The 57 Best Looters in Magic Ranked

Last updated on August 10, 2026

Merfolk Looter | Illustration by Tristan Elwell

I’ve said it many times, but drawing cards is one of the best game actions you can take in Magic. It’s a game of resources, and accessing more cards than your opponent gives you more resources and options, which often translates into a high win percentage.

Looting, slang for drawing and discarding, isn’t quite as good as drawing a card, but it’s close and can even provide additional benefits beyond seeing an extra card. Looting is a mechanic that gives you more options and filters your draws, which helps you find the best threats and answers your deck can offer.

What Are Looters in MTG?

Kitsa, Otterball Elite | Illustration by Zoltan Boros

Looting in MTG is when you draw a card and then discard a card. This isn’t to be confused with rummaging, which lets you draw cards after discarding. Its namesake is the classic Merfolk Looter, but the mechanic comes in many different forms.

The ability to draw and discard a card offers invaluable card filtration, and also provides a good discard outlet. Seeing more cards than your opponents is an easy way to win a game. Looting helps filter extra lands or otherwise useless spells into impactful ones, but the discard element is just as useful for decks that want to fill their graveyard to fuel cards like Treasure Cruise or Unholy Heat.

This list will include cards that can draw and discard multiple times, at minimum twice. One-shot effects are more akin to card selection tools or straight-up draw spells, so we'll consider a looter something that can loot multiple times.

#57. Desolate Lighthouse + Agna Qel'a

Looting is a pretty safe ability to add to a utility land, as we’ve seen on cards like Desolate Lighthouse and Agna Qel'a. You won’t activate these often, but they’re nice mana sinks when you’re digging for action or just have nothing better to do with your mana.

#56. Merfolk Looter

The classic! The namesake! Despite its place in MTG history, Merfolk Looter is pretty weak by today’s standards, but it's the reason we have the slang term in the first place, so we'll give it a pass.

#55. Looter il-Kor

Looter il-Kor isn’t the card it used to be due to power creep, but it’s still a consistent source of card selection. Maybe Lyna, Veil of Vengeance gives you a reason to play this shadow creature over better versions.

#54. Geier Reach Sanitarium

Geier Reach Sanitarium is more cost-effective than Desolate Lighthouse, so I like it a fair bit more. Letting your opponents loot can be detrimental, but cards like Orcish Bowmasters or Faerie Mastermind can wring some value from the forced draw.

#53. Enclave Cryptologist

If you invest enough mana in Enclave Cryptologist, you can go from looting to producing raw card advantage. I’m not sure I want to invest mana into such a fragile body, though this card plays well with proliferate effects.

#52. Moon-Circuit Hacker

Moon-Circuit Hacker isn’t quite Ninja of the Deep Hours, but it’s respectable enough to be copies five and six in many Pauper lists. Getting a card, then repeated loots, is plenty of value from a creature you’re often paying for.

#51. Bilbo, Luckwearer

One of many cards that has basically power crept Looter il-Kor out of existence, Bilbo, Luckwearer is a simple evasive creature that loots as a combat trigger. A true saboteur, as it were. Switcheroo as an adventure is mostly fake, but it could matter if you top-deck Bilbo later in the game.

#50. Shoreline Looter

Shoreline Looter is an improvement over Bilbo. Its loots turn into straight card draw once you’ve achieved threshold, which looting actively works towards.

#49. Roiling Dragonstorm

Roiling Dragonstorm’s inclusion is predicated by being in decks with a couple dragons to pick it back up. Casting this enchantment multiple times per game is a lot of card filtration for a deck that often gets stuck with expensive cards in hand.

#48. Riddlesmith

Riddlesmith is a great addition to artifact decks, though being a cast trigger means you don’t get any loots out of artifact token creation.

#47. All-Seeing Arbiter

All-Seeing Arbiter never quite caught on as the top-end control finisher it was surely designed to be. You’re up cards on the ETB, and it shrinks creatures as you discard, plus it repeats these abilities on attacks. It’s rarely bad, but it’s also hard to find a deck that’s actively seeking a 6-drop like this.

#46. Zurzoth, Chaos Rider

The rare red effect that draws before discarding, Zurzoth, Chaos Rider spreads some real Burning Inquiry energy to all players and pays you off with annoying little Devil tokens that make combat miserable.

#45. Narset of the Ancient Way

Narset of the Ancient Way might not be the strongest planeswalker, but its loot ability can be useful. There’s always the downside of not wanting to discard a spell to kill something since the best use of looting tends to be filtering through excess lands, but having more options is rarely bad.

#44. Champion of Wits

I love Champion of Wits dearly. It’s just so much value, from the double loot on ETB to the card advantage eternalizing it offers. It’s great in decks that care about looting often; it enables the strategy and acts as a payoff since you’re never sad about discarding the Champion to eternalize later.

#43. Matzalantli, the Great Door / The Core

Matzalantli, the Great Door is a fantastic looting option for a deck that’s not in blue, the color with the greatest number of looters. That said, you need a permanent-heavy graveyard deck to get the most out of the descend ability, so this may secretly be a BG card.

#42. Jace, Cunning Castaway

Jace, Cunning Castaway promises tons of looting for a proactive deck, though its other abilities are weak. This planeswalker is best alongside something like The Locust God that generates tons of tokens.

#41. Azor’s Gateway / Sanctum of the Sun

Exiling the cards you don’t want with Azor's Gateway can be a significant downside for decks relying on looting to fill the graveyard with resources, but decks interested in drawing and filtering don’t care about exile versus discard. The reward of a land that taps for a silly amount of mana is worth it.

#40. Anvil of Bogardan

Anvil of Bogardan essentially makes every player loot at the beginning of their draw steps, which can be valuable. For decks interested in forcing their opponents to draw, this card is a less detrimental Howling Mine as it doesn’t generate pure card advantage and plays well with cards like Sheoldred, the Apocalypse and Narset, Parter of Veils.

#39. Mask of Memory

Mask of Memory turns something else into a looter and represents a good bit of card draw in a prolonged game where you can take consistent pot shots at your opponents’ life totals.

#38. The Celestus

I’d recommend The Celestus harder if it weren’t for the need to track day/night, which really isn’t worth it without some house rule to make it disappear when this leaves play. But if you can tolerate the upkeep, this is a fine Manalith variant that gives you free loots throughout the game.

#37. Likeness Looter

Likeness Looter is a nice little unit that uses the cards it discards. This could be a cute way to enable attack triggers off cards like Etali, Primal Storm without worrying about summoning sickness.

#36. Suspicious Stowaway / Seafaring Werewolf

Another glow-up for Looter il-Kor, Suspicious Stowaway can do a lot of work. Once it becomes night, the Seafaring Werewolf represents a real clock.

#35. Duelist of the Mind

Crime pays. At least on Duelist of the Mind it does. Not only does Nathan Steuer loot when you commit crimes, but it also hits harder, and combos with wheel effects like the boss that Steuer is.

#34. Overlord of the Floodpits

One of the tamer Duskmourn Overlords, Overlord of the Floodpits still spots you some extra cards, a repeatable discard outlet, and all the other combos that come with these high-cost impending creatures.

#33. Emet-Selch, Unsundered / Hades, Sorcerer of Eld

Emet-Selch, Unsundered paves the way to Hades, Sorcerer of Eld with a road full of loots, all in service of reaching double-threshold to flip it into a monster of a recursion engine.

#32. Borborygmos and Fblthp

How much you discard with Borborygmos and Fblthp is completely up to you. You can treat it like a normal looter to turn some excess lands into Lightning Bolts, or forego discarding completely and have this be pure card advantage.

#31. Leonardo da Vinci

Always strange to go from something very Magic-coded like Borborygmos and Fblthp to, like, real-life historical figure Leonardo da Vinci. But that’s just the UB world we’re living in. Leo loots in service of making thopters that take on the abilities of artifacts you discarded, which is an inventive ability for an artificer like Leonardo da Vinci.

#30. Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel

Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel offers a steady source of cheap looting and the potential to cast some spells. You don’t often get to the fourth chorus counter, but the threat forces your opponent to answer Malcolm.

#29. Rona, Herald of Invasion / Rona, Tolarian Obliterator

Looters that untap themselves can offer repeated value. In the case of Rona, Herald of Invasion, that becomes an infinite combo enabler alongside cards like Mox Amber and Retraction Helix. Once you’re finished looting, it flips into a dangerous threat.

#28. Nahiri, the Harbinger

A former Cube staple, Nahiri, the Harbinger offers a great source of looting and much more. The choice between a looter and a removal spell is powerful. Getting to the ultimate often means winning the game with cards like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn or Blightsteel Colossus.

#27. Gran-Gran

Gran-Gran won a Pro Tour, so before you go writing this off just because it really only works with lessons, maybe take a second to consider just how powerful the lesson gameplan needed to be for this to take top prize.

#26. Felothar the Steadfast

We’ve got a chunk of archetype-specific looters here, all of which are powerful commanders that only fit in one kind of deck. Felothar the Steadfast is that for high-toughness decks, though you can think of this more like mass card draw than true looting, since you often end up discarding nothing.

#25. Varina, Lich Queen

The lesser of two Esper () zombie looters, Varina, Lich Queen fills the yard fast, then gets to digging up zombies using the fodder from your graveyard. Totally fine, but overshadowed by the newer zombie commander on the block.

#24. Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir

Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir proved that eminence could be used in a way that wasn’t totally busted; it just had to be for a tier-3 creature type. Obviously the looting is here to get reanimation targets into the graveyard, but the real power is never having to cast your commander to get that effect. Hmm… maybe this really isn’t a fair use of eminence.

#23. Thranduil, the Elvenking

Looting on legendary elves is pretty novel, though the rest of the text on Thranduil, the Elvenking points towards infinite combo territory. Stitch together a bunch of abilities from different elves and see what kind of Rube Elfberg machine you can make.

#22. Temmet, Naktamun’s Will

Varina plays second fiddle to Temmet, Naktamun's Will, though they honestly make for a good pair of dual fiddlers. Temmet offers one loot per turn, but its lord effect goes wild with any other additional card draw.

#21. Titan of Littjara

Titan of Littjara lets you put reliable card draw into any blue deck focused on a single creature type. This tremendous typal titan probably draws enough cards you won’t even blink at having to discard something. With the right creature type, that might even be a benefit.

#20. Baral, Chief of Compliance

Counter a spell, get a loot. That’s the sort of monotonous gameplay people have come to associate with Baral, Chief of Compliance, though that also makes it a safe and reliable pick for a control commander.

#19. Lord Windgrace

Lord Windgrace boasts a lot of power. It’s a fantastic Jund commander for landfall decks, discarding lands before returning them to the battlefield with its second ability. Drawing cards and making land drops are two of the best game actions you can take in MTG, so getting both in one planeswalker makes a commander worth building around.

#18. Raffine, Scheming Seer

Conniving is looting with extra steps and rewards, so it’s fair to add Raffine, Scheming Seer to this list. A major player in its Standard, Raffine promises to keep the gas flowing while buffing your best creatures.

#17. Kaito Shizuki

Another Standard player of its time, Kaito Shizuki offers a lot of value. Its +1 can be card advantage instead of filtration, and its second ability pressures planeswalkers and enables the first. Altogether a very powerful planeswalker, even if it’ll rarely win you the game.

#16. Jeskai Ascendancy

Jeskai Ascendancy is a great example of using looting as a powerful draw engine. This great Jeskai card’s heyday in Modern has passed, but it’s still a potent source of card draw many Commander decks can leverage.

#15. Unctus, Grand Metatect

Unctus, Grand Metatect has a ton of text on it that all roughly translates into Phyrexian as “please combo with me.” It’s actually not a looter itself, but like Mask of Memory, it turns everything else into a good source of card selection and even pumps your artifact creatures when you’re not just all-in on combos.

#14. The Locust God

Does anyone ever use the loot on The Locust God? I mean sure, it’s right there, but that’s gotta be a last resort right? This insect-spewing god is here on a technicality, as a powerful card that just happens to have a looting effect, rather than an explicitly powerful looter.

#13. Norman Osborn / Green Goblin

Another unblockable looter, Norman Osborn’s power comes less from the repeatable connives and more from Green Goblin’s ability to go nuts with wheel effects and other forms of discard. It’s cool that you can hit with Norman, draw and discard, then transform into Green Goblin and access that card you discarded that turn for cheaper.

#12. Relic of Sauron

Relic of Sauron has been underrated since release, though maybe a box topper reprint in The Hobbit will expose it to more Grixis () mages. Give it a shot if you’re running a Grixis deck with heavy mana requirements.

#11. Dack Fayden

The Greatest Thief in the Multiverse can steal much more than artifacts. Dack Fayden’s uptick swipes the secrets right out of your library! Getting to target your opponents can help political negotiations in EDH or work alongside cards like Hullbreacher and Narset, Parter of Veils in Cube.

#10. Teferi, Master of Time

Teferi, Master of Time is a beast in Commander. Getting four loots each turn cycle tears through your deck and stuffs your graveyard with material. It doesn’t take long to get that ultimate, which easily twists a game in your favor.

#9. The Queen of Dale

Having The Queen of Dale in play should always feel good. It’s not quite threatening enough that someone needs to blow their Swords to Plowshares on it, but recruiting off noncreature spells is still good value, whether you get the 1/1 humans or not.

#8. Ledger Shredder

Let the ledger show that… oh, never mind. When Ledger Shredder’s not shredding ledgers, it’s getting consistent connive triggers off of anyone silly enough to want to do more than one thing per turn. The bird might get pretty big during the meantime, but you should be content with a bunch of extra loots for free.

#7. Kitsa, Otterball Elite

You really otter check this one out. Kitsa, Otterball Elite needs the tiniest of pushes to start doing really dumb things. That can be a +1/+1 counter, a piece of equipment, or even just careful sequencing to make sure your first prowess trigger gets Kitsa in range of casting your next, more important spell.

#6. Katara, Waterbending Master

Katara, Waterbending Master is an extremely simple card, but as the world learned with Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, simplicity and power can go hand-in-hand. Katara should be stacking up experience counters in any dedicated flash or control deck, at which point your hand should always be full, discard be damned.

#5. Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy / Jace, Telepath Unbound

Jace, Vryn's Prodigy is fantastic in most grindy blue decks. The card selection gives you plenty of fuel for the early and midgame, followed by Jace, Telepath Unbound providing the card advantage needed to turn the corner. This card plays especially well with extra turn spells.

#4. Faithless Looting

Faithless Looting barely gets over the hump to qualify for this list for two reasons. One, it’s actually two effects in one, so it’s not exactly a one-shot effect. And two, it has looting in the name, so it gets a pass. This is a great card selection tool for discard and graveyard decks, one that’s even been banned in more powerful formats due to its efficiency.

#3. Shorikai, Genesis Engine

Shorikai, Genesis Engine is a well-known Azorius commander (), and a strong combo enabler or generic draw engine, however you want to play it. Making bodies when you loot obviously works towards crewing your 8/8, but it also gives you chump blockers so you have enough time to keep activating Shorikai.

#2. Currency Converter

Currency Converter is honestly a powerful enough card that you can just put it in a deck and it’ll work, sort of like a Sensei's Divining Top. Even better if you have extra synergies beyond the self-contained loop of drawing, discarding, then turning those discards into value. Note that it also stores up cards against opposing discard decks, which can make it a nice silver bullet against Tinybones and Tergrid decks.

#1. Smuggler’s Copter

A frequent former flier on Constructed banlists, Smuggler's Copter presents a devastating clock as a 3/3 flier that dodges sorcery-speed removal. The looting pushes this card over the top. Applying pressure is useless if you can’t back it up, and the repeated loots make it harder to stall out after putting on an aggressive front. But the most busted aspect is that all this comes from a colorless card, so it can be leveraged by any deck with a handful of cheap creatures.

Best Looter Payoffs

Looting is comprised of two actions: drawing and discarding. Each part is exploitable.

First up, the draw. There are tons of cards that trigger off two, even three draws per turn, like Emrakul's Messenger, Minn, Wily Illusionist, and Sneaky Snacker, which you can even pitch to a looting effect then bring back by looting again. Looters are great ways to enable these effects on your turn.

Plenty of cards also reward you for drawing cards at all. The Locust God and Niv-Mizzet, Parun are two powerful commanders that reward you for any number of cards drawn on any turn that are more than happy to play alongside all the looters you can throw at them.

As for the discard, mechanics like madness care about discarding cards. Discarding also fuels many graveyard strategies. It’s an easy way to fill the bin for mechanics like delve spells or cards with delirium.

Because you have so much control over what you’re discarding, they’re also useful for strategies that care about getting certain cards in the graveyard. These effects are fantastic at enabling strategies like Dredge and Reanimator that want to see many cards and need to fill the graveyard with resources.

Is Looting Good in MTG?

Looting is excellent in Magic. The more cards you see in a game, the more likely you are to win because seeing more cards gives you more resources and options than your opponent. Even though looting doesn’t produce card advantage since you draw and discard a card, the card filtration is amazing. If you’re looting every turn, you get twice as many looks at a relevant card than an opponent reliant on their draw step.

Discarding a card is also much stronger than it looks. For some decks, you’ll just be discarding irrelevant lands or spells too expensive to cast, but with some of the payoffs above, you can turn the discard of a loot effect into a game action as valuable as drawing an additional card.

To maximize the impact of your looting, try to hold some lands in hand. Most decks don’t need more than five or six lands, so holding the extras ensures you always have some discard fodder for your looters.

What Is The Difference Between Looting and Rummaging?

The difference between looting and rummaging is the order of operations. When you loot, you draw a card, then discard a card. When you rummage, you discard a card and then draw a card. While the difference seems inconsequential, it matters greatly.

When you loot, you have perfect information regarding your hand. Let’s say the card you draw is a Reanimate; you know now that the ideal card to discard is Archon of Cruelty to make use of the card you drew.

Rummaging happens with imperfect information. You don’t know if you’re going to draw the Reanimate, so you need to carefully consider if it’s worth discarding the Archon and exposing it to graveyard hate without knowing when the reanimation spell is coming.

Looting is always stronger than rummaging, but the ability to see new cards is always valuable. There are plenty of powerful rummagers like Fable of the Mirror-Breaker and Bitter Reunion that show just how powerful the mechanic can be.

Should You Always Loot in MTG?

The age-old question is whether you should loot in situations when you control something like Merfolk Looter and you already have a pretty good hand. The default answer is yes, you should always loot unless you have an explicit reason not to. If you suspect milling out might matter in your game, or there’s an effect on board that hurts you for drawing or discarding, then clearly you have to evaluate whether it’s in your best interests to loot.

However, without any considerations like that, looting can at worst keep your hand neutral, and at best actually improve it. And if you’re a deck that has graveyard synergies, whether in Commander, Limited, or 60-card Constructed, you should be looting as often as you can to set up future graveyard plays.

Wrap Up

Jeskai Ascendancy | Illustration by Dan Scott

Any mechanic in Magic that shows you extra cards is at least a little good. Not only does looting allow you to see more of your deck, but discarding cards can often be used to generate additional advantage. From setting up graveyard-based strategies to filtering away excess lands, looting is a versatile mechanic many decks happily employ.

What’s your favorite looter? Do you prefer looting or rummaging? Let me know in the comments and 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 keep looting (cards)!