Hailed as the successor to Swords To Ploughshares when it was first printed in Conflux all the way back in 2009, Path To Exile has become a singular removal staple in white decks forMagic: The Gathering. Giving an opponent a small boost to their mana curve is a small price to pay for exiling their biggest threat and upending their strategy, all for one mana.
If it’s legal in the format you’re playing, and your deck includes white, there’s a pretty good chance that you’ll want as many copies of Path To Exile as you can fit. Which of these sought-after printings do you have in your collection?
All prices in this list reflect the market price as shown ontcgplayer.comon the day the article was written, June 15, 2025.
10CMM626 - Commander Masters Borderless ($1.93)
A Must For Boros And Kamigawa Fans.
Commander can be a completely different animal from head-to-head Magic, but Path To Exile isjust as useful when you’re facing three opponents as it is against just one. It’s no surprise, then, that the legendary Uncommon was included in 2023’s Commander Masters.
Not only does the art for PTE’s Commander Masters printingshowcase a kami being banished to the spirit realmin Magic’s fan-favorite Kamigawa setting, but this borderless card shows off Ron Spears' illustration all the way to the edge. The red shrine gate in the background also makes the card a noticeable departure from Path To Exile’s usual stark white color schemes, making ita great pick for decks that play with the inherent synergies between red and white.
9DDI023 - Duel Decks: Venser Vs. Koth ($2.41)
The Biggest Reason To Get This Duel Deck.
Duel Decks have historically been pretty hit-or-miss; they’ve always been printed in relatively small, single-run quantities, but players either grab them up in an instant and turn them into sealed collector’s items, or they ended up forgotten. Venser Vs. Koth was among the latter.
Still, this 2012 Duel Deck included Path To Exile, withart by Erica Yang themed around Koth’s home plane of Mirrodin, making it unique among the card’s many printings. It might not be the most sought-after version of the card, but it’s been out of print for over a decade and makes a great fit for an artifact deck.
8ACR178 - Universes Beyond: Assassin’s Creed, Foil Etched ($3.42)
Honestly, We’d Be Shocked If Assassin’s Creed Hadn’t Included Path To Exile.
The extremely limited print runs and crossover interest of the Universes Beyond sets hasmade even Uncommons like Path To Exile highly sought-after. Love it or hate it, Universes Beyond has driven a lot of sales for Magic, which in turn has led to its cards becoming extremely collectible.
Assassin’s Creedis a series about white-robed agents removing troublesome conspirators from the world, so of course Path To Exile is a perfect fit. The card’s printing in this set features Kassandra, the heroine fromAssassin’s Creed: Odyssey. The basic version (ACR081) is pretty cheap, but if you’re willing to pay a few bucks apiece, there’s no reason not tospring for the foil variant and its gold text box instead.
7TSR299 - Time Spiral Remastered ($3.49)
An Old-School Look Worthy Of This Classic Card.
Path To Exile first saw playshortly after Magic changed its card borders, moving away from the classic look that cards had been printed with since the game launched. Aficionados of ’90s and early 2000’s Magic, when Necropotence was king and Serra Angel was a legitimate threat, would certainly be glad to have 2021’sTimeshifted printingof Path To Exile, which uses the original card border.
It’s very important to note that this card is from Time Spiral Remastered;Path To Exile was never printed, Timeshifted or not, in the original Time Spiral, which was one of the last sets to use the old border.
6SLD477 - Secret Lair x Arcane ($3.49)
The Full Set Is Pricey, But Just The One Card Is Fairly Affordable.
If you’re a fan ofArcane, or just ofLeague of Legendsin general, you might consider showing off by putting Jayce in your deck - that’s Jayce with a Y, of course, not Magic’s notorious blue planeswalker. A full set of the Arcane Secret Lair will run you around $100, but if you just want the Path To Exile featuring Jayce, it’s comparatively easy to get as a single.
5Full-Art MagicFest Promo ($5.00)
The Promo For The Fest That Never Was.
Magic players are no strangers to getting gorgeous promos for attending in-person events, and Chris Seaman’s art of a fallen angel for thisMagicFest printing of Path To Exileis stunning. All you had to do to get one was attend a MagicFest event… in 2020.
As you probably recall,people didn’t do a lot of traveling to big conventions and tournaments in 2020. In fact, most big Magic events, including MagicFests, werecanceled outright that year. The promos found their way to players through other means, keeping this full-art Path To Exile from skyrocketing in price. If they hadn’t, it would likely have become quite the prize.
4WHO801 - Universes Beyond: Doctor Who, Surge Foil ($5.90)
Who’s The Guy In The Illustration?
It might not show up in strictly every Universes Beyond crossover, butDoctor Whoseems like a good fit for an appearance by Path To Exile. With all its dimension-hopping and getting lost in time and space, creatures getting erased from the board ought to be an everyday occurrence when mana and sonic screwdrivers collide.
Like the Assassin’s Creed printing, if you’re going to get a Doctor Who Path To Exile for your Commander deck, you may as well go for the surge foil (as opposed to the standard printing, WHO210). Getting a full playset of four for other formats might start to eat into your overall budget, though, at nearly six dollars apiece.
3SLD226: Fblthp: Completely, Utterly, Totally Lost ($12.97)
Everybody Loves Fblthp.
Magic’s lovable, directionally-challenged homunculus got his own Secret Lair drop in 2021, featuringwhimsical Where’s Waldo-style scenes on the streets of Ravnica by Marija Tiurina. Path To Exile was an obvious inclusion, as it stands to reason that poor little wanderer has been the victim of the iconic spell at least once.
The uniqueness of the card’s borderless illustration and its connection to Magic’s fan-favorite, unofficial mascot makes it one of the more valuable printings of Path To Exile. Whatever you do, don’t lose it.
2WPN & Gateway Promo ($13.70)
You Can Also Call It The DCI Promo If You’re Old Like Me.
There are few artists in Magic’s extensive roster of illustrators as universally beloved as Rebecca Guay. Her instantly recognizable style brings a timelessly evocative fantasy aesthetic to every card, transcending all of the many design changes Magic has gone through over the decades.
This WPN promo (or DCI, as it was still called in 2009 when it was printed) could be obtained by playing in official Magic events around the time Path To Exile was originally released. Its age, exclusivity, and illustration by one of Magic’s most popular artists of all time make it the pinnacle Path. It’s not the most expensive version of the card on the market right now, though. That honor goes to…
1PIP697 - Universes Beyond: Fallout, Surge Foil ($20.52)
Card Collecting. Card Collecting Never Changes.
On paper, there’s no difference between the Doctor Who surge foil Path To Exile and the Fallout one. They’re both textured foil variants of an uncommon, in a Collector Booster based on a massively popular sci-fi franchise. However, when Universes Beyond: Fallout released in early 2024, rumors and speculation that it had been underprinteddrove prices up as players, collectors, and scalpersall rushed to buy before it sold out worldwide.
We’re still feeling the effects of that a year later, as the Fallout Path To Exile’s surge foil variant isthe highest-priced version of the card on TCGPlayerby a factor of about a third. While $20 and change isn’t a ludicrous price when we’re talking about Magic: The Gathering cards, that’s still a big difference between the highest and second-highest numbers, especially when most printings can be had at a fiver or less.
