Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares?

VensersJournalist says... #2

I think in terms of what leaves a better impact on the board (or at least better for me and not my opponents), I have to hand it to Swords to Plowshares. Letting the opponent gain life is negligible compared to helping them ramp their mana. Although, if I’m playing Modern, I’d have to go with Path to Exile.

January 16, 2022 1:21 p.m.

Omniscience_is_life says... #3

Swords all day, any day! Giving your opponent a land is a very dangerous thing in today's EDH environment; a chunk of life, even upwards of 6 or so, is fairly negligible.

Swords also costs like half the price (USD), has great art even in the most basic versions of it, and has a beautiful name.

But back to practical application: although some might argue Path'ing your own Ornithopter T1 is a great ramp sequence, especially since it can be done in White, that loses you not only a creature but also a removal spell for the later game! Unless you're specifically trying to pull off some tricky Feather, the Redeemed or Toggo, Goblin Weaponsmith maneuver, you're better off with Swords almost every time. IN MY OPINION

January 16, 2022 1:24 p.m.

griffstick says... #4

Situational either card can be better. It really comes down to the type of deck it goes in and the decks you're up against.

These cards on their own at base value Swords to Plowshares is better. Unless you hit a token from the card Body of Research created. Or Serra Avatar or Malignus Type cards. Then Swords isn't good. Unless that big creature if gonna hit you. But then again it's situational.

January 16, 2022 2:04 p.m.

hejtmane says... #5

Both

January 16, 2022 3:22 p.m.

TypicalTimmy says... #6

Personally, I prefer Swords. While I don't want to give any opponent life, it's far better than another land.

Although, it is hilarious when a high $$$ deck doesn't run basics lololol

January 16, 2022 3:26 p.m.

rockleemyhero says... #7

Swords is infinitely better. Never give your opponents free cards if you can help it. Ones a legacy staple while path barely sees play in modern and sees virtually 0 play in legacy. And that’s a format where the life gain downside is way more important than in edh too.

January 16, 2022 3:34 p.m.

Niko9 says... #8

I agree with the sentiment that swords is slight better. They're both great, but it's usually better to give life than a land. That being said, it's somewhat situational to your meta. You wouldn't want to give certain decks life and certain decks lands. I don't think you can go wrong, really : )

And, side not a bit, bit is it strange to anyone else that swords to plowshares is the ones that gives life and path to exile is the one that gives a land. I feel like it would be good flavor to have them switched, but oh well.

January 16, 2022 3:49 p.m.

LittleMy says... #9

The only time I see Path to Exile being better is in a more politically focused deck and using Path to Exile as a bargaining chip in the early game for extra land, or in the late game. Even then, it's a tenuous one as it'd leave an opponent ahead in land, but hurting in the field.

While both are great, and Path to Exile has the benefit of exiling a creature over just putting it into the graveyard. At the same cost, Swords to Plowshares just is better against a large majority of decks.

In the mid to late game, however, Path to Exile just becomes better. Unless someone is playing a generally high curve deck, then land doesn't matter as most of the time people have their mana rocks, and exiling a creature for good is preferred to putting it into the graveyard where they might have resources to go and fish them out.

TL;DR Swords to Plowshares early game, Path to Exile late game.

January 16, 2022 4:02 p.m.

TypicalTimmy says... #10

Also, consider Path's functionality in EDH. You Path their Commander and they get a land. You've not just assisted in them paying of their Commander tax. Not exactly a good trade off, because if they drop a land the next turn, it's right back out and you functionally wasted a card doing literally nothing.

January 16, 2022 4:16 p.m.

enpc says... #11

TypicalTimmy: Which is only true if your opponent is playing their commander on curve. Buf if your opponent has land ramped or has held off a turn or two to cast their commander then even without the land, pathing their commander just delays it a turn.

But that's the nature of commander removal - the RC have made it very hard for a player to lose access to their commander, short of something like Gilded Drake or Drannith Magistrate. And Swords to Plowshares suffers almost as much against commanders.

January 16, 2022 6:37 p.m. Edited.

TypicalTimmy says... #12

I think the two best Commander removals in the game are Darksteel Mutation and Song of the Dryads. They remain on the battlefield, but they aren't Commanders anymore. Even enchantments that tap them down, they can still have activated and triggered abilities kick off. These two wholly shut them down. Unless your opponent has enchantment removal or bounce spells, they are screwed. There are other, more creative ways such as sacrifice outlets but in general, they need to get rid of the enchantment. And, in my personal experience, enchantment removal is the least common type of removal played - which is exactly why I prefer to go enchantment heavy. Makes my boardstate virtually untouchable in most cases.

January 16, 2022 8:15 p.m.

jamochawoke says... #13

In a vacuum it's Swords to Plowshares. Getting rid of someone's cheap commander or utility combo piece creature is worth the extra 1-5 life you'll have to chunk through to win (if you're even using life as a wincon to begin with).

It's not always best though.

I run Path to Exile more often because I love having the option to ramp myself if I absolutely need to in mono-white or having the option to color fix when splashing. It's especially good if you're using cards in your deck like Pull from Eternity, Riftsweeper, Eternal Scourge, Mirror of Fate, or Misthollow Griffin. It can also be more oppressive than Swords if you're doing evil things like Winter Orb abuse.

January 16, 2022 8:23 p.m.

jamochawoke says... #14

TypicalTimmy the best removals are actually the Arrest enchantments. Your examples give them an indestructible chump blocker and a land for ramp as well.

I'm talking about:

Arrest
Demotion
Desert's Hold
Faith's Fetters
Gelid Shackles
Bound in Gold (arguably the best one)
Nahiri's Binding (this also targets walkers)
Prison Term (best value over a long game)
Serra Bestiary (gets around the mana abilities clause)
Stasis Cocoon
Suppression Bonds
Trapped in the Tower

January 16, 2022 8:33 p.m.

Omniscience_is_life says... #15

jamochawoke gonna have to 110% disagree with you here. My Hallar, the Firefletcher deck will laugh at your silly activated ability blocker and light your face on fire regardless, an Atraxa, Praetors' Voice will chuckle as her Superfriends army grows exponentially, and a Moraug, Fury of Akoum will simply smile as his army attacks agains and again, unaffected by your meaningless shackles.

January 16, 2022 9:34 p.m.

jamochawoke says... #16

Cool, forgot about triggered abilities. No need to be a rude dick about it though.

January 16, 2022 9:37 p.m.

Omniscience_is_life says... #17

Yeah my B. Got excited at the lore I was building and forgot how to human. I'll take my deserved L

January 16, 2022 9:38 p.m.

jamochawoke says... #18

Thx bb. You are correct still.

January 16, 2022 9:39 p.m.

TypicalTimmy says... #19

A 0/1 indestructible chump blocker is nothing to worry about. If you can't get around a 0/1, this may not be the format for you. No offense. What I mean is, a 0/1 is so easily laughable that it really isn't even worth consideration for. Unless it's a voltron deck in which case O.O oopsies

As for the land, I do wholeheartedly agree that giving an opponent a land is a terrible idea - see my response to Path and Swords in this very thread. However, I'd rather they have a land and forever lose their Commander, than have their Commander and win the game more easily.

January 16, 2022 9:41 p.m. Edited.

jamochawoke says... #20

The hell is with people's rudeness today? Not even just here, seems to be the theme of the day. Lol.

Unless they're playing in red or black, they're running enchantment removal, and black can just sacrifice the commander usually in the case of Darksteel Mutation (I've never seen a black deck that doesn't run some kind of sac outlet) and while it may be a real problem for red there are some options there that should be run like Chaos Warp and most red decks including the ones I run have some kind of cheap land destruction that would make Song of the Dryads a good target to get your commander back. In my red deck where colors matter I just change the color of the enchantment to blue and use a blue destruction spell like Active Volcano, Pyroblast, Red Elemental Blast.

Aside from a few slinger decks I'm usually running voltron or some other type of combat-based shenanigans (I love combat), and until I draw into my trample or flying cards that 0/1 indestructible is going to be a major pain in my ass for many turns. Usually people don't want to block with their commanders if your creatures have deathtouch or double strike or are running combat tricks or what have you but they will definitely block with this just because they always can. I also saw someone put that on their enemy's Voltron commander and they just went Voltron with that 0/1 with the added effect of it being indestructible when the board had already used up their Exile based removal and destroying that enchantment would make the Commander way worse. Hooray?

January 16, 2022 10 p.m.

TypicalTimmy says... #21

Again, in my personal experience, I almost never see enchantment removal in any deck IRL. Unless it is a bounce spell such as Cyclonic Rift, or some sort of mass destruction / exile spell, I never see targeted removal for enchantments. And I've been playing EDH for maybe 4 years now. That isn't to say it doesn't exist, but where I play, nobody runs it. The closest I see on a semi-regular basis is Beast Within, which is almost never used against enchantments whenever I sit down at a table - for some odd reason.

January 16, 2022 10:11 p.m. Edited.

enpc says... #22

It just depends on the meta. In the LGSs I used to play in (I haven't actually sat down for a game in quite a while) removal was commonplace. You'd see Cyclonic Rift, but most decks would also be packing stuff like Nature's Claim or Anguished Unmaking. Some playgroups defniitely do like the "Big army smash aginast big army" games and in those, people don't typically want to dedicate slots to removal when they could just run more smashy-smashy.

But in a more combo heavy meta, removal is a necessity. And while I probably run a bit more than most (I had a reputation for always having some piece of removal in hand, even when I didn't) but seeing enchantment removal is not uncommon. But the otehr thing is that typically at those levels of play, commander removal isn't as important as win condition removal.

January 16, 2022 10:22 p.m.

jamochawoke says... #23

That is weird. Been playing EDH for about 10 years now, including several competitive games (where I instantly learned I don't like competitive lol). I tend to see targeted removal quite a lot, but like enpc said that could just be my meta since win condition removal is also extremely important because of how fast the games would happen if you didn't.

The worst had to be at my work group before the pandemic where games literally just turned into nuclear arms races with everyone countering or 1-upping everyone else's decks until we had to sit down and agree on a power level since we really did want to just kick back for at least a half hour to an hour after work.

January 16, 2022 10:52 p.m.

plakjekaas says... #24

TypicalTimmy a slight correction: you said Darksteel Mutation's target isn't a Commander anymore, but that's not true. The card is still your commander, and if you could load it up with +1/+1 counters, that would still count as commander damage. Which has been relevant for me more than once '^^

January 16, 2022 11:38 p.m.

enpc says... #25

While the additional talking points here have been really good, I thought I would just weigh in on the original question with my 2 cents: Generally Swords to Plowshares is the better of the two removal pieces, however the difference between it and Path to Exile is not very much. If you only had a Path and not Swords, you are not doing yourself a disservice running Path.

While both have drawbacks and yes, giving your opponent an additional land is generally worse than giving them a bunch of life, the upside of exiling a creature is almost always worth it (presuming that your target prioritisation is good). And there are scenarios where giving your opponent 1 land is a much better option than giving them a massive chunk of life (if your opponent has some sort of way to buff their creature). Especially when cards like Ad Nauseam come into play or if you rely on combat for example and you exile a Malignus which was being buffed by a Xenagos, God of Revels, the one land can seem like a much better tradeoff. this is why assessing the cards in a total vacuum doesn't entirely work - in a vacuum the downside of each card doesn't matter and so they're identical - pick whichever one you like the art of more.

At the end of the day though, why not run both? EDH as a format is very much focused around creatures, so you may as well take advantage of more high efficiency removal and double your chances of drawing it. As hejtmane puts it:

both

January 17, 2022 12:24 a.m.

SteelSentry says... #26

Thanks for the responses; honestly, I figured Swords to Plowshares would be the favorite.

If anyone was wondering, I'm tuning my Osgir, the Reconstructor deck. I currently have both, but decided to cut one of them once I get a copy of Pull from Eternity on my hands, and wasn't sure. I don't actually play Path to Exile usually, I just happened to have a copy when putting this deck together.