Magic The Gathering is the trading card game that started them all, drawing inspiration from games like D&D. Players use spell, artifact, and creature cards to battle one another. Strategizing is encouraged as there are many different ways to create a deck and win a match.
Most of the cards are aligned with one of five colors that have their own strengths, weaknesses, and specialties. A strong player is one who figures out which cards work best for them, and the cards on this list could work for anyone.
Updated January 4, 2021 by Jerrad Wyche: Magic the Gathering is one of the world's most popular trading card games, and whether you're a collector or player the conversation around the best cards ever made is always relevant. The creature cards are often the most sought after as they feature the incredible art of fantastical things with absolutely insane powers and abilities. Each new set has a chance to introduce the world to the next best MTG creature card.
15 Avacyn, Angel Of Hope
Angels in Magic the Gathering are known for two things as a powerful creature type, those being their connection to the color white and their high mana cost to cast. Avacyn, Angel of Hope lands on the battlefield with flying, vigilance, and indestructible, which on its own is rather impressive. She also makes all other permanent's her owner controls also have indestructible. She can quickly turn a small group of creatures into an indestructible army.
14 Grand Abolisher
In Magic The Gathering, the color white is known for its ability to restrict its opponent and case many creatures. The former is the aspect in which the creature card known as the Grand Abolisher excels. It costs two white mana to cast, and during its owner's turn, their opponents can't cast spells or activate abilities from artifacts, creatures, or enchantments. It's known as the anti-counter card and is great in decks when facing someone with a control deck featuring the color blue.
13 Phyrexian Metamorph
The Phyrexian Metamorph is an impressive creature that was originally released in 2011 via the New Phyrexia set, which was the third set in the Scars of Mirrodin block. It can be summoned with three colorless mana and one Phyrexian mana. The latter can either be paid with one blue mana, or two life, meaning it can be played on turn three. It enters the battlefield as a copy of any artifact or creature on any player's battlefield, meaning that its versatility and adaptability make it dangerous in many different game modes.
12 Uro, Titan Of Nature’s Wrath
One of the most significant recent bans in Standard was Uro, a titanic 6/6 that can gain its controller life while drawing a card and putting a land into play. The creature itself gets sacrificed if it isn’t cast from the graveyard by exiling other cards, but this is hardly an expensive cost since the things it does can fuel its own return.
If you haven’t played against this creature, you probably haven’t realized just how ridiculous the advantage is for Uro players. Few cards give you this many resources at once, and being attached to such a relevantly sized creature at only 3-4 mana makes it even more menacing.
11 Lurrus Of The Dream-Den
Rather than a full-out ban, Lurrus is one of a small list of cards so strong they had to errata an entire mechanic. Companion originally let you cast a single creature from your sideboard if you fit a specific condition, but its immense popularity across every format in the game led to decks needing a Companion to participate.
Lurrus was one of the strongest, but even after this nerf it’s still a staple in all kinds of Standard and Historic decks. Being able to recur offensive creatures, destructive auras, and defensive enchantments each turn makes for an impossible climb back, and just casting one spell from the graveyard off of Lurrus is going to put your opponent way behind.
10 Mayhem Devil
While not as fancy as the Rares and Mythics that make up most of this list, the Ravnican Mayhem Devil is powerful on a very different axis than most strong creatures. This 3/3 has a passive ability to deal one damage to any target whenever a player sacrifices a permanent, whether it’s you or your opponent.
This can happen all the time, both intentionally and accidentally. It was originally one of the main reasons for the banning of Cauldron Familiar, which could be repeatedly sacrificed with Witch’s Oven to cause Mayhem Devil to trigger several times, destroying an opponent’s board and their life total with no way to respond.
9 Questing Beast
The impact of this card has thankfully gone down over the months after Throne of Eldraine’s release, but this one creature is still one of the most overloaded threats in the entire game. This 4/4 can’t be blocked by creatures with two or less power, has Deathtouch, Vigilance, and Haste, and can even damage Planeswalkers when dealing damage to life totals.
The only downside of this card is that it’s Legendary, meaning you can only have one in play at a time. Unfortunately, you don’t really need more than one in play for it to get immediately out of hand, and getting it out on an early third turn can be impossible to catch up from.
8 Tarmogoyf
Tarmogoyf is a part of the rare creature type Lhurgoyf, which are terrifying giant monsters with mouths full of endless sharp teeth. They're scavengers as well, eating anything they can find — from corpses to living creatures.
What makes Tarmogoyf one of the strongest creatures is that its strength is all dependent on the player who controls it, and what they’re able to feed it. Its power is equal to the number of card types in both players' graveyards and its toughness is that number plus one. Just playing spells and milling yourself can make this simple creature hit absurdly hard for a two-mana spell.
7 Griselbrand
Griselbrand may not be the most ridiculous creature on its list, but this demon’s strength is measured in several different ways besides its raw power. First, it's a flying creature, which gives it an advantage over non-flying creatures that don't have Reach as it can't be blocked.
It also has the ability Lifelink, meaning every time Griselbrand does damage the player who controls him gets that amount of damage in life points. This can fuel his incredibly powerful little ability, where the player who wields him can draw seven cards every time they give up seven life points.
6 True-Name Nemesis
At first, True-Name Nemesis seems like it doesn't belong on this list. But what makes it one of the strongest cards out there is its effect, which was originally meant for multiplayer Commander games. When it's summoned onto the battlefield, the one who summoned it can choose a player and True-Name Nemesis has protection from that chosen player.
What does that mean? It means that the player can't deal damage, block, enchant, or target it with anything. The only means of getting rid of it is playing a card that'll wipe the board or prevent it from being summoned in the first place.
5 Snapcaster Mage
On the surface, Snapcaster Mage is a 2/1 human wizard that costs one colorless and one blue mana to cast. Nothing special there, but with Flash allowing it to be cast at instant speed and its ability to target an instant or sorcery in your graveyard and cast it for a flashback cost that's equal to its mana cost makes it terrifying to face. The best Snapcaster Mage decks utilize milling to some extent and feature spells that drastically affect the game when cast.
4 Atraxa, Praetors' Voice
Atraxa, Praetors' Voice is powerful, but it comes at the cost of a complicated path to casting for general Magic the Gathering players. To cast this Angel Horror, you'll need one of each of the following mana colors: green, white, blue, and black. Atraxa comes equipped with flying, vigilance, deathtouch, and lifelink. It will also proliferate at its owner's end step every turn, which adds an additional counter to any permanent in your control with a counter already on it.
3 Blightsteel Colossus
Blightsteel has a power and toughness of 11. It also has Trample and is indestructible, meaning that if an opponent manages to send it to the graveyard, the player instead shuffles it back into their library.
But what really makes this card so powerful is its second ability, Infect. A creature with Infect deals -1/-1 damage to creatures and deals poison counters to players instead of normal damage. One of the ways a player can lose the game is if they gain at least 10 poison counters, making it a double threat if left unchecked.
2 Progenitus
Progenitus is a legendary creature that has a remarkable power and toughness of 10. It's also pretty pricey when it comes to mana, as it needs 2 points of every color, making it cost 10 mana in total. But the price it costs to get out on the field is worth it, as Progenitus has protection from everything.
No creature, ability, or spell can get rid of it unless it's a card that wipes the board like Damnation or Wrath of God. Even then, it doesn't go to the graveyard. Instead, it returns to the player's library like Blightsteel Colossus to eventually return again.
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is the mother of all Eldrazi cards, figuratively. She's on a lot of ban lists and it's easy to see why. Not only does she have 15 power and an equally-high toughness, but she also has a number of effects including Flying, protection from colored spells, and an Annihilator ability to force your opponents to sacrifice permanents while she attacks.
More than that, she can't be countered and allows her wielder to take an extra turn after she's summoned to ensure at least one strike. If that wasn't enough, if an opposing player manages to put in her the graveyard, the one who summoned her gets to shuffle their entire graveyard back into their library, making this powerhouse an endless threat.