Price$0.16 – $10.58
Buy on TCGplayerAbrade
Instant
LegalRemovalEDHREC #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.
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Flexible red removal hitting any permanent including artifacts.
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Flame Slash
Efficient sorcery dealing 4 to a creature.
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Printings (27)
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Played by these commanders
Bello, Bard of the Brambles100% of 1
Mishra, Eminent One100% of 1
Kardur, Doomscourge100% of 1
Rootha, Mastering the Moment100% of 1
Wyleth, Soul of Steel100% of 1
Shiko and Narset, Unified100% of 1
Zurgo Stormrender100% of 1