Coldsnap featured a cycle of five cards that
alluded to Alliance's famous "free spells" (the
ones headlined by Force of Will), with a higher
cost but an even bigger effect. Commandeer
attracted the most attention of the cycle at
first, firstly because its wording is so much
broader than the likes of Imp's Mischief or
Redirect, and secondly because Lorwyn brought
planeswalkers soon after. Despite depicting a
person, planeswalkers are valid targets for
Commandeer, and stealing your opponent's can
sometimes completely mess up their gameplan.
That is perhaps the best use for it even now, as
the stable has grown even larger and (on
average) more powerful - many decks love to cast
Nicol Bolas or Elspeth, while not being that
well prepared to face them themselves.
The oddball Coldsnap brought back several
homages to the original Ice Age and Alliances,
with one such homage being a cycle of "pitch
spells". Instead of paying the absurdly high
mana cost, you could exile two cards from your
hand of that spell's color. Blue got Commandeer,
which is a far scarier card than it might look
at first.
The cost is high, whether you're looking at the
nigh-uncastable mana cost or doing a
three-for-one trade of cards. It's limited as
well, unable to take scary creatures that might
threaten to make your life rough. What
Commandeer does, though, is extremely powerful;
instead of merely saying "no", you say “nice
spell; I think I'll take it". Against
symmetrical effects (board wipes), it's less
useful, but it's back-breaking against massive
spells (like Sphinx's Revelation), against
massive enchantments or artifacts, and
against planeswalkers (yes, this steals
planeswalkers).
This is an imperfect answer, and its steep cost
makes it a bit cumbersome at times, but
Commandeer is a very threatening card in formats
where it can show up. If you're on blue in
Modern and have a poor match-up against, say,
Tron, this might help you win the war in those
games.
