The 56 Best 2-Power Creatures in Magic Ranked

Last updated on March 23, 2026

Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer | Illustration by Magali Villeneuve

Magic is all about efficiency, especially as power creep gives more and more small creatures enough text to occupy a book club for a fortnight (looking at you, Orcish Bowmasters). Small creatures often come with low power and toughness, which sounds daunting in the face of 20 life, but the effects often outweigh the body.

To make the most efficient picks even more tantalizing, MTG continues to print a slew of cards that reward players for having creatures with 2 power. Maybe you got ahold of Delney, Streetwise Lookout and want to maximize it, or you’re hunting down the best cards to pair with Arabella, Abandoned Doll. Whatever your needs, let’s break out the magnifying glass and see what these cards have to offer!

What Are 2-Power Creatures in Magic?

Glen Elendra Archmage | Illustration by Karl Kopinski

In this case, it’s exactly what it says on the tin. Two-power creatures broadly fall into two categories: cheap creatures with strong abilities (i.e. Skyclave Apparition) or expensive creatures with impactful abilities that have lower power to balance them (i.e. Gray Merchant of Asphodel).

This list only includes creatures that have 2 power printed on their text box. I’m excluding cards that modify a base power/toughness of 0/0 and cards with variable power that could have 2 power.

#56. Containment Priest

Containment Priest destroys unfair strategies involving cards like Reanimate and Show and Tell, making this an excellent disruptive white card in the 99 or out of the sideboard.

#55. Thief of Sanity

Power creep has pushed Thief of Sanity somewhat down in power level, but it’s still an excellent source of card advantage and a great midrange threat for lower-powered Cubes and Commander decks.

#54. Knight of the Reliquary

Knight of the Reliquary pulls double duty as a big threat that also finds busted lands like Field of the Dead and Gaea's Cradle.

#53. Loyal Apprentice

If your Commander deck needs tokens, artifacts, or aggressive bodies, Loyal Apprentice has you covered with a cheap, consistent source of Thopter tokens. It excels in everything from Rashmi and Ragavan to Winota, Joiner of Forces.

#52. Osteomancer Adept

Osteomancer Adept gives Food and self-mill decks a creature-centric Underworld Breach variant to grind out their opponents in the late game, even if the finality counters hamper its combo potential.

#51. Eidolon of Blossoms

Eidolon of Blossoms stands out among the ranks of enchantress cards both because it's an enchantment itself to trigger all your synergies and replaces itself when it enters, so you usually get a little value from it.

#50. Glen Elendra Archmage

Glen Elendra Archmage provides a nasty roadblock to any deck with noncreature spells. It shines with cards like Falco Spara, Pactweaver and Solemnity that let you use this faerie wizard over and over.

#49. Cecil, Dark Knight / Cecil, Redeemed Paladin

Cecil, Dark Knight is an exceptional aggro tool as a 1-mana 2/3 with deathtouch. Losing life when it deals damage both balances the card and creates a fun mini-game as you try either to win before your life loss becomes relevant or to stabilize with Cecil, Redeemed Paladin. As far as black aggro tools go, this is one of the strongest and most fun.

#48. Magus of the Moon + Harbinger of the Seas

Magus of the Moon and Harbinger of the Seas provide excellent nonbasic land hate to punish players running multicolor mana bases or using busted cards like Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx.

#47. Karmic Guide

While Karmic Guide gives you incredible value upfront as a reanimation effect on a stick, which can easily be copied or retriggered, it’s also part of tons of infinite combos to help you win the game.

#46. Archon of Emeria

If you want to slow the game down, Archon of Emeria is your white creature. The combination of Rule of Law and mana disruption forces your opponents to play at an easily exploitable snail’s pace.

#45. Nesting Dovehawk

Nesting Dovehawk works fantastically in token decks to squeeze a few extra creatures into play, but it does its best work with cards like Double Major and The Jolly Balloon Man that create token copies of the Dovehawk, which can then populate itself for an exponentially growing army.

#44. Mulldrifter

The choice between Divination or a 5-mana three-for-one has made Mulldrifter one of blue’s best creatures, especially when paired with a flicker effect to get the evoke trigger and the 2/2.

#43. Murderous Rider

Murderous Rider gives us a Murder—or more accurately, a Hero's Downfall—with creature-based upside. This black zombie knight is great in grindy Cubes plus a fine addition to cast-from-exile decks.

#42. Enduring Innocence + Welcoming Vampire

Enduring Innocence and Welcoming Vampire reward the small creature deck with the most valuable of payoffs: card advantage! Since these are payoffs and 2-power creatures themselves, they fit well into a host of small-creature strategies.

#41. Imodane’s Recruiter

One of the fierciest Limited uncommons in recent memory, Imodane's Recruiter has made a mark well beyond Limited with its stellar Standard performance. Any deck interested in going wide should consider this human knight to enable powerful alpha strikes.

#40. Eidolon of the Great Revel

A staple in burn decks, Eidolon of the Great Revel works best in older formats where cards that cost 3 are considered expensive, giving this spirit plenty of triggers.

#39. Deeproot Wayfinder

Deeproot Wayfinder is a killer 2-drop. Surveilling when this oversized merfolk connects gives you lots of control over what you draw, and you get ramp to push yourself ahead of your opponent. It works best in decks with lots of fetch lands, but I’d play it in loads of other decks.

#38. Professional Face-Breaker

Professional Face-Breaker rewards aggressive players with the potent one-two punch of mana production and card advantage. It works best in decks with other sources of Treasure production, but any red deck interested in attacking should consider this powerhouse of a 3-drop red creature.

#37. Dire Fleet Daredevil

I love stealing opposing spells, so I have a fond spot for Dire Fleet Daredevil. Sure, it can whiff, but the potential of a 2-for-1 attached to a reasonably aggressive body makes it a great Cube card.

#36. Amped Raptor

Amped Raptor is just one of many Modern Horizons 3 cards that reminds players how broken energy cards are. Getting an aggressive body and an extra spell puts you way ahead of your opponents, which is exactly where aggro decks want to be.

#35. Beast Whisperer

One of the best card advantage spells in Commander, Beast Whisperer provides a steady stream of extra cards that works particularly well with effects like Shrieking Drake and Whitemane Lion that bounce themselves or other creatures.

#34. Ravenous Chupacabra

Murder on a stick makes for a fantastic 4-drop. You can make Ravenous Chupacabra trigger twice, copy the trigger, blink it, copy the creature—there are many, many ways to exploit its ETB removal.

#33. Magda, Brazen Outlaw

Magda, Brazen Outlaw might be one of red’s best 2-mana plays. The floor of a Goblin Piker that makes a Treasure is pretty decent, but if you chuck in a couple of other dwarves and maybe a vehicle for them to crew, you have the foundation of a powerful combo deck.

#32. Y’shtola, Night’s Blessed

Control decks typically want big, flashy creatures as their win condition, but Y'shtola, Night's Blessed puts a different spin on the archetype. This commander slowly strips the table of life while drawing cards. It’s the card advantage engine and win condition rolled into a single card, which has seen it rise through the ranks of the most popular commanders.

#31. Gray Merchant of Asphodel

Gray Merchant of Asphodel proves that cards can be powerful without a novel in the textbox. It takes very little to turn this black creature into a clean win condition—my recommended pairings are Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose and Saw in Half.

#30. Delney, Streetwise Lookout

One of the biggest reasons to build around creatures with 2 power is Delney, Streetwise Lookout. You get to double up on the delightful triggered abilities we’ve explored thus far and don’t need to worry about your board getting stonewalled by a Centaur Courser.

#29. Lotus Cobra

Lotus Cobra is among the most potent landfall cards in Magic. It’s best with fetch lands, which create a staggering 3 mana with this in play, but it essentially makes any untapped land you play into Ancient Tomb for a turn, which stacks just as well as you’d think with the likes of Exploration.

#28. Stella Lee, Wild Card

One of the hottest Izzet commanders from 2024, Stella Lee, Wild Card goes infinite with the kitchen sink. Even if you play it fairly, the combination of an impulse draw and copying a spell provides oodles of card advantage for spellslinger players.

#27. Seasoned Pyromancer

Seasoned Pyromancer works best in decks that take advantage of the rummages filling up your graveyard, but it’s also fantastic in decks filled with cheap cards since you draw two cards if you cast it with an empty hand.

#26. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

Perhaps the most famous stax creature of all time, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben tosses a massive wrench into the plans of any decks focused on noncreature spells; having first strike allows it to tussle with many creature decks for a versatile, cheap threat.

#25. Gut, True Soul Zealot

Gut, True Soul Zealot shines in decks that can supply it with sacrifice fodder. Cards like Thraben Inspector that provide two pieces of fodder or cards like Currency Converter that produce a stream of Treasure are excellent pairings.

#24. Tymna the Weaver

One of the fiercest partner commanders to ever grace cEDH and beyond, Tymna the Weaver draws up to three cards each turn for a burst of card advantage that’s hard for other decks to keep up with. Its “Blue Farm” pairing with Kraum, Ludevic's Opus might be the most famous example, but anything that gives you access to good attackers pairs nicely with this Orzhov commander.

#23. Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker’s best known for the roughly billion infinite combos it enables, but even fair decks find a powerhouse in it as they copy Titans, Overlords, and any other creature with absurdly pushed enters abilities.

#22. Laelia, the Blade Reforged

Perhaps my favorite card on the list, Laelia, the Blade Reforged is the perfect aggressive red card: It grows larger each turn while drawing cards. You can even set up a powerful combo with cascade cards like Bloodbraid Elf to dump tons of +1/+1 counters onto it.

#21. Adrix and Nev, Twincasters

The most notable aspect of Adrix and Nev, Twincasters is that it gives you a Parallel Lives in the command zone, an incredible boost to the consistency of a token deck. Even in the 99, it’s easier to tutor this creature than the enchantment for certain decks.

#20. Rec Sages

Reclamation Sage has a well-deserved tenure position on the EDH staple list, but it’s found competition in Loran of the Third Path, which has a bunch of additional text, and Witch Enchanter, which offers the unrivaled flexibility of a modal double-faced card. I think they’re all worth running and typically slip all three into my decks, though I’d love to hear your preference in the comments.

#19. Formidable Speaker

Formidable Speaker is an exceptional tutor. Because you can discard any card, you can upgrade an extra land or useless removal spell into a sleek threat while filling your graveyard. The untap ability is also quite potent, especially with dorks like Bloom Tender and Priest of Titania that tap for multiple mana.

#18. Bristly Bill, Spine Sower

I initially overlooked Bristly Bill, Spine Sower as a random landfall card, but it’s proven to be a nasty midrange threat that comes down early and bolsters your forces while retaining late-game relevance with its activated ability. You likely want to play this in a counters-themed deck, but it’s also a fine addition to Cubes and Brawl decks looking for one more cheap green creature.

#17. Goblin Guide

Goblin Guide is the marquee aggro creature. As a 1-mana 2/2 with haste and a negligible downside, this goblin scout sets the bar all Red Deck Wins creatures are measured against—and typically fall short of.

#16. Bloodghast

Bloodghast sees lots of play in Dredge, but any deck looking for a small creature it can repeatedly sacrifice can leverage this busted creature. It pairs very well with Wight of the Reliquary.

#15. Hexing Squelcher

Hexing Squelcher set the cEDH community on fire when previewed, filling the internet with omens of doom. While it doesn’t seem to have destabilized the meta, the card is still extremely powerful. It’s a very cheap threat that cancels countermagic and punishes targeted interaction. It’s perfect to protect a combo win or to sideboard in against various flavors of blue, which makes it a multiformat powerhouse.

#14. Icetill Explorer

Exploration is a great card/effect. So is Crucible of Worlds, and they work extremely well together. But packaging both effects on a single card is ludicrously powerful. Even if you use Icetill Explorer “fairly” with fetch lands, that’s two land drops and four landfall triggers each turn. You can take it way further with lands that sacrifice themselves for other effects, like Horizon Canopy and Strip Mine.

#13. Seedborn Muse

Seedborn Muse doesn’t do much in Commander; it just quadruples your mana. You need ways to use your mana (and other permanents) each turn to make this worth playing. In other words, it pairs very well with blue!

#12. Solemn Simulacrum

I’m tempted to call Solemn Simulacrum one of Commander’s most iconic cards. Sad Robot gives any non-green deck a chance at that precious ramp, plus it works well with artifact synergies and sacrifice cards. What more could you want from a colorless 4-drop? Protection from everything and endless card draw? As if Wizards would ever let that happen….

#11. Displacer Kitten

If you want some crazy flicker value, look no further than Displacer Kitten. It enables explosive combo turns by flickering mana rocks like Grim Monolith and Coveted Jewel for ramp and even lets you reactivate planeswalkers. Of course, you can just pair it with a couple of creatures that have nice enters abilities, like Cloudblazer and Ravenous Chupacabra, but it does so much more.

#10. Badgermole Cub

Badgermole Cub is an ugly mana dork. Making your dorks tap for extra mana would be busted alone, but this one earthbends a land, so it comes with a dork. Few cards enable such explosive turns as this, especially in duplicates—we’re talking turn-3 or -4 Craterhoof Behemoths with the right draw.

#9. Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

Yawgmoth, Thran Physician has become the core of decks in multiple Magic formats thanks to the powerful combination of card draw and interaction. Toss in some -1/-1 counter synergies like Blowfly Infestation and you have a spicy brew coming together.

#8. Broadside Bombardiers

Though Broadside Bombardiers’s boast ability suggests that it belongs in sacrifice decks, its value extends way past the borders of Blood Artist and Morbid Opportunist. Any aggressive deck gets a bump in power from this card, clearing blockers or throwing direct damage at your opponents.

#7. Circle of Dreams Druid

Of all the “card on a stick” creatures we have, Gaea's Cradle on a stick might be the scariest. The triple green cost keeps Circle of Dreams Druid somewhat restrained as most decks can’t consistently cast this elf druid, but anything capable of casting it has access to more mana than they can spend.

#6. _____ Goblin

Once a force to be reckoned with in Legacy, _____ Goblin saw enough play to get sticker cards banned because of how awkward they were in a tournament setting. This card is effectively Seething Song on a stick with a very relevant creature type; it most often dumped Muxus, Goblin Grandee into play, though Dragon Stompy decks also leveraged it. If you want to do something unfair, perhaps in Cube or Commander, you should consider this!

#5. Skyclave Apparition

Though Magic has many Fiend Hunter variants, none come close to Skyclave Apparition. It doesn’t get every creature but casts a very wide net by hitting other permanent types. More importantly, your opponent never gets the exiled creature back; removing the Apparition just leaves them with a spirit token, which is almost always far less threatening than whatever you exiled.

#4. Eternal Witness

Eternal Witness draws the best spell you’ve cast—or milled, or Entombed.

It comes at an excellent rate, and Magic has more than enough ways to exploit powerful enters abilities like this to make the Witness a worthwhile card.

#3. Dark Confidant

If you want a cheap source of card advantage that adds to the board, it’s hard to do better than Dark Confidant. It works best in decks with a low mana curve and filled with efficient cards. That life loss is no joke though, and you don’t want to lose 8 life to something like Griselbrand.

#2. Snapcaster Mage

The infamous Snapcaster Mage, the most powerful of the Magic Invitational cards, generates a billion and one different forms of value. You’ll often find this rebuying interactive spells like Fatal Push and Counterspell, though you should always fear the lethal burn damage of Lightning Bolt, Snapcaster, Lightning Bolt. This blue creature works best in grindy midrange and control decks.

#1. Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer

Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer is a study in just how much text a 1-mana creature can have. The combination of ramp and card draw is potent enough that a turn-1 Ragavan can carry a game. This monkey snowballs harder than pretty much any other creature you can play.

Best 2-Power Payoffs

If you want to exploit a deck full of 2-power creatures, you have a surprisingly robust suite of options to draw from. The first and most obvious payoffs are cards that specifically reference such creatures. Delney, Streetwise Lookout is the marquee example, but we also have access to excellent card advantage from cards like Assemble the Players and Welcoming Vampire.

You can make this style of deck really grindy, with cards like Alesha, Who Smiles at Death and Eagle of Deliverance providing lots of creature recursion and card advantage to eke out value from a longer game, or you can go quick as lighting with Arabella, Abandoned Doll and Ezuri, Claw of Progress to facilitate more aggressive strategies.

Whether you go aggressive or grindy, your small-creature deck benefits from a host of wraths that only destroy large creatures. The Battle of Bywater and Restricted Office are the big ones, though Expel the Interlopers plays a similar role. Low power and a small mana value tend to go hand in hand, so Austere Command can provide even more redundancy.

Wrap Up

Skyclave Apparition | Illustration by Donato Giancola

In our modern era of Magic, efficient creatures are more important than ever due to power creep. Though many of these options are incredibly cheap, creatures with 2 power have a range of abilities, from the disruptive ones like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben to cards like Yawgmoth, Thran Physician and Delney, Streetwise Lookout that warrant building around.

What’s your favorite 2-power creature? Out of the literal thousands of cards I crawled through for this list, I must have missed one or two; what do you think should have made the list? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord!

Stay safe, and thanks for reading!