The 24 Best Berserkers in Magic Ranked

Last updated on June 20, 2025

Vial Smasher the Fierce | Illustration by N.C. Winters

The best defense is a good offense, as people may say. Or in MTG lingo: Math is for blockers! Berserkers embody the “attack first, questions later” philosophy in many medias, tabletop games, video games, and of course, in Magic. Today we’re taking a look at the best berserkers MTG has ever printed, and reasons to make a berserker typal deck – if any. It’s time to go berserk, so let’s dive in!

What Are Berserkers in MTG?

Falkenrath Gorger | Illustration by Anna Steinbauer

Berserker is a creature type commonly associated with attacking. As such, they’re commonly red creatures, with black as a secondary color.

Legends had Aerathi Berserker, and many creatures from that period were errata’d to also be berserkers, especially those with the rampage ability.

From Mirrodin on, the berserker type was used more often. Berserkers usually have attacking-oriented mechanics like menace, haste, or the now-extinct rampage mechanic – rage-inducing indeed. Another common feature of berserkers is having more power than toughness, or being forced to attack every turn.

#24. Anje’s Ravager

Anje's Ravager is a weird red card that must attack each turn, and whenever it attacks, you discard your hand and draw three cards. Naturally you want to play as many madness cards as possible, ways to take advantage of all that discard, or stay empty-handed. The thing is, a 3/3 that must attack won’t last that long, so maybe you’ll get at best two triggers from this card's ability.

#23. Falkenrath Gorger

Falkenrath Gorger sees play due to being a 2/1 for 1 mana and having vampire synergies. In EDH decks like Anje Falkenrath, giving madness to other vampire cards is huge.

#22. Eradicator Valkyrie

Eradicator Valkyrie is a solid black card to have around, being able to attack and gain you some life. Many white and black cards give you lifelink payoffs, especially if you get 3 or more life at a time, so this card fits in those strategies. Also, you get an optional edict effect whenever you boast it.

#21. Quakebringer

Quakebringer was an interesting red creature in Standard, coming out of the sideboard to extend aggressive decks’ reach. The constant damage is annoying, and so is putting a stop to lifegain. In EDH, I’d add this to a giant deck, and nothing more.

#20. Okaun, Eye of Chaos

Okaun, Eye of Chaos is a wacky yet unreliable card. It’s a coin-flip commander, and it’ll get better the more coin-flipping you’re actually doing in your deck. To strengthen things up, it partners with Zndrsplt, Eye of Wisdom, another coin-flipping card and solid chaos commander. Okaun will sometimes attack as a 6/6, 12/12, or better, but that will require a lot of resources and it doesn’t even have trample natively. It doesn’t get more Johnny than this, I’ll tell you that.

#19. Arni Metalbrow

Arni Metalbrow is very good in decks that want to attack, or decks that have a lot of hasty creatures. Getting to pay 2 mana to put an extra attacker on the board is very interesting, especially if they have cast restrictions. Arni works wonders with cards like Sneak Attack, so you can sneak an expensive creature and pay just 2 more to put in another heavy hitter. It’s good when it works, but sometimes the ability will fizzle.

#18. Skemfar Avenger

MTG has less than 10 elf berserkers, but there’s no shortage of elves in Magic. Skemfar Avenger is excellent in Golgari elf decks like Lathril, Blade of the Elves, even if it says nontoken on the card text. You’ll be drawing a lot of cards on an average elf board. On a little sidenote: On MTG Arena, the Alchemy version has been buffed to trigger on token creatures too.

#17. Khârn the Betrayer

Khârn the Betrayer is a 5/1 that must take part in every combat, if able, and while it looks fragile, the moment it takes damage, you’ll give it to someone else and draw two cards. Note that it can attack you, unlike goaded creatures, or cards like Alexios, Deimos of Kosmos. I like cards that generate these small, crazy minigames.

#16. Alexios, Deimos of Kosmos

Like Khârn the Betrayer, Alexios, Deimos of Kosmos is a berserker that, true to its name, must attack someone other than you each turn. Naturally, the card only gets bigger and it’s fun to watch as it goes around the table. It also has trample to push more and more damage each turn.

#15. Scorn-Blade Berserker

Scorn-Blade Berserker sees its share of Standard play in sacrifice-themed decks. It’s excellent in those decks that care about power 2-or-less creatures, or creatures that have a good death trigger ability. It’s a sacrifice outlet that gives you a card, and it has synergies with creatures that naturally return to the battlefield like Forsaken Miner.

#14. Ankle Shanker

It’s really bad to be a 2/2 creature for 5 mana, especially as a Mardu card. But giving first strike and deathtouch to all your attacking creatures is very good indeed, and a needed buff for your attacking-oriented deck. That alone makes Ankle Shanker good company for your warriors, berserkers, and the like.

#13. Cleaving Reaper

Cleaving Reaper is a threat that keeps returning from the graveyard to your hand if you keep casting angels or berserkers. Similar to what I said with Skemfar Avenger, there are only three angel berserker cards, and since this card requires life payment, it’s better suited for lifegain angel decks.

#12. Flame-Kin Zealot

Flame-Kin Zealot was a dredge staple for many years, and being able to reanimate it to hit with all your Narcomoebas, 2/2 zombie tokens, and Prized Amalgams of this world was often a game over.

#11. Doomskar Titan

Doomskar Titan is a slightly bigger Flame-Kin Zealot that can be used for the same purposes, especially if you’re not into casting them in the first place. It’s also a giant for giant typal decks.

#10. Dragonkin Berserker

Having a 2/2 first strike in play is very good in the early game, and if you don’t need Dragonkin Berserker anymore, you can cash it in for a much better 5/5 dragon. Here, the difference between having 4 and 5 mana is huge, creating an urgency to deal with the card before it can generate dragon tokens.

#9. Garna, Bloodfist of Keld

With Garna, Bloodfist of Keld around, you can really go berserk with little to no punishment. If they block and kill your creatures, you’ll draw a card, and if you sacrifice them outside of combat, you’ll drain your opponents.

#8. Burning-Rune Demon

Getting to tutor two cards alongside a 6/6 flying is very strong, and you’ll get at least one of the cards while Entombing the other one. Burning-Rune Demon is a nice demon to have around, as well as a good blink and reanimation target.

#7. Kardur, Doomscourge

For lovers of the goad mechanic, Kardur, Doomscourge makes for fun board states, especially as a goad commander. It’s very good to make your opponents fight each other while you profit from it. For more uses of this Rakdos commander‘s ETB trigger, consider red cards that make tokens until end of turn, like Delina, Wild Mage or Flamerush Rider.

#6. Warren Instigator

Warren Instigator looks like two Goblin Lackeys duct-taped together, both in abilities and mana value, and the effect is quite similar. Unfortunately, the difference between and is huge, but sometimes you’ll be able to cheat two big goblins from your hand into play by hitting with the Instigator.

#5. Magda, the Hoardmaster

While not as combo-rific as Magda, Brazen Outlaw, this version of Magda is still a nice addition to EDH decks all around, or even as a red commander. Getting a treasure token when you commit crimes shows that crime indeed does pay (pun intended). Whether you’re burning their creatures, stealing them with cards like Act of Treason, or just using artifacts that target like Codex Shredder, you’ll constantly commit crimes to trigger Magda, the Hoardmaster.

#4. Bloodbraid Challenger

Bloodbraid Challenger looks like Bloodbraid Elf’s bigger brother, having a slightly bigger body and the escape ability. A better option in EDH most definitely, but at the same time, cascade is a little more dicey in EDH unless you’re building around that or playing cards from exile.

#3. Bloodbraid Elf

A Jund staple in Modern and other formats for many years, Bloodbraid Elf is so efficient. This card packs a 3/2 haste punch, as well as a cascade trigger, so you’re guaranteed to hit action even against counterspells. It shines in decks filled with 3-MV cards, so you get the most out of the cascade trigger.

#2. Magda, Brazen Outlaw

Magda, Brazen Outlaw is a strong combo commander, even seeing some cEDH play. The idea is to have some cheap changelings and dwarves that will attack, boosted by Magda, and make Treasures that will later be sacrificed to cheat a dragon or a powerful artifact into play. It works well with vehicles that will be crewed by dwarves, generating more Treasure. The combo usually requires tapping and untapping dwarves to create a large amount of Treasure tokens, while having Reckless Fireweaver in play to win.

#1. Vial Smasher the Fierce

Vial Smasher the Fierce is a classic partner commander, ready to turn the mana value of your spells toward your opponents’ faces. Of course, this Rakdos card shines with cost reduction mechanics like delve and undaunted, or alternate casting costs. It’s also a good reason to partner it with blue commanders, so you can spend a bunch of mana and draw cards while killing a threat – or even a player.

Best Berserker Payoffs

Now that we’ve seen the best berserkers MTG has to offer, let’s take a look at cards that make running berserkers worth it

Lovisa Coldeyes is the straight-up best incentive to run berserkers as a creature type by giving them +2/+2. Especially considering that we can cast cards like Rise of the Dread Marn or Reckless Crew and flood the board with 2-power berserker tokens that will be upgraded to 4-power creatures.

To this day, the only MTG set that gave a typal benefit to berserkers is Kaldheim (KLD), and even this set has a light touch. The Bloodsky Massacre is a great example from KLD, giving you a 2/3 berserker, card draw when you attack, and even mana generation.

Skemfar Avenger is life insurance for your berserkers and elves. It’s easier to go wide with elves, but if you’re playing berserkers, you’re not leaving this guy out.

Cleaving Reaper will keep returning to your hand if you cast berserkers, so it’s a fine addition to a berserker Commander deck knowing you’ll always have one in the command zone to trigger the Reaper’s ability.

We can always count on generic typal support stuff to fill in our berserker ranks. We can resort to Maskwood Nexus, Realmwalker, Black Market Connections, and the like.

Commanding Conclusion

Bloodbraid Elf | Illustration by Raymond Swanland

There are hundreds of berserker cards printed, plenty of them worth including in your decks. The thing is, there’s not a huge incentive to do a berserker-dedicated deck, outside of a few cards. Even though a set like Kaldheim had berserkers as one of its main themes, no such berserker deck existed, even in Standard or Limited.

But here’s hoping that a new berserker commander gets printed in a supplemental set!

What do you think about berserkers in MTG? Have you ever put together a Lovisa Coldeyes deck? Let me know in the comments below, or over in the Draftsim Discord!