Swords to Plowshares

Instant

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

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Archenemy	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 Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Oldschool 93/94	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Unformat	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

Taida on Orzhov Tokens

3 days ago

The deck looks nice. You can make more use of the colors you chose, so adding something like Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim or Blood Artist, so you can both gain life when your tokens enter the battlefield and make them more annoying when they die. You could also include one or two copies of Blade Historian for closing the game. I would recommend changing Swords to Plowshares by Path to Exile, Get Lost or Fateful Absence, as it is not legal in Modern. You could also include more anthem effects, like Honor of the Pure, but I think the ones you have already included are very nice. Another plainswalker you could consider is Basri Ket, as you will be attacking with a lot of creatures, and you could create even more of them. Finally, I would recommend adding some copies of Isolated Chapel, but it comes to personal preference regarding la

CoryDean on Wyleth

1 week ago

Added: Astor, Bearer of Blades, Swords to Plowshares, Arid Mesa, Needleverge Pathway  ^Flip, Clever Concealment

Removed: Keeper of the Accord, Elbrus, the Binding Blade  ^Flip (because it is black), Condemn, Plains, Mountain,

DreadKhan on lonely goth girl

1 week ago

Axis is your own effect, so it isn't affected by your own Hexproof (this is different than Shroud, see Lightning Greaves), unless you mean you run into that card a lot? If so then Axis won't be as consistent, but you could also consider running Soltari Visionary to blow up Enchantments.

One nice thing about Skullclamp is that you can always put it on your creature that is most likely to be killed, this at least nets you 2 cards if it happens (it also stacks with actual sacrifice effects since it doesn't kill the creature unless it has 1 toughness).

I can see you being iffy about Angel's Trumpet, but my theory was that with your Commander people are almost certainly going to try to swing at one another, because if they don't all their creatures are going to die and give you the only board. Meanwhile, those 1/1s have evasion, so even if most opponents will benefit from vigilance, your creatures might not care because they can still get in (and are then available to block). It might depend on how people in your area play, so no offense taken.

A few you might consider trimming are: Blight Herder, this is a lot of mana for very little value if you can't make the 1/1s. Ironclad Slayer seems like a poor fit to me, when I run stuff like this it's always in my opener! Do you have many cards that care about Ugin, the Ineffable's effect? 6 mana is an awful lot for this effect when Vindicate exists, and the tokens are pretty minor in Commander, I think you need to care about each of the abilities for Ugin to make sense. Is Relic Seeker in here just to find Dowsing Dagger? It seems like it'd be a challenge to actually achieve Renown with Seeker. All That Glitters is often a very strong card, but I'm not entirely convinced you have enough synergy to make it work, is Voltron really a good plan in this deck? Angelic Purge and Bone Shards are pretty 'meh' removal spells for an Orzhov deck, White has the best versatile removal effects by itself, to say nothing of Anguished Unmaking and Utter End, both of those are instants, and neither costs you a body (and both are more versatile). There is also Generous Gift in White, which lacks exile but hits anything. I don't love Celestial Judgement, aren't you likely to have a lot of 1/1s? It's great if you've got Cathar's Crusade out, but it can be pretty bad without it. Piercing Rays seems pretty unimpactful, it has too many limitations for a Sorcery speed effect that costs more than Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares. I don't like Acolyte's Reward, if you've got lots of White devotion surely you could just block?

Hope some of this helps!

Niko9 on How come no one is...

1 week ago

I haven't played with Railway Brawler, and it seems good, but I'm not sure it's suited for every deck. It's a very powerful effect to add counters and double creatures power, but at 5 cmc, you probably won't be casting a creature right after railway brawler, and then it has to stick around until next turn. Maybe it's great with flash enablers? Flash it in before your turn and then go to town sounds pretty good.

I mean, I think it's a really good card, but it's much less powerful than something like Voja, Jaws of the Conclave just because Voja works with haste enablers to get the value end on the turn it comes down.

I feel like Railway Brawler could absolutely run away with games, but I feel like it could also just get hit by Swords to Plowshares just as much of the time.

DreadKhan on Friendship is Magic

1 month ago

I'm also of the opinion that a few more lands would probably solid, 31 doesn't feel like very many, a few more would probably help with consistency (which may or may not be an issue for you).

It might not matter as much if you play vs other casual decks (you'll be less likely to be punished for running artifacts), but in Selesnya I feel like you don't want mana rocks, Green has access to some really good ramp effects, and they're often fairly affordable. For example, I think I'd switch out Arcane Signet for Rampant Growth, Commander Sphere for Kodama's Reach, Cluestone could go for Harrow (if people counter ramp spells I'd go with Roiling Regrowth instead), and Sol Ring could go for something like Wild Growth/Utopia Sprawl/Crop Rotation. If you go this route I would consider switching a few Plains for Forests, even if your deck ends up having a lot of White effects, Green ramp can find Plains for you.

When I try to build Casual decks, I still try to put removal in, but I try not to run stuff like Swords to Plowshares, and instead try to use less pushed options like Intrepid Hero, Avenger en-Dal, and Spurnmage Advocate. Each has it's own drawbacks, but the fact that you can't 'catch' (they aren't a 1 mana Instant) someone with these makes them fun in my experience. Spurnmage is a really powerful political card that can be helpful vs graveyard decks, and Avenger can technically gain you life if you have a big creature and just want the life, but it's also a deterrent. If you want a non-creature source of creature removal their is also Transmogrifying Wand, this is one of the best 'lower power' removal effects ever printed, it's good enough to make a big impact once resolved, but you need it to stick around to get full value over time. IMHO there's nothing wrong with running relatively little removal in a casual environment, but you'll probably win a few more games if you have some ways to slow down opponents that happened to draw well, so if that matters you might throw a few things in.

Not sure if you want actual jank, but Noble Purpose is an old favorite of mine that gains you tons of life if you're in combat, but most importantly it fully stacks with Lifelink.

rckclimber777 on Build a Deck with Me …

1 month ago

First a quick introduction. I've been playing magic off and on for years. When this site first started out, I was super active and then I stopped playing. I recently got back into it and plunged deep into the Commander format. I love building decks around interesting concepts and often trying to break cards.

My slightly ambitious goal is to create a series of threads that show my thought process as I build a commander deck. I figure it will serve two purposes: First, it will aid newer players who have some precon decks and perhaps are looking to upgrade them or they see a commander and want to build it, but aren't sure how. The second is purely self-motivated in that more experienced players can fine tune my own logic and make suggestions for my own improvement.

So with that, the first commander deck I'm going to build here is Ghired, Mirror of the Wilds. This is a card that begs to be broken and creates for interesting and powerful decks. There are also several different lines you can choose to go with. You can make it go infinite if you like degeneracy or don't like the people in your playgroup, or you can decide to go the way of building lots of tokens quickly and then turning them sideways and swinging. (Spoiler alert we are going infinite)

So first things first, we need to think about what the commander actually does and what it is going to need to do that effectively. First, it allows all nontoken creatures to tap and create tokens that I control that entered the battlefield this turn. So a couple things to point out: First is that it is tokens not creature tokens specifically, so treasures, clues, food, etc. are fair game. Secondly, it doesn't have to be my turn that the tokens came in, you can activate the ability at instant speed if you create a token on your opponent's turn. Now Ghired also is only 3 mana in Naya colors with Haste which means he's going to come down early in the game, so we'll want some other creatures out there when he comes down to start building up tokens right away.

With his abilities in mind, there are a couple things that we want to think about: Cards that create tokens, cards that double tokens, cards that untap things, and cards that do interesting things when they're tapped, example Wylie Duke, Atiin Hero, who comes down early as well, and when she is tapped I gain life and draw a card. We will obviously need to consider interaction, ramp, and card draw, but those are secondary in my thoughts. Every deck needs those, but what items you add often depends on what your deck is trying to do. In this case, we want to make tokens, tap creatures, make more tokens.

Token Generators

So a couple really good token generators here to start would be things that keep making them rather than one offs. In my playtesting Oltec Matterweaver is hard to beat. It comes in early (turn 2 if you can get a sol ring). When you cast a creature spell you can copy a target artifact or bring out a 1/1 gnome. Turn 1 you play a plains and a sol ring. Turn 2 you bring this out, turn 3 you bring out Ghired, creating a copy of sol ring, tap your Oltec Matterweaver and create another sol ring. You now have 3 sol rings on the field on turn 3... You are now the archenemy, congrats? EDIT: So as it was pointed out in the comments Oltec only creates copies of TOKEN artifacts. We could use Molten Duplication to create a copy of an artifact, but still Oltec still does great at producing consistent tokens.

Some other standouts are Emmara, Soul of the Accord who when tapped creates a 1/1 soldier with lifelink. So tapping will actually create two tokens. Also if you need a token for Sunstrike Legionnaire to go infinite you can tap her down (she's only 2 mana) create your 1/1 soldier, untap sunstrike, with Ghired on the field, tap Sunstrike to create infinite lifelink 1/1 soldiers. (actually happened in playtesting)

Generous Plunderer deserves a mention as you really need consistent tokens every turn and this does that. It gives you treasure tokens which is great and is likely to stick around since your opponents like the possibility of getting a treasure token as well. Dockside Extortionist can take the deck to new levels of degeneracy depending on when you play it/number of times you copy it with things like kiki jiki and jaxis.

Selvala, Eager Trailblazer is also great as you get 1/1 creatures every time you cast a creature spell. Her ramp also goes surprisingly well in the deck. I highly recommend it.

Thousand Moons Smithy  ^Flip is another beast of a card. It comes down turn 4, Ghired is already out along with any other low cost creatures. Let's say you have a Birds of Paradise and Ghired when this comes down and maybe a mana rock. You create a 5/5 Gnome (2 creatures, 2 artifacts, and the gnome itself). Now you tap the bird and Ghired and create two more Gnomes. You now have 3 7/7s, on turn 4...

Honorable mentions here are things like Smothering Tithe who will create treasures each opponent's turn, tap a creature and create another. Rain of Riches, create some treasures, copy them, cast something, and get cascade.

Also, populate is a thing, I like Growing Ranks and Nesting Dovehawk for that.

Doublers

Ok, so doublers is a pretty easy topic, there are quite a few out there, they are expensive and honestly for this deck you don't need much. I chose a couple that I particularly like for this and by like I mean I own them and didn't have to go out and spend $50-60. Examples are Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation  ^Flip, Mondrak, Glory Dominus, Primal Vigor (careful as this one applies to everyone not just you).

I ended up starting out with 3 of these and then cut it down to just the two creatures mondrak and ojer taq. Both are still great and can quickly overwhelm the opponent. I found myself holding onto the enchantments in preference to playing token creators and creatures.

Untapping Abilities

Untapping abilites can make it even worse as time goes on. If you have a Seedborn Muse you untap each upkeep so they draw a card, Smothering Tithe creates a treasure, during their end step you tap your creatures creating more treasures. Untap on the next opponent's untap step, rinse and repeat.

This is also where infinite combos begin to happen. Sunstrike Legionnaire untaps everytime a creature enters the battlefield. Make a creature token, tap sunstrike legionnaire, create another creature token, sunstrike legionnaire untaps, rinse and repeat, gg. Midnight Guard works too for one more mana. Other options include making copies of your own creatures that untap creatures when they enter the battlefield like Hyrax Tower Scout, Zealous Conscripts, Sparring Mummy. Mix that with notable salty cards like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Molten Duplication, Splinter Twin, Jaxis, the Troublemaker and you're off to infinite again. (Jaxis uses his ability targeting sparring mummy, sparring mummy comes in untaps him, now Jaxis just taps to make a copy of the sparring mummy token (from Ghired) which has haste, it comes in untaps Jaxis, rinse and repeat, swing with a legion of sparring mummies)

Don't got too heavy on these or you won't have enough tokens to copy.

Cards that do cool things when tapped aren't super plentiful, but the two I've mentioned already are great for this deck. (Wylie and Emmara).

Interaction, ramp, card draw

Now for the ramp, interaction, and card draw. Ramp is fairly straightforward, since we have the Oltec Matterweaver, I opted to put in some signets, but left some other stones out. Normally when I'm in green I go heavy on green ramp. I opted for cheap ramp spells like Rampant Growth, Farseek, Three Visits and Birds of Paradise (could maybe use more mana dorks since having a body later will help in producing larger tokens).

Interaction is super important in this one. Board wipes are coming, targeted removal is coming, so need to prepare, but we also need to be flexible in taking out our opponents. So to save us from board wipes, we have Heroic Intervention, the ubiquitous and hopefully soon to be reprinted (one can dream) Teferi's Protection, Boros Charm, and Smuggler's Surprise (which is heroic intervention in disguise).

Getting rid of threats is crucial, so Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares are useful, but not as useful as Beast Within, Generous Gift, and Stroke of Midnight. These obviously target more than just creatures, but also produce tokens. There are situations where a well-timed beast within on your own treasure token to create a 3/3 beast that you can copy a bunch of times is the right play. That make it not just removal, but also a token generator.

Finally, we come to card draw. Since we are producing tokens (hopefully most turns) we can include things like Bennie Bracks, Zoologist and Idol of Oblivion. I also like Welcoming Vampire for this deck. It is creature heavy so Guardian Project is great, so is Beast Whisperer and Garruk's Uprising. Esper Sentinel is always good. We already have Wylie from earlier. Getting card draw is vital to the survival of any deck and particularly this one as we need to be producing tokens regularly and you need cards to produce them. I chose to run about 11 card draw engines in the deck to ensure I'm drawing regularly.

Lands... I mean... make sure you have dual lands in the deck and triomes if you can. One noteworthy utility land is Grove of the Guardian which can have a nice payoff when you create an 8/8 with a few creatures out along with Ghired.

I'll post the deck that I built from this thought process on my page in case you want to see the final product. And if you made it this far thanks for joining me on this, I hope it was helpful. Feel free to comment on how you would do it differently or cards that should have been mentioned. Also feel free to mention commanders you want to see built. I have a couple in mind to start but want to see suggestions as well.

Here is the final decklist: Ghired the infinite outlaw

GangstaFranksta on Arcades, the Strategist's Army

2 months ago

You should think about adding The Pride of Hull Clade because he is good but also cool. But I think you would benefit a lot from improving your mana base. I suggest it should look more like this:

Lands

Basic

8x Plains, 8 Island, 4 Forest

Pain

Adarkar Wastes, Brushland, Yavimaya Coast

Scry Lands

Temple of Mystery, Temple of Enlightenment, Temple of Plenty

Tri Color

Brokers Hideout, Seaside Citadel, Bant Panorama

Any Color

Command Tower, Exotic Orchard

If you wanted you could also add the gain 1 life lands: Tranquil Cove, Blossoming Sands, and Thornwood Falls. You may also consider adding Krosan Verge or Myriad Landscape just to help ramp.

It would also be really beneficial to have at least a Sol Ring and an Arcane Signet.

Other

Remove Verity Circle. Seems like there are a lot of possibilities where it is just sitting on the field not providing any value. And it isn't even a creature so it can't block. You could replace this with one of the mana artifacts I mentioned earlier or like a Swords to Plowshares, Pongify, Rapid Hybridization, Path to Exile (I kind of think you need some more removal lol, but you could replace Verity Circle with whatever you wanted.)

Remove Alive / Well. Just straight up not worth. Replace with one of the cards I have mentioned.

Other than that I think this is a really good deck. I think you could use most of my suggestions and keep it close to $100.

Idoneity on How Good is Temple Bell?

2 months ago

Caerwyn —— This is where we hold a different opinion. Card advantage in two-player formats, I believe, is different than in four-player. Giving other players cards that they probably won't use against you is kind of like drawing cards for yourselves and using them against your foe, but you don't even have to spend mana.

If we're keeping it case-by-case, Swords to Plowshares is a good card and it can stop aggression once you use it, but you need a few kill spells beyond the first one to actually stop a player from attacking you. Once the swords is used, it's used, and that's an invitation for calamity.