Since its initial appearance back in Conflux, Path to Exile has long been one of MTG’s most iconic removal spells. Considering its Commander dominance and its competitive history in Modern, it’s no wonder that most MTG players are familiar with the card.
Now, 17 years after Path to Exile’s MTG debut, Secrets of Strixhaven is offering players a new take on the iconic spell. Dubbed Erode, this instant has a ton in common with Path, but also incorporates some key differences.
MTG Erode
Just like Path to Exile, Erode’s biggest strength is its efficiency and versatility. At just one mana, this spell can take care of nearly any threat your opponent plays at instant speed. The negative of letting the opponent search for a land is also identical. Because the basic enters tapped, players are still often incentivized to use Erode during the opponent’s turn rather than their own, to avoid untapping with an extra land.
Everything that’s different between Path and Erode can be found in this instant’s first line of text. Destroying a creature means that Erode is particularly poor against Indestructible creatures like Purphoros, God of the Forge. The card can also have trouble dealing with recursive threats like Arclight Phoenix, and Duskmourn’s Enduring cycle. At the same time, this also lets you use your own recursive tools, like Bloodghast, to ramp yourself up extra lands. This can be particularly powerful with Aristocrats Commanders like Teysa Karlov, since you’ll get value from all of your death triggers in the process.
The other major alteration is that Erode can eliminate Planeswalkers. Kaito, Bane of Nightmares is still a factor in Standard, and having a cheap way to get it off the board is nice. This clause is also especially important in Commander. Answering Commander Planeswalkers like Daretti, Scrap Savant and Dihada, Binder of Wills before your opponent gets to fully abuse their static abilities is essential. Superfriends decks also have a nasty habit of blanking most removal, making Erode even more valuable.
How Strong is Erode Now?
Despite Erode’s potential, players aren’t sure just how impactful the card will be. Some players believe this card is a major multi-format upgrade, while others feel the card has some major issues holding it back.
A particularly big point against Erode in Standard is how cheap the must-answer threats are, like Gran-Gran and Badgermole Cub. Given Erode’s downside, you really don’t want to be casting this spell early in the game and ramping your opponent to bigger plays.
On top of that, Standard and Pioneer decks are better at utilizing excess mana than ever. Whether your opponent is Leveling Up Stormchaser’s Talent, casting Nature’s Rhythm via Harmonize, or unlocking Rooms with Unholy Annex/Ritual Chamber, the mana you give them can come back to bite you.
With this in mind, Erode hardly seems like an automatic four-of in white decks. Decks that have synergy with Erode, like Mono-White Momo, might want a lot, but the risk might otherwise be too high. At the end of the day, only time will tell if Erode is enough in our power-crept world.
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