Pointed Discussion

If saying this turn you play a land, swing a little perhaps and pas s isn't control to you - get out the door. And for one mana at that!!

This card is purely amazing; I can't wait to get four of them for every control deck that I own.

Was really hoping to see some of these, but no luck

The most overrated card in the set. A strictly worse Orim's Chant, and Orim's Chant never sees play outside of No Stick.

this will suck to be the opposing player, u basicly lose a turn

Control for white in an instant.

"In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth." -- Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi, the true pioneer of Magic!

This card is sooooo blue. If it was blue, it would probably cost 2UU

"The most overrated card in the set. A strictly worse Orim's Chant, and Orim's Chant never sees play outside of No Stick."

What the hell are you saying? Unlike the chant, this one doesn't target; and hits multiple opponents at once.. for one mana. Definitely a game-winning card if used at the right time.

"Shush!" -Acuras, Sentemplar Monk

Ok. once lorwyn rotates out, there will be roughly 800 total cards in standard. just under 80 of which are instant speed. this card, for a single mana during their upkeep, forces their hand, and as long as you are prepared with counters, they will play any instants they can in response. however, now for the rest of the turn, they can not play their game-winning creatures or sorceries or planeswalkers. During your main phase, it also draws out their instants, so you know that your bomb is going to land uncontested. extremely useful. for those of you with the mindset that this is only good with a split-second like ability on it, you are wrong. that would make it ridiculously overpowered.

While weaker than it seems at first glance, it can be extremely powerful situationally. Notably, Orim's Chant is no longer extended-legal, so no-stick can still use it (though it isn't as strong due to ts inability to deny people the ability to attack, which curtails its value somewhat as it is less generically applicable).

This can be a Time Walk if used properly to prevent your creatures from being wiped via Wrath or similar, or to prevent them from dropping a blocker or sorcery-speed combo piece. It is also a handy anti-control tool as you can drop it to protect your own spells.

I liked Mana Short for it's ability to do similarly at 2U casting cost and somewhat less (somewhat more) effect. This in white is amazing. Anytime you run out of things to cast with a spare mana you can shut them down for a turn.

Although it lacks a litle of the combo ability of Mana Short, it's hard to believe this is currently rated lower.

This card's a powerhouse! "Shut yo face! You just got Silenced biatch!"

not a bad card, great => no, terrible => no, situarional





YES

like most cards, this is situational, at the right time, this can save you, especially against a nearly creatureless deck, or right after a WoG for an open face shot

Keep in mind that this card doesn't work like a counterspell. It's a preemptive measure, and even then, opponents can play instants in response to this.

However, it can be used to stop your opponent from doing almost anything other than putting down a land for a turn.

Match this up with Isochron Scepter from Mirrodin and you have some solid lockdown against the opponent.

Three or four plus years ago this card would've been blue, and it would've had a cost of or , but since white is apparently not strong enough, they have to keep printing cards like this, Oblivion Ring, Path to Exile, Journey to Nowhere, and Baneslayer Angel. White's "Answer to everything" flavor is getting out of hand, since having an answer to everything means bleeding mechanics from other colors.

orim's chant was already intensive enough.
very good card, but it doesn't force our minds. it's a 4 or 5 cards combo in just one.
I remember the time when this effect was so powerfull that only experts when using the right cards could do it. Nowadays, well.. it costs nothing but 1 white mana and a smile.
well, this card can beat anything except counterspell, depending on the stack. try it imprinted on Isochron Scepter!

let me see if i understand this card correctly. i leave one white mana open and pass my turn to my opponent. he untaps ten mountains, taps out, and casts banefire to my head. i play silence. his banefire fizzles and goes to the graveyard.

did i understand the card correctly? did i just see a one-mana answer to an uncounterable card? did one white mana just trump the WHOLE of blue's power to deny spells?????

please tell me if this is a correct interpretation, or if the banefire simply returns to the caster's hand. :)

No, you don't use it as a counterspell and it doesn't counter a 10 mana Banefire after it was cast.

The card text explicitly says it will not counter a spell played before it resolves. This is the exact opposite of a counter-spell, in terms of when you have to play it.

A spell that resolves before it does obviously can't be affected by it either. So anything that went on the stack after it will go off normally.

So, the right way to play it is when it will resolve but the opponent hasn't yet played the spells you want to stop. You therefore usually play it during their upkeep step - the first time in their turn that you have priority.

They can respond to it being put on the stack by playing their own instants, which will resolve before it does, since the stack is last in, first out. But they can't respond to it by playing a sorcery, creature, or planeswalker summon. All of those are sorcery speed and therefore can only be cast when the stack is empty, and can't yet be cast in the upkeep step (before the main phase), so they can't sneak them in first.

When you save one white and play this at the start of their turn, they can immediately play instants - but not later to interact with anything like a land drop - and they can play activated abilities of creatures already in play, any time during the turn. But they can't play that Banefire - it is a sorcery. Nor can they play that Bloodbraid Elf into Blighting (the more usual threat being stopped). They don't lose the card; if you waited that long it'd go off. (For that you want Negate or Cancel).

One Negate won't stop everything they might have done with 7 mana later on - or even a single cascade fully.

It's effectiveness comes from mana efficiency issues. They lose a turn's mana minus any instants they wanted to play right then. In card advantage terms it is actually a net negative, hence the lower mana cost. Where a counterspell trades card for card, here you spend a card and they keep all of theirs, so they are gaining in card terms by their next turn. But they are losing in mana and in speed...

Responding to what some people said:

Yes, Baneslayer Angel is indeed a broken addition to white. And no, white doesnt have 'answers to everything'. This is purely white flavour. If you read some Wizards statements some years ago, they didnt want white to take the place of blue, but it seems that 'life gain' spells just arent competitive enough.

Exiling permanents is quite white flavorish. Just as countering them is blue. Silence isnt an 'you cant cast nothing spell' is just a situational spell you have to keep for those moments when you are pulling your combo or buying you a turn against green deck, besides that is not really that great, as this is the only way white can deal with blue and red instants and it doesnt even do it well as they can resp.

I don't see why some people wants this to be mythic rare, arent you having enough issues with those broken cards yet? And this is not mythic material, just a situationally good card that's strictly worst than what is available on eternal formats.

Can give you great advantage against fast creature decks. It prevents them from playing whatever ?-drop creature they were going to play that turn.

I know this spell isn't UBER, but it is still amazingly powerful for its cost and casting speed. Hard to believe it isn't rated higher yet, I think some people are in denial, hahah.

Fairly effective against Red Aggro, however, it tells blue control to STFU. White probably shouldn't have a card this powerful...

You could also use this durring your own turn to make sure that an opponent isn't going to counter one of your later spells. Also could be used before you are going to swing your final attack to make sure they don't have any tricks up their sleeve (ha pun, unintentional).

Isochron Scepter

Can you cast this in response to someone casting bloodbraid elf, or in response to thew cascade ability going on the stack


in other words, cast it so the spell that will be cascaded into doesnt get cast?

this is a great card 5/5, if it was any more powerful id consider it broken

Isochron Scepter and Seedborn Muse - Now that's just mean.

SILENCE!!!

I KILL YOU!

awesome art and flavor. 4.5

Basically everything in the same stack as this are unaffected.

Spells before it are already cast (they are just waiting to resolve)...and spells after it will beat it due to last in, first out rules of the stack. This is only useful for non-instants. So you probably want to cast it during an upkeep and prevent your opponent from doing anything in the main phase and combat phase

Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir for and against this card :)

Tell me, Mr. Anderson... what good is a phone call... if you're unable to speak?

Hyper hyper!!

This card is most efficient when you already have board position advantage over the opponent. When you're behind in board position, its not as good.