Return to Dust

Instant

Exile target artifact or enchantment. If you played this spell during one of your main phases, you may exile up to one other target artifact or enchantment.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Casual	Legal
Custom	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal

Discussion (51)

shadow63 on Hamza +1/+1 counters

2 weeks ago

let me just reiterate your card choices aren't wrong. these suggestions are going to be because maybe we have different play styles or different metas. like i really try to keep my removal as flexible as possible and my +1/+1 counter deck is atraxa . Armorcraft Judge its unreliable and is a bad top deck. Avatar of the Resolute it just doesnt scale well to edh. Custodi Soulbinders paying 3 mana just to make a 1/1 is'nt very exciting. Fertilid ive used this one alot and in my games i almost never used it to ramp it was just a vanilla creature.

Return to Dust is just awkward i much pefer Heliod's Intervention. Ruinous Intrusion 4 mana to blow up 1 artifact or enchantment isn't worth it even if does give you a few counters. Lifecrafter's Bestiary with so few creatures its not great. with more creatures in here it could be great. Celestial Judgment there will be games where it will give you the win but there will be games where someone just has something huge out that this just misses or youll have to blow up more of your own stuff then an opponents Hour of Reckoning this is only good in a token deck.

some replacements creatures. Park Heights Maverick, Loyal Guardian, Forgotten Ancient, Walking Ballista, Pir, Imaginative Rascal, Steelbane Hydra, Evolution Sage, Conclave Mentor. non creatures Hardened Scales, Austere Command, Damning Verdict, Tome of Legends, Coalition Relic, Vastwood Surge

bushido_man96 on First EDH deck: Naya Cheat in Updated

2 months ago

Targeted removal is a good thing. But I wouldn't run Return to Dust either. At 4 mana, you just as well go with a boardwipe. And being able to double it up by casting it as a sorcery is not a good trade off. Swords to Plowshares is a much better option. Beast Within and Lignify are good ways to isolate threatening creatures.

Fecundity can benefit your opponents, yes. But thought here is that if you have a deck that is focused on killing creatures for advantage, then you will probably benefit more than your opponents. I honestly think there are players that worry too much about other players benefiting from some of your own plays. Its an interactive game, and it makes it fun. Cards like that can help you gain some allies at the table at times. It's strictly your call, but I personally play the card and enjoy it.

I would say that you could probably look at cutting your planeswalkers for some things that will actually help your deck do what it wants to do. Yes, planeswalkers are cool, and the ones you are running do some generally good things, but I don't think they lend to your deck's focus. You can't hunt them out with Atla, and none of them produce anything that Atla can use.

Glancing over the list, it looks like you have a lot of precon hangover, with lots of creatures that make tokens when they come into play. You have several cards that populate, too. Those play more into Ghired's ability than Atla's. If you want to focus on Atla, then you want to go in on making Egg tokens, as opposed to any of the others. That's where some changelings can come in handy.

Lunar_Wing on First EDH deck: Naya Cheat in Updated

2 months ago

Thanks! I will likely take out Slice in Twain for Return to Dust once I go threw my box of whites. Pretty sure I have another one somewhere. I left it in for now since it at least comes with a draw. Not so sure about Fecundity. Isn't that a bit of a double edged sword? I don't feel like helping others draw into an out for me. Also I just realized something yesterday during a match. I have very little to out powerful creature's with powerful ability's. I just got completely shut down by Stormtide Leviathan. Might need some more targeted destruction in here

TypicalTimmy on Amelia Watson, Arcane Detective

2 months ago

Return to Dust says henlo ^-^

Masterful on Necronomicon | Teysa Karlov | Primer

4 months ago

kirbysan If you prefer, going for 4-plains and 5-swamps or the reverse would be fine. Personally, I'm hesitant to go for more plains than swamps because of how it can ruin an early Necropotence and how many more black cards we play. I haven't yet ran out of basic plains to fetch for and it be a big problem, but theoretically, it could be bad, so I'll probably cut a swamp for a plains myself. The thing is, in the late game, we're not focused on ramping, and making our land drops despite off-color white fetches should be doable because of how much card draw we have. At the point where we've drawn and/or played every plains from our deck, we should be good on mana.

Exotic Orchard definitely seems bad in 1v1 since you only have one opponent, so I wouldn't play it there. Orchard is meant to be a good land in multiplayer free for all which is the most common way to play EDH. At the very worst, it's just a basic land, but at it's best, which is most of the time in multiplayer, it's an untapped dual. It doesn't have to do with casting opponents' spells. Archaeomancer's Map is another example of a card that's meant for multiplayer. In multiplayer, green and ramp strategies are incredibly popular, so it's meant as a catch-up ramp spell that also fixes our land drops for the next couple turns.

For anti-stax, I don't recommend Return to Dust since it's 4 mana. Against those strategies, you're less likely to have access to large amounts of mana, so low mana artifact/enchantment removal like Disenchant and Fragmentize would do a lot better. Even cards like Cathar Commando could do work since they work well with the aristocrat strategy of the deck. For cards to swap out, you could take out redundant pieces like The Meathook Massacre, Shambling Ghast, and Deadly Dispute. Just don't go all in on cutting cards from a single package, like every tutor, every 1-drop fodder piece, etc.

kirbysan on Necronomicon | Teysa Karlov | Primer

4 months ago

Masterful, I ran about 8 1v1 games this past weekend with some of the card swaps you recommended while the rest were on the way. I think pulling 3 basic plains from the deck may be too much. We only have 5 Plains sources to fetch and with Archaeomancer's Map, Knight of the White Orchid, Loyal Warhound, Arid Mesa, Flooded Strand, Windswept Heath that can only fetch plains, we would need 7 Plains sources to grab. Some games it wouldn't matter but I found myself with no lands to fetch in one pretty early on, so my fetches were dead in the water. Also not a big fan of Exotic Orchard since I don't find myself needing other colors. We don't have a way to recur other player's cards now and if they don't play black or white it's pretty bad for us. My thoughts are either we need to cut down more on the Plains fetch to introduce more synergy or rebalance the mana base. Out of our current fetches I found Archaeomancer's Map to be the most disappointing, probably because I didn't play against green. What would you swap out for artifact & enchantment removal like Return to Dust if you're going up against light stax?

ClockworkSwordfish on Criminally Underplayed EDH Gems

4 months ago

No shortage of 'em, that's for sure...

Hull Breach: The same card advantage of Return to Dust and at the same speed... but for half the mana. It's a common, too. How this two-for-one superstar was ever forgotten was beyond me!

Blood Frenzy: Mono-Red is somewhat lacking in hard removal. Sure it can throw direct damage at creatures, but EDH is the world of big plays, and sometimes a fattie will come along who is simply too big to burn. Blood Frenzy can kill any attacking or blocking creature for just two mana - while coming with a free Scorching Missile! This type of card takes advantage of the multiplayer format that EDH often is: If Player A attacks Player B with a big creature, you can use Blood Frenzy to make the creature hit Player B for four more points while conveniently disposing of it right after. Whoops, you just did Doom Blade better than black could ever dream of.

Aftershock: Blood Frenzy is cheap and powerful but a little specific in what it can target. Aftershock can flat-out destroy any permanent of the three most common types with no restrictions! This kind of versatility at four mana comes with the acceptable caveat of 3 life, which is a pittance when you start with 40. If you're making a mono-red deck, the flexibility of Aftershock should make it a staple.

Repopulate: Graveyard hate for decks without access to black - and it's an instant, so you don't lose the element of surprise like if you run artifact solutions. It can also fight against milling effects if you're desperate. Don't need graveyard hate? Hey, you can just cycle it away for something else!

Kill Switch: Playing a colour that can't deal with artifacts? Crank this guy every turn and you'll shut them all down! A Blightsteel Colossus is only scary if it can move. You can even still use mana rocks and attack with artifact creatures on your turn, then activate Kill Switch afterwards to keep anyone else from having access to their own trinkets.

Duskmantle, House of Shadow: Does anyone in your playgroup run Cruel, Enlightened, Mystical, Personal, Sylvan, Vampiric or Worldly Tutor? How about Harbingers, Volrath's Stronghold or Momir Vig? It can be comforting to have an anti-tutor just sitting in play, making mana when you don't need it.

Mitotic Manipulation: Monoblue can't do mana acceleration, right? Under most circumstances, Mitotic Manipulation is three mana to put an Island into play untapped - last I checked, that's better than the ever-popular Wayfarer's Bauble. Plus, once in a while you might get to pull out a Sol Ring, Gilded Lotus or other format staple if one of your opponents already has theirs.

Coalition Honor Guard: Long before Spellskite was zooming the toys away from Boggles decks, this unassuming common was doing the same. The Honor Guard is a nightmare for any Voltron-style deck that leans heavily into auras, including the common Zur and Uril builds. It also soaks up removal that would be pointed at key cards, such as your own commander.

Warping Wail: This counterspell can be played in any colour and even has some other modes. Any EDH deck without access to blue can still run this to prevent untimely board wipes, extra turns, and plenty of game-ending cards: Debt to the Deathless, Exsanguinate, Finale of Devastation, Genesis Wave, Insurrection, Rise of the Dark Realms, Torment of Hailfire... any number of effects you never want to see your opponent resolve.

Heat Shimmer: This mundane-sounding sorcery can do some heavy lifting, particularly in a colour pie as shallow as red's. Shimmer allows you to bring the heat by copying not only the best comes-into-play trigger on the field, but also any fun triggers from attacking, dealing damage, and so on. This can be a roundabout way for red to ramp, draw cards or borrow the nasty abilities of Resolute Archangel, Terastodon and other off-colour haymakers. Don't forget you can also get a permanent copy of your token if you Populate it before it's gone.

Bind: The best cards are often not only powerful but completely unexpected. Green isn't exactly known for its countering, but this cheap cantrip lets any mono-green deck stop combos, hose Strip Mine/Ghost Quarter, prevent a planeswalker ultimate or turn Aetherflux Reservoir into a losing proposition. All this for two mana and it even replaces itself!

Arena of the Ancients: We all know Karakas is banned for hosing commanders too hard, but the Arena does a decent impression and is still fair game. This cheap artifact can tap down even commanders with hexproof or vigilance and keeps them locked down - especially useful for colours that don't typically have strong control options, like black and/or red. It's another easy answer to voltron commanders.

Righteous Aura: This card doesn't read as too impressive, but performs a lot better than you might think. 2 life is a pittance in the face of some of the steroid monsters you'll see in any given EDH game, and it allows you to ignore Commander damage entirely as well as any other non-creature or even non-permanent threats that might take a chunk out of you. Best of all, it doesn't even target, allowing it to bypass hexproof, shroud and protection.

BringerOfStorms on Fellowship of the Towering Forest

7 months ago

Most recent updates... 17 October 2021

Out Eidolon of Blossoms , Mesa Enchantress , Austere Command , Return to Dust , Selesnya Cluestone , Helm of the Host , Ajani Unyielding and Ajani, Mentor of Heroes. Lands Gavony Township , Turntimber Grove and Sandstone Bridge .

In Sythis, Harvest's Hand , Starfield Mystic , Garruk's Uprising , Seal of Primordium , Rishkar's Expertise , Vanquish the Horde , Return of the Wildspeaker , Talisman of Unity , Branchloft Pathway  ^Flip , Arctic Flats , Overgrown Farmland.

~BoS