8 Top Board Wipes

This week one of our House Wizards

shares his list of top boardwipes!

Those pesky things that ruin your plans just when you have the upper hand. Or about to have it.

Those spells that clear the board for you to dominate your opponent.

So let's get started with our Top Boardwipes!!!

Enter the House Wizard:

When I started writing this post I was hoping to make a list of the 

best board wipe in MTG. But after having a great conversation with

 one of my friends about what are the best board wipes, I 

remembered a statement I learned in college, “There is no perfect

 pasta sauce: there are only perfect pasta sauces”. Because what 

boardwipes give to a deck isn’t the victory of the game but the 

chance to delay the game to give you more option or to seal the 

game totally. So with that idea we will talk about the most 

essential board wipes in MTG. These are just my opinion on what 

the best board wipes are that can help you decide on what wrath 

effect would be perfect for your deck. 

1) Volcanic Fallout

   Aside from the blue hate (I will hate blue forever, nothing will change that.) this is one wins for its value as a red weenie removal.  With a very affordable casting of 3 mana, It can’t be countered. It deals 2 damage to all creatures and all players. And after all that, it’s an instant.

If that isn’t value I don’t know what is! Because not taking in to account that it can save you from infinite token combos such as earthcraft + squirrel nest combo. It can establish board dominance against mana dependent decks that use mana dorks (yeah those pesky elves), and it’s damage can be redirected to planeswalkers instead of dealing it to players (Editor’s note: Hmmm.. interesting I never thought of that before).

This card is mostly seen played in the EDH format but it is also being used in the Tiny leaders format because of its synergy with commanders like Shu Yun that can survive Volcanic Fallout due to Prowess mechanic.

2) Armageddon

    This could have easily gone to Boom/Bust for the utility in landy decks or Decree of Annihilation for being a complete board wipe that removes everything or cycling it to destroy all lands with a card draw and dodges a lot of counterspells from blue (Editor’s note: I have learned from a friend that using cycling will make it count as a triggered ability so you will need to use Stifle or other similar spells to stop the annihilation).

But what Armageddon has in spades is the value for the mana cost. 4 mana to destroy all lands can look useless when you your losing a game.

But a well-timed geddon can give back the tempo of the game to you and at best it could win you the game.

The only downside of this card is it requires you to master your deck and understand it. Because misunderstanding the use and/or timing of this card can easily spell your defeat.

3) Terminus 

      Of all the modern boardwipes this takes the cake for establishing board control. With a huge number of cards in the modern sets that can give or has creature indestructibility, many boardwipes like wrath of god, Akroma’s vengeance or Day of judgement has lost their edge in giving the player board dominance they sorely need.

Aside from that with formats like EDH uses cards like Bribery and/or Gilded Drake and has Commanders like Mimeoplasm or Sheoldred, You really don’t want to give these guys healthy pickings to anyone’s graveyard.

 

 Luckily, Terminus answers that for 6 mana it will return all creatures to their creatures to the bottom of the owners deck making sure anything stolen, reanimated or a creature that just won’t die leave the board. 

Then if you still aren’t sold, it has a Miracle mechanic for the Cost of 1 White mana. If that isn’t the meaning of Top Decking! I don’t know what it is.

Top 10 Multi Colored Counter Spells

This week our Wizard Miko expands on his previous list of his top 10 blue counter spells with multicolored counterspells.

Welcome Wizard Miko.

I hate to admit it. I love playing Blue magic. The feeling of satisfaction of rendering major 

spells useless with my counterspells is just pure GOLD. That is why my first article featured my

 top 10 Mono Blue Counter spells. But, what if I add new hues for the blue deck?

Especially nowadays when Wizards are coming up with expansions that empower players to 

play more than one color.

What if I go multicolored? Are there useful multi-colored counter spells for us to add in our 

deck?

Well, I tried using the cards, some are good and some are bad but let’s concentrate on what’s 

GREAT! Here is the top 10 Multi-colored Counter spells that I find pleasing to use.

10. Double Negative 

If you are playing Commander and have the Red and Blue spectrum, Double Negative is a great addition to your counterspell arsenal. With that 3 CMC mark, you might not be able to win counterspell wars most of the time but if its used efficiently it’s good, specially going against spells with Cascade.

9. Bant Charm 

I’ve chosen this over Temur and Dromar’s Charm for a specific reason. The modes you may want to use are more flexible and stronger than the other two. Even if its restrictive to what you may only counter, the power to remove an artifact or a big threat already in play is a major plus.

8.   Suffocating Blast

One of my favorite spells to be packaged with Sunforger is Suffocating Blast. This card’s power relies on its 2 for 1 game since its strength to be able to counter spells and remove a small creature at the same time is a monster. It’s high 4 CMC mark, however, will be a little problematic for the caster as it maybe too heavy to actually use it in the early turns.

7. Soul Manipulation

I have this thing with cards that gives you a 2 for 1 advantage. Soul Manipulation’s power to snag a creature from your graveyard right back at your hand and fizzle a creature spell from your opponent’s stack will easily be one of my favorite moves in the Multiplayer Commander Scene.

6.  Counterflux

Another great spell to add in your Red Blue weapons. Counterflux is the new Last Word that was released in the Return to Ravnica block. What’s more to this spell is that it has the Overload mechanic that can be used to counter multiple spells at once.

10 Top Counter Spells of All Time

Hmm... Casting that big scary scare to wipe out my board or to take the upper hand?

Wait

Wait

Wait 

Lemme "Counter Spell" that!

Baboom!
Like a Sir




Ah! Counterspells those things that save our ass when were the one playing them.

And those pesky counterspells when were the one being pestered by them.

This week one of our House Wizards Miko Abrina shares his 10 top counter spells of all time. Enjoy!

10.    Counterspell 

 Plain and simple. A direct to the point counter spell. The card that defined what blue is all about. Just like Force of Will, its always included in a blue deck.

9. Muddle the Mixture 

 One of my favorite counterspells. It serves as a tutor most of the time for cards such as Stasis, Isochron Scepter or Snapcaster Mage. Its a gem in the Commander format.

8. Complicate 

 One word, Cycling. This card can be used as a hard counter or as a cantrip with an optional Force Spike. It’s not a dead card even if you just want to cycle the card.