I dreamed and brainstormed about a card like this before. My wishes are finally fulfilled. Temporary Lockdown will be a multiformat all-star.
Whether it’s UW Hammer in Modern, Mono-Blue Spirits in Pioneer or Rakdos Sacrifice in Standard, nonland permanents will be in (temporary) lockdown. Over the last two and a half years, we humans already learned how that feels, and I’m sure most of us would rather avoid it. One of the biggest reasons why this card will be great is that it gets rid of tokens forever. Whether it’s huge Constructs, Treasures or a 2/2 Goblin Shaman, all will succumb to the triggered ability.
Especially in Standard, Temporary Lockdown will be huge. It’s fantastic against any sort of fast aggressive start by a creature deck. The fact that it exiles will be important against recurring threats or protection like Tamiyo’s Safekeeping too. Fateful Absence and Temporary Lockdown synergize too, since you can blow up a bigger creature or planeswalker and then cast Portable Hole’s big brother to sweep up the opposing board including the Clue made by Fateful Absence.
In Pioneer or Explorer, Yorion, Sky Nomad can flicker the enchantment to re-wipe the board. It’s a bit of a nonbo with Portable Hole or effects like Baffling End, but I’m sure we can say farewell to those with Temporary Lockdown most certainly being the stronger card and therefore replacing them.
Of course there is the downside of your opponent being able to blow up your enchantment and regaining their permanents. Blue, black and red will have trouble interacting with it, but green and white will have appropriate tools. The tempo boost you gain from exiling the early aggression out of let’s say a GW Humans deck will be the most important part of Temporary Lockdown. If they destroy it later on, their creatures will again have summoning sickness and won’t be able to attack for a turn. In the worst-case scenario where they have a way to remove Temporary Lockdown, the time it bought will mean that your bigger sweepers like Depopulate and Farewell can permanently lockdown those returned permanents.
I am really excited about this card and I am already working on brews including it. Let’s hope for some more goodies for control in Dominaria United. Personally, I’m hoping for a Torrential Gearhulk-type of card to revive Dimir Control personally.
