Can silence effectively protect me against control in standard?
Standard forum
Posted on Jan. 25, 2014, 3:11 a.m. by spikejester666
So, I play a devotion to white deck which is fairly mid-range, and my god, control just has it's way with me. So I was wondering if Silence was a decent way to prevent control from gaining too much advantage over me or were there much more viable options?
Yeah. It has to be used before your opponent casts anything. Your opponent can just wait until their turn or delay until your end step to fire off that Sphinx's Revelation . It's really not that fantastic given you're usually better off running low CMC guys in white.
January 25, 2014 5:34 a.m.
I like it in the right situation. I agree that it isn't a counterspell but it is a cheap way to stop them for a turn. It's nice right after a board wipe or if you are about to close on them. It can also stop those really stupid T1 / T2 combo wins (depending on whether you are on the draw or the play).
I would say it only protects you against control if you are extending an advantage from a board wipe or other wipe or something else like a stasis lock set on them when they were tapped out - or if you are about to win and don't want them using control to interfere. But it is not great against a concentrated counterspell control deck because it can just be countered itself.
January 25, 2014 6:02 a.m.
Gidgetimer says... #5
Silence can prevent your creatures from getting countered but that is about it. The problem is that any spell cast before Silence resolves will still resolve. So if you Silence on your upkeep and they were planning to Sphinx's Revelation on your end step they can do it in response.
January 25, 2014 6:12 a.m.
ShimmerVoid says... #6
I think the most you can get with Silence is casting it during their upkeep to stop them wiping the board with Supreme Verdict . That's about it though.
January 25, 2014 7:48 a.m.
ColdHeartedSith says... #7
Casting Silence on opponents upkeep on turns 3-4-5 can prevent them from casting Detention Sphere and Supreme Verdict because even if they main board negate for non-creature spells the will spend 2 to counter it and not have enough mana to cast the formentioned cards. If they don't counter the can't cast those cards at all as they are sorcery speed and require mainphase to cast so, 3 or 4 Silence can get you to like opponents turn 6 with most of your creatures. In most fast white builds and Boros and Azorous Flash or enchant or heroic decks this is all you need to win. ANSWER YES definetly.
January 25, 2014 11:12 a.m.
It's not a really good response to a control deck, because you're wasting a card and mana on the chance that your opponent will do something that turn, because you don't know if they can or will cast something. Better to run something like Rootborn Defenses to use as a response to a kill spell, because then you know at least that your Rootborn Defenses is doing something, rather than casting Silence for the chance to do something.
Epochalyptik says... #2
The Q&A is for rules questions. Moved to Standard.
Not really, in my opinion. It just delays for a turn, and it has to be cast preemptively; it's not a counterspell.
January 25, 2014 3:16 a.m.