Swords to Plowshares

Instant

Exile target creature. Its controller gains life equal to its power.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	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
Oathbreaker	Legal
Oldschool 93/94	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (49)

rckclimber777 on Build a Deck with Me …

5 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.

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.

Idoneity on How Good is Temple Bell?

1 month ago

Caerwyn —— This is where we hold a different opinion. Card advantage in two-player formats, I believe, is different than in four-player. Giving other players cards that they probably won't use against you is kind of like drawing cards for yourselves and using them against your foe, but you don't even have to spend mana.

If we're keeping it case-by-case, Swords to Plowshares is a good card and it can stop aggression once you use it, but you need a few kill spells beyond the first one to actually stop a player from attacking you. Once the swords is used, it's used, and that's an invitation for calamity.

Caerwyn on How Good is Temple Bell?

1 month ago

Idoneity - Symmetrical effects are often bad for table politics, providing you are playing with decent players. The same reason Temple Bell is a bad card for its caster makes it a bad card for other players - if you bargain “I will not attack you if you use the Bell” you are giving up freedom of attack and giving your opponents three cards, just to draw one.

Quite frankly, I think “But I could use this for politics” is a really, really bad reason to run a card and, if that is the only reason you can come up with to keep a card in your deck, you should cut it. You do not need “political cards” to play politics - you just need the ability to strike a deal with other players. You can do that just as easily with a Swords to Plowshares as you can with any political card, but the Swords also has utility beyond just politics.

DatShepTho on The Walls are closing in!!!

2 months ago

Two of my favourite Arcades Defenders support I recommend: Brave the Sands Hold the Gates

Defenders I recommend: Wall of Blossoms Wall of Omens Vine Trellis Sylvan Caryatid

You've got pretty much all of the good defenders, but I think the deck lacks a bit of ramp and the spot removal could be more efficient. Just the typical your Swords to Plowshares, Pongify and Beast Within style cards, maybe Darksteel Mutation if you're feeling mean.

PrismMTG on Sorin’s family

2 months ago

First of all, I just want to start off with saying that as your first build, this is insanely impressive. Regardless of what I might advise that you change, this is a super great first deck.

So, touching on what I think you can improve on the most. The small swings of life won't matter as much as you think they will. Cards like Angel's Feather, Ajani's Mantra, and Ephara's Radiance with the small incremental life gain is not particularly good in a format where you start at 40 life. Cards like Debt to the Deathless are better because later in the game you can pump as much mana as you want into them. I would suggest replacing the above mentioned cards with more creatures with lifelink. You're running a mostly Vampire typal deck with some angels, both of those are great at using lifelink. That will help with the life gain aspect you like while making your deck more effective, both by putting more creatures on the board, and by gaining life in a more proactive way. Overall, I think you definitely need more creatures, Vampires and Angels like to have lots of bodies on the board and 23 is a bit low for that.

Next, I'm looking at your removal and I've got some suggestions there as well. Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares are some of the best pieces of removal in the game and I would highly suggest them. Harsh Sustenance is particularly not great because of you don't have any creatures of board, it's pretty useless. While sacrifice effects can be good, letting out opponents choose what to lose is not as good as getting to destroy something yourself. Granted, I don't know your playgroup, maybe there is a lot of hexproof, or a Voltron deck or something. Regardless, I would drop the sacrifice effects for more targeted removal. Last thoughts on the removal part of the deck, hand destruction effects aren't as great on EDH because you still have 2 other opponents that will have all the cards in their hands. Tbf, there are definitely worse effects, so if you like it, then absolutely, plsu it.

Overall your ramp package is really good, the only thing I would add is Arcane Signet and Talisman of Hierarchy for 2 more 2 mana mana rocks. The 1 damage from Talisman of Hierarchy isn't really going to matter and any deck that is 2 or more colors should be running Arcane Signet imo.

Alright, final thoughts. This is a fantastic first deck and importantly, these are just suggestions that I think would work based on my experience playing and building decks. If you like something and think it's fun, play it, no matter what anyone says.

So, suggestions

Cards I think you should cut Angel's Feather Ajani's Mantra Blood Reckoning Claim of Erebos Ephara's Radiance Harsh Sustenance

Cards I think you should consider adding Path to Exile Swords to Plowshares Arcane Signet Talisman of Hierarchy

Last thing, EDHREC is a fanTASTIC resource when building your decks, I suggest looking at the Vampire or Angel page for suggestions because I think you need more creatures, just pick whatever you like, I would be looks at somehow closer to 30 creatures.

And here is the Drana and Linvala page with a life gain focus because that seems to be up your alley.

TheBestMagicCard on Hokori, Dust Drinker - Prison/Stax/Value Creatures

2 months ago

I realized that the most powerful thing Hokori can do is totally lock opponents out of playing anything, as long as there a couple support cards, mostly Mishra's Helix, God-Pharaoh's Statue, and maybe Kismet and Loxodon Gatekeeper.

This is more powerful then hate bears, and like "you can't do something" cards, as well as other cost-increasing cards. If I can just prevent opponents from casting anything by leaving them no untapped lands ever, it doesn't matter if the have a board wipe, or an enter-the-battlefield effect, or graveyard recursion, because they just can't cast anything...

Even if I could keep people from casting things for a few turns, if they gradually build their mana back up and could cast a threat that one of my dinky-conditional-hatebears didn't affect, then that sucked for me... Way better to just try and lock them down outright and not ever give them the chance...

I've decided to take out some more conditional/reactive cards for some better threats, so that I can have some recourse if opponents manage to cast a threat, and to try to close the game out a little faster. The deck also needs card draw to help stay ahead of opponents, and not stall out. I'm also realizing that removal is very powerful in this deck. Usually a one-to-one trade off for targeted removal can be questionable, but in this deck it's a little different. If I Swords to Plowshares a creature that cost 5 mana to cast, my opponent might have been saving mana up for a few turns to cast that card, now I just spent 1 mana to nerf it, and ideally Hokori is in play so now they will have to wait several more turns to cast something else, so spot removal turns into huge tempo advantage also. Even better than one-for-one spot removal is board wipe, and repeatable removal.

I've switched in new cards that present threats, draw cards, and remove opponent's cards, they include: Battle Angels of Tyr, Aerial Extortionist, Mass Calcify, Unexplained Absence, Magus of the Tabernacle, Champions of Minas Tirith, and Archon of Coronation.

Trouble in Pairs seems like it could be powerful, but it is also reactionary and conditional upon opponent's doing something advantageous.

BotaNickill on Enamored Rotpriest

2 months ago

Upvote for the Venerated Rotpriest enthusiasm! I like the interaction with Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief for sure, and I have a playset of her just in case I go back to the darkside (blue), but I am mainly a Selesnya player and my Rotpriest deck builds have been geared that way. I have mostly been playing it on Arena, first in Historic, but now mainly in Timeless. (But I do have a modern vs as well). Access to Once Upon a Time has been nice for consistency, and I've been considering adding Channel for the possibility of castion out most of my hand onm T1 But White offers some noice options for removal, like Swords to Plowshares and Annex Sentry, there's also some great white targeted spells, Defiant Strike, Ephemerate, Gird for Battle, Gods Willing etc. I usually choose to mulligan until I get a rotpriest in my opening hand and at least a land or two and a protection spell. But keeping Rotty on the board is always a challenge as he has a giant target on his back. How has this all worked out for you in Simic with being able to copy the rotpriest?