a target permanent and untaps it.
Possibly the most appealing usage is against an
opponent's planeswalker, but it works on
creatures, artifacts, or even a Valakut in a
pinch which makes it useful in nearly any
situation where mana is available to cast it.
The cost is a bit high, but reasonable for a
control theme and has a worthwhile result.
A powerful card, but not likely to be played too
commonly as countermagic is both cheaper and
more reliable.
In Limited this is a card that dramatically
change the flow of a game and the cost is
reasonable in the slower format. The
fairly dedicated casting cost can be managed if
the primary color is Blue, so it works as a
second pick in Booster and deserves to be
drafted that early as it can and will win games.
In Sealed it should be included if about half or
more of your mana sources produce Blue mana and
should not be left out unless it is the only
card above your curve. As an answer to any
permanent your opponent may have on the board
this is one of the better cards to topdeck in
the later stages of the game and most responses
will likely cost your opponent their own
permanent.
For Multiplayer the odds of at least one
opponent having a truly useful target increases
noticeably which makes control spells a good
overall investment.
