Ways to remove creatures with Shroud

Question

I was playing Forge last night and the computer brought out Wall of Denial. What an annoying wall! Is there any way to destroy it other than attacking with a big creature and having the wall block the creature. It says it can't be the target of spells or abilities. Any other ways to destroy it?

Answer 1

Yes, there are. A creature with shroud can't be the target of spells or abilities, but it still can be effected by ones that don't target.

Some examples are ones that destroy all creatures like Wrath of God, deals enough damage to all creatures like Blasphemous Act, or gives all creatures -X/-X like Black Sun's Zenith.

Another common way of dealing with shrouded creatures is by forcing its controller to sacrifice it with something like Diabolic Edict, though this require them to only have one creature, or want to keep their other creatures more than the wall.

You can also remove shroud from the wall either with Arcane Lighthouse or cards that remove all abilities without targeting like Polymorphist's Jest.

You could also give smaller creatures that it blocks deathtouch with something like Coat with Venom.

Answer 2

Just the usual answers to shroud/hexproof, including board wipes like Supreme Verdict and spells that don't have the word target in them.

If you already have removal in your deck, you might want to sideboard in Arcane Lighthouse, which is useful for being able to get rid of shroud/hexproof creatures.

Answer 3

Eliminate it Directly

The obvious answer is to just get rid of it directly, with a non-targeting effect. Here's two that I have found, I'd be very interested in others that people know of: Council Judgement, Porphyry Nodes and drop of honey.

That said, the possibilities here are truly almost endless. So, let us walk through ways around this problem...

WIPE the BOARD

There's nothing quite like brute forcing your way through a problem. In multi-player, don't be surprised if you get countered though.... Wrath of God is the obvious example here, but there are almost 100 cards that give you a massive board wipe.

Damage all Flying Creatures

The above is a bit brutal, a "softer" way is to "just" damage the flying creatures. There are about 10 spells that can do this. Windstorm is a nice one.

Damage it indirectly

There are a number of cards that can do this, but some related to creature types are: Coordinated Barrage, although Engineered Plague, Outbreak, Roar of the Crowd. These can be considered variants of "Damage all flying creatures"

Force your opponent to Sacrifice it

• Cast a spell/use an effect that forces your opponent to sacrifice a creature. There are roughly 50 cards that can be used to do this. far and away is an obvious example
• attack with any creature that has annihilator

Force your opponent to block your deathtouch or massive creature

• Deadly Allure is the best card for this. Although Irresistable Prey works nicely as well as a cantrip. In all there are 10 cards that match the "must block" description.
• There are roughly 100 cards that have, or can give deathtouch.
• There are roughly 100 creatures that have power 8 or greater, and I'm not counting cards that can pump a creature's power like Giant Growth or Titantic Growth.

Force it to lose shroud

I think this is clear enough. How to do that is a bit tricky, as you can't target it. But there are a variety of ways:

• Arcane Lighthouse.
• Humility
• Polymorphist Jest
• Sudden Spoiling

Force it to lose flying

Not quite what you had in mind, but still helpful. I can't find many cards to do this however:

• Gravity Sphere
• Invert the Skies
• Archetype of Imagination
• Mystic Decree
• Thundercloud Elemental
• Whiteout

Wear it Down

Attack it with a creature that has wither or infect, (over 100 options) i.e. does damage with -1/-1 counters. Use a "force to block" effect described above to force the block.

Take it out of Combat

Force it to tap, before it can block and affect you. I can't find a good search criteria for this. Since it has shroud, you'll have to tap all their creatures, but hey, that's just gravy! Some examples are:

• Cryptic Command
• Angel's Trumpet is an interesting card.
• Ensnare
• Turnabout
• Sleep this is my kids' current favorite card lately. They beat me all the time with this one.

Avoid It

These approaches may not apply to your case, you wanted to destroy it, but really, avoiding it is a perfectly legitimate strategy to deal with any threat.

• Riders of Gavony can avoid it nicely.
• Intimidate: There are about 35 cards that have or give intimidate.
• Fear: There are roughly 70 cards that have or affect fear.
• Shadow: There are roughly 60 cards that give or have shadow.
• Plainswalk:
• Mountainwalk:
• IslandWalk
• SwampWalk
• ForestWalk

There are lots of other "can't be blocked" creatures, those are just some ideas to get you going.

Overwhelm It

Cast another great creature. Or create a creature army.... The list here is too long to go into, but Sacred Mesa & Goblin Warrens are personal favorites.