Chris' Magic: The Gathering® Card of the Day!

The Card of the Day is...

Spatial Binding

Pay 1 life: Target permanent cannot phase out until the beginning of your next upkeep.

A brief rundown of the card:

This card should be not be in every black and blue deck, but if you're taking advantage of phasing in one of many different ways, Spatial Binding could pay for itself in no time. Here are a few of the more tempting uses for Spatial Binding:

• Breezekeeper
  For but one life per turn, your Breezekeeper turns into an Air Elemental.
• Sandbar Crocodile
  One of blue's longstanding problems has been it's larger ground creatures are not too practical overall. The Sandbar Crocodile is darn temping to use by itself, let alone deadly if he doesn't have to keep phasing out. For 1 life per turn, Spatial Binding will keep Sandbar Crocodile around.
• Cloak of Invisibility
  Making a creature unblockable except by walls is incredible for just one blue mana--if it only didn't give the creature phasing also this would be a must in any creature deck. You can creatively avoid the phasing problem by using Spatial Binding.
• Teferi's Isle
  I never thought I'd mention Teferi's Isle as a combo--but I am today. There are some times I'd pay a life a turn to be able to get two blue mana out of a single land. Think about it.
• Teferi's Realm
  Make sure your opponent doesn't accidently force your favorite permanent to phase out with Spatial Binding. You may find yourself having to use Spatial Binding on itself, but the strange situations you can create with these two cards are limitless.