The 34 Best Grixis Creatures in Magic Ranked

Last updated on December 21, 2025

Abaddon the Despoiler | Illustration by Johan Grenier

Grixis () is one of my favorite color combinations; more often than not, I’m playing a Grixis brew on Arena, whether it’s Standard, Brawl, or Pioneer. Grixis is known for its removal spells, card draw, and mighty planeswalkers, but with creatures getting more and more powerful with every new MTG set, even this control and spell-heavy color combination gets fearsome creatures.

If you’re looking for Grixis creatures, these are the best ones you can find. Let’s dive in!

What Are Grixis Creatures in MTG?

Bladecoil Serpent | Illustration by Joshua Cairos

Grixis () creatures in MTG are creatures with a blue, black, and red color identity. These colors have a strong connection with the graveyard, or interesting applications in spells-matter decks. Blue and black are the colors of draw and discard, so these creatures tend to offer great value in that regard.

Color identity will factor in a couple different ways. Bladecoil Serpent is a Grixis creature for its triggered abilities, while Nicol Bolas, the Ravager is a gold tricolor card, and Norman Osborn has the Grixis Green Goblin as a transformation. All of these cards count as having a Grixis color identity, even without Grixis colors in their mana cost.

#34. Nicol Bolas

Let’s start with a classic elder dragon in Grixis. Nicol Bolas is expensive, but it has a very strong effect when it hits another player. You can build around it by controlling the board and playing red haste-granting cards, or cards that benefit you when your opponents discard. Once you cast this card, just hit the player with most cards in hand.

#33. Prince of Thralls

Prince of Thralls is a nice mill payoff and a fine reanimation target. Making everybody mill cards when the Prince is around is guaranteed pain, or a lot of value. When you’re casting cards like Breach the Multiverse, you’ll either have a full board, kill everybody, or anything in between.

#32. Sedris, the Traitor King

A classic Grixis commander from a time when options were limited, Sedris, the Traitor King can unearth anything for 3 mana. Today, it’s hard to justify paying 6 mana and then 3 to get something good for one turn, but you can imagine unearthing a massive game-changing creature for cheap.

#31. Cormela, Glamour Thief

Adding mana is one of the strongest things a creature can do in MTG. Cormela, Glamour Thief turns a single mana into , but only for instants and sorceries. You can also get a spell back from your graveyard after it dies, which makes Cormela perfect sacrifice fodder for casualty 2 cards. Depending on which powerful spells you have in your graveyard, you can even attack with impunity.

#30. Jeleva, Nephalia’s Scourge

Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge was a great hit when it was designed in Commander 2013, but unfortunately, power creep happens, and a 1/3 flier that needs to attack isn’t the hottest thing around. The dream scenario is to exile an expensive card right away, attack the next turn, and profit. Sometimes you’ll whiff on Jeleva’s ETB ability, but it’s awesome when you can cast it, flip a good spell, and attack right away with haste.

#29. Thraximundar

Thraximundar is just a big value creature. You attack with haste right away, and the defending players immediately sacrifice a creature, which buffs this card. They’ll probably lose another creature by chump blocking. You can also sacrifice your own creatures to add more counters or run infinite sac combos and go to town.

#28. Lord Xander, the Collector

Lord Xander, the Collector had its time in the sun when cheated into play by Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord. Although expensive, it’s a 6/6 with a powerful enter effect and strong attack and death triggers. It’s a worthy ramp target that justifies the 7 mana spent.

#27. Sedraxis Specter

Sedraxis Specter takes a classic MTG card, Hypnotic Specter, and adds some colors and abilities. The best aspect about this card is that you get to unearth it, because cards like these are weak to removal spells, so you can get more value even after it’s dead.

#26. Sauron, Lord of the Rings

Sauron, Lord of the Rings is a heck of an 8-drop, giving you a lot of benefits when casting it. It’s practically a 9/9 + 5/5 + reanimate your best creature. The only problem is, you’d better cast it, because you can do better than cast a 9/9 trample. No blink shenanigans either.

#25. Maestros Diabolist

Maestros Diabolist creates 1/1 devils when attacking. It attacks and defends well due to deathtouch, and each turn you can get sacrifice fodder, similar to how cards like Ophiomancer work. This card was made to support the casualty mechanic, so you always have a nice, disposable devil around.

#24. Don Andres, the Renegade

Stealing cards from your opponents is cool and all, but what if you could get even more rewards? Don Andres, the Renegade buffs any creatures you steal by granting +2/+2 and menace. Plus, if you steal noncreature spells, you get two Treasures. Outrageous Robbery fuels all this thievery nicely, as does a card like Xanathar, Guild Kingpin.

#23. Edea, Possessed Sorceress

Edea, Possessed Sorceress offers almost the entire steal and sac engine, plus a payoff. If you do that, you can keep the creature for yourself. Sacrifice outlets are pretty common in MTG, so it’s not hard to complement that part. This card also supports the traditional theft deck gameplay, so casting cards from your opponents’ hands and library will be extra strong for you.

#22. Edward Kenway

Edward Kenway mixes so many different themes that it’s a joy to build around. Tapping pirates to crew vehicles and attacking with said vehicles yields lots of Treasure. You’re also incentivized to hit with vehicles so that you can cast spells from opposing libraries and get card advantage. An ideal pirate life of theft and looting. As an assassin and pirate, it fits whatever theme you’d like to support the most.

#21. Tetsuo, Imperial Champion

Tetsuo, Imperial Champion screams equipment. It must be equipped at all times to do its thing, and it’s nice that equipping Tetsuo helps attacking, which in turn helps you deal more damage, or cast instants and sorceries for free. Lacking white for equipment and Voltron support is a problem, though. The best support for this card is expensive equipment that can be cast for cheap, like Embercleave.

#20. Admiral Brass, Unsinkable

Admiral Brass, Unsinkable is a very strong incentive to run pirates. Its power is totally related to the powerful pirates you’re running and that you can consistently mill. Bringing your fellow pirates back as 4/4 haste creatures has many advantages, especially considering that cards like Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator or Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer are weaker than that, but have exceptional abilities.

#19. Dr. Eggman

Dr. Eggman is a 3/6 flier that draws you a card each turn, so that’s already nice. Then, you’ll tempt your opponents with a rude choice. Each opponent must discard a card or let you cheat something good into play. There’s no shortage of good constructs and robots in MTG, so the more cards you have in hand, the more menacing you’ll look. Adding cards like Liliana's Caress may incentivize them to try their luck and see what you’re holding onto.

#18. Mishra, Eminent One

With Mishra, Eminent One around, you get a 4/4 copy of a noncreature artifact you control every turn, which gets sacrificed at the end of the turn. The best aspect of this ability is that you create a copy and sacrifice, so artifacts with good enter or death triggers are fair game. You can also make use of your indestructible lands, Darksteel equipment, and more. Oni-Cult Anvil can be your best friend while you're sacrificing stuff.

#17. Marchesa, the Black Rose

Thanks to the dethrone ability, Marchesa, the Black Rose is an expert in attacking the player with the most life, and by adding +1/+1 counters to them, your creatures have life insurance. Some mechanics inherently put +1/+1 counters on creatures, like bloodthirst, adapt, or connive; with Marchesa, these creatures will stick around a little bit longer.

#16. Obeka, Brute Chronologist

There are so many interesting and fun things to do with Obeka, Brute Chronologist. Its activated ability excels at cheating the downsides on cards like Warrior's Oath that would make you lose the game in your end step, or getting around other unsavoy abilities, like Phage the Untouchable’s anti-cheat clause.  

#15. Sauron, the Dark Lord

While almost every card on this list needs some support to be good, Sauron, the Dark Lord is already a big beatstick with excellent ward protection. But you can still surround this card with synergies for discarding, drawing, and the like. Sauron is a good incentive to be tempted by the ring, and discarding your hand to draw four often leaves you up on cards.

#14. Goro-Goro and Satoru

Goro-Goro and Satoru is an enabler and a payoff for a haste creature strategy. When you’re getting a 5/5 flier each time you deal combat damage with a haste creature that just entered the battlefield, you know exactly what you want to be doing in the game. This is perfect for mechanics like mobilize, dash, or ninjutsu. Plus, with Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury, you can bridge both dragon and dash themes.

#13. Norman Osborn / Green Goblin

Norman Osborn is a complicated card. On its front side, it’s an unblockable 1/1 that connives when hitting, so it won’t be a 1/1 forever. That said, the real deal is when it transforms into Green Goblin. If you do that, you unlock your graveyard, and you can cast flashback cards for cheap, or use mayhem while drawing and discarding. With enough mana, you can attack with Norman, connive, flip into Goblin, and use the mayhem ability right away—with a mana discount. You can also lean into Izzet and take advantage of double strike + connive + combat tricks on an unblockable creature.

#12. Anhelo, the Painter

Anhelo, the Painter doesn’t have the best body, but it offers something unique. By sacrificing creatures, you get to copy instants and sorceries. To make this card work, you should have 2-powered bodies around, or ways to generate them, like zombies with decayed. Once you have your engine going, you can focus on casting two copies of Time Warp or Exsanguinate.

#11. Bladecoil Serpent

Bladecoil Serpent is a beautifully designed card, bridging the gap between not too expensive in Standard and not too irrelevant in EDH. It’s great at many points in the game and, depending on how you spend your mana, you get different benefits. Of course, it’s best with artifact or artifact creature synergies.

#10. Kefka, Court Mage / Kefka, Ruler of Ruin

Kefka, Court Mage makes everybody discard, and you get to draw based on the types of cards discarded. You’ll discard too, which means you can build your deck around this idea. Just casting this card and attacking once creates a lot of card advantage. Later, you can turn it into Kefka, Ruler of Ruin, a big flier that can hit for 5 and make you draw 5 cards.

#9. Fire Lord Azula

Fire Lord Azula produces 2 mana whenever it attacks, which can be used to cast and copy an instant or flash card. Blocking this creature can be complicated, knowing that your opponent can have a doubled combat trick. This can work with burn spells (double Lightning Bolt to the face), combat tricks, auras, and more. If you really want to build around this idea, then add flash spells, or cards like Vedalken Orrery to your deck. I can see a turn when you attack with this card in Standard and flash in two Enduring Curiosity, for effectively 2 mana.

#8. Corpse Appraiser

Corpse Appraiser had a good run in formats like Standard and Pioneer. It’s a perfectly fine midrange card, allowing you to hate on graveyards and play a 3/3 cantrip creature while being highly blinkable. Vampire and rogue are good creature types to have, so this card is easy to add to popular typal decks

#7. Wick, the Whorled Mind

Wick, the Whorled Mind is one of the best incentives to build around rats in MTG, and one of the most popular Grixis commanders. You’ll play rats to make a snail token, which can be sacrificed to draw cards and deal damage. The more rats, the bigger the Snail, and the more powerful Wick becomes. This card is a sacrifice outlet, a draw engine, and a removal engine. You can also meme with a build that plays a lot of Relentless Rats and still have something viable.

#6. Kess, Dissident Mage

Kess, Dissident Mage is a bigger Snapcaster Mage, and the ability works once every turn. Kess gives you a great incentive to cast cards like Time Warp for extra turns, then cast the Time Warp again from your graveyard. You can also double important spells you cast, so killing two creatures with a removal spell or Pondering twice a turn isn’t out of the question. We can also have great combo turns by chaining cards like Frantic Search or Wheel of Fortune.

#5. Nicol Bolas, the Ravager / Nicol Bolas, the Arisen

Nicol Bolas, the Ravager is the best card from this list to come from a Standard set. Cards with strong enter effects are excellent to cast again and again from the command zone, and here we’re making everyone lose a card. Later, when you have spare mana, just turn it into a planeswalker to start drawing cards. Bolas’s other abilities are strong too, but the drawing two cards effect is never dead.

#4. Nekusar, the Mindrazer

Nekusar, the Mindrazer is a classic Grixis commander, offering you a win condition when you cast wheels effects. You’re making everybody draw more cards, which is already hurting players. But when you get to make them draw seven cards twice in a turn, that’s where you start killing players. And you can strengthen these wheels with cards like Sheoldred, the Apocalypse.

#3. Inalla, Archmage Ritualist

Inalla, Archmage Ritualist gives you an excellent way to build around wizards, which are plentiful in Grixis. Wizards with good enter effects are excellent here, like Sea Gate Oracle. Wizards with haste will surprise your opponents, like Dreadhorde Arcanist. But the best part about this card is that it only costs to make a copy of the creature, and with eminence, the card doesn’t even need to be on the battlefield.

#2. Abaddon the Despoiler

Adding cascade to your spells is awesome. The key to making Abaddon the Despoiler work is to have consistent ways of dealing damage, which black and red excel at. An easy sequence to pull off is to use cards that deal 1 damage to each player, and follow it up with a 3-mana card with cascade. Things spiral out of control when you can deal a lot of damage and follow it up with a strong cascade spell or two.

#1. Be’lakor, the Dark Master

Be'lakor, the Dark Master is a legit way to build around demons. Just having one or two demons when this card enters the battlefield is already good, and Mulldrifter is far better when it’s a 6/5 trample. It’s a solid card capable of beating down, it gives you card advantage, and it's ridiculous if you keep casting demons. Each big demon you cast afterwards turns into a removal spell or direct damage! Cards like this are what a control deck needs.

Wrap Up

Cormela, Glamour Thief | Illustration by Bram Sels

Grixis () decks tend to be firmly in midrange or control territory, with cards within this color combination often offering us a two-for-one or higher. Grixis uses its graveyard well, as you can see with some of these cards that support a graveyard-centric strategy. As such, many of these cards are build arounds or nice additions to Commander decks in these strategies, and some of these can be worthy win conditions in grindy games.

What do you think of this list? Did I miss any obvious inclusions? Let me know in the comments section below, or let’s discuss it over in our Draftsim Discord.

Until next time, stay safe!