Swords to Plowshares
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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Alchemy 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
Penny Dreadful Legal
Premodern Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vintage Legal

Swords to Plowshares

Instant

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

Grubbernaut on What is Wrong With “Generically …

4 hours ago

Well...

She's not a win condition; she requires many creatures; she incentivizes lifegain, which is a generically bad strategy; she comes down for 5 mana and does nothing (or little) while requiring multiple turns to be a payoff

When people talk about truly generically good cards (in white), things like Esper Sentinel, Swords to Plowshares, Archivist of Oghma and Ranger-Captain of Eos come to mind. In general, almost any deck with them is made better with no changes or considerations needed for them to function well; that's simply not the case with the Archangel. It requires extra build considerations for a slow payoff that doesn't offer card advantage, doesn't combo, and doesn't kill very quickly.

That's not to say it won't feel at home in a casual deck, but it is not generically good in the way the other cards are.

Masterful on Necronomicon | Teysa Karlov | Primer

1 week ago

kirbysan Vraan is a complete tragedy and it pains me to even think about.

At this point I'd probably agree that Dark Prophecy is better than Weatherlight Compleated. I'm definitely gonna replace it, but I'm not sure if prophecy is going back in. Triple black is super tough and a Village Rites type card might be better. I also like jelwell's Imperial Seal suggestion. I've also been realized recently how strong Solitude would be in our list. It's another copy of Swords to Plowshares and while it does 2-for-1 us, it makes up for it by costing 0 mana, giving us a death trigger, and being a reanimation target.

jelwell I wouldn't say Body Launderer is a very good recursion card. It's nice that it's on a creature, but it's not consistent since we need a sac outlet. Conniving is nice for better card quality, but we don't many good ways to take advantage of the discard. This essentially just makes him a 4 mana reanimate that can potentially double reanimate with Teysa out. At that point, Victimize would probably be better if you really need a double reanimate at 1 less mana and not needing a separate sac outlet but only a fodder piece. Launderer also conflicts with Teysa in the 4 drop slot. I prefer Reanimate or Animate Dead over victimize since while they don't reanimate two creatures, they cost much less mana, don't require a sacrifice, and can target opposing graveyards. This gives them utility in the early and late game to cheaply bring back a fodder piece or reanimate an opposing Avenger of Zendikar.

Storm of Souls is good. I've tried it and Command the Dreadhorde out a lot and they both test well, but I didn't find a spot for either in the current build. I've been using Living Death as our sole mass recursion piece, but I've been missing a separate piece for redundancy that doesn't also come with a board wipe, so I might bring one of them back. I think its fair to run either since they both have their strengths and weaknesses.

multimedia on Urza, CEO of Machines

1 week ago

Hey, good upgrades to the precon, what you've done so far.

How do you want to win? Determining the main strategy you want to play can help to keep good cards for that strategy and cut unnecessary cards. If you're wanting to keep precon level budget then doing combat damage with Constructs and Commander damage with Urza are directions to consider. Research Thief and Bident of Thassa are excellent budget cards if you want to be attacking with Constructs. Making Urza an artifact makes him a reliable source of Commander damage, but this means including effects to make Urza an artifact.

You have Urza, Lord High Artificer, he's a combo wincon, but to use him as a wincon you'll want to add other cards and more ways to assemble the combo. Drawing cards from Constructs doing combat damage to opponents is a good alternative to playing expensive price tutors to get combo pieces in your hand.

You have Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge, you don't really need Mycosynth Golem especially not for it's price tag. You don't need this Tezzeret either, but if you have it might as well play it. The first cuts to consider are lands since 41 lands is a lot when the strategy here are artifacts. Consider cutting 6 lands? Lands that always ETB tapped and are worse then others that also do this. If you feel you need more mana then add mana sources (rocks, dorks) not lands.

The Bounce lands and Scry lands are worse always ETB tapped lands then Tri lands, Bridges, etc.

Some advice for more cuts is choose the top 20 creatures here, top 10 artifacts and top 10 other nonland cards. By choosing the best cards then you can cut a huge chunk away of lesser cards.

Creatures:

Artifacts:

Others:

For upgrading it's easier to get an established list that's not 99 cards then have a list that's way over 99 cards. Really any 0-3 drop artifact creature who can make some value to take advantage of Urza artifact creature affinity or any 0-2 drop mana rock for more ramp can fill unfilled deck spots.

Good luck with your deck.

bushido_man96 on How Can I Put Staff …

2 weeks ago

Grim Affliction doesn't seem all that great as a removal spell. Sure, it fits with the proliferation theme behind Atraxa, but Swords to Plowshares is much better, and you don't have to wait a bunch of turns to proliferate something big to death. You would usually want your removal now, instead of 3 turns from now. It would be a fine card to drop.

Necrosis24 on Basics matter theme - Mono …

4 weeks ago

Personally I'd run a token generator or blink cmdr like Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward (with your choice of background) as I like the idea of using Settle the Wreckage as a ramp spell and I think it works well with him. Basri Ket and Launch the Fleet are similar effects as Abdel.

You could also use Swords to Plowshares as a Rampant Growth.

Expedition Map to get Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth + Kormus Bell to turn your plains into creatures which you can now flicker more easily as well and benefit on etbs.

Tomik, Distinguished Advokist is worth considering to add to the deck if you go the Kormus Bell route as your land creatures basically have hexproof now.

Additionally you could use cards like Zuran Orb or Troubled Healer in combination with Faith's Reward/Second Sunrise/Planar Birth for extra landfall triggers. If you are running the Kormus Bell combo you could use creature sac-outlets like Altar of Dementia or Phyrexian Altar. But if the sac outlets don't play into the rest of the deck you might be better of running Oswald Fiddlebender as your cmdr to ensure you get the right combination of artifacts.

Zuran Orb also pairs well with Aetherflux Reservoir.

A roundabout and rather inefficient lands-matter removal would be Soul Sculptor + Aura Fracture.

Also can't go wrong with Sun Titan + fetch lands (i.e. Fabled Passage). If you go the flicker route you can get some great value out of this. Alternatively Sevinne's Reclamation/Crucible of Worlds also work well with fetch-lands and landfall

TLDR: Landfall-Flicker or Landfall-Recursion or combination of both.

Mortlocke on The Queen's Egg

4 weeks ago

Profet93,

Thank you for the nice words, this is my signature deck of signature decks and have put the most most time (and money...so much money) into building it into what it is today. This deck is forever a work in progress, for as tuned as it is there is always room for improvement - so I always appreciate any and all criticism and suggestions. Speaking of which - Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth are indeed powerful lands - but only within context. The pros don't outweigh the cons with those suggestions in my opinion - I don't run any Beacon of Creation or Cabal Coffers effects so I don't have any way to really "cash in" on these lands past having them fix my manabase. But like you said fixing the manabase of my opponents is the last thing I'd ever want to do, so i'll have to take a pass on those suggestions.

Delay is absolutely wonderful counter magic. Most often i'd end up delaying a turn 2 or 3 Najeela, the Blade-Blossom - which would then be dealt with when it hits the battlefield. Another great play I managed to pull off with Delay was "countering" a Swords to Plowshares that was aimed at my Commander. On my next turn I simply tutored for and cast a Crystalline Sliver. No one managed to cast a board wipe so when the time counters were all removed the Swords to Plowshares simply failed to find. Honestly, I've never been disappointed by Delay and is definitely one of my all time favorites - it always gives me just enough time to dig for an answer.

Toxic Deluge is just an old hold over from my previous meta. Alot of creatures were lower to the ground as most of my friends played combo decks that relied on some key creatures or played with creatures that had reliable methods of gaining protection or indestructible. I used to run Damnation, but I also have a full art foil Damn that i'm considering trying out as well. The verdict is still out on what I should run in that card slot to be honest, but i'm more than interested in your thoughts on what would be the most efficient option available for mass removal.

Once I managed to use Deflecting Swat to target a Expropriate. Obviously this was a late game play, but I knew that the Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign player had something up their sleeve and properly baited out the big spell by tapping out. It also helped that I had a Fierce Guardianship in hand as well in case someone wanted to thwart my plans. Everyone scooped after the swat resolved.

Thanks for commenting on the deck, i'll think more on your suggestions. Happy New Year to you, by the way. Do you have any acquisitions or decks your want to build in 2023?

kirbysan on [Primer] Helming the Host of Heaven *Update*

1 month ago

Guerric

Got another couple games in today:

I made some swaps prior to today's match incluuding:

Crashing Drawbridge for Lightning Greaves

Smuggler's Share for Esper Sentinel

Search for Glory for Steelshaper's Gift

I think our decks are still functionally the same but I have a lot of the tech you were heavily considering already swapped in and will be focusing on their performance in multiplayer format.

Opponents: Arvinox, the Mind Flail, Firkraag, Cunning Instigator, Ryu, World Warrior

Starting Hand?: Prismatic Vista, Windswept Heath, Myriad Landscape, Soul's Attendant, Generous Gift, Lightning Greaves, Folk Hero

Forgot to snap a picture of my starting hand but I think it was something like that. Important play of the game was Firkraag playing an early Agitator Ant. By turn 3 I had Giada equipped with a Lightning Greaves and slowly played out my hand, focusing on dropping lands and playing removal. I constantly dumped the +1/+1 counters onto Giada and since she had the greaves equipped she was basically untouchable.

After bringing Arvinox and Ryu down to the low 20's with just Giada I began dumping the counters onto a Bishop of Wings that I drew into so I could start swinging at Firkraag. Ryu also got in 2 Hadokens against Firkraag's board to draw cards. I only got 1 swing into Firkraag before they boardwiped.

I was able to recast Giada and cast an Angelic Page drawing me a card off Folk Hero. I also cast a Pyre of Heroes excited to chain it off for some spicy tech. Unfortunately Ryu was at low life and killed shortly after the boardwipe. As the other 2 players had no board they scooped to end the game so we could start the next, giving me the win.

Opponents: Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools/Armix, Filigree Thrasher, Firkraag, Cunning Instigator, Isshin, Two Heavens as One, Muldrotha, the Gravetide

Starting Hand: Plains, Mutavault, Pearl Medallion, Righteous Valkyrie, Sigarda's Vanguard, Well of Lost Dreams, Steelshaper's Gift

T1 - Plains into Steelshaper's Gift tutoring Lightning Greaves

T2 - Plains (drew) into Pearl Medallion

T3 - Mutavault into Lightning Greaves & Giada (Sworded by Isshin)

This game had some intense interactions. Isshin had a turn 1 Authority of the Consuls. Tevesh nearly played a turn 2 Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools with a Jeweled Lotus but was countered by Muldrotha. Firkraag played a Pursued Whale giving us all Pirate tokens and forcing us to attack. Isshin played into that with a Combat Calligrapher. The entire table started swinging into each other with increasingly multiplying Inkling tokens. After Isshin's Combat Calligrapher was blown up and they took a bunch of damage from their own Inklings they decided to super wipe the board with a Ruinous Ultimatum but luckily their board was pretty sparse.

I lost Pearl Medallion, Well of Lost Dreams, Sword of the Animist, Lightning Greaves and Righteous Valkyrie. This set me back really far but luckily I had been ramping every turn with Sword of the Animist and kept some strong angels in hand.

I recast Giada, and played Archangel of Tithes, Angelic Field Marshal and Lyra Dawnbringer with Mutavault giving me the extra +1/+1 counter. At this point Isshin started going off and nearly killed me with a combination of Tectonic Giant, Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin, Isshin, Two Heavens as One, Aurelia, the Warleader but they tapped out for Dihada, Binder of Wills to give Krenko vigilance, lifelink and indestructible. When they tried to swing at me, they forgot about the tax for Tithes and instead knocked out Tevesh and Muldrotha. Muldrotha took out Aurelia, the Warleader as retribution.

On the final turn I was left with only Oblation and Breathkeeper Seraph in hand. I had the choice to use it on one of Isshin's creatures but they were in such a dominating position that giving them 2 cards was probably a bad idea. Instead I used it on a tapped Emergence Zone and drew into Thraben Watcher and Sigarda's Vanguard. With the combination of all the angels I brought Isshin down to 3 and Firkraag cleaned up but had nothing against my board so scooped.

Opponents: Alela, Artful Provacateur, Jared Carthalion, Gishath, Sun's Avatar

Starting Hand: Cavern of Souls, Flooded Strand, Windswept Heath, Esper Sentinel, Path to Exile, The Ozolith, Teferi's Protection

I debated even listing this game as it was over so fast. Alela burst out on turn 1 with an Island into Sol Ring into Arcane Signet. Turn 2 they played a Smothering Tithe. Turn 3 they played a Bolas's Citadel. In one of their turns they cast a Vendilion Clique bottoming my Teferi's Protection. Despite whiffing for 2 turns off the top of their library they were so ahead with ramp that they quickly overtook the game. I died by turn 5 to 35+ damage from a faerie army beefed up with Coat of Arms. The other 2 players scooped as they had no interaction with the Coat.

T1 Esper Sentinel did some amazing work here. I drew off every player at least 2-3 times so it netted me like 7-8 cards for just 1 mana.

I also attempted to attack with Battle Angels of Tyr but it was bounced to my hand by next turn.

The Ozolith ended up doing nothing this game but that's more due to having no boardstate. Together Forever wouldn't have done anything in this game either so its impact still hasn't been seen. Other players did comment that it could be a problem with a bigger board.

I did have a misplay here as I should have held up mana for removal spells which I had in my hand. My final hand was Vanquisher's Banner, Archangel of Thune, Angelic Accord, Serra Paragon, Valkyrie Harbinger, Path of Exile and Swords to Plowshares. I just didn't expect Alela to quintuple their damage in one turn.

Opponents: Phenax, God of Deception, Jared Carthalion, Gishath, Sun's Avatar

Starting Hand: Secluded Steppe, Emergence Zone, Plains, Pearl Medallion, Thorough Investigation, Angelic Field Marshal, Angel of Vitality

T1 - Secluded Steppe tapped

T2 - Plains into Pearl Medallion

T3 - Emergence Zone into Thorough Investigation and Giada, Font of Hope

I had several misplays this game as it had been a long day. The first was using my Clues too early instead of playing out my hand and refilling it later with the Clues.

Phenax became a huge threat towards mid-game as they had a Haunt of high tower on board along with their commander Phenax, God of Deception. They forced Ghisath to mill 40+ cards with 4 creatures. I had Kabira Takedown  Flip in hand but it wouldn't put a dent in the Haunt. Instead I opted for player removal and swung with everything knocking them out.

My second misplay here was not tapping Giada to cast Angelic Field Marshal which would've given all my creatures vigilance. I was so used to swinging with Giada first and then tapping her that I failed to see her as a mana dork. Since I had Archangel of Tithes out it would've prevented huge swings against me as well.

Since I was wide open Gishath took the advantage and swung at me dropping a good number of dinos on their board. However on their next turn when they tried to use Silverclad Ferocidons with Pyrohemia Jared saved the day by sacrificing Primeval Spawn into a Time Warp.

When I tried to rebuild I realized I had no clues left and no attackers to draw into answers. I also made my third misplay by wasting a Path to Exile on a random dinosaur thinking it would sacrifice Pyrohemia but then stupidly played Bishop of Wings so I could trigger my The Book of Exalted Deeds by replaying Giada.

I died on the next turn to due to lethal Gishath commander damage. If I had saved my Path I could've used it on Gishath and played out more angels for the lifegain.

Ended up winning 2/4 games and was the second biggest threat in the 2 games I lost. I think I would've had a chance in game 4 if I hadn't had so many misplays.

Lightning Greaves was amazing in the 2 games it was played. It was so great that Isshin focused Giada when it came back out. In fact I like it so much that I'm going to try and find a spot for Swiftfoot Boots so I can keep equipping without removing the protection.

Esper Sentinel was also great the 1 game I got it out. Drawing that many cards for 1 mana is just too good to pass up. If you haven't purchased Smuggler's Share yet I'd say go for Esper first.

Archangel of Tithes was SO GOOD. It saved me from lethal once and would've again a second time if I didn't misplay again. With vigilance it does double duty.

Well of Lost Dreams felt a little clunky in game 2. I want to like it, it has a high ceiling but it needs some prep work to start drawing. Either I drop it instead of a threat or I play it much later. I also need lifegain and the mana to draw from it. With the amount of work that goes into it to activate it, a board wipe usually turns it off. We have no other lifegain outside of creature based lifegain. So we would only draw with an established board presence and we're using mana to draw into threats rather than play them. It feels either like a win-more card or a hail mary to get something good. I'm actually debating its place in this deck and what may be a better card draw. Court of Grace at least replaces itself on our end step and provides either an Angel or Spirit on our upkeep. It also requires no additional maintenance to get it going.

Others at the table commented that Authority of the Consuls is a better option to the soul sisters. While I do like the tap mechanic of Authority, it doesn't trigger off my creatures. Also having it be an enchantment means that most people won't bother with it all game. Soul sisters typically get wiped with the rest of the board whereas opponents have to target Authority. I find that I don't usually hit the payoffs on opponents turn but on my own turn. However, I only hit the magic 4/5 life when Bishop of Wings or Righteous Valkyrie is out, not off a soul sister. I know that you really like the soul sisters but practically every game I've had a board wipe and the payoffs haven't been worth it.

Kabira Takedown  Flip has its uses but in terms of removal is pretty poor for the slot. After a boardwipe it's practically worthless.

Even though I STILL haven't pulled off Pyre of Heroes properly I'm once again debating Recruiter of the Guard and Weathered Wayfarer. Since they're both humans they can chain into our human sub-theme. Weathered Wayfarer can be sacrificed into Bishop of Wings to get our lifegain payoffs going. It also helps grab lands for Emeria Shepherd if we want to recur stuff from the graveyard. Recruiter of the Guard can tutor for Starnheim Aspirant, Esper Sentinel, Inspiring Overseer, Thraben Watcher and can be sacrificed into Mangara, the Diplomat.

Tur on People's Thoughts on Mommy Norn?

1 month ago

Combo players, in semi-competitive, do not care about this card. It will never be a road block to their combo decks. It will die right away or be countered. Boom and that's all they wrote. Counterspell cards would be more effective against combo players.

Again, I do not care about the Yarok, the Desecrated part of the card. That really doesn't matter too much.

The problem which I have with Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines is the very large amount of judge rulings, player errors, and misrepresentation which will occur.

It is inevitable these will occur.

How many times have you seen someone in your play group do any of the following actions:

In a casual meta takebacks are generally acceptable. Assuming not too much time or actions have past.

Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines is a engine for these kind of effects. Unless you're a very sticker for the rules, half the time you'll have to deal with so many takebacks. It's a headache.

I'd probably just scoop to this card if I don't have an out in-hand.

At least Winter Orb isn't going to cause massive takebacks.

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