"This deck sucks. It has no removal." My friend, 'Burt,' provided this blunt feedback after I shared a deck design one day. And he was right! Early in my Magic experience, I rarely included 'removal' spells when building decks, and it's a recipe for disaster. This post looks at the concept of removal and the ways to do it in Magic.
Removal spells are those that counter your opponent's strategy by removing threats. A threat is, simply, anything your opponent is trying to do. Removal spells disrupt your opponent and force them to deal with setbacks. All decks should have removal spells.
There are many ways to incorporate removal into your deck. Each color has removal spells; each have their pros and cons. At a high level, there are ten ways to remove your opponent's threats:
1. Counter a spell
An easy way to remove a threat is to never let it be resolved in the first place. A counter spell must be cast when an opponent's spell is on the stack, and it nullifies the spell before it resolves. Counter spells are the only way to disrupt instants and sorceries.
2. Discard or exile cards from an opponent's hand
Another way to remove threats before they happen is forcing your opponent to discard or (better) exile cards from their hand. Be wary, though: some decks want to put cards in their own graveyard.
3. Destroy or exile a permanent
Once a permanent enters the battlefield, it can be destroyed or exiled. (Recall that a permanent is a land, creature, enchantment, artifact, or planeswalker- things that stay on the battlefield once they're cast). These spells are powerful, and present in all colors except blue (because blue dominates in other areas). When something is destroyed, it's sent to the graveyard. As with discarding, there are times an opponent may want that to happen; for those situations, exile cards exist, which forego the graveyard entirely by removing a permanent from the game.
4. Sacrifice a permanent
A sacrifice spell generally gives the opponent a choice on which permanent(s) they take out. But these can be powerful, as they can take out creatures with hexproof or indestructible.
5. Neutralize a permanent
By neutralize, I mean leave it on the battlefield, but render it unable to perform its intended function. Permanently tapping a creature, making it unable to attack or block, turning it into a smaller creature, stopping 'enter the battlefield' triggers, and preventing combat damage are some ways to neutralize powerful threats.
6. Gain control of a permanent
Nothing like taking control of that powerful creature your opponent just paid 6 mana to cast! This is really annoying to an opponent, whether it's for one turn or permanently.
7. Return a permanent to its owner's hand/library
Returning something to an opponent's hand (or library) is a temporary solution, but still holds value. It gives you insight into what the opponent may do again, forces them to spend mana to cast the same spell again, and gives you an opportunity to counter it the next time they cast it.
8. Drop a creature's toughness to 0
Creatures can be taken out by dropping their toughness to 0. This can be handy, especially as it can kill creatures with indestructible (which damage and destroy spells can't do).
9. Do lethal damage to a creature (or any damage with deathtouch)
Doing damage to a creature is the most common way to kill it. Damage can happen in combat or through damage spells. Once a creature takes damage equal to its toughness, it is destroyed (unless it has indestructible). Deathtouch is a handy way to remove creatures, too. If your creature has deathtouch, any creature to which it deals combat damage will be destroyed, even if it's less than the other creature's toughness.
10. Slow the pace
Some spells affect the number or type of spells that can be cast in a turn. This can be extremely powerful against certain strategies.
Color Combinations and Removal
In reading through the above, you may have picked up on trends. White can slow things down and destroy in certain conditions, blue has counter and control spells; black likes to discard or force sacrifice, red does damage and destroys lands, green destroys artifacts/enchantments or flying creatures. There are generalizations, but you get the idea. What happens when you combine colors? Look at the multi-colored removal spells below and see if you can attribute the aspects of each spell to a certain color in its casting cost:
Final Thoughts
Playing Magic is the only way to get familiar with the different types of removal and their pros/cons in different scenarios. As you gain experience, you'll be able to:
Removal spells are those that counter your opponent's strategy by removing threats. A threat is, simply, anything your opponent is trying to do. Removal spells disrupt your opponent and force them to deal with setbacks. All decks should have removal spells.
There are many ways to incorporate removal into your deck. Each color has removal spells; each have their pros and cons. At a high level, there are ten ways to remove your opponent's threats:
- Counter a spell
- Discard/exile cards from an opponent's hand
- Destroy/exile a permanent
- Sacrifice a permanent
- Neutralize a permanent (tap, turn to frog, can't attack or block, etc.)
- Gain control of a permanent
- Return a permanent to its owner's hand/library
- Drop a creature's toughness to 0
- Do lethal damage (or deathtouch) to a creature
- Slow the pace
1. Counter a spell
An easy way to remove a threat is to never let it be resolved in the first place. A counter spell must be cast when an opponent's spell is on the stack, and it nullifies the spell before it resolves. Counter spells are the only way to disrupt instants and sorceries.
2. Discard or exile cards from an opponent's hand
Another way to remove threats before they happen is forcing your opponent to discard or (better) exile cards from their hand. Be wary, though: some decks want to put cards in their own graveyard.
3. Destroy or exile a permanent
Once a permanent enters the battlefield, it can be destroyed or exiled. (Recall that a permanent is a land, creature, enchantment, artifact, or planeswalker- things that stay on the battlefield once they're cast). These spells are powerful, and present in all colors except blue (because blue dominates in other areas). When something is destroyed, it's sent to the graveyard. As with discarding, there are times an opponent may want that to happen; for those situations, exile cards exist, which forego the graveyard entirely by removing a permanent from the game.
4. Sacrifice a permanent
A sacrifice spell generally gives the opponent a choice on which permanent(s) they take out. But these can be powerful, as they can take out creatures with hexproof or indestructible.
5. Neutralize a permanent
By neutralize, I mean leave it on the battlefield, but render it unable to perform its intended function. Permanently tapping a creature, making it unable to attack or block, turning it into a smaller creature, stopping 'enter the battlefield' triggers, and preventing combat damage are some ways to neutralize powerful threats.
6. Gain control of a permanent
Nothing like taking control of that powerful creature your opponent just paid 6 mana to cast! This is really annoying to an opponent, whether it's for one turn or permanently.
7. Return a permanent to its owner's hand/library
Returning something to an opponent's hand (or library) is a temporary solution, but still holds value. It gives you insight into what the opponent may do again, forces them to spend mana to cast the same spell again, and gives you an opportunity to counter it the next time they cast it.
8. Drop a creature's toughness to 0
Creatures can be taken out by dropping their toughness to 0. This can be handy, especially as it can kill creatures with indestructible (which damage and destroy spells can't do).
9. Do lethal damage to a creature (or any damage with deathtouch)
Doing damage to a creature is the most common way to kill it. Damage can happen in combat or through damage spells. Once a creature takes damage equal to its toughness, it is destroyed (unless it has indestructible). Deathtouch is a handy way to remove creatures, too. If your creature has deathtouch, any creature to which it deals combat damage will be destroyed, even if it's less than the other creature's toughness.
10. Slow the pace
Some spells affect the number or type of spells that can be cast in a turn. This can be extremely powerful against certain strategies.
Color Combinations and Removal
In reading through the above, you may have picked up on trends. White can slow things down and destroy in certain conditions, blue has counter and control spells; black likes to discard or force sacrifice, red does damage and destroys lands, green destroys artifacts/enchantments or flying creatures. There are generalizations, but you get the idea. What happens when you combine colors? Look at the multi-colored removal spells below and see if you can attribute the aspects of each spell to a certain color in its casting cost:
Final Thoughts
Playing Magic is the only way to get familiar with the different types of removal and their pros/cons in different scenarios. As you gain experience, you'll be able to:
- predict what type(s) of removal spells your opponent will have based on their deck color(s)
- determine what types and quantities of removals spells to include in your own deck
No comments:
Post a Comment