Commander: Top 10 Red Spot Removals For Your Deck!

Are you building a Mono Red Commander deck and need some removals? Then this article is perfect for you!

Known for its great explosive potential, red is agile and harbors many popular commanders, like Krenko, Mob Boss, Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might, Zada, Hedron Grinder, and Imodane, the Pyrohammer, for instance. If your opponent is using any of these cards as their commander, prepare yourself for a lightning-fast game.

However, like any other deck, Mono Red needs a few classic removals to get rid of any potential issues their opponent may cast.

Before we discuss the best 10 red spot removals for your commander deck, we'll take a few minutes to explain our criteria to you.

To build this list, we analyzed each spell's mana cost, speed, versatility, and how popular it is in EDHRec (after all, the community is always right!)

As we mentioned before, red is heavily tied to explosive plays that can end the game in a single turn by either casting incredibly explosive spells or setting up powerful creatures for combat.

When we were researching these cards, we found many removals for artifacts and permanents, as well as a few classic cards that we simply had to include.

We tried to bring you balanced options, prioritizing cards that serve for more than one purpose, so you can select the best ones for your Commander deck.

Now, without further ado, let's see the top 10 best red spot removals!

10. Pyroblast

Let's start our list by declaring war against blue!

One of the most famous staples in red, Pyroblast is great to counter a blue spell or destroy a blue permanent.

The best part is how cheap it is: with this card, you'll only need one mana to make your opponent frustrated.

9. Red Elemental Blast

This is another great card if you want to declare war against blue. Red Elemental Blast works exactly the same as Pyroblast.

With this card, you can counter a Counterspell or simply destroy your opponent's Rhystic Study.

8. Red Sun's Twilight

Moving on from the war against blue to the war against artifacts, we have Red Sun's Twilight. You can use this card to remove as many target artifacts as you want.

If you set 5 or more for this spell's X (that is, if you target more than 5 cards), until the next end step you'll create a token that is a copy of each artifact you destroyed this way.

Like so, you can remove resources from your opponent and get some value out of the artifacts you destroyed, even if for just a little.

7. You Find Some Prisoners

You Find Some Prisoners is a low-cost instant that you can use to destroy a target artifact.

If you don't need to remove an artifact, you can also use this spell to exile cards on the top of the target opponent's deck. It also lets you cast one of them until the end of your next turn.

If your opponent used a tutor like Enlightened Tutor (which lets them look for a card in their deck and put it on the top of their deck), you can use You Find Some Prisoners' second effect to exile what they tutored, for instance.

It is an "unusual" way to deal with a possible threat before it even enters play!

6. Zoyowa's Justice

It is always relatively complicated to deal with indestructible creatures, like, for instance, Avacyn, Angel of Hope, or even an artifact like Darksteel Forge.

Luckily, Zoyowa's Justice deals with them quite easily: it forces the owner of the target creature or artifact to shuffle it into their own deck. Next, the player discovers the mana value of the card that was shuffled.

Discover works similarly to cascade. So, for instance, for Avacyn, as we mentioned, its owner will exile cards from the top of their deck until they find a nonland card that costs 8 or less. Then, they either cast it without paying for its mana cost or put it in their hand. The rest of the cards go to the bottom of their deck.

In these examples, we mentioned incredibly problematic cards, as they give indestructible with other permanents on the board. However, there are indestructible cards that are just annoying, like Toski, Bearer of Secrets, Darksteel Plate, or Mithril Coat.

5. Audacious Swap

Audacious Swap has Casualty, so, when you cast it, you can sacrifice a creature with power 2 or greater to copy that spell.

With this instant, you can target a nonenchantment permanent and force its owner to shuffle it into their deck. Next, they have to exile the top of their deck.

If that exiled card is a land, they put it on the board. Otherwise, they can cast it for free.

4. Vandalblast

Vandalblast has Overload, so you can pay for its alternative cost to change "target" in its text to "each."

In this case, if you use five mana total, you'll destroy all artifacts you don't control.

However, we can't ignore that this is still a spot removal for artifacts that you can cast for only one mana.

As this card's flavor text goes, "Beauty is in the eye of the exploder."

3. Abrade

Another removal at instant speed, Abrade either destroys an artifact or deals 3 damage to a target creature (which potentially removes it from the game). It's a really simple card, as it is very cheap and fits any deck really well. You should have no issues finding it in bulks either.

2. Wild Magic Surge

For two red mana , Wild Magic Surge destroys a target permanent an opponent controls. Next, its controller reveals cards from the top of their deck until they reveal a permanent that shares a type with the permanent you destroyed.

For instance, if you destroy an enchantment, its controller will reveal cards until they find another enchantment. The same applies to lands, creatures, artifacts, and so on and so forth.

Then, your opponent puts that card on their board and the rest on the bottom of their own deck in a random order.

This spell can remove any problematic obstacle or permanent, like a Field of the Dead or Maze's End.

1. Chaos Warp

Even when you're playing a deck with more than one color, Chaos Warp shows up among the 99 cards. This removal forces the owner of target permanent to shuffle it into their library, then reveal the top card of their library. If it's a permanent, they put it on the board. Otherwise, it stays on the top of their deck.

As this spell doesn't state "a permanent an opponent controls", you can use it on one of your own permanents. For instance, if one of your creatures is targeted by a Swords to Plowshares, you can cast Chaos Warp targeting your creature to save it from exile. On top of it, you'll also get to look for something better in your deck for free.

This is the end of our list!

As you must have realized, there is a good variety of red removals around, but they usually have a drawback. So, use the tips we mentioned in this article wisely, and consult it whenever you need to.

If you know someone who is looking for more removals for their deck, don't hesitate to send them this article!

We also have the best removals for other colors as well, so check out the best white spot removals, and keep an eye out for our other lists!

Do you use any of these removals in your decks? What is your favorite? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below!

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!