Swords to Plowshares
Instant
Exile target creature. Its controller gains life equal to its power.
"I do not wish for a return of the old gods, nor to recapture the glory of the past. I only wish to see my people thrive. That is enough."
Strategy & Gameplay
Swords to Plowshares is widely considered the best single-target creature removal spell ever printed. For a single white mana at instant speed, it exiles any creature — bypassing indestructible, preventing death triggers, and denying graveyard recursion. The life gain given to the opponent is a trivially small cost compared to the tempo and card advantage of cleanly answering any creature threat in the game. In Legacy, Swords is the premier removal spell, cleanly handling everything from Murktide Regent to Marit Lage tokens without breaking a sweat. In Commander, it's an automatic inclusion in every white deck — the exile clause is especially relevant in a format rife with graveyard strategies, indestructible gods, and commanders that want to die and be recast. In Vintage Cube, it's a premium pick that makes any white deck significantly better. The card's efficiency has made it the template for white removal design, though Wizards has never reprinted anything quite as clean and unconditional at one mana.
Illustrated by Piotr Dura