The 48 Best Clerics in Magic Ranked

Last updated on January 28, 2026

Orah, Skyclave Hierophant | Illustration by Heonhwa Choe

In Magic, white creatures are known for their lifegain and protection effects. Black creatures are known for sacrifice and reanimation effects. Both colors have a fondness for small, aggressive creatures with life-related abilities. Naturally, the life-draining creature-sacrificing cleric became one of Orzhov‘s () main creature types to represent.

Clerics have long been a part of Magic, with various outings as an important creature type in sets like Scourge and Zendikar Rising. They have just enough support to encourage Commander players to keep sleeving up cleric decks.

What Are Clerics in MTG?

The Destined White Mage | Illustration by David Rapoza

Clerics in MTG are creatures with the “cleric” subtype. They’ve appeared in all of Magic’s colors but are especially prevalent in the Orzhov () color identity. Typically, clerics have abilities that deal with lifegain, creature sacrifice, creature protection, reanimation, or some combination therein. They’ve become a beloved and iconic creature type over time as players fell in love with cards like Mother of Runes and Soul Warden. Cleric typal decks tend to be creature decks that go wide and have ways to manipulate life totals and the graveyard to their advantage.

I’ll mostly be looking at these MTG cards through the lens of a Commander cleric typal strategy, but I’ll note when cards are relevant elsewhere.

#48. Vizier of Tumbling Sands

This blue creature is most often used as a support card in combo decks that want to untap permanents. Vizier of Tumbling Sands‘ cycling ability is actually mana-positive when you untap a Lotus Field with it, which is probably where most copies of this human cleric will be found nowadays.

#47. Marauding Blight-Priest

Marauding Blight-Priest is generally underwhelming, but it goes infinite with Exquisite Blood or Bloodthirsty Conqueror to win the game immediately, making this vampire cleric a very important black creature to include if you want those combo finishes.

#46. Starscape Cleric

Functionally a 2-mana Marauding Blight-Priest, the primary use case of this black card is game-winning combos with Exquisite Blood and Bloodthirsty Conqueror.

#45. Bishop of Wings

If you missed your stop at angel typal and now you’re stuck in the cleric side of town, Bishop of Wings can get you where you’re going. If backed up by plenty of angels, Bishop of Wings gains tons of life and makes at least a few tokens.

#44. Twilight Prophet

If your deck can enable the city’s blessing early, Twilight Prophet likely puts in some good work. At 4 mana, you’ll really want to make sure that it’s actually active more often than not, though.

#43. Kaalia, Zenith Seeker

The enters trigger on Kaalia, Zenith Seeker demands a deck built with angels, demons, and dragons in mind. In a deck that can both blink this Mardu card () and reliably find at least two cards when it triggers, this makes for a powerful creature to have in the command zone.

#42. Grand Abolisher

Grand Abolisher is a staple of stax decks in Commander that look to slow the pace of the game and prevent opponents from meaningfully interacting. Once this is down on your side of the battlefield, your opponents are helpless to stop you during your turn. You’ll be free to execute a combo win, build your board presence, or otherwise enact your game plan.

Cleric typal strategies can take or leave Grand Abolisher, but it’s a creature I’d never feel bad about including in a creature deck.

#41. Taborax, Hope’s Demise

In an aristocratic clerics deck, Taborax, Hope's Demise will draw you plenty of cards as nontoken clerics die and are likely brought back from the grave later. Otherwise, there are better 3-mana creatures for aristocrats decks.

#40. Nullpriest of Oblivion

Nullpriest of Oblivion is one of the best cheap creatures for reanimator strategies. A 2-mana 2/1 with menace and lifelink is a completely acceptable aggressive creature in the early game. Kicking this for 6 later on and reanimating something absurd like a Valgavoth, Terror Eater is also completely acceptable. Neither mode is best-in-class, but its flexibility is where the power lies.

#39. Luminarch Aspirant

Very quickly becoming a staple of white creature decks after its printing in Zendikar Rising, Luminarch Aspirant is simple, reliable, and most importantly, effective. +1/+1 counter strategies are quite common in Commander, and it’s difficult to ask for a better 2-drop in those decks.

#38. Strict Proctor

On a first read, Strict Proctor looks like it’s supposed to be another stax-style card, and that’s one way to use it. But the lesson this spirit cleric wants to teach is that the most important part of symmetrical effects is breaking parity. Sure, it’ll counter your opponents’ triggers, but the more important part is that it counters Lotus Field’s enters trigger, allowing Pioneer and Modern players to exploit this hyper-efficient land in combo and control decks.

#37. Containment Priest

Containment Priest is a classic sideboard piece against strategies that cheat out creatures. It really only sees play depending on what’s meta-relevant, but it’s been known to absolutely blow out a Collected Company or a reanimation strategy.

In Commander, it sees play in stax-style decks that play hate pieces to slow down the opponents.

#36. Essence Channeler + Voice of the Blessed

There have been numerous riffs on Ajani's Pridemate over the years. Essence Channeler is easily one of the strongest. Not only will this bat cleric get massive over the course of a game, but it can hand off the +1/+1 counters it earned when it dies, turning another creature into an equally massive threat. I’ll mention Voice of the Blessed here too, as it’s similar in effect and power level.

#35. Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim

Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim is a solid sacrifice engine for an aristocrats deck. If you’re looking to sacrifice permanents and gain life, this is a great 2-drop for the occasion. It’s also worth noting that this kor cleric is an Orzhov commander that can be built with a Lurrus of the Dream-Den companion, if you’re into that sort of thing.

#34. Ethersworn Canonist

Ethersworn Canonist is a staple of artifact decks in Commander, especially potent in ones that want to slow their opponents down. It’ll slow the table to a crawl, and only players with a high density of artifacts can play the game at a reasonable pace.

#33. Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose

A legendary cleric that goes infinite with Exquisite Blood (or the newer Bloodthirsty Conqueror from Foundations) is more than solid. Clerics and vampires are all about lifegain, so Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose’s ability triggers often regardless. Giving the entire team lifelink can swing the game in your favor considering the drain ability, too.

#32. Minwu, White Mage

Minwu, White Mage shines in a lifegain deck filled with clerics. The best part of this card is that many lifegain enablers and payoffs are actually clerics, so you should have no problem if you stick this card in an Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim or Orah, Skyclave Hierophant deck.

#31. Selfless Glyphweaver / Deadly Vanity

One of the weaknesses of a go-wide Commander deck is the prevalence of board wipes. Selfless Glyphweaver functions as protection for your board in most games, while the admittedly expensive Deadly Vanity can be cast if you draw this later and need to make a comeback.

#30. Sanctifier en-Vec

Sanctifier en-Vec packs some extra power for a color-hate creature. If your Commander tables have been terrorized by black and/or red graveyard decks for far too long, this is the cleric to include to fight back.

#29. Archivist of Oghma

If you’re playing at tables that tend to be higher power, where players are constantly tutoring and cracking their fetch lands, Archivist of Oghma makes for a great value piece. Being a 2-mana cleric with flash makes it good enough to run in cleric typal regardless of power level, though.

#28. Mikaeus, the Lunarch

You don’t have to pump tons of mana into Mikaeus, the Lunarch to make it worth it. If your board is wide enough, activating this just once or twice should be plenty. I’m not sure about it in cleric decks, since they're rarely focused on +1/+1 counters. I’ve seen this card succeed in human typal, though, where stacking up counters on the team is a key element of the strategy.

#27. Elegy Acolyte

Elegy Acolyte is one of the best payoffs for making void work in MTG. I like that it scales in EDH, as hitting three different players gives you three cards, but it’s perfectly fine in 1v1. Plus, it’s a 4/4 lifelinker that can give you a 2/2 here and there, and that’s a perfectly playable card in my book.

#26. Alpharael, Stonechosen

Cards that make players lose half their life usually call people’s attention, as there are a few ways to win by combining two of these effects. Alpharael, Stonechosen is one of these, and you can combine it with cards that make players lose twice the amount of life to straight up win, like Bloodletter of Aclazotz. You have to jump through a few hoops, but at least the ward ability hurts players that try to remove it.

#25. Moon-Blessed Cleric

Tutors are powerful cards, especially in singleton formats like Commander. There are undeniably better tutors for enchantments, but Moon-Blessed Cleric is a creature (and a cleric at that!), which makes it far more interactable than an Enlightened Tutor. You can blink this, reanimate it, sacrifice it after you’re done with it, or any number of other shenanigans. Whether this card is on the battlefield, in your hand, or in the graveyard, you’ll often have the option of tutoring an enchantment. That can be removal, a combo piece, silver bullet answers, Animate Dead, The Meathook Massacre, or just about anything your heart desires.

#24. Ramunap Excavator

The one sentence on Ramunap Excavator is a powerful one. This green creature is similar to Crucible of Worlds. Any lands that naturally end up in the graveyard are worth considering with this snake cleric, whether you’re just guaranteeing your land drops with fetch lands, locking an opponent out of the game with Strip Mine, or bringing back your used-up lands like Urza's Saga.

#23. The Destined White Mage

The Destined White Mage shines if you have a full party. The ability to put three +1/+1 counters on a creature you control each time you gain life is absurd, and it even enables the lifegain on its own. But even when your party isn’t completely filled, you can boost your strongest creature with lifegain and put a +1/+1 counter on it.

#22. Mangara, the Diplomat

Four mana is a lot for just the hope of drawing cards, but Mangara, the Diplomat might simply draw enough cards to be worth it. Casting two spells in a turn is pretty common, and if you ever draw the table’s aggression you’ll draw even more.

#21. Doomed Necromancer

Once the Doomed Necromancer stays on the table for a turn, you essentially get to cast Reanimate. That’s one of the best Magic cards of all time, so don’t take that for granted. Unfortunately, this mercenary cleric can only target cards in your graveyard, but it’s still a great deal.

#20. Aerith Gainsborough

Aerith Gainsborough isn’t just another card in the long line of Ajani's Pridemate lookalikes. The lifelink ability helps Aerith to work alone, and it can do a great job in the red zone with a little help. But the best ability is the +1/+1 counter transfer to all your other legendary creatures, and that alone justifies putting it in a legendary-matters deck.

#19. Priest of Forgotten Gods

The most powerful cards in Magic tend to be ones that generate multiple resources at the same time, or ones that reward you for taking the game actions that you’d be taking regardless. Priest of Forgotten Gods is exactly like that for sacrifice strategies. This human cleric rewards you with both mana and cards (the two most important resources in Magic) for sacrificing creatures (what your deck was going to do anyway). Sacrificing two creatures at a time might seem a steep cost, but the reward is disproportionately high.

#18. Ondu Spiritdancer

While not primed for a cleric typal deck, Ondu Spiritdancer is a very strong white creature in decks that focus their strategy on enchantments. Make a token copy of your Overlord of the Mistmoors or double up on your Nyxbloom Ancient. The limit on this card is really your imagination, but it is a bit slow.

#17. Lunarch Veteran + The Soul Sisters

No, that isn’t an (awesome) obscure band’s name. This slot encompasses Lunarch Veteran, Soul Warden, Soul's Attendant, Hinterland Sanctifier, and any other Soul Sisters cards with this effect, especially at 1 mana. In lifegain decks with lots of creatures, these are the groundwork that make the strategy tick. Every creature comes with a little bit of life, which triggers any lifegain effects like Marauding Blight-Priest or Essence Channeler. Lunarch Veteran’s disturb ability pushes it over the top and makes it the card I’d pick to represent the category.

#16. Edgewalker

This card is definitely narrow, but it (ahem) walks that edge very nicely. Edgewalker makes your clerics cost less to cast. This cost reduction means that your commander is extra cheap, and cards like Cleric of Life's Bond and Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim become free spells. It also makes the rest of the clerics in the deck at least 1 mana cheaper. It’s a seriously strong effect specifically for clerics.

#15. Cleric of Life’s Bond

In a deck completely full of clerics, Cleric of Life's Bond is a mightily efficient engine piece. Both acting as a Soul Warden and a Voice of the Blessed at the same time. Not bad in the slightest.

#14. Umbral Collar Zealot

Free sacrifice outlets like Viscera Seer and its bigger brother Umbral Collar Zealot are good. The Zealot has a bigger body, so it does something on its own. Adding a surveil to the mix means you fill the graveyard with both sacrificed cards and surveilled cards, so you can use the Zealot in more than one strategy.

#13. Metamorphosis Fanatic

Metamorphosis Fanatic is a great card to put in any black EDH deck that actually uses its graveyard, be it with cycling or with milling. When I first read this card, I immediately thought of finality counters, but it’s actually better. A free reanimate spell on a solid 4/4 body is strong, and the reanimated creature returns even stronger with lifelink. And what if you miracle it for just 2 mana? I don’t mind paying 6 for this effect, but it’s broken when it actually costs .

#12. Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim

Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim is like the member of the Soul Sisters that went solo and got edgy. This Phyrexian cleric puts in double the work of its 1-mana counterparts, and it even comes with deathtouch as a bonus, likely leaving you the target of fewer attacks.

#11. Selfless Spirit

Selfless Glyphweaver from earlier was a callback to Selfless Spirit. The original is significantly more powerful. With an indestructible ability tied to sacrifice, it's trivially easy to get this back on the field again and again. It’s a fantastic card in any go-wide creature strategy, but it's a real all-star in an Orah, Skyclave Hierophant cleric deck.

#10. Shadow-Rite Priest

Shadow-Rite Priest has the exclusive honor of being a cleric typal lord, which is more than welcome. It also has one of the most terrifying activated abilities ever. You can pay 5 mana and sacrifice another cleric to find any black creature and put it onto the battlefield.

#9. Yuna, Hope of Spira

Yuna, Hope of Spira made a small dent in Constructed thanks to its enchantment reanimation ability. And you can do that every turn for free! This works wonders with Omniscience, Summon: Knights of Round, Summon: Bahamut, or other powerful and expensive enchantment cards.

#8. Giver of Runes

Giver of Runes, like every creature with this tap ability, is incredibly powerful. Whether it’s protecting your commander from removal or allowing a Colossus Hammer-equipped creature to go unblocked, instant-speed color protection is an invaluable tool. Being a cleric is a bonus.

#7. Kaalia of the Vast

Kaalia of the Vast is designed to helm a Commander deck focused on cheating out big scary creatures. That attack trigger can put down some truly despicable creatures, so that’s the primary strategy of a deck with Kaalia.

#6. Mother of Runes

Giver of Runes is a fantastic card, but there’s always a good reason to respect your elders. The key difference for Mother of Runes is that it can protect itself, which means that an untapped Mother of Runes without summoning sickness is difficult to deal with. You can even block with it and then tap it to protect itself from the color of the creature that it blocked.

#5. Tymna the Weaver

Tymna the Weaver is one of the most popular partner commanders in Magic, and it makes up one half of the infamous “Blue Farm” cEDH commander pairing. Alongside evasive creatures, this cleric draws you tons of cards each turn.

#4. Guide of Souls

Self-sufficiently powerful in Commander as a cleric with yet another Soul Warden effect, Guide of Souls is notable for its role as one of the most powerful cards in Modern’s Boros and Mardu Energy decks. It both provides energy and spends it to turn creatures into powerful threats.

#3. White Plume Adventurer

Alright, most of this list has focused on Commander – and White Plume Adventurer is a perfectly fine card in its home format – but it’s so far up here for its own reason. This is the only cleric that’s banned in Legacy. Legacy is Magic’s strongest Eternal format that still bans cards for power level reasons, and this 3-mana 3/3 is among that elite class of cards. Other than companions, which had their own problems, and Grief, which can be cast for free, White Plume Adventurer is actually the highest mana value creature banned in Legacy. The point is that in 60-card one-versus-one competitive Magic, the initiative is such a fundamentally broken mechanic that a 3-mana 3/3 that doesn’t really do much else is banned in one of the game’s most powerful formats.

#2. Orah, Skyclave Hierophant

Orah, Skyclave Hierophant is the most common commander for cleric typal decks, and it’s no secret why. Many of the clerics throughout Magic’s history have had sacrifice themes, but most typal strategies wouldn’t want to sacrifice their own creatures. Orah finds a middle ground by turning every sacrificed or otherwise dead cleric into a cheaper one from your graveyard. This allows you to supercharge the value of creatures like Taborax, Hope's Demise and recycle enter the battlefield triggers of cards like Soul Warden.

#1. Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, aside from being the marquee card of a Modern creature combo deck, is the perfect legendary cleric for any sort of sacrifice-matters or aristocrats strategy. I mean, it’s a nearly free sacrifice outlet that draws cards and can even kill small creatures. It just oozes value.

In cleric typal, there’s hardly a game state that would be better without Yawgmoth, Thran Physician. If this card weren’t mono-black, it’d be the strongest commander for the role by far.

Best Cleric Payoffs

If cleric typal is your goal, you’ll want plenty of payoffs for what clerics do best. I’d recommend Orah, Skyclave Hierophant in the command zone, too, since recurring sacrificed clerics is a powerful play pattern.

Many clerics support a lifegain theme. The Soul Warden style effects pair incredibly well with Leonardo, Cutting Edge and Voice of the Blessed. You’ll also slowly be draining opponents with creatures like Marauding Blight-Priest and Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose. Conveniently, many of the cards that pay off your lifegain happen to be clerics themselves.

There’s also Bloodthirsty Conqueror and Exquisite Blood, which despite not being clerics themselves, go infinite with Starscape Cleric, Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose, and Marauding Blight-Priest, so they’re still one of your strongest payoffs.

There are some cards that are designed to shine in typal Commander decks of all varieties. Cavern of Souls, Roaming Throne, Adaptive Automaton, and Banner of Kinship are some prevalent examples. I’ll give a special shout to Black Market Connections which runs beautifully in a cleric typal deck.

Pyre of Heroes is an incredible artifact in a cleric typal deck, as sacrificing your creatures was already on the itinerary. Paired with Orah, Skyclave Hierophant, this’ll skyrocket your gameplan’s effectiveness. When you sacrifice one cleric to Pyre of Heroes with Orah on the battlefield, you’ll get a cheaper cleric from the graveyard and a more expensive one from the deck, either of which can be the next tribute to your Pyre.

Zendikar Rising‘s/Baldur's Gate’s “party” mechanic is another form of cleric support. Commanders like Nalia de'Arnise and Burakos, Party Leader are designed with this mechanic in mind. Archpriest of Iona is a cleric that works well with a party-focused strategy. The Destined White Mage can be a very strong full-party payoff if you have some means to gain life. Putting three +1/+1 counters on a creature each time you gain life is no joke.

Clerics aren’t known for their battle stats, but there are some cleric lords you might be interested in. Shadow-Rite Priest is a straight-up cleric lord that allows you to get rid of the weaker ones and search for a better creature. Minwu, White Mage, on the other hand, is a payoff for lifegain, and you’ll get to put a +1/+1 counter on each cleric you control, including Minwu itself.

Clerical Closer

Giver of Runes | Illustration by Seb McKinnon

From Mother of Runes to Zoraline, Cosmos Caller, clerics have long remained a powerful creature type in Magic. Cleric typal strategies in Commander are more supported than they’ve ever been, and Wizards of the Coast has shown no signs of being done with this classic creature type, so I’m sure there’s more to come.

What’s your favorite cleric in Commander? Are your tables cutthroat enough for all of those Exquisite Blood combos? What genre would you expect to hear at a Lunarch Veteran & the Soul Sisters show, live at the Starlit Sanctum? Give us your thoughts in the comments below or on the Draftsim community Discord.

Until next time, stay safe!