Boardwipes are a necessity for most decks to function. Their power is simply something that can’t be denied. But, there are so many boardwipes out there it is hard to find the best board wipes for each color. Luckily I took care of the work for you and created a guide on the best board wipes for each color. That way all you need to worry about is playing the deck.
Each of these cards will have one of the 4 quality traits necessary to make a boardwipe the best. If you are looking to understand the power of boardwipes in your deck, then I suggest this article to get a good understanding. But to give you spark notes, the best board wipes are one or all these things:
- Low Mana Value
- Instant Speed
- Asymmetrical
- High versatility
Table of Contents
Best Blue Boardwipes In Commander
The best blue boardwipes are Cyclonic Rift, Curse of the Swine, and Rivers Rebuke. Each of these meets some if not all the requirements needed to make it the best blue boardwipe for MTG. Let’s go over why
1. Cyclonic Rift
Cyclonic rift is the powerhouse of all boardwipes. When people think of the worse card to be hit with, it’s a cyclonic rift. Cyclonic Rift is the best boardwipe for commander due to several reasons. One it has high versatility, able to remove a single threat or every threat. Two, it is asymmetrical by only hitting your opponents. And finally, it is instant speed. Meaning cyclonic rift can be activated right before your next turn, or as soon as a threat becomes apparent. Making this one of the best boardwipes ever made in magic.
2. Curse of the Swine
Curse of the swine is a little lesser known boardwipe, but serves as a versatile and powerful removal effect. The goal of this card is to be able to use it in a pinch by having the option to exile a single indestructible effect, or by being able to surgically hit every threat that is helping your opponents. Worrying about an opponent’s seedborn muse and someone else Drannith Magistrate? Curse of the swine for x=2 is a solid way to take care of 2 birds with one stone. The only downside is this does not work great against token decks so if you find yourself fighting token decks a lot, this next card might be better for you.
3. River’s Rebuke
People always assume boardwipes need to hit all your opponents. The reality is, that is not true. More times than not a board wipe is needed, not because everyone is ahead of you, but because one person is ahead of you. That’s where River’s Rebuke comes in. While lacking in 3 of the 4 reasons a board wipe is one of the best. Its ability to reset a single opponent makes this an overwhelming powerhouse on multiple occasions. Making it the final include in best blue boardwipes for commander.
Best Green Boardwipes In Commander
Green is not known for boardwiping. In fact, there is no classic board wipe in green. This makes for a very interesting list of the best green boardwipes.
1. Ezuri’s Predation
The best mono green boardwipe for commander is ezuri’s predation. While not, guaranteeing the removal of key threats, will fill your board up with an army of 4/4’s that can block, attack, and remove threats. Couple this with the fact they fight all other creatures when entering, and you get an asymmetrical boardwipe that has a high degree of versatility by giving you creatures to work with afterward.
2. Wave of Vitriol
Do you know that one player who refuses to run basic lands? Here is their kryptonite. Wave of vitriol is considered one of the best green board wipes for a couple of reasons. The primary reason is versatility. While not able to hit creatures, this hits enchantments, artifacts, and non basic lands. Making this a great way to remove treasures, enchantress decks, and multicolor decks. Add that to the fact that it sacrifices makes indestructible effects much easier to circumvent. Making this a great boardwipe in creature-heavy decks.
3. Apex Altisaur
One of the more interesting boardwipes in existence. Apec Altisaur is one of the best green boardwipes by being a versatile and asymmetrical boardwipe. While unable to remove every creature on the board, this works much like curse of the swine in that you remove multiple key threats from the board. Which, afterward Apex can stay on the board, resetting his toughness to 10 and allowing him to be able to boardwipe again on your next turn if he blocks or gets blocked. Making him a fantastic option for those looking for the best green boardwipes in commander.
Best Red Boardwipes In Commander
Red is damage. Infamous for spells like lightning bolt, the best red boardwipes do the exact same thing.
1. Blasphemous Act
We all know it, we all love it, Blasphemous act is the premier best red boardwipe. Dealing 13 damage to all creatures on board and casting as little as 1 red mana, this red boardwipe puts in work. It just goes to show you how important lower mana value boardwipes are for being effective staples in any deck.
2. Chain Reaction
Terrible when there is only 1 creature on board, fantastic when there is more. Chain reaction is one of the best red boardwipes due to its’ relatively low mana value making it a great option for nuking boards in a color that does not have many. Just be sure to time it correctly as this spell is only as good as the number of creatures on board, making this weak against metas with low creature counts.
3. Delayed Blast Fireball
A new addition to the best red boardwipes, but a great addition nonetheless. Delayed Blast Fireball will only deal 2 damage to all your enemies creatures. But, if you cast it from exile (something red is prone to do) then this will do 5 instead. And in worse-case scenarios, you can even fortell the card to cast it for a bigger payoff. While this may not seem high 2 damage will take care of low to medium level threats and 5 will take care of everything except big Voltron creatures. Making this one of the best red boardwipes for its versatility and asymmetrical ability.
Best Black Boardwipes In Commander
Black boardwipes are unique and oftentimes powerful. Able to circumvent most forms of creature protection, many of the best black boardwipes get their power from the versatility and flexibility needed to rain death on the enemy.
1. Toxic Deluge
No best black boardwipe is complete without including toxic deluge. Toxic Deluge is one of the cheapest boardwipes ever printed. Costing only 3 mana, this spell can devastate enemy creatures. It even comes built-in with the flexibility of paying life for -1/-1 counters. Meaning that if you have a big enough creature, it can survive the boardwipe. Therefore adding a small addition of asymmetrical power in the right circumstances.
2. Damnation
If you are running white, damnation is not good. 4 mana to destroy all creatures is considered the baseline for what a boardwipe should do nowadays. That said, if you are not in white, then damnation is one of the only spells of its kind. Making this one of the best black boardwipes you can have. There isn’t too much to say on this. The power comes from its ability to break the color wheel and have a simple but powerful effect.
3. Meathook Massacre
It was all the rage in innistrad, and has proven to be a great boardwipe for a couple of reasons. The first is versatility. Having an x in its cost functions similarly to toxic deluge where you can kill relevant creatures but keep your potential big creatures alive. Meanwhile, this also has a lasting effect of being an enchantment that synergizes well with sacrifice-based strategies. Making this a powerful effect for decks that synergize well with it. While mana intensive, this is in no way a card to hesitate on if your deck has even some synergy with meathook massacre’s second effect.
Best White Boardwipes In Commander
1. Farewell
This is a card that is neither low CMC, asymmetrical, or instant speed, but man is the versatility on this card powerful. Farewell shuts down any strategy. Effectively resetting the game in every way except lands. This exiles circumventing death triggers, indestructible, and several other niche effects. This hits all nonland cards and graveyards, crippling any strategy people come up with, and this can allow you to keep key pieces of your board by not choosing that effect. Making this the best white boardwipe for resetting the board.
2. Elesh-Norn, Grand Cenobite
Not a traditional boardwipe, but a powerful boardwipe nonetheless. This gives all creatures on your opponents board a -2/-2 for as long as elesh norn stays out. Making this a boardwipe that Stax your opponents by preventing them from playing other creatures to accelerate their board. On top of all this, even if an opponent plays a creature that survives, elesh norn boosts your creatures by +2/+2 making any of their creatures highly unlikely to be able to impact your board.
Couple this with the fact that creature spells are hard to counter and you get one of the best white boardwipes to stopping creature strategies.
3. Austere Command
The budget version of Farewell, the flexibility on this card is the main selling point. While this only destroys, this can hit creatures, enchantments, or artifacts. Allowing you to customize how you want to boardwipe to best preserve your boardstate. Allowing some asymmetrical features to the boardwipe as well. Needless to say, if you like Farewell, Austere Command is another great option.
Best Colorless Boardwipes In Commander
Coloreless boardwipes are cool because they can go in any deck. While more universal in their deck inclusion, these kinds of cards usually have a higher mana value to prevent them from being auto-included in every deck color. That said, you will find some of the best boardwipes in mtg are colorless.
1. Ugin, The Spirit Dragon
The classic colorless boardwipe. It exiles, can be asymmetrical if you don’t run colors, and has versatility afterward if ugin is alive. This is a powerhouse in the right decks. Planeswalker and artifact decks will love it as a boardwipe option for all the reasons stated above. Even if someone plays a creature threat after you Ugin, you can still always uptick him to deal 3 damage to that creature. Most likely killing it. In short, a great colorless boardwipe for you deck.
2. All is Dust
The eldrazi boardwipe is a fitting description. Besides decks like Tergrid loving this card, This gets around a lot of ways to protect your creatures and wipes out all permanent types besides colorless ones. Meaning, this can be a powerhouse for colors like blue usually utilizes very few blue permanents and relies on colorless artifacts, or only a few creatures to advance their board sate.
3. Nevinhyral Disk
Nevinhyral disk is my favorite of the colorless boardwipes. Why you might have to wait a turn before activating it, you can do this at instant speed. Plus the fact that this is a revealed card, has a lot of power behind it. It functions like all the other cards I mentioned in my political cards article. If people know that you can blow up all effectively all their non-land permanents at will, they are most likely not to play into the card. No one likes losing their cards when someone else can force the issue. Couple this with the fact that while everyone else is playing cautiously, you can advance your board until it is too late for them to interact.
Best Multicolor Boardwipes In Commander
Multicolor boardwipes are usually a favorite among players. The reason is that multicolor boardwipes dip into several different color wheels allowing for a large degree of variety when choosing your boardwipes.
1. Fire Covenant
The best multicolor boardwipe I can recommend. This not only is asymmetrical, instant speed, and low cmc, but can be a powerhouse removing multiple key threats with only one card. I recommend this to everyone in red black. Especially for its cost to buy. Just be sure to preserve your life total or this card will get too expensive real quick.
2. Pernicious Deed
A great boardwipe for enchantment and recursion decks. This is a known threat, much like nevinhyral disk so can be used politically, but its key function is replayability and asymmetrical boardwipes by pumping in only enough into it to kill your opponents threats while hopefully keeping yours alive. If you run a muldrotha deck this is by far the best multicolor boardwipe for you.
3. Toxrill
The other Elesh-Norn. This not only applies a consistent stax effect every end step, but this also gives you creatures that can be used for attacking or sacrificing to draw cards off of toxrill’s other ability. Making this an expensive but powerful asymmetric boardwipe that has a large degree of versatility. Just be careful as unlike Elesh Norn, people can still play creatures to progress their board, especially if they have haste.
Conclusion
21 of the best boardwipes for commander. These should hopefully make your decks function that much more smoothly and allow for some great deck-building potential. If you are interested in boardwipes for your deck, then I highly suggest checking out my article that goes over the nature of boardwipes and how many to include in your decks. I think it sheds some great insights for those looking at deck building and how to make your decks perform better.