All 5 Trilobite Cards in Magic Ranked

Scuttling Sliver | Illustration by Mike Bierek

Homer, the Hermit is one of the new commanders printed in Mystery Booster Commander Edition (MBC), and it’s clearly a commander for the minorities, considering the few numbers of these creature types. Typal commanders are often very popular, but let’s look at this card’s textbox: Trilobites, really?

Alrighty, then. Today, we are indeed looking at the extensive list of five (count ‘em, five!) trilobites printed in MTG to see whether they can be playable or even good, while we await for stronger trilobites to arrive in Nauctis: The Sunken Realm (2027).

Let’s dive in and see which trilobites we can find right at the bottom.

What Are Trilobites in MTG?

Shore Keeper | Illustration by YW Tang

In MTG, trilobites aren’t a very well-defined creature type. Most of them are blue or blue-adjacent, considering that real trilobites were ancient sea creatures, and they have some kind of a carapace and a “lobster-like” aspect.

Up until now, trilobites were used in MTG as a kind of random creature to fill common and uncommon slots, but that could be about to change with the upcoming arrival of Nauctis: The Sunken Realm, an undersea set that will give rare sea creature types a needed boost.

#5. Electryte

Electryte is a card that, most of the time, will be a 3/3 for 5 mana, which is far from acceptable. It’s only good when it goes unblocked and another creature is blocked in the same combat. The stars need to align just right with this one, and unless it has something like first strike and unblockable tacked onto it, it’s a do-nothing card. I’ve seen these in some meme lists or “beast matters” lists.

#4. Shore Keeper

Shore Keeper is a somewhat better and more playable card, considering that it’s a 1-drop that has high toughness, and can be useful in the first few turns. It’s an honest blocker that comes early, and later you can cash it in for some cards. An interesting common for Draft, and for defensive, high-toughness decks.

#3. Drownyard Lurker

Drownyard Lurker is moving up on the playable scale, and it was a strong common in its Modern Horizons 3 environment. The fact that it’s a sizeable Eldrazi in the late game with some early game cycling makes it a good, rounded card. You could consider running it in a cycling-matters decks.

#2. Scuttling Sliver

Scuttling Sliver is a card you can actively play in your sliver decks. Paying 2 mana to untap a creature is good for anything with a strong tap ability, and mainly for combo purposes, like those cards that have all the abilities from creatures in your graveyard. Unfortunately for sliver decks, this ends up just providing pseudo-vigilance most of the time, unless you have something like Enduring Sliver or Gemhide Sliver.

#1. Cryptic Trilobite

Cryptic Trilobite is by far the best trilobite card. It’s a colorless X-mana card that you can take a +1/+1 counter off to add 2 mana to activate abilities. This card is a natural fit for decks that have synergies with X-spells, and it combos in so many scenarios, the strongest of them being with Ghave, Guru of Spores. It can also add counters to itself and grow over time, making it a versatile card in every point of the game.

Best Trilobite Payoffs

It’s hard to pinpoint a specific trilobite payoff because there are so few of them, and there isn’t anything that unites them mechanically or thematically.

Up until now, the only trilobite payoff is Homer, the Hermit, a card that mills player based on twice the number of trilobites you control. Homer also refers to crabs, lobsters, and starfish, so there may be an indication that, in the future, these creatures will be treated similarly to sea monsters (krakens, leviathans, serpents, and octopuses).

Regarding Cryptic Trilobite, a card like Hardened Scales can put one more counter on it each time it receives a counter, so that’s one more +1/+1 counter and 2 more mana every time. Together with cards like Marath, Will of the Wild, which can convert mana and its own counters into more +1/+1 counters for Cryptic Trilobite, you can combo. Another interesting card is Agatha's Soul Cauldron, which can give its abilities to other creatures with +1/+1 counters.

Wrap Up

Drownyard Lurker | Illustration by Loïc Canavaggia

And that’s about it for trilobites, guys. Right now, there are too few trilobite cards, and if you want to build around Homer, the Hermit, your best bet is to play many crabs and changelings. Mark Rosewater said the chances of trilobites returning to MTG sets are low, something like a 7 on the Beeble Scale (humans are at 1; beebles are at 10). But with Nauctis: The Sunken Realm on the horizon, maybe the time for trilobites to shine has finally arrived.

Are you guys excited for more marine creatures? Do you think trilobites will have strong future support? Let me know in the comments section below, or leave us something on Discord. And check out The Daily Upkeep newsletter to stay up to date on all the latest MTG news.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and until the next time!