The 46 Best Red Board Wipes in Magic Ranked

Last updated on January 8, 2025

Blasphemous Act | Illustration by Daarken

Red decks often want to play a lot of creatures. They also often have plenty of damage and burn spells. So why a red sweeper?

Sometimes the game gets away from you when you’re playing a fast deck. Control stalls you out and you need a reset button. Red board wipes can do that while also cleaning up planeswalkers and triggering damage effects like Stuffy Doll.

Let's dive into the rankings and see which sweeper comes out on top!

What Are Red Board Wipes in Magic?

Destructive Force (Magic 2011) | Illustration by Jung Park

Red sweepers typically remove all or most creatures on the battlefield, with most of them being damage-based instead of destroy-all or exile-all effects. That means that creatures can simply be too big for these spells to kill.

But an upside to that is that the damage often gets splashed to other things, like players and planeswalkers, which is a unique benefit. Another bonus is that they can be scaled to fit your board. Got a lot of chonkers on your side? Sweeping tokens away while your team weathers the storm can be an excellent strategy. Think of the Ents withstanding the flood while goblins get washed away at the end of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

We're focusing on cards with a mono-red color identity here, so cards that could be played in any Rx Commander deck.

Ready to burn through the list?

#46. Ryusei, the Falling Star

I’m going to leave Ryusei, the Falling Star as a proxy for the dozens of cards in red, from the single-damage Tremor to cards that only kill non-flyers. There will be times when that'll make you feel like a genius in your dragon decks or whatever, but other times they’re just silly.

#45. Gates Ablaze

You’ve been hit by this in the gates deck in Historic. If you have a gates deck in the right colors, Gates Ablaze has to go in, right?

#44. Jaya Ballard, Task Mage

RIP to the OG, Jaya Ballard, Task Mage.

Inferno as a tap ability? I mean, why not? It’s on a fragile creature that can do wicked things with that first anti-blue ability.

#43. Skirk Fire Marshal

I’ve never seen this actually work, but I’ve heard tales of Skirk Fire Marshal doing work in a goblins deck. With enough goblins you can kill the table. Oh, it’s also a sweeper, it seems.

#42. Caldera Hellion

If you’re playing blink with access to red, Caldera Hellion can be sooooo obnoxious. I’m convinced that Boros () blink will be a thing someday, and I’ll keep playing that deck until a good commander comes along for my Seasoned Pyromancer and Firbolg Flutist! Of course, this card is in that deck. Watch out!

#41. Disaster Radius

I guess this is something to do while you ramp to your Eldrazi? Disaster Radius can be that for you while it sits in your hand waiting to get ‘em with a one-sided board wipe.

#40. Fire Tempest

Six for 7 is below rate, and a sorcery-speed Inferno is even worse, but Fire Tempest hits hard and hits players, so okay.

#39. Volcanic Fallout

Again, 2 for 3 isn’t great, but to do this at instant speed and hit players is nice.

#38. Flame Sweep

Noticing a pattern? Two for 3 damage isn’t great, but to sweep at instant speed and spare your fliers is great, especially for Izzet () decks.

#37. Thunderwave

Moving up a notch, 3 for 4 is still below rate, but if you roll well and save something important on your side, I guess that’s not bad for Thunderwave.

#36. Immolating Gyre

This is bonkers in a spellslinger deck. It wipes everyone else for a lot of damage. The trouble with Immolating Gyre is that Tormod's Crypt hanging out over there in the corner.

#35. Lavaball Trap

Four for five isn’t super great. And Lavaball Trap is terrible at 8 mana. Still, it’s an instant, folks. Take note.

#34. Pyrohemia

Look, Pyrohemia does its Pestilence impression pretty well. But like that card, it’s not super efficient as a board wipe all in one go. It’s nice that you can keep using it, but only if you have one big beater like Charix, the Raging Isle who keeps surviving. Really, this card is useful as a combo piece for decks like Kazarov, Sengir Pureblood or Neheb, the Eternal.

#33. Fiery Confluence

Not an impressive sweeper, but Fiery Confluence can instead dome everyone for 6, which is big game.

#32. Rough // Tumble

I’ve used the second part of Tough / Tumble to good effect against a demon deck, but it’s too expensive. Really, this is here as one of the few 2-mana Pyroclasms you can find.

#31. Sudden Demise

Okay, this probably isn’t great, but Sudden Demise can be absolutely hilarious. In a mono-red EDH deck, you have to include this as multicolor creatures become ever more prevalent. Worst case, you nab an annoying creature or two. Best case, you obliterate the table. Middle ground for eating someone’s token army while keeping your goblin on the table still isn’t bad.

#30. Radiant Flames

Sweltering Suns is a lot worse without the cycling. Radiant Flames is a fine option if you need another card in this space in a multicolor deck.

#29. Delete

Here’s a board wipe for your artifact decks. Sparing your artifact creatures with Delete is awesome, and even if you don’t have that many artifact creatures, the rate here is passable. You’re typically overpaying 2 mana for a similar effect.

#28. The Rollercrusher Ride

The Rollercrusher Ride isn’t a wrath per se, but a way to kill multiple creatures of your choice. If you have delirium, direct damage sources you control deal double the damage, and that helps all your red burn spells and even other damage-based sweepers. If you don’t have delirium or your deck is bad at achieving it, the rate isn’t that good, and there are better options.

#27. Chandra's Ignition

The first card to have this effect, Chandra's Ignition is a red sweeper that gets better if you have huge creatures around, and it usually finds a home in Gruul () decks. Bonus flavor points for working well with Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh, and you get to transform this flipwalker using Chandra’s Ignition.

#26. Waltz of Rage

Waltz of Rage holds some similarities with Chandra's Ignition, but it trades direct damage to players for the impulsive draw. The best part about this red sorcery is that even if you lose some creatures, you get to play extra cards until the end of your next turn. At least you have mana to pay for them while recouping your losses.

#25. Showstopping Surprise

Showstopping Surprise can be a big surprise indeed. Coming in at instant speed, you just need to have a decent-sized creature on the battlefield, even if it’s morphed or disguised. The worst part of these type of cards is that like fight spells in green, you need to have something on the battlefield for it to work.

#24. Anger of the Gods

Sweltering Suns is a lot worse without the cycling. The exile on Anger of the Gods is useful in an Arclight Phoenix meta, I guess, but only if you survive their big attack turn.

#23. Brotherhood's End

Brotherhood's End gets the nod over Anger of the Gods when destroying artifacts is more important in the metagame than avoiding death triggers. It also gets planeswalkers too, so I’m ranking it a little higher.

#22. Slagstorm

Sweltering Suns is a lot worse without the cycling (see a pattern yet?). Not sure the burn option matters on Slagstorm.

#21. Spiteful Banditry

Spiteful Banditry isn’t exactly a one-sided board wipe, but at least you get a Treasure token as a reward for killing your opponents’ creatures. After this card lands, you’ll be incentivized to fire burn spells at their creatures to get extra Treasures.

#20. Delayed Blast Fireball

Here’s an instant-speed Pyroclasm that only touches opposing creatures (and opponents) and with massive upside if you cast it from exile. You naturally get to do this by foretelling Delayed Blast Fireball, but a lot of red card draw options are impulsive draw that let you cast this card like the miracle mechanic, if you manage to hit it.

#19. Sweltering Suns

Sweltering Suns is a lot worse without the… wait, we’re finally here. Three for 3 damage is good for getting most things, and you can cycle it away if that’s not relevant. If Commander had sideboards, Sweltering Suns would probably go there.

#18. Pyroclasm

Two mana for a 2-damage sweeper is still good. Pyroclasm handles most tokens and obnoxious utility creatures. If your deck is weak to go-wide strategies, these kinds of mini-sweepers will keep you in the game a bit better than more expensive sweepers.

#17. The Elder Dragon War

Pyroclasm effects usually cost 3. So, for 1 more, The Elder Dragon War allows you to mass rummage and make a dragon. Not bad, especially in Ghen, Arcanum Weaver decks.

#16. Exocrine

Creatures like Ravenous Chupacabra are tempo-positive because you can remove their threats while adding something to your board. Exocrine goes a step further, allowing you to pay X, and deal X damage to other creatures and players. Ravenous also gives you a card back if X >5, so this tyrranid gives you tempo and huge card advantage. 

#15. Mizzium Mortars

Mizzium Mortars doubles as a serviceable spot removal for 2 mana or a Plague Wind for small creatures thanks to the overload mechanic. Clearing the board for an attack for just 6 mana isn’t the worst, I’ll tell you.

#14. Incinerator of the Guilty

Incinerator of the Guilty is already a big 6/6 trample dragon, so it’s already okay as a big creature. But when it attacks, it gets to sweep their board if you’re collecting some evidence. Of course, it needs to attack and deal damage to work as a sweeper, and that’s why trample is relevant on this card.

#13. Chandra, Flamecaller

Four for 6 is way below rate, but that’s the floor as a sweeper when this red planeswalker drops. So, 6 for this planeswalker is way too much given other Chandras, but Chandra, Flamecaller can fill a board-wipe space in a deck that isn’t sure whether it really wants one or not.  A planeswalker sweeper is useful, and in the meantime Chandra, Flamecaller can make hasty tokens.

#12. Inferno

Inferno is about as good as it gets for a wrath at instant speed (compare to Fire Tempest). Sure, it’s too expensive and it’s hard to pass the turn with 7 mana up and a straight face, but whatever, you know?

#11. Starstorm

Beautifully flexible. For 6 mana, Starstorm will usually wipe most of the board, which is below rate, but it scales up and down and also cycles!

#10. Rolling Earthquake

Rolling Earthquake is 1 mana cheaper than Starstorm, and awesome against anything but horsemanship decks (is that a thing?).

#9. Storm's Wrath

Four for 4 is good. Storm's Wrath probably isn’t big enough to actually wipe most boards these days, but it does hit planeswalkers.

#8. Structural Assault

Sure, Structural Assault wipes out your Treasures and mana rocks, but it does so for everyone else as well. There aren’t a lot of ways to wipe artifacts at instant speed, but if someone drops a Fracturing Gust on your turn, you can still cast Structural Assault and it counts those dead rocks. Similarly, they can’t sac their Treasures to get out of the damage as the card still counts those.

#7. Comet Storm

Pay a bunch of mana, blow up as many things as you want. In late game, Comet Storm can wipe all the creatures that matter on opponents’ boards while leaving yours intact. That’s big game. Also, it’s an instant. No other instant can levy damage across lots of targets the way this can.

#6. Hour of Devastation

Hitting ‘walkers except your own Bolas is also a bonus. Removing indestructible is text that gets more and more important every year, so Hour of Devastation keeps climbing my list.

#5. Burn Down the House

Five for 5 is good. Since it can hit planeswalkers, that’s enough to remove a just-ticked-up Teferi, Hero of Dominaria and other menaces. The other mode is just amazing, though. I’ve won outright with the devils as attackers in Standard, especially when Burn Down the House gets run in an Arcane Bombardment deck.

#4. Call Forth the Tempest

Yes, it’s 8 mana and very expensive. But what you’re getting with Call Forth the Tempest is worth it. First, you get two cascade triggers, which is a huge boost to your resources, and after that, you get to sweep your opponent’s board based on the mana value of cards you’ve cascaded into. And this cascade card is a one-sided board wipe: It only gets their creatures, not yours, and it’s easy to get 5-6 points of damage. Look forward to rituals and other effects that reduce the cost of sorceries.

#3. Star of Extinction

Seven to kill the board and that one Cabal Coffers over there is a bit expensive, but if you absolutely need to kill the superfriends player dead, accept no substitutes.

#2. Chain Reaction

In Commander, this will usually kill the board for 4 mana. That’s why Chain Reaction matters. Four-mana board wipes in red usually top out at 4 damage, which sometimes isn’t enough. Sure, this is nerfed if there are only three creatures on the table, but in that case, save your sweeper for later.

#1. Blasphemous Act

Hardcore. When you really, really need it, Blasphemous Act will cost 1 mana. It’s not fancy like Farewell and only hits creatures, but there’s simply no better rate for mass destruction than this excellent red sorcery.

Red's Mass Board Wipes

Here we pour one out in salute for the cards that have taken inspiration from the OG red wipe Jokulhaups and have become the salt bombs of the format. Rule 0 conversations in Commander generally aim for a game everyone can play, and mass land destruction is often thrown off the table at that time. This begins to feel more problematic as lands get more and more powerful, but the idea is that wiping all the resources off the board just makes the games take too long.

We'll keep these separate from the main list since these usually serve a different purpose and don't act as substitutes for normal creature board wipes. So, here’s a Rule 0 Tier List of board wipes that wipe maybe the entire board, not just creatures:

• Destructive Force
• Wildfire
• Devastating Dreams
• Bearer of the Heavens
• Decree of Annihilation
• Obliterate
• Devastation
• Jokulhaups
• Apocalypse
• Worldfire

Wrap Up

Storm's Wrath | Illustration by Yeong Hao Han

Whether you are Worldfire-ing lands or just Flame Sweep-ing tokens, there are spells across the spectrum of cost and effect in this list.

In most of my decks that touch on red, I run a few of these sweepers, even if there seem to be better sweepers in my other colors. These are really flexible spells, and some of them are cheap enough and small enough to bide you time until you need to pull out your Farewell or Blood on the Snow.

While you're here, check us out on Twitter/X and Discord, and we'll see you next time. Meanwhile, feel the burn, crafters!