Image courtesy of Scryfall.com
Tempo Triumph: Controlling the Board with Consign // Oblivion
For players who love the sly dance of tempo—where you trade tempo for inevitability and lock down the battlefield one maneuver at a time—Consign // Oblivion is a favorite two-faced pick from Hour of Devastation. This blue-black duo isn’t just a gimmick of split cards; it’s a flexible toolkit for control players who crave resilience in the face of a wide metagame. The instant-and-sorcery pairing gives you a two-turn arc: bounce your problem on the spot, then weaponize the graveyard to pry two cards away from your opponent. 🧙♂️🔥💎
Consign // Oblivion is a quintessential example of tempo-driven design. On the front face, Consign costs {1}{U} and reads: Return target nonland permanent to its owner's hand. That’s a one-mana tempo play that can reset a blocker, a key artifact, an engine piece, or a well-timed permanent you know your opponent relies on. On the back face, Oblivion costs {4}{B} and, after you’ve cast Consign to set things up, you can cast Oblivion from your graveyard. Its effect: target opponent discards two cards. That’s card-advantage denial right where it hurts—their resource pool, not just their battlefield. The two-part spell’s total mana commitment is a 7-mana swing if you chain it fully, but the real value lies in the tempo and inevitability it creates when used tactically. Aftermath means you cast the second half from your graveyard, then exile it. It’s a design that rewards foresight and a bit of graveyard management, a theme fans of control glory in. 🧙♂️⚔️
Consign’s ability to bounce a threatening permanent can delay an opponent’s game plan for a full turn or more, while Oblivion’s discard pressure chips away at their options in later turns. It’s a delicate balance of field presence and hand disruption that, when executed well, feels like piloting a well-tuned clockwork device.
What Consign // Oblivion Offers a Control Player
From a strategic standpoint, Consign // Oblivion shines in several ways. First, the bounce effect on Consign buys you time. Bouncing a planeswalker’s loyalty counter, a creature that keeps attacking, or an artifact that unlocks a crucial combination buys you precious turns to stabilize. Because it targets nonland permanents, you can even hit lands? No—lands aren’t valid targets for Consign, which keeps you from accidentally undoing your own mana base. The beauty is that you aren’t just removing a threat; you’re rewriting your opponent’s next few turns. 🧭
Then there’s Oblivion, cast from the graveyard after it’s in your all-important stack of resources. The chance to cause your opponent to discard two cards adds a late-game lever that can swing a tight race in your favor. In practice, you’ll often set up a bounce on turn 2 or 3 with Consign, then drop Oblivion on a later turn to apply direct pressure to the opponent’s hand. The two-face synergy is a textbook tempo-control package: you disrupt their board, then incrementally erode their velocity and options. The card’s blue-black identity is a perfect fit for decks that lean into counterplay, refill strategies, and the occasional inevitability grind. 🧠🎲
Design, Lore, and Utility
Consign // Oblivion hails from Hour of Devastation, a set steeped in desert myth and the epic struggle between order and chaos. The split-face design—an instant and a spell—carries the flavor of a single, coordinated plan rather than two independent spells: the momentary “consign” to the hand, followed by the feared “oblivion” that gnaws at the opponent’s resources. The artwork by Sidharth Chaturvedi captures a sense of eerie balance between control and consequence, a visual echo of the card’s mechanical relationship. The rarity sits at uncommon, which makes it a frequent sight for players exploring B/U tempo shells that prize efficiency and subtle pressure. 🖌️🎨
In terms of versatility, Consign // Oblivion fits into a broad spectrum of control and midrange builds. It plays nicely with other bounce and countertactics, and its Aftermath property rewards players who curate their graveyard with intention. The set’s mechanics and the card’s modern-legal status mean you can explore it in a modern or eternal-play environment without stepping outside the core experience that MTG fans cherish. The dual-face design also invites creative deck-building experiments—think combinations with flicker effects, repeatable bounce enablers, or synergy with other discard-oriented engines to maximize the Oblivion half’s impact. 🔥🃏
Practical Play Patterns
Here are a few concrete scenarios you might test in a control shell using Consign // Oblivion:
- Early-curve disruption: On turn 2 or 3, cast Consign to bounce a problematic blocker or a critical early-permanent that threatens to accelerate your opponent’s game plan. This buys you time to hit your next removal or to start building your own card advantage engine. 🧙♀️
- Graveyard setup for Aftermath: Keep Oblivion in your graveyard for a mid-to-late game payoff. When you’re ready, cast it from the graveyard to push your opponent’s hand size down by two, amplifying the pressure as your own board stabilizes. 🧙♂️
- Planeswalker and engine hits: Consign can target any nonland permanent, including a problematic planeswalker or a critical engine piece. The tempo gains compound as you slow their development while planning for Oblivion’s two-discard blow on the next turn or two. ⚔️
- Deck synergy and recursions: Pair Consign // Oblivion with other graveyard-utilizing or bounce-ready cards to maximize returns from both faces. The more you lean into a clever graveyard plan, the more Oblivion’s discard effect compounds with your draws and hand-replenishment options. 💎
Cross-Promotional Note
As you fine-tune your control or tempo deck, you might also be curating a play space that’s tidy and stylish. If you’re looking to protect your everyday carry gear while you brainstorm big plays, Digital Vault’s Clear Silicone Phone Case—Slim Durable Protection is a neat companion. It’s a durable, minimalist shell that keeps your device safe between matches, travel, and weekend tournaments. The practical, low-profile design mirrors the efficient, no-nonsense ethos of Consign // Oblivion on the battlefield. 🧳🎮
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