-symmetrical isn't always bad.TheAmericanSpirit wrote: ↑10 months agoOn topic: this is like Psychic Possession except worse because it's symmetrical and capped at 1.
-this costs half as much mana.
-it doesn't skip your draw step.
I definitely wouldn't say it's worse. Psychic possession doesn't even do anything in a vacuum, if you're running it it's because you intend to force an opponent to draw extra cards. Tenuous truce doesn't demand any buildaround, it's just free* value at a low price.
The power of the card is highly dependent on context. If you're archenemy and a juicy attack target, ofc it's going to be worthless. You have to be able to read what's happening at the table and how people operate. But the potential upside is there. It's a 2 mana Phyrexian Arena that prevents an opponent from attacking you as a ceiling, that's a pretty high ceiling tbh.Also they get to call the shots on when to end the bargain, which is dependent entirely on the M.O. of the chosen player and the politics of the given game. Me personally, I'm going to extort way more than a card per turn out of any player that sticks this to me if they want it to stick around. Either you assist me in killing everyone else in glorious creature combat or I'm sending it all at you for wasting my time with Peace Talks in a %$#% zero sum game. Please choose.
The easiest way to play it would be, when you're not archenemy, to play it on whoever is in the worst shape and/or not really capable of making good attacks. That's generally easy money as far as the draw. The higher ceiling, bigger risk, play would be to put it on the aggro player who is running out of steam and really needs the draw. Now you're not just getting the card, you're also pushing the attacks elsewhere so long as you can avoid being too obvious of an attack target.
Commander may be a zero sum game, but it's also a multiplayer game. This card isn't "wasting time", it's an offer to mutually benefit by screwing over the other two players.