The removal spell that defined an era of Magic
play, and still defines Vintage and Legacy
today. Exile any creature for a single mana, and
its controller gains some life. Like Path to
Exile, most players are more than happy to give
the opponent that marginal advantage in exchange
for getting rid of a threat. In addition, the
land that Path to Exile gives you is more likely
to improve your ability to recover from losing
the creature than the life points you gain from
the Swords, so really, unless your opponent can
pay life for cards at will with Necropotence or
whatnot, this card has little if any drawback.
Removal will never be stronger than this.
Personally, I don't think it ever should be.
For a card based on the concept of renouncing
war and pursuing a new path, Swords to
Plowshares has seen a great deal of aggressive
use down the years. Wizards of the Coast, in
fact, considered it almost too effective, and it
has been discontinued and out of Standard since
about 1995. Sure, the life bonus to the opponent
can be annoying if you're trying to attack for
the win, but there's a lot less they can do
with, say, five extra life points than with the
extra land from Path to Exile, and they have
almost no chance of ever seeing the creature
again, unlike the effect from Oust or Condemn.
Swords to Plowshares may be "too powerful" to be
the baseline for Standard constructed, but it
will always be the first, the most iconic, and
probably the most powerful of this line of white
cards.
Today's card of the day is Swords to Plowshares
from Elspeth Vs.
Tezzeret which is another classic not legal in
Standard or Extended since the days of Fourth
Edition and Ice Age. Very similar to the
newer Path to Exile in giving the controller a
benefit, in this case life instead of a land,
which is better can ultimately depend on the
situation though life gain is easier to overcome
than mana acceleration. When removing a
low power creature Swords has a much smaller
impact where Path grants the same land each time
which is a nice benefit earlier on or against
support creatures. Late in the game the
life gain may be more problematic if the
opponent has a large mana supply and low life,
but again removing their one big creature should
allow for as much if not more damage dealt to
them in combat. The option of removing
your own creature in response to removal or burn
to gain added life is a nice bonus as well.
Overall one of the best removal spells ever
printed and not likely to see Standard rotation
again in the near future with Path to Exile
around, but that's what was said about Lightning
Bolt as well.
For Limited this would be an incredibly
destructive card much like Path to Exile is now
and possibly a first pick depending on the
weakness of the rare. A White deck
fielding one or two of these can handle most
threats and a deck would easily be able to
splash them and support in depending on
available resources.
