Since the beginning of MTG, black has always excelled at removing creatures and later on planeswalkers as well. So what spot removal should you run? This article lists the best black removal spells to play in EDH right now, according to us.
This article lists out the best spot removal cards, check this article if you are looking for the best board wipes in EDH.
Table of Contents
10. Curtains’ Call
Destroying 2 creatures for 3 mana at instant speed is efficient enough to deserve a spot in this list. The risk when running this card is obvious, when more players get knocked out of the game, the cost of this card can increase to up to 5 mana.
9. Murderous Rider // Swift End
Three mana for a creature or planeswalker removal spell at instant speed is pretty good, but it’s not the best rate on this list. We’re still including it because you can cast this as a 2/3 lifelink creature as well which makes this spell super flexible. We don’t always need removal when we draw it and then being able to cast this as a creature instead is really great.
8. Feed The Swarm
A two mana removal spell, at sorcery speed and a potentially big chunk of life, this is not the best black removal card out there. So why is this on our list? In mono-black this is the only viable enchantment removal option that exists to date. This means that if you’re building a mono-black deck and want to have an answer against enchantments, you are running this card.
7. Heartless Act / Go For The Throat
A two mana creature destroy effect at instant speed is the gold standard in black. There are many of these instants available. They are all limited in different ways, for instance Doom Blade only hits ‘nonblack’ creatures. Our cards at number 7 exclude either artifact creatures or creatures with counters. When comparing this to other two mana creature destroyers like Doom Blade or Ultimate Price we feel like Heartless and Go For The Throat can hit your desired target 90% of the time which is solid enough to fill a removal slot in your EDH deck.
6. Defile
When talking about mono-black removal in EDH, you cannot ignore Defile. A one mana, unconditional creature removal spell that deals with indestructible is just unmatched. Because you need enough Swamps, this is only playable in a purely mono-black deck or decks that has ways to tutor up Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. But if your deck meets those conditions there is no doubt that you should be running this card.
5. Snuff Out
This creature removal spell can be cast for 0 mana by paying 4 life instead, if you control a Swamp that is. Therefor make sure you’re running enough Swamps or Fetch Lands if you’re including this. Zero mana removal spells are great because it surprises our opponents: you can tap out and still answer their big creature threads. Note that this only destroys non-black creatures, that’s still enough to give this a spot in our top 5.
4. Infernal Grasp
Unlike cards like Heartless Act or Go For The Throat that require a certain creature condition (i.e. nonblack) to be true, Infernal Graps destroys any creature for 2 mana. It’s what makes this card distinctly better from those other 2CMC black creature removal spells. Losing the 2 life in a Commander game is acceptable, especially when you’re removing a big thread from the board.
3. Soul Shatter
Even though you could challenge if this card falls under spot removal, we feel like it belongs on this list. We’re not technically targeting anything with this spell, but we do know exactly what is going to be removed when casting this spell, your opponents cannot choose. The creature with the highest CMC is often the biggest thread on the board and being able to potentially do this for 3 opponents at 3 CMC is of an unmatched efficiency. On top of that, sacrificing is often stronger than destroying, when dealing with indestructible for instance.
2. Baleful Mastery
A two mana creature/planeswalker exile effect at instant speed is the holy grail of black’s removal qualities stapled onto one card. The downside is that an opponent has to draw a card. This can be any opponent however, so you can just give it to the player who is the lowest thread or even use it as political leverage. So because the downside is manageable and the effect so strong and flexible (exile any creature or planeswalker) we feel like this deserves the number 2 spot.
1. Deadly Rollick
A free removal spell that exiles any creature. There is not much more to say about this EDH staple from Commander: Ikoria. Unless your deck doesn’t like to have it’s commander on the board very often and if it fits your budget, this is an auto-include in any deck that is in black.
