Swords to Plowshares

Instant

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

Discussion (51)

multimedia on The gravewalker

1 hour ago

Hey, well done for less than $100.

You actually have infinite combos here. Any time you have Karmic Guide + Reveillark + sac outlet or Guide + Fiend Hunter + sac outlet you have an infinite dies loop of Guide/Lark or Fiend. Guide + Lark + Viscera Seer/Carrion Feeder + Zulaport Cutthroat/Cruel Celebrant is infinite sacs/reanimation of Guide/Lark which is infinite triggers of Cutthroat/Celebrant as the win condition. Another Cutthroat/Celebrant infinite combo is Guide + Fiend + Seer/Feeder + Cutthroat/Celebrant.

Guide + Lark + Altar of Dementia is infinite sacs of Guide/Lark which can be infinite self-mill or infinite opponent mill as the win condition. With self-mill can reanimate all other creatures in your library who Lark can reanimate until you reanimate Cutthroat/Celebrant. This combo is also infinite ETB triggers of creatures who have an ETB ability. If you want to cut the infinite combos from your deck then cut Guide.

These are not easy combos for a beginner to understand. My advice to is simplify by expanding on self-mill to utilize Karador's ability to cast a creature card from your graveyard. This is the causal aspect of Karador that's easy to understand. Creature reanimation is a good/easy to understand strategy with self-mill.

Some other budget cards to consider adding:

• Eternal Witness: could replace $4 Guide as it's not part of combos and is really good with self-mill and Karador.
• Phyrexian Delver: could be a less expensive replacement for Guide that doesn't combo.
• Golgari Thug
• Death's Oasis
• Elves of Deep Shadow
• Priest of Forgotten Gods
• Swords to Plowshares
• Beast Within

Even on a budget the manabase could be improved.

• Exotic Orchard
• Murmuring Bosk
• Llanowar Wastes
• Caves of Koilos
• Tainted Wood
• Tainted Field
• Ash Barrens
• Temple of Plenty
• Temple of Malady
• Temple of Silence

Good luck with your deck.

gingerthewritingdog on Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant soldier tribe 50$

1 day ago

More anthems and some better targeted removal like Swords to Plowshares. Also card advantage like Verge Rangers and Thraben Inspector are very necessary.

builderboy7 on Tayam's Enigmatic Apostles

2 days ago

I also think that more removal would be make this deck better, considering that you have an Anguished Unmaking I can also see Swords to Plowshares and path to exile in this deck.

multimedia on Playfully Mutated

6 days ago

Hey, you really want hexproof with the creatures you want to mutate too because this protects the creature from removal in response or after mutating. It's pretty risky to chain a bunch of mutate creatures into the pile if the pile doesn't have hexproof. Without hexproof a single Swords to Plowshares by opponent will ruin your game and exile all the creatures in the mutate pile except Otrimi.

Swiftfoot Boots is a helpful equipment with mutate because then any creature can have hexproof before you mutate and keep hexproof for as long as Boots is equipped. When you mutate a creature who's equipped with Boots, Boots will stay on the creature during mutation and after.

• Slippery Bogle
• Gladecover Scout
• Silhana Ledgewalker: if opponent doesn't have a flying creature then the mutated creature can't be blocked by that opponent.
• Paradise Druid: has hexproof as long as it's untapped, good to mutate too while also using it as ramp before you want to mutate.
• Troll Ascetic: also has regeneration which can protect the mutated creature from nontargeted removal that can destroy it such as a board wipe or from legal combat damage. Combination of hexproof and regeneration is powerful projection for the mutated creature.
• Elusive Tormentor  ^Flip: for Insidious Mist, mutate Otrimi with Mist for 6/6 unblockable, hexproof, indestructible, trample that doesn't flip back unless you want it too.

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Crystal Shard can be repeatable creature bounce for one blue mana of the mutate pile. This effect lets you mutate the entire pile again, protect all the creatures in the pile from being exiled or destroyed, change which creature is first mutated with Otrimi, etc. Buried Alive and Jarad's Orders can tutor for creature and put into your graveyard. This is good to setup your graveyard to recur a mutate creature when Otrimi does combat damage to an opponent.

Orders can do both, tutor for a creature to mutate too and a put a creature into your graveyard. If Otrimi is part of the mutate pile then the creature will have trample which can make Mask of Memory a repeatable draw two/discard mutate creature/recur mutate creature effect. Wonder is good when you can tutor for it or discard it because giving the mutated creature flying is better evasion than trample. Wonder is good with Buried as one of the three creatures you can tutor for and put into your graveyard.

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There's a few of the better budget creatures with mutate that are missing here:

• Sea-Dasher Octopus: mutate at instant speed with flash and for only two mana it's the lowest mutate mana cost, can be another source of repeatable draw when mutated creature has evasion.
• Gemrazer: destroy an artifact or enchantment.
• Boneyard Lurker: recur any permanent.

One of the worst parts of the precon is the manabase, which is not good with 11x Forests and 2x Island ratio. If you would like help with improving the manabase then I offer help in another comment.

Good luck with your deck.

psionictemplar on How would you give white ...

6 days ago

I think that white card draw/balance isn't based so much on having cards in hand as much as it is maintaining equality in game state. It is why you see the themes of mass destruction and taxing as you have noted.

Mass destruction is an obvious equality where as taxation hits on the mana equality aspect. Green ramps for more mana and white makes them pay mana to slow them down. Its been this way since the beginning of the game when you think about it. Take Swords to Plowshares as an example. Card/creature for life. Adding card draw doesn't necessarily help white if the cards gained are going to be destroyed turns later.

There was an interesting video by tolariancommunitycollege with the ambassador for white that goes into this issue. Maybe it can give you some other perspectives as well.

TypicalTimmy on Wither to Dust

1 week ago

There is an old saying that goes something like "Making it harder to lose isn't the same as winning."

What this means is, it doesn't matter how many defenses you have up, if you're not actively pushing toward winning the game, you are actively losing it.

For example, unless you have some fringe Wincon that cares about your life total, Ajani, Mentor of Heroes won't win you the game with the ultimate. It doesn't matter if you have 100 or 200 or 6,000 life. If damage gets through, you'll lose.

That is why Swords to Plowshares is so good - Who cares if your opponent gets 4 or 5 or even 12 life. Take that life right back in a single turn.

But this card actively makes it easier for your opponent to win, because you are now that much closer to 0 - and thus losing.

It's not a bad card. In fact I rather like it. Great suicide card, beautifully balanced for black, really solid design space. Overall it checks all the boxes for a genuinely great card.

But, at the end of the day, it is a card that helps your opponent win. And you should never be doing that.

DemonDragonJ on Wither to Dust

1 week ago

Swords to Plowshares is one of the best creature removal spells in the game, so I wish to make a black version of it, and here is that card:

Wither to Dust Show

Wither to Dust

Casting Cost:

Instant

Exile target creature; you lose life equal to its power.

There really is not too much for me to say about this card, so what does everyone else say about it?

Narrash on Storming Legends - The Ur-Dragon

1 week ago

Draknoz I'm actually considering swapping Beast with Swords to Plowshares. To be honest the 36 lands is quite literally a mistake on my part. I added a card and forgot to remove one by mistake, so in the meantime removed a land which I'm supposed to slot back in. I'm also considering adding Footfall Crater and given the cycling I feel like cutting a 37th land for it should not be a big deal.