Confusion in The Ranks: The Answer to Omniscience

[Dark Ritual]

I believe the point is that it gets around stifle effects.

Because stifle is played in one deck and that is canadian thresh. Show and tell based decks have NEVER played stifle or trickbind. Also, confusion in the ranks looks incredibly stupid when you put confusion in and they put in a griselbrand/emrakul and you control no creatures to speak of. Confusion in the ranks is good in one thing, and that is norin the wary EDH. Oblivion ring, meanwhile, is good in a variety of matchups.

It really isn't that complicated when it comes to SnT. You can just run angel of despair like Max Tietze, he ran it exclusively for the SnT matchup. Or you could run discard spells. Or countermagic. Or play a faster deck. It amazes me to no end when people say "This card is good against show and tell" when there are actually a lot of cards that are good against the deck, more than I can think of off the top of my head at least. Most are incredibly narrow like confusion in the ranks though.

[Hanni]

In regards to Goblins:

Oblivion Ring can answer Engineered Plague, Moat, Humility, Umezawa's Jitte, and Batterskull, just to name a few. Unless the particular metagame is absolutely infested with Show and Tell decks, I seen no reason to waste sideboard space on a spell that is useful in literally one matchup, when you have access to a spell that is almost as good and happens to handle alot of other really big problems.

Maindeck Thalia is just icing on the cake, if you want to steal some tech from the Goblins player that did well in... GP Atlanta, I think? I'm not sure at the moment, but I'll get back to you on that if someone doesn't provide the answer for me.

[lochlan]

Because stifle is played in one deck and that is canadian thresh. Show and tell based decks have NEVER played stifle or trickbind.

FWIW I play Stifle in my Show and Tell decks and it's been really good, since it beats all the CITP hate.

[Hanni]

FWIW I play Stifle in my Show and Tell decks and it's been really good, since it beats all the CITP hate.

Goblins can put you on a turn 3-4 clock though. Burning Wish to grab Show and Tell, finding Omniscience, and then finding Stifle before you cast Show and Tell... seems like alot of work.

I know you were talking about Stifle in general, but I thought the topic was about Goblins (since there aren't a whole lot of decks that would want to run this enchantment over Oblivion Ring), so that's why my reply is relating to Goblins.

Stifle is a really good spell against Goblins in general, though.

[Bahamuth]

I know I know, this card is obscure and should belong in the "unfun cards" category for EDH, but hear me out.

Unfun? Do you know how sick that card is if you have Norrin the Wary as general?

[zulander]

If you don't have a goblin on the table on turn 1 or 2, you're going to lose anyway.

Confusion in the ranks is much stronger than oblivion ring assuming that you're sneaking it onto the battlefield. Oblivion ring merely equalizes the board, it's a 1-for-1. Confusion takes away their threat and gives it to you, which is a 2-for-1 in your favor.

Is confusion better than oblivion ring in general? I don't know. As people have said, Oblivion ring is easier to hardcast and has utilities outside of the show and tell matchup. However, if you're going to side into an uncastable bomb like angel of despair, you should consider confusion since it's probably better.

You realize that it swaps control of the permanents, so it's not a 2-for-1.