The 38 Best Gruul Creatures in Magic Ranked

Goblin Anarchomancer | Illustration by Joe Slucher

Few color combinations are more creature-focused than Gruul (), which is defined by its love of big creatures, making creatures stronger, and turning other permanents into creatures.

Whether you want to be aggressive or ramp and go tall, Gruul has creatures for you. From the aggressive to the synergistic, the cheap to the expensive, let's take a tour of the best creatures in Magic's most Hulk-aligned color pair.

What Are Gruul Creatures in MTG?

Writhing Chrysalis | Illustration by Domenico Cava

Gruul creatures have a red-green () color identity, usually due to their mana cost, though some creatures are Gruul because of their activated abilities or because they transform into a card with a different color.

Gruul creatures are generally stompy, with high power/toughness and a love of combat and attacking. Sprinkled alongside the trademark aggression you'll find werewolves, cards that care about power, cast-from-exile enablers and payoffs, and other diverse effects.

Honorary Mention: Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes

Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes is obviously ineligible for this ranking due to its type, but it would be criminal to not mention it—after all, it's one of Magic's best planeswalkers because it comes stapled to a hasty 4/4. If you want to be an aggressive stompy deck in Commander or Cube, this is one of the best cards you can play, and a contender for #1 on this list if I were less strict.

#38. Tovolar, Dire Overlord / Tovolar, the Midnight Scourge

Tovolar, Dire Overlord exists solely to be a dedicated werewolf commander, and that’s about it. It performs that task well; you get card draw and some amount of control of when and how your werewolves are transformed. But that narrow scope keeps it from being extraordinary.

#37. Chishiro, the Shattered Blade

Chishiro, the Shattered Blade makes for a fine Gruul commander centered around Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty‘s modified mechanic. Spitting out tokens while playing auras and equipment gives you great board presence and softens the blow when your opponent removes those support pieces. Chishiro is rather slow, but perfectly appropriate for casual tables.

#36. Grumgully, the Generous

Grumgully, the Generous offers some of Gruul's best counter distribution. It plays best in token decks, but the non-human clause is surprisingly easy to meet in random decks with cards like Shalai and Hallar or Chishiro, the Shattered Blade.

#35. Scarlet Spider, Ben Reilly

Scarlet Spider, Ben Reilly adds lots of power to the board fast with its web-slinging ability. Three mana for a 4/3 trampler is already a substantial threat, so the ability to make it larger and get the chance to pick up a creature with a solid enters ability in the process combine for a fine threat.

#34. Nikya of the Old Ways

Gruul has always been the color of creatures, and Nikya of the Old Ways locks you into that strategy. It’s pretty tantalizing to lose access to a significant portion of the game's spells in exchange for a mana doubler, especially since green means you don't give up on key pillars of Magic. Mana dorks provide ramp, cards like Outcaster Trailblazer and Garruk's Packleader handle card advantage, and you get removal from fighting creatures like Kogla, the Titan Ape and Mawloc. It's a fun deckbuilding restriction with a powerful payoff.

#33. Stampede Surfer

Stampede Surfer excels in Commander as it generates a slew of bodies for cards like Impact Tremors and Grumgully, the Generous, not to mention applying loads of pressure. Since you keep the tokens, it's a nasty threat that rebuilds a board in the blink of an eye.

#32. Samut, Vizier of Naktamun

Samut, Vizier of Naktamun exploits haste to its fullest potential by drawing cards. It pairs perfectly with red's copy effects, like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, and aggressive token generators like Goblin Rabblemaster and Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon.

#31. Xenagos, God of Revels

Xenagos, God of Revels rewards you for going large with damage and haste, which makes it one of the strongest Gruul Stompy commanders in EDH. Ramp decks generally play just one big threat a turn, which fits perfectly with Xenagos’s ability. It works best with creatures like Etali, Primal Storm and Overlord of the Boilerbilges with strong attack triggers that benefit from haste.

#30. Meria, Scholar of Antiquity

Meria, Scholar of Antiquity. Urza, Lord High Artificer, but Gruul.

Gruul gets some of the game's most interesting commanders, and Meria is a great example of that. It leans more red than green with its love of artifacts and impulse draw, but it’s still quite strong. It plays nicely with Unwinding Clock to squeeze lots of mana and card draw from your board.

#29. Borborygmos Enraged

Borborygmos Enraged converts lands into Lightning Bolts, which makes it an effective threat to mitigate flooding. Cards like Life from the Loam and Winding Way keep your hand flush with lands so Borborygmos can blast a path to victory.

#28. Elmar, Ulvenwald Informant (Max, the Daredevil)

Elmar, Ulvenwald Informant—also printed as Max, the Daredevil—is a great support piece, either as a steady source of artifacts for cards like Rashmi and Ragavan and Meria, Scholar of Antiquity or creatures like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker that benefit from getting untapped. Though never the fanciest card, it holds together a deck with the right synergies.

#27. Pyrewood Gearhulk

Craterhoof Behemoth at home comes in many flavors, and Pyrewood Gearhulk is interesting for its menace enabling. You can use cards like Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist that only allow one creature to block for unblockability, and being an artifact isn't irrelevant. Who doesn't want to Goblin Welder their finisher into play?

#26. Hajar, Loyal Bodyguard

Hajar, Loyal Bodyguard appreciates with value every set: The focus on Commander and the design requirements of Universes Beyond sets mean Wizards is printing more legendary creatures than ever. As the number of legends rises and more are added to your deck, the easier it is to justify legendary card support like Hajar. And it's just good: Selfless Spirit has always been strong.

#25. Halana and Alena, Partners

Halana and Alena, Partners scales very well with other counter distributors because putting counters on H&A means your other creatures get more counters. Coupled with haste so your creatures get huge and attack the turn they come down, this is a strong, aggressive commander.

#24. Dragonlord Atarka

Dragonlord Atarka is one of the best Gruul threats for casual game play, be it Cube or Commander. Ramping into a massive beater that murders your opponents board closes games quickly; how are your opponents meant to race an 8/8 when their board has been reduced to ash?

#23. Ruric Thar, the Unbowed

Ruric Thar, the Unbowed wreaks havoc at Commander tables that aren't ready to handle huge sums of damage getting thrown at their face. It punishes decks that durdle around with noncreature spells, but lack a convincing win condition or removal. Though highly niche, it's an exceptional threat under the right circumstances.

#22. Agatha of the Vile Cauldron

Gruul has several niche creatures, and Agatha of the Vile Cauldron is one of the stronger ones. It's a great card to build around as your commander or to run as a support piece for Kenrith, the Returned King and other creatures that love its niche yet powerful support.

#21. Roxanne, Starfall Savant

Roxanne, Starfall Savant is simply unfair. It isn't broken, per say, but any commander that creates a permanent mana source has great potential since it covers half the commander tax. Throw in Roxanne's mana doubling ability, restrictive as it is, and you have an generic mana engine that works in any artifact token related deck.

#20. Kibo, Uktabi Prince

One of Gruul's most popular commanders, Kibo, Uktabi Prince hates on opposing artifacts while it hands out Bananas. Kibo dominates the canopy as an ape typal commander with strong +1/+1 counter synergies.

#19. Huntmaster of the Fells / Ravager of the Fells

The best way to design a playable werewolf is to make both sides of the card strong, which Huntmaster of the Fells did perfectly: It represents two creatures at a reasonable rate, and if it ever transforms, you can Shock another creature with Ravager of the Fells. Power creep has left the Huntmaster behind—why pay 4 mana for two 2/2s that might transform into something good when that mana gets you a Questing Beast or Sheoldred, the Apocalypse. It's still an important threat in Magic's history, though.

#18. Atalan Jackal

Atalan Jackal gives stompy decks a source of damage and ramp, which works very well in Commander. Trample and haste do a lot of heavy lifting here: This creature often connects the turn it comes down, and it carries buffs like +1/+1 counters and auras very well.

#17. Burning-Tree Emissary

Burning-Tree Emissary enables powerful stompy strategies as a potential 0-mana threat. If you've played Pauper for any amount of time, you've likely suffered your opponent dropping two of these and another threat. Hybrid mana makes this exceptionally flexible as it slots into mono-red or mono-green aggro decks as well as Gruul lists.

#16. Omnath, Locus of Rage

Omnath, Locus of Rage is one of the biggest and strongest landfall payoffs. It doesn't just sit around accumulating value for a few turns; it churns out a rumbling's worth of elemental tokens. Even board wipes aren't enough to protect your opponents since Omnath bolts your opponents when elementals die.

#15. Tinder Wall

Some decks are willing to sacrifice card advantage for a mana advantage, which is where Tinder Wall comes in. It plays like a delayed ritual: Invest 1 mana, then get 2 whenever it best suits you. That might be turn 2 to drop a 4-drop, or you just use it as a traditional ritual to build storm. The card’s super flexible.

#14. Vexing Shusher

If the sight of two untapped Islands has ever filled you with rage, Vexing Shusher should be on your radar. It’s an uncounterable source of uncounterable protection, at the cost of an extra mana on each spell you cast. That’s an investment worth making to ensure your best spells resolve. In Commander, it even has political connotations since it can protect other players’ spells.

#13. Bloodbraid Elf

One of the most infamous Gruul creatures, Bloodbraid Elf spent a while on the Modern banlist due to its superior pressure demonstrated in Standard. The combination of haste and an extra spell wreaks havoc on your opponent, applying a huge surge of pressure and ensuring you get at least a two-for-one's worth of value.

#12. Goblin Anarchomancer

Goblin Anarchomancer‘s cheap cost reduction makes it a staple in any Gruul deck that wants to ramp. Note that its ability is worded such that Gruul spells only cost 1 less.

#11. Biotech Specialist

Biotech Specialist is a terrifying payoff for Treasure decks. Other strategies sacrifice artifacts, but few do it with the frequency and reliability of decks that staple Lotus Petal to all their plays. The damage adds up fast, and it's an incredible threat at a mere 2 mana.

#10. Questing Druid

Questing Druid drops power and card advantage into a sleek package. It’s just Wrenn's Resolve with a creature attached! This card did well in Standard as part of the fearsome Gruul Mice deck where it gave them late-game card advantage or an early threat. For impulse players, it lets you play up to three spells from exile.

#9. Orcish Lumberjack

Taking a mana advantage is pretty good. You could say it's the strongest thing you can do in the game. Orcish Lumberjack takes this to its extreme, offering up to 5 mana to spend on turn 2. That advantage easily dominates games if your opponents aren't ready for it, plus you get incidental synergy from cards like Titania, Protector of Argoth.

#8. Bloodbraid Challenger

Bloodbraid Challenger super-sizes Bloodbraid Elf in true power creep fashion. One additional mana gets you a substantially larger creature and an escape ability. That's more than worth the extra mana—which isn't even much of a downside since it makes the cascade trigger stronger. If you're playing Bloodbraid Elf in your Cube or Commander deck, consider upgrading it to this card.

#7. Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald

Gruul embraced red's impulse draw and cast from exile synergies in Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald, one of the archetype's best commanders. Getting an army of wolf tokens simply for casting spells and playing lands wins swiftly. This archetype‘s strength comes from its simplicity: Casting spells from exile is almost always card advantage, either from a draw spell or cards with cascade and similar mechanics.

#6. Klothys, God of Destiny

Klothys, God of Destiny lives in the sideboard as a perfect threat to bring in against decks that need their graveyard. Sideboarded games are also generally slower, which give the 3-mana slow value engine time to accumulate damage or mana at a reasonable rate.

#5. Writhing Chrysalis

Writhing Chrysalis dominated Modern Horizons 3 Limited, and it has since gone on to control Pauper. It’s essentially a 2-mana 4/5. Since the Eldrazi Spawn are created as a cast trigger, your opponents have no window to remove it before it reaches 5 toughness—red and green basically can’t answer this. Even blue countermagic is down on value since, again, it’s a cast trigger.

#4. Bello, Bard of the Brambles

Despite only coming out in 2024, Bello, Bard of the Brambles has become one of Gruul's most popular commanders, and one of the most interesting: It marries Gruul's love of big creatures with artifacts and enchantments. Green cares about enchantments as much as red loves artifacts, making Bello a versatile commander with many potential build paths.

#3. Territorial Kavu

Territorial Kavu works best in 5-color decks, though it’s hardly a challenge to assemble domain thanks to triomes. The tricky mana base is well worth the effort for a 2-mana 5/5 that either fixes your draw or inhibits your opponent’s graveyard. This ends games in a flash if given the chance.

#2. Etali, Primal Conqueror / Etali, Primal Sickness

Etali, Primal Conqueror is one of the best Gruul beasts released in the past few years. It scales with the game, casting up to four spells in a Commander pod, and it's wonderful to ramp into, cheat into play, reanimate, and otherwise take advantage of because it's a 7/7 that casts multiple spells. On ETB, too, so break out the Displacer Kitten! Etali, Primal Sickness is cool and all, but this transforming card is all about the front side.

#1. Mawloc

Mawloc is an exceptional Cube card. It's Gruul's answer to Nekrataal, except it can come down as early as turn 2 to blow up a mana dork, and it draws a card if the game stalls out and you have excess mana. Exiling the creature it kills matters, too. Mawloc is a super solid threat well suited to Cube and Commander.

Wrap Up

Pyrewood Gearhulk | Illustration by Martin de Diego Sadaba

Gruul is home to aggressive, large creatures that remind your opponents why you should keep a Doom Blade in your back pocket. From sleek threats that punch above their mana cost to massive monsters that uproot entire strategies, Gruul has something for everyone—so long as they like creatures.

What’s your favorite Gruul creature? Do you run any of these, or do you prefer a more controlling color pair, like Dimir? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord!

Stay safe, and thanks for reading!