An interesting wrinkle on Mind Control-- the
original owner can get their creature back if
the stolen creature's power becomes too high for
you to control. In function, it's not as
interesting as it looks. The "sacrifice clause"
immediately has you dreaming about getting your
creature back by playing a Titan's Strength or
Giant Growth on it, but really, the colors best
equipped to pull that trick are green and
white-- who are also the best equipped to just
destroy Domestication straight-up. Red suddenly
finds themselves with options, yes, but in most
cases, the sacrifice clause is really more of a
targeting restriction. By the time the Blue Mage
gets to four mana, the Green Mage is probably
already playing 4/4's, so Domestication won't
steal his best creatures anyway. You could, in
theory, combo this with a card like Sensory
Deprivation to widen the range of potential
targets, but that's an awfully long walk for a
small payout.
Domestication appeals to me on a lot of
levels. It's obviously powerful against
threatening utility creatures like Hypnotic
Specter and Azure Mage. It has a very strategic
mini-game involved with it, which gives the
creature's owner a chance to get it back,
depending on the contents of their deck. But I'm
really not sure why it returned to Standard at
this exact moment, sandwiched between two blocks
with crazily efficient creatures, one of which
also has "making creatures bigger" as a major
theme. Seriously, are there any significant
creatures in the Return to Ravnica or Theros
blocks that it can steal permanently? That's
rather sad - while Domestication is not the most
powerful of this class of effect, it's still
better than this environment would suggest.
Today's card of the day is Domestication which
is a four mana aura that gives you control of
the enchanted creature and if it has four or
more power at the beginning of your end step you
sacrifice the aura. This is another in the
long series of modified Control Magic cards that
have either a penalty or a higher casting cost
and while this is one of the easier to manage of
those drawbacks it is a major detriment to
playability. Not staying on creatures of
four or higher power not only prevents gaining
control of many threats it gives an opponent
more options for taking back their creature by
simply increasing the power of it. It may
cause added damage for a turn or waste a combat
trick before the end phase, but otherwise is a
fairly efficient solution. Overall this is
very unlikely to be played in many decks, though
could possibly gain a slot in some Commander
builds.
In Limited this is not the best rare to open in
Booster or Sealed, but it can offer a temporary
swing in the battlefield state in stalemates or
to help open up an offensive. The double
Blue and target limitation are drawbacks, though
it still can fit into a deck with half or more
Blue mana sources as many cards in the set can
be controlled. A reasonable if not
overwhelming first pick and worth taking if
passed when already in Blue.
Domestication is an Aura that most players
wouldn’t consider using. Only 4 mana to take a
Boros Reckoner. That seems really good when you
say it like that. What if you had a Hero of
Iroas and paid 3 mana to steal Brimaz, King of
Oreskos? Nobody wants to do that. Take a moment
to think about all of the game changing small
creatures out there that can be stolen with
Domestication. Yes, I’ve noticed that there are
a lot of them. Domestication helps Ethereal
Armor and Eidolon of Countless Battles. It can
also force your opponent to play Enchantment
removal just to keep their creatures. Remember
that you can take control of big creatures too,
but you might want to have haste or a way to
sacrifice the domesticated creature!
