Skyclave Apparition or Oblivion Ring?

[Smeck]

Hello guys, I have a very generic question: which one do you think is the best choice for a modern deck between Skyclave Apparition and Oblivion Ring?
I know it depends from the deck building, I'm just looking for some opinion. Thanks

[CleanBelwas]

Hey Smeck,

Good question. For me, the major upside of Skyclave Apparition is that it's a creature so it can actually kill your opponents. Even if it doesn't have a worthwhile target, it can still get in for damage. Without a worthwhile target, O ring is just a dead card in hand. Additionally, a large upside to Apparition is that whatever it gets rid of stays gone. Chances are whatever you have removed is going to be better than a vanilla illusion.

That said, being a creature makes it fragile, and when it dies it gives your opponent a creature in return. This seems pretty bad against aggressive decks that won't struggle to kill a creature with 2 toughness and will be glad of the extra bodies to attack with.

Oblivion ring is generally much harder to remove so it can do a better job of keeping things gone without the downside, but if it is removed your opponent gets their thing back and sometimes its just dead in your hand.

For me personally, I'd be more inclined to include Apparition. I tend to attack quite aggressively so having a body appeals to me, and I also tend to play with a "make them have it" kind of attitude, so the idea that Apparition dies to removal doesn't bother me as much. The upside when they don't have it is worth it for the downside when they do to me.

I think I'd only really lean in to O ring if I had synergies with enchantments or creature removal was particularly prevalent in the meta. I think Apparition will likely be better slightly more of the time, but it's close. I can definitely see arguments for and against both. Like you say, deck building and meta decisions may well make O ring a much better choice.

[Schau]

O Ring can target tokens whereas Skyclave can only target small nontoken creatures so agains anything with large permanents skyclave is worse.

[Smeck]

Thank you very much guys, you gave me enogh point of view to make a decision. CleanBelwas: really accurate analysis!

[Niftyness]

I would say skyclave aspiration takes the cake, unless we're talking about EDH in particular. If it is EDH you are considering, I would take the Oblivion ring. Reason being, people have a longer time to build up for higher mana combo's in EDH, so you often find yourself in the position of needing to remove a win condition that could be much greater than just four mana.

[Smeck]

Thank you too, I'm going to use it in modern, so it seems the best option. I can also keep O Ring in the sideboard.

[WizardSpartan]

O Ring can target tokens whereas Skyclave can only target small nontoken creatures so agains anything with large permanents skyclave is worse.

Just so you know, Skyclave can hit nonland permanents with CMC ≤ 4, not just creatures.

I would say skyclave aspiration takes the cake, unless we're talking about EDH in particular. If it is EDH you are considering, I would take the Oblivion ring. Reason being, people have a longer time to build up for higher mana combo's in EDH, so you often find yourself in the position of needing to remove a win condition that could be much greater than just four mana.

I am going to have to disagree in a couple aspects.

• Removal is much more prominant in EDH than it is in constructed formats. Pretty much every single EDH deck is going to have a removal suite, while in constructed formats, midrange/control decks are likely the only decks with any decent amount of removal. Because of the popularity of removal in EDH, Oblivion Ring, to me, gets a lot worse, as it is removal that doesn't guarantee the removed permanent actually stays removed, which seems kind of meh. If an opponent removes Apparition, they get a small token, which is next to useless in many situations.
• Skyclave Apparition is so much more abusable. The only archetype I can think that Oblivion Ring would be popular in is enchantments, as it is okay removal that triggers enchantress effects & Constellation. Apparition, on the other hand, is fantastic in major archetypes like Blink decks, ETB decks, and Aristocrat/Reanimator decks.

While it is true that EDH is the king of big, splashy spells, I've found that many of the high CMC permanents that Apparition misses provide immediate value to compensate for their mana cost, so Apparition, in reality, is missing less stuff than you may think.
For reference: My 4 decks have, on average, ~2 permanents with cmc ≥ 5 that lack valuable ETB triggers (i.e. would actually be worthwhile to remove).

[stuffnsuch]

I lean toward Skyclave.  The Ring is better if you're seeing a lot of high CMC targets, or if you're meta is really light on Enchantment removal.  Otherwise, the Apperation is just better.  Any threat you want to hit with it will be worth giving a little illusion creature token.  Once you've exiled something, it's gone, plus you've got an extra body on the board, which is rarely useless.  If they waste removal on your Spirit, they get a small creature token, and they've basically wasted a card, whereas with the Ring, removal is almost always worthwhile, since they take out your enchantment and get their best card back.