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Moxonomy

Heliod's Punishment

Enchantment — Aura1 generic manaWhite mana

Pacifism with a fuse. The older templating (Pacifism, Prison Term, the whole line of "can't attack or block" auras) froze a creature indefinitely, and the only escape was killing the Aura itself. This one hands the leash to the person you leashed: the enchanted creature loses everything it once did and gains a single tap ability whose only function is to count down its own imprisonment. Four counters, four activations, and the Aura falls off; the creature is whole again. That countdown is the entire design argument. A permanent pacify sits close to unconditional removal; a self-destructing one is a genuine tempo trade that eventually hands the threat back. Stripping all abilities does more work than the tap suggests: a creature whose value lived in a static or triggered ability is neutralized the moment the Aura resolves, and having lost everything else, the countdown tap becomes the only legal thing that creature can do, so the choice to dig free is really no choice at all. Because "can't attack or block" overrides "must," the leashed creature cannot even be goaded into swinging; it is locked out of combat regardless of what an opponent tries to force. The duration is not truly fixed, either, since anything that hands the creature an extra untap lets it burn a counter more than once per turn cycle, compressing the sentence. The tempo you buy is real, but it comes with a clock the opponent will always be ticking down, because it is the one action left to them.

Heliod's Punishment (plst)
PLST · #THB-21uncommon
Pricing
Normal: $0.18
Foil:
Oracle Text

Rules text

Enchant creature This Aura enters with four task counters on it. Enchanted creature can't attack or block. It loses all abilities and has "Tap: Remove a task counter from Heliod's Punishment. Then if it has no task counters on it, destroy Heliod's Punishment."
Legalities

Format Status

Standard
N/A
Pioneer
Legal
Modern
Legal
Legacy
Legal
Vintage
Legal
Commander
Legal
Pauper
N/A
Brawl
Legal
Historic
Legal
Alchemy
N/A
Timeless
Legal
Standard Brawl
N/A
More formats
Old School
N/A
Premodern
N/A
PreDH
N/A
Pauper Commander
N/A
Oathbreaker
Legal
Gladiator
Legal
Penny Dreadful
Legal
Duel Commander
Legal
Future Standard
N/A
COMPETITIVEBRAWL
Legal
TLR
Legal
Printings elsewhere

Other printings

1 set
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