The Top 10 MTG Blue Board Wipes

Once a permanent has entered the battlefield, blue decks can have a hard time dealing with it for good. With counter magic and bounce spells being the color’s main forms of removal, it can struggle when lots of threats are on the board. Still, there are times when blue board wipes are a fantastic option.

Most blue board wipes return permanents to their owners’ hands. These cards are usually cheaper than board wipes in other colors, and they are often at instant speed. At first, this may seem worse than just destroying them, but this effect has its uses. There will be some times when all you need is one turn to attack without being blocked. Even if the board wipe isn’t one-sided, you can often get value from it while setting your opponents back.

Since blue sweepers are so different than those in other colors, it’s important to understand exactly how to use them. This guide will not only explain the pros and cons of blue board wipes, but also which ones are the strongest of the bunch.

Table Of Content:

1. Pros and Cons
2. Why Are Blue Board Wipes Good?
3. Top 10 Blue Board Wipes
   1. Flood of Tears
   2. Whelming Wave
   3. Perplexing Test
   4. Curse of the Swine
   5. Coastal Breach
   6. Engulf the Shore
   7. Spectral Deluge
   8. Devastation Tide
   9. Evacuation
   10. Cyclonic Rift
4. End Step

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Usually cheap	Temporary solution
Can return all nonland permanents	Repeats ETB effects
Avoids the graveyard

Why Are Blue Board Wipes Good?

You might not be convinced that blue board wipes have their uses over black or white sweepers. After all, how can returning cards be as strong as destroying or exiling them? Although there are times in which blue sweepers aren’t exactly what you need, they still have their share of benefits.

RELATED: The Top 10 MTG Black Board Wipes

What Are Their Advantages?

One of the key strengths of blue board wipes is their cost. They usually range from four to six mana, which is much cheaper than other options. This is especially true for red, which often has board wipes that require tons of mana to clear everything. While each color has some cheap board wipes, blue has plenty to spare.

Some of these cards can also return all nonland permanents to their owners’ hands. Even though your opponents can cast them again, don’t underestimate the strength of this effect. A card that interacts with lots of different permanents gives you security. It doesn’t matter what your opponents are playing with: you’ll be able to set them back regardless.

Returning permanents to their owners’ hands also gets around graveyard and aristocrats strategies. These decks often want their creatures to die, but blue sweepers can set them back without worrying about that synergy. Whether or not you care about this benefit will depend on your meta, but it can make a huge difference against the right decks.

What Are Their Disadvantages?

Despite all of those advantages, there’s no getting around it: blue board wipes only offer a temporary solution. Unless you win the game shortly after wiping the board, you’ll likely see all of your opponents’ threats come back.

If all you need is to get ahead of your opponents, then blue sweepers might do the trick. They could also let you counter your opponents’ spells when they attempt to recast them. Still, these cards often can’t answer your problems on their own.

RELATED: The Best MTG Counterspells

Your opponents also might not mind casting all their spells again. Playing a huge dragon or demon again can be annoying, but what if you also return a Mulldrifter? Or a Reclamation Sage? You might end up giving your opponents some extra value after wiping the board, and that could come back to bite you.

Top 10 Blue Board Wipes

Blue sweepers often have similar effects, but their subtle differences can lead to big changes in your deck’s power level. Below are the ten most powerful blue board wipes based on their efficiency, restrictions, and potential synergies.

#10: Flood of Tears

Flood of Tears has its benefits, but there are certainly better options. It can handle any permanent type, and it even lets you keep one card on the board. This can be especially strong if you run this in a deck with lots of powerful cards like eldrazi.

RELATED: Building an Eldrazi Commander Deck: an Ultimate Guide

In most decks, however, you’ll likely be hurting your own board state. Flood of Tears is also one of the most expensive sweepers on the list at six mana. Unless your deck has specific synergies with it, there are better board wipes that you should try out first.

Recommended Format: Commander

#9: Whelming Wave

Whelming Wave is a fun option for players on a budget. Washing away everything except for the biggest, baddest sea monsters is really flavorful. This can return almost every creature, and it also has the potential to be one-sided. Personally, I’m quite fond of this card and the strategy that it shines in, but I have to admit that it doesn’t have much broad use.

If you build around krakens, leviathans and the like, this might be the best sweeper in your deck. Of course, those tribes aren’t too powerful at the moment, and neither is this card. Despite its upsides, it can still only handle creatures, and it has to be played at sorcery speed.

Recommended Format: Commander

#8: Perplexing Test

If you or your play group use token strategies, Perplexing Test is a great option. Choosing to return either nontoken or token creatures gives you a ton of flexibility.

Perplexing Test could remove your opponents’ blockers before you swing with a massive army. You could also stop a token deck from popping off without drawing too much ire from anyone else. However, Perplexing Test will fail you when you need to handle both token and nontoken creatures. This card will shine in certain play groups, but there will also be situations where it won’t be the perfect answer.

Recommended Format: Commander

#7: Curse of the Swine

Curse of the Swine is the only card on the list that doesn’t return permanents to their owners’ hands. Instead, it exiles X creatures, which will almost always be a stronger effect. Since you’re likely to be getting rid of much bigger creatures, giving your opponents 2/2s isn’t a huge downside.

The reason this sweeper is so low is just how expensive it can get. If you’re only removing a couple of creatures, it’s quite efficient. On boards that are packed full of threats, however, you might have to spend all of your mana to stay safe.

Recommended Format: Commander

#6: Coastal Breach

Coastal Breach is a pretty simple card. In a typical game of Commander, you’ll spend four mana to return all nonland permanents to their owners’ hands. You have to do it at sorcery speed, and its effect is symmetrical. Even though it’s not the flashiest board wipe on the list, it’s among the most efficient and reliable.

It especially shines in decks that don’t commit much to the board, or in decks with lots of “enter the battlefield” triggers. Sometimes, the most straightforward option is the one that’s right for your deck, and you know exactly what you’re getting with Coastal Breach.

Recommended Format: Commander

#5: Engulf the Shore

Engulf the Shore should only be run depending on your mana base, but it’s a great option when it’s right for your deck. Engulf the Shore works best in mono blue decks because it relies on having lots of islands in play. You could run it in two color decks that heavily lean towards blue, but even that can be risky.

There aren’t many dual lands with the basic land types, and you need to have a high density of islands to make this card work. When your mana base supports it, though, Engulf the Shore is a cheap instant that can wipe every creature off the board.

RELATED: MTG Dual Lands: All Your Questions Answered

Recommended Format: Commander

#4: Spectral Deluge

Spectral Deluge is very similar to Engulf the Shore, but it has some key differences. Its biggest downside is that it’s a sorcery instead of an instant. While you can argue that its higher cost is also a problem, breaking that up with foretell is really useful.

Additionally, it also has a huge benefit over Engulf the Shore: it’s one-sided. Removing your opponents’ creatures while keeping yours on the battlefield could win you the game on the spot. At the very least, it will likely give you the best board state and a big advantage moving forward.

Recommended Format: Commander

#3: Devastation Tide

Just about every Magic player has been in a tough spot with no answers in hand. When you know you’re behind and are relying on the top of your deck, there’s no better feeling than drawing exactly what you need. Devastation Tide makes this moment even better since its miracle cost will let you wipe the board for just two mana.

In a deck that can manipulate the top of its library, this card goes from a solid answer to consistently amazing. Even without that upside, it’s a reliable, catch-all answer for whatever threats your opponents have. Devastation Tide will always buy you time at a reasonable mana cost.

Recommended Format: Commander

#2: Evacuation

As we reach the top of the list, we see that consistency is key. Evacuation is a clean answer at instant speed to your opponents’ creatures. You could cast this before an opponent would kill you through combat, or to interrupt some key combo pieces.

At the very least, you can cast it on the end step before your turn so that you rebuild first. Evacuation doesn’t rely on creature types or how many islands you have: it just buys you time and leaves the board clear. It also works extremely well in decks that rely on other card types, such as artifact or enchantment decks.

Recommended Format: Commander

#1: Cyclonic Rift

If you’ve seen Cyclonic Rift at the table, then it’s no surprise that it’s #1 on our list. Just about everything that you could want in a blue sweeper is here. It’s an instant, it doesn’t return your permanents, and it has two distinct modes. If you really need to return just one target, you can spend two mana to do that. Of course, you’ll normally overload it, and that’s when we see its only drawback.

Seven mana is a lot, and there might be times when you can’t overload it. Still, the effect you’re getting for that cost is often worth it, and it can win you the game if you wait for the right moment. Nearly every EDH player has seen Cyclonic Rift end a game on the spot, myself included.

Recommended Format: Commander

End Step

Even if blue board wipes aren’t always the perfect answer, they can be just what you need. There are plenty of strong options for blue mages to handle problematic boards, and you should experiment to find out which ones work well in your decks. The next time your opponents flood the board, keep this guide in mind and wash their threats away!