DamnationDamnation | Art by Kev Walker

Removal in Commander is a necessary "vegetable" that just about every deck under Bracket 5 ought to include to varying degrees. The amount and quality of the removal a deck should run depends on both the Bracket the deck intends to run in and the meta that surrounds where the deck will be played.

With Game Changers recently welcoming FarewellFarewell into their ranks, the Commander Format Panel (CFP) has reaffirmed the precedent that not all removal is equal and ought not be universal.

So what removal should be played and which shouldn't? As always, it depends. Let's talk about what removal may be best for you.

What Makes Something Removal

Removal is a broad category of cards that typically, well, remove threats. These threats can be anything from a pesky turn-three Scute SwarmScute Swarm to someone's Warren SoultraderWarren Soultrader that is reliably exploiting their GravecrawlerGravecrawler.

Threats can also include nonpermanent sources such as an opponent's Approach of the Second SunApproach of the Second Sun that's two turns away from being cast for the second time or a ClockspinningClockspinning that routinely allows very costly and powerful spells to be cheated for much less in the right deckin the right deck.

Answers to these threats vary, but in a nutshell, removal can appear in one of three ways: point removal, mass removal, and player removal. Player removal is just what it sounds like—you remove a player from the game, however that may look.

Maybe the only way to stop a player from winning is to remove them from the game by swinging all out or ganging up on them with your other opponents. It's certainly a viable way of removing a threat, but it's a technique we won't be focusing on for this discussion.

As for point vs. mass removal, which kind of removal your deck should run can depend on what kind of threat you're up against. Point removal is excellent against decks with low creature counts or opponents who are only stopping you from winning when they draw that one cardthat one card.

But as soon as Scute SwarmScute Swarm creates even one copy of itself, point removal doesn't cut it anymore. Unless you draw it early enough and you're in the right pod for point removal to be effective, your responsible deckbuilding habits suddenly feel like very poor inclusion.

If point removal isn't viable, mass removal may be the better option. After all, not much is surviving a well-timed Blasphemous ActBlasphemous Act or Blasphemous EdictBlasphemous Edict. In fact, we could upgrade our mass removal into one-sided mass removal through cards like Fell the MightyFell the Mighty or Whelming WaveWhelming Wave.

However, just because we can improve our removal techniques and frequencies doesn't necessarily mean we should.

Removal Being Bracketed

As mentioned before, the CFP has set the precedent that some removal spells, like Cyclonic RiftCyclonic Rift and FarewellFarewell, shouldn't be included in some decks when accounting for a pod's intentions for a game.

As if counterspells like Force of WillForce of Will and Fierce GuardianshipFierce Guardianship aren't clear enough, the CFP is doubling down on their expectations regrading removal in lower Brackets. Players ought to have the ability to play their decks without the worry that a single card soils their experience.

However, I've also made the claim numerous times that running more interaction and fostering a more interactive environment creates a more social experience, whereas running less interaction leads to a more competitive setting.

Both philosophies are compatible with one another — you can run more interaction in the form of removal while also limiting what kind of removal is available in a more casual setting.

As the CFP has demonstrated, there's a difference between removal that's more social than competitive. That's not to say all competitive removal is to be barred from lower Brackets, rather we must be selective with which competitive removal spells we run.

For lower Bracket games, because our expectations are more socially inclined, our choices for removal are mainly affected by what we foresee as avenues that prevent us from winning instead of removal that prevents our opponents from winning.

If we have a token deck that wants to go wide with tens or hundreds of small creatures, mass removal spells that don't hit our weenies, like Austere CommandAustere Command, are our first answers to a wall of blockers. For a deck that seeks to go tall and make a single creature super threatening, point removal like FellFell may be our first answer to ensuring we won't have to trample through their biggest blocker.

For higher Bracket experiences, running more removal means that we're running fewer ways to win and, in a sense, are using limited resources that benefit our opponents more than ourselves. The short explanation is if doing something benefits our opponents, chances are we probably shouldn't do it. We need to be very selective about what removal we'd run and why for more competitive scenes.

This leaves Bracket 3 in an odd middle ground, somewhere between running both enough removal so that our deck is casual enough as to not encroach on our opponents' expectations, and the right kind of removal so that our deck can still be strong competition.

Considering Which Experiences Are Worth Removing

Sure, we could legally run both Cyclonic RiftCyclonic Rift and FarewellFarewell in the same deck, but they affect the game in different ways - more than just what the words on the card state. Their distinction is an important one when considering what removal to run, especially for Bracket 3 specifically.

Cyclonic Rift's best case scenario in Bracket 3 is for you to resolve the bounce spell on your opponent's end step, right before you untap into a winning board state. This effectively has the same social ramifications as resolving a Craterhoof BehemothCraterhoof Behemoth in that everyone in a Bracket 3 pod would be ok with ending the game right then and there.

Worst case, Cyclonic Rift is used as an elaborate counterspell, preventing your opponent from winning (say with their own Craterhoof Behemoth) while also neutering your other two opponents just for fun. You didn't plan on winning on your next turn, however the odds of the game ending within a another turn or two are high and don't necessitate the game being drawn out as though Farewell were resolved instead.

Farewell can be used like a Craterhoof win situation if played right. It just isn't the playstyle the card fosters. Even if you were to run a planeswalker themed deck and choose to exile everything under Farewell's reach, it's much more difficult to create a Craterhoof situation where this mass removal spell facilitates an immediate victory that isn't your opponents conceding on their own.

Cyclonic Rift either effectively wins the game on resolution or can create roundabout effects such as acting like a counterspell or an extra turn spell, not necessitating the game restarts or is prolonged egregiously. Farewell primarily resets the game with its caster at an advantage, kind of like a white Karn LiberatedKarn Liberated's ultimate as a sorcery.

The point is Bracket 3 removal can be as powerful as we'd like, but it must consider our opponents' experiences just as lower Brackets removal does.

Lower Bracket removal spells favor the social aspect of Commander more than their viability. While a Bracket 3 deck may be comfortable with running multiple complimentary wipes like Don't MoveDon't Move, a lower Bracket deck may run just one of these one sided mass removal spells and instead run multiple point removal spells.

The more removal that is dedicated to being point removal, the more interactive the game is, thus the more socially acceptable and enjoyable the experience will be.

As we briefly touched on, there's a whole other discussion talking about how removal ought to be played given your meta and Bracket expectations, however I hope that a quick look at how Brackets view removal spells differently was helpful in your deck building experiences.

But what do you think? How do you feel about point, mass, and player removal? What are your thoughts on Brackets limiting where certain removal spells can go? Do you think players should consider which removal spells to run in this manner?

I hope this article is helpful in exploring how to determine which removal spells are best for which Bracket. Find me on BlueSky at @ajwicker4.bsky.social, I'd love to hear from you and what your thoughts are.

Tune in next time to continue this deep dive in the Bracket system and more Commander Philosophy!