The 27 Best Edict Creatures in Magic Ranked

Gravelighter | Illustration by Miranda Meeks

I've always loved Fleshbag Marauder. It feels like such a powerful effect, especially when you build around it and wring as much value from that puss-bag as you can.

But the world of edict creatures goes deeper than a 3/1 zombie. You can make your opponents sacrifice far more than just creatures and get much more explosive effects. Let's look at the best!

What Are Edict Creatures in MTG?

Accursed Marauder | Illustration by Paolo Parente

Edict creatures are creatures with abilities that force one or more of your opponents, and potentially yourself, to sacrifice one or more permanents. These effects are commonly tied to enters abilities (see: Fleshbag Marauder) but the edict effect can be tied to upkeep triggers, attack triggers, even activated abilities.

I only included creatures that always make your opponents sacrifice permanents—nothing like Rottenmouth Viper that makes them sacrifice a permanent unless they do something else. While those are respectable effects, they fall outside what I want to show here.

#27. Akki Blizzard-Herder

Akki Blizzard-Herder goes straight for the throat by eliminating lands. Its strong death trigger means it pairs nicely with other edict creatures or cards like Baloth Prime that reward you for sacrificing lands.

#26. Anowon, the Ruin Sage + Ruthless Winnower

Anowon, the Ruin Sage and Ruthless Winnower are effectively the same card: They’re both typal payoffs that punish your opponents for not running vampires or elves rather than reward you for playing the creature type. It's a novel twist on typal synergies, though these cards are admittedly slow in the current climate.

#25. Lord Xander, the Collector

Lord Xander, the Collector only delivers its edict when it dies, so you must sacrifice it. You can build a vile engine with cards like Malakir Rebirth that let you sacrifice Xander then rebuy the enters trigger to shred an opponent's hand.

#24. Wasteland Raider

Wasteland Raider scales for the Commander players with squad. Access to a mana sink or two makes your late game better. This card's power depends on your local meta; I like it if you constantly play against ramp or Voltron decks that develop a few key threats, but it falls flat against token and other go-wide piles.

#23. Goremand

Most edict creatures make each player sacrifice a creature, but Goremand only makes your opponents sacrifice, so it's one of the better edict creatures to flicker and copy since you retain an army while you cull opposing boards. Six mana is a lot though, so it's probably best in Peasant Cubes and Bracket 2 EDH decks.

#22. Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker

Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker is a rare white edict that punishes your opponents for damaging you. It counts any source of damage, so it deters burn players just as well as token players, and it often buys you a turn or two of time while your opponents scramble for a removal spell.

#21. Witch of the Moors

Lifegain decks need solid payoffs that impact the board, and Witch of the Moors fits that perfectly. An opponents-only edict plus a Raise Dead offers oodles of card advantage and a real reason to gain life.

#20. Priest of Forgotten Gods

Priest of Forgotten Gods is one of the more cost-intensive sacrifice outlets since it requires two pieces of fodder rather than one, but the effect warrants it. Since you choose which players sacrifice permanents, you can use it to strike political deals in Commander.

#19. Bringer of the Last Gift

Bringer of the Last Gift is simply Living Death stapled to a creature. The need to pay 8 mana—or set up Dream Halls or another cheat spell—restricts it to casual EDH, but it's a great bomb for self-mill decks at the appropriate power level.

#18. Sheoldred, Whispering One

A true Commander classic, Sheoldred, Whispering One feels rather clunky these days. A 7-mana threat that has to survive a turn cycle? Absolutely tepid compared to modern threats like Etali, Primal Conqueror.

Still, it's a great value engine if you can protect it, and reanimation on a creature tends to work out well since it can chain one reanimation spell into additional recursion with its upkeep trigger.

#17. Gaius van Baelsar

The choice between nontoken and token creatures lets you avoid the worst-case scenario where you cast an edict and your opponent sacrifices a random 1/1 token. Adding enchantment hate in black makes Gaius van Baelsar even more versatile. That said, 4 mana is a lot for an edict.

#16. Kibo, Uktabi Prince

Kibo, Uktabi Prince gives edicts a green spin by making your opponents sacrifice artifacts rather than creatures, with additional value in its Banana tokens. It plays nicely in a format dominated by mana rocks.

#15. Sheoldred / The True Scriptures

Sheoldred is just good top end. The edict helps the menace body slip through and it can't get caught by those nasty token decks, so you always hit something worthwhile. It becomes much more exciting with The True Scriptures, which helps this card to ascend from a decent attacker to a genuine finisher.

#14. Cataclysmic Gearhulk

Cataclysmic Gearhulk takes edicts to the next level as a board wipe that leaves the table with only their best threats. Making your opponents sacrifice permanents gets around most protection spells, and tying it to an enters ability lets you create a permanent board wipe engine with Teleportation Circle or any other card that flickers the Gearhulk each turn.

#13. Savra, Queen of the Golgari

Savra, Queen of the Golgari is an old-school commander that turns your sacrificed creatures into edicts. It's a lovely support piece for aristocrat builds that sneaks extra interaction into the deck.

#12. Fleshbag Marauder and Friends

This ranking is for Fleshbag Marauder and most of the other 3-mana creature edicts. These are fine; you'll play them in Cube for sacrifice synergies or Commander decks built around recurring, copying, and flickering them.

#11. Rankle, Master of Pranks

Rankle, Master of Pranks provides black with an aggressive threat that obliterates your opponents. Pressure plus disruption is a winning combo, whether that disruption comes from an edict or discarding cards.

#10. Butcher of Malakir

Butcher of Malakir gives aristocrat decks incredible power. Plenty of sacrifice payoffs draw cards or damage your opponents, but few of them interact with your opponents like this. While Dictate of Erebos exists, you can't reanimate it to establish your engine early.

#9. Annihilator Eldrazi Cards

The best annihilator Eldrazi are undoubtedly the titans, like Kozilek, Butcher of Truth and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, but even the mobs like It That Betrays and Hideous Taskmaster are excellent. Attacking with a huge creature that obliterates opposing resources often wins, even if it takes a few more turns.

#8. Papalymo Totolymo

Papalymo Totolymo has an incredible edict; forcing your opponents to sacrifice their largest creatures generally hits the biggest threats at the table. The edict plus the drain ability (which represents both pressure and a lifegain enabler) bundles a lot of value into a mere 2-drop.

#7. Plaguecrafter

Plaguecrafter is noticeably better than Fleshbag Marauder and friends. It’s good value that the edict hits creatures or planeswalkers, but it’s absurd to make opponents who can't sacrifice a permanent discard a card. This card always does something, so it should be the first 3-mana edict creature in your list.

#6. Gluttonous Hellkite

A game designer at Wizards dared ask how they could make an edict creature scale for EDH, and the result was Gluttonous Hellkite. I love it dearly. Five mana grants you a typical edict creature stapled to an 11/11, assuming each player sacrifices a creature, and it only gets better. Massive threats are always powerful, but that goes double in the colors of Fling and Greater Good.

#5. Archfiend of Depravity

Archfiend of Depravity restricts your opponents' board size to two creatures, which destroys tokens and other go-wide strategies. It plays nicely in aristocrat decks since the first round of triggers provides plenty of fodder for Blood Artist and other cards that care about opposing creature deaths.

#4. Archon of Cruelty

Archon of Cruelty works best in 1v1 formats since its edict (and discard ability) only affects one player at a time. But wherever you play it, this is one of black's best big threats to reanimate or ramp into.

#3. Shadowgrange Archfiend

Shadowgrange Archfiend works best in decks with enough discard outlets to cast it with madness. When cast with madness, this becomes an exceptional threat for its mana cost. When cast for its regular mana cost… I'd still play it; making your opponents sacrifice their largest creatures goes a long way.

#2. Accursed Marauder

Accursed Marauder is the 2024 power-crept Fleshbag Marauder. It costs less mana, and it has the critical nontoken clause that circumvents the greatest weakness of the mechanic.

#1. Braids, Cabal Minion

Braids, Cabal Minion was recently freed from the Commander ban list, and I'm happy to have it back. It can be a devastating stax piece if you can cheat this into play fast with Sol Ring or Dark Ritual. For more casual players, it's a great part of the 99 as a sacrifice outlet that affects your opponents.

Best Edict Creature Payoffs

Sacrifice payoffs are the easiest payoffs for edict creatures. Cards like Blood Artist and Morbid Opportunist thrive with these effects, especially in Commander where up to four creatures are sacrificed at a time.

Recursion effects that bring edict creatures back after they die are also great. Commanders like Meren of Clan Nel Toth and Carmen, Cruel Skymarcher control the board with a critical mass of edict creatures. Cards like Malakir Rebirth that reanimate the creature straight away work well with these cards to get two triggers.

For edict creatures that only make your opponents sacrifice creatures, flicker and copy effects like Teleportation Circle and Clone retrigger your edicts to cull even more opposing threats.

Wrap Up

Shadowgrange Archfiend | Illustration by Oleksandr Kozachenko

Edict creatures have noticeable weaknesses, especially where tokens are concerned, but they have unique strengths: Few removal spells are so easily recurrable, and you can build powerful value engines around recurring, reanimating, or flickering them.

What's your favorite edict creature? Would you ever build around this archetype? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord!

Stay safe, and thanks for reading!