All 8 Demon Lords in Magic Ranked

Raphael, Fiendish Savior | Illustration by Livia Prima

Lords in MTG are creatures or other permanents that help their fellow typal relatives get stronger and do better in combat. These are well-suited for creature types that go wide, or that produce a bunch of small creatures. But demons are none of that. Demons are their own lords and masters, and many of them prefer to work alone. There are, however, a few cards that actually make demons stronger, or help them come to the battlefield earlier.

Today, we’re taking a look at all cards in MTG fit to be called demon lords. There aren’t many, but some of these are really useful. Let’s dive in!

What Are Demon Lords in MTG?

Ancient Cellarspawn | Illustration by Alexandre Honoré

Demon lords in MTG are any permanent that gives demons you control a benefit. Classically, lords give +1/+1 to all the creatures with the same type, but demons are a little different. For starters, they're already huge creatures, and you’re not going wide with demons or making a lot of 1/1 demon tokens. As a consequence, there aren’t that many demon lords, and the benefits they provide are usually abilities like lifelink, which makes more sense. I’m also considering cost reduction for demon creatures.

Honorable Mentions

Kaalia of the Vast is one of the main reasons to have powerful demons in your deck, but it just puts them on the battlefield, which isn’t enough to be a demon lord.

Be'lakor, the Dark Master is another huge payoff for having demons around, but I don’t consider the enters effect Be’lakor provides a lord effect. 

#8. Tiefling Outcasts

We’re kicking things off with an Alchemy-only card from MTG Arena. Tiefling Outcasts is a simple 1-drop that gives +1/+0 to demons, devils, imps, and tieflings. This card makes much more sense when boosting 1/1 devil tokens, but some lesser demons cost between 2-4 mana and could benefit from the small boost.

#7. Séance Board

Séance Board is a scalable mana rock that shaves mana from your demon spells. This card is thematic, as many demon-related cards require sacrifices, like Clavileño, First of the Blessed, Desecration Demon, and the like, so your mana rock usually fits the theme of your deck.

#6. Master of Dark Rites

Speaking of sacrifices, Master of Dark Rites turns any other creature you control into Dark Ritual, arguably a dark rite this creature has mastered over the years. Casting your 7-mana demon on turns 4-5 is no joke, and this card even fixes the heavy black color requirements some demon cards have.

#5. Demonic Covenant

I’m torn on whether or not Demonic Covenant counts as a lord, but it makes the list. Drawing cards when attacking is very relevant, but unfortunately, this card doesn’t scale with the number of attacking demons you control. But demons are kind of solitary, so you’re probably not attacking with many of them. This card is also the only kindred demon card in MTG, so it should help other demons anyway.  

#4. Ancient Cellarspawn

Ancient Cellarspawn gives you cost reduction on demon spells without any prerequisites or questions asked. You also make your opponents lose life when you’re casting demon spells; if nightmares and horrors are your thing, this card gets incidental value with those as well. 

#3. Raphael, Fiendish Savior

Raphael, Fiendish Savior is our true lord, giving demons +1/+1 and lifelink, which ends up being significant when we have larger creatures. Considering that demons have this pesky habit of requiring life payments, these benefits offset the cost.

#2. Ardyn, the Usurper

Eight mana is a lot, and you’re not cheating this into play with Kaalia of the Vast or what have you. But once it’s in play, the combination of lifelink, menace, and haste is huge. Ardyn, the Usurper also provides you with demons, so it’s a standalone card, and it makes for a strong reanimator target since it provides good value just by staying on the battlefield.

#1. Herald of Slaanesh

Herald of Slaanesh is relevant at any point in the game. The 2 mana discount is huge, as is giving your demons haste. This turns something like a 6/6 flying demon into a 4-mana 6/6 hasty creature. The downside is that it’s not black if you’re thinking about mono-black EDH demon decks, but demon decks are often at least Rakdos ().

Wrap Up

Master of Dark Rites | Illustration by Igor Kieryluk

And that’s it for demon lords! Having demons on the battlefield is already a huge payoff, and many decks have engines to reanimate cards like Griselbrand or Valgavoth, Terror Eater, so you already get a significant advantage. The best effects to have around demons are cost reduction, or something like lifelink + haste to ensure you’re connecting and getting a bunch of life.

What do you think about demon lords? Are they really necessary? Do you play any of these? Let me know in the comments section below, or let’s discuss it over Draftsim Discord.

Thanks for reading, and stay safe out there!