Swords to Plowshares

Instant

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

Discussion (50)

plakjekaas on Would a White Version of …

1 day ago

Almost all counterspells in white are colorshifted versions of blue spells: ( Mana Tithe -> white Force Spike , Rebuff the Wicked and Dawn Charm -> white variations of Turn Aside , Lapse of Certainty -> expensive white version of Memory Lapse ), originating from Conflux and Planar Chaos, which are exempt from following the rules of the color pie because of lore reasons. The one exception being Illumination , being specifically limited to the same targets as Disenchant , but answering them on the stack instead of in play, combined with a similar downside as Swords to Plowshares .

So in the next set where color functionality gets scrambled? Sure, print another white counterspell, maybe we can get a white Stifle , or maybe a white Spell Swindle this time, to fall in line with Smothering Tithe .

But my internal reasoning says: to counter a spell, you'd need a lot of knowledge about magic, be a wizard that has seen and done enough magic to recognize on the fly what spell is used against him, and prepare an according response before it's too late. That doesn't feel white at all, white is all about setting up and enforcing rules to prevent bad stuff from happening before it actually happens. And if that fails, White's way of preventing the bad stuff is by Gods Willing or a battalion of soldiers' Unbreakable Formation , just defending what you have, unable to offensively mess with your opponent's magic. Which Stifle very much does.

I'd say white can already counter plenty of triggered abilities though, mainly through Hushbringer , Tocatli Honor Guard and Hushwing Gryff . Again, enforcing rules before the bad stuff happens, instead of fighting it just before it's too late.

jakeyuki12 on Aurelia Angel Tribal

1 day ago

Hiya! Welcome back to MTG! Long time Aurelia player here. I've got a few suggestions as well as some food for thought.

Scaling up to multiplayer from single player makes how one builds a deck very different. Aggro becomes extremely more difficult since you've got 3 opponents with 40 life instead of 1 opponent with 20 life. Control also becomes much more difficult because you've got 3 opponents to answer instead of 1. Thus, the decks that flourish in commander are midrange, combo, and ramp decks (combo doesn't care about how many opponents you have, midrange and ramp decks are built to last- perfect for the war of attrition that is inherent to multiplayer). Because of this change, things like ramp and card advantage become much more important, as do board wipes.

Thus, step 1, make sure you have enough board wipes, ramp, and card advantage. The accepted number is about 10 pieces of removal (a mix of board wipes and single-target removal), 10 pieces of ramp, and 10 cards that consistently generate you card advantage. A word about your removal- EDH is a vintage format, so it has access to the best removal across MTG's history. So, I recommend you replace a lot of the removal you have now with more efficient and more effective removal. I won't recommend expensive cards since you're just returning, but stuff like Swords to Plowshares , Path to Exile , or Generous Gift are all pretty good. Red has got some cheap, good board wipes like Chain Reaction or Blasphemous Act .

Next thing to think about- why angel tribal? Now, if the only reason if "because it's cool," then that's good enough. So, if you want to do the cool thing, we might as well run cards that either a) reward us for doing the cool thing (play big angels!) or b) make doing the cool thing easier to do. In other words, we want payoffs for playing angel tribal. You already have a few in the list ( Bishop of Wings , Lyra Dawnbringer ), I recommend looking for more. I suggest looking to the recent Kaldheim set as it released a lot of cool new angel tribal payoffs (and new angels!).

Finally, a word about your mana curve. A popular YouTube channel ran the statistics on a large number of games and found that, on average, a deck casts 1 card that is 7 cmc or higher per game. When we look at your deck.... well, we begin to see how that might be an issue. The thing we don't want to happen is for your hand to get stuck with a ton of cards that you don't have the mana to cast- you don't get to do the thing! So, we either need to trim down heavily on the bigger angels or find a way around that large mana cost. Are you going to run more than the typical 10 ramp to have access to more mana? Are you going to cheat them into play somehow? Are you going to find ways to reduce the cost of the angels? It's up to you to decide! I would recommend a mix of both- trim a bit on the higher end AND find ways to circumvent the big mana cost so that you don't have to trim too much. That way you still get to do the fun thing, just more realistically.

If you want an example of an Aurelia angels build, you can find a good one here: Aurelia RW Angel Reanimator This deck tackles the mana curve problem by leaning into reanimation!

Monomanamaniac on Equipping Godhood

2 days ago

I feel your pain on the budget, I've spent almost 900$ on my main commander deck, and 400 on 2 other ones, so I'm pretty budget strapped. So I'll take a deeper look and see what budget options you could consider.

Wear / Tear is better than disenchant. Ring of Valkas is a decent cheap equipment that grants haste, though I'd consider Basilisk Collar because it's never going to be more affordable, and Trailblazer's Boots because it's essentially unblockable. Talisman of Conviction is a very good Mana rock, as well as Thought Vessel because of no maximum hand size. Zirda, the Dawnwaker is amazing with equipment. Axgard Armory and Inventors' Fair are good tutor lands, and due to your Commander's ability I'd definitely run Reliquary Tower . You're also lacking in the removal category: Swords to Plowshares , Path to Exile , Generous Gift , and Chaos Warp are solid inclusions that will stop your opponents from getting too far ahead.

Now for cuts I'd honestly do away with the worldslayer package because if you can't give your commander indestructible you're going to set yourself back just as far add everyone else. Scytheclaw is just too expensive for what you get, if you have to have that effect i would keep just Quietus Spike but in general I'd probably just look in a different direction and take both of them out. Grappling Hook is also overcosted, this is where I'd slot in Embercleave . I know you think embercleave is a bit costy, but you don't pay the equip cost when you cast it and you can do so as a combat trick. I'd likely turn away from Burnished Hart for Wayfarer's Bauble , you're only getting half the ramp but at half the investment. You might consider dropping Hyena Umbra because it's not really doing enough and On Serra's Wings because it's a 4 cost aura. Lastly I'd honestly consider cutting the godo helm because it's extremely unreliable and frankly wouldn't be the way i would go about winning. If the kaldra artifacts weren't so expensive I'd probably consider not running those too, but i get why if you're on a budget and already have them I'd definitely still run them. Oh and you should look at bolstering your creature numbers a little in case your commander gets killed too many times.

Anyways, that's my deep analysis for this deck, it's definitely focused on doing the thing, it's cmc is 2.63 which is decent but it means you should have more ramp/mana rocks at the 2 cost range. You're 75% white but has a land base that is almost 50/50 so you should think about adjusting it and when budget allows get some lands that tap for both colors. Overall wyleth is a Commander i would love to build around.

If you want to check out my Voltron deck I'll leave a link here

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Balan, one-punch woman

Commander / EDH Monomanamaniac

SCORE: 35 | 36 COMMENTS | 3347 VIEWS | IN 5 FOLDERS

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B0NGUS on A New Challenger Approaches - The First Sliver

4 days ago

Rampant Growth , Path to Exile , Swords to Plowshares , and Heroic Intervention will undoubtedly be added to this deck at some point in the near future. I

Averna, the Chaos Bloom is too good here. They're well worth breaking the cascade chain one time. For 3 mana, they provide lands consistently, easily making them one of the best forms of ramp in a cascade deck. They're simply explosive.

KITTYMANHunkGTI I am not able to help, outside of checking out Mitch's budget brew on YouTube. His channel is called Commander's Quarters. This deck started as his budget sliver brew he made, and then I just spent tons of money to get lands. Thankfully when I bought Sliver Legion and Sliver Queen they were far less expensive at the time (I purchased Sliver Queen for ~$60).

codesnowman13 on America's War on Order

6 days ago

If you would like to make your deck better, may I consider these cuts and adds;

Cuts

Indestructibility , Darksteel Ingot , Mystic Monastery , Sword of Body and Mind , Temple of Enlightenment , Temple of Epiphany , Temple of Triumph , Act of Treason , Journey to Nowhere

Adds

Hammer of Nazahn , Arcane Signet , Raugrin Triome , Sword of Fire and Ice , Sea of Clouds , Training Center , Spectator Seating , Temur Battle Rage , Swords to Plowshares

codesnowman13 on Here, hold this.

6 days ago

Here are some cards I would cut and cards I would put in:

Cuts

Vivid Crag , Vivid Creek , Vivid Meadow , Mystic Monastery , Khalni Gem , Dispatch , Kazuul's Toll Collector , Kirtar's Wrath

Adds

Thriving Bluff , Thriving Isle , Thriving Heath , Raugrin Triome , Dowsing Dagger  ^Flip, Swords to Plowshares , Balan, Wandering Knight , Dalakos, Crafter of Wonders

I would also cut Sunforger for an Equipment such as Hammer of Nazahn or some other Equipment because with Sunforger , you want a package of Red and White Instants to have it go search for. Currently you only have Dispatch in the deck. If you plan on keeping Sunforger , I'd recommend adding more Red and/or White Instants.

Grind on Contraptions and such

1 week ago

cool deck!!!
Etherium Sculptor seems good.
Blinkmoth Urn could generate some serious mana for you given your artifact base.
Forsaken Monument makes your colorless rocks tap for more and also goes inf with basalt monolith.

a couple thoughts, artifact hate is a big part of the EDH meta, with cards like Vandalblast , Bane of Progress , Austere Command all seeing regular play. given that you are pretty much all in on artifacts, you may want to consider upping your Counterspell game to ensure you don't essentially lose the game when an opponent lands removal like that, as you can't always rely on having darksteel forge out. Hurkyl's Recall and Retract are other options if you are not into counterspells.

also, suggest to cut Khalni Gem as soon as possible- any one of Thran Dynamo , Hedron Archive , Worn Powerstone , Sisay's Ring , Chromatic Lantern , Skyclave Relic , Arcane Signet are all better and way less risky.
also i would check out your point removal: possibly Generous Gift over topple the statue, Arcane Denial , Unsubstantiate , or Boomerang over steel sabotage, Swords to Plowshares or Impulse or Anguished Unmaking over esper charm.
more ideas, Padeem, Consul of Innovation can give your artifacts hexproof and Shimmer Dragon would go great with Unwinding Clock .
anyway those are just some thoughts. hope some of them are helpful and keep having fun! cheers!!!

yb_mtg on You Get A Copy! And You Get A Copy!

1 week ago

I have and it's a very fun deck. I really love making decks that overflow with synergy and theme. It's more fun to me than every deck having 50% of the same cards. That's why there's no cards like Preordain , Ponder , Swords to Plowshares , Force of Will , etc.

All the removal in this deck also has the ability to target my own creatures - Selesnya Charm , Dromoka's Command , etc. So this kind of build probably won't be best if you have a very competitive playgroup, although it is very explosive so you could maybe steal a game or two. Several of the enchantments when combined on the battlefield give the deck an almost combo-esque feel (eg, Underworld Breach + Song of Creation / Whirlwind of Thought ).

It could easily be honed with 1 mana cantrips and a couple counters if that's what you're looking for.