Stifle: Wasting space in the sideboard?

[M.Solymossy]

let's get straight to the point, shall we?


Stifle has many uses.  You can use it to hit FetchLands to slow your opponent down, hit their worldgorger dragons severely crippling them, cut off their storm count, and generally screw people up.

my real question though, has stifle outlived it's uselfulness?

Let's take a look, shall we?

Combo:  The only deck i see that boards stifles is Dragon.
Control:  Control has what i believe to be the most versitile sideboard options.  Some vote to side stifle, some don't.
Shop-Aggro:  I've never seen Stifle in ANY shop aggro deck.
Non-shop Aggro:  U/G Madness and Fish are the only decks i see with stifle.

Is this because stifle is bad?

Let's take a look at all the matchups where stifle is good:

TPS
- the problem here is, by the time they go off, they will have raped your hand with duress, and have your face owned with counterspells.
DeathLong
- This deck dies to stifle HORRIDLY, but the deck still runs duress.
SX
- It's bad anyways
Doomsday
- this deck will Force your stifle, they will unmask it, and they will duress it.
Belcher
- so you slow them down for a turn.  Is that normally enough to win you the game?
Slaver
- You can shut off their Slaver for a turn, or kill off their welding for a turn.  just like blecher, is this normally enough time to win you the game?


So the question again is:  does stifle really waste space in the sideboard? I see it's usefulness as a 3-of in dragon, or maindeck in baddeck *cough* i mean birdshit.

maybe i overlooked something?  what are your oppinions?

[rvs]

Stifle is bad because it's too situational. You never wish for it in 3cc/4cc for instance since you might as well get something like a Scrying, or a Vamp Tutor and do something relevant to the game.
The only reason Dragon uses it because it has so many aplications to protect it's gameplan (most likely, to protect Bazaar, the most important card in the deck, from being wasted, which is uncounterable by any other means!). Ocasionally, I suppose you can also get a good stifle on one of your dragon triggers if something unexected happens. Also, any storm combo deck will take the stifle from you (or force it) if you allow them to combo out. The Slaver player will probably be equally unimpressed by a surprise stifle, as at the moment stifle becomes useful in the situations you describe (other than stopping a fetch/waste-land) they already executed their gameplan and are often well-prepared at that point to deal with it.

So, conclusion is that Stifle sucks. And it has always done so.

[Hi-Val]

Stifle is ca-razy in Fish because it often acts like a Wasteland or a tempo stealer. Stifle shouldn't be in decks that cannot capitalize on the tempo gain from Stifle. If Fish Stifles a Belcher activation, that will win the game because Null Rod comes down next turn. Decks that control through card advantage instead of tempo will find that Stifle consistently underperforms.

However, the assertion that Stifle is bad and has always been bad is patently wrong.

[Ufactor]

The runner-up from the last Castricum event ran it in his 4cc sideboard.  Any thoughts?

[A Black Lotus Buddy]

Hi-Val hit it right on the nose, but I do think it is a good Wish target.  It's a situational card but it can be a devastating situational card.  The wish board is the perfect place for it.

[Komatteru]

You have your damage to combo by Stifle assessment wrong.  This is more correct:

TPS: This deck folds to a resolved Stifle, since generally, once this deck goes all in and goes off, it can't go off again.  However, resolving Stifle against TPS is the much more difficult than resolving it against any other combo deck since TPS has both Duress and Force of Will to prevent that from happening.

SX/Meandeck Tendrils: From Z's own experience, this deck seems to fold to Stifle.

DeathLong: This deck is less susceptible to Stifle than the other two combo decks for this reason: It has the power to go off with the same power as before if it gets stopped.  Will remains out of the game and can be Wished back once Long topdecks another Wish.  The deck has Duress and Xantid Swarm/Defense Grid to prevent Stifle from happening, and this deck can afford to Duress away a Stifle and allow the opponent to keep a Force of Will because it can just overpower countermagic more easily than any other combo deck.  Does Stifle really suck for Long? Sure.  But if the Long player knows or suspects that his opponent is packing Stifle, it's not that bad to play around--all he needs to do is not get ridiculous and storm for more than necessary, leaving enough in the yard for the next Will.

In general, Stifle is a tempo card, which means you need to have lots of card capable of maximizing the tempo it gives you.  This has confined it largely to decks like Fish, because control decks don't really have the resources to capitalize on the tempo boost of Stifle.  Why play Stifle for a small tempo boost when you can just play Mana Drain for a huge one?