This section is a large percentage of the deck. It's a little gross, but part of our strategy is to control the board with our creatures and swing in on an empty board state. It's important we are continuously setting opponents back while simultaneously propelling ourselves forward. There's a fair bit to cover, so we'll start with our cheap instants.
Swords to Plowshares and Reality Shift are cheap and reliable, some of the best removal in the format.
Razorgrass Ambush
is narrow, but worth a mention. Only in the deck because it's an MDFC, you still get people with it sometimes.
Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire is not an instant, but it IS a land that doubles as removal. This is another kinda gotcha card.
Counterspell and Dovin's Veto are our resident counterspells, like the above: they're cheap and efficient.
Sink into Stupor
is the best of both worlds, it's removal and a counterspell! It only bounces to hand, but aptly timed it can be very advantageous. That being said, we mostly play it for the land side.
Next I'll include single target removal that's tied to permanents, these are what we'll be taking the most advantage of. We have a lot of different ways to interact with our opponents board, so I'll order them by the type of removal. First we'll do bounce, which is better than it seems. Unfortunately, our opponent's permanents won't be gone for good however they do have to find a way to play it even if it means reinvesting mana they already paid before. We can also return our own stuff to get extra ETBs off of better creatures.
Aether Channeler has been previously mentioned, and opens our bounce section. This card is stacked with utility.
Reflector Mage, after 5 years without changes in the standard format, was banned alongside Emrakul, the Promised End and Smuggler's Copter. This card is incredibly powerful. You can keep opponents off of their commanders indefinitely while you build up resources to deal with the rest of their strategy. I love this card.
Venser, Shaper Savant is a classic blue spell, he's a Sink into Stupor
on a stick. A pseudo counterspell that can make opponents attacks bad, good enough for me.
Marang River Regent is our big bad dragon in the deck, hitting 2 permanents from the board is a big swing, and you'll usually flicker it at least once the turn it comes down. It really can send your opponents back to the stone age.
Otawara, Soaring City has an activated ability that can bounce something in a pinch. Just having the option for so cheap is excellent.
After all our bounce shenanigans, we do have some real kill spells to make sure our opponent's permanent's stay dead.
Kutzil's Flanker is our resident graveyard removal, it's important to have at least one and ours has other utility and is repeatable.
Skyclave Apparition and Unidentified Hovership are both cheap ways to trade your opponents small stuff for worse small stuff. Notably, both exile your opponent's things which is usually the best form of removal.
Angel of the Ruins is one of my favourite cards, you can trade it for a land it or take two problematic permanents away forever. Being attached to a big makes it an excellent threat.
Elspeth Conquers Death lets us grab something big and meaningful every turn after it comes down, and if it survives a turn rotation you can keep the second ability active almost eternally. This card is nuts in this deck.
Witch Enchanter
is a great removal spell on a stick if we haven't played it as a land.
Demolition Field is a bit of weird utility, but being able to take out a problematic land is great and can pressure mana bases with more colours.
Additionally we have two big baddies that are amazing in this deck, and some of the best removal in the format. The only stuff that might be better than exiling your opponent's permanents is tucking or stealing them!
Agent of Treachery just takes your opponent's best things all of them time, and you don't have to give them back. It is a win condition all on its own, because you can steal you just use your opponent's. It's also the best way to deal with an opposing commander, because if they choose to kill it they've wasted their own removal spell on their thing. In addition, you also just get to draw a bunch of cards if you use it a bunch of times which is just great.
Riptide Gearhulk is an absolute powerhouse, it tucks a permanent from each opponent which disrupts not just their board state but also their capacity to draw into cards they may need or prefer. We also have a few ways to mill our opponents which just means their stuff effectively just dies, which is funny.
After all of that, we still have more. We are running two board wipes, we try to be light on them because we are so creature based and we're trying to get multiple instances of single triggers.
Cleansing Nova is just efficient. 5 mana to destroy a lot of stuff.
The Eternal Wanderer is kinda crazy in this deck, you have the choice as to what everybody keeps and then wipe everything else. It's also a sacrifice effect which gets around indestructible which is important to notice. Further, you can +1 them, exiling something good, flicker it in combat and then -4 after combat to wipe the board and have another thing come back in immediately after. Bonus points if you can bring something like Riptide Gearhulk or Marang River Regent to the battlefield to to turn it into an asymmetrical boardwipe.
In addition to all of our actual removal we do have a handful of ways to set opponents back in other ways, or protect ourselves in such a way that is disruptive. It's a little gross, but we have some ways to affect our opponents ability to use or cast their permanents.
Suture Priest provides us some bonus life for performing our strategy, while making sure our opponents take some chip damage for playing out theirs. It can get very annoying for some strategies.
Elspeth Conquers Death every turn after you play it will go back up to two, making a heavy tax on your opponent's spells every turn.
Grand Arbiter Augustin IVGC and Tax Collector both make all your opponent's spells cost more, and come down super early providing you and excellent opportunity to get ahead early. Making things cost more mana early can really disrupt their sequencing, which can negatively impact their plays for several turns even if it's for a single turn rotation off the collector's trigger.
Lavinia of the Tenth can be incredibly oppressive if you flicker it every turn, preventing opponents from using so many of their permanents is crippling for them. This is an excellent way to protect yourself, as they can no longer attack you and also get in for damage because they have have fewer blockers.
With all this disruption, it's important to note that protecting yourself and your stuff from your opponents is also a form of disruption so I'll bring that up here.
Suture Priest and Distinguished Conjurer are both excellent ways of gaining a bunch of extra life by committing to your strategy. Notably, you can activate the conjurer at instant speed to cause an opponent's spell to fizzle. There are a handful of other lifegain cards as well!
Charming Prince
Skyclave Cleric
Inspiring Overseer
Kutzil's Flanker
Elite Guardmage
Oji, the Exquisite Blade
Cloudblazer
Hydroelectric Specimen
is a funny one that redirects a spell to itself. Usually you play this to block a piece of a removal from something you care about, but sometimes your opponent will cast a combat trick and this is fun with that.
Thassa, Deep-Dwelling is mostly in here for her end step trigger, however the ability to tap down your opponents creatures at instant speed is underrated and can save you from certain death. I've survived a few games just activating this enough to buy time.
Knight-Captain of Eos can produce an abundance of tokens, and some strategies just kinda can't beat him. You can just keep fogging combat and completely protect yourself from damage.
Ephemerate, Essence Flux and Ghostly Flicker are great ways to get bonus value out of permanents, while also being able to protect them. It's devastating for an opponent to not be able to remove something, even worse when you come out farther ahead.
Eerie Interlude exists in a similar vein to the the three spells mentioned above, however your do not get your stuff back until end step. This card can be nuts in the sheer amount of triggers you can get, and ideally you play it in response to a board wipe so everybody else is sent behind and you get ahead.
