Escape Routes
Enchantment
: Return target white or black creature you control to its owner's hand.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Planeshift
- Price
- $0.09
- EDHREC rank
- #29528
Escape Routes gives you a repeatable, instant-speed bounce engine for your own creatures at the cost of returning a basic land to hand — a real price, but one that fuels landfall triggers and protects key pieces from removal simultaneously. Run it when your deck wants both of those things at once; skip it when it doesn't.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Escape Routes earns its slot in any deck that wants repeatable ETB value or landfall triggers — paying a basic land to hand is negligible when your commander rewards replaying it. In Pauper, the card sees occasional play in blink and flicker shells that need cheap, recurring protection at common rarity. Legacy and Vintage have it legal but no competitive shell has ever wanted it — the effect is too slow and too narrow against the threats those formats present. Oathbreaker mirrors the Commander read: slot it when the planeswalker and signature spell reward creature reuse.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.09 bulk tier
At $0.09, Escape Routes is deep bulk — pick it out of a common box rather than buying it individually. Bulk commons at this price point don't move unless a competitive format adopts them, and there's no current pressure pointing that direction.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.