MTG Salvation

My BW Ayli deck wants to win through dropping Grave Titan or Felidar Sovereign, or bringing them back from the graveyard. I have a respectable/excessive recursion package, but Path and StP both kick me in the teeth. How do graveyard decks and decks with just a few major threats deal with exile? Is there a way to cast creatures from exile? It's BW, so 'counter the exile spell is not really viable (unless there is a card I don't know about?)

I know the Modern card pool just fine, EDH is fascinating, I just don't know my way around it yet

Options for returning stuff from exile are VERY limited... Pull from Eternity is the only one I can think of in your colors. There's not really counterspell options in your colors (Dash Hopes is garbage) but protection spells like Gods Willing can kind of fill that niche as far as protecting high priority creatures. They are a bit narrow, though. Best options are probably Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots although they can be soft to instant speed removal unless you wait for them to tap out.

To my best recollection, there are only three cards in Magic that will allow players to retrieve things from exile: Pull from Eternity, Riftsweeper, and Mirror of Fate. Since you're playing WB, you obviously won't be able to use Riftsweeper, so that just leaves the other two.

Personally, I'm not a fan of Pull from Eternity since often times the way cards ended up in exile to begin with was from something like Leyline of the Void, Rest in Peace, or Planar Void. As such, putting the cards back into your graveyard doesn't really accomplish anything. They'll just go straight back to exile. And Pull from Eternity would only get back a single exiled card anyway.

That just leaves Mirror of Fate. Mirror of Fate is one of my all time favorite Magic cards because it really defies a lot of expectations. When players exile cards, they expect them to be gone for the rest of the game. Well, not with Mirror of Fate! As long as a sufficient number of your cards are exiled, you can retrieve up to seven of them with the Mirror and make a new deck out of them. The catch? You have a seven (or smaller) card deck now. That's dangerous, but if you have the right cards in play, you can protect yourself from its consequences.

Any permanent that gives cards you draw a replacement effect will stop you from ever decking out. I don't have an exhaustive list of these cards, but Abundance and Parallel Thoughts immediately come to mind, even if they aren't in your colors. There's also the "Words of ..." cycle. Words of Worship will allow you to pay 1 and gain five life in exchange for skipping a draw. Words of Waste works similarly.

The last thing I should mention is that Mirror of Fate is really good at setting up future Mirrors. You just need to find a way to recur your Mirror of Fate. The best way to do this is by actually exiling your own Mirror of Fate as its activated ability is on the stack. Since Mirror of Fate doesn't target any cards and since it's in your exile before its activated ability resolves, you can actually choose to put your own Mirror of Fate back into your library with its own ability, allowing you to draw it and play it again. Future Mirrors will then allow you a wide variety of cards to recur as the previous Mirror will have exiled the rest of your library. There are a few different ways to go about exiling your own Mirror while its activated ability is on the stack, but Rest in Peace is basically the easiest. It even provides food for your Mirror before activating it. Something like Cremate targeting Mirror of Fate while its in your graveyard in response to Mirror of Fate's activated ability would also work though. You could also just retrieve it from your graveyard to loop it again instead of exiling it with something like Obzedat's Aid.

Anyway, I hope that answered your question.

Options are extremely limited as far as returning things from exile goes, no matter what. Your best options in my opinion are to use any and all options for killing creatures regularly first via sac outlets like Ashnod's Altar, so you can send them to the graveyard before they get exiled. As far as protecting them from being exiled while they are in the graveyard...that's harder

Most people play either the aforementioned shroud/hexproof enablers like Lightning Greaves or sac outlets (Miren, the Moaning Well and High Market are both very commonly used for this). The good news is that both of these cards also protect from common forms of theft effects too.

Since you're playing Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim you should have a very reliable sac outlet, depending how many big threats you have on the board keeping 1-2 open will keep them safe from exile effects. Idk about how much you focus on sac effects other than your commander, but High Market, Phyrexian Tower, Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Altar and even Altar of Dementia are all great sac outlets.

As far as wide protection goes you could either go for Eerie Interlude/Ghostway or literally protection through Akroma's Blessing.

For graveyard shenanigans i'd always run Elixir of Immortality to keep you safe from Bojuka Bog, Agent of Erebos, Ravenous Trap and the likes.

Do you have a Death Wish? Life is your resource for Ayli! But seriously, sacrifice effects are costs and cannot be responded to! The ability it creates can be, but not the cost.

My Ayli deck never taps out. I always leave mana open to sacrifice my important pieces. Pawn of Ulamog and Sifter of Skulls help.

The only exile I worry about is the type that exiles my graveyard.

I also don't understand how those are the only ways you win.

thanks everybody! I'm going to try Pull and a few sac effects, that should make it better, I run plenty of tutors

@Dunharrow- those aren't my only ways to win, just my favorites. I have a bunch of little lifegainers and some fatties (Sheoldred, Baneslayer)but I keep a ton of grave effects because I WANT to win with Felidar

IMO, Pull is only work running if you're trying to abuse a card that exiles itself (for example, I run it in my Child of Alara deck to abuse Bound // Determined) and you expect to have your stuff exiled by opponents (most of the nonland permanents in my Child deck are indestructible, so if they leave the board it's usually to exile). Or, if your playgroup allows for a wishboard and you're up against Jhoira (or with no wishboard and you're up against Jhoira all the time).

Quote from Funkenstein3D »

Options for returning stuff from exile are VERY limited... Pull from Eternity is the only one I can think of in your colors. There's not really counterspell options in your colors (Dash Hopes is garbage) but protection spells like Gods Willing can kind of fill that niche as far as protecting high priority creatures. They are a bit narrow, though. Best options are probably Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots although they can be soft to instant speed removal unless you wait for them to tap out.

There are some soft counters in white. Mana Tithe and Lapse of Certainty. But they mostly just mess with opponents' tempo.

@arrogantAxolotl: There's also Runic Repetition, but it's somewhat parasitic. (It only hits instants and sorceries with flashback. That's parasitic in the way Astral Slide and Saproling Infestation are: The mechanic has appeared in a lot of blocks, but it is a block mechanic.) Also, the processors, but they only allow you to retrieve things your opponents own from exile. And a couple blue cards that retrieve themselves from exile. But...I don't think design will do it again. The processors tested poorly, since it perverts exile into Graveyard 2.0.

Just a thought, but if your deck is lacking win cons and you need those two things to win, why not edit your deck to have more win cons? You don't need to run twenty plus, but have some other strats.

As others have said, instead of using card slots to lean even harder on your two card win con, use the slots to add more ways to win. It's a cute way to win but obviously your meta has caught on and is Swording or Pathing those cards intentionally. It's dead, Jim.