The 33 Best Devil Cards in Magic Ranked

Last updated on September 11, 2026

Devils' Playground | Illustration by Wayne England

Hello planeswalkers! Whether in life or in Magic, I’m often faced with decisions where the outcomes can be very good or very bad. But sometimes being bad feels so good… Guess you could say I’ve got an angel and devil on each shoulder. Angels are great, but the devil is winning the argument today.

Devils appear through all kinds of art, myths, folk tales, and pop culture, but no matter your understanding of the Devil or devils in general, fire, mischief, and darkness are likely to follow. Devils in MTG are no different and bring these aspects to your builds.

There are red, black, and Rakdos () decks that can benefit from devil creatures, but where do they fit? Are devils good tribal creatures, or even good creatures in general? Follow me through the fire and the flames to find out!

What Are Devils in MTG?

Chained Brute | Illustration by Dan Scott

Devil is a creature type that first appeared in the Arabian Nights set in 1993 with Stone-Throwing Devil (which has been completely removed from MTG because of offensive and derogatory depictions). The devil creature type has evolved since then, and they’ve become decent and competitive cards.

MTG's devils are self-indulgent and impulsive creatures similar to the demons that focus on dealing combat and noncombat damage. Most devils were printed in various Innistrad sets or Streets of New Capenna, but they're not exclusive to those settings.

#33. Squealing Devil

Squealing Devil is a small hard-to-block creature that can also pump another creature. It's a totally okay small creature for Rakdos decks that also has value in the later game.

#32. Tibalt’s Rager

Tibalt's Rager threatens a little punishment for your opponent when it dies. It's Limited fodder, but trades well in combat.

#31. Scalding Devil

The ability to do damage repeatedly without attacking is great toward winning in stalled out matches. Scalding Devil allows you to do one damage for every 3 mana you use. It's generally outclassed by creatures with similar abilities, but more synergy or better stats.

#30. Gibbering Fiend

Gibbering Fiend is a small creature that can slowly ping your opponents each turn. The key is that the delirium ability triggers on opponents‘ turns, so this represents 3 damage per turn cycle, with the guaranteed ping on ETB.

#29. Pyretic Prankster / Glistening Goremonger

The Goblin Piker that is Pyretic Prankster becomes an expensive way to get to Glistening Goremonger which would be great if this was an MDFC. You really need to play with devils and sacrifice payoffs to make this worth it.

#28. Havoc Jester

There’s a better multicolored aristocrat devil, but Havoc Jester is still a consideration for sacrifice decks. Consider this the much worse, mono-colored backup copy of a card you'll be seeing towards the top of this list.

#27. Vexing Devil

There was a time where turn-1 Vexing Devil was a hallmark play for red burn decks, but those strategies need more staying power to keep up these days. Four damage for 1 mana is still a good rate, but people just aren't taking the gamble on 4x Vexing Devils in their decks anymore, and the card's borderline unplayable in Commander.

#26. Impetuous Devils

Impetuous Devils is a way to force your opponent to get rid of their small important non-attacking creatures. You get a big swinger with trample, and this acts like a removal spell. The unfortunate downside is that you don’t get much board presence and have to sacrifice it even if your opponent has no creatures to target.

#25. Body Dropper

You're happy to let the bodies hit the floor with Body Dropper in play. It's a sac outlet and payoff in one, though an appropriately common one that doesn't warrent much play outside Streets of New Capenna Limited.

#24. Festival Crasher

Prowess-like abilities are always great in red, especially in Limited formats. Festival Crasher gets a decent pump for each instant or sorcery spell you play, making it a decent addition for aggressive, storm, and burn decks that use red.

#23. Auntie Blyte, Bad Influence

Auntie Blyte, Bad Influence makes for a great group slug commander! Self-damage is a pretty unique archetype for red, most recently supported by some Daredevil cards in Marvel Super Heroes. This is a great option for shaking up the usual red tendancies, and it's pretty effective, too.

#22. Big Spender

Let’s look at an Alchemy devil for those of you who enjoy the format. Big Spender creates Treasures if at least one of your creatures is blocked each turn. This can ramp up your mana quickly, or you can use the Treasures to draft a spell from Big Spender’s spellbook.

The spellbook is a flavorful artifact store with cards like Gilded Lotus, Heraldic Banner, and Zephyr Boots.

#21. Rakdos Headliner

Rakdos Headliner was a pretty scary 2-drop to see in Modern Horizons 2 Drafts, though it hasn't found a home outside of Limited. You have to be going incredibly hard on madness or other discard synergies to justify the steep echo cost.

#20. Flayer of the Hatebound

Flayer of the Hatebound is a card dedicated to reanimator strategies: When a creature enters from the graveyard, you deal damage equal to its power.

Need bonus value? It has undying, so it can return to the battlefield on its own. The 6-mana cost is harsh, but you are playing this in a reanimation deck, aren't you?

#19. Witty Roastmaster

The alliance strategy with cards like Witty Roastmaster and Raphael, Tough Turtle sees a lot of play, and together with a token spammer like Krenko, Mob Boss, these cards can do work. You’ll both benefit token generation and support the many legendary creatures that care about pinging or dealing noncombat damage.

#18. Sin Prodder

I enjoy cards that force your opponent to make tough decisions. First, it's very fun. Second, they might make a huge mistake. Sin Prodder either draws extra cards or deals passive damage, neither of which your opponent will be happy with, though milling a land is always painful for you.

#17. Chained Brute

Aggressive decks love big creatures that don’t cost much. Chained Brute costs 2 mana for a 4/3 creature that doesn’t untap on your untap step. It's a solid creature because sacrificing creatures is often a specialty of decks running other devil creatures.

#16. Pain Distributor

At first you might think Pain Distributor is a group hug card, but it becomes an excellent aristocrat that goes nicely with any artifact destruction you can unleash. It's also a great punisher for anyone using lots of treasures, clues, and other artifact tokens.

#15. Charmbreaker Devils

There are a lot of prowess-like pumps in MTG, but the +4/+0 of Charmbreaker Devils is elite. Six mana for a 4/4 creature was more justifiable 10+ years ago, but you still get an instant or sorcery spell back from the graveyard each turn, which is the reason you're running this card at all.

#14. Zurzoth, Chaos Rider

Bring on the chaos! Zurzoth, Chaos Rider is some 3-mana spice to add variety to your games. Attacking people with devils forces everyone to start drawing and discarding at random. I usually stay clear of random cards, but Zurzoth is just plain devilish fun.

#13. Fiendish Duo

Damage doublers are a dime a dozen now, so Fiendish Duo isn't winning any points for creativity. Effectiveness, however….

The main appeal here is that this devilish duo doubles all damage to your opponents, even if it's not coming from a source you control. So there's a political aspect to the card if someone starts getting out of control. It also effectively attacks as a 10/5 when it hits another player.

#12. The Beamtown Bullies

The Beamtown Bullies lets you build a fun deck in which you can include strange cards with downsides and “donate” them to your opponents. Cards like Leveler and Inverter of Truth can effectively kill your opponents, but a cooler approach uses cards like Hunted Wumpus and Hellcarver Demon.

#11. Devilish Valet

Invite all your creatures to the party! Don’t worry about parking, we have a valet.

Devilish Valet is a brilliant creature that doubles its power for each creature that hits your board, the catch being that the power-scaling only lasts for a turn. Trample means this creature becomes deadly when you can cast or create a lot of creatures in one turn. Something as simple as Hordeling Outburst makes this an 8/3 trampler for the turn.

#10. Hellrider

Bon Scott voice: “I'm on the highway to Hell.” AC/DC would agree that Hellrider is a fantastic devil creature. Attacking creatures do 1 extra point of damage to the player or planeswalker they’re attacking. There's a reason Hellrider still shows up in the occasional high-power Cube.

#9. Carnage Interpreter

Carnage Interpreter is a 3/3 menace creature that makes you discard your hand, but you’ll profit from this since it becomes a 5/5 when you’re hellbent. So we’re already talking about a 5/5 menace beater for 3 mana. What’s more, this card investigates four times, so you can both draw cards in the later turns and also trigger some artifact synergies.

#8. Bedlam Reveler

Bedlam Reveler is a red control deck dream card. The huge mana value can be reduced with all your removal and draw spells that keep you in the game. It then gives you a small hand refill to build up more spells and take advantage of its prowess ability. This has occasionally been a key piece of various Constructed formats as the endgame of red spell-based control decks.

#7. Lorcan, Warlock Collector

There are many collections in MTG, so why not collect warlocks? Lorcan, Warlock Collector is a big, expensive flier that reanimates your opponent's creatures. The downsides are the mana value and the life payment required to bring creatures back. There are tons of ways to navigate these problems in the Eternal formats, like Dark Ritual and Whip of Erebos.

#6. Henzie “Toolbox” Torre

Jund () is a perfect color trio for the blitz keyword. Henzie “Toolbox” Torre lets you drop the Timmiest of Jund creatures with ease, and removing it from play only increase the discount you get on your blitz costs.

#5. Asmodeus the Archfiend

Asmodeus the Archfiend isn’t for the average MTG player. At face value you get a big creature and the ability to trade life for card draw. Skilled players can often turn the disadvantages of a card like this into advantages with the right synergy pieces. Magus of the Mirror and Soul Conduit come to mind.

One quirk with Asmodeus is that if it's not in play, it won't exile the cards you draw. So one trick is to activate the ability, then sacrifice it in response to draw a new hand.

#4. Mahadi, Emporium Master

With Mahadi, Emporium Master you can gain the mana advantage from all your creatures dying. This fits fantastically into the sacrifice and aggressive creature mentality of Rakdos. Mahadi is a great Rakdos card for Commander decks focused on sacrificing or killing large swathes of creatures.

#3. Wildfire Devils

Reusing instants and sorceries is a key part of many decks, and Wildfire Devils lets you reuse your and your opponent’s spells randomly for no mana! This takes advantage of all your burn and removal spells, plus whatever powerful instants and sorceries your opponent is rocking. Another random effect, but one that rarely goes poorly for you.

#2. Raphael, Fiendish Savior

Raphael, Fiendish Savior is a multi-tribal accelerator. It gives a lot of the major Rakdos creature types a pump as well as lifelink. Raphael fits so well into many of the Rakdos archetypes bent on overwhelming your opponent with little pings and dying effects.

#1. Mayhem Devil

If there’s a more popular devil in MTG, please stand up. Thought not.

Mayhem Devil is the quintessential aristocrat payoff. The sheer number of pings you get with this sitting in play is unreasonable, especially since it counts permanents your opponents are sacrificing too. That makes it an ideal card both for and against sacrifice decks.

Devil Token-Makers

• Burn Down the House
• Dance with Devils
• Devils' Playground
• Make Mischief
• Pugnacious Pugilist
• Spiked Corridor // Torture Pit
• Tibalt, Rakish Instigator
• Tibalt, Wicked Tormentor
• Zariel, Archduke of Avernus
• Zurzoth, Chaos Rider
• Ob Nixilis, the Adversary
• Raphael, Fiendish Savior
• Maestros Diabolist

Best Devil Payoffs

As a creature type, devils don’t have many payoffs. Raphael, Fiendish Savior is the best. Rakdos, the Showstopper could be another good option, but in both cases, you’ll want to play some demons along with your devils.

All devil tokens deal 1 damage to any target when they die. Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin and Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph benefit from dealing exactly 1 point of damage. Noncombat damage amplifiers are also effective. Cards that care about noncombat damage, like Niv-Mizzet, Visionary and Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might will do a good job here.

You can also consider mechanics like bloodthirst and spectacle, and Draft archetypes like the Bloomburrow Lizards, which turn on whenever an opponent is dealt damage. Rakdos, Lord of Riots, Spawn of Mayhem, or Gev, Scaled Scorch are good options in this space.

Devils are right at home in Rakdos aristocrats decks since they include both sacrifice fodder and sacrifice outlets, as well as aristocrats cards. Juri, Master of the Revue or Mayhem Devil are quite at home in this strategy.

Wrap Up

Sin Prodder | Illustration by Jack Wang

All right, the devil on my shoulder’s gotten a little heavy while writing this. If you’re considering mono-red or Rakdos, I hope you’ve gained a little more appreciation for what devil cards can do for these builds.

Have you got sympathies for devil tribal? Which are your favorite devils in Magic? Let us know in the comments below or in the Draftsim Discord. And check out The Daily Upkeep newsletter to stay up to date on all the latest MTG news.

The devil is in the details, so get out there and comb through your Magic collection!