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One of the classic ways of dealing with a table full of threats is global destruction. Ever since Magic first emerged on the scene, cards like Wrath of God, Armageddon, Shatterstorm, and Tranquility have helped players answer everything from hordes of black weenies to dangerous lands to fields full of Parallax Waves and Tides. Today, we're going to take a look at four different categories of world destruction: The first and largest problem that players have to deal with, especially in multiplayer, is creatures. Global creature destruction is as old as Alpha, and mostly comes in the form of sorcery speed spells.
Arguably the most famous, and definitely the oldest of all
creature clearers is Wrath of God. For 2WW all the creatures on the field (with
the exception of indestructible creatures) promptly exit directly into the
graveyard. Most don't even get to pass go or collect $200. Of the budget Wrath of God variants, two stand out by virtue of the fact that unlike the original, they can be either be used as instants or paid for in some other way than hard casting them. Rout can be played normally for one more mana than Wrath, but if you need to destroy creatures on someone else's turn...or are more strategically minded, Rout can be played as an instant for two more mana. At instant speed, Rout can often change the course of the game quite unexpectedly. Plus the look on the person who is about to wipe you out can be priceless.
White sorceries aren't the only source of global creature control for the color. Back in Champions of Kamigawa, white brought us an indestructible Myojin of Cleansing Fire capable of sacrificing his indestructibility in exchange for a wrath effect. It was very mana intensive, costing 5WWW, but could be very game breaking. Reaching back a little further, Prophecy gave us a much better option: Mageta the Lion. This guy can continuously wipe the board of every creature but himself at instant speed, for the simple cost of 2WW and discarding two cards. With white having so many board clearers, it's often possible to play a white/blue control deck in multiplayer that can control the whole board for as long as you need.
This deck survives the early game by counter-spelling whatever is necessary until you can get either a Waterfront Bouncer online to deal with individual creatures, or more importantly get Mageta into play to destroy the entire field with the exception of himself.
Keiga and Meloku give you options to win by creatures, while Grindstone and Millstone allow you to destroy libraries. Jester's Cap and Scepter give you ways to remove troublesome cards from opponents' libraries (like Gaea's Blessing). Just remember that after Mageta hits the field, protect him with counterspells and he'll happily protect you from other creatures. Now, for those mages out there who don't like to tap the plains, black has a few creature clearers available. The oldest, Hellfire, costs five mana, and 3 + X life (where X is the number of creatures in play), you can clear the board just like your friends that love the color white. Just remember that it may be your own suicide if your not careful.
After the Hellfire, black has had a couple of other board clearers. Plague Wind which cleared the way of all creatures like Wrath, but the wind costs a whopping nine mana...a hefty price to pay and usually too little too late. However, Plague Wind did let you keep your own creatures.
Planar Chaos added a whole new destructive force: DAMNATION. Black's reflection of Wrath of God, it can destroy all creatures for 2BB. One of the most talked about cards in a long time, it finally gives black/blue the destructive force it needs to take on a field of players without getting decimated. White isn't the only color to have creatures that destroy everything else on the board. Black was given Kagemaro, First to Suffer. Unlike Mageta or the Myojin, Kagemaro has to be sacrificed, and he gives all creatures -X/-X equal to the number of cards in your hand. He can even destroy those lovely indestructible creatures...providing you have the right number of cards in your hand. Even Darksteel Colossus can fall to the disgraces of Kagemaro should you have a godly-sized hand. The next style of board clearing is what I like to call "situational" board clearing and is only recommended if you play with a group that loves to play a lot of artifacts and/or enchantments.
The original red destructive spell for artifacts acted a
lot like Wrath of God. Green also gets into the act with both a sorcery, and an Unhinged creature (yes, I did say Unhinged). Seeds of Innocence was a sorcery that destroyed all artifacts, but allowed each player to gain life equal to the converted mana cost of each artifact destroyed this way. (A hideous drawback if you play in a group that loves affinity or is very artifact heavy). Then, Unhinged gave us the mighty Uktabi Kong. An 8/8 that when it comes into play, destroys all artifacts...all I can say is crunch. Just remember to ask if your group allows Un- cards before you put him into any deck.
Unlike artifacts, there are quite a few enchantment destruction spells running around. It started out as a green ability, but as Wizards changed the color pie, this ability has passed to white. But no matter the color, when you absolutely have to get rid of all enchantments, here are a few choices.
And finally to round out the section on enchantment destruction, we have the mutant. An enchantment the loves nothing more than to continuously destroy its brethren time and time again. Besides finding it necessary to blow up creatures, artifacts, or enchantments, some of the more sadistic among us love to blow up all the land at the table.
If you fall into this class of players, white offers us a gem called Armageddon. For the cost of three colorless and one white, you simultaneously give all your friends a belly ache as they watch all of their precious lands disappear into their graveyards. Of course, you could always use Desolation Angel from Apocalypse to do the same thing with a little kicker action. The obvious drawback to using Armageddon or Ravages of War (its Portal Three Kingdoms clone) is that all of your own lands leave town too. The following deck is an example on how to overcome the drawback.
Threshageddon takes advantage of blowing up lands to fill the graveyard to achieve threshold quickly and the proceeds to drop a large creature and beat your opponents senseless. Life from the Loam, Land Tax, and Tithe allow you to recover you land quickly so you can continue to drop threats and deal with whatever else your opponents may be able to get into play. With Planar Chaos, red finally decided to step into global land destruction with Boom/Bust. Boom lets you destroy one of your lands and one of someone else's, but Bust destroy all lands. We'll have to see if this becomes a truly playable card or if it sits in dollar bins. Finally we come to the granddaddy of all board clearers, the strategic nuclear missiles that haunt every player's nightmares, what I like to dub the ultimate devastators. (And fittingly, most are red, the color of destruction.)
One of the first massive board clearers we had the privilege to cringe at was Nevinyrral's Disk. A staple in the Necro deck of Black Summer, the Disk took out everything but lands, allowing the user to destroy everything and then recover very quickly. The only drawback was the fact that it had to stay in play a turn in order to be used. In Mirrodin, Oblivion Stone attempted to do pretty much the same thing, but cost more mana to activate...without waiting a turn. And finally, Time Spiral brought us Magus of the Disk which was the original locked into a 2/4 body. When we move into the color red on board decimators, we come to the treasure trove. In Ice Age, Jokulhaups showed us what red could to when you asked in to blow up the world. Destroying everything but enchantments, it was a devastating spell that would often break the back of many multiplayer games.
In Tempest, red truly got nasty, Apocalypse removed not only your hand, but all permanents from the game. No going to the graveyard, no back to your deck, gone from the game with very little chance of returning to it. Can you say ouch? Decree of Annihilation took things several steps further by removing all hands from the game as well as everyone's graveyards. Or if you wanted to draw a card...just cycle and blow up all the lands instead.
Two of the other board devastators available are ones that takes a lot of work to build a deck around. Razia's Purification allows each person to choose three permanents and sacrifice the rest. A powerful spell, but one that must be chosen carefully and with full understanding of how to take advantage of it. Cataclysm forces players to choose one of each permanents available and sacrifice the rest and can be just as powerful as the Purification. Whenever you build a deck that includes board clearers, there are a few points that you need to remember about how to use them:
Finally I leave you with the following deck that puts boom into your table's magic game.
The obvious strategy here is to continuously punish your opponents with hasty creatures until they can no longer get through. Then you drop a Rukh Egg and blow up the field the next turn. The Darksteel pendent, ingot, and citadel give you mana and deck manipulation so that you can continue the onslaught as quickly as possible. Don't forget that you can float the two mana you need for Life from the Loam so your lands can recover quickly if you don't have other options.
Well, the wraps up my review of fun ways to destroy the world
and get a nice clean board to restart the game. Hope it helps and see you next
installment of Order in the Chaos.
You can discuss this article in the MDV forums
here.
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One
of the greatest things about playing Magic is that you can extend the scope of
playing from one on one, to involve three, four, even fifteen people if you have
the desire (and the space). However, when adding more and more minds to the
field of play, strategies begin to warp, alliances change at a whim, and things
that would normally work just don't cut it anymore. As the game continues you
eventually find the board bloated with creatures, enchantments, artifacts, and
even certain lands. That's when you definitely need to find some answers quick.
Coldsnap
brought back the idea of alternate casting costs (i.e. Force of Will) and then
did it big with white via Sunscour. While removing two white cards from the game
can often be expensive, ensuring your own survival is sometimes worth the risk.
Plus it also leaves your mana open to cast a creature that can take advantage of
the suddenly clear battlefield.
Mageta's
Control. 
Later,
Torment brought us Mutilate, which saw very heavy play during Block and
Standard. It gave -1/-1 to each creature in play for each Swamp you control.
This was the very definition of black control... until last month.
Finally,
for those of you who love to annoy those pesky blue mages AND blow up the world,
Barrin provided us with Obliterate in Invasion. It destroyed everything on the
board, and couldn't be countered. Talk about the mother of all booms!!!
White
also gets into the world destruction act with the vengeance of the Angel of
Wrath (or Fury). Akroma's Vengeance destroys all artifacts, creatures, and
enchantments. A great way to reset the board for white mages and still have land
to do stuff with once your done. And if you don't need to, simply cycle it away
to get another card draw. Also, white is the only color to give us a choice when
it comes to board destruction. Catastrophe allows its caster to choose to
destroy either creatures or lands. Wasn't that nice of them?!
Fistful
of Boom.