<a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Hexing Squelcher" href="#" target="_blank">Hexing Squelcher</a> | Art by <a href="https://www.matthew-stewart.com/">Matt Stewart</a>
cEDH has been getting a lot of new creature-based ways to shut down interaction recently. First came <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Voice of Victory" href="#" target="_blank">Voice of Victory</a> in Tarkir: Dragonstorm, then <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Hexing Squelcher" href="#" target="_blank">Hexing Squelcher</a> in Lorwyn Eclipsed, and now — perhaps most infamously — we have <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Samut, Tyrant of Naktamun" href="#" target="_blank">Samut, Tyrant of Naktamun</a> fresh out of Reality Fracture.
All of these cards have been gobbled up by the decks that can play them, and all of them are feared spells at cEDH tables, but they also all work quite differently. So, how do these <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Grand Abolisher" href="#" target="_blank">Grand Abolisher</a> lookalikes actually set themselves apart, and how can players navigate them?
<h2>The Original and Its Sequel: <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Grand Abolisher" href="#" target="_blank">Grand Abolisher</a> and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Voice of Victory" href="#" target="_blank">Voice of Victory</a></h2>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Grand Abolisher"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Voice of Victory"></div></div>
Starting things off, it's worthwhile to take a look back at the namesake for effects like these: Grand Abolisher.
For , Grand Abolisher is a 2/2 Human Cleric that shuts off your opponents' ability to cast spells during your turn as well as their ability to activate abilities of artifacts, creatures, and enchantments.
In effect, this meant that your opponents couldn't really do much of anything once a Grand Abolisher resolved, outside of channel and <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Otawara, Soaring City" href="#" target="_blank">Otawara, Soaring City</a> since Grand Abolisher's ability shut-off only applies to permanents, not cards in other zones.
While this effect is incredibly powerful, it also has a real limitation in that it only applies during your turn. Try to push for a win on another player's turn (as is so often the case in a format dominated by <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Borne Upon a Wind" href="#" target="_blank">Borne Upon a Wind</a>), and you'll find yourself without the valuable protection that earned Grand Abolisher a seat at the cEDH table in the first place.
This role as a provider of valuable protection during a limited slice of the game is mirrored almost exactly by <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Voice of Victory" href="#" target="_blank">Voice of Victory</a>, which similarly prevents your opponents from casting spells during your turn.
They can, however, still activate abilities during your turn; a reasonable tradeoff considering Voice of Victory's more flexible mana cost marginal utility via mobilize (which allows it to generate tokens that attack alongside it).
<h2>Pushing Into Other Turns: <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Hexing Squelcher" href="#" target="_blank">Hexing Squelcher</a></h2>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Hexing Squelcher"></div></div>
Shortly after Voice of Victory, however, Wizards of the Coast presented us with red's version of the effect, one which blew past the sorcery-speed confines of white's Abolishers.
For , Hexing Squelcher is a 2/2 Goblin Sorcerer which can't be countered, has ward - pay 2 life, and grants that same ward ability to the rest of your creatures while also making all of your spells uncounterable.
While the uncounterable nature of Hexing Squelcher itself was already a substantial leap in power (creatures are nearly uncounterable in cEDH anyways, but is a deckbuilding constraint rather than an outright rule), the real differentiator here was that Hexing Squelcher's power persisted no matter who was the active player.
Whereas Grand Abolisher and Voice of Victory are cards that incentivize you to hold them back until the turn they are useful, the Hexing Squelcher player can resolve their Goblin, pass the turn, and remain the scariest person at the table for the entirety of the game.
In true red fashion, this means that Hexing Squelcher is the offensive inverse of Grand Abolisher. Grand Abolisher resolves and is a wall against anything your opponents do — be it interaction or a win over-top; Hexing Squelcher resolves and fortifies your inevitable push for a win, but doesn't do anything if your opponent tries to win in response to your own win attempt.
<h2>Monopolizing the Stack: <a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Samut, Tyrant of Naktamun" href="#" target="_blank">Samut, Tyrant of Naktamun</a></h2>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Samut, Tyrant of Naktamun"></div></div>
So, if you were to combine both of these effects, what would you get? Well, Samut, Tyrant of Naktamun is a pretty close approximation.
For , this 2/2 legendary Human Wizard grants instant and sorcery spells you control the ability split second, which means that so long as a spell with split second is on the stack players can't cast spells or activate abilities.
In practice, this means that your instants and sorceries are uncounterable — which is much narrower than blanketly making all of your spells uncounterable a-la Hexing Squelcher — but it does lead to some clever tricks which can functionally protect nearly every win.
First off, let's assume you cast Samut during your turn at sorcery speed (e.g. your first main phase). Samut resolves, you gain priority, and you immediately put an instant or sorcery onto the stack. No player can take any more actions, as that spell has split second, so it resolves and you have priority again.
Then you cast another instant or sorcery, and it resolves, and you repeat the process. In this sense, Samut is acting much more like a Grand Abolisher than a Hexing Squelcher — not only are you pushing for a win, but your opponents don't even have a window to try and win in response to you.
Next, let's assume you've passed the turn and someone else is casting some threatening spells. You go to try and win in response, a win that is both uncounterable and unconstrained by the active player restrictions imposed by Grand Abolisher. In this way, Samut is acting a lot more like a Hexing Squelcher than a Grand Abolisher.
<h2>Wrap Up</h2>
So, what should cEDH players take away from all of this? Ultimately, it's important to look at each piece of disruption and interaction in your cEDH toolkit both individually and comparatively.
Samut, Grand Abolisher, and Hexing Squelcher all do very similar things, but they all do them differently enough that they shouldn't just get lumped together like a pile of noncreature counterspells. As far as instants and sorceries are concerned, Samut is your bridge between worlds — pushing wins and defending your turn.
Hexing Squelcher doesn't care about card types, but it also has no way to shut off board interaction or to stop a greedy player from winning in response to your own victory attempt. Grand Abolisher, the most thoroughly defensive of the three cards, does nothing on other players' turns — a gap in its otherwise impenetrable armor which is becoming more and more relevant in the flash meta cEDH seems perpetually stuck in.

split second

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