Venser's puting people in detention. This will definetly find a place in my W/U control deck.
.Blaze.
★★★☆☆ (3.4/5.0)(4 votes)
Could be relevant with all the tokens running around. Side from that this is just an O-Ring.
Superllama12
★★★☆☆ (3.8/5.0)(10 votes)
The reason I don't like this is because it almost totally obseletes Oblivion Ring. O Ring is a really powerful and balanced card, but this is almost always better (unless you've already played the permanent you want to remove). Like several other cards in the set, it seems like it is just redundant and encourages high market prices because it's a rare
SyntheticDreamer
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(10 votes)
Oblivion Pulse? Maelstrom Ring?
Cyberium
★★★☆☆ (3.2/5.0)(3 votes)
Better than Maelstrom Pulse in some cases against indestructible permanents.
That said, I don't think this is strictly better than Oblivion Ring, given that you need to play W and U to cast Detention Sphere, while O-Ring only need white mana.
SirMalkin
★★★☆☆ (3.8/5.0)(3 votes)
It's a stronger O-ring with a more color-restricted cost. Fair enough.
ThisisSakon
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@SyntheticDreamer: Personally, I like the ring (ha, pun) of Maelstrom Ring. U/W control just found it's answer to token decks.
Spirits? What Spirits?
lorendorky
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Surprisingly balanced and functionally relevant.
Lotsofpoopy
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.7/5.0)(11 votes)
Pros like me will use this to keep populate in check.
"Threepio! Shut down all garbage compactors on the Detention Level!"- Skywalker, Azorius-Boros-Selesnya Hero
*wheep-boop bop, deBEEP?* (Which one do I shut down?) R2-D2, Artifact Creature- Censored Construct
"No, no, you trash-talking trash can, shut them ALL down!" C-3P0, Artifact Creature- Talking Construct
LordRandomness
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@Superllama: There's actually one really important problem there: You can't use Detention Sphere to remove your opponent's Detention Sphere. If Sphere becomes popular, Oblivion Ring will be an important answer to it.
Plus, it can fudge up in mirror matches pretty bad, as you mentioned.
Tsuichoi
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Ah a flavorful and functional answer to tokens. Token hate, gotta love it.
pedrodyl
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Fancy multicolored O-ring if you ask me, which is iight since most decks playing white are also playing blue these days.
DoragonShinzui
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
In order to make it stronger than O-Ring, they had to wonky up the wording.
I'm never in favor of wonky-ing up wordings in order to just make something better. Wouldn't a better solution have been, I dunno, to give it some sort of flicker effect? Or Detain or something? Seriously, how does that one ball contain all of those Relentless Rats?
Gcrudaplaneswalker
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(1 vote)
The other reason this is good is because you won't be seeing O-Rings in RTR drafts.
RAV0004
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
It's funny how it's nearly identical to Maelstrom Pulse, yet comes from two radically different color identities. I read an article by Maro somewhere on "tricks to putting fundamentally the same abilities in radically different colors" and this card, I think, was almost definitely designed by him.
Eternal_Planeswalker
★★★☆☆ (3.8/5.0)(2 votes)
*Sigh*
You know when your friend "O rings" your Reanimated Grave Titan, it's an annoying flick to the nuts. And that's why I both hate but also respect Oblivion Rings, because they are cheap exile in enchantment form with lots of protection in white. (ie. Greater Auramancy) And white needed them to keep up with the increasing shenanigans of the other colours.
But this card is a full-up, solid haymaker to the whole of your manhood.
And they ain't coming back anytime soon, if at all.
I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed. hahaha!
Good card with a solid effect (grumble, grumble) and epic art. Fun fact: a Detention Sphere is shown in Azorius Justiciar's art.
TraRobins
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
*** yo tokens. Play another one you rich ***.
bjorn313
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
My question is, what happens if you target an opponents Angelic Wall and they go to play a second one later in, is that one exiled when it comes into play or does it stay?
While it's mostly better than o-ring, the only really consistent thing this will do better than o-ring is hit tokens that put many into play at once. With bonfire still running rampant, that shouldn't happen too often in standard.
If you have the money then this is worth it over o-ring, but at the same time if it's out of your budget it's still okay to run o-ring.
oddmonk
★★★☆☆ (3.2/5.0)(8 votes)
The young Arrester walked down the hall, his boots plodding on the polished stone floor. His mentor, a higher ranking Justiciar, walked ahead of him at a brisk pace.
"We're almost there," stated the Justiciar. The blue glow of the spheres came through the many doors that lined the detention hall. Each active sphere held a criminal, someone who had committed an egregious offense to the Azorius Senate or the people of Ravnica.
The Justiciar stopped abruptly in front of one of the gates to a detention chamber, turning on heel to face it. He pulled a clearance rune from his satchel and, without a moment's hesitation pressed the rune up to the gate. It flew up immediately and the two passed quickly through.
The young Arrester marveled quietly at the detention sphere. It was a perfect magical structure, an orb of justice designed to hold the guilty of Ravnica for as long as necessary.
The Justiciar cleared his throat. "Alright rookie... This citizen is guilty of gross misconduct and vandalism, as well as committing severely dangerous thought crimes. We are inclined to believe he had affiliations with the Rakdos. We tried to reform him multiple times through the help of Izzet technology, but he continuously reverted to his prior state."
The arrester's head filled with concerns and thoughts. Severely dangerous thought crimes? It all seemed bizarre. "What did he think, sir? Did an Elocutor interrogate him?"
"No," said the Justiciar. "We found him painting the word YOLO in large block letters on one of our fountains. He proceeded to do it multiple times after his therapies. As you can imagine, we have no place for this type of behavior in our society."
Vakyoom
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Notice the cost of both this and o-ring fall underabrupt decays reach. I think that had to happen to secure golgari's spot as number one.
either way I love this card, with supreme verdict and counterspells, U/W has some neat tricks.
Ooo... Combine this card and o-ring, arrest, ethereal armor and righteous authority, plus some detain effects( martial law anyone?) and protection... I can see that deck getting very out of hand.
Purplerooster
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(4 votes)
This would be epic in multi-player if most of your opponents are playing with nearly the same zombie deck.
wholelottalove
★☆☆☆☆ (1.0/5.0)(1 vote)
No tokens for you!
Amorgan
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
No one here has stated that this can be used as a MASSIVE Tutor combo card.
Think about casting this on YOUR OWN Blade Splicer, so now you kill your Sphere and all the sudden you just got 4 3/3 First Strikers and 4 1/1s.
Not good enough? How about Geist-Honored Monk? Anyone want 4 12/12 Vigilance and 8 1/1's?
There are plenty of abusable effects out there right now, here are most of the good interactions I found: Nevermore - Pick 4 cards they cannot play, RIGHT NOW. If you pull this off from turn 4-5, you can stop them from even being able to kill the Nevermores. Oblivion Ring - The little brother works well with the big one. Ob ring something, then get 4 of them by turn 4 that is devastating removal. Pithing Needle - Getting 4 of these at any time, against the right deck, will be the game. Puresteel Paladin - Because drawing 4 any time you play an equipment is insane. Stuffy Doll - So you get 4 0/1 indestructible guys that can chump all day and ping the enemy for 1 each (4/turn). It gets better when you remember that there is a Blasphemous Act that only costs 5 after you use this, and that isn't counting any other creatures out there. Huntmaster of the Fells - So you get 4 of these 4 more wolves and if they manage to flip that is 8 damage direct and 8 sitting there for creatures. Oh yeah it's 4 instances of it, so you can hit 4 creatures for 2. So you get 4 4/4s and 4 2/2s and 8 damage to target player and 4 instances of 2 damage to creatures. Yeahhhhh. Abundant Growth - Do not underestimate getting 4 cards and all the mana-fixing you need. You also have to remember this combo will thin your deck of 9 total cards (Detention Sphere, 4 Abundant Growth, and 4 cards deep. Acidic Slime - Cut your enemy in HALF. 4 of these hit on turn 5-6 and it's total MADNESS. Consider you get the first one already, so you choose the best thing they got (land/ench/art). Then you Sphere it. Then you get 4 on the floor. Remember why Land killing is bad? they'll get down to 2 land on turn 7 if this goes right. And that just isn't fair.
This card is now my baby, and I will break you!
Axelle
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
The Happyface Orb.
FirstPrime
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(2 votes)
@Amorgan
No one here has stated that this can be used as a MASSIVE Tutor combo card.
Think about casting this on YOUR OWN Blade Splicer, so now you kill your Sphere and all the sudden you just got 4 3/3 First Strikers and 4 1/1s.
Not good enough? How about Geist-Honored Monk? Anyone want 4 12/12 Vigilance and 8 1/1s ?
Sorry bro, but nobody has mentioned any mass tutor tricks because, well, this card doesn't work that way. A permanent is only a permanent when it is in play on the battlefield, otherwise it is a card. Detention Sphere only exiles permanents on the battlefield with the same name, similar to Echoing Truth. There is no search the library clause like on Eradicate. If it did work that way though it would be pretty broken like you said, but then the situations where you would want to use this card on an opponents permanent would drop significantly. Oh well, better luck next time ;)
@Axelle
You on the other hand just broke this thing into pieces, I can't look at this card without giggling now :D
Nightmare for populate decks! This card helped create a new trend, Bant Control.
Ironsharp
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(4 votes)
An Azorius guard stands watch at the freshly-captured b-ball essence of Charles Barkley.
A3Kitsune
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Run with that Unhinged creature that can change his name. Now you can remove lands.
ThinkOriginal
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Great card with a lot of uses, I just wish it could get rid of other Detention Spheres.
lemonadecat
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
One advantage this has over Oblivion Ring is that when your opponent responds with an overloaded Mizzium Skin or Simic Charm, you can choose not to exile a permanent of your own, whereas with Oblivion Ring you must target one of your own permanents. Then again this isn't a terribly likely occurrence, but it has happened before.
collintendo
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I run two of these in my casual u/w deck. Like many have already said this card works best against combo and tribal decks. And if you're already playing u/w you might as well replace Oblivion Ring with this. You're most likely spending a blue to pay for the ring anyways, so why not give it a little more power, even if that power's situationally based on whether or not the opponent has more than one copy of any given card on the field
Lets just say for the sake of a good example that your opponent has 97 nonland permanents on the battlefield all having different names, and you have 3 oblivion rings on the battlefield exiling 3 of your opponents nonland permanents, again, all with different names. You have to find a way to get rid of every single one of those nonland permanents before your next turn. In hand you have 2 cards, Detention Sphere and Oblivion Ring.
Play Detention Sphere exiling your 3 oblivion rings. Play Oblivion Ring exiling Detention Sphere. 3 O-Ring ETB triggers go on the stack. 1st O-Ring exiles another of the 3 O-Rings. Exiled O-Ring's leave play ability goes on stack and resolves with nothing coming back because it hadn't exiled anything yet. Exiled O-Ring's ETB trigger exiles a nonland permanent, permanently. 3rd O-Ring triggers exiling the O-Ring that exiled the Detention Sphere. Detention Sphere exiles two O-Rings, bringing back 2 O-Rings. 1 O-Ring exiles a nonland permanent, the other exiles the Detention Sphere. 2 O-Rings come back. 1 exiles a nonland permanent, the other exiles the O-Ring exiling the Detention Sphere. Detention Sphere comes back, exiling 3 O-Rings. 1 O-Ring comes back, exiling Detention Sphere. Repeat as many times as needed to exile any number of nonland permanents.
Araganor
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I see why they added the second part to this card. After a few spheres came up, someone could just play another to exile all of them, bringing all the cards back, but then, what would happen after you o-ringed that sphere and the other spheres came back into play? MY BRAIN!
Lifegainwithbite
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
Oblivion Rings, bow before me for I am your new master and together we will RULE THE WORLD.
zipec
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Solid response to Voice of Resurgence spawns in current standard. (After shocking it of course). Even though, that card is still unfair.
Good card. Hurts tokens decks the most but good against pretty much anything. It ain't strictly better than O-ring, but I'd rather have the sphere most of the time anyways.
Comments (50)
That said, I don't think this is strictly better than Oblivion Ring, given that you need to play W and U to cast Detention Sphere, while O-Ring only need white mana.
Spirits? What Spirits?
Skywalker, Azorius-Boros-Selesnya Hero
*wheep-boop bop, deBEEP?* (Which one do I shut down?)
R2-D2, Artifact Creature- Censored Construct
"No, no, you trash-talking trash can, shut them ALL down!"
C-3P0, Artifact Creature- Talking Construct
Plus, it can fudge up in mirror matches pretty bad, as you mentioned.
I'm never in favor of wonky-ing up wordings in order to just make something better. Wouldn't a better solution have been, I dunno, to give it some sort of flicker effect? Or Detain or something? Seriously, how does that one ball contain all of those Relentless Rats?
You know when your friend "O rings" your Reanimated Grave Titan, it's an annoying flick to the nuts. And that's why I both hate but also respect Oblivion Rings, because they are cheap exile in enchantment form with lots of protection in white. (ie. Greater Auramancy) And white needed them to keep up with the increasing shenanigans of the other colours.
But this card is a full-up, solid haymaker to the whole of your manhood.
Zombie/ Soldier/ Elf/ Eldrazi/ Wolf tokens: Gone
Isochron Scepters: Gone
Combo pieces: Gone
And they ain't coming back anytime soon, if at all.
I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed. hahaha!
Good card with a solid effect (grumble, grumble) and epic art. Fun fact: a Detention Sphere is shown in Azorius Justiciar's art.
Ooooooooohhhh$hit ring....
If you have the money then this is worth it over o-ring, but at the same time if it's out of your budget it's still okay to run o-ring.
"We're almost there," stated the Justiciar. The blue glow of the spheres came through the many doors that lined the detention hall. Each active sphere held a criminal, someone who had committed an egregious offense to the Azorius Senate or the people of Ravnica.
The Justiciar stopped abruptly in front of one of the gates to a detention chamber, turning on heel to face it. He pulled a clearance rune from his satchel and, without a moment's hesitation pressed the rune up to the gate. It flew up immediately and the two passed quickly through.
The young Arrester marveled quietly at the detention sphere. It was a perfect magical structure, an orb of justice designed to hold the guilty of Ravnica for as long as necessary.
The Justiciar cleared his throat. "Alright rookie... This citizen is guilty of gross misconduct and vandalism, as well as committing severely dangerous thought crimes. We are inclined to believe he had affiliations with the Rakdos. We tried to reform him multiple times through the help of Izzet technology, but he continuously reverted to his prior state."
The arrester's head filled with concerns and thoughts. Severely dangerous thought crimes? It all seemed bizarre. "What did he think, sir? Did an Elocutor interrogate him?"
"No," said the Justiciar. "We found him painting the word YOLO in large block letters on one of our fountains. He proceeded to do it multiple times after his therapies. As you can imagine, we have no place for this type of behavior in our society."
either way I love this card, with supreme verdict and counterspells, U/W has some neat tricks.
Ooo... Combine this card and o-ring, arrest, ethereal armor and righteous authority, plus some detain effects( martial law anyone?) and protection... I can see that deck getting very out of hand.
Think about casting this on YOUR OWN Blade Splicer, so now you kill your Sphere and all the sudden you just got 4 3/3 First Strikers and 4 1/1s.
Not good enough? How about Geist-Honored Monk? Anyone want 4 12/12 Vigilance and 8 1/1's?
There are plenty of abusable effects out there right now, here are most of the good interactions I found:
Nevermore - Pick 4 cards they cannot play, RIGHT NOW. If you pull this off from turn 4-5, you can stop them from even being able to kill the Nevermores.
Oblivion Ring - The little brother works well with the big one. Ob ring something, then get 4 of them by turn 4 that is devastating removal.
Pithing Needle - Getting 4 of these at any time, against the right deck, will be the game.
Puresteel Paladin - Because drawing 4 any time you play an equipment is insane.
Stuffy Doll - So you get 4 0/1 indestructible guys that can chump all day and ping the enemy for 1 each (4/turn). It gets better when you remember that there is a Blasphemous Act that only costs 5 after you use this, and that isn't counting any other creatures out there.
Huntmaster of the Fells - So you get 4 of these 4 more wolves and if they manage to flip that is 8 damage direct and 8 sitting there for creatures. Oh yeah it's 4 instances of it, so you can hit 4 creatures for 2. So you get 4 4/4s and 4 2/2s and 8 damage to target player and 4 instances of 2 damage to creatures. Yeahhhhh.
Abundant Growth - Do not underestimate getting 4 cards and all the mana-fixing you need. You also have to remember this combo will thin your deck of 9 total cards (Detention Sphere, 4 Abundant Growth, and 4 cards deep.
Acidic Slime - Cut your enemy in HALF. 4 of these hit on turn 5-6 and it's total MADNESS. Consider you get the first one already, so you choose the best thing they got (land/ench/art). Then you Sphere it. Then you get 4 on the floor. Remember why Land killing is bad? they'll get down to 2 land on turn 7 if this goes right. And that just isn't fair.
This card is now my baby, and I will break you!
No one here has stated that this can be used as a MASSIVE Tutor combo card.
Think about casting this on YOUR OWN Blade Splicer, so now you kill your Sphere and all the sudden you just got 4 3/3 First Strikers and 4 1/1s.
Not good enough? How about Geist-Honored Monk? Anyone want 4 12/12 Vigilance and 8 1/1s ?
Sorry bro, but nobody has mentioned any mass tutor tricks because, well, this card doesn't work that way. A permanent is only a permanent when it is in play on the battlefield, otherwise it is a card. Detention Sphere only exiles permanents on the battlefield with the same name, similar to Echoing Truth. There is no search the library clause like on Eradicate. If it did work that way though it would be pretty broken like you said, but then the situations where you would want to use this card on an opponents permanent would drop significantly. Oh well, better luck next time ;)
@Axelle
You on the other hand just broke this thing into pieces, I can't look at this card without giggling now :D
Nightmare for populate decks! This card helped create a new trend, Bant Control.
@Amorgan
Derp.
Play Detention Sphere exiling your 3 oblivion rings.
Play Oblivion Ring exiling Detention Sphere.
3 O-Ring ETB triggers go on the stack.
1st O-Ring exiles another of the 3 O-Rings.
Exiled O-Ring's leave play ability goes on stack and resolves with nothing coming back because it hadn't exiled anything yet.
Exiled O-Ring's ETB trigger exiles a nonland permanent, permanently.
3rd O-Ring triggers exiling the O-Ring that exiled the Detention Sphere.
Detention Sphere exiles two O-Rings, bringing back 2 O-Rings.
1 O-Ring exiles a nonland permanent, the other exiles the Detention Sphere.
2 O-Rings come back. 1 exiles a nonland permanent, the other exiles the O-Ring exiling the Detention Sphere.
Detention Sphere comes back, exiling 3 O-Rings.
1 O-Ring comes back, exiling Detention Sphere.
Repeat as many times as needed to exile any number of nonland permanents.
I'd like to try and jail
Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
or, in lieu of him,
any army of Infinite Squirrels
Ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma
Ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma
Ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma
MAN-RAY!
Good card. Hurts tokens decks the most but good against pretty much anything. It ain't strictly better than O-ring, but I'd rather have the sphere most of the time anyways.