Silent Arbiter
Artifact Creature — Construct
No more than one creature can attack each combat.
No more than one creature can block each combat.
*Scholars say that arbiters exist on every world, created by an unknown hand to enforce justice.*
Power/Toughness: 1/5
Why Play Silent Arbiter
Decks built around powerful individual creatures or combo protection benefit most from this symmetrical stax effect. Control and midrange strategies can leverage the combat restriction to neutralize aggressive token swarms and go-wide strategies while their higher-quality threats dominate one-on-one combat scenarios. Deploy Silent Arbiter when facing multiple small creatures or when you have established board presence with premium threats that can win individual combat encounters.Format Notes
Commander represents the primary competitive home for Silent Arbiter, where multiplayer combat involves numerous creatures and the effect significantly slows aggressive strategies. Legacy and Vintage prison decks occasionally include it as additional disruption alongside other stax pieces, though it sees less play than more universally oppressive artifacts. Modern applications remain niche, typically appearing in creature-based combo decks seeking additional protection or prison strategies.Combos & Synergies
Moat and Ensnaring Bridge create devastating lock combinations by preventing most combat damage while Silent Arbiter limits opposing responses. Archetype of Courage and other combat-superiority effects become significantly more powerful when opponents cannot coordinate multiple attackers to overcome your advantage. Winter Orb and similar resource denial effects work excellently alongside the Arbiter, as opponents struggle to deploy multiple threats while being forced into inefficient one-creature combat situations.Featured in These Decks
- Planeswalker Party Commander
- Enhanced Evolution Commander
