Road // Ruin MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost6
RarityUncommon
TypeSorcery
Abilities Aftermath

Key Takeaways

  1. Versatile Road // Ruin integrates deck management and threat response into your game plan.
  2. Instant speed lets you adapt fluidly to game changes, maintaining elemental surprise.
  3. Despite its power, mana specificity may limit its use to certain deck builds.

Text of card

Aftermath (Cast this spell only from your graveyard. Then exile it.) Ruin deals damage to target creature equal to the number of lands you control.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Road // Ruin offers a dual utility choice, allowing you to either oversee your deck’s trajectory or deal with imminent threats on the board. This kind of versatility can keep you significantly ahead in terms of both options and answers.

Resource Acceleration: The Ruin side of the card effectively lets you transform underutilized lands into potential threats, ramping up your available resources to deploy larger threats sooner and maintain pressure on your opponent.

Instant Speed: With its instant speed capability, Road // Ruin ensures you maintain flexibility and surprise, allowing you to adapt to the flow of the game without committing to a single course of action prematurely. It aligns perfectly with a strategic playstyle that capitalizes on the right moment to tip the scales.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: For players wielding the Road // Ruin card, they confront a gameplay choice that may not always tilt in their favor. Activating the Ruin side mandates a card be discarded, which could be a costly move, particularly when hand options are already dwindling.

Specific Mana Cost: Casting this spell demands a precise combination of mana – a red and two others for Road, and two red plus two additional mana for Ruin. This requirement potentially restricts synergy, reserving its place predominantly in decks that can reliably generate the necessary colors.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: When it comes to its destruction capabilities, Ruin’s mana cost stands on the steeper side. With a total of four mana needed, other cards in the game might offer more favorable land destruction or damage outputs, making them more appealing picks in terms of efficiency and impact.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Road // Ruin offers a dual functionality that can adapt to various game situations. The “Road” side can stabilize your mana early on, while “Ruin” provides a powerful late-game option to disrupt opponents’ strategies by destroying their lands.

Combo Potential: Within decks that manipulate lands or benefit from destroying opponents’ resources, Road // Ruin can act as a key piece. It synergizes with landfall abilities and can be used to dismantle your opponent’s mana base, paving the way for game-winning combos.

Meta-Relevance: In a game where the battle over resources can be decisive, having access to a card that contributes to both your development and disruption can be crucial. The flexibility of Road // Ruin makes it an excellent metagame choice, capable of answering various threats and enhancing your deck’s resilience.


How to beat

Road // Ruin is a versatile option in Magic: The Gathering that offers dual utility. The card may not initially seem as imposing as other game-winners, but its adaptability during gameplay can prove to be quite a hurdle. When facing it, your strategy should focus on preventing its efficient use. Consider keeping removal or counter spells in hand to deal with the transformed ‘Ruin’ side – a mechanism known for potentially clearing a path for your opponent’s win conditions.

A solid approach involves maintaining a diverse board presence, making it less effective for your opponent to capitalize on the ‘Ruin’ side for a decisive swing. Additionally, pacing your creature deployment can mitigate the devastating effect of the land destruction aspect. By doing this, you force your opponent to choose less optimal timing for their spell. With these tactics, the dual nature of Road // Ruin becomes less of a threat, and you stand a better chance of maintaining control over the game’s pivotal moments.

In summary, facing a card like Road // Ruin requires tactical thinking and leveraging your disruptors at moments that maximize their effectiveness. Through strategic control and resource management, you can navigate past the challenges it poses and keep your opponent’s ambitions at bay.


BurnMana Recommendations

Mastering MTG is as much about knowing your cards as it is about understanding the strategies they unlock. Road // Ruin stands as a versatile tool that offers both deck stability and disruption tactics. To gain the upper hand in your matches, it’s essential to integrate cards like Road // Ruin that provide adaptability to different game scenarios. Dive deeper into our resources to harness the full potential of your deck, optimize your gameplay, and explore cards that can pivot your strategy at a moment’s notice. Enhance your MTG knowledge with us, and turn each duel into a display of tactical prowess.


Cards like Road // Ruin

Road // Ruin is a versatile card known for its flexibility in Magic: The Gathering, resonating with effects found in modal dual-faced cards. On one side, the card Road offers land retrieval, similar to the functionality of cards like Solemn Simulacrum, which lets you search your library for a basic land card and put it into play tapped. However, Solemn Simulacrum brings the added advantage of also drawing you a card upon its departure from the battlefield.

In contrast, the flip side Ruin has a more aggressive capability, akin to cards like Cleansing Nova or Shatter the Sky, offering a board clear for creatures and artifacts. While both options are powerful, Ruin stands out by giving players the choice between the exile of all creatures and all artifacts, presenting strategic depth depending on the situation at hand. This duality provides players with the ability to adapt to varied game states, compared to the more unilateral approach of board clear offered by its counterparts.

Ultimately, Road // Ruin may not find its place in every MTG deck due to its situational nature, but its dynamism makes it a compelling selection for players looking for a multi-purpose card that can address different needs throughout a game.

Solemn Simulacrum - MTG Card versions
Cleansing Nova - MTG Card versions
Shatter the Sky - MTG Card versions
Solemn Simulacrum - Mirrodin (MRD)
Cleansing Nova - Core Set 2019 Promos (PM19)
Shatter the Sky - Theros Beyond Death (THB)

Cards similar to Road // Ruin by color, type and mana cost

Sangrite Surge - MTG Card versions
Vengeful Rebirth - MTG Card versions
Armed // Dangerous - MTG Card versions
Thrash // Threat - MTG Card versions
Sangrite Surge - Salvat 2011 (PS11)
Vengeful Rebirth - The List (PLST)
Armed // Dangerous - Dragon's Maze (DGM)
Thrash // Threat - Ravnica Remastered (RVR)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Road // Ruin MTG card by a specific set like Modern Horizons 2 and Modern Horizons 2, 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 Road // Ruin and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Road // Ruin Magic the Gathering card was released in 1 different sets between 2021-06-18 and 2021-06-18. Illustrated by Johann Bodin.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12021-06-18Modern Horizons 2MH2 2122015aftermathblackJohann Bodin
22021-06-18Modern Horizons 2MH2 3762015aftermathblackJohann Bodin

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Road // Ruin has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Road // Ruin card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

DateText
2021-06-18 A spell with aftermath cast from a graveyard will always be exiled afterward, whether it resolves, it's countered, or it leaves the stack in some other way.
2021-06-18 All split cards have two card faces on a single card, and you put a split card onto the stack with only the half you're casting. The characteristics of the half you didn't cast are ignored while the spell is on the stack. For example, if an effect prevents you from casting red spells, you can cast Road, but not Ruin.
2021-06-18 Each split card has two names. If an effect instructs you to choose a card name, you may choose one, but not both.
2021-06-18 Each split card is a single card. For example, if you discard one, you've discarded one card, not two. If an effect counts the number of instant and sorcery cards in your graveyard, Road /// Ruin counts once, not twice.
2021-06-18 If another effect allows you to cast a split card with aftermath from a graveyard, you may cast either half. If you cast the half that has aftermath, you'll exile the card if it would leave the stack.
2021-06-18 If another effect allows you to cast a split card with aftermath from any zone other than a graveyard, you can't cast the half with aftermath.
2021-06-18 If you cast the first half of a split card with aftermath during your turn, you'll have priority immediately after it resolves. You can cast the half with aftermath from your graveyard before any player can take any other action if it's legal for you to do so.
2021-06-18 Once you've started to cast a spell with aftermath from your graveyard, the card is immediately moved to the stack. Opponents can't try to stop the ability by exiling the card with another effect.
2021-06-18 While not on the stack, the characteristics of a split card are the combination of its two halves. For example, Road /// Ruin is a green and red card, it is both an instant card and a sorcery card, and its mana value is 6.

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