I'm curious though, in what order do cards return to the battlefield? In the same order they left, in any order of their controller's choosing? Or do they return simultaneously?
This is important because of creatures with "enter the battlefield" type effects, to know what order their effects would go onto the stack. This could make or break some combo's I'm cooking up.
So does anyone know?
ArKive
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
the remove and return effects are simultaneous. I was having an argument with a mate of mine over this in an EDH game. I use it with my Reaper King deck, you can imagine how much fun it is when they Wrath or Bane of the Living or something similar, and i cast Ghostway, then Vindicate everything he holds dearly when they come back.
applecorn
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(4 votes)
leave and come back at the same time, simultaneous. love the wrath of god combo.
paragonic
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(7 votes)
Anyone else think this card would be crazy with an ally deck?
Pantheon
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
I agree with paragonic on this one. Ghostway is a finisher in an Ally deck.
In my opinion with the release of Zendikar and the creation of the Ally "enters the battlefield" mechanic, this card gets bumped up from 3.5 stars to 4.5
Pwnsaw
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Has a lot of fun potential with allies with enter the battlefield effects. This is some classic white safety magic.
izzet_guild_mage
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(3 votes)
This card is veeeeeerrrrrryyyyy useful. I strongly recommend Eternal Witness.
Evermint
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(2 votes)
@Draycon
When end of turn comes around, all creatures come back at the same time. Whoever casted the spell gets priority in choosing when each creature comes into play after Ghostway's delayed trigger resolves. It's similar to having multiple end-of-turn triggers.
So if you Ghostway'd a Hada Freeblade, a Soul Warden and a kazandu blademaster, you could choose for the Soul Warden to come in before the Blademaster and Freeblade. Note while actually laying out the creatures, the spell has already resolved so people cannot, say, Lightning Bolt the Soul Warden if it comes out first while Ghostway is still resolving.
kronos539
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
ALLIES!! have 3 Ghostways in my maindeck, it's the usual win condition. 2 Halimar Excavators (or 1 with a Jwari Shapeshifter) and 3 other cheap allies is already a 14-29 card mill. then Ghostway for an additional 50 cards, boom! wins the same way with Hagra Diabolists, only faster and easier. throw in some Day of Judgement from M11 and you've got a wicked johnny deck with any color splash, thanks to Harabaz Druids. hell of a lot cheaper than a kicked Rite of Replication and much more versatile. ALLIES!!
Azazyel
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Beautiful.
Allies have been mentioned. This is, indeed, excellent for them. At the very least, a resolved Ghostway can lead to a Day of Judgment the next turn that leaves your Allies untouched and with their counters equalized to the number of Allies in play (meaning that all of your Allies end up with the maximum available counters allowed by your board position). At the very best, a resolved Ghostway is a one-spell finisher, milling and granting life to the hundreds with Ondu Cleric and Halimar Excavator. Just beautiful.
this with worldpurge would be insane, would be well worth the 11 mana
Sour_Diesel
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(4 votes)
Ghostway + the Rishadan pirates = fun casual combo.
novasun
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Wrath of F-ing god!!!!
Artscrafter
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(4 votes)
As people have been mentioned, everything leaves the field simultaneously, and everything hits the field again simultaneously. Evermint, I think you're confusing the ordering part with how triggered abilities work. Creatures will hit the field at precisely the same time; there's no choosing what order they hit the field in. If multiple creatures with relevant triggered abilities hit the field simultaneously, they will each see all of the others hit the field. The part about where you choose the order things are done in applies to whatever triggered abilities come out of this.
So let's say you have an Ondu Cleric, a Hada Freeblade, and a Kazandu Blademaster coming back to the field. Each of them sees themselves and two other Allies hit play and thus they will each create three of their relevant triggers. For the cleric, since they all hit play at the same time you have three allies for the purpose of each of the triggers, so you would gain a total of 9 life. The Blademaster and the Freeblade will each see 3 ally ETB triggers and thus get three +1/+1 counters each.
In this example, you have 9 triggered abilities that you now place on the stack, and you choose the order they are placed in. (For this example, the timing of these doesn't really matter.) Your opponent can respond after the triggers are placed, say by Bolting your Blademaster before it becomes a 4/4 (and causing there to be one less ally around when the cleric triggers resolve.) They cannot, however, respond to stuff that's happening in the middle of the effect's resolution; for example, they can't Bolt the cleric to stop it from seeing the other allies hit the table.
Also, to assist the Wrath combo: Thanks to the Oracle text of "at the beginning of the next end step", you can cast this during your opponent's end step (that turn's beginning of end step will have already happened by the time you get priority) and your dudes won't come back until the end of your turn. So feel free to Wrath on 4 mana if you need to, or Worldpurge on 8 mana rather than 11.
Rikiaz
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Orzhov or Boros?
The flavor text is from a Boros member but the effect and flavor seem Orzhov.
DacenOctavio
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Great for Zoo. Great with Eternal Witness. Put them both in Zoo. Win games.
@Rikiaz: It's a Boros member talking about the Orzhov
ScissorsLizard
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
All of the creatures come back at the same time, and all of their comes into play abilities trigger at the same time. Since they all trigger at the same time, you get to decide the order in which they go on the stack. But all the creatures will 'see' the others. So, if you have a Hada Freeblade, Murasa Pyromancer, and an Ondu Cleric, and you use Ghostway, the interaction will go like this:
Hada Freeblade gets 3 +1/+1 counters Murasa Pyromancer deals 9 damage (3 for when it hit the battlefield and triggered, and 3 more for each of the other two hitting the battlefield) Ondu Cleric gains 9 life for you (3 for itself, and 3 for each of the other 2 allies)
In this case, it doesn't matter what order you put these abilities on the stack. Because all 3 creatures are on the field by the time they resolve, all of the abilities will resolve to their fullest potential.
wilsonbiggs
★☆☆☆☆ (1.0/5.0)(1 vote)
WOW. This is great in my White Spirit Token deck's SB. Helps save my tokens from Wrath of God. :D
kiseki
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
As if Balance needed to be even more disgusting... Such a versatile card.
Shadoflaam
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Night blind, on the silent path, ghost walking in the aftermath!
A very good card, amazing for wrath decks, allies, Lure effects and Lamb of God references. 5/5
SHOTS FIRED JUST TO NUMB THE PAIN THERE'S NO ONE LEFT TO SAVE
Sudden Disappearance is a more powerful, higher CMC version of this - it hits artifacts, enchantments, and planeswalkers as well, plus you can blink your opponents' stuff if that would be more strategic (such as clearing blockers for an alpha strike). Still, if all you want is something to exploit enters the battlefield triggers (or just a cheaper CMC card to protect your guys from Wrath of God effects), this card has no equal.
TheManakinTransfer
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
One of the cornerstones of Johnnyhood.
ElCarl
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
My U/W flicker deck gets plenty of mileage out of this - dodging a wrath/blocking then bouncing when every creature in the deck has an ETB ability certainly ends a few games.
JaxsonBateman
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Just so brilliant to play in a deck with creatures with useful ETBs. Oh, you want to try and spot remove one of my creatures? I'll just Ghostway and trigger all my ETBs instead. You want to try and sweep me? Let's just make that one-sided in my favor shall we.
While people have mentioned the obviousness of allies (or pretty much any creature with an ETB that reads "when ~ or another"), it's still very powerful with even just your one-time triggers. Heck, using it to save a Wall of Omens turns it into card advantage. Good stuff.
Enelysios
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@Wilsonbiggs: If a token leaves the battlefield it ceases to exist following its transition to that zone. This will kill your tokens.
This card is amazing though. Its the cost that makes it. For 3 Mana you can dodge board removal, or more likely, you will use it to take advantage of ETB effects to overwhelm your opponents. In the right deck (Allies have been mentioned, other tribal work too) this is a 3 mana game ender.
JunkHarvester
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
It should read: "Exile all creatures you control. Then cast Wrath of God. At end of turn, return all creatures exiled this way to to the battlefield."
Comments (32)
And while you might not be able to Isochron Scepter this, you can use Sunforger to fish it out...
I'm curious though, in what order do cards return to the battlefield? In the same order they left, in any order of their controller's choosing? Or do they return simultaneously?
This is important because of creatures with "enter the battlefield" type effects, to know what order their effects would go onto the stack. This could make or break some combo's I'm cooking up.
So does anyone know?
I use it with my Reaper King deck, you can imagine how much fun it is when they Wrath or Bane of the Living or something similar, and i cast Ghostway, then Vindicate everything he holds dearly when they come back.
In my opinion with the release of Zendikar and the creation of the Ally "enters the battlefield" mechanic, this card gets bumped up from 3.5 stars to 4.5
When end of turn comes around, all creatures come back at the same time. Whoever casted the spell gets priority in choosing when each creature comes into play after Ghostway's delayed trigger resolves. It's similar to having multiple end-of-turn triggers.
So if you Ghostway'd a Hada Freeblade, a Soul Warden and a kazandu blademaster, you could choose for the Soul Warden to come in before the Blademaster and Freeblade. Note while actually laying out the creatures, the spell has already resolved so people cannot, say, Lightning Bolt the Soul Warden if it comes out first while Ghostway is still resolving.
Allies have been mentioned. This is, indeed, excellent for them. At the very least, a resolved Ghostway can lead to a Day of Judgment the next turn that leaves your Allies untouched and with their counters equalized to the number of Allies in play (meaning that all of your Allies end up with the maximum available counters allowed by your board position). At the very best, a resolved Ghostway is a one-spell finisher, milling and granting life to the hundreds with Ondu Cleric and Halimar Excavator. Just beautiful.
Evermint, I think you're confusing the ordering part with how triggered abilities work. Creatures will hit the field at precisely the same time; there's no choosing what order they hit the field in. If multiple creatures with relevant triggered abilities hit the field simultaneously, they will each see all of the others hit the field. The part about where you choose the order things are done in applies to whatever triggered abilities come out of this.
So let's say you have an Ondu Cleric, a Hada Freeblade, and a Kazandu Blademaster coming back to the field. Each of them sees themselves and two other Allies hit play and thus they will each create three of their relevant triggers. For the cleric, since they all hit play at the same time you have three allies for the purpose of each of the triggers, so you would gain a total of 9 life. The Blademaster and the Freeblade will each see 3 ally ETB triggers and thus get three +1/+1 counters each.
In this example, you have 9 triggered abilities that you now place on the stack, and you choose the order they are placed in. (For this example, the timing of these doesn't really matter.) Your opponent can respond after the triggers are placed, say by Bolting your Blademaster before it becomes a 4/4 (and causing there to be one less ally around when the cleric triggers resolve.) They cannot, however, respond to stuff that's happening in the middle of the effect's resolution; for example, they can't Bolt the cleric to stop it from seeing the other allies hit the table.
Also, to assist the Wrath combo: Thanks to the Oracle text of "at the beginning of the next end step", you can cast this during your opponent's end step (that turn's beginning of end step will have already happened by the time you get priority) and your dudes won't come back until the end of your turn. So feel free to Wrath on 4 mana if you need to, or Worldpurge on 8 mana rather than 11.
The flavor text is from a Boros member but the effect and flavor seem Orzhov.
Hada Freeblade gets 3 +1/+1 counters
Murasa Pyromancer deals 9 damage (3 for when it hit the battlefield and triggered, and 3 more for each of the other two hitting the battlefield)
Ondu Cleric gains 9 life for you (3 for itself, and 3 for each of the other 2 allies)
In this case, it doesn't matter what order you put these abilities on the stack. Because all 3 creatures are on the field by the time they resolve, all of the abilities will resolve to their fullest potential.
Such a versatile card.
ghost walking in the aftermath!
A very good card, amazing for wrath decks, allies, Lure effects and Lamb of God references. 5/5
SHOTS FIRED JUST TO NUMB THE PAIN
THERE'S NO ONE LEFT TO SAVE
While people have mentioned the obviousness of allies (or pretty much any creature with an ETB that reads "when ~ or another"), it's still very powerful with even just your one-time triggers. Heck, using it to save a Wall of Omens turns it into card advantage. Good stuff.
This card is amazing though. Its the cost that makes it. For 3 Mana you can dodge board removal, or more likely, you will use it to take advantage of ETB effects to overwhelm your opponents. In the right deck (Allies have been mentioned, other tribal work too) this is a 3 mana game ender.
"Exile all creatures you control. Then cast Wrath of God. At end of turn, return all creatures exiled this way to to the battlefield."