The 13 Best Avatars on MTG Arena Ranked

Last updated on January 30, 2024

Gallia of the Endless Dance | Illustration by Johannes Voss

How do you decide what face represents you on Arena? Do you use different avatars for different decks? Are your avatars strategic, perhaps misdirection or purposeful tilt-enablers? These are some of the questions I have about avatars.

I can’t answer all these questions today, as our choices are our own, but I wanted to try to give you a reasonable ranking of the best avatars on the platform, to spark debate if nothing else!

What Are Avatars?

Fblthp, the Lost | Illustration by Jesper Ejsing

Avatars are your “identity” in Magic Arena. They’re a representation of you, and their head explodes when you lose, or goops out when you’re infected or death spirals when you’re milled out. We see them first as basically full art figures clipped from their backgrounds on their Magic cards (if they aren’t custom art) in the “vs.” screen as the game loads, and then they’re your little head identity.

They also, sadly, are replaced with a basic Ajani when you reload Arena after a crash. Your opponent’s view of your avatar doesn’t change. Only you are witness to this humiliation.

What Makes a Good Avatar?

Well, this is even more subjective than most forms of art evaluation! Are you just showing off your latest purchase? If you’re a huge Sarkhan fan (why though), then you’re more likely to want to use his avatar. Now that you can assign different avatars to decks, I often select one that fits the deck’s theme, like Rootha or Ral for an Izzet deck. Sometimes I do the opposite and hope for some nebulous strategic advantage when I use, say, Basri Ket. If you think I’m aggro when I drop a Plains or two because that’s kind of the vibes of my planeswalker avatar, do you misplay slightly in a way I can use when it becomes clear that I’m a control deck?

But aside from such considerations, I’m going to suggest that some of these avatars are better than others. Although all the art looks cool enough in full figure form, there are just some heads that look better than others in those little round head frames. On mobile, in the little squares that look like Jace is posing for his driver’s license, they all look much worse. Of course, it doesn’t really matter so much if you can even see them on mobile. But on your glorious large monitor for streaming, let’s see who’s the best!

#13. Lukka

Lukka Avatar | Illustration by Chris Rallis

j/k. Not even. Moving on….

#12. Kiora

Kiora Avatar | Illustration by Magali Villeneuve

Not that one! The original one from Kiora, the Tide's Fury. I’ll admit that I don’t like it all that much as an avatar, but it’s fine, and it’s so much better than the travesty of the summer fun lifeguard Kiora with the mirror shades. I like silly, but apparently MTG Arena showed me where my line is when they dropped that this summer. If the art has a less flat style, it might look better as an avatar on a screen where nothing shared that style. As it is, yikes. This and Pinkie Pie can take a hike (I know, charity, but still).

#11. Oracle of the Alpha

Oracle of the Alpha Avatar | Illustration by Nino Vecia

Nothing tilts an opponent like this bird screaming “I love Alchemy!!” Plus, it looks pretty cool.

#10. Uglúk

Uglúk Avatar | Illustration Bartlomiej Gawel

Is it weird that this is the best Lord of the Rings avatar? I mean, they’re all fine, but maybe the movies and my thousand viewings of them are weighing on me. I don’t really like the way they did the Uruk-hai in the films, so I’ll take this art by Bartłomiej Gaweł from Uglúk of the White Hand, which looks quite cool in the little round frame.

#9. Nicol Bolas

Nicol Bolas Avatar | Illustration by Raymond Swanland

The best of the giant heads with big extensions, the head of Raymond Swanland’s Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God looks quite nice in the frame. Ugin’s horns kind of hang out strangely and obliterate some of what’s next to the avatar, which can be especially problematic in the kinds of large hand decks that need Reliquary Tower. The same is true, but a bit less so, for other awkward giant-head-in-a-small-circle avatars like the Praetors, Atraxa, and maybe Yargle.

#8. Dovin Baan

Dovin Baan Avatar

Unique key art not found on a card with that sweet nerdy eye in the lens thing, Dovin here is much cooler than any of his cards, with those outstretched fingers for the Vs. screen and a creepy cool look in the avatar frame.

#7. The Wanderer

The Wanderer Avatar

No face! Hooded, mysterious menace! Only a teeny bit like the chanting monks in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

#6. Minsc (and Boo!)

Minsc Avatar | Illustration by Andreas Zafiratos

This is the only double-headed avatar that looks good, and it’s probably because Boo is pretty tiny here, being a hamster and all (at least in this art for Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes, but I would kill for an avatar of the Boo token! But other double headers, like Frodo and Samwise, Nashi and Tamiyo, and even Trostani Discordant kind of look like they’re being squeezed out of the little circular frame, which feels awkward.

Minsc also is one of the better attitude-heavy avatars, which is nice if your goal is to tilt your opponent a bit. You know the others, Teferi is the king of this, but there are many others. Oko. Zimone. Johnny. Galadriel. Urza. But Minsc is the best, with that cocked chin.

#5. Ashiok

Ashiok Avatar

A hard-to-get avatar originally only available through pandemic time FNM Arena codes, this new key art of Ashiok is fascinating as one of the few Magic characters depicted with art not found on a card. They look particularly good as an avatar, where the horror of the missing top of their face just as striking as the ambiguous expression on their lips, which keeps pushing you to clarify with the rest of a face that isn’t there.

#4. Post’s Sigil

Post's Sigil Avatar | Illustration by Livia Prima

The sweet art by Livia Prima for Post's Sigil translates well to the frame, and it can show off that you bought a thing while shouting out the current owner of the 1 of 1 The One Ring.

#3. Eternal Soldier

Eternal Soldier Avatar

Glowing eyed skulls are always metal, and this unique avatar art is pretty rad. Does it make you want to join Bolas’s horde? What about when I uncork like the Scurry Oak and Rosie Cotton of South Lane infinite combo on you? How about then? Would the sweet release of eternal servitude to a dragon god be preferable?

I prefer this to Karn, which I don’t like at all. I think that counts as a hot take? The Karn, Scion of Urza art is cool on the card, but I can never get over how huge and nonsensical his shoulder looks when you strip away the globe from Chase Stone’s original art, especially with Karn’s left hand being redone to hang limply at his side.

#2. Lil Giri

Lil Giri Avatar – Illustration by Kawasumi

The rice ball mascot from Magic 30 seems to be people’s fondest memory. Grabbed from Giri’s Secret Lair Curiosity, it looks cool, gives you some cred at having been at Magic 30 to complain about proxies in person, and it has a fun bulbous quality sticking out of the round frame.

#1. Fblthp

Fblthp Avatar

Obviously I like the round heads here at the top of the list, and homunculus fave Fblthp with the classic Totally Lost art has a particularly well suited roundness! First, he looks kinda hilarious on the Vs. screen when your opponent is running like a huge Praetor or Ugin. Like, sure, I’m gonna misplay a bit. Chill. And the shiny wet eye from David Palumbo’s art looks especially goopy when clipped out like this.

Originally the avatar of choice for jank players (is that why I like it so much??), it seems, at least according to reddit, that this least-human avatar seems in some ways the most human.

How Do You Get Avatars on MTG Arena?

A dozen come free with the game. Others have come through Arena codes. Most of the avatars eventually rotate through the shop, and with each set release there are avatars in the shop, in bundles and solo, similar to pets. These days there are usually avatars as part of Mastery Pass progress, as well. Codes for these pop up on eBay every once in a while, but I can’t vouch for any of them working as I don’t know anyone who has gotten an avatar this way.

Wrap Up

Leshrac's Sigil (Secret Lair)) | Illustration by Livia Prima

There are well over a hundred MTG Arena avatars. Certainly, more than the number of decks you can have, so we have to make choices. I see new avatars pop up when the new sets release and then I see them fade away. I can’t tell you the last time I saw a Jetmir, for example!

In the end, you run what you like, and whether it looks good or bad is so subjective. It’s up to you! That said, I think these takes are totally reasonable! How about you? Did I miss something sick or did I diss one of your faves? Let me know in the comments or on Discord!

Until then, I’m rocking Galadriel, even though she didn’t make the list. It’s a vibe.