Terminate vs Path to Exile?
Modern Deck Help forum
Posted on Aug. 28, 2015, 3:58 p.m. by skeletonkey8
What is better Terminate or Path to Exile? 1 less mana but with a downside, or 2 mana with no downside?
You have the possibility of turning a downside into an upside. For instance, you cast Path to Exile, then cast Archive Trap to mill them after they searched for free! Plus, there is always a downside to just destruction. Graveyard shenanigans are a thing.
August 28, 2015 4:08 p.m.
AwesomeName says... #4
Terminate costs 1 more mana, which can mean a lot. It also is two colors, meaning you have to have a deck with those specific colors to play it in. Path to Exile exiles, which can be very helpful against certain cards. The downside of Path to Exile isn't even that bad of one. So Path to Exile is generally better.
August 28, 2015 4:11 p.m. Edited.
skeletonkey8 says... #5
What i mean is, if you if you were making lets say a Mardu deck and you had to choose between Terminate and Path to Exile, what card would go into your list as the last two spots for hard spot removal?
August 28, 2015 4:34 p.m.
If you were making a Mardu deck, you'd probably make room for both, possibly a 3-2 split. However, if you had no other room, I would choose Path any day.
August 28, 2015 5:04 p.m.
3/2 path/terminate in creature heavy. 3/3 or 4/3 in control. Though that would be awful for your manabase due the W requirement T1 and the BR requirement T2. Paths downside is real against a great many decks, especially aggro where an extra land is an extra Lightning Bolt to the face. Also propelling a Jund deck into an early Liliana of the Veil can also be problematic. Path is one of the best removal spells in the game but beware how you use it.
August 28, 2015 5:29 p.m.
VampireArmy says... #8
Yep. Chief knows.
In Mardu we pretty much always play both.
August 28, 2015 5:39 p.m.
notamardybum says... #9
It's better to have a variety of answers in modern because some creatures have protection. It isn't necessarily correct to say 1 is way better than the other so play 4.
buildingadeck says... #2
Path to Exile is generally better, but there are upsides to Terminate giving your opponent a land. However, exile vs grave is huge, so PtE is better, IMO.
August 28, 2015 4:06 p.m.