MTG Salvation

I've written a list of every single Wrath effect in Magic, including less obvious ones like Ixidron or Worldpurge. It's sorted by colour identity and ranked for EDH purposes. Hope that helps.

http://roxolan.wordpress.com/2014/03/26/all-the-wraths-of-mtg/

Duly noted.

I expect to tweak quite a few ratings based on feedback in the next few days. I won't pretend I've personally tried all 200 cards on the list.

This looks great. Thanks for this.

Your list is missing Void, are youi going to add any other types of wraths into your list (artifact, enchantments)?

For colorless there is also Engineered Explosives and Ratchet Bomb which are both solid cards.

Planar Cleansing is rated rather highly for some strange reason; I'd never run it because it is too hard to make asymmetrical unlike with other wraths which can miss enchantments or planeswalkers. Myojin of Cleansing Fire is also rated strangely high, as the only way you can get the effect is to hardcast it (or proliferate extra counters/That Which Was Taken).

o-stone is 5-stars easily. Arguably the best wrath in the format, imo (I realize most people wouldn't go THAT far, but if you don't think it's 5 stars you're wrong). All is dust is maybe 4 stars, the only big bonus imo is that it's colorless.

evac is at least 4.

obliterate is at least 4, as is jokulhaups.

child of alara is at least a billion stars.

Quote from Gigafalcospamer7

Your list is missing Void

Quote from kinematik

For colorless there is also Engineered Explosives and Ratchet Bomb which are both solid cards.

Thank you. But those are not on the list because they don't kill enough creatures (aside from the occasional token purge).

Quote from Gigafalcospamer7

are youi going to add any other types of wraths into your list (artifact, enchantments)?

Eventually I'll do a list for those too.

Quote from KissMyAssassin

Planar Cleansing is rated rather highly for some strange reason; I'd never run it because it is too hard to make asymmetrical unlike with other wraths which can miss enchantments or planeswalkers. Myojin of Cleansing Fire is also rated strangely high, as the only way you can get the effect is to hardcast it (or proliferate extra counters/That Which Was Taken).

Fair point for Planar Cleansing. Myojin is actually quite useful even if you can't proliferate, because it doubles as a 4/6 indestructible (and then a plain 4/6).

Also see the "Top 50 Wrath Cards" thread here: http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/489884-top-50-wrath-cards

Evacuation and Nevinyrral’s Disk deserve three stars. Oblivion Stone should be four or five and All Is Dust should be three or four.

I didn't see Wave of reckoning on the list. Did I miss it? A much better wipe then some of the others listed.

just seeing Dread Cacodemon above one star made me laugh. you either kill your own attack phase or does nothing. and leaves you to hasty critters, he cant blinked for his effect, AND cost 10 mana. finally his ability doesnt work with kaalia of the vast. he doesnt even fly :/ green has wraths, they are just designated for flying creatures, also Polukranos, World Eater can be a wrath if enough mana is spent or he has deathtouch.

Quote from hoborobot

just seeing Dread Cacodemon above one star made me laugh. you either kill your own attack phase or does nothing. and leaves you to hasty critters, he cant blinked for his effect, AND cost 10 mana. finally his ability doesnt work with kaalia of the vast. he doesnt even fly

You're underestimating Dread Cacodemon. Compare it to Plague Wind, and you're paying just an extra B for a 8/8 body. Not a bad deal at all. You also realize that you can just attack first and then cast Cacodemon during Main Phase 2, right? Sometimes, not having an ETB/LTB trigger is a good thing. Harder to to abuse since you need to bring it back to your hand, but that also means your opponents can't abuse it. You also bought the Kaalia Commander pre-con, didn't you? Not sure what Wizards was thinking when they built it. Aside from Cacodemon, they also included Reiver Demon in that deck IIRC.

I'll take all comments into consideration and probably update the list sometime this Sunday.

Quote from DirkGently

All is dust is maybe 4 stars, the only big bonus imo is that it's colorless.

evac is at least 4.

All is Dust kills enchantments and planeswalkers, can be symmetry-broken, and bypasses regen and indestructible.

Could you explain why you like Evacuation so much? You're putting it in the same weight class as instant-speed wraths here.

Quote from Incanur

Evacuation and Nevinyrral’s Disk deserve three stars.

I've never been very impressed with Nevinyrral's Disk. More often than not, when you need a wrath, you need it right now. You don't want to give your opponents a whole turn to play around it, get their creatures out of the way, or find a Shatter. I play it often enough because it's colourless, but I would never swap a Wrath of God for it.

Quote from Ninja Bob

Also see the "Top 50 Wrath Cards" thread here: http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/489884-top-50-wrath-cards

Thanks, that's very helpful. I'll probably have a chat with the author.

Quote from Reaper of Souls

I didn't see Wave of reckoning on the list. Did I miss it? A much better wipe then some of the others listed.

Thank you! That's exactly the kind of cards that you can still miss after dozens of ingenious Gatherer queries.

It also makes me rethink my star system. There's such a disparity between this card at baseline (an unreliable 5CC wrath with no gravy) and in a dedicated deck (a fully asymmetrical 5CC wrath), but the reader will only see the one rating and has to guess my meaning. Warp World is even worse. Maybe I'll do white stars for the baseline and add purple stars for how good the card is in a dedicated deck.

Quote from hoborobot

just seeing Dread Cacodemon above one star made me laugh. you either kill your own attack phase or does nothing. and leaves you to hasty critters, he cant blinked for his effect, AND cost 10 mana. finally his ability doesnt work with kaalia of the vast. he doesnt even fly :/

One-star is unplayable as a wrath. Dread Cacodemon isn't that bad. I admit it's overrated at the moment, though.

Quote from hoborobot

green has wraths, they are just designated for flying creatures, also Polukranos, World Eater can be a wrath if enough mana is spent or he has deathtouch.

Green flying wraths are on the list. Polukranos is out though. One of the rules for the list is that a card can't require you to spend more than 12 mana in a single turn. Tons of cards could serve as wraths if you had infinite mana.

(This comment did make me think of another Gatherer wording to try out, which uncovered a whole bunch of mediocre wraths and HMs I'd missed: Ashen Firebeast, Ifh-Bíff Efreet, Infected Vermin, Screams of the Damned, Squallmonger, Warmonger and Whirling Catapult. Thank you.)

Why is the same rating as and Damnation? The slightly more difficult casting cost? The added non-counterability clause is worth another star, IMHO/in my meta. I think a 1-5 rating system is super limited for such a broad range of spells, and agree with the on-going assessment that it's hard to rate cards that have niche or combo applications. (Worldslayer, for example, can become a powerhouse in a deck with Indestructibility and Indestructible creatures.)

Quote from Roxolan

I've never been very impressed with Nevinyrral's Disk. More often than not, when you need a wrath, you need it right now. You don't want to give your opponents a whole turn to play around it, get their creatures out of the way, or find a Shatter. I play it often enough because it's colourless, but I would never swap a Wrath of God for it.

Part of the thing with disk is it is a way for blue and or black decks to deal with enchantments and artifacts (or just enchantments in the case of red). It is also much more tutorable than most wraths being that it is an artifact.

I read your explanation but still don't understand how a card like Diluvian Primordial could be considered for a list like this. Are wrath effects so common in your metagame that there's always one in a graveyard? That just seems extremely unreliable as a wrath.

EDIT: Looks like that particular card is listed as an honorable mention, but I'm still not sure it belongs. Also, Child of Alara should probably be 4 or 5 stars. You'll only ever play it in 5-color so it'll probably be your commander and the only wrath you'll ever need. Oh, and Crime // Punishment may be a card you're missing.

Quote from Anne Noise

Why is the same rating as and Damnation? The slightly more difficult casting cost? The added non-counterability clause is worth another star, IMHO/in my meta. I think a 1-5 rating system is super limited for such a broad range of spells, and agree with the on-going assessment that it's hard to rate cards that have niche or combo applications. (Worldslayer, for example, can become a powerhouse in a deck with Indestructibility and Indestructible creatures.)

This is a lumpers vs splitters issue. Yes, Wrath of God is strictly better than Day of Judgment and arguably worse than Supreme Verdict, but not enough for a different number of stars. And adding more categories would lead to endless arguments.

(I did sneakily do a little of that anyway: all the cards in a given section of the list are sorted IMO. But I did not make it explicit because I am not going to spend any time defending my ranking Havoc Demon as 0.001% better than Killing Wave.)

It could work if the ranking was based on an open voting system like Gatherer, instead of me doing manual updates. Someday maybe...

I wouldn't call Worldslayer a "powerhouse" in any deck though

Quote from xger

Part of the thing with disk is it is a way for blue and or black decks to deal with enchantments and artifacts (or just enchantments in the case of red). It is also much more tutorable than most wraths being that it is an artifact.

I see your point, but the list is colour-neutral. If you're mono-blue, it will tell you that Nevinyrral's Disk is one of your few options, but if you're white/black, it will correctly tell you that you can do much better.

Quote from BetweenWalls

I read your explanation but still don't understand how a card like Diluvian Primordial could be considered for a list like this. Are wrath effects so common in your metagame that there's always one in a graveyard?

Yes. More than half the time, at least. "Honourable mentions" are precisely for those unreliable "half-wrath" cards.

Though I admit some of my picks there may be arguable, since I've erred on the side of inclusiveness. Jeleva, Nephalia’s Scourge may be the wackiest example.

Disk is indeed slow, but it's awesome once you get it untapped because then you can blow up the world for 1. And it notably combos with both Darksteel Forge and Faith's Reward. And every once in a while you can untap it with Fatestitcher or whatnot. I think these factors plus hitting artifacts and enchantments make it about as good as Wrath of God - it's slower but more versatile and potentially more powerful.

Evacuation has the advantage of instant speed, being blue, always removing the threat at least temporarily, and saving your own creatures in a pinch. It combos with Eternal Witness and company.

Of course, this is all coming from someone who plays more on the casual side.

actually, i would call worldslayer a potential powerhouse. made a avacyn, angel of hope with every board-wipe i could get my hands on. very oppressive when it works, and after i pulled off a one-sided disk, i took the deck apart.

does aetherize count as a wrath? or are we moving a bit too far away from it already?

my kaalia deck is in my sig, and it did not come from a precon. second whats the point of a wipe if you attack into blockers? this coming from agrro perspective