Budget board wipes for Commander

Last updated: October 22, 2026

A board wipe (a "wrath" or "sweeper") destroys everything, or most things, at once. In a four-player game it is the most efficient removal there is: one card answers threats from three opponents. Most of the good ones are cheap, because they are common effects reprinted constantly, and every board wipe we stock is on one list.

How many to play

Two to four in most decks. A creature-heavy deck wants fewer, or one-sided ones; a control deck wants more. Cast them when you are behind, not when you are ahead. The best time is just after the table has committed its creatures and before anyone can win with them.

White

Day of Judgment and Wrath of God: four mana, destroy all creatures. The standard.
Doomskar: destroy all creatures, with foretell so you can set it up early and cast it later for three.
Sunfall: exiles all creatures, then gives you an Incubator token that grows with the number exiled. Exile beats indestructible and recursion.
Vanquish the Horde: costs one less for each creature on the battlefield, so it is often two or three mana when you need it.
Depopulate: destroy all creatures; players with a multicoloured creature draw a card first.
Austere Command: choose two: artifacts, enchantments, small creatures or big creatures. Can leave your own board standing.

Black

Toxic Deluge: three mana, pay X life, all creatures get -X/-X. Flexible and cheap to cast; one of the best in the format.
Crux of Fate: destroy all Dragons, or all non-Dragons.
Kindred Dominance: destroy every creature that isn't of the type you choose. One-sided in a tribal deck.
Final Act: destroy all creatures, and pick any of: all planeswalkers, all battles, exile all graveyards, opponents lose all counters.
Black Sun's Zenith: put X -1/-1 counters on every creature, then shuffle itself back into your library to use again.
In Garruk's Wake: nine mana, but destroys only creatures and planeswalkers you don't control.

Red

Blasphemous Act: 13 damage to each creature, and costs one less for each creature on the battlefield. Usually one mana in Commander.
Chain Reaction: damage to each creature equal to the number of creatures on the battlefield.
Storm's Wrath: 4 damage to each creature and each planeswalker.
Anger of the Gods: 3 damage to each creature, and anything that dies is exiled. Answers small, recursive creatures.
Vandalblast: destroys one artifact you don't control, or with overload every artifact you don't control. One-sided.

Blue and multicolour

Evacuation: return all creatures to their owners' hands. Tokens disappear for good.
Aetherize: return all attacking creatures to their owners' hands. An instant that stops a lethal attack.
Merciless Eviction: white-black: exile all artifacts, all creatures, all enchantments or all planeswalkers.
Culling Ritual: black-green: destroy every nonland permanent with mana value 2 or less, and add mana for each. Clears mana rocks and tokens.
Ruinous Ultimatum: Mardu: destroy all nonland permanents your opponents control. Hard to cast, game-ending when it resolves.

Worth the upgrade?

Damnation is a black Wrath of God, and costs more mostly because black rarely gets one at four mana. Cyclonic Rift and Farewell are on the Game Changers list, which moves a deck up a bracket. Bracket 2 and 3 decks don't need them.

For single targets, see cheap spot removal.