Mass Removal-Universal

Mass Removal

Mass removal is a somewhat nebulous term, usually interpreted as “board wipes”, or cards that completely clear the board and reset it to an earlier state. I choose to describe mass removal spells as spells that answer multiple threats without help. In slower decks, these invalidate the early aggression of opponents and allow your bigger spells to take over. In faster decks, these can prevent opponents from outclassing your smaller threats as the game goes long. If built into the deck’s strategy, these can act as win conditions. If just thrown in, however, these can stall the game and frustrate the table.

Universal

Universal Removal tends to irk players because it affects everyone equally, at least theoretically sending everyone back to the same point. The ability to break parity, meaning to make them not really universal, is to either make threats that survive the mass removal, use mass removal that hits different threats from what you use, or design your deck to be able to use the mass removal in an advantageous way.

Edicts

Edict effects force all players to sacrifice a given number of creatures. These effects can frustrate Voltron decks, which build up one creature into a large threat, as well as combo decks, which can be creature-light but with role-players. The wider the board, the less affected the deck is. Nowadays, this effect is frequently on creatures, like Fleshbag Marauder.

Mass Bounce

As universal applications of bounce spells, the strengths and weaknesses apply here. Mass Bounce has the added bonus of operating almost like an Edict, where opponents have to choose and discard down to 7 at the end of their turn, punishing decks that go wide, especially instant-speed ones, like Evacuation.

Mass Destruction

These are the mass removal spells people tend to default to, with the original Wrath of God, which destroys all creatures and invalidates regeneration, serving as the most recognizable version. While these used to be played everywhere, they are better used in concert with indestructible threats.

Mass Land Destruction

The subject of a lot of format debate, mass land destruction effects, such as Armageddon and Wildfire, tend to be some of the more frustrating cards to play against. Lands are needed to play the game, and blowing them up makes players unable to cast spells or affect the board in a meaningful way. This is all well and good if the casting player is clearly ahead, but grinds games to a halt otherwise.

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