Lyev Decree

Detain is white's compromise with itself: a guild mechanic built to give the color a removal-adjacent effect without breaking the contract that white doesn't unconditionally kill creatures. Here it buys a turn against two attackers at once, locking down combat and switching off activated abilities until your next turn. The phrasing matters more than the cost. This is a tempo card masquerading as an answer, and the difference shows up the moment the lock expires: the creatures are still there, still on the board, and the clock is now yours to beat. Where a removal spell ends a threat, this one rents you a window. The best use is offensive, not defensive: detain two blockers to ram an alpha strike through, or freeze a pair of mana-producing or value-engine creatures during the one turn a plan needs to resolve. Read against the broader detain line (Lyev Skyknight, Azorius Charm, the various creatures that detain on entry), this is the high end of the effect, the one that hits two bodies for two mana with no creature attached, and it asks the same question every detain card asks: is one turn enough? When the board is racing and the answer is yes, the absence of any permanent change (no removal, no card, no body left behind) is exactly what keeps it cheap.