All 28 Homunculus Cards in Magic Ranked

Last updated on August 21, 2026

Vnwxt, Verbose Host | Illustration by Chris Seaman

When I think of a homunculus, which means “little person” in Latin, I immediately think of Dr. Praetorius’s creations in 1935’s Bride of Frankenstein. (actually I think of Mike Wazowski, but I’m a ‘90s baby). I also think of Fblthp and the MTG version of these beings, which I find tremendously evocative.

Are they playable? Rarely. But the strongest homunculi are from recent sets, so keep your eyes (er, eye?) on them in sets to come. Let's get into it!

What Are Homunculus Cards in MTG?

Riddlekeeper | Illustration by Steve Prescott

Homunculus is a creature type usually associated with small blue creatures that have the characteristic enormous eye in the middle of their faces.

The first homunculus printed was Sneaky Homunculus in Nemesis, but it and Hazy Homunculus from Prophecy were originally printed with the “illusion” creature type. They were eventually errata’d to the “homunculus” creature type.

These cards are usually niche payoffs for other decks, which kind of fits the idea of little beings squeezing into social orders across the planes.

Honorable Mention: Oglor, Devoted Assistant

Oglor, Devoted Assistant is a sweet design, providing a Think Tank ability that also pays you off for milling, entombing, or discarding creature cards by granting them a permanent gravebreak ability. It’s a lot of moving pieces that results in a few extra 2/2 zombies, which isn’t a bad outcome at all for a 2-drop. It’s unfortunately digital-only due to the perpetual ability it adds to your cards.

#28. Frilled Oculus

Frilled Oculus is definitional Draft chaff that you'll basically never see outside Bracket 1 Commander, and likely not even there.

#27. Humongulus

Heh. Humongulus was funny the first time I read it. You can do worse than hexproof and a big butt, but not much else going on here.

#26. Court Homunculus

You could've made a case for Court Homunculus some 10 years ago, but you're putting in work to make Isamaru, Hound of Konda here. Points for random artifact synergies, but there's really no meat on the bone here anymore.

#25. Sneaky Homunculus

The worst of the sometimes unblockable homunculi, Sneaky Homunculus gets worse every year as 1-drops get more and more playable.

#24. Furtive Homunculus

Skulk on a 2-powered creature is tough. At a Commander table, there are going to be plenty of blockers around. You can do better than Furtive Homunculus if you’re gunning for evasion.

#23. Hazy Homunculus

Hazy Homunculus is going to feel like Slither Blade most of the time in EDH. This is here for you if you’ve already sleeved up every Changeling Outcast variant but still need to go faster.

#22. Aeromunculus

Aeromunculus has the distinction of being maybe the worst creature with the adapt keyword. Overcosted, especially in Simic (). Its flavor text suggests that homunculi can echolocate, so that’s something.

#21. Dovin’s Automaton

Probably technically worse than the previous cards, but Dovin's Automaton at least has the dream of being a cheaper, better Serra Angel with the right planeswalker on board. It's unfortunate that it happens to be Dovin, who is canonically dead and left us very few excellent cards before he passed.

#20. Jubilant Mascot

This rate isn’t good enough for a +1/+1 counters deck. With a lot of effects that reduce the cost of activated abilities, Jubilant Mascot could contribute more. Even then, you’d rather do something more powerful in that space.

#19. Component Collector

On the plus side, this card can annoy the Commander table by starting the day/night cycle for no good payoff. Everything else is pretty much even more downside for Component Collector.

#18. Stitcher's Apprentice

Best case: Stitcher's Apprentice blocks every turn and then sacs the blocker to make a new token before damage. This could be a decent consideration if a bigger space opens up for creature sacrifice in blue.

#17. Filigree Attendant

I suppose Filigree Attendant works in the Urza, Chief Artificer affinity-style EDH deck, but I think I’d rather have a larger volume of smaller creatures than this.

#16. Oculus

Death triggers are twitchy, and blue doesn’t often want to be part of a sacrifice deck. But if that happens, Oculus seems okay-ish.

#15. Bonded Fetch

0/2 for 3 is treading unplayability, but Bonded Fetch still has utility. It’s especially useful for EDH decks that want blue creatures that tap like Unctus, Grand Metatect, or decks that want a lot of looters like Oskar, Rubbish Reclaimer.

#14. Private Eye

Private Eye‘s a great card, provided you're playing with the very niche detective creature type. This probably needs another set like Murders at Karlov Manor before it really takes off, but for now it's a great typal lord for an underrepresented creature type.

#13. Referee Squad

I’m not entirely here for a joke about things toxic dads yell from the stands of youth sports games, but here we are. Referee Squad is a Limited-level card, but I can see this as a good part of a vigilance-themed deck built around something like Roon of the Hidden Realm.

#12. Jeering Homunculus

Goad is good, and Jeering Homunculus is one the few 2-drops that do it. It’s definitely the cheapest way to do it in blue. Plus, look at this art. Just look at it!

#11. Unblinking Observer

There are a lot of creatures that make spells cheaper, sure, but blue ramp, even limited ramp like this, is hard to come by. If you want some, Unblinking Observer is chilling over here with its humorous flavor text.

#10. Doorkeeper

Defender decks don't often lean into the mill strategy that Doorkeeper advertises, though I don’t see why we couldn’t get one someday. It's right on the cusp with cards like Coral Colony and Wall of Lost Thoughts, but it's still a few pieces away from driving people towards mill instead of the big-toughness beatdown decks you often see for defenders.

#9. Curious Homunculus / Voracious Reader

Curious Homunculus is useful in spells-matter EDH decks. It’s especially good in mono-blue builds, like those helmed by Deekah, Fractal Theorist, Baral, Chief of Compliance, and Lier, Disciple of the Drowned. Flipping this is both relatively easy and highly rewarding.

#8. Riddlekeeper

Mill decks in EDH usually suffer from having too many spells and effects that only target one player’s deck. Anything that hits wider is useful, and Riddlekeeper could be a player in Bruvac the Grandiloquent, Szadek, Lord of Secrets, or whatever mill commander you're running.

At a certain point go-wide decks just can’t attack you productively if they don’t deal with this, and that has some value.

#7. Fblthp, the Lost

As an Elvish Visionary in blue, Fblthp, the Lost has clear value. Note that the lost in the deck text only applies to spells that target, not triggered or activated abilities on cards. That makes it a decent blink target for cards like Thassa, Deep-Dwelling, though a dud for actual spells like Ephemerate.

#6. Whtz, the Bibliophile

Truly one of the most unique commanders ever printed, Whtz, the Bibliophile puts its rulebreaker ability to good use, giving people an excuse to play massive decks, and making Battle of Wits and Yorion, Sky Nomad a reality for Commander. It’s the type of card that’s both meme and real at the same time, depending on how janky you want to get with your deck size. Remember, you’ve got to be able to shuffle that bad boy with no assistance.

#5. Vnwxt, Verbose Host

Start your engines on a 0-power creature is Bonded Fetch levels of funny, but Vnwxt, Verbose Host has a pretty serious reward for getting up to max speed. Double draws on a 2-drop is excellent; you just have to figure out how you’re hitting an opponent each turn to raise your speed.

#4. Fblthp, Lost on the Range

Where will that crazy Fblthp go and get himself lost next? The gag's running a little thin with Fblthp, Lost on the Range, a dinky creature that combines the plot mechanic with a Future Sight effect. Ward helps it stick around, but plotting from the top of your library is significantly worse than being able to play from the top.

#3. Homunculus Horde

This Foundations card is one of many exponential creatures that duplicate themselves under certain conditions, in this case drawing your second card each turn. The first one’s embarrassing, the second one’s not all that scary either, but anything beyond that and they actually start to look like a win condition.

#2. Zndrsplt, Eye of Wisdom

Zndrsplt, Eye of Wisdom partners with Okaun, Eye of Chaos in MTG’s first one-eyed team up. If you’re in the coin flip space, would you rather have this pair, Yusri, Fortune's Flame, or Krark, the Thumbless plus a blue partner card?

Regardless, they all end up in the same deck together, and Zndrsplt's bound to give you some good card draw whether it's paired with Okaun in the command zone or hanging out in the 99/98 of another deck.

#1. Borborygmos and Fblthp

I get the sense that Fblthp's not lost at all for once, but is exactly where he needs to be: kicking Phyrexian ass.

Like all the team-up cards from March of the Machine, Borborygmos and Fblthp have a mashup up of abilities from Fblthp, the Lost and a slightly nerfed pitch-lands-for-damage ability from Borborygmos Enraged. But there’s power here beyond the original cards.

This draws a card when it attacks, which is sweet. And instead of getting lost in your deck like Fblthp, you can pay one and a blue to tuck this card third from the top. Sadly, this card is lacking the black pip to run all the decent cyclopes for a full one-eyed deck, but we can dream of a more on point option than the non-synergistic Garth One-Eye.

Best Homunculus Payoffs

Homunculi are mostly filler creatures that aren’t intended to be well-supported, which means anyone looking for deliberate homunculus payoffs is probably entering meme territory. You could go the route of a full-on “eyeball” deck and supplement your homunculi with actual eye creatures, but that’s some serious Bracket 1 material.

Case of the Lost Witness is technically a homunculus payoff that becomes solved once you control a legendary homunculus, though it shuffles its own Fblthp into your deck, so you don’t need to play other homunculi to realize the final ability on this case.

Puppet Conjurer and Stitcher's Apprentice can both create homunculus tokens, though neither one is really pushing you anywhere closer to a real homunculus deck.

Wrap Up

Homunculus Horde | Illustration by Adrián Rodríguez Pérez

When I look at homunculi, with their fun flavor text, evocative art, and understatted rates, I think back to ‘90s Magic when kitchen table players didn’t know any better and ran goofy stuff because it seemed cool.

I’d like to see WotC settle on a more coherent vision for what the homunculus creature type does so that we could get that feel on slightly more playable cards. The ones we've got have some of my favorite art from their respective sets, and I’d love to be able to run a deck with all these eyeballs. If this happens you're all invited to my EDH theme night party, replete with Halloween hijinks and a track list of early ‘80s tunes like Betty Davis Eyes and Somebody’s Watching Me.

What do you think, Draftsim Nation? Am I missing some key homunculus payoff you use in your decks? Let me know in the comments below, or over in the Draftsim Discord. And check out The Daily Upkeep newsletter to stay up to date on all the latest MTG news.

Thanks for reading, and keep those eyeballs safe!