20 Best Board Wipes in Magic: The Gathering

When the battlefield gets too crowded, sometimes the only answer is to blow the whole thing up

In Magic: The Gathering, board wipes (otherwise known as "sweepers") serve as the ultimate reset button. Whether you’re in a pinch with no creatures while your opponents have full armies, or you’re looking to slow the game down by ridding everyone of lands, these are the types of spells designed to clear multiple cards from the battlefield in a single shot. These kinds of big plays have been a pillar of Magic strategy since the game’s debut in 1993, when Alpha introduced Wrath of God and set the standard for mass destruction. Control and midrange decks rely heavily on these cards to erase an opponent's early momentum, using one card from your hand to level an entire battlefield of threats.

While early sweepers simply destroyed everything in sight, decades of card design have led to a fascinating variety of board wipe functionality. Modern alternatives often bypass indestructible keywords and death triggers using non-targeting exile effects or mass toughness penalties like -X/-X. Other variations leverage cost-reduction mechanics, instant-speed mass bouncing, or modular options, allowing players to turn a seemingly symmetrical effect into a devastating advantage.

Whether you’re looking to survive a high-stakes 1v1 format or turn the tides in a chaotic four-player Commander pod, having the right sweeper in your deck is crucial. Presented in no particular order, here are 20 of the absolute best board wipes in MTG history, each bringing its own unique brand of devastation to the battlefield.

20 Boompile

Introducing an element of nerve-wracking chance to mass removal, Boompile functions as a wildly unpredictable alternative to traditional board wipes. The four-mana artifact requires you to tap it and flip a coin; if you win, it destroys all nonland permanents, completely wiping the slate clean. The real advantage is that you can activate its effect the exact turn it comes down, giving your opponents zero time to prepare if luck is on your side.

For artifact players looking for a more controlled, albeit slower, asymmetrical variant, Scourglass offers a similar delayed detonation that specifically spares artifacts and lands. Together, these artifacts provide decks lacking traditional removal colors with the explosive power needed to reset chaotic board states.

19 Organic Extinction

Artifact-focused strategies gained one of their most devastating asymmetrical tools with the release of Organic Extinction in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Commander. At a staggering 10 mana, its sticker price seems extremely prohibitive at first glance, but the Improvise keyword allows you to tap your artifacts — including non-creature mana rocks, Equipment, and Treasure tokens — to pay for generic mana. Once resolved, it destroys all non-artifact creatures on the battlefield, leaving your mechanized army completely untouched. This selective destruction turns what is usually a defensive reset button into a game-ending offensive push, enabling artifact-heavy decks to wipe out enemy blockers and swing for lethal damage on the exact same turn.

18 In Garruk's Wake

Sometimes utter annihilation is worth paying a premium price, and In Garruk's Wake delivers the ultimate one-sided slaughter. First printed in Magic 2015, this massive nine-mana sorcery destroys not just your opponents’ creatures, but also their planeswalkers. Unlike symmetrical wipes that force you to rebuild your defenses alongside your enemies, this spell leaves your entire battlefield untouched, paving the way for an immediate, game-winning alpha strike. While nine mana is far too slow for fast-paced 1v1 formats, mono-black Commander decks can easily ramp into it using tools like Cabal Coffers with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, or cheat it out using an Entomb and Sins of the Past combo, instantly transforming a stalled late-game board state into a decisive victory.

17 Ezuri's Predation

Green is notoriously light on traditional mass creature destruction, making Ezuri's Predation an incredibly unique and valuable asset for the color. As an unconventional board wipe, the eight-mana sorcery spawns a 3/3 Phyrexian Beast token for every creature your opponents control, which immediately fight those enemy creatures. It functions as a massive, brutal board wipe against swarms of smaller utility creatures and tokens while leaving behind an enormous army of surviving beasts on your side of the field.

While green often relies on cards like Bane of Progress for artifacts or The Great Aurora for total resets, Ezuri's Predation stands alone as the color's premier creature sweeper, turning an opponent's overwhelming numbers into the very engine of their defeat.

16 Nevinyrral's Disk

As Magic's original colorless emergency button, Nevinyrral's Disk (an homage to author Larry Niven, spelled backward) has been clearing problematic boards since Alpha. Since it costs just four generic mana, any deck regardless of color identity can run it to destroy all artifacts, creatures, and enchantments simultaneously. Hitting the battlefield tapped gives opponents a full turn to prepare or respond, creating a tense psychological dynamic where players might hesitate to commit more threats to an already creature-filled board. However, it can be made even more devastating with cards like Unwinding Clock and Clock of Omens for swifter removal. Despite being telegraphed, its ability to sit on the field as an open threat and activate on demand still makes it an enduring classic.

15 Armageddon

Where most sweepers tend to focus on creatures or artifacts, Armageddon is slightly more evil. For four mana, the white sorcery destroys all lands on the battlefield, effectively erasing the fundamental resources of the game. While mass land destruction is heavily stigmatized in casual Commander pods (sorry guys), it is a ruthlessly effective win condition in competitive settings when used to lock in an already superior board state. Players frequently break parity by pairing it with commanders that manipulate lands from the graveyard or generate alternative resources, such as Thalia and The Gitrog Monster. Due to its fearsome reputation and sheer power, functionally identical variants like Ravages of War command equally high demand, offering redundancy for players dedicated to completely choking out their opponents' mana bases.

Get Polygon’s Wishlister newsletter

A weekly cheat sheet to what you’ll eventually love to play. No buying, no commitment — just saving for later.

Free. Unsubscribe anytime.

14 Merciless Eviction

Absolute exile is the highest form of removal in Magic, and Merciless Eviction brings Orzhov's signature ruthless efficiency to the battlefield. The six-mana sorcery forces you to select a single card type — artifacts, creatures, enchantments, or planeswalkers — and exiles every instance of it on the board. Much like with Farewell, Eviction’s permanent exile ensures that indestructible threats, death triggers, and graveyard reanimation targets are completely neutralized. While it lacks the same multi-modal selection, its ability to cleanly erase an opponent's entire enchantment engine or artifact suite makes it a reliable cornerstone for multi-color control decks.

13 Living Death

Equal parts mass removal and lethal game-ender, Living Death is a board wipe and win condition rolled into one chaotic spell. A staple dating all the way back to Tempest, the five-mana sorcery forces every player to sacrifice their entire board and swap it with the creatures currently sitting in their graveyard. While technically symmetrical, a deck built around Living Death turns this effect heavily asymmetrical. By filling your graveyard with massive threats and entering-the-battlefield triggers using self-mill or discard effects, casting Living Death clears all enemy threats while instantly resurrecting a game-winning army for yourself.

12 Earthquake

Scaling brilliantly from the early game all the way to the final turns, Earthquake is a foundational red sweeper that has been terrorizing ground-based strategies since Alpha. By paying an adaptable X cost alongside a single red mana, it deals X damage to every creature without flying and directly to every player. The dual utility makes it uniquely dangerous. It can be cast for two or three mana to clear out early mana dorks and aggressive tokens in the early game, or heavily fueled in the late game to serve as a massive, game-ending burn spell. Since it misses flyers, decks heavily invested in dragons or angels, like Kaalia of the Vast or The Ur-Dragon, can confidently cast it to incinerate the ground beneath them while leaving their own airborne armada unscathed.

11 Austere Command

Few board wipes offer the tactical flexibility of Austere Command. Ever since its debut in Lorwyn, it has been legendary for its modular control, allowing players to pick two distinct options out of four to tailor the devastation directly to their board state, similar to Farewell. You have the option to wipe all small creatures and enchantments while preserving your own high-cost bombs, or clear away big threats and artifacts while leaving your token army intact. This level of adaptability makes Austere Command a staple in casual and competitive Commander decks alike, as it rarely sits dead in hand and consistently finds a creative angle to favor its caster over the rest of the table.