Path to the Festival MTG Card
2021-09-24 - Number 191
2022-01-28 - Number 191
| Card sets | Released in 2 setsSee all |
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 3 |
| Rarity | Common |
| Type | Sorcery |
| Abilities | Flashback,Scry |
Key Takeaways
- Improves card advantage, allowing players to thin decks and draw more impactful cards during later turns.
- Enables resource acceleration, fixes mana colors, and sets the stage for casting game-changing spells early.
- Adaptable play potential by working with flash, which can surprise opponents and provide a psychological edge.
Text of card
Search your library for a basic land card, put that card onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle. Then if there are three or more basic land types among lands you control, scry 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card on the bottom of your library.) Flashback (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.)
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Path to the Festival is a versatile addition to any deck focusing on card advantage. By searching for a basic land card and putting it onto the battlefield tapped, it ensures a steady growth in your available resources, effectively thinning the deck to increase the chances of drawing impactful cards in the subsequent turns.
Resource Acceleration: This card aids in resource acceleration by allowing you to ramp up your available mana. It’s particularly useful in multi-colored decks as it helps you fetch the specific basic land you need, assisting in color fixing and laying the groundwork for casting more demanding spells earlier in the game.
Instant Speed: While Path to the Festival is a sorcery, its synergy with cards that grant flash could potentially elevate it to instant-speed status in the right deck. This adaptability makes it an unexpected tool for responding to an opponent’s actions and optimizing your plays during each turn cycle. Additionally, its existence in a deck may force opponents to play around the anticipation of an accelerated play, possibly gaining you a psychological edge.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: In the strategy of resource utilization, Path to the Festival can be less than optimal. Players must discard a card upon using its abilities, which can backfire in situations where every card in hand is vital to maintaining gameplay momentum or constructing strategic plays.
Specific Mana Cost: The necessity for green mana in its casting cost confines it to decks that can reliably produce this mana type. Consequently, players running multi-colored decks that are not green-centric may find the inclusion of Path to the Festival to be a limiting factor, potentially hampering deck diversity and strategic complexity.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: While the search for a basic land card is an undoubted boon, the relatively steep cost of three mana can impact the early game flow, especially when other cards may provide similar ramp or land-fetching capabilities with greater cost efficiency. Additionally, in high-stakes situations, tapping out to play Path to the Festival could potentially leave players vulnerable to an opponent’s subsequent moves without adequate mana for responses.
Reasons to Include in Your Collection
Versatility: Path to the Festival is a flexible card that can easily find its place in various deck archetypes, especially those that require land ramp or benefit from landfall triggers.
Combo Potential: With its ability to search for a basic land card and shuffle your library, this card works well to set up deck synergies or enable powerful combos with the cards that react to land plays.
Meta-Relevance: Given its functionality in ramping and fixing mana, Path to the Festival can be a formidable inclusion in a meta that values quick access to multiple colors of mana or in archetypes that aim to outpace opponents through superior mana resources.
How to Beat
Path to the Festival is a card that offers deck enthusiasts a way to ramp up their mana and streamline their deck’s performance. Its strength lies in the ability to search for a basic land card or a Gate card, which not only enhances your mana pool but also gives you a scry 1, if it was kicked. Overcoming Path to the Festival demands a strategic approach, focusing on land disruption and hand disruption.
Utilizing cards that remove lands from the battlefield can be effective in stunting the mana acceleration Path to the Festival provides. Land destruction spells or abilities that force opponents to sacrifice lands will undermine the benefits gained from the card. Additionally, hand disruption tactics can preemptively remove Path to the Festival before it’s even cast. Thoughtseize or Duress are excellent examples, granting you the ability to strip this spell from your opponent’s grip and disrupting their game plan.
While Path to the Festival can carve a potent route for your opponent, interrupting their land base or taking proactive measures against their hand can be key in eclipsing its advantages. By understanding the mechanics at play and having the right countermeasures, you can ensure that the path your opponents are on leads to your victory instead of theirs.
Cards like Path to the Festival
Path to the Festival is an intriguing spell in the realm of land search cards within Magic: The Gathering. It bears similarity to cards like Cultivate and Kodama’s Reach, both of which allow a player to search their library for up to two basic lands, putting one onto the battlefield and the other into their hand. Path to the Festival edges forward with its potential to scout even further, offering an additional land placement upon its flashback—an element not shared by Cultivate or Kodama’s Reach.
Adjacent in concept is Explosive Vegetation, which places two basic lands directly onto the battlefield, albeit without the advantage of flashback. The one-off effect is powerful, but it lacks the long-term board development provided by Path to the Festival. Considering Harvest Season, its potential to put numerous lands onto the battlefield scales with the quantity of tapped creatures, a variable that introduces a different strategic layer yet doesn’t guarantee the consistent board setup offered by Path to the Festival.
Examining the nuances, Path to the Festival delivers a unique blend of immediate and delayed gratification. It aligns with players who appreciate the versatility in their mana base strategy, presenting a tangible advantage in games that stretch across multiple turns.
Cards similar to Path to the Festival by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Path to the Festival MTG card by a specific set like Innistrad: Midnight Hunt and Innistrad: Double Feature, 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 Path to the Festival and other MTG cards:
- eBay
- TCG Player
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
See MTG Products
Printings
The Path to the Festival Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2021-09-24 and 2022-01-28. Illustrated by Darek Zabrocki.
| # | Released | Name | Code | Symbol | Number | Frame | Layout | Border | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2021-09-24 | Innistrad: Midnight Hunt | MID | 191 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Darek Zabrocki | |
| 2 | 2022-01-28 | Innistrad: Double Feature | DBL | 191 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Darek Zabrocki |
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Path to the Festival has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Standard | Legal |
| Historicbrawl | Legal |
| Historic | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Paupercommander | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Gladiator | Legal |
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Commander | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Pauper | Legal |
| Future | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Explorer | Legal |
| Brawl | Legal |
| Timeless | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Path to the Festival card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2021-09-24 | "Flashback -ost]" means "You may cast this card from your graveyard by paying -ost] rather than paying its mana cost" and "If the flashback cost was paid, exile this card instead of putting it anywhere else any time it would leave the stack." |
| 2021-09-24 | A spell cast using flashback will always be exiled afterward, whether it resolves, is countered, or leaves the stack in some other way. |
| 2021-09-24 | If a card with flashback is put into your graveyard during your turn, you can cast it if it's legal to do so before any other player can take any actions. |
| 2021-09-24 | To determine the total cost of a spell, start with the mana cost or alternative cost (such as a flashback cost) you're paying, add any cost increases, then apply any cost reductions. The mana value of the spell is determined only by its mana cost, no matter what the total cost to cast the spell was. |
| 2021-09-24 | You can cast a spell using flashback even if it was somehow put into your graveyard without having been cast. |
| 2021-09-24 | You must still follow any timing restrictions and permissions, including those based on the card's type. For instance, you can cast a sorcery using flashback only when you could normally cast a sorcery. |
