Brago + Oblivion Ring + Strionic Resonator
Asked by Pedrodamus 3 years ago
I'm trying to wrap my head around this stack interaction and I think I'm partially there and could use a little help in cleaning up whatever I'm missing.
1 - I connect with Brago, King Eternal and put his ability on the stack targeting the Strionic Resonator , Sol Ring, and Oblivion Ring that's already on the field and has exiled another permanent.
2 - I respond to the targets by activating strionic which creates a copy of Brago's triggered ability and with that copy I choose those same 3 targets.
3 - I resolve the copied Brago ability and those 3 permanents flicker, returning to play what was originally exiled with o-ring since this will actually trigger the LTB on it before I can loop these shenanigans.
4 - I put the o-ring ETB on the stack with a new target; sol ring and strionic have returned to the battlefield as well.
5 - I activate strionic copying the original Brago ability still on the stack targeting the same 3 permanents and triggering the o-ring LTB.
6 - I put the o-ring LTB on the stack and let it resolve before the ETB and let the ETB resolve with whatever it targeted from step 4 which results in that permanent being exiled forever.
- o-ring, strionic, sol ring all return to the battlefield - rinse and repeat from step 4.
Polaris is correct as usual! You can do similar shanigans with an old card called Parallax Wave. I use this in combination with Opalescence to exile pretty much all of my opponents' creatures and enchantments in my Tuvasa the Sunlit deck. These types of things are definitely possible with some of these cards that were made before commander made such shenanigans widely possible. It might feel broken, but not more so than many other things we do in commander today!
February 23, 2022 5:28 p.m.
Pedrodamus says... #3
Polaris does Skyclave Apparition also work where I can stack the LTB before the ETB and thus give no token to an opponent for a permanent I exile?
February 23, 2022 11:47 p.m.
What happens if Skyclave Apparition re-enters the battlefield before its first trigger resolves
Questions that tag cards get added to the card page. When you're looking for interactions about single cards, sometimes you can find them there (this was on the Skyclave Apparition page).
February 24, 2022 8:26 a.m.
Parallax Wave would be a pretty good effect to have in this deck too, since it'll also combo with Strionic Resonator (you can use it in place of O-Ring in the combo you outlined, or as a one-shot effect where you wait for its upkeep trigger, activate it five times and then copy the upkeep trigger with Strionic Resonator).
February 24, 2022 9:24 a.m.
Pedrodamus says... #6
oh wow, i didn't even realize that those questions get added to the card page, nice! So the Skyclave Apparition does in fact work the same way as the o-ring loop. I kinda figured since it did have that separate ETB/LTB. R&D must have had a memory lapse and forgot to make it a "until it leaves play" trigger.
February 24, 2022 10:58 a.m.
Kind of? I mean, that fact makes it a top tier card.
But Skyclave Apparition can't work the same way for what it does. "Exile until *this leaves play" won't work here because Skyclave Apparition doesn't actually return the exiled card, it just gives you something sort of similar. It's also a creature, and these kinds of effects on creatures get to be a bit stronger because there are far more ways to remove creatures than enchantments.
February 24, 2022 11:12 a.m.
Pedrodamus says... #8
Polaris Speaking of Parallax Wave, is the resonator loop required to exile creatures forever? Or, can I respond to Brago targeting Parallax Wave by removing the fade counters, putting that on the stack, allow Brago's ability to resolve blinking the Parallax Wave and then allow the fade counter targets to resolve after it's already on the battlefield as a new object?
Oh, and I don't quite follow the interaction of responding at the upkeep to the Parallax Wave trigger by removing the 5 fade counters and copying the trigger. What does that accomplish?
February 24, 2022 11:59 p.m.
The last object put on the stack will be the first to resolve. In the situation with Parallax Wave, if you just remove counters in response to Brago's trigger, you'll exile the targets, then flicker Parallax Wave and bring them all back.
You can't normally get Brago's trigger above the O-Ring or Parallax Wave abilities, because players don't get priority in the damage step until after combat damage is dealt and Brago has triggered and the ability is on the stack.
Strionic Resonator puts another Brago trigger above your exile abilities, so you can get the leaves-the-battlefield trigger of Parallax Wave or Oblivion Ring before their exile abilities resolve.
The upkeep move works the same. You wait for the fading ability to trigger on your upkeep, then in response you remove five counters to activate Parallax Wave targeting the creatures you want gone. Then you hold priority and use Strionic Resonator to copy the fading trigger. The copied trigger resolves first and since there are no counters on Parallax Wave, you sacrifice it and trigger the leaves-the-battlefield ability, which has nothing to return. Then the exile activations happen, and finally the original fading trigger resolves but doesn't do anything, since Parallax Wave is already gone.
Polaris says... Accepted answer #1
Yes, this works. Oblivion Ring was kind of a mistake in that sense; all similar effects now exile something "until they leave the battlefield," which means the exiled permanents come back without needing a trigger to return them and that if the card exiling them leaves before the ETB resolves it won't exile them at all.
With that said, yes, you can permanently exile an arbitrary number of permanents with this combo. There are windows of vulnerability though; a removal spell pointed at any of the three after you activate Strionic Resonator will break the combo.
February 23, 2022 5:19 p.m.