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Every color inMagic: The Gatheringgets to excel at something the other colors aren’t great at. Blue’s the undisputed king ofcountermagicand pure card draw, but it’s lagging far behind most other colors in the removal department. Bounce spells, which return permanents to their owners' hands, are blue’s primary form of removal, though that’s not an ideal answer to many threats.
Blue does manage to get a little creative with some of its better 1-for-1 removal spells. The color pie dictates thatblue can’t simply destroy somethingand call it a day; it has to turn it into something else entirely, usually dealing with a problem, but leaving something noteworthy behind in its stead.
10Suspend
Can You Guess What It Does?
Suspend is as effective a removal spell as it is a clever play on words. It does exactly what you’d expect: It ‘suspends’ a creature in exile for a few turns. That means whatever you remove is coming back two turns later, but two turns is an eternity in Commander.
You can always target your own creature if it’s about to die anyway, hopefully one with a good enters-the-battlefield effect. Pair Suspend with cards like Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir to permanently ‘suspend’ your opponents' spells in exile.
9Ravenform
Form Of… Bird!
Blue mages love transforming creatures into something else, as evidenced by Ravenform. It transmogrifies any artifact or creature into a 1/1 Bird, which is much less threatening in Commander than it would be in Limited or Constructed.
If you ever find yourself with two spare mana and you’ve got aForetellcard in hand, you might as well exile it so you can cast it for its cheaper cost later on. You’ll still pay the same total amount overall, but it’s good to break up mana payments into installments.
8Chain of Vapor
Eye For An Eye
Chain of Vapor’s a 1-mana answer to anything that slips past your counterspells, and introduces an interesting mini-game between you and your opponents. The targeted player can throw the spell back at you, which gives you another opportunity to keep the chain going.
If you want to get political, you can aim the original copy at something beneficial for its controller to return to hand, then they can thank you by sending a copy at something problematic for both of you. You can always target your own permanents and copy to your heart’s (and manabase’s) content, too.
7Venser, Shaper Savant
A Flashy Man-o'-War
Venser, Shaper Savant is a simple way to get a permanent off board, and at instant speed, no less, thanks to Flash. Unlike an instant or sorcery with this same effect, Venser puts a body on board, which represents a clean 2-for-1 in your favor.
Of course, Venser’s ability being an ETB effect means it’s a perfect target forflicker effects, making Venser’s ability to bounce lands even more threatening. With an ability doubler like Panharmonicon in play, Venser can bounce itself on the second trigger, creating a loop that makes it hard for opponents' threats to stick.
6In Too Deep
Get A Clue
In Too Deep and similar split second spells allow you to interact with near 100-percent certainty that your opponents can’t thwart your plans, though some abilities like Morph or mana abilities can still be used with a split second spell on the stack.
This aura’s a clever, roundabout way to get rid of a problem creature or planeswalker. It turns it into anartifact Clueand strips away all relevant text. Your opponent will be able to cash it in for a card at some point, but they lose the enchanted permanent either way.
5Pongify And Rapid Hybridization
Ape-ification
Pongify and Rapid Hybridization are functionally the same card, and some of the only mono-blue cards in Magic history that use the text “destroy target creature.” While it’s perfectly within blue’s wheelhouse to remove a creature and replace it with something else, destroying a creature is a color pie break for blue.
Their uniqueness as blue cards makes them very popular in Commander, especially in mono-blue decks that don’t typically have such hyper-efficient ways to destroy creatures. The fact that there are two different versions means you’re free to double up on this effect in a singleton deck.
4Reality Shift
Manifest Destiny
Reality Shift is always skirting around the top 20 blue cards in Commander; it’s an immensely popular removal spell for blue mages, and the fact that it manifests instead of simply creating a token makes for some exciting stories. You rarely know if your opponent manifested a creature or not.
The typical combat-focused Commander deck runs somewhere in the ballpark of 30-40 creatures, meaning that Reality Shift will manifest a creature less than half the time. Other times it manifests Blightsteel Colossus, which you won’t know about until it’s too late.
3Cyber Conversion
Cyberman Down!
Cyber Conversion fromDoctor Who Commanderis an upgraded version of Reality Shift with a more restrictive casting cost. Instead of manifesting, which backfires some amount of the time, the opposing creature gets turned face-down, becoming a negligible 2/2.
A creature can’t be turned face-up without an ability like Morph allowing it to do so. Assuming your opponent isn’t playing a specific strategy like this, Cyber Conversion can blank a commander and force them to figure out a creative way to get it back to its front face.
2Slip Out The Back
Be Right Back
It’s slightly disingenuous to call Slip Out the Back a removal spell since it’s primarily played as a means to save one of your own creatures.Phasing is currently the best form of protection in Magic, since it dodges virtually all forms of removal, including exile.
However, you’re able to absolutely weaponize Slip Out the Back in the right situations. Sometimes it’s a single creature that’s blocking your path to victory. Phasing that creature out long enough to land the killing blow means you never have to face the repercussions of putting a +1/+1 counter on an opposing creature.
1Cyclonic Rift
Wait, There’s A Two-Mana Mode?
Cyclonic Rift is big Commander boogieman, sweeping up entire fields while leaving the caster’s board completely unscathed. But did you know there’s a rare, hidden mode on Cyclonic Rift? That’s right, you’re able to cast this as a two-mana spell to bounce a single target! What a shock!
Why would you ever blow a Cyc Rift on a single permanent? You might not have seven mana available but need to deal with something immediately. Second, there might only be one permanent separating you from victory, andthe overload costwould be overkill.
