How Much Removal Should You Run in Commander?

The starting number

10 pieces of removal and interaction is the center of the range in the deck template, and 8-10 is the practical range for most decks. That count includes spot removal, counterspells that answer something already resolved is too late for, and anything else whose job is stopping a specific threat.

Not every threat can be raced. Commander is a four-player format where someone at the table is very likely building toward something you can't out-value or out-race, whether that's a combo, a Voltron commander with no answer in sight, or a stax piece locking the whole table down. Removal is how you buy the time to get there, or how you make sure the threat never gets to resolve at all.

What actually moves the number

A control-leaning deck wants more, closer to 12-14. If the deck's whole plan is answering everything the table does until it's the only one left with a plan, removal isn't a supporting category, it's the deck.

A combo deck can run less, if its combo is fast enough to not need to interact. A deck that's reliably winning by turn six or seven doesn't need to answer every threat, it needs to resolve its plan before the threats matter. That's a real strategy, but it's a bet, and it's worth pairing with at least a few pieces of protection instead of pure removal.

Flexible removal is worth more than a slot count suggests. A card that only answers creatures is a dead draw against an artifact-based combo or a problematic enchantment. Weighting your removal toward cards like Beast Within and Chaos Warp, which hit any permanent, means fewer of your answers ever come up blank.

Counterspells count toward this total, but they're a different tool. They stop something before it starts rather than cleaning it up after, which is stronger against a combo but requires holding up mana and being reactive in a way spot removal doesn't.

Removal worth knowing

The staples that show up across colors and decklists because they answer a wide range of problems for a low, reliable cost.

Swords to Plowshares ↗

One mana, exiles any creature. The most efficient removal spell in the format and close to an automatic include in white.

Beast Within ↗

Three mana, destroys any permanent, not just a creature. The downside (a 3/3 for your opponent) is rarely worse than the problem it solves.

Anguished Unmaking ↗

Exiles any nonland permanent for three life. Answers artifacts, enchantments and planeswalkers a lot of removal can't touch.

Chaos Warp ↗

Answers anything, including your own permanents in a pinch, at instant speed for red. The randomness on the redraw is the tradeoff for hitting things nothing else in red can.

Frequently Asked Questions