The death of MTG Burn comes via ELD’s Deafening Silence

In an effort to curb the dominance of non-creature spell decks in best-of-one matches, the MTG design team created Throne of Eldraine’s Deafening Silence. 

The Throne of Eldraine set (ELD) contains a powerful Enchantment to silence non-creature spell archetypes. Andrew Brown said in yesterday’s MTG Weekly stream that the best-of-one (MTGA) metagame needed balance. And Deafening Silence is the answer to that balance. 

As an Enchantment that can drop on turn one, Deafening Silence prevents archetypes like Izzet Phoenix and Feather from casting multiple non-creature spells per turn. The true target of this white Enchantment, however, is Burn decks. 

Mono-Red Aggro dominated best-of-one on MTGA for months, growing stronger with each set release over the past year. It wasn’t until M20 was released that players finally began to see other archetypes being played within the higher levels of ranked play. But it still dominated.

Brown confirmed yesterday that the MTG design team may have gone too far with the “Burn” theme, saying that it had too much power in best-of-one matches. Deafening Silence is the final blow to Burn and the answer to reducing the power levels of non-creature spell-themed decks. 

Deafening Silence won’t just have an impact on Standard, though. Its reach goes far and wide, changing the metagame in Legacy, Modern, and possibly other modes as well. 

Related: Here’s every Throne of Eldraine spoiler from Sept. 12

The Throne of Eldraine set releases via MTG Arena on Sept. 26 and has an official release date on Oct. 4.