The 30 Best Izzet Removal Cards in Magic Ranked

Electrolyze | Illustration by Zoltan Boros & Gabor Szikszai

Every deck needs removal to interact with your opponents’ threats or to maintain the flow and the tempo of the game. Some colors in MTG have the best creature removal, while others specialize in destroying other cards, like enchantments and artifacts. With threats in MTG becoming better and more diverse as the game evolves, we need to know the best and most efficient removal cards at our disposal.

Today, we look at the Izzet, or blue-and-red color pair to see the best removal spells these colors can provide together.

Let’s dive in!

What Is Izzet Removal in MTG?

Beacon Bolt | Illustration by Titus Lunter

Izzet removal is any card with a blue and red color identity that takes an opponent's permanent off the battlefield, or nerfs/incapacitates it in some way.

Izzet has a lot of cards that deal damage to creatures, which I’ll consider as removal, but I’ll exclude cards that only deal damage to players. I’m not considering a card like Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph as removal because it only amplifies damage from other sources. Although many cards are modal and offer the possibility of being a counterspell or a burn spell, I’m not considering pure counterspells as removal here, but it’s nice if it’s an added effect.

What Kind of Removal Does Izzet Have?

Izzet removal is limited to what blue and red can do. Red removes creatures and planeswalkers by dealing damage, while blue is the worst color at straight-up removing something.

Many Izzet removal spells combine dealing damage with other positive effects, like drawing cards, scrying, tapping creatures, or bouncing them to their owner’s hand, among other effects. Creatures, planeswalkers, and artifacts are the main targets for Izzet removal.

#30. Jilt

Jilt is a card that sometimes sees play in Pauper environments as a bounce spell with added damage. It’s an effect that’s great in Limited, and you’ll have a pretty strong turn when you bounce something big and kill something little at instant speed.

#29. Vibrant Outburst

What if we take a classic effect like Lightning Strike, which costs , and change the mana cost so it’s instead? The result is Vibrant Outburst, and why not add a minor benefit for tapping a single creature while we’re at it?

#28. Ral Zarek

Ral Zarek was a good planeswalker when it was first released, and you can use the -2 ability to deal 3 damage. The +1 ability is very convenient, and you can do a lot of tap and untap shenanigans. The play pattern of -2, +1, and -2 is very good for a planeswalker if it lives, netting double Lightning Bolt out of it.

#27. Broadside Barrage

Three mana to deal 5 damage at instant speed isn’t the worst rate. Broadside Barrage even offers an added loot effect; discarding a land or something you don’t need is a good additional effect stapled to a removal spell.

#26. Invoke the Firemind

Invoke the Firemind is a card that combines classic blue and red cards like Fireball and Blue Sun's Zenith, and it makes you decide what you want to do. It’s flexible, doubling as removal, finisher, and card advantage. You can’t have both effects, though, so the card still has some margin to upgrade.

#25. Keranos, God of Storms

For a while, Keranos, God of Storms was played as a control finisher because it’s an indestructible god that either draws you a card or deals 3 damage to any target, every turn. It rarely attacks or blocks, as blue and red aren’t strong devotion colors. The card still sees play in some Commander decks where being a god or an enchantment matters.

#24. Slick Sequence

Slick Sequence is a nice card in spellslinger decks, which can easily cast a spell before playing this to unlock the cantrip. Killing a small creature and drawing a card is strong, and sometimes, the card you just drew allows you to keep casting more spells and storm off.

#23. Lozhan, Dragons' Legacy

Lozhan, Dragons' Legacy is very specific; it only works with dragons or adventure spells, so you’re not adding it to every deck. It’s mainly a tool for UR dragon decks to control the board, so your 5-mana 5/5 dragons also deal an extra 5 damage to any target when they enter.

#22. Ral, Izzet Viceroy

Ral, Izzet Viceroy is an attempt at the classic 5-mana planeswalker that draws a card and offers a removal spell with the minus ability. The +1 is nice because it offers a nice card advantage and selection engine while it dumps cards into your graveyard. The removal is a bit conditional, though, and you need to cast a lot of instants and sorceries for it to be good.

#21. Prismari Charm

Prismari Charm, like Izzet Charm, covers all the bases of blue and red. It can be an instant speed Curate, which is a nice failsafe, and it offers you two instances of 1 damage across different targets. A classic red effect, or your traditional blue Disperse.

#20. Izzet Staticaster

Izzet Staticaster is very strong when your opponent is playing tokens of the same type. Like, when they have seven 1/1 elf tokens in play and you flash this guy in and kill all of them. It’s seen some sideboard play in Modern against specific decks, like those that rely on 1/1 flying spirit tokens or bird tokens. You can play it in casual EDH, in decks that amplify damage from ping effects, and in wizard decks.

#19. Expansion // Explosion

For 1 additional red mana, Explosion is a super-juiced Invoke the Firemind, allowing you to deal damage and draw cards at the same time. It’s a split card, so you can play Expansion as a copy effect, and this flexibility is what made the card so playable, both early and late.

#18. Turn // Burn

Turn // Burn is interesting because it has the fuse mechanic, so you can choose both sides of the split card if you have enough mana. It’s a very nice sequence where you turn a big creature into a 0/1 with no abilities and also deal 2 damage to it, which effectively turns it into a 5-mana kill spell. There are some opportunities for a two-for-one as well if you turn an attacking creature into a 0/1 and block while you use the 2 damage to finish off another creature.

#17. Spider-Man 2099

Spider-Man 2099 requires some building around because you need to cast cards from outside your hand. For that, you can use mechanics like suspend, plot, and foretell. And if you do that, it’s a free 2 damage to any target. If you give Spider '99 a simple Bonesplitter, then we’re talking big, consistent damage.

#16. Fires of Victory

Fires of Victory is very similar to Roaring Furnace, but here you can pay the extra blue kicker to draw a card, and it can also hit planeswalkers. That means this removal spell cantrips, and you’ll deal an additional point of damage. Both are very good removal spells in the early game, but this card is worse in the late game when you have few or no cards in hand.

#15. Roaring Furnace // Steaming Sauna

Roaring Furnace // Steaming Sauna is an interesting mix. The red room offers a creature removal effect based on the number of cards you're holding, while the blue room gives you cards in the long run, so it isn’t that bad of a top-deck in the late-game. Roaring Furnace in the early game can consistently deal 4-5 damage to a creature, and that’s excellent considering its mana cost.

#14. Nin, the Pain Artist

Nin, the Pain Artist is an interesting card designed to be your commander, and the activated ability offers you repeated removal, repeated card draw, or both. You’ll want to use this card as a removal effect if you can punish your opponents for drawing cards (Nekusar, the Mindrazer) or if they’ll have to discard at the end of turn. Another good use of Nin is with Stuffy Doll: Deal damage to it, then the Doll redirects the damage, and you’ll draw some cards. Sometimes you’ll deal 5 damage to your 1/1 and draw five cards, too!

#13. Beacon Bolt

Beacon Bolt is totally dependent on your graveyard, and it’s a 3-mana sorcery, but sometimes it’s a Murder. The jump-start allows you to play the card again while discarding another spell to increase its effectiveness. In EDH, you’ll usually play this card in decks that have some graveyard or discard synergies.

#12. Gandalf's Sanction

A riff on Beacon Bolt, Gandalf's Sanction is a 3-mana sorcery speed card that deals damage based on what you have in your graveyard. It’s clearly a build-around for spellslinger decks, considering that it doesn’t do anything on its own. That said, the best part of this card is that the excess damage tramples over, so you’re not sad if you deal 6 damage to a 2/2. Naturally, it has good synergies with Aegar, the Freezing Flame.

#11. Gelectrode

Gelectrode is a really cool card in a spellslinger deck. It’s basically a pinger, like Razorfin Hunter, but each time you cast an instant or sorcery, you get to untap it and use it again. Most creatures that have this ability deal damage to players only (like Thermo-Alchemist) for balance reasons. You can try this card in a Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph deck and see the 1 damage become 3.

#10. Izzet Charm

Izzet Charm has been very playable ever since it was printed as a mix between a cheap removal spell, a draw and discard effect, and a soft counterspell. The removal is good against cheap aggro, especially when you’re on the play, and the other modes are good against control and combo, while the discard outlet helps with Arclight Phoenix and flashback.

#9. Flame of Anor

Flame of Anor is a very interesting removal spell in wizard decks considering that you can choose multiple options, but it’s pretty uninteresting otherwise. All three modes are relevant, and you’ll feel good whenever you’re destroying an artifact or a good creature while drawing two cards. It’s best when used with good wizards like Dreadhorde Arcanist and Snapcaster Mage.

#8. Prismari Command

Prismari Command sees a lot of play as a blue and red command that lets you do four wildly different things, but each is useful. If players aren’t doing anything, you can use this card to draw two, discard two, and generate a Treasure token as the baseline, so the card is never dead. But its best uses are when you can combine one of these baseline modes with the 2 damage or with the Shatter effect.

#7. Fire // Ice

Fire // Ice is a classic Legacy and Vintage spell that has recently become legal in Modern. The best aspect of this card is that it’s never dead, since if your opponent has no creatures, you can just tap a land and draw a card, effectively cantripping. And since you divide the 2 damage from Fire, you can kill an x/1 and deal 1 damage to its controller as well, or kill two tokens.

#6. Electrolyze

Electrolyze is an essential Izzet spell because you get to combine drawing a card with the damage distribution in red. It used to be a staple Izzet spell until MTG’s creatures got bigger. It was awesome in a world where people played cards like Dark Confidant and Noble Hierarch, but as creatures get bigger, the card is played less and less.

#5. Traumatic Critique

Traumatic Critique is one of the newer Izzet removal spells, but it’s a very interesting one. If X=0, you get your typical draw and discard effect that blue and red get access to. Add any amount of mana, and suddenly it’s a looting Blaze, and it’s especially interesting in decks that also have access to green mana for ramp.

#4. Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius + Niv-Mizzet, Parun

I put these two cards together because they’re very similar. Both versions of Niv-Mizzet can draw cards and deal 1 damage to any target, and both go infinite with Curiosity. I think Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius is the best “removal” option because you can simply pay a lot of mana and activate it a couple of times, so you ping a target and draw a card each time you pay . Meanwhile, Niv-Mizzet, Parun can turn cantrips like Opt and Consider, as well as cheap spells like Shock, into cards and additional damage, and it also works when your opponents cast their instants and sorceries.

#3. Ral, Monsoon Mage / Ral, Leyline Prodigy

Ral, Monsoon Mage starts off as a Goblin Electromancer, but eventually flips into Ral, Leyline Prodigy. It’s nice that you can cast some spells and make your planeswalker enter with a lot of counters, threatening to ultimate. That said, we’re interested in its -2 here, which can be a repeated Electrolyze effect if you control another blue permanent.

#2. Zoanthrope

Zoanthrope is super Flametongue Kavu, as an X/X that deals X damage to another target when it enters. Spending 5 mana gives you a 3/3 flier that bolts a target, but when X is 5 or more, you also draw a card. So let’s say you’ve spent : Now we have a “dragon” that killed a 5/5 and drew a card. Pretty bomby, I’d say.

#1. Magma Opus

Magma Opus is a card that saw a lot of Constructed play mainly because of its synergies with cards that let you cast it for free, like Torrential Gearhulk. It’s a big 8-mana spell, but you’re getting a lot of value. Drawing two cards is nice, but you can also create an attacker, distribute 4 damage as you see fit, and also tap two permanents, which opens the way for a huge attack. All at instant speed, no less. You can basically kill small creatures and kick big creatures out of the way, even if it’s for a single turn.

Best Izzet Removal Payoffs

Based on what Izzet has for removal, it’s easy to pinpoint the best payoffs.

The prowess mechanic is the best way to synergize with Izzet removal. Cards like Young Pyromancer, Monastery Mentor, or Stormchaser Mage are excellent in decks filled with tempo cards and cheap removal.

If you want to capitalize on the damage dealt, Aegar, the Freezing Flame can profit from cards like Beacon Bolt, where you’ll often deal a lot of damage to a single target. Meanwhile, if you’re constantly pinging targets, Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph can turn those 1-damage effect into 3-damage bolts. It’s no surprise that Ghyrson Starn is one of the most played Izzet commanders.

Drawing cards as a payoff is also abundant in MTG. Many sets had themes around drawing two or three cards a turn. You can play cards like Improbable Alliance, Nadir Kraken, or Mischievous Mystic to take advantage of the extra card drawing.

Cards like Delver of Secrets and Dragon's Rage Channeler need a critical mass of cheap spells, so that they can be consistent 3-power fliers for a single mana. These are excellent threats to capitalize on Izzet’s tempo.

Most Izzet removal spells are instants and sorceries that end up in your graveyard. You can exploit that with cards like Snapcaster Mage, Torrential Gearhulk, Halo Forager, or use it as cost reduction for cards like Tolarian Terror.

Wrap Up

Flame of Anor | Illustration by Yigit Koroglu

Izzet removal is very underwhelming, often serving a supporting role for a tempo strategy. I’d like to see something different, like an enchantment that freezes a creature and deals damage when it enters the battlefield for a change, or one that spreads stun counters and impulse draws the top card of your library (I don’t know, just brainstorming different effects here).

What are your favorite Izzet removal spells? Did I miss anything you guys regularly play? Let me know in the comments section below, or let’s discuss it over in the Draftsim Discord. And for more on MTG and Commander as a whole, please check out our YouTube channel, The Daily Upkeep.

Until next time, stay safe!