Path to Exile

Instant

Exile target creature. Its controller may search their library for a basic land card, put that card onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle their library.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

rckclimber777 on Build a Deck with Me …

3 hours ago

First a quick introduction. I've been playing magic off and on for years. When this site first started out, I was super active and then I stopped playing. I recently got back into it and plunged deep into the Commander format. I love building decks around interesting concepts and often trying to break cards.

My slightly ambitious goal is to create a series of threads that show my thought process as I build a commander deck. I figure it will serve two purposes: First, it will aid newer players who have some precon decks and perhaps are looking to upgrade them or they see a commander and want to build it, but aren't sure how. The second is purely self-motivated in that more experienced players can fine tune my own logic and make suggestions for my own improvement.

So with that, the first commander deck I'm going to build here is Ghired, Mirror of the Wilds. This is a card that begs to broken and creates for interesting and powerful decks. There are also several different lines you can choose to go with it. You can make it go infinite if you like degeneracy or don't like the people in your playgroup, or you can decide to go the way of building lots of tokens quickly and then turning them sideways and swinging.

So first things first, we need to think about what the commander actually does and what it is going to need to do that effectively. First, it says allows all nontoken creatures to tap and create tokens that I control that entered the battlefield this turn. So a couple things to point out: First is that it is tokens not creature tokens specifically, so treasures, clues, food, etc. is fair game. Secondly, it doesn't have to be my turn that the tokens came in, you can activate the ability at instant speed if you create a token on your opponent's turn. Now Ghired also is only 3 mana in Naya colors with Haste which means he's going to come down early in the game, so we'll want some other creatures out there when he comes down to start building up tokens right away.

With his abilities in mind, there are a couple things that we want to think about: Cards that create tokens, cards that double tokens, cards that untap things, and cards that do interesting things when they're tapped, example Wylie Duke, Atiin Hero, who comes down early as well, and when she is tapped I gain life and draw a card. We will obviously need to consider interaction, ramp, and card draw, but those are secondary in my thoughts. Every deck needs those, but what items you add of those often depends on what your deck is trying to do. In this case, we want to make tokens, tap creatures, make more tokens.

Token Generators

So a couple really good token generators here to start would be things that keep making them rather than one offs. In my playtesting Oltec Matterweaver is hard to beat. It comes in early (turn 2 if you can get a sol ring). When you cast a creature spell you can copy a target artifact or bring out a 1/1 gnome. Turn 1 you play a plains and a sol ring. Turn 2 you bring this out, turn 3 you bring out Ghired, creating a copy of sol ring, tap your Oltec Matterweaver and create another sol ring. You now have 3 sol rings on the field on turn 3... You are now the archenemy, congrats?

Some other standouts are Emmara, Soul of the Accord who when tapped creates a 1/1 soldier with lifelink. So tapping will actually create two tokens. Thousand Moons Smithy  ^Flip is another beast of a card. It comes down turn 4, Ghired is already out along with any other low cost creatures. Let's say you had a Birds of Paradise and Ghired when this comes down and maybe a mana rock. You create a 5/5 Gnome (2 creatures, 2 artifacts, and the gnome itself). Now you tap the bird and Ghired and create two more Gnomes. You now have 3 7/7s, on turn 4...

Honorable mentions here are things like Smothering Tithe who will create treasures each opponent's turn, tap a creature and create another. Rain of Riches, create some treasures, copy them cast something and get cascade.

Also, populate is a thing, I like Growing Ranks and Nesting Dovehawk for that.

Doublers

Ok, so doublers is a pretty easy topic, there are quite a few out there, they are expensive and honestly for this deck you don't need much. I chose a couple that I particularly like for this and by like I mean I own them and didn't have to go out and spend $50-60. Examples are Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation  ^Flip, Mondrak, Glory Dominus, Primal Vigor (careful as this one applies to everyone not just you).

Untapping Abilities

Untapping abilites can make it even worse as time goes on. If you have a Seedborn Muse you untap each upkeep so they draw a card, Smothering Tithe creates a treasure, during their end step you tap your creatures creating more treasures. Untap on the next opponent's untap step, rinse and repeat.

This is also where infinite combos begin to happen. Sunstrike Legionnaire untaps everytime a creature enters the battlefield. Make a creature token, tap sunstrike legionnaire, create another creature token, sunstrike legionnaire untaps, rinse and repeat, gg. Midnight Guard works too for one mor mana. Other options include making copies of your own creatures that untap creatures when they enter the battlefield like Hyrax Tower Scout, Zealous Conscripts, Sparring Mummy. Mix that with notable salty cards like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Molten Duplication, Splinter Twin, Jaxis, the Troublemaker and you're off to infinite again. (Jaxis uses his ability, sparring mummy comes in untaps him, now Jaxis just taps to make a copy of the sparring mummy token (from Ghired) which has haste, it comes in untaps Jaxis, rinse and repeat, swing with a legion of sparring mummies)

Cards that do cool things when tapped aren't super plentiful, but the two I've mentioned already are great for this deck. (Wylie and Emmara).

Interaction, ramp, card draw

Now for the ramp, interaction, and card draw. Ramp is fairly straightforward, since we have the Oltec Matterweaver, I opted to put in some signets, but left some other stones out. Normally when I'm in green I go heavy on green ramp. I opted for cheap ramp spells like Rampant Growth, Farseek, Three Visits and Birds of Paradise (could maybe use more mana dorks since having a body later will help in producing larger tokens).

Interaction is super important in this one. Board wipes are coming, targeted removal is coming, so need to prepare, but we also need to be flexible in taking out our opponents. So to save us from board wipes, we have Heroic Intervention, the ubiquitous and hopefully soon to be reprinted (one can dream) Teferi's Protection, Boros Charm, and Smuggler's Surprise (which is heroic intervention in disguise).

Getting rid of threats is crucial, so Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares are useful, but not as useful as Beast Within, Generous Gift, and Stroke of Midnight. These obviously target more than just creatures, but also produce tokens. There are situations where a well-timed beast within on your own treasure token to create a 3/3 beast that you can copy a bunch of times is the right play. That make it not just removal, but also a token generator.

Finally, we come to card draw. Since we are producing tokens (hopefully most turns) we can include things like Bennie Bracks, Zoologist and Idol of Oblivion. I also like Welcoming Vampire for this deck. It is creature heavy so Guardian Project is great, so is Beast Whisperer and Garruk's Uprising. Esper Sentinel is always good. We already have Wylie from earlier. Getting card draw is vital to the survival of any deck and particularly this one as we need to be producing tokens regularly and you need cards to produce them. I chose to run about 11 card draw engines in the deck to ensure I'm drawing regularly.

Lands... I mean... make sure you have dual lands in the deck and triomes if you can. One noteworthy utility land is Grove of the Guardian which can have a nice payoff when you create an 8/8 with a few creatures out along with Ghired.

I'll post the deck that I built from this thought process on my page in case you want to see the final product. And if you made it this far thanks for joining me on this, I hope it was helpful. Feel free to comment on how you would do it differently or cards that should have been mentioned.

Niko9 on Favorite EDH Cards

1 week ago

Oh, and it may seem a little weird but I really love targeted removal in EDH. One of my favorite things in a game is to look around the table, assess threats, and have lots of flexible answers. Cards like

Cast Out

Lightning Bolt

Mutiny

Path to Exile

Swift Reconfiguration

Tragic Slip

Actually, yep, Tragic Slip is definitely my pet removal spell : ) It's always the best card in my hand, it just depends on when it gets used.

I guess part of it is that when I used to play board sweepers it always felt so uninteractive. So many games became, somebody doing a combo, does anyone have Cyclonic Rift? And that's so chance dependent that it feels unfun, to me at least. I like target removal because they always have a target, so I can play enough of them to always have some answer, and then it's on me if I don't save it for the correct threat.

GangstaFranksta on Arcades, the Strategist's Army

1 month ago

You should think about adding The Pride of Hull Clade because he is good but also cool. But I think you would benefit a lot from improving your mana base. I suggest it should look more like this:

Lands

Basic

8x Plains, 8 Island, 4 Forest

Pain

Adarkar Wastes, Brushland, Yavimaya Coast

Scry Lands

Temple of Mystery, Temple of Enlightenment, Temple of Plenty

Tri Color

Brokers Hideout, Seaside Citadel, Bant Panorama

Any Color

Command Tower, Exotic Orchard

If you wanted you could also add the gain 1 life lands: Tranquil Cove, Blossoming Sands, and Thornwood Falls. You may also consider adding Krosan Verge or Myriad Landscape just to help ramp.

It would also be really beneficial to have at least a Sol Ring and an Arcane Signet.

Other

Remove Verity Circle. Seems like there are a lot of possibilities where it is just sitting on the field not providing any value. And it isn't even a creature so it can't block. You could replace this with one of the mana artifacts I mentioned earlier or like a Swords to Plowshares, Pongify, Rapid Hybridization, Path to Exile (I kind of think you need some more removal lol, but you could replace Verity Circle with whatever you wanted.)

Remove Alive / Well. Just straight up not worth. Replace with one of the cards I have mentioned.

Other than that I think this is a really good deck. I think you could use most of my suggestions and keep it close to $100.

kamarupa on Ally Do Is Win

1 month ago

Why Bone Splinters? It just seems like a bad option for this build. The more Allies you have, the better, so saccing one is kind of painful. AND it's only sorcery speed? Vendetta seems aligned with the deck's strong suits - you don't have any spells like Speaker of the Heavens that has a lifegain threshold, so whatever life you gain is just insurance anyway, right? There's also Path to Exile, Fatal Push, Cut Down, Cast Down, Devour in Shadow... so many more. I know some of those are over $1, but really, the added cost isn't that significant, and there are def plenty of instant speed removal spells for under $1.

Niko9 on Should I Replace Visara the …

1 month ago

Hmm, I haven't played with Deathclaw, so not completely sure, but to me it looks like kind of a lateral move. Deathclaw can be better removal hitting any permanent, but can also set you back more because it's such a big target and I'm assuming it wouldn't go monsterous the same turn as it gets cast, so everyone sees it coming. I think it would really hurt if you cast Alpha Deathclaw then next turn made it monstrous, just to have someone holding up Path to Exile or something.

It's probably easier to cast than Visara, and the pay off can be better, but I think it's a much bigger target. I'd honestly stick with Visara between the two. Whether she is swinging or tapping, she's always doing something good : )

Have you thought at all about Tragic Slip in either of your decks? With so many creatures dying, it can be incredible removal and hit crazy targets like Blightsteel Colossus

thar_b_dragons on Targeting Triggers and Hexproof Granters

1 month ago

I have Swarm Shambler on the table. My opponent casts Path to Exile targeting it. Shambler's triggered ability goes on the stack, then I cast Simic Charm in response. It resolves, and I choose Hexproof mode. I know the PtE will "fizzle", but will I still get an Insect token? I think so because the trigger already went on the stack but an argument has been presented that since my Shambler is no longer targettable, that the trigger will fizzle as well...but I don't think it can fizzle since it is already on the stack and it doesn't target anything. The Shambler was still considered targeted at the time the trigger went on the stack even though it no longer can be (once Simic Charm resolves)...is this right??

wallisface on Azorius Aggro-Control deck

2 months ago

9-lives Cool, i'll keep all my card suggestions to $3-or-less per card.

Being one card-down is not worth it for only really knowing what your topdeck is. If you are using Assemble the Players you are wasting resources for almost no gain. Added to this a point which hasn't been mentioned yet - drawing a second copy of this card is absolutely disastrous, as you can't do anything useful with it.

Lawmage's Binding is worse that Oppressive Rays because 3 mana for a card that's still not removing a creature is just really bad value. Far better spells to remove the opponents creatures are Skyclave Apparition, Stasis Snare, Oblivion Ring, Fateful Absence, Declaration in Stone, Prismatic Ending, and Path to Exile

Opt, Preordain, Serum Visions, and Consider are all cheap and are overwhelmingly better than Defiant Strike.

If you're trying to be aggressive with control, your current creatures are really lacking. The current creatures you're running would fit better in a tax-like build, where the aim is to mess with your opponents tempo but ultimately just slowly chip-through damage. If you're trying to play an aggressive-control deck (like the Murktide Regent list) in {W}{U}, then your best bet for creatures on a budget would probably be Tolarian Terror, Delver of Secrets  ^Flip, Spell Queller, Haughty Djinn, and maybe Lion Sash

9-lives on Mystimechanics

2 months ago

shadow63 Ethersworn Canonist is doubly useful because it keeps the opponent from casting more than 1 nonartifact spell, and lets me cast multiple artifact spells. 23% chance of 13/70 to draw one artifact spell is good enough for me. I don't like Path to Exile because it gives land advantage. 23 lands is good enough for my purposes, considering that 1/3 of any amount card deck is optimal. I've found that anything over 1/3 is too much, and lesser is too little. Whenever I have more than 1/3 I find myself drawing too many lands. 33% is nice. My creatures are mainly for beginning the game, but I'm thinking that i'll need more Arcbound Protoype for those purposes.