Detention Sphere or Oblivion Ring

[KobeBryan]

Detention Sphere lets you exile all tokens, is FOW pitchable, but its vulnerable to REB

Oblivion Ring does not exile all tokens and is not FOW pitchable. But it is not vulnerable to REB.

If you are playing a UW deck, which one would you use?

[Esper3k]

Detention Sphere, hands down.

It has AWESOME (pitches to Force) and the Maelstrom Pulse effect. Far outweighs it being REBable.

[csy]

Oblivion ring if I expect detention spheres from opponents, detention spheres if I expect to be the only one.

Detention sphere on my Jace in the UW mirror is pretty hard to deal with since the sphere can't target a sphere.

[klaus]

Oblivion ring if I expect detention spheres from opponents, detention spheres if I expect to be the only one.

Detention sphere on my Jace in the UW mirror is pretty hard to deal with since the sphere can't target a sphere.

Same goes for your opponent, which kind of invalidates your argument in favor of O. Ring.

[Shawon]

I run O-Ring over Detention Sphere in my Affinity SB despite having access to :u: mana because the additional bonus from Sphere is negligible in the S&T matchup and I never want to have white mana and not be able to hardcast my Ring effect. Besides, I never want to worry about REB undoing my Ring effect, especially against S&T.

[Secretly.A.Bee]

Is 'AWESOME' a good enough reason to ignore the fact that this enables them to get their Sneak Attack back vs. not? I say no. I play Esper RiP Miracle Control and even back during 4c Landstill and etc. I still would have opted for O-Ring.

[syfilisx]

I love it when I Oblivion Ring their Jace with Junk/Rock and they play another one for me to only Decay the Oring in response.
But yeah, I guess Detention sphere is better for UW

[phazonmutant]

Tendrils of Agony, and laugh at your 3-mana sorcery speed durdles.

[alphastryk]

In what context? D Sphere gets red blasted vs most Show and Tell decks...

[Finn]

Phaznomaut may have been trying to be an ass, but he illustrates the most important point rather well. Against storm you definitely want Detention Sphere. It will not be removing any permanents so it's job is to prevent you from having to discard Brainstorm or - good God - Fow to ruin said storm deck. Oblivion Ring sits in your hand during that same game 1 wishing it were blue.

You know, or completely destroy 16 Goblin tokens. No contest which is the better card against storm.

[Iron Buddha]

Abrupt Decay has made them unplayable, at least in the maindeck, but I can't believe they are any good in sideboard, either.

[phazonmutant]

Phaznomaut may have been trying to be an ass, but he illustrates the most important point rather well. Against storm you definitely want Detention Sphere. It will not be removing any permanents so it's job is to prevent you from having to discard Brainstorm or - good God - Fow to ruin said storm deck. Oblivion Ring sits in your hand during that same game 1 wishing it were blue.

You know, or completely destroy 16 Goblin tokens. No contest which is the better card against storm.



^^ well put

[Secretly.A.Bee]

Because blue players are too dumb to BS it away and then pop a fetch? No way. I don't think that should be allowed as a valid reason to play one over the other.

As to the A. Decays, not every list runs them, and the ones that do don't always draw them. Even when they do draw it, it can be baited out. Also, MisD and others of its ilk are wonderful against it. Remember, most lists that run it run 3, MD or SB meaning generally one a game plus Xx Snappy Mages in blue lists such as the BUG varients all over the place as well as Storm varients.


-ABC


EDIT: Also, what was wrong with the old way of getting rid of tokens en mass - Echoing Truth? I understand we can't tutor for it now but its still better than a sorcery speed 3cc multi color requirement that isn't even a guaranteed permanent solution. It is more relevant in more match ups than Sphere simply because of its speed and that one extra mana makes it imo to slow for the roll it is trying to fulfill. e. tutor aside (its just so dern clunky til mid late game), and its easier on your mana base in 2 ways. Please explain the reason for the change.