Magic: The Gathering's Rootpath Purifier is a potentially overpowered card for Commander decks

As Magic: The Gathering’s spoiler season continues, The Brothers’ War expansion also had some cards focused on Commander. Although there is no green representation in the two Commander decks for this expansion, Magic: The Gathering players recently discovered a card that will completely break how lands are handled in the format in the future.

Thankfully, this card, called Rootpath Purifier, is not available in Standard, but this creature is going to make many players thrilled, and just as many absolutely furious. What can this card do, and what makes it so overwhelmingly powerful?

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Can Rootpath Purifier completely break Commander in Magic: The Gathering?

Rootpath Purifier is a Commander card that will be introduced in the expansion for Magic: The Gathering, titled The Brothers’ War. This particular card immediately caught the attention of players, considering what it has the power to do. The card makes non-basic lands easier to access than ever before, with one simple ability.

Rootpath Purifier

• Mana Type: 3G
• Type: Creature - Elf Druid
• Rarity: Rare
• Stats: 3 power, 4 toughness
• First Ability: Lands you control and land cards in your library are basic.

As long as this creature is in play, every land in your deck is considered “basic” land. This is similar to a classic card known as Blood Moon, which is a red enchantment that turns all non-basic lands into Mountains. However, Rootpath Purifier allows players to keep whatever features their special lands had in the first place.

Why is this such a dangerous and powerful Magic: The Gathering card? Suddenly, Field of the Dead can be fetched by any Tutor/Land Fetch cards. As long as that card allows you to search for a Basic Land, you can pull any powerful, ridiculous land out of your deck.

Field of the Dead, for those who do not remember, gives you a 2/2 Black Zombie creature token whenever a land comes into play under your control if you have seven or more lands with different names. You can then, play that on turn one with something like Evolving Wilds.

On the topic of red cards like Blood Moon, other players are looking to Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle. A powerful non-basic land, it deals 3 damage to a target creature or player, anytime a Mountain enters play under your control if you control at least five other Mountains. You can turn-1 a Valakut, and begin dropping Mountains to quickly start dealing tons of damage.

One of the more horrifying things Magic: The Gathering players can do with this creature in play is cast Explosive Vegetation. This allows a player to fetch two basic lands, put them into play tapped, and then shuffle.

Speaking of Explosive Vegetation, you can use this to make your 20/20 Marit Lage creature faster than ever. Simply choose Dark Depths and Thespian’s Stage out of your deck. In your next turn, make a copy of Dark Depths, and suddenly you have a humongous, indestructible creature ready to win the game.

For those unaware, Dark Depths is a Legendary Snow Land that comes into play with 10 counters on it. When those are all gone, you sacrifice the land to create a 20/20 flying, indestructible Legendary creature named Marit Lage. Thespian's Stage can become a copy of another land.

Since it becomes a copy of that land, it doesn't enter play with the counters the original did. You then immediately sacrifice it to get your game-winning engine of destruction.

Rootpath Purifier has the potential to be an overpowered card. It is going to be a wild, fun card that anyone who splashes Green into their Magic: The Gathering deck is going to want to use.

It is certainly an interesting card, at the very least, and one that Gavin Verhey at Wizards of the Coast has been trying to release for a significant amount of time. While only time will tell just how powerful it is, it has become a very prominent talking point on social media.