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Moxonomy

Vow of Torment

Enchantment — Aura2 generic manaBlack mana

The clever half of this Aura is the clause that points its buff away from you. Handing a creature +2/+2 and menace is generic pump-and-evasion, the kind of effect Auras have offered forever; the "can't attack you or planeswalkers you control" rider turns a selfish enhancement into a bargaining chip. In a multiplayer game, this is an olive branch with teeth: you gift a table-mate a bigger, harder-to-block attacker on the explicit condition that its aggression flows somewhere other than your board. The recipient gets a real upgrade, you buy a temporary non-aggression pact, and everyone else at the table inherits the problem. It also inverts the usual Aura risk-reward math. Normally an Aura's danger is card disadvantage: two-for-one your enchanted creature and you have spent a card for nothing. Here the intended target is often not your own creature at all, so that vulnerability never materializes in its familiar shape. This card sits in the narrow band of enchantments built to be cast on an opponent's board rather than your own. The menace does real work too, since a menace attacker that legally cannot come back at you is a cleaner deterrent than a vanilla threat: it commits blockers elsewhere while leaving your defenses untouched. As an aggressive stat-stick it is unremarkable; as a piece of table diplomacy it does something most pump Auras never attempt.

Vow of Torment (gn3)
GN3 · #65uncommon
Pricing
Normal: $0.30
Foil:
Oracle Text

Rules text

Enchant creature Enchanted creature gets +2/+2, has menace, and can't attack you or planeswalkers you control. (It can't be blocked except by two or more creatures.)
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
N/A
PreDH
N/A
Pauper Commander
N/A
Oathbreaker
Legal
Gladiator
N/A
Penny Dreadful
N/A
Duel Commander
Legal
Future Standard
N/A
COMPETITIVEBRAWL
N/A
TLR
Legal
Printings elsewhere

Other printings

1 set
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