My Favorite Magic the Gathering Cards: Creatures

I'm not a long-time veteran of Magic the Gathering, by any stretch. I only started playing last year -- and I don't really play competitively. If you're familiar with the three Magic personality types, Timmy, Johnny, and Spike, I'm closest to being a Johnny. For me, deck building is the most exciting part about Magic. I like creating decks, and building them around a theme, creature type, or mechanic. So I have Zombie decks, and Ninja decks, and Goblin decks... Today I got my first win with a strange deck that I call "Birds With Swords." I snuck out a win by using a 1/1 Squadron Hawk with three swords equipped to it.

That's what Magic is all about, to me. Having fun and making cool decks to have fun with. In doing this, even though I haven't been playing all that long yet, I've found myself particularly fond of a number of cards. And those are the cards I'm going to be talking about in this article. But to be sure, that's all they are: they're cards that I'm fond of using. They're cards I have fun using. So while I know how good cards like Birds of Paradise and Squadron Hawk are (I use them too,) I'm not gonna be talking about those cards. And yes, I know what type of havoc Grave Titan and Baneslayer Angel can wreak -- but I'm not going to discuss them either. And the zero mana guys like Ornithopter and Shieldsphere? I'm skipping on them too.

Instead, here's a more personal list of favorites, in no real order.

Card Information:

Mana Cost: 4BB
Types: Legendary Creature — Rat Ninja
P/T: 5/4
Card Text:
Ninjutsu 3BB
Whenever Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni deals combat damage to a player, you may put target creature card from that player's graveyard onto the battlefield under your control.
1B: Regenerate Ink-Eyes.

Why I Love It:
Ink-Eyes is the strongest of the Ninja creatures in power, and tied for the highest in toughness. Plus he has Regenerate. So by all accounts, Ink-Eyes is a fairly tough creature. In many cases, your opponent would choose to chump block rather than lose the five life, but the fact that Ink-Eyes can be switched in after an unblockable creature like Tormented Soul or Invisible Stalker attacks prevents this from happening. So the damage? Yeah, that's pretty good. The fun begins when you take one of your opponent's monsters from out of their graveyard though; and since you'll be playing with black, and very possibly black-blue, there should be lots of ways to get the monsters you want into their graveyard. This is particularly enjoyable, because more often than not, the opponent I'm playing has a very different deck type than I do. This gives me new mechanics to work with in the game. And I love options.

Card Information:
Mana Cost: 2G
Types: Legendary Creature — Human Monk
P/T: 5/4
Card Text:
You may play two additional lands on each of your turns.

Why I Love It:

Azusa has become a staple in many of the green decks that I put together. I tend to run her alongside Birds of Paradise and Llanowar Elves -- which are incredibly useful cards, as I mentioned before. But Azusa is the one that puts a smile on my face. I tap the birds and elves for mana, and that's about it. With Azusa, I play a land or two, then I use cultivate to fetch two more lands from my deck. I put on on the battlefield tapped, and then I play the second one that I fetched too. With the right opening hand, I can get out some really scary monsters rather quickly. But it can also be fun to take it in another direction, and use it to cast a whole bunch of low-mana spells. Simply put, Azusa brings all the options imaginable for a green deck.

Card Information:
Mana Cost: B
Types: Creature - Vampire Assassin
P/T: 1/1 (Level 0-1), 2/2 (Level 2-3), 4/4 (Level 4+)
Card Text:
Level up 1B
B, Tap: Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn. (Level 2-3)
B, Tap: Target creature gets -4/-4 until end of turn. (Level 4+)

Why I Love It:

See how it's type is Assassin? Yeah, that's accurate. The level up cost makes it a bit slow, but being able to knock off anything thats 2/2 at its second stage, or 4/4 at its third stage is pretty sweet. It kills a lot of really pesky creatures that have abilities that might be messing you up -- and don't forget that it can deliver the final blow to a beefier monster that an opponent has blocked one of your guys with. At its final stage, being a 4/4, Guul Draz also has reasonable protection against basic removal and weakening spells, and can even block a lot of things. But it's totally the ability that I like. Stab at things from a distance! Note also, that he's not legendary. If you get two of them together, you can pretty much clean the board.

Card Information:

Mana Cost: RR
Types: Creature - Human Warrior
P/T: 2/2 (Level 0-3), 4/4 (Level 4-7), 8/8 (Level 8+)
Card Text:
Level up R
Flying (Level 4-7)
Flying, Trample, R: Kargan Dragonlord gets +1/+0 until end of turn (Level 8+)

Why I Love It:

Kargan is my favorite level-up style card, ahead of even Guul Draz Assassin. He drops for two red mana, as a 2/2 which isn't bad. His level up cost is only a single red mana though, and that's what makes him awesome. At level 4 he gains flying, which makes him more formidable. But that Level 8 stuff? That's a gameender. Flying will allow him to pass over most threats, while trample allows him to break through any blocker that does get at him. By having a self-buff so cheap, he should be able to destroy any such blocker, and still take a major chunk out of your opponent's life. And the way I see it, there's no wrong time to play him. By playing him early game, my opponent will want to focus on him, lest I power him up and steal a win. And if I play him late game, I may have enough mana to drop him as a 4/4 or even an 8/8 off of the bat.

Card Information:

Mana Cost: WW
Types: Legendary Creature - Fox Cleric
P/T: 2/2
Card Text:
1W: Target permanent you control gains protection from white until end of turn.
1: Target spell or permanent becomes white until end of turn.

Why I Love It:

This is my type of defense. It only costs two mana to get it on the board, which is nothing. Then, for the cost of 3 mana, I can counter nearly any offensive spell my opponent throws at you -- and I can do it as many times per turn as I have the mana to afford. It's like having the ultimate shield. But here's one better: I can also use it offensively. If I make all of my opponent's creatures white, and then I make one of my guys have protection from white? He's basically unblockable. And because neither of these abilities cost Eight-and-a-Half-Tails to tap, he can even be the attacker if I need him to be.

Card Information:

Mana Cost: 3UU
Types: Legendary Creature - Human Ninja
P/T: 3/4
Card Text:
Ninjutsu 2UU
Whenever Higure deals combat damage to a player, you may search your library for a Ninja card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. If you do, shuffle your library.

Why I Love It:

I don't get a chance to play this card as much as I'd like to, because his mana cost is kind of high. But Higure, the Still Wind is pretty cool. Ideally, when I play him, I want to combo him with a Tormented Soul or Invisible Stalker and then I immediately want to use his ninjutsu ability to get Ink-Eyes into my hand. After I have both of these cards, Higure's ninjutsu becomes a lot less useful to me. In fact, he's the only ninja who's more useful on the field than in my hand. But once he's there, and once I have Ink-Eyes, I can use his ability to go completely unblocked for a total of 8 damage between them. And I'll also get one of my opponent's monsters, most likely. And besides, a toughness of four? I can dig it.

Card Information:

Mana Cost: BB
Types: Creature - Vampire Warrior
P/T: 2/2
Card Text:
Kicker B
When Gatekeeper of Malakir enters the battlefield, if it was kicked, target player sacrifices a creature.

Why I Love It:

Gatekeeper is one of my go-to cards for early game when I'm playing a black deck. Think of it this way: what are the chances that on one of their first to turns, an opponent will play a creature card? The odds are pretty high, right? Well, a Doomblade would cost two mana. If I can, I much prefer playing this guy, with his Kicker price. If my opponent only has one creature, I basically get the effects of playing Doomblade and a two-mana monster, but for three mana total, instead of four. Then, my opponent is left defenseless too. It's really an enjoyable way to open up the game. And even when it doesn't work, playing it mid-game isn't so bad. In many cases, I'll lose the ability to handpick a monster, but I know my opponent will lose something; and its usually possible to logically deduce which of their creatures my opponent will choose to sacrifice. Because of that, there's still strategy in deciding when to play it.

Card Information:

Mana Cost: WUBRG
Types: Legendary Creature - Dragon Avatar
P/T: 4/4
Card Text:
Flying
2: Search your library for a Dragon card and put it into your graveyard. If you do, Scion of the Ur-Dragon becomes a copy of that card until end of turn. Then shuffle your library.

Why I Love It:

This card is a freaking demon. Ok, actually it's a Dragon, which is even better. Now because it requires mana of five colors, it's kind of hard to play, but there are ways to get around that. Entomb and Exhume is one way. Using Dragon Arch is another. How to play it is left as an exercise for the reader. But once it's out there, providing your playing a Dragon deck -- and if you have this card in there, I'd hope you'd be playing a Dragon deck -- the game basically splits open. Remember how I said I like options? Scion brings me my entire deck's worth of options at once. Dragons tend to be pretty strong guys, and they have lots of interesting abilities. Scion is like a shortcut to all of them -- and as a really neat bonus, if I have other cards interacting with your graveyard (again, maybe Exhume), there will suddenly be a lot of really nice prizes in there.

Card Information:

Mana Cost: 1BB
Types: Creature - Human Assassin
P/T: 1/1
Card Text:
Tap: Destroy target tapped creature.

Why I Love It:

If there's one card that says "Come at me, bro," this is it. If you attack me, you die. If you use an ability that I don't like? You die. If you tap a mana-producing creature to make stuff happen? You die. In fact, even if you do none of those things, I'll try and play a card to to tap one of your creatures myself, and then off it. Royal Assassin is really capable of racking up quite a body count for something that almost never sees combat.

Card Information:

Mana Cost: R
Types: Creature - Goblin Warrior
P/T: 1/1
Card Text:
Tap: Goblin Fireslinger deals 1 damage to target player.

Why I Love It:

Goblin Fireslinger is a fairly simple card. It's more straightforward in how to be used than any of the other cards on this list, for sure. Dealing damage directly through its ability while avoiding combat grants Goblin Fireslinger a certain degree of safety. At best, my opponent will have to waste some mana to destroy it. Meanwhile, it will sit back all game chipping away at their life. I've gotta, though, that the most fulfilling part of playing this guy tends to come right at the end of the game. If I can get my opponent down to 6 life or less, I can use this card's ability, then drop a goblin grenade for the win. If I have Reverberate on me, or Chandra, the Firebrand is in play, I only need to get my opponent to 11. Not bad.