Best Black Creature Removal in Commander: An Arsenal of Destruction

Black has more ways to kill a creature than any other colour, and that is exactly why black decks end up running the wrong ones. Last month I watched a friend hold Cast Down for six turns while a legendary commander beat them to death. The card was fine. It just couldn't touch the only creature that mattered.

So this isn't a list of every black removal spell. It's the ones that earn a slot, sorted by the problem each one solves — cheap answers, exile for the things that won't stay dead, edicts for hexproof, creatures that kill on arrival, engines, and wipes.

What makes black creature removal good in Commander?

Three questions: can it hit a commander, can it do it at instant speed, and does it cost two mana or less? A spell that clears all three is the baseline. Everything else needs a reason to be in the deck instead.

The common failure is the conditional clause. Go for the Throat misses artifact creatures, which is a real gap in a format full of them. Heartless Act can't kill anything with counters on it, which in Commander is roughly half of what you want to kill. Cast Down never hits a commander. All three are playable; none is Grasp.

The best cheap black kill spells

Once you have Grasp, these are the spells that either do the job for less or do a bit more for the same price.

Snuff Out is the other free one — 4 life if you control a Swamp — but it can't hit black creatures, so check what your pod plays. Bloodchief's Thirst scales: for a two-drop, four mana kicked for anything, planeswalkers included. Feed the Swarm is a sorcery that charges life equal to the target's mana value, and I play it anyway because it also kills enchantments, which mono-black almost never gets to do. Hero's Downfall is the three-mana instant that also takes planeswalkers.

From Reality Fracture, Vraska's Final Mercy is , lose 2 life, destroy a creature or planeswalker. It's a sorcery, so it's a Grasp downgrade in a vacuum, but the planeswalker clause makes it a reasonable second copy. Silence the Echo, from the same set, is the aristocrats version: plus a sacrifice, or five mana without one.

Exile removal for indestructible and recursive threats

Destroy effects lose to indestructible, to regeneration, and to anything that comes back from the graveyard. A black deck needs two or three answers that don't care.

Dismember doesn't exile, so it won't stop recursion, but -5/-5 kills indestructible creatures with toughness 5 or less, and you can cast it for and 4 life. Epic Downfall exiles anything with mana value 3 or more for two mana at sorcery speed — narrower than it sounds, because cheap commanders slip under it.

This year has been good for exile. Bogslither's Embrace from Lorwyn Eclipsed is to exile any creature if you put a -1/-1 counter on one of yours — five mana if you'd rather not. Extended Absence is a near-copy of Contempt that pings each opponent for 1 and gains you 1 life instead of 2. Gnashing of Teeth from The Hobbit gives -5/-5 and exiles the creature if it would die. Embrace is the one I've actually added to lists.

Edicts for hexproof commanders and Voltron

When the threat has hexproof or protection from black, targeted removal is dead. Edicts don't target the creature — they make the player sacrifice — so they're black's answer to a suited-up Voltron commander. The catch is that the opponent picks, so edicts are best against a board of one.

Liliana's Triumph is the same thing without the modes. Chainer's Edict only hits one player but comes back with flashback. Skip Tergrid's Shadow unless you have creatures you want dead — it hits you too.

The recent fix for the edict problem is Break Under Pressure: one opponent sacrifices the creature or planeswalker with the greatest mana value they control. Fodder doesn't save the big thing anymore. It's three mana, instant and seven cents, and it went straight into my Voltron hate pile.

Black creatures that kill on entry

Removal stapled to a body is card advantage, and in black it's also a recursion engine — every reanimation spell becomes a removal spell.

Noxious Gearhulk is the six-mana version with menace and lifegain. Plaguecrafter, Fleshbag Marauder and Merciless Executioner are symmetrical edicts on three-drops, only good in sacrifice decks that can feed them a token. Archon of Cruelty costs eight and you'll reanimate it rather than cast it, but it edicts on every attack. Massacre Wurm is a one-sided -2/-2 that ends token decks.

The new ones worth a look: Ultimo, Civilization's End edicts each opponent on entry, and can also be discarded for to do it from your hand — a removal spell that's also a reanimation target. Lamentation is a six-mana Chupacabra whose encore makes a token copy for each opponent, and each copy's entry trigger kills another creature. Both are still proving themselves; Ultimo is the one I'd try first.

Repeatable removal: sacrifice engines

This is where black is unlike any other colour. In an aristocrats deck, your creatures dying is the removal, and one enchantment turns every chump block into an edict.

Dictate of Erebos is the five-mana copy with flash, which lets you cast it in response to a board wipe. Butcher of Malakir is the budget version on a seven-mana flier. Priest of Forgotten Gods turns two tokens into an edict, mana and a card every turn. Liliana, Dreadhorde General makes everyone sacrifice two and draws you a card for each of yours.

The recent addition is Garruk, Veiled Butcher from Reality Fracture, a mono-black Garruk. His −2 is a symmetrical edict that gives you a 4/4 Beast if you sacrificed something, his +2 shrinks a blocker, and his static exiles opponents' creatures instead of letting them die — which quietly shuts off their death triggers and graveyard recursion. It shuts off your own "whenever an opponent's creature dies" payoffs too, so don't pair him with Massacre Wurm. Five mana for a walker that does that is good.

The best black board wipes

Sometimes one answer isn't enough. Black's wipes are the most flexible in the format because so many of them are -X/-X, which you can tune. I've written about how many wipes to run; this is which black ones.

Damnation is the clean four-mana destroy-all, at about $15. Black Sun's Zenith uses -1/-1 counters and shuffles itself back in. Crux of Fate is a one-sided wipe in a Dragon deck and a plain one everywhere else. Languish is -4/-4 for four, which misses the biggest threats. Massacre Girl chains -1/-1s and flattens wide boards of small creatures.

Two recent ones: Rise of the Deathbringer is an instant -3/-3 to all creatures, or a big draw spell if the board doesn't need clearing — wiping at end of turn before someone untaps with a token army is a real upgrade. Withering Curse is a three-mana -2/-2 that destroys all creatures instead if you gained life this turn — great in lifegain decks, a Pyroclasm everywhere else.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best black removal spell in Commander?

Deadly Rollick, because it exiles any creature for free while you control a commander. On a budget, Infernal Grasp does nearly the same job for two mana and about thirty cents.

How many removal spells should a black Commander deck run?

Eight to ten pieces of targeted removal, plus two or three wipes. Black can sit at the top of that range because so much of its removal comes attached to creatures and engines that do something else too.

What black removal handles indestructible creatures?

Exile and -X/-X effects. Vraska's Contempt, Deadly Rollick and Bogslither's Embrace exile; Dismember and Toxic Deluge reduce toughness to zero, which indestructible doesn't prevent. Edicts work too, because sacrifice isn't destruction.

How does black deal with hexproof commanders?

With edicts. Sheoldred's Edict and Break Under Pressure make the player sacrifice rather than targeting the creature, so hexproof and protection don't matter. Board wipes don't target either.

Can black remove artifacts and enchantments?

Barely. Feed the Swarm destroys an enchantment, and a few newer cards can too, but black has almost no artifact removal. Plan to splash a colour or rely on your wipes and edicts for artifact creatures.

Which black removal should you actually play?

Start with Infernal Grasp, Sheoldred's Edict, Vraska's Contempt, Ravenous Chupacabra and Toxic Deluge. That's one answer for every kind of threat, for under eight dollars. Add Deadly Rollick if the budget allows, Grave Pact if you're playing aristocrats, and Break Under Pressure if your pod has a Voltron player. Cut anything with a clause that misses commanders.

If you want to see where your list is thin, Carl will go through your removal suite with you in the deck builder and tell you which slots are dead against your pod. And if you're unsure whether an edict gets around a specific protection effect, Trisha handles that in chat — I checked the Garruk exile interaction with her before writing it down.