Dominating Licid

The Licids were Exodus's attempt to fold Auras into creatures: a creature type that could move itself onto another permanent as an enchantment, then peel back off as a special action whenever its controller paid the release cost. The mechanic was clever on paper and notoriously fiddly in practice (the rules engine of 1998 strained to track a creature that became an Aura and could revert), but the design idea behind this particular Licid is the sharp one in the cycle. It is mind control you can rent. Most theft effects of the era committed fully: pay the cost, take the creature, keep it until something kills it. This one keeps the leash detachable. The body stays a creature until you activate it, so it can chump or trade before it ever steals anything, and you can pay the to end the effect and repoint it at a more threatening target later. The catch is that once attached, the Licid is no longer a creature at all: it has become an Aura enchantment, so it dodges every removal spell aimed at creatures while it does its work. Killing the stolen creature or destroying the Aura by other means is the answer, not a Lightning Bolt to a 1/1. That inversion is the whole bargain. You trade a vulnerable body for a control effect that hides inside the enchantment type while it is active, and the entire game is the timing of when you commit the Licid and when you let go.