Pointed Discussion

Has anyone read the rulings on this card? It just upped my idea of its usefulness.

awesome story. back around ravnica block, my casual group had a player who had the most annoying boros deck ever. he won using boros fury-shield almost everytime. everyone hated it. as in "tear-this-card-up-I-never-want-to-see-it-again" hate.

anyway i was playing a two-headed giant game against his boros deck and a saproling deck. i was playing a mono blue control deck that was 80% counters and bounce just to *** others off. my ally was playing izzet control. we had totally locked down the field and by ally swung with a Wee Dragonauts that was like a 13/3. in response boros-man windmill swung down his first Boros fury-shield and yelled "Boros fury-shield!!!!!", thinking he had just won (we were at, i believe, 15 and he had a shock in hand).

my response? Windmill slam Quash.
his response? "Huh? (he reads the card) F***!"

he took the shields out of his deck shortly after.

This card can even remove uncounterable spells?

"I'm sorry did you just say banefire?
Well I can at least tell you that you aren't ever doing that again!"

@Minus_Prime: Aegisofthunder is referring to the part of the card that causes you to search and exile the remaining copies of Banefire. Read the rulings:
"If the spell is not countered (because the spell it targets can't be countered), then it does not get exiled but all the other copies in the graveyard, hand, and library are exiled."

He may not counter the Banefire being cast, but the opponent won't have other copies left in their deck.

@Ultratog1028: I know how you feel about Boros Fury-Shield ... One of my friends used to have it in a boros deck too - I remember attacking ftw with a 13/10 flying Primeval Force (I had a flipped Homura), only to lose when he cast the Shield ...

Back to the card: Quash is an awesome spell if you know what you're dealing with, though it makes me sad that it is limited to Instants and Sorceries. If you're running a casual counter deck, you should probably have 1 or 2 in your deck depending on your tastes. It's always nice to exile all Lightning Bolts or Doom Blades from your opponent's deck.

Edit: Der, sorry. I thought AgesofThunder was referring specifically to the spell on the stack. Yes, it will exile the other copies, which... usually doesn't matter with a game-ender like Banefire. 5 stars for Grimja.

At the very least, gets rid of an annoying card and lets you see your opponent's hand and deck. Useful.
4/5

Nothing like countering 4 cards at once.

This is a very good counter card, and can arguably be more effective than Counterspell in some situations

Let's say your opponent has a Red Agro deck. Are you going to play Counterspell on that Lightning Bolt? Probably not, because it just costs 1 CMC (but you may because it still deals 3 damage, but that's not my point). Now, if you played Quash on that, then they will lose one of their best burn cards.

I originally thought it simply countered any spell, but still, it can make something like Dark Ritual or Harrow useless for 4 CMC.

4.5/5

This can function as an excellent safety lever against cards which are too powerful, at least above 4CMC or so. Similar cards from Kamigawa do the same thing, but much more specifically, so I think this fulfills the function best.

Seems like this will be excellent with Arcane Melee. It will cost as much as a Counterspell then, and will be able to neuter any threat enabled by the global effect from your opponent's side.

This is pretty great to ruin Burning Vengeance decks. Using this on Forbidden Alchemy or Think Twice will slow their game down hard enough for you to have your way with them.

Gets rid of Sphinx's Revelation

I really wish there was a way to hit an uncounterable spell with this, then hit the spell with Venser, Shaper Savant such that it's in your opponent's hand when you search there. Alas, it'll either be countered because the target disappeared or Quash will be done resolving by the time you can drop Venser.

BUT! If there are two copies of the same uncounterable spell on the stack, that's a different matter. (This might seem stupidly narrow, but hitting a Reverberated Banefire with this after bouncing the original? Pretty funny.)

Not that this one is bad, but I prefer the old art...
One of my favourite counterspell, just because I countered once a freshly casted Incinerate, removing all 4, slowing down the burn. So satisfying! It's nice, interesting counter to eliminate all instance of annoying spells like Life from the Loam, Deep Analysis, etc... But, unlike the other cards of this cycle, this one doesn't exile directly the card that it's targeting, so doesn't counter a uncounterable spell. The other ones can exile indestructible permanents...
It's a pity that isn't really effective in EDH, because I love Lobotomy effects, so I'd play for sure!
4.5/5