Kitnap – Bloomburrow
Date Reviewed: August 2, 2024
Ratings:
Constructed: 4.0
Casual: 4.0
Limited: 4.25
Multiplayer: 4.0
Commander [EDH]: 4.0
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
It says a lot about Control Magic that you can make a variant of it with so many drawbacks, and it’s still a good card. There is some truth to the idea that early Magic players were reluctant to play creatures, especially in certain categories, because there was just no point. There’s a corollary truth, less frequently mentioned out loud, which is that a lot of the ones that were played seem to have been selected so that people would be reluctant to use effects like Control Magic or Wrath of God on them. Either one feels like a massive overreaction to Ironclaw Orcs; and what is a player of The Deck going to do with an Order of the Ebon Hand?
But Kitnap is quite different, because there are some actual layers to how it plays, besides just being efficient. Letting the opponent draw a card can be a risk, even if you’re a control deck that likely has faith in its own card quality; conversely, if you go around that risk and choose the stun counters, you miss out on a lot of the benefits of stealing a creature, becoming unable to block right away but also unable to attack until a time when it might be too late. I don’t think either of those weaken the card beyond playability: quite the contrary, I feel like a lot of decks will just give the opponent the gift and try to figure out a way to fight through whatever the opponent does in response. But at least the opponent might get something to do in response.
Constructed: 4
Casual: 4
Limited: 4.5
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4
Control Magic with a twist, as it were. Kitnap also shows off one of the new mechanics, the “gift” mechanic: if you give an opponent a Thing, the spell gets an upgrade of sorts.
If you’re willing to let someone draw a card, Kitnap is basically Control Magic. Take a creature, use it for nefarious purposes. If you don’t, then it gets shackled with three stun counters. That means it’s going to need to wait three turns to untap…though it won’t fetter something with vigilance, and those stun counters do not fall off if Kitnap does.
I think Kitnap has a lot of utility in either mode, though I like it as more of a stun card that can be used offensively in a pinch. Keep in mind that it won’t tap or untap the thing it takes, so you can aim this at a large body without a gift in order to steal it for at least one swing. All the same, it’s a clever take on a classic effect with some upshot and some weakness.
Constructed: 4
Casual: 4
Limited: 4
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4
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