Yesterday's card could kill any creature up to
three toughness for one mana. Today's card does
one better. It can eliminate ANY creature,
regardless of how big it is, and it even exiles
it to make it effective against Unearth and
reanimators. The cost? You let your opponent go
get a land and put it into play. I'll admit,
there have been times when I'd rather let a 2/2
hit me a few times than give them the land they
need to cast the bigger guy in their hand,
usually when they missed their land drop turn
three. But once it's obvious they're not hurting
for mana, this is a gift from the angels,
eliminating everything from Baneslayer Angel
(ironic) to a Marit Lage token. Really, once
your opponent has enough mana to send out
something worth spending a kill spell on, the
extra land they get does little more for them
besides thinning their deck a bit, and maybe
providing an extra mana to spend on activated
abilities. And, like yesterday's card, a single
untapped land can suggest to your opponent that
you've got this, and that's enough to put the
fear in 'em. Far and away, the best white mana
ever spent in 2009.
There hasn't been a spell of this versatility
and power since the last printing of Swords to
Plowshares, and I wonder if there will ever be
another one. The drawback is big, especially
early in the game, but clever tactics can
mitigate it. And when the time is right, it can
literally cause you to win a game. For one white
mana.
Magic The Gathering Card of The Day: Path to
Exile
A welcome back reader, today’s card of the
day is number two on our list and is hands down
the most efficient creature removal available to
white except its powerful ancestor, Swords to
Plowshares. The ability to remove almost any
creature from the game is a powerful effect and
the secondary ability that allows its opponent
to search their library for a basic land card
and put it into play tapped is only possibly
effective in the early game as most powerful
decks run a relatively low amount of basics,
regardless of the format excluding limited.
Therefore giving it the possibility to become a
removal with no downside as opposed to a removal
spell with a negligible downside.
In standard this card is a force to be
reckoned with most any decks utilizing white
play this card. The current strength of
creatures is counteracted by the ability to
remove almost any threat from the board. It dies
to removal is not a valid argument concerning a
creatures effectiveness but Path to Exile is
such an inexpensive card that it can shut down
the most expensive fatties in the blink of an
eye. In extended archetypes like All in Red face
the possibility of dropping an early Deus of
Calamity or Demigod of Revenge and have it met
with a path to exile, a risky venture in such
deck types that literally expend all their
resources early. In eternal formats it’s most
likely not as good as Swords to Plowshare but is
still a powerful removal spell where
appropriate. In casual and multiplayer simply
point it where you want a creature to be gone. A
powerful tool to make sure no one player gets
out of hand. In limited its removal, powerful
removal a first pick if there ever was one.
Overall Path to Exile is one of the best removal
spells printed in recent memory and resides in
white’s domain making it shift the competitive
nature of the color pie slightly.
Today's card on the countdown is Path to Exile
which being a spiritual successor of Swords to
Plowshares had big shoes to fill in the eyes of
the Magic community. The popularity of the
card throughout 2009 show that it more than
lived up to the legacy and in some ways exceeded
the original.
In Constructed, Casual, and Limited a one mana
option for removing a creature from the game is
an effect that is almost impossible to top.
The balancing factor is that your opponent gets
a basic land instead which is a small price to
pay later in the game. Earlier on the
choice of giving them mana can be a difficult
one and causes this to be one of the more
strategic cards printed in recent memory.
Deck destruction designs, though rarely using
White, or stall builds can also use this effect
as a sort of mill to remove one more card from
the opponent's deck if they choose to search for
a land. This method can cause your
opponent to decline taking their land and
negates the penalty built into the design.
For Limited the balancing act is a little
tougher as your opponents will likely be playing
multiple colors and may often need a specific
type of mana more than any particular creature
they have in play. If your opponent has
several cards in hand and one or two types of
mana available playing Path to Exile may not be
beneficial in the long run.
The reverse can also be used as using Path to
Exile on your own creature can allow you to
search out a much needed land to further your
own mana base. In Sealed this should be
included in every deck with even a splash of
White, but the timing of using it during games
is critical.
By the second or third round of a match you
should have a strong enough idea of your
opponent's deck to play Path more effectively.
In Booster if running White this should be
drafted early and often as cheap removal, but
again playing it early in games can be
detrimental. Path to Exile is not card
advantage as you use one card to remove one card
and potentially replace it with a land, but it
does improve your field position. If not
playing White this should be drafted if nothing
critically useful is available in a pack for
your colors as it is too powerful to pass
without a noticeable addition to your own deck.
