My Top 10 Board Wipes for Commander
Most Commander games have twice as many players as the average game in other Magic formats, so it should come as no surprise that the battlefield can become a crowded place early and often. If you’re facing down lethal damage, it can sometimes be prudent to just wipe the slate clean and start over.
There’s a definite art to knowing the right time for a reset. This comes with experience. In this article, I’m going to showcase my top 10 board wipes for the Commander format. Whether you’re a new Commander player or an experienced veteran, I hope that this list can be of some use when brewing your next Commander deck.
What is a board wipe?
While some people might disagree, I think that a board wipe is any card that will most likely remove all creatures from the battlefield. The earliest example of such a card is Wrath of God all the way back in the first Magic set, Limited Edition Alpha. This card has been reprinted many times since then and remains a classic example of a board wipe and most newer board wipes will inevitably be compared to this spell.
A card like Armageddon might be considered a board wipe by some, but I don’t think of it that way when I’m casting it. This card is usually used to deny opponents an opportunity to get back into the game after the balance of power is swung in your favor. On the other hand, a card like Obliterate certainly meets my criteria for being considered a board wipe because it does more than just remove lands to deny your opponents mana.
Some cards might blur the lines a bit. Under the right circumstances, they can function similarly to board wipes, but I tend to view them differently than something like Wrath of God. Aetherize is a fantastic combat trick that can save you from an alpha strike, but it won’t stop your other opponents. Culling Ritual can turn things like tokens and utility pieces into mana, but it won’t kill anything with mana value 3 or greater.
Okay, that’s enough explanation for now. Let’s move on to the top 10!
10. Ruinous Ultimatum
You could make an argument that this is the ultimate one-sided board wipe this side of Cyclonic Rift. This will take care of almost anything that you need gone for just seven mana while leaving all of your stuff intact. If you’re wondering why it didn’t rank higher on my list, consider the fact that you need to be in Mardu colors and how the demanding mana pips in the cost can make it a bit unwieldly. Those issues aside, Ruinous Ultimatum definitely feels like one of the most “Commander” board wipes out there.
09. Damn
Flexibility is really important in Commander. Maybe you don’t need a board wipe right now, but you do need to remove that Consecrated Sphinx before it draws its controller too many cards. Being able to decide in the moment whether you need targeted removal or a board wipe is a huge upside. While I absolutely adore the reference to both Damnation and Wrath of God, I can’t help but wish that it was possible to cast the standard version of the spell at instant speed. Maybe that would give us too many options…
08. Austere Command
I’d have definitely ranked this card higher years ago, but we’ve just seen so many white board wipes since then. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t consider playing Austere Command. The modality offered by this spell is incredible. There’s almost always going to be a way for you to come out ahead of your opponents. You can even cast it without destroying any creatures at all if you’re the one who’s dominating that side of the battlefield to take out pesky things like pillowfort effects and stax pieces.
07. Hour of Revelation
Efficiency is a theme that you’ll see again and again as we go through this list. Hour of Revelation feels totally playable at six mana, but it will almost always only cost three mana to cast. That’s an incredible rate to take out every nonland permanent on the battlefield. The only real downside that I can see is that you’ll need three white mana to cast it, so it can be hard to splash this spell in high-color decks. I’m honestly surprised that I don’t see this card a lot more often in Commander.
06. Supreme Verdict
It sucks when you try to resolve an important spell and it gets countered. This uncounterable board wipe is a perfect spell to slot into your blue-white decks that want to control the flow of the game and have the final word on whether or not things happen during the game. One of the easiest ways to succeed in a control strategy in Commander is to cast spells that allow you to come out on top in tempo and investment. Supreme Verdict will usually be both of those things.
05. Vanquish the Horde
What’s this eight-mana board wipe doing so high on this list? The simplest explanation is that I don’t even remember the last time that I cast Vanquish the Horde for more than two mana. The cost reduction makes it very easy to cast this spell on the cheap and have mana left over to start rebuilding. Of course, you could also invest that mana into something like Heroic Intervention to protect your own creatures from being destroyed! It’s hard to argue with that type of efficiency.
04. Blasphemous Act
What’s the deal with Innistrad sets and board wipes that include a cost reduction? This card has rightfully become a true Commander classic because you’ll almost always pay a single red mana to kill everything. There are very few creatures that are big enough to survive after taking 13 damage. I’m also a big fan of this card alongside cards such as Repercussion or Toralf, God of Fury, where it can easily become a secondary win condition in burn decks by sending tons of damage at your opponents if they overextend.
03. Toxic Deluge
This spell can efficiently deal with hordes of small creatures in the early game or take out bigger threats later on, even getting around indestructible for the low cost of three mana. Black offers you so many options for exchanging resources for power, and Toxic Deluge offers an extremely efficient sweeper at the cost of some of your life total. Since Commander starts with a generous 40 life, it’s easy to view this as just another resource that can be spent to come out ahead.
02. Farewell
This card is a bit controversial because it can be tempting to cast it and choose all modes, often without any type of plan to rebuild afterwards. Don’t be intimidated by the higher skill ceiling that Farewell has in comparison to most other board wipes, because it’s quite easy for white to come out on top of the exchange with cards like Teferi’s Protection or Clever Concealment. You also always have the option of not choosing every mode if you have permanents on board that you’d like to keep.
01. Cyclonic Rift
Could the top spot belong to any other card? I don’t think so. Even more than ten years on, this spell still remains the most potent one-sided board wipe ever printed. The fact that it’s an instant means that you can often bluff an overloaded Cyclonic Rift just be leaving mana open and people will likely avoid putting too many things onto the board or swinging at you with too many creatures because they don’t want to have to go through the pain of rebuilding after being hit by this back-breaking board wipe.
Conclusion
I think that most Commander decks will benefit from playing a board wipe or two, because you simply can’t guarantee that the natural variance of the format will always be in your favor. I hope that you’ll consider some of the cards in this list the next time that you’re looking to round out your next Commander deck.
You’ll likely also wind up facing down board wipes cast by your opponents, so don’t forget to leverage tools such as Heroic Intervention or Boromir, Warden of the Tower when you can. These are just some of the cards that you can use to fight back against board wipes, or you can use them to protect your things when you cast your own!
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