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Moxonomy

Llawan, Cephalid Empress

Legendary Creature — Octopus Noble3 generic manaBlue mana

A hate piece aimed at exactly one color, and a deeply unusual one for its era. Where most prison effects from the early game taxed or punished a behavior broadly (a Sphere of Resistance slowing everything, a Chill that hit one color but only its spells' costs), this shuts blue creatures off twice over: the enters trigger bounces every blue creature an opponent already has, then the static clause locks the door so they cannot recast those threats or play new ones. The bounce-plus-lock structure is the clever part, because the static effect alone would leave existing threats on the board untouched; the entry sweep clears them first, so the two clauses cover the gap each would otherwise leave open. The mirror-match implications are pointed, since blue's signature creatures of the period were exactly the threats this answers cleanly. The cost of building this narrow is that against a non-blue board the bounce goes inert, leaving a four-mana 2/3 that blocks early and trades into nothing relevant. That all-or-nothing axis is the design tension: a card that either wins a matchup outright or sits in hand as a dead draw, with almost no middle ground. It belongs to the small family of legends whose text reads like a sideboard card stapled to a body, useful precisely because it is so specific about what it hates.

Llawan, Cephalid Empress (sld)
SLD · #1277rare
Pricing
Normal: $2.50
Foil: $2.98
Oracle Text

Rules text

When Llawan enters, return all blue creatures your opponents control to their owners' hands. Your opponents can't cast blue creature spells.
Legalities

Format Status

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

Other printings

2 sets
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