20 Best Board Wipes in Magic: The Gathering
When a Magic: The Gathering battlefield becomes unmanageable, a board wipe can reset the game in a single spell. These sweepers remove several permanents at once, helping control and midrange decks recover from an opponent’s early momentum.
The first major example arrived with Alpha in 1993 through Wrath of God. Since then, mass removal has expanded well beyond straightforward destruction. Exile effects can ignore indestructible creatures and death triggers, while -X/-X effects, mass bounce, cost reduction and modal choices create more specialised answers.
This selection is presented in no particular order and focuses on the cards ranked 20 to 11 in the supplied list. For more gaming and hobby coverage, explore RETROCADE’s Arcade Blog and browse the store’s virtual pinball machines.
20. Boompile
Boompile turns mass removal into a gamble. This four-mana artifact can be tapped immediately after it enters play, then asks you to flip a coin. On a win, it destroys all nonland permanents, giving colourless decks a dramatic way to clear the battlefield without waiting a turn.
Players wanting a slower but more predictable artifact option can consider Scourglass, which leaves artifacts and lands intact when it destroys other permanent types.
19. Organic Extinction
Organic Extinction costs 10 mana, but Improvise lets you tap artifacts—including mana rocks, Equipment and Treasures—to reduce its generic cost. It then destroys every non-artifact creature, preserving an artifact-heavy battlefield while removing opposing blockers.
That asymmetry makes the card more than a defensive reset: a deck built around artifacts can clear the way and attack for lethal damage on the same turn.
18. In Garruk’s Wake
In Garruk’s Wake is a nine-mana sorcery first printed in Magic 2015. It destroys all creatures and planeswalkers controlled by opponents while leaving your own battlefield untouched.
Its price makes it a poor fit for fast one-on-one games, but Commander decks can reach nine mana with Cabal Coffers and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. A graveyard plan involving Entomb and Sins of the Past can also put it to work earlier.
17. Ezuri’s Predation
Green rarely receives conventional creature sweepers, which makes Ezuri’s Predation unusual. The eight-mana sorcery creates a 3/3 Phyrexian Beast for each creature an opponent controls, then has those Beasts fight the opposing creatures.
It is strongest against wide boards of small creatures and tokens, because the opponent’s numbers become the source of your replacement army. Green decks still have alternatives such as Bane of Progress for artifacts or The Great Aurora for a broader reset.
16. Nevinyrral’s Disk
Nevinyrral’s Disk has been a colourless reset button since Alpha. Its name reverses author Larry Niven’s surname, and its four generic mana cost allows any deck to use it.
The Disk enters tapped, giving opponents time to react, but its eventual activation destroys all artifacts, creatures and enchantments. Unwinding Clock and Clock of Omens can help it become faster or more flexible.
15. Armageddon
Armageddon costs four mana and destroys every land. That makes it a controversial choice in casual Commander, but it can secure a winning position in competitive play when the caster already has superior board presence or another way to generate resources.
Land-recursion commanders such as Thalia and The Gitrog Monster can reduce the drawback. Ravages of War provides a functionally similar option for decks seeking redundancy.
14. Merciless Eviction
Merciless Eviction is a six-mana Orzhov sorcery with a precise form of mass exile. Choose artifacts, creatures, enchantments or planeswalkers, then exile every permanent of that type.
Exile avoids indestructible abilities, death triggers and graveyard recursion. Although it selects only one card type, that focus can dismantle an opposing enchantment engine or remove an entire suite of artifacts.
13. Living Death
Living Death combines a battlefield reset with a potential finishing move. The five-mana sorcery makes each player sacrifice their creatures, then returns the creatures from each graveyard to the battlefield.
Self-mill and discard strategies can make the symmetrical exchange heavily favour one player. Filling your graveyard with large threats and enter-the-battlefield effects allows Living Death to remove opposing armies and replace your own with a lethal force.
12. Earthquake
Earthquake has served as a red sweeper since Alpha. For one red mana plus an adaptable X cost, it deals X damage to every creature without flying and to every player.
Small values can remove early mana creatures and tokens, while a large X can function as a late-game burn finisher. Because flying creatures are spared, airborne strategies led by Kaalia of the Vast or The Ur-Dragon can survive the blast.
11. Austere Command
Austere Command first appeared in Lorwyn and remains one of the most adaptable white sweepers. It costs six mana and lets you choose two of four destruction modes.
You can remove small creatures and enchantments while keeping larger threats, or destroy big creatures and artifacts while preserving a token army. That modularity helps the card avoid being dead in hand and makes it a dependable choice in Commander and other multiplayer formats.
Board wipes are often about timing rather than raw destruction. Before setting up a tabletop gaming space, you can also compare RETROCADE’s arcade machine buying guide or browse arcade machines for a dedicated games room.
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