Playgroup.gg logo
Playgroup.gg EDH Tracker
{B}

Black Board Wipes

Every black wrath, sweeper and mass removal spell in Magic, sorted by how many tracked decks actually run it

Last computed 3 Sep 2026 · recomputed weekly
30
Black board wipes ranked

What are the best black board wipes in MTG?

The best black board wipes in MTG are the ones players actually reach for, and only a handful of those measurably raise your win rate. The list below ranks every mono-black board wipe in Magic: The Gathering by how many tracked Commander decks run it, counted from real games on Playgroup.gg. Where a card has been played enough for us to measure its effect on winning, and that effect is clearly positive, its win-rate lift is shown beside the count.

Deck counts are drawn from 146,944 tracked decks on Playgroup.gg.

See board wipes in every color on the main list.

{B}

The most-played mono-black board wipes

Ranked by the number of tracked decks running the card, not by a rating. A win-rate lift appears beside the few cards whose measured effect on winning is clearly positive.

13,074
Decks running Toxic Deluge
# Card Decks
1
Toxic Deluge
Toxic Deluge {2} {B} +2.2% win rate · 23,981 games with it · 2963 pilots · 796 commander groups 		13,074
2
Living Death
Living Death {3} {B} {B} +0.1% win rate · 9,155 games with it · 1215 pilots · 289 commander groups 		4,378
3
Damnation
Damnation {2} {B} {B} +1.1% win rate · 5,877 games with it · 754 pilots · 353 commander groups 		3,628
4
Massacre Wurm
Massacre Wurm {3} {B} {B} {B} +0.9% win rate · 7,639 games with it · 1014 pilots · 244 commander groups 		3,448
5
The Meathook Massacre
The Meathook Massacre {X} {B} {B} +2.5% win rate · 6,980 games with it · 916 pilots · 341 commander groups 		3,408
6
Kindred Dominance
Kindred Dominance {5} {B} {B} 		3,370
7
Blasphemous Edict
Blasphemous Edict {3} {B} {B} 		2,649
8
Decree of Pain
Decree of Pain {6} {B} {B} 		2,339
9
Liliana, Dreadhorde General
Liliana, Dreadhorde General {4} {B} {B} 		2,293
10
Crux of Fate
Crux of Fate {3} {B} {B} 		1,966
Show 20 more black board wipes (ranks 11-30)
# Card Decks
11
Archfiend of Ifnir
Archfiend of Ifnir {3} {B} {B} 		1,948
12
Archfiend of Depravity
Archfiend of Depravity {3} {B} {B} 		1,702
13
In Garruk's Wake
In Garruk's Wake {7} {B} {B} 		1,613
14
Doomwake Giant
Doomwake Giant {4} {B} 		1,513
15
Black Sun's Zenith
Black Sun's Zenith {X} {B} {B} 		1,456
16
Massacre Girl
Massacre Girl {3} {B} {B} 		1,446
17
Crippling Fear
Crippling Fear {2} {B} {B} 		1,419
18
Swarmyard Massacre
Swarmyard Massacre {3} {B} {B} 		1,255
19
Blood Money
Blood Money {5} {B} {B} 		1,209
20
Final Act
Final Act {4} {B} {B} 		1,201
21
Liliana, Death's Majesty
Liliana, Death's Majesty {3} {B} {B} 		1,123
22
Mutilate
Mutilate {2} {B} {B} 		1,064
23
Nuclear Fallout
Nuclear Fallout {X} {B} {B} 		963
24
Olivia's Wrath
Olivia's Wrath {4} {B} 		957
25
Necromantic Selection
Necromantic Selection {4} {B} {B} {B} 		929
26
Zombie Apocalypse
Zombie Apocalypse {3} {B} {B} {B} 		788
27
One Ring to Rule Them All
One Ring to Rule Them All {2} {B} {B} 		774
28
Carnifex Demon
Carnifex Demon {4} {B} {B} 		749
29
Midnight Banshee
Midnight Banshee {3} {B} {B} {B} 		749
30
Their Name Is Death
Their Name Is Death {3} {B} {B} {B} 		731
Other colors

Board wipes in the other colors

A black deck can also run every colorless sweeper, and most Commander decks are not mono-colored:

White board wipes Blue board wipes Red board wipes Green board wipes Colorless board wipes
Methodology

How this list is built

The candidate pool is every Commander-legal card carrying Scryfall's board-wipe oracle tag with a mono-black color identity. Multicolor cards are excluded on purpose: a black board wipe should go in any black deck. Each card is counted across every non-archived tracked deck whose mainboard contains it, and the list is ordered by that count.

Most board wipes do not measurably change whether you win. We compare decks that run a card against decks on the same commander that do not, pool those matched comparisons, and ask whether the difference is bigger than chance; in every color only a handful of wipes clear that bar. Ordering thirty cards by a number whose confidence interval crosses zero for most of them would be ranking sampling error, so the list is ordered by deck count instead and the measurement rides alongside.

A win-rate lift appears beside a card only when it has been played enough to judge and its measured effect is clearly positive: minimums on games with the card, on separate commander groups and on distinct pilots, a cap on how much of the sample any one pilot may hold, and an interval landing entirely above zero. A card that was measured and came out flat gets an empty cell rather than a number near zero, because a number near zero reads as a verdict and this one is not.

Read that figure as a difference, not a multiplier. A +2.2% lift means a deck running the card wins 2.2 percentage points more often than decks on the same commander without it: 27.2% of its games rather than 25.0%. It is not a 2.2% relative increase, and it is not a claim that the card wins 2.2% of your games on its own.

Counts are drawn from 146,944 tracked decks on Playgroup.gg.

Read the full methodology on the main board wipes page

Black board wipes FAQ

What is a board wipe in Magic: The Gathering?
A board wipe is a spell or ability that removes every creature on the battlefield at once, or every permanent of a given type. Players also call them wraths, after Wrath of God, or sweepers. In Commander they are the main way a table answers a board it cannot beat in combat.
Does indestructible stop a board wipe?
Only against board wipes that use the word destroy. An indestructible creature survives Wrath of God, Damnation and Blasphemous Act. It does not survive a wipe that exiles, such as Farewell, one that makes each player sacrifice, or one that gives -X/-X, such as Toxic Deluge or The Meathook Massacre. Those kill by removing toughness or by changing zones, and neither cares about indestructible.
Does protection stop a board wipe?
Usually not. Protection from a colour stops damage, enchanting and equipping, blocking, and being targeted by sources of that colour. Almost no board wipe targets anything, so protection from black will not save a creature from Damnation. It does help against wipes that deal damage, such as Blasphemous Act against protection from red.
Do hexproof and shroud protect against board wipes?
No. Hexproof and shroud only stop a creature being targeted, and the overwhelming majority of board wipes do not target. Wrath effects say destroy all creatures, which affects every creature at once without ever choosing one. A hexproof commander dies to a wipe like any other creature.
Why does this list look different from other board wipe lists?
Most board wipe lists are one writer's ranking. This one is counted. Every card here is a Scryfall-tagged board wipe, ordered by how many tracked Commander decks actually run it, so the list reflects what players sleeve up rather than what an editor rates. We also measure whether each card raises a deck's win rate against decks running the same commander without it. Most board wipes do not move win rate by an amount we can distinguish from chance, so only the few that clearly do carry a win-rate figure.
Which colour has the best board wipes?
White and black have the deepest options and the most played ones. Red is broad but mostly damage-based, so it struggles against high-toughness boards. Blue tends to bounce rather than destroy. Green barely has board wipes at all: it gets artifact and enchantment sweepers and effects that punish fliers, but almost nothing that destroys all creatures, because mass creature removal has never been part of green's colour pie.
Why are there no multicolor board wipes on this list?
Every list here is mono-colored on purpose. A mono-black board wipe goes in any deck whose color identity includes black, while a two or three color wipe only fits decks in those exact colors. Restricting each list to a single color identity means every card on it is playable in every deck that can cast that color, which is usually what people are asking for when they search for black board wipes.
What do black board wipes cost you?
Life, symmetry, or both, and the expensive ones hand something back. Toxic Deluge costs three mana and X life as an additional cost, then gives every creature -X/-X, so you set the size of the wipe and pay for it out of your own total. Damnation is the four-mana version that kills your board along with everyone else's. Higher up the curve black stops being purely destructive: Decree of Pain draws you a card for every creature it kills, and Living Death sweeps the table and then returns the creature cards from every graveyard to the battlefield, which is a wipe you build a deck to win rather than a reset. Black is the colour where the question is not whether the wipe works but what you are willing to spend on it.
Which board wipes work at instant speed?
Instant-speed board wipes let you wrath on an opponent's turn, usually after they have committed to an attack or resolved a threat. Blue has the most that see real play. Most mass removal in Magic is sorcery speed, so instants are the minority in every color, and several colors have instant options that almost nobody runs.
Do board wipes actually win games?
Mostly they do not, at least not measurably. Across our tracked Commander games only a handful of board wipes in each color raise a deck's win rate by an amount we can distinguish from chance. The rest are played widely without a measurable effect on whether you win. That is not an argument against running one. A wrath is a reactive card, and its value depends on the board it answers rather than on being drawn every game.
Put it in a deck

Build with these

The deck editor shows this list in your deck's colors, next to how many black board wipes your deck runs and what full Commander decks run.

Pick a commander and start brewing

Free. A guest brew needs no account and lives in your browser for 7 days.

Already have a list? Check it against the deck template.

Keep exploring
All MTG Board Wipes MTG Tutors MTG Ramp Commander Staples Commander Game Changers Commander Tier List

Counted from decks and games tracked on Playgroup.gg. Every card name links to its full stat page.