Summary

• Board wipes are crucial in controlling decks to stop aggressive opponents, but they rarely win games on their own.
• Red offers powerful board wipes like Gates Ablaze and Wildfire that can deal massive damage and disrupt opponents.
• Some board wipes have additional abilities like land destruction or damage to planeswalkers, making them even more impactful.

If you're new to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Magic: The Gathering, you'll often find board wipes, or 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:wrath effects, to be some of the most broken cards in the game. After all, how can it be fair for one card to be capable of removing every single creature on the battlefield? While that's an understandable sentiment for newer players, the truth is that board wipes rarely win a game of Magic on their own.

Board wipes are most often used by control decks when facing aggressive opponents. They are one of a few types of cards that's capable of stopping an onslaught of creatures when your own deck hasn't been playing creatures every turn itself. However, board wipes can also be used in a much more destructive manner in formats like Commander where they affect the battlefields of multiple opponents. This list will take a look at the best board wipes red offers across all formats. You might want to apply some sunscreen before we get started, because it's about to get hot.

Updated on November 30, 2023 by Ryan Hay: Red might not be known as the board wipe color in Magic: The Gathering but it is for sure the damage one and sometimes, that's just as good. Through immensely powerful spells, Red decks can spread that damage around, blowing up anything and everything around that this color can. Every so often, a new Red board wipe proves it can deal enough damage for players to take note, with a few good ones getting better and better over time. This time around, we have a few situational damage spells, all but guaranteeing an empty board by the time it resolves. If you're looking for a way to deal with mass creature removal, you can't go wrong with these.

16 🔯 Gates Ablaze

Burn Them Down

A fair bit more situational than most red boardwipes, Gates Ablaze requires you to play a deck filled to the brim with Gate lands, but in doing so, you have the potential to unleash tons of damag🌸e. Gates Ablaze deals damage to each creature on the battlefield equal to the number of Gates you control. Ramp is key in a deck like this, as the more Gate lands you have in play means the more damage you can dish out.

This limitation means you won't be playing Gates Ablaze in most decks, but in the ones you do it is a powerful spell. Gate decks got a boost with the release of Commander Legends: Battle For Baldur's Gate, since that set came with a whole new cycle of Gate lands.

15 ♓ Sweltering Suns

Burn Or Draw, Your Choice

Sweltering Suns might be missing one key effect, but it's still a great budget option for a red board wipe that's perfect against hyper-aggressive decks. Three damage might not seem like a lot, but it's enough to wipe out nearly every creature your opponent can present during the first three turns of the game.

Furthermore, the added ability to cycle Sweltering Suns makes it even better as a mainboard inclusion. In match ups where you don't need a board wipe, you can cycle Sweltering Suns away for a more effective card.

14 Brotherhood's End

The Good Times Are Over

Like Sweltering Suns, Brotherhood's End is a reliable way to sweep the board in the earliest turns of the game. However, it also comes with the benefit of a mode that deals with low mana cost artifacts. There are many deck archetypes that rely on casting tons of low mana cost artifacts and bringing them together to create one impossibly formidable creature.

This sweeper is the perfect answer to those decks. Beyond that, Commander players run all kinds of low cost artifacts, like Sol Ring, in order to give them access to additional mana early. Brotherhood's End can deal with all of them in one fell swoop.

13 Wildfire

Make Your Opponents Hate You

Wildfire is a strange board wipe, but also incredibly effective in the right deck. Dealing four damage to the board for six mana isn't exactly ideal, but it should take care of most creatures your opponent can present. The real effect to take advantage of here though is the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:land destruction.

A ramp deck that's focused around putting as many lands on the battlefield as quickly as possible can completely disable its opponents with this card. For instance, if you've got six lands on the battlefield when your opponents only have four, casting Wildfire will essentially send opponents back to turn one while you maintain your previously won mana advantage.

12 Star Of Extinct🗹ion

That Star Is Getting Awfuly Close...

Remember when we said six mana for four damage to the board wasn't exactly ideal? Well, that's in part because a card like Star of Extinction deals 20 damage to the board for seven mana. There's no doubt that this card will kill every creature your opponents possess aside from those that have the keyword indestructible.

On top of a guaranteed board wipe♚, Star of Extinction also allows you to destroy a single land. This added ability might seem li𓆉ke a cherry topper, but it actually adds a lot of power to this card. Man lands, tricolor lands, and lands with abilities like Dark Depths and Hanweir Battlements are all commonly played great targets for destruction.

11 Slagstorm

Pick Your Burn!

Slagstorm provides an interesting twist on Sweltering Suns by allowing an alternate mode that deals three damage to each player. It pretty much goes without sa🐠ying that this is a card expressly designed for formats like Commander where you have multiple opponents.

Cards like this that deal damage to all opponents aren't as good as those that allow you to eliminate one of your enemies entirely, but there is something to be said for the fact that they don't draw as much attention. When you're not targeting anyone with a card, there's a lot less of a reason for an opponent to decide you're their sworn enemy. That in itself is a boon.

10 Kozilek's Return

Can't Keep A Good Removal Spell Down

Kozilek's Return provides value in both the early game and later on, as long as you're playing 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:some big Eldrazi. In fact, during i👍ts time in Standard, this board wipe led to the creation of an oppressive ramp deck that hung around at the top of the meta for months.

The only thing better than wiping the board is developing your own board while doing so, and Kozilek's Return allowed for exactly that. It's absolutely devastating to destroy all other creatures while placing a big threat of your own on the board the very same turn.

9 𓂃 Bu🍌rn Down The House

Either Way, Something Is Going Up In Flames

This is a fairly recently printed board wipe that's still around in Standard at the moment. While it's seen some play, its true home is in a UR (blue/red) spells matter deck that has yet to emerge in the meta. Like Sweltering Suns and Slagstorm, Burn Down the House isn't useless in matchups where you don't need a board wipe.

In fact, it's arguably the most useful of the bunch, as it can generate creature tokens that come with the added bonus of haste. Not only that, but these Devil creature tokens deal one damage to any target when they die, making them a headache for opponents to deal with in combat.

8 Worldfire

Some People Just Want To Watch The World Burn

Prior to 2021, this card was actually banned in Commander for being too problematic. However, as is the case with many Magic cards, power creep over time has led to strategies that can achieve the effect of this card for less mana. In other words, Worldfire isn't as good as it used to be.

That being said, exiling everything from the battlefield, hands, and graveyards and reducing everyone's life total to one is a pretty powerful effect. This is especially so when your deck consists of cheap burn spells or haste creatures that can quickly finish opponents off after you've cast Worldfire. Let the top deck wars begin.

7 🍎 𝕴 Temporal Firestorm

Burn Everything Except For Two Creatures

Earlier on, we said that one of the most devastating things you can do is wipe the board while developing your own threats. Temporal Firestorm does exactly that through the use of its kicker costs, which phase out up to two creatures and planeswalkers you control. Furthermore, this board⛎ wipe is also notable for dealing damage to planeswalkers and creatures alike.

One of the easiest ways to get around t💎he devastation of board wipes is by playing a planeswalker alongside your creatures. Unfortunately, opponents will be in for a rude awakening if you happen to drop Temporal Firestorm on them. Needless to say, this card goes best in a Jeskai (red/blue/white) deck that can take advantage of its kicker costs, but also plays just fine in any other red deck.