Pointed Discussion

They did it... they fixed Oblivion Ring!

Welcome to MTG Banishing Light! I imagine I'll be seeing more of you in Core Sets, and with that art I'm quite happy to.

This was one of those cards that was gonna happen eventually. And I'm glad its day finally came, even there are less shenanigans with this version. For those not in the know, Oblivion Ring's wording is such that if you made it leave the battlefield before its first ability resolved, it would exile something forever.

That's one hell of a fast ball.

Another problem solved by white's orbital laser.

Good with constellation.

The lighter side of Dark Banishing.

I believe this is a strictly better Oblivion Ring because it cannot hit your own thing if you don't want it to and in common practice you will not want to exile your own thing.
That being said, this has a rating of 4.083 which should be at least 4.4 considering Oblivion Ring is 4.3!

A very welcome print (a pseudo-functional reprint of Oblivion Ring) in a block where enchantment presence matters a lot.
Needless to say this is gonna get a lot of love (or, you know, hate from those on the receiving end of it).
And also? DAT ART.

4/5

I remember reading an analysis of the artwork in born of the gods - noting that it's getting lighter than it was in Theros. Now we have Banishing light, oppressive rays, reprisal - Elspeth has always been associated with light and we have her committing deicide. Light is conquering darkness in Theros, and the dream is beginning to fade.

Banishing Light got Nyx'd in two ways.

-First, you can no longer target a permanent you own (for The Cheese Stands Alone type effects)
-Secondly, the etb ability no longer allows you perma-exile an opponent's thing.

Wow, I guess Wizards was holding off all the good white cards for the very end
Less abusable O ring? Well, O ring is still a powerful card, so this is pretty awesome.
White is getting a lot of spot removal this set, and I really enjoy it.
Standard staple for sure, 4/5

Guys. If you think this card is be better than O-ring for whatever reason, then I have some bad news for you...

I love the card - our new Oblivion Ring!, but it's not a 5 star card, because
it don't get exiled permantly.
Great card in limited, and it might see play in constructed, but I doubt it. ))

Ouch... Tough god. First Revoke Existence then THIS? He's taken his share of Sunlances.

Now with built in anti-∞ technology!

Great card. The new text 'fixes' an issue with the ETB/LTB triggers that could happen with Oblivion Ring, but that was more relevant with cards like Fiend Hunter (which already has a 'substitute' - Banisher Priest) since creatures are easier to 'manipulate' (e.g. flicker, bounce) than enchantments. JUN also brought in Brain Maggot which is a new version of Mesmeric Fiend (with the new and strictly worse mechanic). Now, I wonder if R&D will ever print cards that can abuse both ETB/LTB triggers again, but, unfortunately (at least for me), I think the answer is a plain 'NO'.

@Blind_At_heart: I argue this is strictly worse than Oblivion Ring. I have been playing with oblivion ring since lorwyn's release and I have never once accidentally oblivion ring'd my own permanent. I have done it intentionally.

Since a lot of players are unaware of the specifics on the permanent exile effect of oblivion ring and how this relates: Oblivion Ring has two abilities, an Enters the Battlefield (EtB) and a Leaves the Battlefield (LtB) ability. If you Disenchant the Oblivion Ring in response to the ETB triggering, disenchant resolves first, destroying the Oblivion Ring. This causes the LtB to trigger. Nothing is exiled, so the LtB does nothing. Finally, the ETB effect triggers and a permanent is exiled. There is no Oblivion Ring on the field at this time, and no way to get the exiled card back.

This effect is basically useless. You are trading two cards for one and its all pretty awkward. However, it is against the spirit of the card and very unintuitive. I have done it a couple times in mono-white EDH, and people actually looked up the rules to see if I was lying. (The effect was just an instant speed Flicker from being usable I guess.) Banishing light has one ability, an EtB and is immune to these shenanigans. That is why the card was changed, and I support this.

I am pretty unhappy about the 'An opponent controls' bit and want to know why this was chosen. The infinite shenanigans weren't an issue. People rarely did it, it was heinously situational to get going. Just because something is infinite doesn't mean it actually breaks the game. Some are accepted in development, some are even intentional. (Tamiyo antics, Grinding Station.) What I am angry about is that I can no longer set my permanents aside to protect them from impending doom as a sort of long flicker. I didn't do it often, but it was an extra option that made oblivion ring more interesting, and felt pretty flavorful.

I don't play standard, so whatever. I'll just keep playing O-RIng. I can run this as a second 'almost' O-Ring for EDH. AT least the art is great.

I don't like it. It's basically a strictly worse Oblivion Ring, in that it can't be bounced in response to its ability to permanently exile something (I think...), like you can with Oblivion Ring.

Perhaps the most practical drawback to this card is that if it is targeting a token, you can destroy it in response to the trigger to save the token, where before if o-ring targeted a token, it was just gone.

Another drawback is that b-light doesn't have the same sound as o-ring.

Personally I don't care that this is worse than Oblivion Ring, because I don't play decks where I O-ring my own permanents. If you have such a deck, just keep playing that card. I take what I get.

I guess this is the permanent replacement to oblivion ring. I'm down. The art is sick and the effect is more intuitive. On top of that, I now have 2 oblivion rings if I want to in my EDH decks.