@Metal: The first sentence says "When a player plays a spell, sacrifice Standstill." You cannot choose not to. The "if" in the second sentence only means that if something happens to prevent you sacrificing it, the rest doesn't happen either.
Posted By:
Grumman
(9/28/2012 3:28:27 PM)
"Card advantage is coming."
Posted By:
Kelptic183
(11/4/2013 11:24:55 AM)
I think this is the best draw spell after ancestral recall, plus it's more complex and less vanilla, making it a lot more interesting.
Posted By:
LeoKula
(6/25/2010 3:25:26 AM)
I've seen this card used against me more than a few times, and I can tell you from experience that there is one golden rule to follow whenever opposing this card; don't play around it. Just accept that blue gets to draw 3 for 
and be done with it.
To reiterate, short of Aether Vial, graveyard strategies, esoteric deck types (Astral Slide), or an already powerful board presence, there really is no good way to play around this card.
Posted By:
BongRipper420
(3/17/2013 9:13:26 PM)
@kronos
You're right, sir_dwar is wrong. Standstill is sacrificed on the RESOLUTION of the triggered ability, not when the ability goes on the stack. Only when the ability that draws you three cards resolves will Standstill cause itself to sacrifice. Stifle, Trickbind, or Voidslime would counter not only the card draw but also the sacrifice of Standstill.
Of course, playing any one of those ability counterspells just causes another instance of Standstill's triggered ability to be put on the stack on top of it, so the point is moot.
Posted By:
ratchet1215
(1/21/2011 10:52:45 AM)
I abuse this card in my Runeflare Trap deck.
Does that make me a bad person?
Posted By:
dberry02
(9/26/2011 9:09:26 AM)
It's powerful - I don't think there can be any question of that.
The real question is, is it fun? In a duel, it will make your opponent not want to do anything, while presumably you are biding your time, building up a hand full of control-flavoured answers. This isn't a situation I'd want to put a game into *unless* I was playing with man lands to speed things along... sitting there for turns waiting to see who cracks it doesn't sound terribly thrilling.
If I had to pick a card that best exemplifies a Mexican standoff, it'd probably be this. Well, this or Pernicious Deed.
Posted By:
Leshrac_Nightwalker
(10/6/2010 1:22:35 PM)
Aether Vial
Posted By:
blink182zombies
(1/29/2011 8:51:08 AM)
I dont understand why thrist for knowledge is restricted but this isnt
Posted By:
mlanier131
(1/10/2011 1:02:56 AM)
funny in a multilayer game.
Posted By:
thaviel
(2/10/2009 9:07:32 PM)