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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day

Daily Since November 2001!

Banishing Light
Image from Wizards.com

 Banishing Light
- Journey into Nyx

Reviewed April 30, 2014

Constructed: 4.00
Casual: 3.88
Limited: 4.30
Multiplayer: 3.75

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale:
1 - Horrible  3 - Average.  5 - Awesome

Click here to see all of our 
Card of the Day Reviews 

BMoor

Banishing Light

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.

Constructed- 4
Casual- 4
Limited- 4.5
Multiplayer- 3.5


David Fanany

Player since 1995

Banishing LIght
 
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.
 
Constructed: 4/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 4/5

Paul

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.

Constructed: 3.0
Casual: 3.0
Limited: 3.5
Multiplayer: 3.0

Michael "Maikeruu" Pierno

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.

Constructed: 4.0
Casual: 4.0
Limited: 4.0
Multiplayer: 4.0

Mattedesa

Deck Garage

Banishing Light

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.

Constructed: 4.5
Casual 3.5
Limited 4.5
Multiplayer 4


Michael Sokolowski

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.

Constructed: 4.5
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 5
Multiplayer: 4.5


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