Academic Probation vs. Silence rulings about responding

Asked by raphael75 2 years ago

I'm confused about mode 1 of Academic Probation and Silence.

The gatherer.com ruling for mode 1 of Academic Probation says "For the first mode, no one can cast spells between the time a card is named and the time that Academic Probation’s effect starts to apply."

The ruling for Silence says "Silence won’t affect spells that your opponents cast before you cast Silence, including any spells that are still on the stack. Silence also won’t stop your opponents from casting spells after you cast Silence but before Silence resolves."

It seems that it's saying if someone casts Academic Probation and names, for example, Shock, I can't respond and play Shock before Academic Probation resolves.

If they played Silence, which does virtually the same thing except without the restriction of "until your next turn" and restricting it to only a single spell name, I could respond.

I don't understand how these effects are different.

Omniscience_is_life says... Accepted answer #1

The word "choose" is what matters here; since you must choose your selected name while Academic Probation is resolving, no other player will gain priority until after it has resolved--thus making it impossible for them to cast a spell.

Silence has no such choosing action--and therefore there is no window such as Probation's where it seems like a player might be able to cast a spell but can't--so its rules text doesn't have the same reminder about priority during resolution.

December 30, 2021 12:18 p.m.