Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares are some of the best targeted creature removal in Magic: The Gathering. White, in general, has some of the best targeted creature removal. Exiling things makes sure they aren't able to recur. What do I play if my commander isn't in White, though? I have some ideas.

Black

How do I exile creatures in Black? Second to White, Black is fairly adept at exiling, but typically has some sort of requirement. Anoint With Affliction and Epic Downfall are both two mana to cast and exiles creatures based on the creature's converted-mana-cost (CMC). Anoint With Affliction works even better in a dedicated poison deck, making the spell exile any creature if its controller has three or more poison counters. Legion's End is another notable card, because it can exile an entire hoard of token creatures with the same name or decks that run stuff like Rat Colony.

What are the Top Black Exile Creature effects in Commander? Baleful Mastery came up often in my mind, because it can exile a creature or planeswalker, but an opponent gets to draw a card. I really hate giving my opponents a draw unless it hurts them. You don't have to give the draw to the controller of the targeted creature, which in most situations gives you a little wiggle room. Eaten Alive is another good choice, because you can cast it by paying one Black and sacrificing a creature. In Black, that usually means sacrificing a 2/2 zombie or sacrificing creatures is what you want from your deck. However, in a pinch, you can sacrifice something you need for excellent removal.

The top Black exile creature effect in Commander has to be Deadly Rollick. It is very strange to run a commander that doesn't often want to be on the battlefield. This in mind, Deadly Rollick is better than a Path to Exile type in most situations because you cast it without paying its mana cost.

Blue

How do I exile creatures in Blue? There are a bunch of really good Blue exile target creature effects. These exile effects often gives the controller of the creature something in return, but I tried to find the cards that give the worse thing in return. Resculpt and Ravenform exile and give token creatures. Ravenform costs one more mana to cast than Resculpt but gives a worse token. It makes them somewhat comparable to me.

Cyber Conversion is not exactly an exile effect, but it does do something to a commander that is comparable to exile. When you exile a commander normally, it often just returns to the command zone to be cast again. When you flip it face down, it sort of becomes trapped on the battlefield without its abilities. But the top actual exile effect in Blue is going to have to be Reality Shift. For two mana, you exile a pesky creature and manifest the top of the controller's deck. Hopefully, it's not a creature and now for two, you exiled something and gave nothing in return.

Colorless

How do I exile creatures in Colorless? This was a bit tough. Most of the colorless options I found were Eldrazi focused and Eldrazi powered: High CMCs and abilities that want titans in hand. Introduction To Annihilation is sorcery speed, but costs only 5 mana to exile a permanent, but also its controller draws a card. Rough. Scour From Existence is a great straight up exile effect at instant speed but only if you have 7 mana.

Kozilek's Command is a decent instant speed removal, but paying into the CMC in some situations might be difficult. Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger is great because the cast trigger removes two non land permanents, but you would need to cast it at sorcery speed and have 10 mana.

The top Colorless exile creature effect in Commander has to be Titan's Presence. I really like the versatility of this card. It's 3 mana, instant speed, and if you're playing Edrazi it's likely you'll have a high CMC creature in hand. Let's hope you do or have Ulamog and 10 mana.

Green

How do I exile creatures in Green? This is near the bottom of the list again. While Green is good at a lot of things, exile spot removal is tough. Tear Asunder, would be the top choice if the kicker was also Green. It's low cost, it exiles many different things, and for a total of four mana it can hit any nonland permanent, but you also need to be playing Black. Shoot Down is a natural next choice, and it's all Green, but it only hits creatures with flying and it's at sorcery speed.

Thinking about what is typical in a big Green deck, I would have to say Bouncer's Beatdown would be the best choice for target exile removal for creatures. For four mana, I can deal X damage to target creature or planeswalker, where X is the greatest power among creatures I control and if it would die this turn, I can exile it. Green is often running fairly big creatures like Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant so killing something by dealing its power seems very doable.

Red

How do I exile creatures in Red? I had to get really creative for this one. I found one card that exiles creatures straight up. Transmogrify, for four mana, exiles a creature, but replaces it with another creature. I would never want to slam that down against a creature-heavy deck, hoping to see an Elvish Mystic. Against a commander, Transmogrify just ramps them a creature in a way, because they can cast the commander again.

What are the Top Red Exile Creature effects in Commander? This is where I got creative. I had to think about something essentially Red. What does Red love to do? Deal damage. A lot of it. And usually for very little mana. So my brain locked into things like Magma Spray, Pillar of Flame, Flame-Blessed Bolt, and Torch the Tower. Deal damage and if that creature would die, exile it instead. The damage is on the low side but the CMC for the spells are low too so it's possible to increase the damage that turn with a Solphim, Mayhem Dominus or a City On Fire.

The top Red exile creature effect in Commander has to be Red Sun's Zenith. It does what a Magma Spray does, but you can pay more mana into it for more damage if the creature is big or gets bigger like Blanka, Ferocious Friend (The Howling Abomination).

Thank you so much for taking the time to read. I hope this helps in your next deck building session! @cashinds on X

And if you're interested in the other entries of this series, you can check them out here:

• The Best Non-Blue Counterspells