Such a low rating for such a great card? True, maybe not as balanced or true to the {W} flavor, but it's still an amazing card.
First
phantom.lance
★★★☆☆ (3.8/5.0)(5 votes)
swords to plowshares reprint, except granting the opponent an extra land instead of life. so good. this is a no brainer. i'd trade his biggest baddest creatures for lands in a split second.
TheMoustacheCame
★☆☆☆☆ (1.8/5.0)(6 votes)
a bit overpowered 2.5 s
Stray_Dog
★★★☆☆ (3.7/5.0)(6 votes)
You can also use it on one of your own creatures at the end of your opponent's turn for an early mana ramp in a pinch -especially if that same creature is about to be killed by burn ;)
Zoah
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(11 votes)
Wizards of the cost is getting too friendly with the aggro style play. That's why they let this out, because when you think of the game as a five turn death race, where you will never ever see anything costing six or more, it's a semi balanced card.
Anyway, not a balanced card, not fare, and not white. Put simply, it doesn't belong.
Also, white needs to not get so much removal. That's black, it always has been.
Mudbutt_on
★★★★☆ (4.1/5.0)(12 votes)
White keeps getting these 1 casting cost spot removals that have no targeting restrictions and often times do worse then "destroy" (exile/bottom of library).
Meanwhile black has what? Doomblade is the best? 2 casting cost, non-black targeting, and destroy?
I don't understand the color wheel anymore.
5/5 for power... but seriously, they shouldn't make these.
skew
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
There is a promo version with art by Rebecca Guay.
http://foresthowl.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/picture-11.png?w=388&h=535
Interetingly, it's cheaper. No offense to Todd Lockwood, he's great artist, all praise be given to to him, but I like Rebecca's style more. Also, fading Leonin isn't as good idea to me.
Talaxar
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
This card need to be a double white casting cost at the very least (2 white, plus 1 colorless IMO). Overpowered, but it does feel right within white (black has destroy, much better ones than doomblade. white has always had costly destroy, but this is just cheap). 1/5 for being too powerful.
Kryptnyt
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
the most interesting thing about this card, to me, is the way it shames Rampant Growth when played in most Green/White decks. path your plant token at instant speed on the opponents end step for some sweet surprise land. Yeah, I'd use Swords over this almost all of the time in a serious deck; this often helps the opponent more than a utility creature will, adjusting the saturation of their deck in a favorable manner to them, getting them a land into play, etc. That is to say, its not bad if you play it after they use Enlightened Tutor or imperial seal or the like, forcing them to bypass the land in order to not shuffle and negating the drawback. Also much better on your last turn of aggro, obviously.
GottaRunGottaRunNow
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Combo with Archive Trap in Extended. Thirteen card mill for one mana? Yes please.
KevinFromHeaven
★★★☆☆ (3.3/5.0)(3 votes)
For the Archive Trap combo with this card, Path to Exile says "It's controller may search its library..." The question I have is, they have the choice to search or not right? Most players playing against a White/Blue combo could anticipate this, and simply not walk into the trap. Am I right that the word "may" plays in important role in all cards, and that it may or may not happen?
DGice
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
This is the most powerful removal of creature out there. It costs one. It exiles (no regenerate no mitotic slime no grim discovery no vengevine) want to run cards to stop death at the hands of day of judgement, too bad they will just be pathed. Shroud is the only thing that stops this ; and it does nothing against day of judgement so either way you're screwed. Vines of the vastwood to protect your mitotic from path and guess what it only costs one to play path so the opponent quite easily just played a second path and exiled your creature anyways. This card should at least be a rare ; way too easy to cast, most powerful removal ever and it's white, wtf?
Atali
★★★☆☆ (3.8/5.0)(6 votes)
I don't know why everyone keeps bringing up the strength disparity between black removal and white removal. White has been a very strong removal color since the very beginning (Wrath of God, Swords to Plowshares, Balance) and has had a lot of noncreature removal as well (Armageddon, Disenchant). Granted, much of its strongest removal were the board-clearing kind, but the precedent is there.
That said, Path to Exile is too powerful, it puts nearly everything else to shame with its effect vs cost ratio, and can be used for mana acceleration in a pinch. This should probably have been a sorcery.
Carnophage_4ever
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(4 votes)
Swords to Plowshares is better than this card in early games, but Path to Exile is better than Swords in late games, in my opinion. It's not a big deal to get your opponent to 24 life in early games, and the extra land doesnt really matter much when your oppenent already has like 10 out. Playing this too early might help your opponent to ramp more expensive spells a turn earlier, and playing swords too late in the game might give your opponent to last another, fatal turn. I gave 4.5 to both.
surewhynot
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Nothing is more frustrating than pumping up your creature with a bunch of sorcery/instants only to hear "PATH'D!"
So what if you get a land...it still sucks.
storophanthus
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
bah, they give the white better and better card.. come with this, iona and her sister..and any other in Scars.. It even exile the nonattacking creature! @#@%$%$#%^$& what WHITE are you????
Gabriel422
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(10 votes)
Printing anything that you can compare reasonably with Swords to Plowshares is a mistake, as there's no longer any point in playing 6+ cost creatures, without some wacky ways to dodge a removal. While you could argue that people shouldn't play with those creatures in the first place, but I believe it's a mistake when you own a card as awesome as Akroma and you never want to play her, knowing fully that she isn't even getting the first 6 damage in. Super-efficient removal lay extreme emphasis on keywords like Shroud, while making any other keyword and the p/t stats largely irrevelent on a huge creature. Erasing the meaningfulness of so many parameters that make different cards unique -- just about as dumb as Umezawa's Jitte making exactly what creatures you play largely unimportant.
I wish they had learned better when they stopped printing Swords in 5th edition.
Gramcrackers
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Many believe Sword to Plowshares to be a better removal, I would agree. However, this is the better card, due to its versatility. I mean think about it, it basically could also read, "Sacrifice one of those stupid 1/1 tokens you own and get a free land."
blurrymadness
★★★☆☆ (3.7/5.0)(7 votes)
Why are there so many nubz in here? White had Swords to Plowshares in *alpha*. Claiming white doesn't do removal is ignorance of the game as a whole IMO. They do TONS of mass removal, and have plenty of destruction/exile action.
Just look up Exile Target Creature in white and you'll find several variants on these forms of cards. Just because you disagree and feel that white doesn't/shouldn't do it doesn't mean it doesn't do it. Unmake, Exile, Path to Exile, Reciprocate, Devouring Light, Excise...
Further, white has target sacrifices and similar as well.
5/5, stop whining.
feeble2002
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(6 votes)
Way overpowered. And really bloody annoying to play against. At best, they should have reprinted Swords. But to take Swords and improve it even further, that I can't understand. A casting cost of 2 CMC would have been fair for this card, but at 1 CMC it is rather ridiculous. It's a great card, that just happens to ruin games.
They should reprint Black Lotus, but only make it better too.
1/5 (for being uber powerful and really #@$^&% annoying).
novasun
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
True story I got an archenemy not knowing that Path to exile was in there, open it up and!... the border was of :-(
BlackAlbino
★★★☆☆ (3.7/5.0)(3 votes)
Quit QQing about "improved" removal with crap like baneslayers running around. You lose your creature gain a land and are tapped out. And? What about counters? Same deal minus the land. Not done when cast? You're not tapped out, replace the creature. If this kills your deck, no offense, it probably isn't very good.
Also, white has TONS of removal, it always has. Where have people been? White does board sweeps and exile. THAT is how it's always been
Phoenix1901
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(2 votes)
This card isn't as good as Swords to Plowshares. Anyone who says it is needs to learn about card advantage and the speed of most good decks. Even if my creature has 4 power, I'd usually prefer the land. Still, a Swords to Plowshares reprint would be BAD, so I like this more balanced, but still very potent, version.
HolyCause
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(4 votes)
I agree that white is about removal through exile and that this card is extremely flavourful. That being said, this card is far, far too powerful. If there was a restriction that only your opponents could mana ramp, that would be fine - but as it stands, this card is very unfun to play against.
The Swords to Plowshares argument is a red herring; that card was quite ridiculous. And if you haven't noticed, Alpha had a lot of balance issues (like any game system). That's like saying blue should get a near functional reprint of Ancestral Recall: some cards deserve to die and be improved upon to make the game not so tedious.
Swords to Plowshares and this card are equally broken in that with cards like Time Reversal, Timetwister, and the like, you keep getting these little white exilers back. Your opponent never gets their creatures back.
sarroth
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(4 votes)
@blurrymadness: I love this card and Swords to Plowshares, but saying that a color did something since Alpha is not the best argument, given how the colors had vague shapes back then but aren't completely the same as now. Blue being able to blow up stuff just because it was Red for instance? That's definitely out of color for what we'd consider now.
Like I said, I love this card. White should have good removal. Black should have the best, then White. Red will have the weakest removal because it's damaged-based, but Red should also be given the most cards that can be aimed at the player as well, which gives it its own versatility.
I agree with Gabriel422 about cheap removal discouraging powerful, high costed creatures (and I love Akroma, so I'd like to play her), but they're also needed to keep the game in check in terms of creature power level. Creatures are more powerful now than they used to be, and I don't know how much we should be avoiding powerful removal just let creatures roam free.
leomistico
★☆☆☆☆ (1.5/5.0)(1 vote)
@BlackAlbino: in fact there are plenty of "counter target creature spell" for only out there (hint: sarcasm...)! And white didn't have so much definitive creature removal that was so cheap until, I think, Oblivion Ring... White removal should be restricted or non-definitive, and surely not so cheap and easy to use... Nowadays white removal are surely more powerful and cheaper than the black ones. Don't have even restriction of any sort! And stop saying that this is fair because Swords to Plowshares was in alpha, because even Ancestral Recall was, as already said! So why not reprint Ancestral?
I think that white removal should be like Devouring Light (or damage based), only for ATTACKING creatures, not blocking... I mean: how the color of justice punish people that want to defend itself?
Increasing this card's mana cost by could have made this card a lot more balanced, at least... 3/5
Comments (29)
First
so good. this is a no brainer. i'd trade his biggest baddest creatures for lands in a split second.
Anyway, not a balanced card, not fare, and not white. Put simply, it doesn't belong.
Also, white needs to not get so much removal. That's black, it always has been.
Meanwhile black has what? Doomblade is the best? 2 casting cost, non-black targeting, and destroy?
I don't understand the color wheel anymore.
5/5 for power... but seriously, they shouldn't make these.
http://foresthowl.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/picture-11.png?w=388&h=535
Interetingly, it's cheaper. No offense to Todd Lockwood, he's great artist, all praise be given to to him, but I like Rebecca's style more. Also, fading Leonin isn't as good idea to me.
Yeah, I'd use Swords over this almost all of the time in a serious deck; this often helps the opponent more than a utility creature will, adjusting the saturation of their deck in a favorable manner to them, getting them a land into play, etc.
That is to say, its not bad if you play it after they use Enlightened Tutor or imperial seal or the like, forcing them to bypass the land in order to not shuffle and negating the drawback. Also much better on your last turn of aggro, obviously.
That said, Path to Exile is too powerful, it puts nearly everything else to shame with its effect vs cost ratio, and can be used for mana acceleration in a pinch. This should probably have been a sorcery.
So what if you get a land...it still sucks.
I wish they had learned better when they stopped printing Swords in 5th edition.
Just look up Exile Target Creature in white and you'll find several variants on these forms of cards. Just because you disagree and feel that white doesn't/shouldn't do it doesn't mean it doesn't do it. Unmake, Exile, Path to Exile, Reciprocate, Devouring Light, Excise...
Further, white has target sacrifices and similar as well.
5/5, stop whining.
They should reprint Black Lotus, but only make it better too.
1/5 (for being uber powerful and really #@$^&% annoying).
I got an archenemy not knowing that Path to exile was in there, open it up and!... the border was of :-(
You lose your creature gain a land and are tapped out. And? What about counters? Same deal minus the land. Not done when cast? You're not tapped out, replace the creature. If this kills your deck, no offense, it probably isn't very good.
Also, white has TONS of removal, it always has. Where have people been? White does board sweeps and exile. THAT is how it's always been
The Swords to Plowshares argument is a red herring; that card was quite ridiculous. And if you haven't noticed, Alpha had a lot of balance issues (like any game system). That's like saying blue should get a near functional reprint of Ancestral Recall: some cards deserve to die and be improved upon to make the game not so tedious.
Like I said, I love this card. White should have good removal. Black should have the best, then White. Red will have the weakest removal because it's damaged-based, but Red should also be given the most cards that can be aimed at the player as well, which gives it its own versatility.
I agree with Gabriel422 about cheap removal discouraging powerful, high costed creatures (and I love Akroma, so I'd like to play her), but they're also needed to keep the game in check in terms of creature power level. Creatures are more powerful now than they used to be, and I don't know how much we should be avoiding powerful removal just let creatures roam free.
I think that white removal should be like Devouring Light (or damage based), only for ATTACKING creatures, not blocking... I mean: how the color of justice punish people that want to defend itself?
Increasing this card's mana cost by
3/5