The "fixed" Oblivion Ring. Why is it "fixed?"
Because it closes the loophole that lets you
exile something permanently if you destroy the
O-Ring before its first ability resolves.
Personally, I'm glad to see that loophole
closed. Not because permanent exile was too
powerful-- white could already deal with
artifacts and enchantments for 1W and get rid of
creatures for about three mana anyway, plus
exploiting the O-Ring almost always requires a
second card. The real problem is that far too
often, I've seen newer players accidentally pull
off the exploit on themselves.
1) Player One casts Oblivion Ring.
2) Player Two, who sort of understands the stack
but not really, responds to the first ability by
Naturalizing the O-Ring, thinking this will let
him keep his creature.
3) Player One (and any spectators) get a good
laugh as they explain to Player Two what he's
done.
4) Player Two ragequits.
The game of Magic does not need that. What it
needs is for Banishing Light to fully and truly
replace Oblivion Ring.
As if there weren't enough measures in this
block to use against the gods of Theros in
gameplay. Apparently Journey into Nyx would not
have been complete without a "fixed" Oblivion
Ring. The fact that this version lacks the
"loophole" where you could bounce Oblivion Ring
with the trigger on the stack is probably good,
though you do have to wonder why they didn't
realize that when they made Oblivion Ring
itself. Other than that, we've probably all seen
this effect before by now, and we should all
know that the clause that lets you get it back
doesn't even become relevant all of the time,
blah blah blah.
Welcome back readers todays card of the day is
the new replacement for Oblivion Ring, this card
works the same in essence yet the wording
prevents the shenanigans that were so popular
with Oblivion Ring. In standard it’s a catch all
removal spell for troublesome permanents this
card will see plenty of standard play. In modern
legacy and vintage Oblviion Ring is more
abusable and legal so I doubt this card will
have a huge effect. In casual and multiplayer
it’s a second oblivion ring for decks that want
5-8 copies, it also gives commander decks a
functional reprint to work, aside from that its
still a solid card that deals with everything.
In Limited its great and super powerful removal
and can be easily splashed into your deck, pick
it and play it. Overall a powerful card with
obvious standard applications and an update on a
classic card.
Today's card of the day is Banishing Light
which is a three mana White aura that exiles a
target non-land permanent that an opponent
controls.
This is Oblivion Ring with the change of not
being able to target your own permanents which
removes the potential timing abuse. Oblivion
Ring is a staple in current formats and this
will be heavily played both instead of and
alongside Oblivion Ring as a removal option that
can target nearly any threat including
planeswalkers and gods.
In Limited this is a great second pick in
Booster and often worth splashing White for in
Sealed as it is an answer, if sometimes only
temporarily, for most threats in the block.
There is no real drawback aside from the
possibility of it being removed and it even acts
as support for enchantment counting effects and
triggers or devotion.
Are you familiar with Oblivion Ring? This,
for most practical purposes, is a reprint.
Oblivion Ring was a constructed staple and an
early pick in limited - I expect nothing less
from it's newer brother. There are two minor,
technical differences to this card that fix
loopholes set up by the O-Ring. With O-Ring, you
could target your own permanent in the rare
cases you might want to do so. If you were to
target your own O-Ring and then target that
O-Ring with another O-Ring...well, I think it
might cause the universe to explode. The second
change is in the wording. With O-Ring, if you
could stack your effects just right, you could
sometimes make your own O-Ring disappear with
it's "exile target permanent" ability on the
stack. If you could do so, the exiled permanent
would go away, never to come back. Banishing
Light fixes both of these unintended loopholes.
If you're not familiar with Oblivion Ring,
let's just say this is going to be a card you'll
see a LOT of in the near future. It's white's
way to deal with ANY nonland permanent. Bye-bye
Planeswalker. Adios big fat creature. No more
annoying enchantment. Get outa here, artifact.
And, if you haven't already noticed,
enchantments are a big deal in this block, so
you'll often be glad to have another one under
your control. The only real downside to this is
that someone could get rid of your Banishing
Light at a very inconvenient time and their
permanent comes back to haunt you again. Even
with that drawback, this is an excellent card.
It's Oblivion Ring! They brought back Oblivion
Ring! Well, practically anyway.
Oblivion Ring, oh excuse me, I mean Banishing
Light, is a fantastic card. It's the best kind
of removal - the kind that gets rid of pretty
much ANYTHING. Creatures, artifacts,
enchantments, indestructible Gods,
PLANESWALKERS. Everything but lands, which isn't
super necessary anyway.
The only weakness of Banishing Light is that
it stays on the field and is thus vulnerable to
enchantment removal. But I mean that's only a
serious worry in an enchantment-heavy block with
multiple different very good enchantment removal
options that we just reviewed last week OH WAIT.
Honestly, there just isn't really that much
to say about this card other than that I love it
and its amazing. Oblivion Ring saw and still
sees tons of play in various formats, and I'll
tell you why. 1) It's not too expensive a piece
of removal, at 3 mana. 2) It only needs one
white mana, meaning its multicolour deck
friendly and you don't necessarily need to be
monowhite. And 3) It's so versatile!
Unlike some other white removal out there,
this doesn't have a negative side effect when
you cast it like giving your opponent a land or
only working on creatures of a certain size.
There's a world of difference between "something
bad happens when I cast this" and "something bad
MAY happen IF my opponent does a specific thing
later on." Cards like this are one of the
reasons people like hexproof on things more than
they like indestructible.
If you're smart, you'll be on the lookout for
this card if you see your opponent is playing
white. And if you're playing white yourself, get
yourself 4 of these ASAP.
In limited, it's even better, if that's even
possible. Simply because any and all removal is
so good in limited. But Banishing Light is even
a cut above the rest, as it can take out
literally almost anything your opponent can
throw at you.
If this is the kind of power the mortals of
Theros can wield in Nyx, then the Gods had
better watch out.
