Price$0.16 – $10.58
Buy on TCGplayerAbrade
Instant
LegalRemovalRank #150
Why is this card good?
Abrade is one of red's best and most flexible removal spells, and the modal flexibility is exactly why it's so highly played. For two mana you get to choose between killing a creature (3 damage handles a huge swath of relevant threats and commanders) or blowing up an artifact — and in Commander, artifacts are everywhere: mana rocks like Sol Ring and Signets, combo pieces, equipment, vehicles, and stax pieces.
That versatility means it almost never sits dead in your hand, which is the cardinal sin of narrow removal. You're trading the upside of unconditional creature removal (it won't kill big stuff) for guaranteed relevance.
Play it in essentially any deck running red, especially aggressive, spellslinger, or interaction-heavy lists. It's a particularly strong include against artifact-reliant or combo metas.
When to skip it: if your meta runs tons of huge creatures that dodge 3 damage, you may want harder removal like Chaos Warp instead. But as a baseline efficient answer, Abrade is near-auto-include.
Related cards
Chaos Warp
Flexible red removal hitting any permanent including artifacts.
Lightning Bolt
Cheaper red instant dealing 3 damage to creatures.
Vandalblast
Premier red artifact removal, scalable to wipe all opponents'.
By Force
Red artifact destruction scaling with mana.
Smelt
Cheap red artifact destruction instant.
Flame Slash
Efficient sorcery dealing 4 to a creature.
Galvanic Blast
Red burn dealing damage to creature or player.
Printings (27)
Show all 27 printingsShow fewer
Played by these commanders
Mishra, Eminent One100% of 1
Kardur, Doomscourge100% of 1
Wyleth, Soul of Steel100% of 1
Bello, Bard of the Brambles100% of 1
Krenko, Mob Boss100% of 1
Rootha, Mastering the Moment100% of 1
Shiko and Narset, Unified100% of 1
Zurgo Stormrender100% of 1