Board Wipes

As promised in the previous post, today I look at board wipes.

Every commander deck should have board wipes—cards that clear the board of most (if not all) non-land permanents. (That means your own, too.) Board wipes are a way to 'reset' the game and level the playing field if things get out of hand. Sometimes, board wipes are the only way you have a shot a winning (like if your opponent amasses a goblin army . . . this may be based on recent experience).

Reminder: the major card types are land, creature, artifact, enchantment, planeswalker, battle, sorcery, and instant (there are a few others that show up situationally, but I won't cover those today). Board wipes apply to permanents, and almost always focus on non-land permanents: creature, artifact, enchantment, planeswalker, and battle. The most common type of board wipe focuses on creatures, as they are the primary means of doing damage.

In a prior post on [targeted] removal, I noted that each color has a 'specialty' or way of removing things; board wipes are the same. Below I go color by color and explain typical board wipes for each.

White has a ton of "destroy all creatures" spells (or variants of them); below are a few, and you can find more here. (If your commander deck has white as a color, include one or more of the below in it.)

Blue doesn't destroy things, but returns them to their owners' hands (some below, more here):

Black, like white, specializes in destroying creatures. But there is a nuance: some black spells do so by giving all creatures -X/-X until end of turn (recall that if a creature's toughness drops to 0 or below, it is destroyed). Some below, more here and here.

Red is all about damage, so most board wipes are damage-based. But it is good at destroying artifacts and lands, too. Some below, more here and here.

Green focuses on destroying enchantments, artifacts, and creatures with flying. Some below; more here and here.

Of course, there are multi-colored ones, too. Some below, more here.

And colorless artifacts:

The above is just a sample, but hopefully enjoy to convey the range of options available to you. I recommend 3 board wipes per commander deck; many of them are quite inexpensive (to purchase) and can make all the difference.