For those that don't know or don't realize: Swerve or things that redirect won't affect this card. Also for all of you that do NOT read rulings, here you go:
10/1/2009 Silence won't affect spells that your opponents cast before you cast Silence. (In other words, it can't be used as a retroactive Cancel.) Silence also won't stop your opponents from casting spells after you cast Silence but before Silence resolves.
10/1/2009 The only thing Silence does is prevent your opponents from casting spells. They can still activate abilities, including abilities of cards in their hands (like cycling). Their triggered abilities work as normal, they can still play lands, and so on.
@Froenx No on can cast spells before an Upkeep. The Upkeep is the first part of a turn that players are able to cast spells. (Unless some how the card or another card says it can be cast during Untap).
Posted By:
Teakon
(4/22/2011 11:35:33 AM)
I think 2010's flavor text is better.
Posted By:
1maketoilets
(4/28/2011 8:39:10 AM)
Horrible card, I hate it. It's a control card that gives you tempo, but throws away CA. Control only cares about CA and typically negates tempo through early walls and mass removal. You want to hit it early when you could be developing board position and it is a near useless draw late game as it does nothing to the board state, and you are unlikely to have a better board position if your running this. I would rather have Wall of Omens or Mana Leak any day.
Posted By:
desolation_masticore
(5/19/2011 4:42:35 AM)
Swerve targets. Silence does not target, so Swerve will not be able to do anything about Silence.
Posted By:
kdraphael
(5/25/2011 9:28:25 AM)
Silence is a very interesting card that really needs information to be good. For instance, just crossing your fingers and silencing on a random turn is obviously the wrong way to play the card. However, when combined with reveal effects such as Gitaxian Probe or Duress, it dramatically increases in value. If we see a Turn Four Jace, we can use three mana to put a presence on the board and then turn 4 silence him, and we are very much ahead, giving us an extra turn to further advance our board position. It also allows you to stall the turns that your opponent really needs to make progress, which is absolutely invaluable against fast aggressive decks like Vamps or KRed. Can you imagine silencing the first turn of KRed when your on the draw? That brings you one step closer to the day of judgment that will almost certainly lead to their demise. Same thing with tempered steel decks. Stall their tempered steel one more turn and you have a massive advantage when your four drop hits before the... (see all)
Posted By:
TheSwarm
(6/25/2011 9:15:54 PM)
this + Isochron Scepter + Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir = your opponents can't cast spells ..... at all
Posted By:
Palutena
(7/31/2011 4:30:25 PM)
Can this spell be countered while it's on the stack?
Posted By:
MechaKraken
(8/23/2011 9:30:00 PM)
@ MechaKraken
If its a spell (on the stack like you said) the effect hasn't begun yet, it can be countered.
Posted By:
ICEFANG13
(9/9/2011 8:15:53 PM)
@ZirilanoftheClaw This can NOT be used as a counterspell. Anything cast before casting silence will still go through as the spell is already on the stack. Anything cast in response to silence, will also go through as that spell casts first.
Posted By:
Vadoff
(11/4/2011 8:42:22 AM)
In my opinion, the real strength of this card is in combo decks, especially in a meta with very little counterspelling but lots of target removal (like the one I play at). When you finally get all the pieces of your combo, you cast silence first, and once it resolves, you can drop all your combo pieces and win without any interference - ie, silence, spellskite, Erayo, Soratami Ascendant (in hand, not as a commander obviously), arcane laboratory. Pass turn!
Posted By:
Crash21
(12/14/2011 8:38:37 AM)