Oblivion. Such a fun word. I use Oblivion Ring to send your permanent into OBLIVION! It’s only natural to want to protect your permanents from this very popular enchantment. While there are lots of disenchant-style ways to get your toys back, wouldn’t it be more fun to simply use Redirect and send THEIR permanent into OBLIVION?

Let’s look at these two cards. First, Oblivion Ring. Oblivion ring is an enchantment, but it is not an aura. Auras require a target when they are cast, but other enchantments such as Oblivion Ring do not. Let’s look at its text a moment: “When Oblivion Ring enters the battlefield, exile another target permanent.” Yes, this contains that lovely word “target”, but another key word that stands out is the word that starts the whole thing: “When”. “When” is one of the mighty three keywords (“When,” “Whenever” and “At”) which indicate a triggered ability. So, Oblivion Ring itself (when it is cast) is not targeted, but its Enters the Battlefield ability is.

Let’s now consider Redirect. Redirect says “You may choose new targets for target spell.” The key phrase here is “target spell.” As we’ve already seen, Oblivion Ring doesn’t require a target when it is a spell on the stack. You could technically cast Redirect targeting it at that point, but it won’t do anything since O-Ring on the stack has no targets to be changed. Once it enters the battlefield, its ability triggers… but that’s not a spell; it’s a triggered ability, and O-Ring at that point is a permanent. Nope, still not a legal target for Redirect. It might be a fun answer, but it just doesn’t help.

Today’s Rules Tip written by
David Hibbs, Level 3 judge from League City, TX