Pointed Discussion

Hey, they finally made this card!

Nifty art, and solid functionality in a set with limited removal and plenty of creatures that must attack each turn.

@Gabriel: Haha, yeah, not 2 weeks ago I commented on the Portal equivalents of this card that I was surprised they hadn't printed it in "real" magic.

great choice in limited, really lets the human tribe get going. Love it, and it really fills out a set that was lacking in control.

4.5/5 for its use in limited. This is a great instant-speed removal at the common rarity. Definitely in your few three picks from a pack, if not your 1st or 2nd (depending how good the pack is).

:P I give it 2 more blocks before we have outright White Terminate at overcost. Some Wrath of God variant that ends up getting used as if it was Terminate, with Wrath as the excuse for the blatant disregard of color pie. White has soldiers, fine. And even priests are allowed to fight evil things. Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile are still stupid. If this was the FIRST card like this that I had seen, I would have to admit it's all really cool and just barely excuses itself on flavor. But I've seen too many White removal cards that are neither Oblivion Ring, nor Wrath of God, to be particularly happy. I would 5 star this if they banned the other White cards that break the pie and put this in the Core Set. Somehow, I think we will only see more of these, not less.


Really really conflicted about this card...3.5 stars, I guess.

The foil art is awesome.

@DarthParallax

White always gets conditional kill spells. Especially against attacking creatures. Thats not a new thing and its totally in-color for white.

A white terminate on the other hand would be nonsense.

Channel Divinity: Rebuke Undead

A lot worse than Condemn. But not bad.

"Destroy" effects always look misplaced in white imho. This is no different.

Quick question. A bud and I had a disagreement about this card the other day and I thought I could maybe get some clarification here. He had just declared an attack and I had no creatures able to block the hit. I played this card to destroy the attacking creature, but he claimed that the damage from the attack still hits me. True or not?

@Nosidam3389 Depends on when you destroy the creature. Players receive priority after the active player has finished declaring their attackers. They are officially "attacking" at this point. You can destroy it here and will take no damage.
You can wait until after declare blockers, where players once again receive priority. You can destroy it here and will take no damage.
I believe priority is received after combat damage is assigned but before the post-combat main phase. The creature is still an attacking creature at this point, so you can destroy it, but it already dealt damage to you.

From a power perspective it's pretty good. Mostly for limited. But from a design perspective it's awesome. So simple, clean, and effective. Even got a nice name. We'll be seeing some reprints.

A good common for the casual player to pull multiple copies while building a collection. It'll fit into most decks as a staple white removal within a budget and gives a solid bar in which to judge other removal.

Instant creature removal. Seems like a solid 4/5 to me. I'll certainly give this card a whirl.

Feels like a reprint to me. It's not though. Probably because it's so similar to Eightfold maze.
It's not quite as powerful as Exile, but it hits all colored creatures.

White's whole ethics are based on community. The most good for the most people. White would love to include all creatures in this community, but there will always be other colors and creatures who are neither members nor friends.
If something or someone endangers the community it needs to be removed. Or else white and those under white's protection will die. If the threat comes from within the community, or if you have the time or resources to spend, you would imprison, or exile the threat. but in times of war it makes perfect sense to purify evil in the most expedient way possible.
In a pure white community you would not have white "destroy effects" White values life, and believes that everyone has a chance for redemption. In Bant a destroy effect would be sacrilegious. But destroy effects make sense in color pie when you consider that white works best when it is untainted by evil or chaos, untouched by instinct or invention. The white community works best when it is white, and in order to maintain it's strength in times of disruption white must destroy in order to remain pure.

Breaking the color pie? This fixes it! White's always been able to target attacking creatures (see Condemn). Oblivion Ring should be blamed for breaking the pie. Able to exile any nonland permanent? Why would white have that power?

I like this card, finally they made a balanced and flavour white removal that respects the color pie. I think that creature removal in white should be combat based, usually removing attacking creatures, and something like Pacifism. Not the Path to Exile nonsense or the almighty Oblivion Ring. They don't have any respect of color pie.

I see white like a military force (and clerical of course. And by the way, it's because of this that I hate white so much), so why not make its removal based on combat...?

4/5

Bad card is bad.

I see people comment on on exiling, or Oblivion Ring and Path to Exile not being white colors but...

Do you know what exile means? To banish someone from their native country. And I, for one, thing that's a very white thing, as you need a civilization to be banished, and white is the most civilized in terms of flavor. Exiling, in MTG, is literally sending the opponent some where else instead of killing them.

In terms of Path, it's simple. You're sending someone somewhere else. In terms of O-RIng, you're exiling something, generally temporarily if O-Ring is played without tricks, to a pocket dimension of sorts, almost like a prison. If that prison is broken, the exiled thing is released.

Flavor wise, Exile is VERY white, so I see no problem with it. I can agree, however, that attacking clauses are also very white, and yes, maybe Path should have had an attacking clause as well. Although, then it would be almost worse than Exile itself.

But I digress, I generally don't think I'm very articulate, so I'm not sure if anyone understood any of my reasoning, haha.

Strictly worse than AWOL.