Board Wipes
Removal is important in all forms of Magic, but in Commander, the single target removal that dominates other formats is simply far less effective than it is against a single opponent. Removing one opponent's individual creature puts you both down a card while allowing your two other opponents to pull ahead on resources.
That's where the nuclear option comes in. Board wipe effects allow you to exchange a single card for many of your opponents', and to completely reset a board state in which you've fallen far behind. Their efficiency is unmatched, and they are much more likely to catch lots of powerful creatures in Commander where legendary creatures are a feature of every single deck and you have 3 other players all committing to the board. Almost every deck with the colours to play them will want access to such a powerful effect, on that can and will save your bacon even in the most dire situations.
So board wipes are a must, but which ones should you consider from all the versions available? Let's take a look at a list of apocalyptic spells guaranteed to send your opponents back to the stone age.
Honorable Mention - All is Dust
Our honorable mention goes to All is Dust, a very powerful but very niche board wipe that's of most use in dedicated colorless Eldrazi decks. Seven mana is a lot for a board wipe, even a colorless one. In order to justify that cost, you'll need to ensure your deck is entirely built around its effect. And when you do, this card can be absolutely devastating.
Assuming you've chosen an Eldrazi Commander like Kozilek and your deck therefore contains no colored permanents, All is Dust is going to force your opponents to sacrifice their entire board - barring potentially some colorless artifacts while yours is left completely untouched. That's a swing that will be very hard to recover from, particularly if you already have some huge annihalating Eldrazi in play. The fact that it uses a sacrifice effect even gets round indestructibility very neatly.
It's important to note that although lands tap for colored mana, they are not considered "colored". Otherwise this card would be one of the most effective board resets ever printed. Not to mention completely toxic in most playgroups!
10. Supreme Verdict
If you absolutely need all creatures to die without fail, this is the card for you. Supreme Verdict is one of the hardest wrath effects to interfere with in the history of Magic, being completely uncounterable. It's very efficiently costed too at just 4 mana.
Where Supreme Verdict loses points on our list is for its Azorius color requirements, which significantly restricts the number of decks that can play it compared to the many mono-colored options. The immunity from counterspells is also only situationally relevant if you're playing against opponents that both run blue and run counterspells, and happen to have a counter in hand when you want to clear the board. Nevertheless, when you want to press the nuclear button and be sure the explosion happens, this is the board wipe for you.
9. Planar Cleansing
The ultimate reset button, Planar Cleansing in most cases will - as the name suggests - cleanse the entire board and reset both you and your opponents. This is the board wipe you play in games where you've fallen unacceptably far behind and need a totally fresh start on board. It's hard to dodge and harder to recover from.
Planar Cleansing is held back on our list though for some key reasons.
Firstly, it's expensive for a modern board wipe at six mana. Even worse, that 6 mana requires three white, making this difficult to cast on time in decks deploying three or more colours. It also doesn't deal with indestructible permanents, although that's a smaller downside in most cases, particularly as you can include your own indestructibility in deckbuilding. Mono white decks should seriously consider this card, though mulitcolored decks may want to stay clear.
8. Merciless Eviction
Expensive and multicolored, Merciless Eviction is nevertheless worthy of a spot on this list because of its sheer flexibility.
Uniquely on this list, it can selectively target the type of permanent that is giving you most trouble. Opponent playing Superfriends? Exile all Planeswalkers. Enchantment Tribal? Exile all enchantments. Someone unacceptably far ahead on mana thanks to their mana rocks? Exile all artifacts. Whatever mode you choose, you can of course also make sure that it leaves you either completely unaffected or completely immune.
The fact that this exiles rather than destroys is a very big deal in all sorts of situations too, particularly where opponents are using graveyard recursion or have indestructible threats. Yes you're paying six mana, but this is a precision tool for handling your exact problem. The surgeon's scalpal of board wipes.
7. Wrath of God/Damnation
The classic board wipe effects, these cards are so indistinguishable that they share a spot on our list. Still efficiently costed even by today's standards and hosing regeneration effects to boot, these cards continue to be relevant and powerful if you need mass creature removal in your white and black decks.
Wrath of God gets special credit for being so iconic that it gives all board wipes their "wrath" nickname. Damnation deserves praise for its sweet art and for giving black perhaps its most efficient mass creature removal.
6. Toxic Deluge
Much loved in Commander since it's first printing in 2013, Toxic Deluge abuses those high EDH starting life totals to lay waste to all creatures. As long as you're willing to pump a decent amount of life into this, it will deal with any conceivable creature your opponents can play. Because it uses -X/-X as its method of hitting creatures, this card will also crucially kill the most troublesome indestructible creatures that black typically has the most trouble with given they dodge most of its kill spells. If you can afford to spend ten life, this baby will kill an Ulamog for 3 mana, not to mention anything else that happens to have the temerity to be on the board at the same time.
What holds this card back from a higher spot? Well although life totals are high in EDH, they are not limitless, and this can be pretty painful to cast if your opponents are playing chunky creatures. Worse, it is a terrible topdeck if your life total is extremely precarious, and can effectively be a dead card if you are low enough. Most of the time though, this is the card for you in black if you want to absolutely guarantee the death of all creatures.
5. The Meathook Massacre
One of the brand new cards on our list, Meathook Massacre is already making waves in Standard, but it's clear it has huge potential for Commander as well. This card is unique on our list as a board wipe that leaves something extra behind for you after it goes off. Not only does it drain your opponents for every creature of yours it kills and gain you life for every creature of theirs that dies, because it sticks around as a legendary enchantment, those effects persist for the rest of the game until it's removed. Its main drawback in other formats - the fact that the enchantment is legendary - isn't even relevant in Commander's singleton environment.
Yes this requires a lot of mana investment to kill bigger creatures, but cast for 5 or 6 mana it is still likely to kill most of what's on the board, net you a bunch of life, deal some damage and stick around afterwards. It's at its absolute best in aristocrats sacrificed-themed decks and graveyward-based value decks that want their creatures to die anyway and can make best use of all that drain. Try it. We promise you'll be hooked.
4. Nevinyrral's Disk
How do you pronounce Nevinyrral? Who knows? This card is universally known by EDH players as 'Nev's Disk', and it's earned that familiarity for a key reason - the fact that it's colorless makes it the most widely-playable board wipe in EDH. Any deck can include this, and that's a godsend for those that don't run white or black, the home colours of wrath effects. Even better, Nev's Disk offers an effect that's superior to most standard board wipes, killing not just creatures but artifacts and enchantments too.
What's the price for that extreme power on a card that can go in any deck? Well, it's pretty steep. Nev's Disk enters play tapped, meaning that you won't be able to activate it the turn it enters play. That makes this a very strange type of board wipe - one that your opponents get to see coming and react to. That's far from ideal - while it won't save the creatures on board, opponents can choose not to develop further during their turns, or worse remove the disk before it has chance to go off.
How then can we maximise the disk's potential? There are some untapping shenanigans, but most decks won't want to be messing around with those effects just to make Nev's Disk better. Perhaps the best accompanying card is Vedalken Orrery, which allows you to flash in the disk on the end step directly ahead of your turn. Sadly this will nuke the Orrery too when it goes off, but the surprise factor will likely make up for that. Finally, there are actually some strange advantages to be had by having your finger on the nuclear button that is a played, tapped Nev's disk. If your opponents can't remove it, you can politick your way to some incredibly advantageous deals just with the threat of activation.
3. Vanquish the Horde
Number two on our list is another card hot off the presses.
Vanquish the Horde was just printed in Midnight Hunt, and while that huge printed mana costs looks distinctly unappealing, in a four-player format, this is almost certainly going to be the cheapest board wipe you'll ever cast in the vast majority of situations.
It's not at all unreasonable to expect to cast this for two mana, allowing you to rebuild your board immediately at a speed no other sorcery-speed board wipe can match. Which leads us to our the top dog on our list...
2. Blasphemous Act
White and black get the most board wipes by a country mile, but they don't always get the best ones. Blasphemous Act may be in red, but it gives cards like Wrath of God a real run for their money. This is the greatest of all board wipes when it comes to the lowest potential cost, and much like Vanquish the Horde, it's not unreasonable at all to be able to cast this for its maximum discount.
Although it takes more creatures in the play to maximise that mana cost reduction, Blasphemous Act actually pips Vanquish the Horde by having the lowest potential cost of any board wipe at just a single red mana. Yes there are certain creatures it can't kill - ridiculously huge monsters like Worldspine Wurm and Marit Lage tokens have too much junk in the trunk for even 13 damage to handle - but this will essentially destroy any indestructible creature you could conceivably face.
Is it better than Vanquish the Horde in vacuum? The two cards are very close to each other in function and power level, but we've given Blasphemous Act the edge here simply because it's available in Red which has so many fewer alternative board wipe options.
1. Cyclonic Rift
The undisputed king of board wipes, Cyclonic Rift is the terrifying tornado that blows your opponents' boards away. It's completely unassuming for its two mana cost, but at seven mana this will in very many cases be a game winning play.
Why is Cyclonic Rift so good? Its overload mode is the most expensive board wipe on our list, and it doesn't even permanently deal with your opponents' board state. That's all true, but Cyclonic Rift has some crucial things going for it. Firstly, it hits all permanents of all kinds, making it one of the most flexible board wipes on our list. Secondly, that effect is one sided, leaving your own board completely intact and ready to swing out depending on when you cast it. Thirdly, and most importantly, Cyclonic Rift is an instant. That is outrageous on a board wipe, and it's the only one on our list that isn't a sorcery. Ordinarily board wipes are not printed at instant speed because they are powerful enough without being able to unexpectedly mess up combats or to allow the user to immediately untap with all their mana up. Cyclonic rift offers all that surprise value. Imagine your opponent has dropped Craterhoof Behemoth and is ready for one massive game-ending swing. Cyclonic Rift simply scoops that thing up - along with everything else your opponents control - and sets them straight back to the stone age.
Played late in the game, even if your opponents survive, in many cases they will have so many permanents returned to hand that they will be forced to discard to hand size, offering you even more advantage. Rightly feared and hated in equal measure, the Rift deserves its place at the top.
Jonathan Widnall
- Jon Widnall