10 Cheap Wraths You Have No Right to Not Be Playing

Every Commander deck needs a selection of wraths. Wiping the board is sometimes the best option, and with more and more Ward creatures hitting tables, wraths are becoming a more attractive way of dealing with things in a cost-effective way. Here are 10 cheap wraths that you have no right to not be playing in your Commander decks.

STOP SKIMPING ON BOARD WIPES

If there’s one category of card I feel people skimp on way too much, it’s board wipes. In my eyes, playing less than four is tantamount to admitting your deck has a weakness. It’s also admitting that you have Goopy Goblin Gamer Brain and would rather just race race race instead of interact. If that’s what you enjoy then carry on. Have way too many of your games be snowballs, if you’d rather – but I’d much rather you ate your vegetables.

Commander is a social format, and the best way to keep it social is to play good amounts of interaction. This ain’t no euro-game where we sit and play “solitaire, but together”. Magic is built on interacting. The other bonus of running enough wraths is that it means that, between the table, you’re much more likely to have drawn into a wrath by turn 5 if each player is running 4+ wraths than if they’re running between 1-2 each. 

Don’t give me none of that “but sometimes it’s a dead card” or “I won’t wrath past the 2 hour mark” nonsense, either. You can draw enough cards with modern card draw engines that an excess wrath isn’t an issue, and if you don’t wanna play them post 2-hours, then that shouldn’t mean you run less. If you’re already happy to lose, then why does it matter if you’re losing because you drew an extra wrath you don’t wanna play?

Anyways, here’s a bunch of wraths that you have no excuse not to run. There are so many to choose from now that you can usually make 2/3s of the ones you run asymmetrical, and other third either super cheap to cast or give you an advantage. 

10. AETHERIZE

This was going to be Pernicious Deed, but I felt the anguished cries of people who don’t run graveyard hate or sandbag cards in hand, and decided I’d rather they read this article and not skip out terrified at the first entry. So, Aetherize. Blue has Cyclonic Rift, a card I cast for 1U a lot more often than you’d think, but it also has other tools. While it might not have as many wraths as other colors, you should play Aetherize generously. Remember it can be cast after damage (to other players). 

9. HOUR OF REVELATION

I see a lot of talk about Farewell these days, and while I think it’s a great card, there is also the Farewell at home: Hour of Revelation. What’s funny is that this is castable as early as turn 3 because of how low curves are since HOU and how many tokens get made. Being three mana, you can follow it up, or just combo it with Boros Charm, Teferi’s Protection, et al. 

Having a Planar Cleansing in the back pocket can be pretty clutch, and if you want another, Ondu Inversion in your mana base can get you out of a sticky situation, too. 

8. SETTLE THE WRECKAGE

Come on folks, I want to see this in 100% of tokens decks on EDHRec. If you’re not using this to ramp with, then what are you doing with your life? Settle the Wreckage is phenomenal, because it’s either one of a tokens deck’s best ramp cards, or it’s a way to survive an alpha strike. It gets better, too, if you’re running Archivist of Oghma, Deep Gnome Terramancer, Archaeomancer’s Map, Winds of Abandon and the rest. 

7. YAHENNI’S EXPERTISE

Damn, I love this card in 2024 EDH. It’s such a tempo swing. Always complaining that an early wipe is too much of a tempo hit? Well here, play a free spell afterwards. It’s their treat. 

6. BROTHERHOOD’S END

Three is the magic number, and here on Brotherhood’s End it’s the order of play. Three damage across the board on turn 3 can slow down those snowball starts, and so can destroying a bunch of early game mana rocks. Punish that Sol Ring -> Arcane Signet player. Make them feel like they’ve screwed up. Punish them. 

Flexible wrath for three mana is great.

5. THE BATTLE OF BYWATER

Why overpay for your wraths? The Battle of Bywater is stellar in any deck that wants to go super wide and get buffed during combat. It’s also great in toughness-matters decks, but if you have one of those decks you’re likely already running it. What makes this so good is it’s unconditional destroy for most issues for just three mana. Bargain. 

4. DAMN

Damn is a modal spell. It’s either Wrath of God/Damnation, or it’s a single target version. What more could you want? When you’re ahead on board you can just use this to snipe something out. When you’re behind or at parity – or when you have self-protection – you can fire it off as a wrath. Lovely.

3. TOXIC DELUGE

Toxic Deluge has gotten a little worse in recent times with the speed of the format and how much damage gets thrown around early, but it’s still far and away the most flexible and effective black wrath. It gets around Indestructible, and it ensures that no matter what, you can more or less answer anything, if you have the life to pay.

Besides, black can take advantage of losing life to trigger effects, so it’s not all bad.

2. VANQUISH THE HORDE

Vanquish the Horde is the cheapest “destroy all” wrath available, and so if you’re at all concerned about “losing tempo” or having “enough mana to do everything you want to do” then playing it is easy. It combos well with a protection effect for your own board.

1. BLASPHEMOUS ACT

Blasphemous Act is number 1 on this list, not just because it’s a one-mana way to wipe the board, but because I consistently play against red decks that aren’t playing it despite playing not enough wraths. It’s a one mana spell most of the time. It was never designed to be this good. It’s this good because of how multiplayer works. It’s so easy to include and play. Just run it. 

END STEP

Playing wraths isn’t a chore, nor does it sacrifice much when it comes to consistency. If drawing one out of place really hampers your gameplan that much, you’re probably running the wrong ones for your deck, or not running enough card draw. Snowballs are unfun to lose to, but also unfun to win with. Provide some interaction and counterplay, and there’ll be fewer “non-games”.