The 30 Best Bant Creatures in Magic Ranked

Last updated on January 31, 2026

Chulane, Teller of Tales | Illustration by Victor Adame Minguez

Bant () is a very midrange color that’s good at ramping and generating value with its creatures and permanents. Bant comprises classic Commander strategies like Simic () ramp, Azorius () blink, or even Selesnya () tokens or +1/+1 counters, so  we can expect Bant creatures to embody similar archetypes.

Many of these are legendary creatures designed for EDH, so it isn’t a coincidence that these are also very strong Commanders. We’re taking a look at the best Bant creatures MTG’s ever printed, let’s dive in!

What Are Bant Creatures?

Derevi, Empyrial Tactician | Illustration by Michael Komarck

Following Shards of Alara’s famous shard notation, Bant is the combination of green, white, and blue mana (). Bant creatures have this exact color identity, be it in their mana cost or as a combination of the card’s color plus all the activated abilities it might have. Noble Hierarch is a Bant creature because of its activated ability, while Arcades, the Strategist is a Bant creature because of its casting cost. It must be a creature and have the three colors, nothing more, nothing less.

#30. Roon of the Hidden Realm

Roon of the Hidden Realm is a classic blink commander that flicker targets at will, both yours and your opponent's. The basic idea here is to have good creatures with strong enter triggers, and you have a Cloudshift at the ready, be it to protect a certain target from removal or just to get more value overall.

#29. Stoic Angel

Stoic Angel’s value comes from its static ability, which discourages players from attacking with huge armies. This helps your own Voltron strategy, exalted strategy, or what have you. If you’re interested in attacking with only one strong creature, this card can help you out.

#28. Rafiq of the Many

Rafiq of the Many is the classic Bant commander from the early EDH times. The stats are on the weak side, but there’s no denying that if you want to attack with a single creature, giving it +1/+1 and double strike is the way to go. You can also build around Rafiq itself with auras and equipment.

#27. Rubinia Soulsinger

Many gold creatures from Legends are quite forgettable considering we’re not thrilled about paying 6 mana for a vanilla 4/5. However, Rubinia Soulsinger has a nice activated ability. It’s fragile, but having a Mind Control effect tied to a legendary creature is interesting. In today’s MTG, you can double Rubinia’s triggers to gain control of more creatures, or just steal creatures at instant speed.

#26. Mr. Foxglove

Mr. Foxglove has two different states. Either you’re low on cards and want to attack to draw some, or you have many cards in hand and attack someone in order to put a strong creature from your hand onto the battlefield. The best aspect of this card is choosing who to attack and which rewards to reap; it’s great fliexbility.  

#25. Rigo, Streetwise Mentor

Rigo, Streetwise Mentor can be an interesting token commander, or just a good creature to add to a token deck, especially if you have cards that put 1/1 tokens into the battlefield attacking. Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive can be an interesting addition to keep your small creatures unblockable, while a creature like Glistener Elf takes this idea into a more infectious route.

#24. Jenara, Asura of War

Jenara, Asura of War is already a solid creature on its own, stats-wise, but the activated ability allows you to turn it into a massive 5/5, 7/7, or 10/10 flier and beat down. Having cards like Hardened Scales around is just stupid, giving you a +1/+1 counter for each mana spent.

#23. Amareth, the Lustrous

6/6 flying dragons are already interesting additions to a deck. But Amareth, the Lustrous is much more than that, turning every permanent that enters the battlefield under your control into a potential draw effect. This makes your deck lean heavily on a specific permanent type, and you can usually build around legendary creatures or enchantments to get the best results. Dragon-heavy decks can appreciate this as one of their best threats.

#22. Storvald, Frost Giant Jarl

It’s hard to ignore big creatures with big impact when they hit the battlefield. Storvald, Frost Giant Jarl immediately turns one of your creatures into a 7/7 while shrinking their best to a 1/1, opening up all sorts of attacks. You can use this on each attack, too. Besides, adding ward 3 to all your creatures is always a good ability to have.

#21. Shanna, Purifying Blade

Shanna, Purifying Blade, besides being a lifelink creature itself, is an excellent way to convert lifegain into cards. You don’t even need black mana or life sacrifices for that. Having creatures like Soul Warden around means that you can immediately cast Shanna and pay a small kicker to draw cards at your end step. Aetherflux Reservoir can be a strong card draw engine and wincon for this legend.

#20. Kros, Defense Contractor

I like cards that allow me to manipulate combat, and Kros, Defense Contractor does double duty. First, it allows you to attack more freely by tapping your opponents’ best blockers. Second, you’ll actually goad these threats, so they’re not coming back to bite you the next turn. You can also set up some Johnny engines where you proliferate their creatures with +1/+1 counters, or just play nice and spread some +1/+1 counters here and there.

#19. Jedit Ojanen, Mercenary

Jedit Ojanen, Mercenary is a base 3/3 creature with a 2/2 cat token most of the time, which is okay for 4 mana. But with a few legendary creatures around, this card generates a massive amount of cats. It’s a good fit with legendary cat lords like Arahbo, the First Fang or Arahbo, Roar of the World.

#18. Falco Spara, Pactweaver

Falco Spara, Pactweaver comes with built-in protection, and even if you just control this card, you can trade its counter for a new card. Building around Falco with +1/+1 counters and the like lets you cast many cards from the top of your library, getting card advantage and triggering other synergies, such as those from Kellan, the Kid and more.

#17. Galea, Kindler of Hope

Galea, Kindler of Hope is an excellent auras and equipment commander, even if you lose red’s good equipment support. Just casting a Colossus Hammer from the top of your library and immediately equipping it on a creature and swinging feels like cheating. And if you have an enchantress creature around, each aura you cast draws you a card, further helping you go through your library.

#16. Isu the Abominable

Isu the Abominable is an enabler and payoff for snow cards, and it’s one of the better legendary creatures to build snow decks around. It’s a bit slow as a 5-mana commander that you need to untap to do something good with, but Bant colors offer great snow card support, as well as +1/+1 counter support. If the next snow-themed set brings us more goodies, this can go up the list.

#15. Katilda and Lier

Katilda and Lier brings the Snapcaster Mage effect to the command zone, and you only need to be casting humans to trigger it. It mainly happens at sorcery speed, but between our friend Snappy and cards like Errant and Giada or Containment Priest, we can surprise our opponents. Human typal decks are already solid, and this card offers an entirely new way to build around them.

#14. Peter Parker / Amazing Spider-Man

Peter Parker starts off with a small 2/1 spider with reach. But when you finally transform it into Amazing Spider-Man, suddenly each legendary spell you cast has web-slinging, which is a powerful cost reduction engine. This allows you to cast bombs like Koma, World-Eater and Ghalta and Mavren for just 3 mana. Unfortunately, Eldrazi titans are out, but it is what it is.

#13. Tidus, Yuna’s Guardian

Tidus, Yuna's Guardian won me at “move counters around”. The possibilities are endless, including +1/+1 counters, shield counters, level up counters, resetting persist creatures, and the like. But the best effect is certainly proliferating and drawing a card when you deal combat damage, even if it’s only once per turn.

#12. Morska, Undersea Sleuth

Having no maximum hand size is already very interesting for Commander, and while Morska, Undersea Sleuth is on your side, you get to investigate for free every turn. This card is an enabler and payoff for the draw two cards strategy, as investigating means you’ll stockpile Clues that you can crack to draw more cards, all while attacking with a huge beater. Investigating is very well-supported in Bant colors, and you should have no problem drawing cards consistently.

#11. Tuvasa the Sunlit

Tuvasa the Sunlit is as straightforward as it can be. Cast enchantments and draw cards, and if you have many enchantments in play, this card hits hard, so Voltron is the way to go. It’s unfortunately only a 1/1 for 3 mana, but when you deploy this card, it becomes big with all the enchantments lying around. A single Rancor makes it a 4/2 trample. Of course, cards like Ethereal Armor are very efficient here, because the bonus will apply twice.

#10. Kellan, the Kid

Kellan, the Kid is already strong as a 3/3 flying and lifelink creature. It’s also a strong incentive to build around casting cards from zones other than your hand, such as your library or exile. Mechanics like warp, plot, and foretell are very strong here, and you can also run good adventure cards as well. It’s almost busted when you foretell a 6-drop into a 5-drop from your hand.

#9. Choco, Seeker of Paradise

One of the few surprises to come from Final Fantasy was an excellent landfall commander/bird commander, of all things. Paying homage to the long tradition of chocobos in FF games is Choco, Seeker of Paradise. This creature can make massive land drops and ramp hard if you attack with just a few birds, like tokens from Battle Screech.

#8. Brenard, Ginger Sculptor

Brenard, Ginger Sculptor is just a crazy creature to build around, considering that your creatures will die into 1/1 golem food tokens with a hefty +2/+2 bonus. Picture this: You have a way to double the amount of tokens created, and your Mulldrifter just died into two 3/3 flying creatures that will draw you 4 cards. Or cards that create golems like Blade Splicer produce straight-up 5/5 tokens. And don’t get me started on how many 5/5 tokens Precursor Golem can make over the course of a game.

#7. Helga, Skittish Seer

Helga, Skittish Seer is a cute little mana dork frog that profits from 4+ mana creatures, which is precisely what you should be casting in a Bant midrange/ramp deck. And now each of these also draws you cards and grows Helga, so that it can generate mooooar mana. It's one of the few commanders that also synergize with X spells, so have those hydras and Sphinx's Revelations prepared.

#6. Galadriel, Light of Valinor

Galadriel, Light of Valinor gives you so much value when a creature enters the battlefield, which includes tokens. You get to choose between a green Dark Ritual, Preordain, or massive +1/+1 counters pumping your creatures. Token-heavy decks easily get all these effects at once, and with some +1/+1 counter synergies, you’ll have a massive board in no time. Plus it’s an elf, and I heard that elves usually get together in packs.

#5. Ms. Bumbleflower

Don’t sleep on this cute bunny, for the card is one of the most popular Commanders on EDHREC right now. Ms. Bumbleflower wants you to cast two spells a turn, so you can jump two threats, hit your opponents hard, and draw two cards, while your opponents get some cards as well. You can team up with another player to feed them with cards while you beat up a third. It’s nice to see a proactive group hug commander that just doesn’t idle on the battlefield, making alliances and hoping not to get hit by anyone.

#4. Arcades, the Strategist

Arcades, the Strategist is very high on the list because it’s very easy to build around this card. Just keep playing defenders. Arcades does it all: allows you to attack with your defenders, deals damage based on toughness, and even draws a card when a defender enters. Just pile a bunch of common 0/5 walls for 2 mana, and you get yourself a nice EDH deck. If this wasn’t enough, it’s also an efficient 3/5 flying vigilance dragon for 4 mana.

#3. Derevi, Empyrial Tactician

Derevi, Empyrial Tactician is an interesting stax and cEDH commander, allowing you to put it into play via its activated ability without fear of it getting countered. If you blink it, you can untap your permanents, netting more mana. Cards like Bloom Tender or Basalt Monolith work very well here. Derevi also works very well with cards like Birthing Pod or Neoform since you don’t care much if it dies. It’s a classic Food Chain commander, as well.

#2. Chulane, Teller of Tales

Chulane, Teller of Tales is one of the most straight-forward Bant commanders. Every time you cast a creature, you get a free Growth Spiral. It gives you cards and ramp as a payoff for something you will naturally do—cast creatures. And if that wasn’t enough, you get to bounce back your creature with the best enter effect to get all the goodies again, or just bounce a cheap creature to keep drawing and ramping. 

#1. Noble Hierarch

Noble Hierarch, a card that was the face of Modern for a long time, is our top Bant creature. It generates three colors of mana, and it buffs your others just by being on the battlefield. Many ramp decks will have you ramping out a powerful threat and attacking with it as soon as possible, so why not use a mana dork that also gives these creatures a +1/+1 bonus?

Wrap Up

Ms. Bumbleflower | Illustration by Marta Nael

That concludes my take on the best Bant creatures. These embody the idea of value, of standing still and growing, usually with +1/+1 counters. And as we can see, these Bant decks are usually built around creatures, or enchantments, or even some counter synergies. Forget the Mardu aggression, or the Esper control aspect; here we are firmly in midrange or even combo territory.

What’s your take on my list? Care to add more creatures? Please let me know in the comments section below, or let’s discuss it over in the Draftsim Discord.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you around.