In Response…12 Cool Removal Spells to Consider for Casual Commander
Seeing big, splashy permanents come down during a casual game of Commander isn't just likely—it's practically inevitable. One of the main draws of the format is the fact that you can play with so many powerful, exciting cards.
We've all seen scary permanents hit the table that simply must be dealt with in order to prevent them from running away with the game. You don’t want to let cards such as Consecrated Sphinx, Nyxbloom Ancient, or Smothering Tithe stick around any longer than necessary. Being able to answer these threats at instant speed can be essential to keeping them under control. You can't always afford to wait until your next turn to remove them.
In this article, I'm going to go over 12 of my favorite instant speed removal spells that aren't played very often in casual Commander. You might have seen a few of these cards before if you've played against certain cEDH decks or played against someone with a love for deep cuts, but none of these cards are considered format staples for casual Commander.
One more quick thing before we get to the list: this article isn't trying to reinvent the wheel. Cards such as Swords to Plowshares, Abrade, and Nature’s Claim are considered staples for a reason. I'm not suggesting that you replace these cards with the cards in this list. I just think that people should consider if they might have a home in their Commander decks alongside these great format staples.
Author's note: This list follows the chronological order in which these cards were released, mostly because that's just how I like to do things!
Snap (Urza's Legacy)
As one of a number of blue cards from Urza Block that untap lands, Snap essentially functions as a free bounce spell as long as you have the 2 mana available up-front to cast it. This means that it can be used to bounce a threat or deal a huge tempo hit to an opponent who has overextended and then leave you with more untapped mana available for another spell.
You can even untap lands that tap for more mana than you spent to cast the spell, so Snap can sometimes do a handy impression of a mana ritual spell if you have powerful lands such as Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx available while also bouncing a pesky creature back to its owner's hand. It's rarely a dead card because it can also target your own creatures, which means it can be used in a pinch to buy back a creature with a powerful enters-the-battlefield ability such as Druid of Purification or Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath while untapping 2 of your lands.
The most important thing to remember about Snap is that it will not allow you to untap lands if the target is no longer legal when the spell resolves. This can be a bit of a bummer if someone interferes with your plans, but Snap is still a very flexible removal spell that has its uses even when opponents aren't presenting threats.
Snuff Out (Mercadian Masques)
The Masques Block is known for having a lot of strange cards. Some of them have aged better than others. There are actually several spells in this block that feature alternate costs that allow you to cast them without paying mana. Snuff Out happens to be one of those cards. You can pay 4 mana to cast it, or you can pay 4 life if you control a swamp. In Commander, you begin the game at 40 life. You might as well put it to good use!
Like many black kill spells, this spell can't target black creatures. This likely isn't going to be a deal-breaker when free removal in black doesn't exactly grow on trees. There's no doubt that Deadly Rollick is a fair bit more powerful, but Snuff Out does have the upside of not requiring your commander to be on the battlefield in order to cast it for its alternate cost. The biggest downside is that it can't deal with certain threats such as K’rrik, Son of Yawgmoth or Vilis, Broker of Blood.
Despite its limitations, Snuff Out compares favorably with a lot of other popular black creature removal and is definitely something that you might want to look into for situations where there are a lot of must-answer creature threats. 4 life isn't much to ask for in a scenario where the alternative is losing the game.
Submerge (Nemesis)
If your opponent is playing green, there's two things that they're almost guaranteed to have: forests and big, scary creatures. Submerge is another spell from the Masques Block with an alternate casting cost, this time allowing you to cast it for free if an opponent controls a forest and you control an island. It doesn't even have to be the same opponent that controls the creature that you're trying to bounce to the top of their library. In the event that none of your opponents is playing green, Submerge will cost 5 mana, but this isn’t likely to happen because green is probably the most popular color in casual Commander!
While Submerge is already quite good on its own, it really shines with commanders such as Rashmi, Eternities Crafter that offer payoffs when you can consistently cast spells every single turn because it can help you keep the value train rolling. It's also always online if someone has dropped a Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth and it's quite funny to bounce Ashaya, Soul of the Wild to the top of someone's library for free if they somehow only had a forest because Ashaya had made their nontoken creatures into forests! I've actually seen this happen in a game.
While Submerge only bounces creatures, the fact that it puts them on top of the library can be a big tempo loss when someone's getting out of hand. The alternate cost will almost always be available since green is such a popular color, so there isn't much risk when it comes to including this spell on your arsenal.
Mogg Salvage (Nemesis)
Aside from being the clear winner on this list in terms of card name, art, and flavor text, Mogg Salvage is the perfect way to deal with that blue deck's favorite toys. That's right—Masques Block strikes again! This spell also has an alternate cost that allows you to cast it for free if an opponent controls an island and you control a mountain, while costing 3 mana if cast normally. Since blue is popular and blue decks usually have at least a few artifacts, Mogg Salvage is definitely low on the opportunity cost scale.
This is Commander. Your opponents are going to play some of the coolest and most powerful artifacts around. You definitely don't want your opponent to connect while that creature has Sword of Feast and Famine equipped! You surely don't want your opponent to keep casting spells to power up that Aetherflux Reservoir! You absolutely don't want your opponent to get double triggers with Panharmonicon!
Sometimes, you've just gotta send in the Moggs, it's totally the fair thing to do. After all, your opponents had the audacity to play islands! If it turns out that your opponents were, in fact, not playing islands, you can still always cast Mogg Salvage for 3 mana. That certainly isn’t the worst rate.
Abolish (Prophecy)
Abolish is another card from the Masques Block that has…wait for it…an alternate casting cost! This spell can destroy an artifact or an enchantment for 3 mana or you can cast it by discarding a plains card. The standard rate is actually very reasonable and the alternate cost is an absolute steal, provided that you can afford to pitch a land to cast it.
A lot of white decks are already playing Land Tax and other similar cards that help them find basic lands. If you're playing these cards, you probably wind up with extra lands in your hand that you can't even play! Abolish is happy to take one of them off your hands to destroy a problematic artifact or enchantment. You might even be able to bring it back later with something like Sun Titan or Sevinne’s Reclamation. That almost sounds like a win-win situation, except you're the only one winning.
White isn't known for its free interaction, so Abolish is extremely likely to catch your opponents by surprise. I've cast this spell for its alternate cost many times in Commander, and I don't remember any time where my opponents saw it coming. As cool as it is to cast this spell by discarding a plains card, casting it for 3 mana feels acceptable for a spell that hits two types of permanents.
Author's note: Congratulations! You made it to the end of the free removal spells in this article! Masques Block really was an interesting time for Magic.
Deglamer (Lorwyn)
There are times when destroying a pesky artifact or enchantment just isn't an option. Whether this is because it's indestructible or because it will just come right back out of the graveyard, Deglamer can solve the problem by simply shuffling it back into the opponent's library and putting it out of their reach. This spell offers a fairly uncommon piece of utility to green, as most green artifact and enchantment removal spells simply destroy these permanents.
Indestructible or recursive threats are quite common in Commander. Theros gods such as Purphoros, God of the Forge are often very powerful and they can be quite tricky to remove. Blightsteel Colossus is one of the scariest creatures around and a popular target for artifact decks to cheat into play. Spine of Ish Sah can be recurred again and again to destroy permanents and keep you from establishing your own board presence.
While it feels tailor-made for answering threats that are difficult to remove, it can also be used to shuffle any annoying artifact or enchantment back into its owner's library and disrupts the topdeck manipulation that you'll see in many popular decks. There's a certain appeal to Deglamer that makes it a quality selection for your removal suite in many green decks, especially when you don't have the luxury of running other colors.
Unexpectedly Absent (Commander 2013)
Author's note: Okay, I know that this card was originally printed in a Commander precon and has been reprinted in Commander Anthology and in a Commander 2020 precon deck as well. Outside of unmodified or slightly upgraded precon decks, this card is barely played at all. That's wild! Considering how flexible it is as a removal spell, you could even say that its absence from most decks is unexpected. Yep, I went there.
Editor’s note: It’s certainly a card whose presence is always welcome in my Vintage Cube drafts. Mono White Time Walk? Sign me up.
Many of the most interesting cards in Magic are those that show a color doing something unexpected but still within the scope of what feels like something that they should be able to do. Unexpectedly Absent is one such card, allowing you to pay 2 white mana and X to bounce target nonland permanent and put it X from the top of its owner's library. While this feels a bit more like a blue card than a white card, it isn't completely out of place when you consider that white can remove any type of nonland permanent with ease and occasionally gets the ability to tuck permanents away in their owner's libraries en masse.
Unexpectedly Absent is a flexible piece of removal because you can use it to bury an opponent's best permanent or you can cast it for X=0 to give them a huge tempo hit when they've cast something expensive and you'd rather not see them untap with it next turn. It also interacts very well with things that make your opponent shuffle their library. Imagine your opponent's frustration when you cast this spell and put a huge bomb such as Avacyn, Angel of Hope on top of their library in response to a cracked Windswept Heath or an Enlightened Tutor. Nope, this has definitely never happened to me and it totally wasn't back-breaking at all if it did.
(read: this has totally happened to me and it was completely back-breaking).
While white has access to other removal that exiles nonland permanents, it's usually restricted only to specific permanent types. This means that it's hard to find removal that is more flexible than this spell. There are often pivotal moments where taking out a threat for even a turn or two can completely change the tide of battle during a Commander game. Unexpectedly Absent is perfect for those moments.
Unravel the Aether (Born of the Gods)
Let's be clear about just one thing: this card is a functional reprint of Deglamer, a card that I talked about earlier. There's no reason to be coy about it. I can only assume that the design team for the Theros Block wanted Deglamer for that play environment in order to deal with pesky Theros gods and the like, but the flavor was just a complete miss for the setting. This means that we got Unravel the Aether instead, which means that you can effectively run two copies of the same removal spell in your deck if you're as fond of this card as I am.
There's not much to say about Unravel the Aether that I didn't already explain, so I'll spare you the repetition and only mention that both of these cards can be used to save your valuable artifacts and enchantments from removal in a pinch—as long as you're okay with shuffling them into your library instead. When it comes to key pieces that you can't afford to lose to the void that is the exile zone, this could wind up coming in handy from time to time.
Murderous Cut (Khans of Tarkir)
Having access to efficient removal can be the difference between life and death in a game of Commander. Murderous Cut normally costs 5 mana, but it allows you to delve away unwanted cards from your graveyard in to reduce the cost to as low as 1 mana. This makes it a good option for decks that frequently have a lot of cards in the graveyard, and it can even provide other useful benefits as well.
Commanders such as Syr Konrad, the Grim and Tormod, the Desecrator actually want creature cards to leave your graveyard in order to trigger their abilities, so you can benefit by delving things away to make Murderous Cut cost less mana. You might even have both of these creatures out at the same time since they play so nicely together and could be in the same deck! Vial Smasher the Fierce cares about the mana value of the first spell that you cast each turn, and she'll happily dome an opponent for 5 even if you only spend 1 mana to cast the spell.
As long as you frequently have extra cards to delve away, Murderous Cut is a good option that may allows you to reap a few extra perks in the right deck. The main time that it falls flat is when you have to resort to casting it for the full 5 mana. In a deck that cares about having a big graveyard, this means that you're probably already on the back foot. This fits in with black's willingness to take risks for a big reward. It just depends on how risky you want to be with your removal spells.
Forsake the Worldly (Amonkhet)
There will be times when you just need something to go away and not come back. Forsake the Worldly can do the job for 3 mana if that something is an artifact or enchantment, exiling it so you probably don't have to worry about it coming back. In the event that there's no good targets, you can always cycle it for 2 mana to draw a card. This means that it will rarely ever be a dead card since you can always exchange it for something else.
Indestructible permanents can be a real hassle, especially when it's something like a Darksteel Forge or an Eldrazi Monument that just causes headaches for everyone. These are the types of targets that really make Forsake the Worldly shine, because they're often played in decks that can bring them back if they wind up anywhere other than in exile. Of course, there's always a small chance that your opponent is playing Karn, the Great Creator to get them back, but he won't always be around to cause problems.
If you're looking for hard removal for artifacts and enchantments, you can certainly do worse than Forsake the Worldly. Being able to cycle it can be invaluable when you're ahead and being able to exile at instant speed can be invaluable when you're faced with threats that are indestructible or recursive.
Wilt (Ikoria: Lair of the Behemoths)
Much like the previous spell on the list, Wilt is a removal spell with cycling. Green has a huge stable of artifact and enchantment removal, so having a spell with additional functionality is quite good. Since you won't always have a good target, you might as well draw a card and keep your momentum going since green usually has plenty of extra mana to go around.
With the addition of cycling, Wilt is a strict upgrade to Naturalize and a sidegrade to Return to Nature because it lacks that card's ability to remove a card in a graveyard. Another thing that I like about Wilt is that you can always use a card like Regrowth to get it back later if you cycled it early on and then wound up needing a removal spell.
Since green has so many options for artifact and enchantment removal, the cards that you run will likely depend on what else they can do for you. Being able to pitch it to draw cards definitely makes Wilt a consideration, and I hope to see it in more decks down the line.
You Find Some Prisoners (Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms)
I adored the cycle of cards that brought us You Find Some Prisoners, even though I felt like some of them lacked the utility required to see much play in Commander. I was extremely surprised that this card didn't wind up in more decks. A flexible artifact removal spell that can also steal from the top of an opponent's library seems bonkers to me.
There will always be an artifact around that's ripe for smashing. Your opponent doesn't actually need those Lightning Greaves. If you don't want to smash something, you can always use the second mode to steal the card that an opponent searched for with Vampiric Tutor before they draw it! You'd love to smash that Sensei's Divining Top, but wouldn't you rather just take it for yourself when the opponent uses it to draw a card? I know that I would!
The extreme modality of this card is what makes it so fun. Out of every card on this list, You Find Some Prisoners is the card that I most strongly believe should be receiving more attention. Red doesn't have the best interaction around, so this card can cover some of its weaknesses by offering utility beyond simply smashing an artifact.
Well, that concludes the list. I hope that you'll consider some of these awesome spells in your own decks if you're looking to add more removal beyond the most popular format staples. The best thing about Commander is that there are so many cards to choose from. It's always an adventure. Until next time, keep brewing and always make your opponents have that counterspell!
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