Aysen Highway MTG Card


Aysen Highway - Homelands
Mana cost
Converted mana cost6
RarityRare
TypeEnchantment
Released1995-10-01
Set symbol
Set nameHomelands
Set codeHML
Number5
Frame1993
Layoutnormal
Borderblack
Illustred byNéNé Thomas

Key Takeaways

  1. Aysen Highway grants consistent evasion, allowing white creatures to attack unblocked and pressurize opponents.
  2. Enables mana conservation for other spells by providing a permanent unblockable status without repeat costs.
  3. Demands white mana, limiting it to certain deck builds, and carries a higher mana cost for its specific effect.

Text of card

All white creatures gain plainswalk.

"Tread the roads of righteousness, Murat, lest you lose your way and be consumed." —Baris, Serra Inquisitor


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Aysen Highway may not directly allow you to draw cards, but it provides a strategic advantage by permitting all your white creatures to bypass blockers as if they had flying. This sustained offensive capability can pressure your opponents and potentially lead to card advantage as you decimate their board presence.

Resource Acceleration: This enchantment does not directly accelerate resources in the form of mana or tokens. However, by enabling a consistent attack phase without the need for flying creatures, it allows you to focus your mana and resources on further developing your board instead of investing in evasion abilities.

Instant Speed: While Aysen Highway is not an instant, its enduring presence on the field means that once it’s played, the benefit is continuous. It doesn’t require additional mana investment each turn, which effectively frees up your mana to cast spells at instant speed, maintain defensive options, or advance your board position.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: The Aysen Highway card doesn’t feature a discard requirement itself, yet it’s useful to note that employing this card in your deck means you’re potentially foregoing more immediate or tactical cards that could better respond to an opponent’s threats or bolster your position with a lower resource investment.

Specific Mana Cost: Aysen Highway has a requirement of one white mana in its casting cost. This ties it to decks that can generate white mana reliably. Players running multicolored decks that don’t focus on white may find it challenging to meet this color-specific demand, reducing the card’s overall flexibility and limiting its inclusion to primarily white or white-inclusive decks.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a converted mana cost of four, including three generic and one white mana, Aysen Highway can be considered costly for what it delivers—unrestricted attacking for only creatures with plainswalk. Given the mana investment, players might expect more impactful effects that can alter the game’s state more significantly rather than a selective improvement to a subset of creatures’ abilities.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Aysen Highway ensures any nonblack creatures you control can swing without being blocked. This opens up gameplay across a variety of deck builds, making it especially useful for those filled with high-powered creatures that are often targets for blockers.

Combo Potential: This card can be a keystone in decks that capitalize on dealing damage through creatures. It works well with cards that have on-hit effects, ensuring those triggers happen reliably every combat phase.

Meta-Relevance: In a meta dominated by decks that rely on creature blocking as a primary defense, Aysen Highway can pivot the game in your favor. This card could be a game-changer, giving you an edge when most needed.


How to beat

Aysen Highway presents a unique challenge in Magic: The Gathering, allowing white creatures to avoid being blocked as long as you control a Plains. This can be a game-changer by enabling your creatures eternal freedom to attack. But how does one navigate around such an obstructionist card? Key tactics involve focusing on removal spells or enchantment destruction to dismantle the advantage that Aysen Highway provides.

Employing spells like Naturalize or Disenchant can be pivotal in swiftly eliminating the threat of unblockable creatures. Cards that force a player to sacrifice enchantments can also serve as a powerful countermeasure. Additionally, altering your gameplay to emphasize creature control with board wipes can mitigate the one-sided affair Aysen Highway might create. By stripping away the support that this card provides, you reinstate balance to the battlefield and open up new avenues to attain victory.

In essence, overcoming Aysen Highway’s effect requires strategic plays and choosing the right moments to strike. Keeping such answers in your deck can prove invaluable, especially when faced with enchantments that drastically shift game dynamics.


Cards like Aysen Highway

Aysen Highway is a unique card with its own set of abilities in the world of Magic: The Gathering. Sharing similarities with cards that grant permissions or avoidances for creatures, it has characteristics in common with cards like Brave the Elements, which also offers protection to your creatures from a particular color for a turn. Aysen Highway, however, provides a constant benefit, giving white creatures you control plainswalk indefinitely. This is a significant advantage in the right deck setup, especially in mono-white builds focused on evasion.

While comparing Aysen Highway to a card like Sejiri Steppe, which can give a creature protection from a chosen color until end of turn when it enters the battlefield, Aysen Highway stands out for its ongoing effect rather than a one-time utility. Sejiri Steppe is more flexible upon entry, but less so as the game progresses. Then we have Rogue’s Passage, which although it can make a creature unblockable for a turn, requires a mana investment each time it’s used, contrasting with Aysen Highway’s permanent effect once on the battlefield.

Ultimately, Aysen Highway offers a persistent strategic advantage for white creature decks. It may require a specific deck to maximize its potential, but in the right circumstances, it’s unmatched in providing an enduring evasion tactic.

Brave the Elements - MTG Card versions
Sejiri Steppe - MTG Card versions
Rogue's Passage - MTG Card versions
Brave the Elements - Zendikar (ZEN)
Sejiri Steppe - Worldwake (WWK)
Rogue's Passage - Return to Ravnica (RTR)

Cards similar to Aysen Highway by color, type and mana cost

The Cheese Stands Alone - MTG Card versions
Transcendence - MTG Card versions
True Conviction - MTG Card versions
Martyr's Bond - MTG Card versions
Leyline Binding - MTG Card versions
Sigarda's Summons - MTG Card versions
Barren Glory - MTG Card versions
Celestial Mantle - MTG Card versions
Exclusion Ritual - MTG Card versions
Axis of Mortality - MTG Card versions
Fall of the Thran - MTG Card versions
Song of the Worldsoul - MTG Card versions
Nykthos Paragon - MTG Card versions
Sworn to the Legion - MTG Card versions
Battle at the Helvault - MTG Card versions
The Night of the Doctor - MTG Card versions
From the Rubble - MTG Card versions
The Cheese Stands Alone - Unglued (UGL)
Transcendence - Torment (TOR)
True Conviction - Starter Commander Decks (SCD)
Martyr's Bond - The List (PLST)
Leyline Binding - Dominaria United Promos (PDMU)
Sigarda's Summons - Innistrad: Double Feature (DBL)
Barren Glory - Future Sight (FUT)
Celestial Mantle - Jumpstart (JMP)
Exclusion Ritual - New Phyrexia (NPH)
Axis of Mortality - Ixalan Promos (PXLN)
Fall of the Thran - The List (PLST)
Song of the Worldsoul - Commander 2019 (C19)
Nykthos Paragon - Modern Horizons 2 Promos (PMH2)
Sworn to the Legion - Alchemy Horizons: Baldur's Gate (HBG)
Battle at the Helvault - Commander Masters (CMM)
The Night of the Doctor - Doctor Who (WHO)
From the Rubble - The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander (LCC)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Aysen Highway MTG card by a specific set like Homelands, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Aysen Highway and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Aysen Highway has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
OathbreakerLegal
PremodernLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal

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