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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day

Daily Since November 2001!

Silence the Believers
Image from Wizards.com

 Silence the Believers
- Journey into Nyx

Reviewed May 6, 2014

Constructed: 3.07
Casual: 3.65
Limited: 4.60
Multiplayer: 3.60

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale:
1 - Horrible  3 - Average.  5 - Awesome

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Card of the Day Reviews 

BMoor

Silence the Believers

Strive is a perfect mechanic for a block that has both Heroic (encouraging you to target creatures) and Monstrosity (encouraging you to ramp mana). In a way, it reminds me of the Wisdom mechanic from Saviors of Kamigawa, in that Wisdom was clearly inspired by examining all the major mechanics in the block thus far and designing something that would synergize with them. Splice onto Arcane encouraged you to keep Arcane cards in your hand, Soulshift returned creatures to your hand, the Orochi's "long lasting mana" was mana acceleration that didn't require you to play out your whole hand, and the Soratami bounced lands back to your own hand. Bushido didn't really care, but then Scry doesn't really care about Strive cards.

The interactions Strive has with Heroic are obvious, but today's card is a bad choice for triggering Heroic because it's a kill spell. Is it a good kill spell? It's four mana to exile a creature and all its Auras, which is a very useful effect in a block where creatures are likely to be wearing Auras... that are also creatures. For three more mana each, you can do it to additional creatures, meaning this could in fact be a one-sided Wrath IF you can pup enough mana into it. With that much mana, you should have already won. Even seven mana to exile two creatures is a bit iffy unless your opponent is playing a slow deck. Still, we finally have an answer to the Voltrons that keep showing up in Limited.

Constructed- 2
Casual- 3.5
Limited- 4
Multiplayer- 3.75


David Fanany

Player since 1995

Silence the Believers

Considering that the Theros block encourages everyone to play lots of Auras, this card is either a godsend or a curse. I'm really not sure which yet. In a setting like Theros, there are few more powerful removal spells imaginable, but as a rare, it's unlikely to mess up limited too drastically. Once it gets loose in constructed, I wonder if it may scare people away from experimenting with the block's themes. Wasn't part of the point of this block to give more support to Aura-themed decks?

Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 3/5

Michael "Maikeruu" Pierno

Today's card of the day is Silence the Believers which is a four mana Black instant that exiles target creature plus any auras attached to it and can exile additional targets for a Strive cost of three each. This is a solid card that will see some competitive play even though it is a four cost removal spell as it exiles, holds late game value, and is even more effective in response to Bestow or cards like Rancor.

In Limited this is an excellent rare that is a strong first pick in Booster and compelling reason to run Black in Sealed. It can reasonably three for one later in the game and has several ways of being very efficient, making it one of the best topdecks in the format.

Constructed: 4.0
Casual: 4.0
Limited: 5.0
Multiplayer: 4.0

Mattedesa

Deck Garage

Silence the Believers

There sure are a lot of ways to exile things in this block! I imagine it is a way to get around the indestructible Gods. Which, by the way, today's card will do very well.

There is an additional upside to this card - did you catch it? It exiles all auras attached to the exiled creatures. In the past, this would have been of little consequence, because auras attached to creatures went to the graveyard if the creature they were attached to left the battlefield. But now we have auras that stick around and turn back into creatures - otherwise known as bestow creatures. You can easily get a 2-for-one or 3-for-one in the right circumstances with this card. It also gets rid of an annoying Gift of Immortality or, in older formats, Totem Armor.

So, at worst, it's a 4-mana way to exile one creature. At best, it can take out several cards at once. More often than not, it's going to be just a four mana removal spell, which is a little high for a competitive deck, so it's probably a sideboard card to be best used against slower decks or decks with lots of bestow creatures.

In limited, this is an absolute bomb. Any removal is great, but the chance to take out 2 or more creatures in one blow can be a HUGE swing in your favor.

Constructed: 3
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 5
Multiplayer: 4


Michael Sokolowski

Silence the Believers may be a somewhat more costly piece of removal - certainly compared to something like Doom Blade, anyway - but the effect is much more powerful.

Taking a look at the base effect, at its core this card is basically 4 mana for "Exile target creature." Would you pay 4 mana to exile a creature if you were playing black? I would pay 4 mana to exile a creature if I were playing black. Then there's that new "Strive" mechanic, which I really feel could have just been "Kicker" but I suppose they wanted something that sounded a little more Greek hero-like. Is 3 mana a lot for an additional target? In limited it's not unthinkable that you could have 7 mana lying around to get rid of 2 annoying threats your opponent has. But 10 mana to get rid of 3? 13 to get rid of 4? I really don't think those situations will ever really happen.

Possibly the best part of the card is the aura destruction effect. All auras on the creature are exiled as well, which is really only relevant while we're still on Theros. Obviously the only real reason for this is to directly counter bestowed enchantment creatures (or if you really, REALLY dislike your opponent using Rancor!) since in any other situation any aura on a creature you exiled would already go to the graveyard. Heck, one of the main reasons people even USE bestow is because they survive the destruction of the creature.

And that can be a real game changer! Because that turns this into some pretty significant card advantage. Normally destroying a creature means you're spending 1 card to get rid of 1 card. But spending 1 card and 4 mana to rid yourself of 2 of your opponent's cards and very likely more than 4 mana is a good investment. Spending 1 card and 7 mana to rid yourself of 3-4 of your opponent's cards and very VERY likely more than 7 mana is a great investment. When 1 card can sometimes get rid of 4, that is a move you definitely want to make.

Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 4.5
Multiplayer: 3.5


Paul

Welcome back readers todays card of the day is Silence The Believers a powerful removal spell. In standard this card is going to see a decent amount of play, being able to exile any creatures and the auras attached to it at instant speed is great, it deals with powered up creatures and it deals with active Gods, making it versatile and powerful. Outside of standard in competitive formats its expensive to keep up with its strive cost but it gets better the longer the game goes on, it is however a bit slow for modern but it could see some potential play. Outside of that too expensive and slow for other formats. In casual and multiplayer this card is amazing, it scales well for game length and is able to deal with all of the most horrifying creatures in magic the indestructible giants to the lowly lords. The amount of versatility in this card is astounding. In limited its an amazing removal spell that can cause major blow outs due to how well it scales and how it straight up deals with a threat. Overall a powerful card in every format from top tables to kitchen and especially in draft, Silence The Believers is amazing.
 
Constructed: 3.0
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 5.0
Multiplayer: 3.5


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