By Force
Sorcery
Destroy X target artifacts.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Secret Lair Drop
- Price
- $5.77
- EDHREC rank
- #6490
By Force wipes every artifact on the board for as much mana as you want to spend — at sorcery speed, it scales from a two-mana spot removal piece to a full table reset. The ceiling is what makes it a Commander staple; Hinata, Dawn-Crowned cuts the cost to a single red pip per target, making it trivially cheap to destroy six artifacts for six mana.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Hinata, Dawn-Crowned
Hinata, Dawn-Crowned reduces the cost of each target to a single red mana, which turns By Force into the most mana-efficient artifact sweeper in the format — destroying five or six artifacts for five or six mana is backbreaking, and no other card does it this cleanly in red.
Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh
Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh decks lean red-heavy and often need clean, scalable artifact removal to clear Equipments and mana rocks that would otherwise slow the strategy down; By Force handles both the single-target and board-clear role without needing a second color.
Zo-Zu the Punisher
Zo-Zu the Punisher builds want to punish opponents for developing their board, and By Force fits that philosophy by dismantling the mana rocks and utility artifacts opponents need to recover — it's targeted disruption that supports the punishment gameplan without requiring splash colors.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where By Force earns its slot, and the reason is pure scalability — a table with four opponents means four players developing artifact boards, and By Force can address all of it in one card. In Modern and Pioneer it competes against cheaper, more targeted options and rarely makes the cut outside of artifact-heavy sideboard matchups. Legacy and Vintage have access to more powerful artifact hate, but By Force sees fringe play in shells that need flexible, mana-variable answers. Oathbreaker mirrors the Commander dynamic in miniature — fewer artifacts to hit, but the same efficiency ceiling applies.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Hinata, Dawn-CrownedMycosynth LatticeBy Force
Destroy all permanents opponents control; Mass Land Denial
View on Commander Spellbook ↗Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Vandalblast covers the same ground: one mana for single target, four mana for a one-sided board wipe, and it's under $1. The trade-off versus By Force is flexibility — Vandalblast's overload destroys all opponents' artifacts but ignores your own, which is an upside in some lists and a downside when you need to hit a specific count across multiple players. Shatter and Smash to Smithereens are cheaper still, but they cap at a single target and don't scale, so they're only substitutes if you rarely need to hit more than one artifact at a time.
Price Context
Current price
$5.77 mid tier
At $5.77, By Force sits in the mid tier — not a budget pickup, but reasonable for a card that sees consistent Commander play and shows up in roughly half of all Hinata, Dawn-Crowned lists. The price reflects genuine demand, so it's not a card you'll find arbitrarily cheaper by waiting.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Hinata, Dawn-Crowned
- Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh
- Zo-Zu the Punisher
- Mycosynth Lattice
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.