All 19 Enrage Creatures in Magic Ranked

Last updated on April 5, 2024

Vrondiss, Rage of Ancients – Illustration by Svetlin Velinov

It’s time to revisit a key characteristic of the first Ixalan block, the mechanic enrage. That was the mechanic that tied dinosaurs together in Ixalan. Ixalan was the set that introduced dinosaurs to MTG, so there are a few nice dinos there, but at the same time, the set had a low power-level overall.

The question is, are there good enrage cards? What are the best enrage creatures out there?

Let’s find out.

What Is Enrage in MTG?

Polyraptor | Illustration by Mark Behm

Enrage is a mechanic found on creatures that triggers when those creatures are dealt damage. This damage can come from combat or from spells, like red burn spells. No matter how much damage is dealt, enrage only triggers once from a single damage source. If the creature is double-blocked, enrage triggers twice. This also happens if an enrage creature blocks a double strike creature, because it’s hit twice. The enrage ability still triggers if the enrage creature dies from the damage dealt. 

Enrage was the dinosaur mechanic in the Ixalan block, and it’s found on 18 creatures, all of them dinosaurs and mostly in red and green. Later, Commander 2019 printed Apex Altisaur and Forgotten Realms Commander printed Vrondiss, Rage of Ancients.

#19. Ravenous Daggertooth

Ravenous Daggertooth is bad even for Limited purposes. In Draft, it’s your typical pick to round out green decks, and it should be considered at best a sideboard card in Limited against very aggressive decks.

#18. Frilled Deathspitter

Frilled Deathspitter is your typical Limited common with the mechanic. 3/2 for 3 mana isn’t anything to write home about, but in aggressive decks the 2 damage from enrage matters sometimes.

#17. Imperial Ceratops

If Frilled Deathspitter is a filler for aggressive decks, Imperial Ceratops is a defensive creature for midrange decks looking to stabilize. It’s hard to attack into a 3/5 on the ground that’ll probably eat one of your creatures and also gain life.

#16. Sun-Crowned Hunters

Sun-Crowned Hunters is Frilled Deathspitter’s big brother. Its big size offers opponents options between taking 5 damage or blocking it and taking only 3. Chump-blocking or double-blocking this guy is a losing situation.

#15. Overgrown Armasaur

Overgrown Armasaur is a fine 5-drop in Limited, but it’s nothing special. It’ll produce a token here and there and can be good in go-wide decks or as a speedbump against aggressive decks.

#14. Raptor Hatchling

Raptor Hatchling is a 1/1 that dies into a 3/3, similar to cards like Brindle Shoat. You can’t play it in an aristocrats deck though since it needs to receive damage, so it’s a fine blocker at best. It’s a good creature to attack, deal 1 damage, and later play a creature that triggers its enrage to get the 3/3 token.

#13. Needletooth Raptor

Needletooth Raptor packs a punch with its enrage ability. 5 damage to any creature is enough to kill most decent-sized creatures, and it’s difficult to block or attack into. It’s just hard to justify paying 4 mana for it, but if you can trigger enrage reliably, it gets much better.

#12. Cacophodon

Cacophodon is a 2/5 for 4 mana, which is a good size to survive red sweepers. If you have good permanents that are worth untapping like a Lotus Field, mana rocks, or creatures with good activated abilities, Cacophodon gets a free roll as an attacker or becomes a nice blocker.

#11. Ranging Raptors

Ranging Raptors can be a nice land engine in landfall decks, ramp decks, or decks that can trigger enrage. Getting the Rampant Growth effect as an enrage trigger is good, and this blocks 1/1 and 2/2 creatures all day. It can even do the Sakura-Tribe Elder thing of dying and fetching a land.

#10. Urban Daggertooth

Urban Daggertooth is a common creature at the high end of Limited playability. It has a nice vigilance body to keep attacking and it can proliferate via enrage. Dinosaur decks that have a +1/+1 counter theme should probably look into this guy.

#9. Snapping Sailback

Snapping Sailback isn’t a card you want to see on the other side of the table. Acting like a surprise blocker is a nice way to trigger enrage, and it acts as a removal spell that grows over time.

#8. Bellowing Aegisaur

Bellowing Aegisaur puts a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control, so it’s fine to play in go-wide strategies. It performs well in Limited but isn’t that good for Constructed.

#7. Silverclad Ferocidons

Here we’re turning the key on Constructed playable enrage creatures, especially in EDH. Silverclad Ferocidons makes all your opponents sacrifice a permanent with its enrage trigger, and it’s a massive 8/5 to boot. Many dinosaur EDH decks have tools to cheat big dinosaurs into play, so the 8-mana casting cost shouldn’t be a problem. This card is a really good payoff for enrage engines.

#6. Siegehorn Ceratops

Siegehorn Ceratops’s best feature is to be a 2-drop dinosaur that can grow into a 4/4, 6/6, or bigger. Its small size is also a curse because it needs to take only 1 damage to survive. Still, it’s a good creature to play in Selesnya () +1/+1 counters decks.

#5. Trapjaw Tyrant

Trapjaw Tyrant can become a massive walking Fiend Hunter, provided that the enrage is triggered. The only downside is that if it receives lethal damage, it won’t work. Trapjaw is best in decks that buff dinosaurs or with Temple Altisaur to prevent all but 1 damage dealt to it.

#4. Polyraptor

Polyraptor was once people’s favorite way to crash MTG Arena since it would produce infinite tokens in certain situations. What Polyraptor does is make a copy of itself whenever it’s dealt damage, and it doesn’t take long to have an army of 5/5 Raptors. It’s the creature that keeps on giving, so to speak. Polyraptor gets silly with effects that deal damage to all creatures since you’ll make a copy of it and the copies can generate more copies later.

#3. Ripjaw Raptor

Cards that say draw a card are usually good, and Ripjaw Raptor has a nice cost-to-benefit ratio. It sees play in dinosaur decks in formats like Explorer, especially against red/green decks. Just trading and drawing a card is already a good deal, and alongside Marauding Raptor it gets silly. In this situation, this card becomes a 4/5 for 3 mana that draws you a card while allowing Marauding Raptor to get in as a 4/3.

#2. Apex Altisaur

Apex Altisaur is an excellent ramp/cheat into play target. It’s a 10/10 that fights at least a creature and probably wins, and it can keep fighting due to its enrage trigger. 9 mana is a lot, but it pays off by being a huge green sweeper. Blocking this guy is a very bad idea, and most of the time you'd rather take the 10 damage straight away.

#1. Vrondiss, Rage of Ancients

Vrondiss, Rage of Ancients can be a powerful enrage-based commander. Being a dragon rather than a dinosaur opens all sorts of dragon synergies, and making a 5/4 token on the enrage trigger is very strong. Playing some dice-rolling cards from the D&D sets is the way to go here, but if you don’t want to resort to it there are more than enough ways to trigger enrage in green and red.

Best Enrage Payoffs

With enrage, you’re looking for ways to deal some damage to your own creatures. Red has plenty of tools for doing that, with damage-based sweepers like Pyroclasm and Cinderclasm. You can play bigger sweepers too, but 1-2 damage is ideal to keep most of your enrage creatures alive. If all your enrage creatures are 4/5 or bigger, using sweepers like Anger of the Gods or Slice and Dice becomes ideal.

Pestilence is an ideal card to play, but it’s black, so let’s play Pyrohemia instead. In an EDH game you can trigger enrage on each turn provided you have red mana. 

Marath, Will of the Wild is an awesome enrage commander. Dinosaurs are already Naya () and let you play the best enrage creatures, and you can remove a single counter from Marath to trigger enrage on a given creature.

Creatures like Marauding Raptor, Raging Swordtooth and Forerunner of the Empire were designed to work well with enrage, so by all means use them.

Temple Altisaur uses damage prevention to guarantee your enrage creatures receive only 1 damage and, apart from 1/1’s, trigger enrage and survive the process.

Green has a nice way of triggering enrage in the fight mechanic. By having the enrage creature fight another creature, it’s almost guaranteed to receive damage and trigger enrage. Making your Ripjaw Raptor kill another creature and draw a card is a winning play. Savage Stomp even puts a +1/+1 counter on your dino before the fighting takes place.

Finally, enrage is a dinosaur-centric mechanic, so every typal dinosaur incentive goes very well with the mechanic.

Is Enrage a Triggered Ability?

Yes, it is. Enrage triggers whenever a creature with enrage is dealt damage. Enrage triggers even if the creature dies from the damage dealt. 

Does Enrage Use the Stack?

Enrage uses the stack. Whenever enrage triggers, the trigger goes to the stack and can be responded to or even countered with Stifle.

Wrap Up

Ripjaw Raptor | Illustration by Ryan Pancoast

And that concludes our ranking of the best enrage creatures. Enrage is probably not making a comeback, but Lost Caverns will probably reference it in some way. Whenever you see dinosaurs triggering something when they receive damage, you’ll know the reference. Most enrage creatures were designed with Limited in mind, but there are some nice enrage creatures in the list, and at least in EDH you can play most of them in your Gishath, Sun's Avatar or Marath, Will of the Wild EDH decks.

And we can also see that the best enrage cards were designed for supplemental sets, and that’s not a coincidence since these sets have higher power-level overall, especially in the rare and mythic slots. Do you like the enrage mechanic? How would you make this list any different? Let me know in the comments section below or tweet us on Twitter.

Stay safe folks and keep stomping the opposition with huge dinosaurs.