Card Guides
Best Graveyard Hate in Commander
Bojuka Bog and Soul-Guide Lantern for a targeted answer, Rest in Peace for the whole table. The direct counter to reanimator and recursion strategies.
What makes graveyard hate good
- Targeted versus total. Exiling one card is a scalpel; exiling every graveyard on the battlefield is a hammer that also hits your own.
- One-shot versus ongoing. A single exile effect answers what's there now; a static effect like Rest in Peace stops everything going forward.
- Whether it costs you anything if your own deck uses its graveyard.
Targeted answers
Exile one graveyard, or one card, without shutting down the whole table's.
Bojuka Bog ↗
Enters tapped and exiles a target player's graveyard when it enters. It puts graveyard interaction in a land slot, but it requires black, and its mandatory trigger can make timing matter.
Soul-Guide Lantern ↗
One mana, exile a card from a graveyard when it enters, then sacrifice it later to exile a whole graveyard or cash it in for a card. Flexible and cheap.
Nihil Spellbomb ↗
One mana, sacrifice to exile a target graveyard, and it can be cycled for a card if the hate is not needed. More flexible than a narrow graveyard-only effect.
Total, ongoing answers
Shuts the strategy down for the rest of the game, for every player at the table.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the best graveyard hate card in Commander?
Rest in Peace for a total, ongoing answer, if your own deck doesn't need its graveyard. For a cheaper, one-time answer that doesn't lock your own graveyard out too, Bojuka Bog or Soul-Guide Lantern are the standard picks.
When should I run graveyard hate?
When the table or your own meta leans on reanimator, recursion, or a graveyard-based combo. It is a weak include against a table that is not using its graveyards, since the card may do nothing that game.
Does graveyard hate hurt my own deck?
Only if your own deck uses its graveyard. A total, ongoing effect like Rest in Peace stops your own recursion and reanimation too, which is worth weighing before you run it in a deck that leans on those strategies itself.
Is graveyard hate the same as removal?
It's a specialized form of interaction, answering cards in a graveyard rather than a permanent on the battlefield. It's the direct counter to reanimator and recursion strategies, which spot removal and board wipes don't touch at all.
Track when graveyard hate actually turned a game around.
TurnZero HQ's game recaps log the swings that mattered, so you can tell whether that slot is earning its place.
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