The 37 Best Red Removal Cards in Magic Ranked

Last updated on December 19, 2025

Chaos Warp (Mystical Archive) | Illustration by Anato Finnstark

Red has it made when it comes to efficient removal spells for creatures and artifacts. Unlike black, which typically just outright destroys a creature or permanent, red finds its removal in the form of direct damage more often than not. In fact, what makes many red removal spells good isn’t just the amount of damage you get for the mana you’re paying, but where you can direct that damage.

Today I’m breaking down the top red removal spells in the game from worst to best. It mostly includes damage-based removal spells, but I’ll also give some of the best artifact removal spells a mention. Let’s get started!

What Is Red Removal in MTG?

Lightning Bolt | Illustration by Christopher Moeller

Red removal is any card that’s exclusively red, no multicolored or colorless, and either destroys, exiles, or gets rid of something in one way or another, usually permanents. This includes everything from Lightning Bolt, your classic direct damage spell, to Avalanche Riders.

#37. Shock + Variants

Shock is pretty much the baseline here. Every other card on the list is better, and it’s a solid starting point since it has so many better versions.

As is, this is a 1-mana spell for 2 damage to anything. It’s a great card on its own, and even now it still occasionally sees play in burn decks within formats with limited direct damage spells. Given the choice, you'd always reach for something like Play with Fire or Wild Slash first, but this list doesn't need 50 Shock variants.

#36. Flame-Blessed Bolt

Flame-Blessed Bolt is a general upgrade to Magma Spray, with the added benefit that it can target planeswalkers. It exiles its target is it ends up dying that turn, whether from the Bolt itself or something else!

#35. Raze the Effigy

Raze the Effigy is sort of like the Shock of red artifact removal. It’s instant speed artifact destruction for . Any other artifact removal piece beyond has that same value or better.

Just goes to show how strong red is at dealing with artifact threats when you get that level of interaction on such a cheap card.

#34. Strangle

Strangle is, unfortunately, not instant speed. But 3 damage for 1 mana is Lightning Bolt levels of efficiency.

This is a great card if you’re playing it in a format or group where the sorcery speed and targeting limitations aren’t too much of a drawback.

#33. Mogg Mob

Mogg Mob is a decent goblin. You’ll want a mono- (or at least heavy) red deck to ensure you can use this card early. It provides a solidly aggressive body that you can sacrifice at any time to do damage. The upside here is the ability to split the damage and sacrifice at any time. Removing up to three pesky little creatures in one interaction is totally valuable.

In case you missed it, the joke is that this is three Mogg Fanatics in one, the same way Healer's Flock is three Healer's Hawks and Llanowar Tribe is three Llanowar Elves.

#32. Road Rage

Who hasn’t gotten road rage before? This Road Rage helps you to remove creatures or kill planeswalkers once you’ve developed your board with mounts or vehicles. This removal won’t be as quick as Strangle or have the versatility of Burst Lightning, but in the right decks, it can remove some big threats.

#31. Burst Lightning

Burst Lightning gives you 2 damage for 1 mana, or 4 damage if kicked for 5 mana. Again, this is slightly better than Shock, though it's clearly not as good as a Tarmogoyf.

#30. Magmatic Sinkhole

Magmatic Sinkhole is a 6-mana instant that deals 5 damage. That sucks, but with the ability to become much cheaper, as cheap as just 1 red mana, it becomes a lot more valuable.

Delve is a great ability that I love to take advantage of, and it’s really easy to get going as the game progresses. Especially if you’re running a deck with fetch lands.

#29. Galvanic Discharge

Using extra resources outside of mana can create some problems, or it can create huge upsides. Galvanic Discharge is a 1-mana instant that can deal as much damage to a creature or planeswalker as the number of energy counters you pay. This can be turn 1 or 2 aggro removal, or a huge and cheap removal spell once you build energy counters with cards like Fabrication Module. It's an upgrade over Strangle to begin with in formats where it's legal.

#28. Spit Flame

Spit Flame is a little bit bigger in every way. More damage, more expensive, and it can come back from the graveyard multiple times if you’ve got the dragon synergies to support it.

#27. By Force

By Force is today’s first card with X in its casting cost. This time around you can destroy X artifacts. Since you only have to pay a single red mana on top of the X this is one of the most efficient, non-wipe artifact removal spells.

The reason it’s this high is that it sits in this weird middle ground. You’re paying more than just 1 mana per artifact, it doesn’t have any flexibility, and it’s not a total board wipe, unless you're rocking Hinata, Dawn-Crowned.

#26. Mizzium Mortars

Mizzium Mortars is an all-time classic. Two mana for 4 damage is great, and the overload ability makes for a great board wipe that’s reasonably priced.

#25. Cathartic Pyre

Cathartic Pyre is 2 mana for 3 damage to a creature or planeswalker. That’s not too bad at instant speed.

You also get a second ability that allows you to discard cards to draw new ones. While you won’t use that ability most of the time, it’s nice to have since it prevents this card from being dead weight in certain situations.

#24. Soul’s Fire

Soul's Fire is a 3-mana instant that deals damage to any target equal to the power of a creature you control. This card depends on you having a relatively strong—or strong enough—creature in play to generate power from it, but it has a really high damage ceiling.

This is a great way to kill just about anything in play if you’ve got a big dragon that’s beating down every turn.

#23. Delete

One-sided board wipes can be game-winners. Delete from the Doctor Who Universes Beyond Magic set has the potential to remove all nonartifact creatures in your way. This card costs more than some of the other red sweepers, but the potential to free your artifacts of blockers is huge.

#22. Fling

Fling is a classic Magic card, and the namesake of the non-official fling ability. For just 2 mana and the life of one of your creatures, you can “fling” the creature’s power anywhere you’d like.

The reason it’s ahead of Soul's Fire is that the sacrifice outlet is often an advantage in the right decks, and it costs less mana.

#21. Flame Slash

Flame Slash is a 1-mana sorcery that deals 4 damage to a target creature. You’re limited by sorcery-speed and only targeting creatures, but 4 damage for just 1 mana is honestly quite a good deal.

#20. Torch the Tower

Torch the Tower is a wonderful early removal card. It’s similar to Shock, but with the upside of increasing the damage and adding a scry. Bargaining a Clue token, Food token, or even a Cursed role token can easily help you increase the effectiveness of this red removal.

#19. Shatterskull Smashing / Shatterskull, the Hammer Pass

Shatterskull Smashing is the only MDFC on this list, but it certainly doesn’t disappoint. It deals X damage divided however you wish across up to two creatures or planeswalkers. If X is 6 or more, it deals double that amount.

Pretty nifty, huh? 

#18. Comet Storm

Comet Storm is another red removal spell (shocker). This time it has multikicker.

Comet Storm deals X damage to any target, and can hit multiple targets for each time you kick it. This gives you a lot of flexibility for what creatures you want to remove and how, which makes it far more useful than the typical fireball.

#17. Witchstalker Frenzy

You don’t want to see a big blocker in the way of your red aggro deck. Witchstalker Frenzy is a great way to keep your cheap aggressive creatures free of pesky blockers. If an opponent doesn’t have much removal and is relying on a turn-4 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse to change the game, Witchstalker Frenzy can be your savior.

#16. Galvanize

Galvanize is a cantrip away from being amazing removal. Doing 3 damage for 2 mana at instant speed is nothing to sneeze at. However, if you can afford a cheap cantrip like Brainstorm, this card’s value jumps up. Only the biggest creatures can avoid this removal, especially if your curve works out perfectly.

#15. Chandra’s Ignition

Chandra's Ignition has a creature you control deal damage equal to its power to not only each other creature, including your own, but also to each opponent.

This combos off with Blightsteel Colossus for a one-shot kill in Commander, but it’s generally also just a great board wipe, though a bit risky.

#14. Chain Reaction

Chain Reaction comes in at sorcery speed for 4 mana. It deals X damage to each creature on the battlefield, where X is the total number of creatures!

It’s a great ace in the hole versus any creature decks that go wide, and to top things off, you can play around it to a certain degree if your creatures all have significantly higher toughness.

#13. Fiery Confluence

Fiery Confluence is the red Confluence spell, and it does just about what you’d expect it to do. It has three options, and you can choose any number of them when you cast it; dealing 1 damage to every creature, smacking 2 damage onto each opponent, or destroying an artifact, you can do it all!

This card is basically just some of the best cards before it all thrown together, and it’s a nice mix of versatility and efficient abilities.

#12. Abrade

It wouldn’t be a red removal ranked list if Abrade weren’t in the better half. Two mana to either bolt a creature or destroy an artifact at instant speed is great value, always has been and always will be.

#11. Shattering Spree

Shattering Spree is another one of those 1-mana destroy-an-artifact spells, but this time it has replicate for just . That means you’re copying the spell for just 1 mana each time! That’s great value and it’s a top card for a reason.

Did I mention it looks great in foil?

#10. Blasphemous Act

One of Magic's best red sorceries, Blasphemous Act is one of the end-all-be-all removal spells in red. It’s a damage-based creature board wipe that also gets cheaper the more creature there are in play.

I’ve cast this bomb for just 1 red mana more times than I can count, and it never gets old.

#9. Vandalblast

Vandalblast is 1 red mana to destroy an artifact. Nothing new, but being able to turn into a complete artifact board wipe for just is quite good.

This card is good because it does both ends of the spectrum quite well, and it doesn’t try to do both at the same time like some other cards.

#8. Avalanche Riders

Avalanche Riders is one of my favorite red creatures, and for good reason: It destroys lands! This is the first—but not only—land destruction spell in the rankings, and it’s a great start.

Land destruction is one of the most punishing and effective forms of stifling an opponent’s gameplan, and it counts as removal!

#7. Stone Rain

Stone Rain is a more efficient land destruction spell than Avalanche Riders. There isn’t much to say here.

#6. Skred

Skred is a classic card that exceeds expectations in just about any snow deck it’s in. It’s seen a lot of play in Izzet () Pauper decks since there are so many great snow dual lands nowadays, and for good reason. This can very quickly become a high-damage removal spell as the turns go on.

#5. Fury

I think Fury is one of the most underrated elementals out of Modern Horizons 2. Or, at least, it was.

It provides not only a great body for the mana, but a great evoke ability as well. Four damage however you want can kill most things in Modern (when it was legal), and it’s just as good in formats like Commander.

#4. Red Elemental Blast + Pyroblast

Red Elemental Blast and Pyroblast are basically the same card with different names. They’re both super playable in general as sideboard cards, and I’d argue they could even see play in Commander thanks to the prevalence of blue decks.

#3. Wild Magic Surge

Wild Magic Surge is a 2-mana instant that destroys any opponents' permanent and replaces it with the next type-sharing permanent off of the top of their library. It’s a slightly-worse Chaos Warp but has enough in common that it’s still great.

#2. Lightning Bolt

Lightning Bolt comes in high, which I’m sure surprised nobody. Bolt has always been one of the best red cards in the game and one of Magic's best red instants ever printed, period. Three damage for 1 mana, and it can target anything at instant speed.

What else do you want?

#1. Chaos Warp

As one of the best (and most chaotic) Polymorph effects in Magic, Chaos Warp is the best red removal spell; the trick here is allowing red decks to remove enchantments and indestructible permanents, which they otherwise have a really hard time with. It’s incredibly efficient, hits just about every threat out there, and almost always replaces it with something far less deadly or important. Except when it doesn't, but that's the fun of the card.

Best Red Removal Payoffs and Synergies

Red’s removal spells are some of the most impactful of any color when they’re at their best. The ability to destroy creatures or permanents on the cheap allows you to spend the rest of your mana and resources on something else, and you can further out-tempo your opponents. This is most often the case in low-to-the-ground red decks that play a bunch of cheap creatures and deal damage quickly.

Aside from the clear red aggro “get out of my way” path, a few strategies and synergies fit well with red removal spells.

You should think of pinging cards with triggered abilities that do damage every time you play a noncreature spell. Cards like Kessig Flamebreather and Guttersnipe are fast and deal effective extra damage with your red removal spells.

Speaking of noncreature, make sure to include some prowess cards like Fugitive Codebreaker and Monastery Mentor to ramp up your damage after removal. You can use a card like Young Pyromancer to fill your board.

If you’re removing threats, use cards like Blood Artist, Gimli, Counter of Kills, or Morbid Opportunist to take advantage of death triggers.

Wrap Up

Fury | Illustration by Raoul Vitale

That wraps up today’s rankings on the best red removal spells in Magic! There are certainly a lot of great ones, and it was honestly a little tough comparing them to find a victor.

What did you think of my rankings? Did I miss any important staples, or misrepresent any cards? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below, or come talk about it in the official Draftsim Discord.

Until next time, stay safe and stay healthy!