(Ruinous Ultimatum | Art by Chase Stone)

Rules for Thee, But Not for Me

Welcome to Too-Specific Top 10, where if there isn’t a category to rank our pet card at the top of, we’ll just make one up! (Did you know that Slash the Ranks is the only board wipe that specifically doesn't affect commanders?)

Board wipes. They've fallen out of favor somewhat in the last few years, as shorter games have become the hot ticket item in the Commander space. Or have they? While we do see less Wrath of God lately, it's less that we're seeing less board wipes in a deck, and more that we're seeing more board wipes that aren't a wipe for your deck.

Top 10 Board Wipes

1. Blasphemous Act
2. Toxic Deluge
3. Farewell
4. Austere Command
5. Damnation
6. Damn
7. Wrath of God
8. Supreme Verdict
9. Chain Reaction
10. The Meathook Massacre

None of which is to say that your more typical, efficient board wipes have gone away entirely. With Blasphemous Act usually costing a single mana, and Toxic Deluge always costing three, there's clearly still a slot in most decks for an ultra-efficient board wipe. Likewise, the flexibility of Farewell more or less guarantees it's not going anywhere soon. Where there used to be five or ten slots for board wipes, however, there are now only three in most cases. So once you've gotten the best in the deck (or decided against it for price/flavor reasons), what are people filling the rest out with?

Top 10 One-Sided Board Wipes

Put simply, the rest is more specific stuff. In fact, a good half of the list above could even be defined as such. Toxic Deluge isn't just considered one of the best board wipes ever printed because it's cheap, it's also considered great because it's targeted. If you've got a deck with a big commander, or a solid amount of creatures with large butts, you can easily make Toxic Deluge one-sided by choosing a lower number. Similarly, the entire point of Farewell and Austere Command is to pick things that will let your deck keep operating while getting rid of the problems on your opponent's side of the board. In short, the best of the best are there because they're already one-sided board wipes.

If you are looking to fill out those other two slots in your deck, however, or just want to keep things a bit more true to your deck specifically, what else is there?

Criteria: Cards that destroy, exile, shuffle, give -X/-X, or deal more than one damage to all creatures or permanents, but possess some sort of caveat when they do so that could reasonably be built around, or specify that only opponents do so. As is tradition, all results are ordered by EDHREC score.

10. Balefire Dragon

(48,194 Inclusions, 3% of 1,794,030 Decks)

Seven mana is a lot, and waiting a turn for a board wipe doesn't feel great either, but there's a lot to say for wiping an opponent's board every turn. While Balefire Dragon sees the most play in Dragon decks, there's a lot to be said for it in anything that can handle big mana costs, cheat creatures into play, or give creatures haste. In any of the above scenarios, Balefire Dragon can come down early and control an entire game until the player you're picking on draws removal.

9. Delayed Blast Fireball

(53,284 Inclusions, 3% of 1,675,927 Decks)

While the list of reasons Delayed Blast Fireball is seeing so much play could end and begin with Prosper, Tome-Bound, that's really selling this instant-speed board wipe short. With more and more effects letting you cast spells from exile, there's so many reasons that you'd be able to play this for its greater damage out there.

Top 10 Cast From Exile Effects

1. Jeska's Will
2. Etali, Primal Storm
3. Tibalt's Trickery
4. Etali, Primal Conqueror
5. Chandra, Torch of Defiance
6. Mizzix's Mastery
7. Light Up the Stage
8. Apex Devastator
9. Nashi, Moon Sage's Scion
10. Arcane Bombardment

While the majority of these effects are still in red, there's no shortage of onesie-twosie examples that are mechanics with a home in other colors, with Cascade being chief among them. If you are considering Delayed Blast Fireball, however, then you are by definition in red. With that in mind, there are general value reasons you might end up playing cards from exile, like Jeska's Will, Chandra, Torch of Defiance, and Light Up the Stage. There are Storm staples like Mizzix's Mastery and Arcane Bombardment. Further down the list, there are tons of Cascade options like Volcanic Torrent and Throes of Chaos that fit in many of those decks as well.

If you're really looking for a reason to play Delayed Blast Fireball, though, why not look at what it does even when cast normally? Three mana for two damage to each creature your opponents control, along with the controllers themselves, isn't a bad rate. One-sided for an instant speed Pyroclasm that also damages your opponents ain't a bad deal for three mana. That extra three damage? It's just gravy, baby.

8. Kindred Dominance

(54,558 Inclusions, 3% of 1,911,993 Decks)

Typal decks have always been a mainstay of the format, and with the options only getting more and more plentiful every day, I don't see that changing anytime soon. With that said, I'm not actually that jazzed on Kindred Dominance. Seven mana is just kind of a lot, when there are options for less mana that can do near the same thing.

In the same color, Crippling Fear can get you a -3/-3 for everyone else's creatures at only four mana. It might miss the bigger problems, but will still get rid of all the tokens and utility creatures across the way at a massive discount. If you have access to blue, then you can play my real favorite: Raise the Palisade. Bouncing everyone else's creatures for five mana is a great deal. There are also a ton of these kinds of effects for some of the more popular creature types out there, but if you're going to go that route, I'd just really roll the dice on your Humans or Elves deck and play Peer Pressure.

7. Crux of Fate

(55,500 Inclusions, 3% of 1,911,993 Decks)

Speaking of board wipes specific to popular creature types, it's Crux of Fate! Destroying all non-Dragon creatures for five usually just spells game over for a well-established Dragon deck, although it's also a nice panic button if you're needing some time to set up, as well. Either way, the board wipe made exclusively for the most popular creatures in the game was always going to make the list.

6. Urza's Ruinous Blast

(56,328 Inclusions, 3% of 1,703,233 Decks)

With all of the recent "Legendary-Matters" commanders that have been printed, it's no surprise that Legends Decks are creeping up in popularity, nor that Urza's Ruinous Blast is coming with them. Those 51,190 decks only make up about half of the play Urza's Ruinous Blast sees, however, with it appearing in 56% of the 48,502 Legends decks that can play white. The other bits include some Voltron commanders that are more dependent on +1/+1 counters than auras and equipment that would be destroyed by Blast, some Superfriends decks that probably should meet the "Legends" moniker anyhow, and then quite a bit of general play that I can't really explain as anything other than folks playing "CardsIOwn.dec". Which is ,of course, fine, but hopefully we can find them some other cheap options that will be a little less universal for them!

5. Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

(66,461 Inclusions, 2% of 3,725,386 Decks)

Well, Ugin is not that. Whether it be pricetag or mana cost, either way you swing it Ugin is expensive. With that said, it's hard to find a better board wipe in colorless, with it both exiling, scaling if you need it to, and keeping your things around. Combine that with the only other option being All Is Dust (a card that should honestly be on this list, but our criteria wasn't quite wide enough), and it's no shocker that Ugin is number one in the colorless department.

4. Hour of Reckoning

(68,370 Inclusions, 4% of 1,703,233 Decks)

I adore Hour of Reckoning. To whatever token enthusiast there is out at Wizards who designed this card, I'd like to thank you. It's simple, it's direct, and it's perfect. Convoking a huge seven mana spell with a horde of tokens that will then get to safely untap and swing into still-rebuilding boards? Amazing.

3. Chandra's Ignition

(73,102 Inclusions, 4% of 1,794,030 Decks)

I'm firmly of the opinion that Chandra's Ignition sees too much play. While it's true that it can be a total and complete blowout, it's also dependent on several factors external to the card: Namely, having a creature on the board, that creature have a large amount of power when the spell resolves, and that creature remaining in play as the spell resolves. If any of those three things aren't true, then Ignition will be useless or mostly useless (I know I wouldn't want to pay five to deal one or two damage to my opponents and their creatures).

With all that said, I do think if you are playing a deck that is all about large creatures, or even just has a commander with a ton of power, Chandra's Ignition is worth considering. My only reason for pushback? I see it in a lot of red decks where neither thing is the case, and that's just not a good use of your options.

2. Ruinous Ultimatum

(73,798 Inclusions, 18% of 415,968 Decks)

Ruinous Ultimatum surprises me on three counts here. One, that it only sees play in 18% of Mardu decks. Yeah, it's a seven mana spell that is all pips, but still, it destroys everything your opponents control. Two, that there are 415,000 Mardu decks. I remember a time not too long ago when that was the number of decks that included white total. It's crazy how much the format, or at least us insane brewers, are ballooning. Three, that it's this high on the list. Knowing the first two points here, it's not as much of a surprise, but... A three color card seeing play in 73,000 decks? That's a club that not too many cards belong to. In fact, it's a club that only Ruinous Ultimatum belongs to!

Top 10 Three-Color Cards

1. Ruinous Ultimatum (73,798 inclusions)
2. Void Rend (71,521)
3. Temur Ascendancy (69,867)
4. Eerie Ultimatum (57,373)
5. Whirlwind of Thought (49,080)
6. Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm (47,760, yes including commander appearances)
7. Zacama, Primal Calamity (44,254)
8. Jetmir, Nexus of Revels (43,174)
9. Muldrotha, the Gravetide (41,033)
10. Isshin, Two Heavens as One (38,520)

Pat on the back, Ruinous Ultimatum. Now, can you go hang out somewhere else? You're making the table nervous.

1. In Garruk's Wake

(76,145 Inclusions, 4% of 1,911,993 Decks)

Now, I just spent a couple paragraphs and another top ten congratulating Ruinous Ultimatum, so you may be shocked to find that I don't actually care for the card that beat it out on this list. Why? For the obvious reason: In Garruk's Wake is more expensive, and it does less. That first point is maybe debatable, given how hard pips can be to come by compared to colorless mana, but the second point is really the kicker for me. So, let's try a couple scenarios, organized by the popularity of themes on EDHREC, specifically skipping the ones that don't support my point of view:

• You're playing against an artifact and/or Treasure deck, and you cast a Ruinous Ultimatum. They get a few triggers, but then probably lose the game.
• You're playing against an artifact and/or Treasure deck, and you cast In Garruk's Wake. They lose a couple engines and perhaps their non-Daretti commander, then proceed to continue Shenanigans.
• You're playing against a Voltron deck, and you cast a Ruinous Ultimatum. They lose in horrible poverty.
• You're playing against a Voltron deck, and you cast In Garruk's Wake. They recast their commander, immediately equip it with Lightning Greaves, and continue in with damage and a mostly unkillable creature that will indeed get all of its other toys back on it next turn.
• You're playing against a Spellslinger deck, and you cast Ruinous Ultimatum. They lose all of their mana rocks, engines, and finishers, then proceed to lose the game.
• You're playing against a Spellslinger deck, and you cast In Garruk's Wake. They laugh at you.
• You're playing against an Enchantress deck, and you cast Ruinous Ultimatum. Provided they don't have an Open the Vaults in hand, they handily lose the game.
• You're playing against an Enchantress deck, and you cast In Garruk's Wake. They lose a couple enchantresses and the odd enchantment creature, but are otherwise unaffected.
• You're playing against a Superfriends deck...

I think I've made my wholly and totally biased point, supported by my obviously biased data. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

Honorable Mentions

I know, I know, I can hear everyone screaming about Cyclonic Rift from here. Yes, it's the best. No, I didn't include it in my criteria. No, I don't feel bad about that, because you already knew it was the best, and we instead got to talk about Balefire Dragon.

As for some other gems that didn't quite make our criteria, I will once again harp on how underplayed Fire Covenant is outside of cEDH. It's honestly better than Toxic Deluge, in my opinion, and does work on any table where you have enough life to make it do work. You should grab a copy yesterday.

Lastly, Settle the Wreckage isn't quite as much of a shining star, and may ultimately lose you the game in the long run. But man does it feel good on the turn you play it, and that's a feeling worth chasing. Gimme that dopamine, baby!

As for the stuff that did meet our criteria, but still didn't quite make the list? Well, let's just extend that out a bit, shall we?

Top 25 One-Sided Board Wipes

11. Winds of Rath
12. Organic Extinction
13. Apex Altisaur
14. Urabrask
15. Liliana, Death's Majesty
16. Mizzium Mortars
17. Damning Verdict
18. Zombie Apocalypse
19. Phyrexian Scriptures
20. Slash the Ranks
21. Olivia's Wrath
22. Wakening Sun's Avatar
23. Sunblast Angel
24. Chandra, Awakened Inferno
25. Elesh Norn

While several of these can be dismissed as too expensive in the same vein as In Garruk's Wake, there are several diamonds in the rough that you may have missed for your deck's specific archetype. Winds of Rath is fairly well known when it comes to Aura decks, for instance, but are you aware of Damning Verdict for your various counter brews? Urabrask is one of the best Spellslinger commanders that's been printed in the last few years, but at five mana to deal three to everything and everyone else and then still have remaining upside, maybe it's time to consider it in your decks that are only playing a moderate amount of spells, too? Heck, even if you don't play any, you can still play your opponents for mana and damage when you flip him back over! If you're not sold on that saga, however, then perhaps I can sell you on Phyrexian Scriptures? It's a bit slow-acting, and that can absolutely blow up in your face, but if you're the artifact deck and this draws removal, are you really that upset about it? I think not.

Nuts and Bolts

There always seems to be a bit of interest in how these lists are made (this seems like a good time to stress once again that they are based on EDHREC score, NOT my personal opinion…), and people are often surprised that I’m not using any special data or .json from EDHREC, but rather just muddling my way through with some Scryfall knowledge! For your enjoyment/research, here is this week’s Scryfall search.

What Do You Think?

And finally, what is your favorite one-sided board wipe? What deck does it work well in?

Let us know in the comments, and we'll see you at the table where I'm playing Solitaire. I swear, I'm just waiting for "opponents" to show up!

Read more:

Power Sink - Elesh Norn, Clear as Mud

Mechanical Memories - Bored of Board Wipes?

DougY

Doug has been an avid Magic player since Fallen Empires, when his older brother traded him some epic blue Homarids for all of his Islands. As for Commander, he's been playing since 2010, when he started off by making a two-player oriented G/R Land Destruction deck. Nailed it. In his spare time when he's not playing Magic, writing about Magic or doing his day job, he runs a YouTube channel or two, keeps up a College Football Computer Poll, and is attempting to gif every scene of the Star Wars prequels.