You know that moment in Commander where the board has become a small ecosystem? Tokens everywhere. A value engine humming. Someone’s commander wearing a small department store of equipment. And then the blue player sighs like they’ve seen the future and says, “Well… I guess I have to.”
That’s the problem with board wipes in MTG: they’re powerful, but they’re also the easiest way to accidentally help the wrong person. A wipe can save you, save the table, or hand the game to the player who was already holding seven cards and a grip full of ramp.
So let’s make board wipes feel less like a panic button and more like a plan.
What a board wipe is really doing in Commander
A board wipe (or “wrath effect”) is mass removal. It resets the battlefield by destroying, exiling, bouncing, or otherwise clearing a bunch of permanents at once.
In Commander, wipes aren’t just “removal.” They’re time and resources:
- Time: You’re buying yourself turns. Sometimes that’s all you need.
- Resources: You’re trading one card for many cards on board (often a net gain), but only if you don’t wipe away your own best work for free.
- Control of pacing: Wipes decide whether the game ends fast, or turns into a slow rebuild festival.
The key idea: a board wipe is best when it changes who is favored to win. If it doesn’t do that, it’s probably just making everyone redraw their board state and resent you a little.
When to fire the wipe
Here are the cleanest “pull the trigger” moments. Not because they’re morally correct. Because they actually work.
You’re preventing a win, not preventing damage
If a player is about to win (or effectively lock the game), the wipe is easy. You don’t need to get cute.
Examples:
- Lethal combat on board next turn and you don’t have enough spot removal.
- A snowball engine that will run away if it survives one more turn cycle.
- A board that makes your future plays irrelevant (you’re locked out, taxed out, or about to get buried).
This is the “don’t die” wipe. It’s never pretty, but it’s real.
The wipe is asymmetrical in practice
Even “symmetrical” wipes aren’t always equal. If you’re set up to recover faster, it’s effectively one-sided.
Signs you’re the one who recovers best:
- Your commander is cheap and self-contained.
- You have a draw engine online or in hand.
- You have a follow-up play that matters (more on that below).
- Your deck is built to rebuild (tokens, recursion, ETB value, etc.).
If you wipe and then you’re the first one back on board with pressure or value, you didn’t “reset.” You took the lead.
You’re converting a wipe into a two-turn swing
The best wipes are not “wipe, pass.” They’re “wipe, then do something that makes the wipe unfair.”
Good follow-ups:
- Wipe → deploy a threat (or your commander) immediately.
- Wipe → refill your hand.
- Wipe → establish protection (so you’re not the only one rebuilding into the next wipe).
- Wipe → take the initiative with a board that can’t be answered easily.
If you can’t follow it up, you may still need to wipe. But you should recognize you’re probably just treading water.
When to sandbag the wipe (and why it wins more games)
A lot of players wipe too early because they hate feeling behind. But “behind” isn’t always “losing.” Sometimes you’re just the first person to blink.
Here’s when holding the wipe is better.
Don’t save the table for free
If one player is pressuring the other two, and they’re both holding up answers, you wiping can actually rescue the strongest player.
Ask yourself one blunt question: Who benefits most from the board being empty?
If the answer is “the player with the most cards in hand” or “the deck that ramps hardest,” you might be about to donate them the game.
Wait for overextension (but not too long)
Overextension is when someone commits so much to the board that a wipe becomes a blowout.
The sweet spot:
- They’ve committed enough that the wipe sets them back multiple turns.
- But they haven’t already gotten full value (like drawing 20 cards, making 40 treasures, or tutoring twice).
If you wipe after they’ve already cashed in the value, you’re “cleaning up the scene,” not stopping the crime.
Keep a wipe as a threat, not a hostage situation
In Commander, threat of a wipe can influence attacks and sequencing. But there’s a line between “table awareness” and “I’m holding everyone hostage.”
A simple version that works: don’t announce it, but play like you have it. Hold up mana, make safer blocks, take smaller hits now to avoid being forced into a bad wipe later.
Choose the right kind of mass removal
Not all wipes are interchangeable. The wording matters a lot in Commander.
Destroy vs exile vs bounce vs damage
- Destroy is classic and efficient, but it loses to indestructible and can feed death triggers and graveyard recursion.
- Exile is the “clean” answer. It’s often better against recursive decks and death triggers, but it usually costs more mana (or flexibility).
- Bounce (reset to hand) can be brutal against token decks and a tempo win, but it doesn’t answer ETB decks forever.
- Damage-based wipes are great when they’re cheap, but big creatures can live, and protection effects can matter.
You don’t need every type. You just need to know what your table looks like. If your pod is full of graveyard value and death triggers, “destroy all creatures” might secretly be “everyone gets paid.”
Flexible wipes win games
Wipes that let you choose what dies (or hits multiple permanent types) are often worth the extra mana because Commander boards are messy. Creatures are only part of the problem half the time.
A flexible wipe can:
- remove the scary board
- keep your commander / key pieces
- and avoid resetting the player who’s already behind
How to rebuild faster after the wipe
This is the part most people skip, which is why they hate wipes. Your deck should have a post-wipe plan, even if you only run a few.
Keep resources in hand on purpose
If you always dump your whole hand onto the battlefield, wipes will crush you. The fix is boring but effective: don’t play your second-best threat until you need it.
I like to think in “waves”:
- Wave 1: enough pressure/value to matter
- Wave 2: held back so you’re not empty-handed after the reset
You don’t need to sandbag forever. You just need to keep something.
Rebuild with cards, not topdecks
After a wipe, the player who draws more cards usually wins. So your rebuild plan is often just “draw first.”
That can be:
- repeatable draw engines
- burst draw after the wipe
- commanders that naturally refill your hand
- recursion that turns graveyard into a second hand
If your rebuild plan is “i hope i draw a creature,” your wipe is basically a self-inflicted coin flip.
Sequence like you expect the second wipe
Commander games often have more than one wipe. So rebuild in a way that doesn’t lose to the next one.
Good patterns:
- rebuild with fewer, higher-impact threats
- prioritize engines that survive creature wipes
- play protection only when it meaningfully changes the next turn cycle
If you rebuild by vomiting five creatures onto the board again, you’re just begging for the sequel.
How many board wipes should you run?
There isn’t one number that fits every deck, but there are sane ranges.
- A lot of “normal” Commander decks land around 3–5 wipes.
- Creature-heavy decks tend to want fewer (or more one-sided options).
- Control decks usually want more, but they also need win conditions that actually end the game.
The best rule of thumb is meta-based: if your games regularly end to wide creature boards, you probably want more wipes. If your games end to combo/value engines and noncreature permanents, you may want fewer creature-only wraths and more flexible answers.
Mistakes that make board wipes feel awful
Wiping with no follow-up
“Wrath, pass” is how you turn a winning position into “everyone hates me” while you still lose.
Wiping because you’re annoyed, not because you’re losing
Not every big board is a problem. Sometimes it’s a political problem (someone is ahead), but you can solve that with attacks and spot removal, not a reset.
Saving the strongest player
If you wipe the board and the player with the most mana and cards untaps next… congratulations, you’ve invented Kingmaking: The Gathering.
Conclusion
Board wipes aren’t “good” or “bad.” They’re just leverage. Cast them when they prevent a loss, when they flip the advantage to you, or when you can turn the reset into a real swing. Sandbag them when wiping helps the wrong player more than it helps you.
Before you sleeve up (or fire off) another wrath, ask one question: what am i doing after the wipe? If you have a real answer, your board wipes stop being delays and start being wins.
References
Draftsim — “How Many Board Wipes Should You Really Play in Commander?” Draftsim
Card Kingdom — “You Should Be Playing More Board Wipes” Card Kingdom Blog
Proxy King – “Board Wipes” – https://proxyking.biz/mtg-board-wipes/
