The nine best board wipes in MTG

In Magic: The Gathering, a board wipe refers to a card that gets rid of all creatures (and in some cases all permanents) on the battlefield. They are an important part of the game as a way to handle a giant battlefield of creatures, and see play in every format of the game, from Standard to Commander. Board wipes come in many different flavours, some destroy while others exile or bounce cards back to the hand. These are the nine best board wipes in Magic: The Gathering.

9. Everything Comes To Dust

If you’re playing a deck with creatures of the same type, Everything Comes To Dust turns into a one-sided board wipe. Although at its base it costs ten mana, since it has convoke, you can use your creatures to pay for the mana, potentially making it free so long as you have creatures to tap. 

The creatures it wipes are exiled as well, making it harder for them to return back to the battlefield. It also hits artifacts and enchantments, resetting all of your opponents’ progress on those while maintaining your board presence with creatures that convoked the card.

✓ Johnny’s Tip:

Careful With Your Non-Creatures:

Everything Comes To Dust is great, but it does exile all artifacts and enchantments, not just creatures. While you can protect your creatures from being exiled, the same can’t be said about your artifacts or enchantments, so make sure you won’t need them when you cast Everything Comes To Dust. 

8. Sunfall

In general, exiling creatures is better than destroying as it gets around indestructible. Sunfall not only exiles all creatures, but you also get a token creature to use as an attacker. This token can have massive stats depending on how many creatures are exiled with its effect. 

Sunfall is easy to cast on a curve, letting you play it at the perfect time to handle any deck that played too aggressively and put too many creatures on the battlefield. It’s a staple of control decks, as it not only handles creatures but gives you a way to start dealing damage. 

7. Hour Of Reckoning

In token decks, Hour Of Reckoning is one of the best board wipes you can play. Although it costs a lot of mana, the convoke ability makes it easier to cast.

Token decks tend to flood the battlefield but can have problems closing out games due to their weaker stats. However, Hour Of Reckoning can clear the way from them as outside of dedicated token decks your opponent likely won’t have many, if any nontoken creatures so their battlefields will be clear for you. 

6. Vanquish The Horde

Vanquish The Horde costs a lot of mana, but has the potential to only cost two white mana. Its effect simply destroys all creatures. What makes the card so strong is the ability to discount it as a way to prevent the battlefield from getting too out of hand. 

Vanquish The Horde is the perfect counter to decks that put a ton of creatures onto the battlefield quickly and punishes them for doing so as it lets you cast Vanquish The Horde much earlier in the game. 

5. Farewell

Farewell has the potential to wipe an entire battlefield and graveyards, exiling them. What makes Farewell the best board wipe that hits so many permanents is that you get to choose which modes to choose. 

If you’re playing a deck that cares about the graveyard, you can keep those around or choose to not exile artifacts so you keep all your mana rocks. Farewell can answer any kind of problem permanents, all for only six mana. 

4. Toxic Deluge

Toxic Deluge is the best board wipe in black, capable of getting rid of all creatures so long as you have life to play. While its weaker in constructed formats, it’s amazing in Commander where you start with so much life. 

Since the creatures are getting -X/-X, it gets around indestructible and other effects that board wipes would otherwise be unable to remove. If a creature ever goes under zero toughness, its automatically destroyed no matter what kind of protection it has and is why Toxic Deluge is such a good board wipe. 

3. Blasphemous Act

Blasphemous Act is the staple board wipe in red. While it technically doesn’t destroy all creatures, dealing 13 damage to them is often enough to remove them all since it’s rare for a creature to have that much toughness. 

The strength of Blasphemous Act is that it will often cost only one mana to pay it. Blasphemous Act is generally a “last resort” board wipe when there is no way you can control the battlefield and is used to clear the way and reset to try again with the creatures you replace. Some decks can even play through Blasphemous Act if they have ways to stat boost themselves beyond 13 toughness. 

2. Supreme Verdict

Supreme Verdict is one of the few board wipes that see play across almost all the formats its legal in. It simply destroys all creatures, but the main attraction is the fact it can’t be countered. 

Supreme Verdict is hard for many decks to answer, especially since it can be cast by turn four (even earlier in some decks). It is a staple of control decks as a way to ensure you can bounce back against more aggressive decks, wiping the battlefield and getting stabilized for the rest of the game. 

1. Cyclonic Rift

Perhaps the most hated board wipe, Cyclonic Rift is also the best. Its default casting cost of two is seldom ever used outside of desperation plays, and Cyclonic Rift is almost always being cast for its overload cost. 

When the overload cost is paid, Cyclonic Rift is a one-sided board wipe. Not only does it reset everything but lands, it can be played at instant speed so you’ll have full mana when your turn comes back around. If a lot of things got bounced back to the hand, your opponents will have to discard to hand size as well to really set them back on their game state. After a Cyclonic Rift resolves, it’s uncommon to not win the game from there.