The 58 Best Flying Creature Cards in Magic Ranked

Last updated on June 30, 2026

Steel-Plume Marshal | Illustration by Cristi Balanescu

Evasive mechanics add depth to Magic by making combat more complicated and engaging than a game of checkers or bumper cars with multiple pieces of cardboard slamming into one another. Flying might be distinctly weaker than the “can’t be blocked” text on cards like Slither Blade, but it’s hard to think of a more iconic evasive keyword.

Flying has been around since the game’s inception on iconic cards like Shivan Dragon and Serra Angel. Often a critical piece of Limited environments to help break through board stalls, many fearsome threats take to the skies to dominate their foes in combat.

But which creatures fly the highest? Let’s figure that out together!

What Are Flying Creatures in MTG?

Watcher of the Spheres | Illustration by G-host Lee

Flying creatures in Magic have the evergreen keyword “flying.” Creatures with flying can only be blocked by creatures with flying or reach. The presence of “reach” (“this creature can block creatures with flying”) alone demonstrates the strength of flying: How many other mechanics have a rival mechanic to combat them?

As an evergreen mechanic, creatures with flying appear in pretty much every Magic set. The number of fliers varies across sets; some have a handful, while others approach flying as an archetypal build-around.

My favorite part of flying is honestly the logic of it. Seen most often on birds, dragons, angels, and the occasional airship, it just makes sense these things would go over the top of walls, soldiers, and merfolk. I especially love reach residing in the spiders and archers of Magic. It’s a great example of game mechanics expressing story—not only would Magic have a thinner combat system without flying, but it would also stretch the players’ suspension of disbelief way too far if Shivan Dragon and Serra Angel could get chump blocked by Savannah Lions.

Honorable Mentions

Some cards are way too good for competitive play and aren’t in the list because they can barely be played. Nadu, Winged Wisdom leads the flock, as it's banned in every major sanctioned format but Legacy and Vintage.

There are some permanents that become creatures with flying, like Smuggler's Copter, but those aren’t technically creatures so I omitted them from the list.

#58. Giada, Font of Hope

Giada, Font of Hope is an absolute all-star for angel decks. It not only ramps you into your bigger threats faster, but also makes each angel you play come in stronger than the last. In formats like Commander and Brawl, it’s the go-to pick for mono-white angel builds—super consistent, explosive in the early turns, and scary in the late game. For just 2 mana, it does a ton of work and quickly becomes a must-answer threat.

#57. Wonder

While flying creatures typically provide lots of board presence, Wonder is an odd duck that wants to hang out in the graveyard. Many self-mill decks utilize this card as a finisher they don’t need to invest mana into.

#56. Emeria Shepherd

Landfall is one of Magic’s strongest abilities because your opponents have a small window of opportunity to interact before you trigger the abilities. More expensive creatures like Emeria Shepherd make this a touch more awkward, but we can give it a pass when they have abilities as powerful as a free reanimation spell.

#55. Serra Ascendant

Serra Ascendant is amazing in Commander and weak elsewhere unless you’re playing Tier-3 Modern decks. Plenty of commanders can get along with a 1-mana 6/6 with flying and lifelink, though it dramatically loses impact as the game goes on and life totals dwindle.

#54. Errant and Giada

Future Sight is a strong enough card that various, more restrictive versions of the effect are always worth examining. Errant and Giada is perfectly fine. Its low cost and card advantage potential make it a perfect casual commander.

#53. Hoarding Broodlord

A card needs to do a lot for 8 mana in this day and age. Hoarding Broodlord can deliver! A massive threat plus a tutor plus mana reduction is great in decks built around casting cards from exile, though I wouldn’t run it in just any old black deck.

#52. Mulldrifter

There was a glorious time in Magic’s history where Mulldrifter might have topped this list, but we’ve reached a point where even the Divination fish has dropped into near-obscurity. It’s still a respectable card in casual EDH decks and some Peasant Cubes.

#51. Thrummingbird + Grateful Apparition

There are plenty of ways to maximize proliferation in Magic these days. +1/+1 counters are classic, but loyalty counters, poison counters, and even shield counters are all worth duplicating. While Grateful Apparition is strictly better than Thrummingbird save for color, both are powerful—especially once you slap some counters on them.

#50. Talion, the Kindly Lord

Talion, the Kindly Lord has made ripples as a cEDH commander but also works well in casual. The combination of pressure and card advantage makes this an appealing commander for faerie-typal or midrange.

#49. Gisela, Blade of Goldnight

Once a heavy hitter in Commander, the current age of efficient, high-impact plays has dulled the effectiveness of 7-mana bombs like Gisela, Blade of Goldnight. Slower Boros decks still respect this angel as a game-ending bomb.

#48. Twilight Prophet

What would it take for Dark Confidant to not cost life? Two additional mana! That makes Twilight Prophet too expensive for many Constructed formats but a perfect draw engine for Commander. It’s easy enough to get the city’s blessing, so this doubles as a win condition, albeit a slow one.

#47. Thought Monitor

A key part of 8-Cast decks in Legacy (named after Thoughtcast), pretty much any artifact-themed deck is happy to play Thought Monitor for card and synergy value.

#46. Peregrine Drake

Peregrine Drake is a busted combo enabler if you can find a way to flicker it for less than 5 mana. Ghostly Flicker commonly does so. It’s nothing outside of being a powerful combo piece.

#45. Hardened Academic

I wouldn’t be so high on Hardened Academic if Wizards stopped printing red discard synergies, but they just won’t. Throw in haste and a potent gravebreak ability that grows the Academic, and you end up with a synergistic yet highly efficient threat.

#44. Thieving Skydiver

Thieving Skydiver is an amazing Cube card. You haven’t lived until you’ve stolen an opponent’s Mox. It’s respectable in Commander as well, what with virtually every deck at least playing Sol Ring and Arcane Signet, and likely several more artifacts worth nabbing.

#43. Archangel of Thune

Another combo enabler, Archangel of Thune has much more utility. It’s infinite with Spike Feeder and Kitchen Finks (alongside a sac outlet) but works as a synergy piece for lifegain, angel, and +1/+1 counter decks as well.

#42. Glen Elendra Archmage

Though slow, Glen Elendra Archmage often 2-for-1s opponents. It’s best when paired with cards like Falco Spara, Pactweaver or Good-Fortune Unicorn that can let you persist it over and over.

#41. Aurelia, the Law Above

The days of Boros lacking in card draw are long gone. Aurelia, the Law Above offers even more power than similar cards like Firemane Commando because you can profit from your opponents attacking, making this a potent card alongside goad strategies.

#40. Niv-Mizzet, Parun

Likely the best spellslinger commander in the format, Niv-Mizzet, Parun is just… absurdly pushed. This card shouldn’t be able to do as much as it does while being uncounterable. The extra-restrictive mana cost makes it hard for any deck to jam, but mana bases that can support it probably should.

#39. Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm

If you want to play dragons without going for 5-color The Ur-Dragon, Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm is an equally powerful dragon commander. It’s a value engine with ward to ensure you can generate an unreasonable advantage.

#38. Siren Stormtamer

It takes a lot for Flying Men to be effective, but Siren Stormtamer gets there. On-board tricks are powerful! Forcing your opponent to deal with this dork before handling more impactful threats strains their removal. Evasive pirates are also quite handy, as many pirate synergies care about attacking or dealing combat damage (see: Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator).

#37. Rankle, Master of Pranks

Rankle, Master of Pranks is a fantastic Cube card and quite reasonable in Commander. It plays best alongside cheap creatures to sacrifice or graveyard synergies that let you maximize the discard.

#36. Crystal, Inhuman Princess

Crystal, Inhuman Princess does a lot: It’s a 4-color commander that fixes your mana and accelerates you, plus the triggered ability turns many established combos into instant kills by pinging your opponents to death. That has drawn it some interest in cEDH, but I’m pretty sure more multicolor EDH decks have some interest in such a useful mana dork.

#35. Aven Mindcensor

Restricting your opponent’s ability to search their library is fantastic. This card used to Strip Mine me in Modern all the time thanks to fetch lands. In EDH, this is better at higher-powered tables with more tutors.

#34. Brazen Borrower

Brazen Borrower shone like a beacon in Standard as a dominant force in adventure decks. It’s still a reasonable tempo card, though X/1s struggle against the likes of Orcish Bowmasters and Wrenn and Six.

#33. Shalai and Hallar

Shalai and Hallar is one of the strongest team-up cards from March of the Machine. In addition to infinite combos with The Red Terror or All Will Be One, it’s just a great value engine for casual decks.

#32. Chrome Host Seedshark

Artifacts are among the most busted card types in the game. Chrome Host Seedshark enables strategies that care about tons of artifacts like Urza, Lord High Artificer, and it's a reasonable payoff for slinging spells.

#31. Aurelia, the Warleader

Aurelia, the Warleader is another staple drifting to the wayside as Magic grows more efficient, but it’s hard to ignore the power of extra combats. This card having haste is vital to its playability.

#30. Bitterbloom Bearer

It was inevitable that the return to Lorwyn would riff on iconic cards from the first sets, so Bitterbloom Bearer isn’t a surprising card. A flash Bitterblossom lets you hold up countermagic and helps play around sorcery-speed removal. It’s also an evasive body for ninjutsu and double pipped for devotion—there’s lots to love here.

#29. Archon of Emeria

Rule of Law effects can be powerful. Archon of Emeria can’t go into every deck, but decks that don’t mind playing one spell a turn can exploit this shutting down strategies and forcing your opponents to play at a crawl.

#28. Glorybringer

Five-mana dragons often pack incredible strength. Haste makes Glorybringer shine. While this dragon works best with vigilance enablers and other ways to untap it after exerting, it’s also just great when played fairly, like a potentially repeatable Flametongue Kavu.

#27. Ornithopter of Paradise

A 2-mana dork that taps for any color of mana is perfectly respectable—in green. Ornithopter of Paradise elevates “respectable” to “very powerful” by being colorless so any deck can play it.

#26. Deep-Cavern Bat + Kitesail Freebooter

Mesmeric Fiend has seen quite the glow-up! You can’t be as tricky with Deep-Cavern Bat or Kitesail Freebooter, but cheap fliers that attack your opponent’s hand are fantastic in Constructed.

#25. Terror of the Peaks

Terror of the Peaks distributes damage as freely as the wind blows. This goes infinite in a billion ways, but it’s just hard to handle a large flying creature that benefits from every other large flying creature you cast coming into play.

#24. Goldspan Dragon

Is Goldspan Dragon’s mana production stronger than Terror of the Peaks damage? I believe so, but only slightly. Treasure is broken, and doubling its value breaks it further. Throw in the card Crime Novelist and you’ll have riches enough to make Smaug jealous.

#23. Faerie Mastermind

As far as punishing your opponents for drawing cards goes, Faerie Mastermind isn’t Sheoldred, the Apocalypse or Orcish Bowmasters. But this aggressive flash flier has just enough extra text to be appealing, and drawing free cards to help keep up with your opponents who are ahead on resources provides plenty of value.

#22. Arclight Phoenix

Arclight Phoenix is one of the most iconic recursive threats in Magic, known for its ability to return from the graveyard again and again with minimal effort. What makes it so powerful is how well it fits into spell-heavy decks, especially those packed with cantrips, looting effects, and cheap interaction. The trick here is to return multiple, if not all of the copies to the battlefield at the same time.

#21. Archon of Cruelty

Archon of Cruelty is one of the best reanimation targets in all of Magic, delivering an immediate and brutal swing in card advantage, life totals, and board presence. The archon single-handedly takes over games when brought back early with reanimation spells.

#20. Subtlety

Ever since Modern Horizons 2, the incarnations have left a huge mark across multiple formats—and Subtlety is no exception. As the blue member of the cycle, it offers a free counterspell that delays creatures or planeswalkers without ever spending mana. While it doesn't permanently remove a threat, its ability to disrupt crucial plays at zero cost has proven invaluable, especially in high-pressure formats like Modern and Legacy.

#19. Abhorrent Oculus

Despite Abhorrent Oculus‘s unusual casting requirement, it has taken many formats by surprise and become a key staple in several archetypes, where the who point is to reanimate the eyeball and coast on its 2/2 manifests to victory.

#18. Wan Shi Tong, Librarian

In Commander, Archivist of Oghma is a white staple because of how often three opponents search their library. In classic Magic fashion, the card gets moved to blue and power crept; Wan Shi Tong, Librarian still draws a ton of cards, but it now scales with the game and gets to fly as a large threat. This one’s good enough to break containment and see play in other formats.

#17. Yorion, Sky Nomad

Yorion, Sky Nomad is a powerhouse value engine that reshaped multiple formats by turning every blink effect into an avalanche of card advantage. As a companion, it encouraged 80-card deckbuilding in exchange for a free, repeatable blink effect that could reset planeswalkers, reuse ETB creatures, and snowball incremental value. Because of this, it was eventually banned in Modern.

#16. Avacyn, Angel of Hope

Avacyn, Angel of Hope clings to power by providing your deck with a lot of inevitability thanks to the wraths you can fire off. A commander encouraging something as unique as mono-white-angel-typal-control deserves respect. Don’t forget your Armageddon!

#15. Sage of the Skies

If you thought one flying threat was good, why not have two? It takes little work to enable Sage of the Skies, and you can do it as early as turn 3 with the help of cards like Springleaf Drum or Momo, Friendly Flier. If we’re talking Cube, a Mana Crypt does it turn 1.

#14. Raffine, Scheming Seer

During its Standard era, Raffine, Scheming Seer was one of the most oppressive cards thanks to its ability to filter cards with connive while maintaining a big threat on the board and keeping interaction in hand. Nowadays, it sees play in Brawl and Commander as a strong aggressive option for Esper () decks—colors that were traditionally known only for control strategies.

#13. Kess, Dissident Mage

Kess, Dissident Mage can play at many power levels thanks to its general though fantastic value. I’m a fan of playing it alongside a bundle of extra turn spells, but I’m also a monster.

#12. Quantum Riddler

Warp is a mechanic as strong as the creature you warp; when that’s a massive flier that cantrips when it enters, it becomes a serious problem. Quantum Riddler sees play in a range of formats, normally by riffing on the scam pattern established by evoke creatures: You can warp it then flicker it to draw two cards and keep the large body. If that doesn’t work out, you could do worse than an Elvish Visionary that draws at least two cards (the enters trigger + the warped Riddler).

#11. Atraxa, Grand Unifier

Atraxa, Grand Unifier might be the most impactful flying creature printed over the past few years. It’s exploded into many formats as a high-value reanimation target or the best creature to ramp into. Intense card draw and keyword soup make this creature a devastating threat worthy of Phyrexia.

#10. Consecrated Sphinx

Few cards can offer the card advantage of Consecrated Sphinx. Faerie Mastermind leaves the room when this card shows up. There are few blue creatures as impactful to cheat into play or ramp into. This level of card draw borders on the obscene and it’s nearly impossible to lose once this gets rolling.

#9. Kaalia of the Vast

Kaalia of the Vast is the queen of cheating big creatures into play, letting you bypass their massive mana costs by slamming down angels, demons, and dragons straight from your hand whenever it attacks, making it one of the most fun buildaround commanders ever printed.

#8. Derevi, Empyrial Tactician

Derevi, Empyrial Tactician is among the most hated commanders—currently banned in 1v1 formats like Duel Commander. What’s interesting about our feathery friend is that you don’t care about its mana value or commander tax; for just 4 mana, you can cheat it into play without casting it.

The truly terrifying part (if the main ability wasn’t already enough) is that every time a creature you control deals combat damage, you can untap any permanent. That’s a massive advantage in decks that generate value each turn by untapping oppressive permanents like The One Ring, all while keeping up countermagic and other interaction.

#7. Ledger Shredder

Ledger Shredder is another card that made a major impact across multiple formats upon its release. It's a cheap threat that grows over time and serves as an excellent enabler for reanimation strategies or simply to fill the graveyard for mechanics like delve or delirium. While it's most commonly seen in Pioneer within Izzet Phoenix decks, it has seen a reasonable amount of play in nearly every format where it’s been legal.

#6. Murktide Regent

Since its introduction, Murktide Regent has been a staple of blue tempo decks for both Modern and Legacy as a threat that potentially costs 2 mana and continues to grow as more instants and sorceries get exiled, and it’s the perfect partner with Dragon's Rage Channeler as the latter fuels its draconic friend.

#5. Birds of Paradise

Birds of Paradise might not have the raw offensive power of other creatures on this list, but it’s the gold standard for mana dorks. It doesn’t get better than a 1-mana accelerant that fixes for all colors. It might not directly win games, but many, many decks would be worse off if this card never existed in the first place.

#4. Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

Here’s a hot take for you: Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is a perfectly fair Magic card for 15 mana. What’s unfair is the variety of cards it shows up with that cheat it into play: Show and Tell, Sneak Attack, Shallow Grave, and so on. It’s pretty much the best card to cheat in with haste. But not quite the best reanimation target.

#3. Griselbrand

Atraxa, Grand Unifier has made waves, but Griselbrand is still one of the strongest reanimation targets in the game. You can’t play it in Commander, but that’s just because it would edge out every other viable reanimation target. Entire decks live and die by getting this into play in the first few turns of the game.

#2. Gilded Drake

While the Reserved List unreasonably locks Gilded Drake behind a price tag most players can’t afford, it’s a fantastic interactive spell in Commander. Exchanging creatures doesn’t cause a change of zones, so this is among the best ways to deal with opposing commanders since they can’t return to the command zone this way. It’s also just a cool design, even if it’s a little broken.

#1. Baleful Strix

Baleful Strix offers extraordinary value for so little investment. A 1/1 flying creature that draws a card on ETB is strong solo and stronger in flicker decks. Deathtouch ensures this trades with better creatures. And it’s an artifact for all kinds of synergy! It’s unassuming but does so much for so little.

Best Flying Creature Payoffs

The first layer of flying payoffs are cost reducers that make it easier to cast big fliers or churn out an army of smaller ones. Warden of Evos Isle is the classic, Watcher of the Spheres is a little more aggressive, and Momo, Friendly Flier is the most efficient option.

Once you get those fliers into play, you can make them stronger with lords and anthems like Thunderclap Wyvern, Steel-Plume Marshal, and Favorable Winds. Kangee, Sky Warden is one of the more notable ones and a common flying creature commander.

But power isn’t the only boon your flying creatures receive. Jackdaw Savior provides recursion, Errant and Giada and Tide Skimmer grant card advantage, and you can get protection with Jubilant Skybonder and Sephara, Sky's Blade.

Some cards also have bonuses if you control flying creatures; Lofty Denial becomes a strong counterspell and Winged Words turns into cheap card advantage.

Wrap Up

Errant and Giada | Illustration by Cristi Balanescu

As a Limited player, flying feels like one of the most impactful evergreen mechanics in the entire game. I’ve seen matches live and die on the back of a few winged creatures. The mechanic’s evasive power lends itself well to a variety of aggressive strategies, though defensively-statted flying creatures stave off attackers for days.

These are powerful flying creatures, but I’m sure one or two flew over my head. Are there any creatures you’d want to see on the list? What’s your favorite flying creature? Let me know in the comments or on the Draftsim Discord! And check out The Daily Upkeep newsletter to stay up to date on all the latest MTG news.

Stay safe, and thanks for reading!