The 45 Best Counter-Removing Cards in Magic Ranked

Suncleanser | Illustration by Mark Zug

Back when Worldwake hit Standard, everyone feared Jace, the Mind Sculptor, and there were almost no cheap ways to get rid of it. But believe it or not, a simple 2-mana spell could strip away every loyalty counter and send Jace straight to the graveyard. That moment proved something big: Removing counters can be just as strong as outright destroying a card.

Since then, we’ve seen plenty of new tools that do the same, and here we’re going to rank the best counter-removing cards in Magic and talk about their role in the game.

What Are Counter-Removing Cards in MTG?

Thief of Blood | Illustration by Cynthia Sheppard

Counter-removing cards take counters off players or permanents. Counters are markers that track things in the game—like how strong a creature is, how close a planeswalker is to using an ability, or how far along an effect has progressed.

The most common type you’ll see are +1/+1 counters, which make creatures stronger, but they’re far from the only ones. Loyalty counters keep planeswalkers alive, poison counters knock players out of the game, and lore counters advance sagas. Removing these counters changes the pace of play—whether that’s stopping your opponent from reaching a win condition, resetting abilities before they go off, or even unlocking your own effects earlier than expected.

Honorable Mention

While only available on Arena, Lonely End is worth highlighting. It gives black decks a flexible answer, either shrinking a creature by −3/−3 for the turn or taking three loyalty off a planeswalker. That split makes it reliable against both utility creatures and early walkers, and the bonus life on the draw can help stabilize. Pair it with discard like Thoughtseize and Phantasmal Extraction to keep your opponents off balance early on.

#45. Leeches

One of the weirdest old cards, Leeches clears poison counters off a player and then pings them for that amount of damage. This is both a lifesaver and a finisher against infect decks. It’s super narrow but completely flips certain matchups.

#44. Ferropede

Ferropede is an unblockable little insect that chips in every turn. Each time it connects, you can remove a counter from a permanent, making it a persistent nuisance. It steadily erodes your opponent’s resources while getting in damage they can’t stop.

#43. Shivan Sand-Mage

Shivan Sand-Mage messes with time counters. When it enters, you can speed things up by removing counters or slow things down by adding them, which makes it great with and against suspended cards like Rousing Refrain. Pairing it with cards that cheat out suspend spells lets you take full advantage of the tempo swing while leaving behind a decent 3/2 body.

#42. Novijen Sages

Novijen Sages rewards you for building up creatures with +1/+1 counters. Not only can it move those counters via graft, but it also turns them into card draw when you’re ready to cash out. This plays beautifully with proliferate effects like Evolution Sage to keep the counter engine rolling.

#41. Jhoira's Timebug

Jhoira's Timebug is a simple but powerful tool in suspend strategies. It can remove or add time counters to your suspended spells, keeping you in control of the clock. It pairs perfectly with Jhoira of the Ghitu, who loves to cheat out big spells on delay.

#40. Thief of Blood

Thief of Blood can reset the whole board by removing all counters from every permanent. Then it bulks itself up with that many +1/+1 counters, turning into a massive flier. It’s particularly devastating against planeswalker-heavy decks or when +1/+1 counter synergies are everywhere.

#39. Galloping Lizrog

Sometimes you don’t want a wide board of counters, and Galloping Lizrog gives you the option to consolidate them. By moving all those counters onto it and doubling them, you suddenly have a trampling monster that threatens lethal damage. This card shines alongside creatures like Experiment One or Renegade Krasis that stockpile counters.

#38. Clockspinning

Buyback makes Clockspinning really interesting. For just 1 mana, you can move counters around, and if you have mana to spare, you can loop it back to your hand. It works great with planeswalkers by adding loyalty or with cards like Dark Depths to cheat out a quick Marit Lage.

#37. Medicine Runner

Sometimes the simplest effects are the best, and Medicine Runner shows that off. It just removes a counter when it enters, which is perfect for clearing -1/-1 counters or disrupting an opponent’s planeswalker. It's not flashy as a 2/1 for 1, but it does its job.

#36. Quarry Hauler

Quarry Hauler offers a flexible counter shifter that can add or remove one counter of each type already on a permanent. That makes it great in proliferate decks, letting you double down on loyalty counters or peel them off enemies. Plus, it’s a solid 4/3 body for the cost.

#35. O'aka, Traveling Merchant

Card draw stapled to counter removal makes O'aka, Traveling Merchant special. Removing a counter from one of your permanents can sometimes even be beneficial, like clearing a stun counter or -1/-1 counter. This little citizen rewards careful planning by keeping your hand full.

#34. Timecrafting

With Timecrafting, X marks the spot. It can either speed up or slow down anything with time counters, and being an instant means you can do it at the most disruptive moment. Suspend decks absolutely love this card to cheat out big threats early.

#33. Thornmantle Striker

Elf decks get extra value from Thornmantle Striker. It either removes counters from a permanent equal to your elf count or shrinks down a creature that same way. With token-makers like Elvish Promenade, you can wipe out threats or strip planeswalkers clean.

#32. Etched Slith

Etched Slith gets stronger whenever it connects, and each time it does, you can also remove a counter from something else. That dual pressure of growing while weakening your opponent’s board makes it dangerous if left unchecked. It fits best in aggressive artifact-heavy decks.

#31. Price of Betrayal

Few removal spells hit as wide as Price of Betrayal. For 1 black mana, you can strip up to five counters off nearly anything—artifacts, planeswalkers, even your opponent directly. It’s brutally efficient and often an unexpected answer to Hardened Scales strategies.

#30. Heartmender

Heartmender is a must-have in any persist combo deck. It cleans up your creatures by removing -1/-1 counters during upkeep, which resets them for more value while coming back itself thanks to persist.

#29. Spike Cannibal

When Spike Cannibal hits the table, every +1/+1 counter from every creature moves onto it. That can turn it into a massive threat out of nowhere, especially against decks full of counter synergies. It’s a perfect trump card against strategies that rely on building tall creatures.

#28. Confront the Past

Planeswalker-heavy metas make Confront the Past a flexible tool. It can revive your fallen planeswalker or punish an opponent’s by ripping off loyalty counters. Being a lesson lets you fetch it with learn cards, giving black decks a neat wish target.

#27. Render Inert

Drawing a card while stripping up to five counters makes Render Inert a tidy two-for-one. It’s cheap, flexible, and works against planeswalkers, artifacts, or even defense counters on battles. The fact that it replaces itself means it rarely feels bad to cast.

#26. Heartless Act

Heartless Act is one of the most efficient black removal spells. It either straight-up kills a creature with no counters or peels up to three counters off one. That flexibility means it stays relevant against a wide variety of threats, from aggro creatures to resilient counter-stacking builds.

#25. Purging Stormbrood

Purging Stormbrood comes in swinging as a 4/4 flier, but it also strips counters off a creature when it enters. That’s a great way to reset opponents’ engines before you apply pressure in the air. Plus, thanks to the Absorb Essence omen, you get extra utility if it gets shuffled back.

#24. Garnet, Princess of Alexandria

Garnet, Princess of Alexandria is flavorful and powerful. When it attacks, you remove any number of lore counters from sagas you control, and Garnet gets a +1/+1 counter for each one. That turns sagas into a direct pump engine, rewarding you for cycling through stories, plus it retriggers old chapters. It fits perfectly in saga-focused decks, especially those with Final Fantasy summons.

#23. Pestilent Haze

Board wipes that also hit planeswalkers are rare, and Pestilent Haze gives you that option. It either sweeps small creatures with -2/-2 or pulls loyalty counters off every planeswalker at once. It’s a strong answer to wide boards or superfriends decks.

#22. Goldberry, River-Daughter

Goldberry, River-Daughter is a master at moving counters around your board. It can stash them different kinds of counters, then hand them back out later while even drawing you a card. In the right deck, it becomes an engine that makes sagas, planeswalkers, and +1/+1 synergies even better.

#21. Mutated Cultist

Mutated Cultist strips counters from a permanent or even an opponent, and then rewards you with mana reduction for your next spell. That makes it both disruptive and ramp-like in the same card. With deathtouch, it even threatens to trade up after doing its job.

#20. Power Conduit

Flexibility is the name of the game with Power Conduit. For just 2 mana, this artifact lets you tap and remove a counter from one of your permanents, then turn it into either a charge counter on another artifact or a +1/+1 counter on a creature. That makes it a handy engine in decks built around artifacts like Astral Cornucopia or creatures that love growing bigger each turn.

#19. Sin, Unending Cataclysm

Few creatures can flip a board state like Sin, Unending Cataclysm. This flying, trampling leviathan enters and strips all counters from any number of artifacts, creatures, and enchantments, then doubles that number into +1/+1 counters for itself. That means it can come down as a massive threat while also shutting off opposing planeswalkers or +1/+1 counter strategies. When it eventually dies, you can move those counters onto another creature before shuffling it back into your deck—ensuring those counters never go to waste.

#18. Suncleanser

Suncleanser has one of the most unique anti-counter effects in Magic. When it enters, you choose either a player or a creature: If you choose a player, energy counters and all the rest are removed from that player; if you choose a creature, all +1/+1 counters are stripped away. This makes it a strong tech piece against energy decks or Hardened Scales builds, often swinging games with a single ETB.

#17. Final Act

Board wipes don’t get much more dramatic than Final Act. For 6 mana, you can pick one or stack up multiple modes—clearing creatures, planeswalkers, and even battles all at once. On top of that, it exiles all graveyards and strips every counter from your opponents, whether that’s poison, energy, or experience counters. It’s a reset button that leaves almost nothing standing, making it a powerful closer for black decks that excels in long, grindy games.

#16. Amy Pond

Amy Pond adds a Doctor Who twist to suspend decks. Whenever it deals combat damage to a player, you can remove that many time counters from one of your suspended cards. That makes it fantastic at fast-forwarding bombs like Aeon Chronicler. As a doctor’s companion, it also pairs well with legendary doctor creatures for flavorful Commander builds.

#15. Overseer of Vault 76

In decks that love going wide, Overseer of Vault 76 really pulls its weight. It racks up quest counters whenever smaller creatures enter the battlefield; once you’ve built up enough, you can remove three at the start of combat to give your whole team a +1/+1 boost and vigilance. That means your army hits harder while still staying back to defend.

#14. Sensational Spider-Man

Sensational Spider-Man blends removal and card draw. When it attacks, you tap a creature and add a stun counter to it, then optionally remove up to three stun counters from anywhere and draw cards equal to what you cleared. That makes it a tempo engine against blockers and a source of consistent advantage in longer games. It shines in counter-focused shells with proliferate support.

#13. Tayam, Luminous Enigma

Tayam, Luminous Enigma gives all your creatures vigilance counters on entry, then offers a powerful ability: For , you can remove three counters from among creatures you control to mill three cards and reanimate a cheap permanent. This ties together graveyard value and counter synergies, making it perfect in decks that like to recycle small creatures or enchantments.

#12. Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus

Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus doubles your proliferate triggers, then protects itself by letting you pay Phyrexian blue mana and remove three counters from among your permanents to put an indestructible counter on it. That combination makes it terrifying in proliferate builds, where it turns every tick into twice the value.

#11. Xavier Sal, Infested Captain

Xavier Sal, Infested Captain offers two strong activated abilities. You can tap it to remove a counter from another permanent and then populate, or tap and sacrifice a creature to proliferate. That flexibility ties token strategies and counter synergies together beautifully, making it a centerpiece in decks that want both going at once.

#10. Bolrac-Clan Crusher

Turning extra counters into burn damage is exactly what Bolrac-Clan Crusher is built for. As a 4/4 for 5 mana, it’s already a solid body, but the real value comes from its ability to tap and remove a +1/+1 counter from one of your creatures to deal 2 damage to any target. That gives Gruul () decks reach to close out games, pick off planeswalkers, or clear blockers.

#9. Iron Spider, Stark Upgrade

Value generation is where Iron Spider, Stark Upgrade really shines. It spreads +1/+1 counters across all your artifact creatures and vehicles whenever you tap it. That steady growth makes your board scarier every turn. On top of that, you can cash in those counters to draw a card.

#8. Jetfire, Ingenious Scientist / Jetfire, Air Guardian

Generating mana and converting back and forth makes Jetfire, Ingenious Scientist such a neat build-around. In creature mode, it can remove +1/+1 counters from your artifacts to make colorless mana that only works for artifact spells, then converts into Jetfire, Air Guardian. Once it’s a vehicle, you can spend to convert it back and adapt 3, reloading it with counters to fuel the process again.

#7. Invasion of Fiora / Marchesa, Resolute Monarch

Invasion of Fiora resets, letting you wipe out either all legendary creatures or all the non-legendary ones—or both, should you be truly tyrannical. Once you manage to transform it into Marchesa, Resolute Monarch, every attack clears counters off a permanent, shutting down planeswalkers or artifacts with charge counters. Keep Marchesa safe, and the extra card draw keeps you ahead in longer games.

#6. Cemetery Desecrator

Cemetery Desecrator exiles a card from a graveyard when it enters or dies, then either removes X counters from a permanent or gives a creature −X/−X, where X is the exiled card’s mana value. That scaling effect makes it excellent in Commander, where it doubles as removal and disruption against graveyard synergies.

#5. Aether Snap

Big reset spells don’t get much cleaner than Aether Snap. For five mana, it wipes every counter off the board, and then exiles all tokens for good measure. That makes it a brutal answer against superfriends, token swarms, or counter-based strategies.

#4. Tidus, Yuna’s Guardian

Shifting counters at just the right time makes Tidus, Yuna's Guardian such a strong play. At the beginning of combat, you can move a counter from one of your creatures to another, letting you line up the best possible attack. Then, whenever your creatures with counters deal combat damage, its Cheer ability draws you a card and proliferates. It’s a smooth engine for counter-based decks, especially ones that already love cards like Forgotten Ancient.

#3. Hex Parasite

For X and either a black mana or 2 life, Hex Parasite can strip up to X counters from any permanent and powers itself up by +1/+0 for each counter you remove. That flexibility makes it a nightmare for planeswalkers, sagas, or counter synergies in general. On top of that, it isn’t just utility—it can swing in as a real threat once it’s buffed.

#2. Glissa Sunslayer

Glissa Sunslayer does it all in combat. It dominates fights with first strike and deathtouch, and when it connects with a player, you choose one: Draw and lose a life, destroy an enchantment, or remove up to three counters from a permanent. That mix of options makes it incredibly versatile in midrange Golgari shells.

#1. Vampire Hexmage

Vampire Hexmage is the go-to for any player who needs a quick way to deal with a planeswalker. It’s a 2/1 first striker for just 2 black mana that can sacrifice itself to remove all counters from any permanent.

It even shines is in formats like Legacy, where it pairs with Dark Depths. By removing all the ice counters at once, you instantly unleash a 20/20 flying Marit Lage token—a game-ending combo that keeps Hexmage relevant well beyond just being removal.

Best Counter Removal Payoffs

The best payoffs for removing counters in MTG usually come from speeding up or resetting cards that are designed to tick down over time. Suspend spells like Ancestral Vision or Lotus Bloom are classic examples—if you can strip away their time counters, you get powerful effects much faster than intended. The same goes for Thing in the Ice, where counter removal flips it into a massive board wipe threat ahead of schedule.

Aside from the already mentioned Dark Depths, sagas also shine here, because removing lore counters lets you retrigger their effects over and over instead of letting them expire.

What’s the Purpose of Removing Counters from a Player?

Removing counters from a player usually shuts down special mechanics that decide the game. The most common example is poison counters—10 of them means you lose, so taking some off can save you from an infect or toxic strategy. It also works against energy counters from Kaladesh and experience counters from commanders like Meren of Clan Nel Toth. The whole point is to disrupt an opponent’s resources, slow down their win condition, and buy yourself more time to take control.

Do Effects That Remove Abilities Also Remove Counters?

No, effects that remove abilities don't remove counters.

Abilities and counters are two different parts of how a permanent works. If a card says “loses all abilities” (like Darksteel Mutation or Sudden Spoiling), that permanent still keeps any +1/+1 counters, loyalty counters, shield counters, or other counters already on it.

Can Moving Counters Kill Planeswalkers?

Yes, moving counters can kill planeswalkers, depending on how it’s done.

Planeswalkers stay alive as long as they have at least one loyalty counter. If a card effect moves or removes their counters so that their loyalty drops to zero, the planeswalker is put into the graveyard as a state-based action. Cards like Hex Parasite, Vampire Hexmage, or Clockspinning can add or subtract loyalty counters. So, if you move or remove the last counter, the planeswalker is effectively destroyed, even though it’s not technically “destroyed” by a spell—it just dies because it has no loyalty left.

Wrap Up

Clockspinning | Illustration by Zoltan Boros & Gabor Szikszai

There are plenty of ways to strip counters off permanents—and even players—but some of the strongest tools remain the old classics that have stood the test of time.

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Take care, and I’ll see you again in the next article!