Magic: The Gathering Arena – The 10 Best Removal Spells In Timeless

Timeless is Magic: The Gathering Arena’s non-rotating, no banlist format. If a card is too strong, it instead gets restricted to one copy per deck. Otherwise, every card ever released on Arena is legal, from Alchemy sets to bonus sheets from sets like Strixhaven and The Brothers’ War.

Timeless has the biggest card pool out of every format on Magic: The Gathering Arena. As such, removal spells become much more important to ensure no problematic creatures run rampant over the course of a game. Removal spells are a way to get rid of creatures and other permanents on the battlefield, and Timeless has access to some of the best.

10 Sheoldred’s Edict

Force A Sacrifice

Sheoldred’s Edict is a unique removal spell in that it does not target, but instead forces your opponent to sacrifice a specific kind of creature or a planeswalker. If used early on in a game, you can guarantee your opponent’s one or two-drop creature gets removed.

The strength of Sheoldred’s Edict in Timeless in particular is the ability to force a planeswalker to be sacrificed. There a plenty of powerful planeswalkers in Timeless like Oko, Thief Of Crowns and Teferi, Time Raveler that need to be answered, and Sheoldred’s Edict is a way to do just that, but can also be used on creatures.

9 Cut Down

Cut Down On Creatures

There are a lot of creatures in Timeless that have a combined power and toughness that’s lower than five. This makes them a target for Cut Down. The format uses plenty of creatures with low stats but impactful effects.

One mana removal spells are always going to be the best, especially ones like Cut Down that can hit so many of the creatures in the meta. The only weakness of Cut Down is it can’t destroy late-game threats, but with how important the early game of Timeless is, this isn’t much of a downside.

8 Get Lost

Tell A Permanent To Get Lost

Get Lost is a very versatile removal spell that, while giving your opponent two Map tokens to utilize, is worth the trade-off considering how many targets Get Lost can hit. The ability to destroy enchantments as well as planeswalkers and creatures is excellent with how many strong enchantments there are like Blood Moon and Necropotence.

Get Lost only costs two mana to cast, making it trivial to have the mana to cast it. It hits the three most played card types in Timeless which is what makes it so good in the format for any deck playing white.

7 March Of Wretched Sorrow

March Towards Removal

The strength of March Of Wretched Sorrow comes from other cards in the format, notably Necropotence. March Of Wretched Sorrow turns cards that you would have to discard into fodder for discounting March Of Wretched Sorrow to gain back all the life you lost with Necropotence, while removing a creature or planeswalker.

March Of Wretched Sorrow is best played in decks playing primarily black so you have an easy way to discount it, otherwise, it’s a big mana sink. With how often black decks in Timeless are losing life, the lifegain of March Of Wretched Sorrow comes up frequently.

6 Unholy Heat

Delirium-Based Removal

In decks that put various permanent types in the graveyard, Unholy Heat becomes one of the best removal spells in the format. Its delirium threshold is easy to meet, especially with fetchlands and Mishra’s Bauble giving you two permanent types right away.

If Unholy Heat has delirium, dealing six damage is enough to take care of every commonly played creature and planeswalker. Even without delirium active, two damage is still enough to take care of your opponent’s creatures early in the game before their abilities start spiraling out of control.

5 Leyline Binding

Bind Yourself To Victory

In a format with fetchlands, shock lands, and triomes, Leyline Binding is an enchantment that frequently can be cast for just one white mana since it’s so easy to get all five land types onto the battlefield. Leyline Binding hits any nonland permanent, letting you remove any problem permanent on the battlefield so long as Leyline Binding remains there.

A benefit of Leyline Binding is enchantment removal is not too commonly played in Timeless outside of Boseiju, Who Endures, making Leyline Binding stick to the battlefield more often than not so the permanent stays permanently removed.

4 Swords To Plowshares

Life For Removal

Swords To Plowshare is an unconditional removal spell for any creature. The one downside is your opponent gains life equal to its power. Generally, the most common creatures with high power will be six, but having your opponent gain six life is almost always better than letting that creature stay on the battlefield.

Life in Magic doesn’t matter unless it’s zero, and Swords To Plowshares can remove a creature that may be too hard to fight back against. It only costs one mana as well, letting you use it as early as the first turn.

3 Lightning Bolt

Bolt Everything

Lightning Bolt is a removal spell that can double as a burn spell. It deals three damage to any target, letting you use it to remove a lower-toughness creature or a way to push for lethal damage. When paired with other red cards, Lightning Bolt can help close out games early.

Since Lightning Bolt only costs one mana, it can be enabled on turn one to keep any powerful one-drop creature off the battlefield. Lightning Bolt best slots into aggro and tempo decks that aren’t running many cards with high mana values so it’s always active.

2 Fragment Reality

Alchemy’s Star

Most Alchemy cards aren’t strong enough to hold their own in the Timeless metagame, but Fragment Reality is not one of those cards. For one mana, it can take care of a creature, artifact, or enchantment. While your opponent does get a creature of lower mana value from the exiled card, if it’s used on a low-mana permanent, there won’t be a creature that gets put on the battlefield.

Fragment Reality can be a gamble, but often the trade-off won’t be too big a deal as the exiled card will be stronger than whatever Fragment Reality would bring out. The strength comes from how many cards Fragment Reality can hit for such a low mana investment.

1 Fatal Push

Revoltingly Good

Fatal Push is the best removal spell in Timeless thanks to how easy it is to turn on revolt. Since the format has fetchlands which are played in practically every deck, a permanent will leave the battlefield letting Fatal Push destroy any creature with a mana value of four or less.

Very few creatures are played in Timeless that can’t be destroyed by Fatal Push which is what makes it so good in the format. It only costs one mana to play and with how many creatures it hits without giving your opponent a benefit makes it worth running in any deck that can play it.