Continuing in the vein of cards with political, multiplayer implications, Vow of Wilderness is all sorts of shenanigans. Even with only two players, it's pretty flexible as removal for a single creature or pumping up one's own commander to get through for lots of tramply commander damage in a pinch. With two or more opponents, it has the large advantage of protecting you from one threat while simultaneously threatening the other (politically, I figure it's a zero-sum game). In green especially, the ability to lock out a BSC, Eldrazi, or Aggro general is extra nice.

I also like that they're taking planeswalkers into account. PWs are pretty amazing in commander and seeing them factor into this protection is key. (aside: historically red has been a bit weak in commander because direct damage was meh in a 40-life format, but the ability to nuke a planeswalker is key and I've started putting more fireball variants in my red decks. Repeatable ones like Fanning the Flames in particular make red quite appealing for its ability to finish off players or planeswalkers)

G

sigh....

not even remotely playable..

Best card so far!

(Also the link on the main page to this thread is broken.)

Sure, if you're terrible at Magic.

Drop this on someone else's Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre and you'll be safer than with Maze of Ith or Tajuru Preserver.

It's also great for situations where an Elspeth, Knight-Errant or Ajani Vengeant is about to go off and you don't have any creatures on the field, but someone else does. Play this card. Fuck up Elspeth and protect yourself at the same time.

This is on par with Arrest type effects because it allows the creature you don't want attacking you to still beat in your opponents' faces, but it still allows abilities and blocking. Then again, if you really worried about those, you're just going to run removal. This card really does make someone's creature your political puppet. I like the flavor a lot.

I like this card. It's true that Guard Duty with a drawback and higher cost isn't terribly exciting as fas as removal goes, but in certain situations you might get some beneficial damage out of this, and being able to put it on one of your own creatures adds some versatility. It's not very powerful, but I think it's a good option to have in deckbuilding.

Agreed.

You said it.

This card goes in every Karona, False God deck.

I think it's better than Guard Duty with a drawback and a higher mana cost. It's nearly as good as Control Magic with an upside and a lower mana cost.

In a multiplayer game, if you mind control Ulamog, you've got a powerful ally, but the whole table is against you. If you use THIS on Ulamog, you've solved the problem, not gained aggro, AND hit someone else with Ulamog. Yes, Ulamog is still in the way, if I want to hit the player who controls him. That seems like a trivial problem to solve while: a) the rest of the table is dealing with Ulamog, and b) He's not attacking me.

This is a versatile but unexciting card for duels. In multiplayer, this goes on your opponents' guys 99% of the time, and it is unequivocally great. I will play the heck out of this card.

I disagree. This card will fit perfectly in my Kresh the Bloodbraided deck. The deck is pretty heavy in green in order to support mana ramp, so adding Vow of Wilderness will be easy in terms of the mana base. It allows me to remove a threat on my opponent's side of the board, OR make one of my guys bigger. The +3/+3 is very relevant because eventually, I will play a Fleshbag Marauder or othe sacrifice effect that will make Kresh even bigger.

Awesome card. I love the flavor too.

Three mana to have an opponent do some of your work for you? And better? Yes! Please and thank you.

Agreed. On your own creature it's just another pump & ability aura with the corner-case advantage that, if it ever get's stolen, it can't attack you, usual card disadvantage applies.

Any other time, it's more likely to resolve because 1.) you aren't going to counter it or kill the creature in response and 2.) the owner of that creature is less likely to counter it or kill that creature in response as it gives them an advantage over the remaining players. You're reducing the number of players with the willingnes to respond.

It's not as big a card disadvantage as usual if someone does kill the opposing target creature either as 1.) You lost the Aura, 2.) opponent A loses the creature and 3.) opponent B loses the kill spell leaving 4.) opponent D the only "winner" in the card advantage stakes.

Generally any auras you play on opponent's creatures cripple the creature targetted in some way. Leaving it not just fully functional but more dangerous than before actually encourages removal to target that creature thus pulling fire away from your other permanents.

Now this is the sort of fun, political card I'm looking for!

Join Forces is interesting and will lead to some fun games, but so far it isn't looking good enough that I will actually want to run the cards. This, on the other hand, is exactly the sort of card I want to play. It's pseudo-removal that allows the creature to continue beating down my other opponents.

Honestly... I am not one of those idiot super-spikes that thinks only in terms of power level, but Joz is right. I like it because its interesting design, but outside of that there isn't much to love.

Then i assume your username is ironic?
This card is strategically solid in multiplayer - the enemy of my enemy is my friend - and eminently playable. Rather than playing political games and hoping that an opponent's creature won't attack you, you can guarantee that it won't.
What would you do in a 4-player if I cast this on your creature - counter it? I wouldn't be too sad to see your counter go. Sac your own creature in response? Then reanimation notwithstanding I turned an uncommon green enchantment into a Vindicate, which is a neat trick for a monogreen deck. Let it stand and send that critter at my opponents? Probably, and you wouldn't even be TOO upset about it as long as you knew you had other threats to play.
The bottom line is that if the critter stays on the board then it will usually be better for me than if it was lying in a graveyard, as it weakens my other foes. At worst you keep it as a blocker, but I've still neutralized your best attacker, and when I play green i tend not to worry that my opponents have bigger critters than me

My first thought was to put it on my guy that was most likely to be stolen by someone else. That way I can beat, and if he gets grabbed or Insurrected, I'm not worried. Interesting design space anyway.

Awesome card. Slides right into a Uril deck as a decent Aura for him that doubles as a superb green removal spell.

Edit: I keep thinking of decks that I want to play this in. So far I'm up to: Uril, Karona, Rafiq, Edric the Spymaster as "actively good places for the card", and can see running it in any green deck. Would've been auto for Zur if it had the right color identity.