The 33 Best Mardu Cards in Magic Ranked

Last updated on October 30, 2025

Kaalia of the Vast | Illustration by Jack Hughes

White, black, and red aren’t just the colors of every gamer’s PC, they’re also the three strongest colors in Magic (citation needed). This 3-color “wedge” is known as Mardu (). Decks built around these colors tend to focus on creatures and combat damage, emulating the eponymous Mardu Horde from Tarkir charging across the plains into battle.

What makes Mardu cards great? Which are the best for your decks? Today, your resident Mardu Hordechief ranks the best cards in Magic!

What Are Mardu Cards?

Mardu Ascendancy | Illustration by Jason Chan

“Mardu” is the nickname for cards with a red-white-black color identity. We get the name from the Mardu Horde, one of the clans on Tarkir. Before we called it Mardu, there was a whole suite of red-white-black cards in Apocalypse called Dega, but saying Dega out loud is a surefire way to be ridiculed for your age the rest of the night.

Mardu effects are the intersection between its three colors. Cards like Mardu Charm have a host of on-color effects to choose from, while cards like Offspring's Revenge and Smiting Helix marry those common effects into one card.

On average, Mardu cards care about the combat phase, the graveyard, and dealing damage. The Mardu mechanic from the Khans of Tarkir block was raid – an effect that checked if you attacked with a creature this turn. While none of these cards actually have raid printed on them, they make great choices and build-arounds for your red-white-black decks in any Constructed format.

While many of the best Mardu cards are legendaries, I wanted to include the best cards for the 99 in a Mardu Commander deck or for your various Constructed and Limited environments.

We also have a comprehensive breakdown of all Mardu lands in Magic, if you're working on your mana base.

#33. Mardu Charm

Mardu Charm finds the three things that black instants, red instants, and white instants share and excel at and marries them into a single card. Mardu Charm can be used to create two blockers at instant speed, remove a medium-sized creature, or Duress an opponent in a pinch.

While Mardu Charm’s mana value of 3 makes each of its effects overcosted for what they’d be on a mono-color card, the versatility offered lets this charm take the place of three similar spells in your library, saving those slots for more important cards.

#32. Shanid, Sleepers’ Scourge

Shanid, Sleepers' Scourge was released in the 99 of the Dihada, Binder of Wills EDH precon, and that’s where Shanid has stayed. Shanid’s effect isn’t bad, per se, but it’s just not as flashy as Dihada as your Mardu commander of a legends-matter deck. The menace anthem is great, honestly, and feels very Mardu, and I can’t imagine running the deck without it. But I can’t see myself running Shanid, Sleepers' Scourge as my commander when Dihada is right there.

#31. Archangel of Wrath

Archangel of Wrath’s variety makes it one of the more useful 4-drops to come out of Dominaria United. While its effect might not make a huge splash in Constructed formats, as the top-end to any Mardu Limited deck this kicker creature acts as just the right amount of removal to clear the board in the late game.

Having the option to destroy one or two weaker creatures, blast a 4-toughness creature, or smack 4 damage to your opponent’s face and stick a 3/4 with flying and lifelink is game-defining in the small ball style of Draft and Sealed.

#30. Crackling Doom

Crackling Doom is one of the best bang-for-your-buck 3-color instants, especially in multiplayer games. Three mana puts a Shock on each of your opponents, as well as an edict effect that’s guaranteed to hit a threat. Even with its restrictive mana cost, getting three Diabolic Edicts for 3 mana is a steal.

#29. Extus, Oriq Overlord / Awaken the Blood Avatar

Extus, Oriq Overlord and its flip side make for an interesting combination of effects. Extus’s front side recurs nonlegendary creatures from your graveyard to your hand, while its flip side creates a 3/6 that enters with an edict and shoots Lightning Bolts at your opponents when it attacks. Summoning this avatar is easier when you sacrifice at least three creatures, whereupon you can use Extus’s magecraft ability to return them to your hand. I like to compare this interaction to the grandeur ability from Future Sight. Once you’ve cast one version of Extus, any additional copies you draw can be used to either recur sacrificed creatures or to create another avatar token to wail on your enemies.

#28. Ghen, Arcanum Weaver

Ghen, Arcanum Weaver is often fielded at the helm of curse-themed decks since it has access to some of the best enchant player auras and can cycle them in and out of the graveyard easily. This makes it easy to move your curses around the table as they become more or less useful depending on which player they target.

Broadly, Ghen makes for a great stax commander for a Mardu deck, as well. There’s no shortage of Smothering Tithes and Ghostly Prisons in Mardu, and black cards like Entomb and red rummaging spells can get you easy access to your most expensive spells.

#27. Mythos of Snapdax

There’s no reason you should cast Mythos of Snapdax without paying the black and red along with it. Obliterating your opponents’ board with a sacrifice-heavy board wipe is really only useful if you can remove the actual problem permanents from their boards. Mythos of Snapdax also tends to whiff if your opponents control more than one each of those permanents types. Useful for clearing a crowded board in the late game, this 4-mana board wipe is no Wrath of God.

#26. Ankle Shanker

It may not be the most powerful Mardu card ever printed at this rarity, but it does hold the title for the Mardu rare with the funniest name to say. Ankle Shanker was an awesome top-end for your Mardu aggro deck back in the Khans block era. After spending four turns dashing out and raiding our opponents’ life totals, you could drop Ankle Shanker and swing out with your first-striking, deathtouch board to guarantee your opponents’ blockers would crumble beneath your advancing horde.

#25. Kroxa and Kunoros

Kroxa and Kunoros teams the elder giant up with the legendary Cerberus-stand-in to make a powerful 6-mana 6/6 with a whole host of keyword abilities. In addition to its rather beefy combat stats, Kroxa and Kunoros lets you effectively “escape” a creature from your graveyard to the battlefield by exiling five other cards.

Mardu is great at pitching cards into the graveyard with various Entomb and Faithless Looting effects, so getting a strong creature into the ‘yard and reanimating it should be no problem. I really don’t have any complaints about Kroxa and Kunoros, they just don’t do as much as they could.

#24. Offspring’s Revenge

Offspring's Revenge is the perfect card for recurring valuable triggered abilities on creatures in your graveyard. Players can use this Mardu enchantment to get their Banisher Priest or Fiend Hunter back from the graveyard or to squeeze one more attack trigger out of their Etali, Primal Storm.

Also, there might be some play around running the white populate cards alongside Offspring's Revenge to get multiple copies of the recurred creature. Just a thought!

#23. Zurgo Helmsmasher

Do you like to hit stuff? Very hard? Zurgo Helmsmasher is your guy. The Helmsmasher is a 7/2 that attacks every turn if possible, starting with the turn it hits the field, and it’s indestructible during your turn. Whenever it destroys a creature, it gets a +1/+1 counter.

Simple and clean, Zurgo is a 5-mana threat that’ll demand sorcery-speed removal from your opponents before it gets too big.

#22. Mardu Ascendancy

Mardu Ascendancy gives each nontoken attacker you control a 1/1 Goblin buddy to attack alongside them. You can also sacrifice it to give your creatures +0/+3 until the end of the turn, but that effect isn’t as useful outside a world where you’re worried about being Electrickery’d.

#21. Mardu Siegebreaker

The first two words in Mardu Siegebreaker‘s rules box are huge and make it very likely to match up with one of your opponent's best creatures. Then factor in the champion-like ability as a benefit when you repeat ETBs on cards like Gonti, Lord of Luxury, Skyclave Apparition, and Dualcaster Mage.

#20. Brutal Hordechief

Brutal Hordechief’s triggered effect is deceptively powerful, especially in the Mardu aggro decks of its heyday. A must-have for any deck that plans to attack with a lot of creatures every turn, draining 1 life for each attacking creature is a guaranteed way to make every combat step count.

Brutal Hordechief is an easier-to-cast version of Hellrider, making it the best way to get this effect on the field pronto. Though it lacks Hellrider’s haste, the addition of lifegain and an activated ability to control how your opponents’ creatures block gives it an unparalleled utility in otherwise simple aggro decks.

#19. Hide / Seek

Hide / Seek is a Mardu-aligned split card from Dissension, combining a Boros () removal spell with a Orzhov () extraction effect. Versatility is the name of the game for Hide / Seek – it’s great for removing artifacts and dealing with enchantments versus decks that are likely to recur them, and it helps you eliminate your opponents’ key cards in Game 2 once you’ve seen their deck.

#18. Olivia, Opulent Outlaw

Outlaws of Thunder Junction’s Olivia, Opulent Outlaw wraps the new outlaw creature batch (mercenaries, rogues, pirates, warlocks, and assassins) into one handy Mardu commander to build around. Olivia turns treasure directly into power by ramping whenever one or more of your outlaws deals combat damage to a player. For 3 mana and two Treasure tokens, Olivia mass-pumps your whole board with two +1/+1 counters, almost like a permanent Fervent Charge!

Olivia’s “whenever one or more” wording makes it tricky to maximize its potential, but note that this ability triggers for each player dealt combat damage, meaning in a typical Commander pod you can shoot for three extra Treasures each turn.

#17. Piru, the Volatile

I. Love. Elder Dragons. Cards like Piru, the Volatile just tickle the Timmy in me. A 7/7 with flying and lifelink isn’t all that impressive for 8, especially when 6 of those 8 are colored mana, and especially when it comes with a 3-mana upkeep cost. A big scary dragon like this still dies to removal. However, we actually want Piru to die.

Piru is basically a loudly-broadcast board wipe waiting to happen. The best part about Piru is removing it doesn’t stop the wrath. Whenever Piru dies, it’ll deal 7 lifelink damage to every nonlegendary creature, resulting in you gaining 7 life for each of them. That’s nuts. Piru frequently skyrockets my Dihada, Binder of Wills deck into the atmosphere by obliterating my opponents’ battlefields while I gain something like 70+ life.

#16. Ruinous Ultimatum

Listen, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better way to spend exactly besides Ruinous Ultimatum. We’re used to one-sided board wipes costing 9 mana and coming with restrictions on what they can hit, like In Garruk's Wake. This Mardu entry into the cycle of Ultimatums pushes the boundary on how powerful a one-sided board wipe can get and what exactly it should cost.

#15. Tariel, Reckoner of Souls

Tariel, Reckoner of Souls is a classic from the 2011 Commander precons. Tariel’s ability returns a random creature from an opponent’s graveyard to the battlefield under your control, creating a fun minigame for yourself as you try to control what creatures your opponents have in their ‘yard to better the chances you hit something strong.

I’ve seen Tariel run alongside basics like Apostle of Purifying Light and Beckon Apparition to suppress graveyards, as well as with Debtors' Knell and other Zombify effects to just get as much out of their graveyard as possible.

#14. Syr Gwyn, Hero of Ashvale

Throne of Eldraine’s Syr Gwyn, Hero of Ashvale could be the best possible commander for a knight deck. Syr Gwyn makes all those expensive equip costs of cards like Colossus Hammer and Kaldra Compleat cost nothing. It also acts as a value engine to churn through your library to get more knights and great equipment to attach to them.

#13. Neriv, Heart of the Storm

Neriv, Heart of the Storm is a fair damage doubler by most accounts. It is filthy good when you factor in ETBs though. Blade of Selves, Fury, and Morlun, Devourer of Spiders are especially effective and they aren't hasty creatures. Thankfully, red has plenty of haste granting effects to make lots of cards work with Neriv.

#12. Dihada, Binder of Wills

Dihada, Binder of Wills is the only Mardu-aligned planeswalker, and this particular planeswalker can be your commander.

Dihada is geared towards leading a deck full of legendary creatures–an archetype many players enjoy–but with the creative restriction of being locked into three colors, rather than the typical 5-color legends deck of a Sisay, Weatherlight Captain or a Jodah, the Unifier.

Dihada’s first loyalty ability is great for protecting itself. Throw it on any cheap legend like Isamaru, Hound of Konda or Tomik, Distinguished Advokist for the perfect blocker to keep Dihada safe. The second ability is where this planeswalker gets really juicy: For a mere 3 loyalty counters, Dihada reveals the top four cards of your library and lets you choose any number of legendary spells or legendary lands and add them to your hand, making Treasure tokens equal to the difference. You don’t need to take every legendary card you see, either, meaning you can dig through the top of your library for that Piru, the Volatile, make the rest into Treasure tokens, and ramp into dropping your huge dragon way early.

#11. Caesar, Legion’s Emperor

Fallout‘s Caesar, Legion's Emperor does the best things white, red, and black can do. Namely, drawing cards, creating tokens, and dealing noncombat damage.

Besides Caesar’s obvious value as a 4/4 human soldier for 4 mana, it’s important to note that its effect triggers whenever you attack with any creature, not just Caesar. This lets you keep it safe from combat as it sends its cohorts of warriors to war. At the very least, Caesar can always net another attacker to bank for a later sacrifice or throw some gas on your deck and draw you a card. It gets even better when combined with the typical ETB/LTB effects Mardu has access to, as well.

#10. Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad

If you’re looking to build an assassins deck, Assassin's Creed‘s Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad is the card for you.

Altaïr excels as both the commander of an assassin deck or in the 99 of an Ezio Auditore da Firenze deck. This Mardu assassin makes a tapped-and-attacking copy of every creature it’s exiled from your graveyard. This makes Altaïr the perfect pseudo-recursion, with the bonus of synergizing with token doublers like Anointed Procession and ETB effects like Impact Tremors. Those tokens are exiled at the end of combat, but with a free sacrifice outlet you can generate even more value off these basically free creatures that you’d lose at the end of combat, anyway. Something as simple as Viscera Seer works with a Blood Artist effect to blast your opponents to pieces as the assassins leap into combat then disappear without a trace.

#9. Zurgo Stormrender

Zurgo Stormrender might not surprise many of you, and boy does it do good work. Mobilize is already great, and you were already going to attack like crazy with your tokens, so Zurgo makes it hurt. Draw cards or they lose life, you win either way, so it's just a matter of putting as many attacking tokens into play as possible. Adeline, Resplendent Cathar, Hero of Bladehold, and Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon are three of my favorite ways to create attacking tokens, help a fellow Mardu-head and comment with yours.

#8. Isshin, Two Heavens as One

One of Magic's best extra-combat commanders, Isshin, Two Heavens as One is a natural result of the Cambrian explosion of “do this or that effect twice” mechanics we’ve seen cropping up. Many of the best Mardu cards have effects that trigger when they attack, so doubling those triggers is obviously powerful. Some of my favorite effects to double up on are Fervent Charge, Mardu Ascendancy, and Brutal Hordechief, and those are just the Mardu-aligned ones.

#7. Fervent Charge

If there’s one thing Mardu decks do well, it's combat. Fervent Charge is a conditional anthem for your attacking creatures that gives them a pretty significant buff at +2/+2.

Also, its original Apocalypse printing has some sick Magic art featuring Crovax, a Mirrorwood Treefolk, and a bunch of Kavu creatures duking it out.

#6. All-Out Assault

All-Out Assault almost behaves like a strong sorcery because it does so much the turn it comes down. The deathtouch enabling anthem nearly ensures you have the advantage going into the combat phase, and don't get me started on the advantages of untapping all your creatures. This does finally give me a nice pairing with an actual sorcery that many forget about, Warlord's Fury.

#5. Megatron, Tyrant / Megatron, Destructive Force

Despite the general bad taste that Universes Beyond cards leave in my mouth, I must admire the wonderful design of Megatron, Tyrant. Megatron’s abilities incentivize you to transform it as much as possible, first by wreaking havoc in combat with its 7/5 stat line and then by turning all that damage into colorless mana. Use that colorless mana to cast a big artifact, then sacrifice it when Megatron’s vehicle side attacks on the following turn.

Any excess damage from Megatron’s fling is dealt to the creature’s controller, and it converts Megatron back into its robot side, ready to start all over. There are any number of brutal combos you can execute here, including using Spine of Ish Sah as removal and damage each turn, or using Scrap Trawler’s effect in tandem with Foundry Inspector and Sculpting Steel to infinitely loop artifacts in and out of your graveyard.

#4. Queen Marchesa

Not only is Queen Marchesa the best commander to build-around for a monarch deck, it’s just a generally good creature to include in any Mardu deck that can spare the slot.

Access to the monarch isn’t hard to come by, but access to the monarch and a way to punish your opponents for being the monarch is a little more exciting. The Mardu Marchesa assumes you’ll be attacking with all your creatures each turn, leaving yourself open to losing the monarch on the return swing. That’s what actually makes Queen Marchesa valuable in a deck, as you’ll create 1/1 deathtouch-haste Assassin tokens to attack back or otherwise use as threatening rattlesnake creatures.

#3. Alesha, Who Smiles at Death

Alesha, Who Smiles at Death is my number one favorite commander. It’s also not too shabby in the 99, so long as you’ve built a deck around relatively small-sized creatures. Alesha has one of the most consistent reanimation sources in Mardu colors and does it in red/white/black’s favorite phase: combat. Alesha’s one of the most popular Mardu commanders and among the best aggro commanders overall, closing in on 6000 decks logged on EDHREC.

Alesha, Who Smiles at Death’s a value engine like no other. Some of my favorite plays with Alesha involve repeatedly playing Avalanche Riders and letting it die to its own echo cost, or sneaking Master of Cruelties into play tapped and attacking to one-shot opponents as the Rakdos () demon’s effect works perfectly with Alesha's damage.

#2. Kaalia of the Vast

Kaalia of the Vast is the classic Mardu “good stuff” commander, combining three of the colors’ most powerful creature types into one brutal deck. Kaalia’s attack trigger sneaks a free angel, demon, or dragon creature into play tapped and attacking. Not like those three creature types aren’t some of the strongest in the game; everything from Avacyn, Angel of Hope to Master of Cruelties to Balefire Dragon answers the call of Kaalia.

Kaalia, of course, combos well with many of the other Mardu staples that care about creatures entering and attacking, like Warstorm Surge and Fervent Charge.

#1. Edgar Markov

Famous for being the best possible vampire commander, Edgar Markov is one of the most aggressive Mardu legends ever. The eminence ability is notorious for being overpowered and impossible to interact with, and Edgar’s special brand of aggressive 1/1 creature token creation is on the more punishing side.

Edgar’s easy to combine with any number of staple aggro cards; run Fervors to give those tokens haste, run Aggravated Assault to get extra combats and therefore extra +1/+1 counters from Edgar Markov, and run any/all of the cheap vampire creatures and their associated lords. A well-built Edgar Markov deck comes out swinging and is nearly impossible to stop once it gets the ball rolling.

Best Mardu Payoffs

Mardu cards are all about creatures. Entering the battlefield, leaving the battlefield, attacking; whatever they do, Mardu cards help them do it.

For Mardu decks that plan to play lots of creatures, you can’t go wrong with Impact Tremors, Warstorm Surge, and Outpost Siege. If those creatures happen to be attacking, Campaign of Vengeance, Gleam of Battle, Hellrider, and Anthem of Rakdos make fine additions. Avenger of the Fallen is just one of the great mobilize cards that do a ton of work in Mardu decks. If you’re looking for ways to destroy those creatures easily, any number of free sacrifice effects like Viscera Seer, and more can play right into your reanimator or aristocrats builds.

What Is Mardu Good at in MTG?

Mardu excels at the mechanics and effects that intersect between white, black, and red cards. It plays lots of creatures, as seen on Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, sacrifices permanents for value as with Caesar, Legion's Emperor, and wants to run the board in combat with cards like Isshin, Two Heavens as One, Brutal Hordechief, and Zurgo Helmsmasher.

Mardu also makes a great color identity for a number of creature types. Edgar Markov is well known as the best vampire commander around, and Trynn, Champion of Freedom and Silvar, Devourer of the Free decks are excellent partner commanders for a humans deck. And, of course, there’s Kaalia of the Vast, who's an excellent dragon commander, demon commander, and angel commander. Shared Animosity works with any of these typal strategies and amps up your attack power immensely.

Wrap Up

Queen Marchesa | Illustration by Kieran Yanner

Mardu may be the best 3-color wedge in Magic. I don’t have any data to back up this claim, but it’s easy to see these cards make a good case for the identity. Whether you’re big on tokens, the best reanimation targets, sacrifice effects, or just straight-up combat damage, there’s a Mardu card out there for you.

What are your favorite Mardu cards? What about your favorite Dega cards? Let me know in the comments, or over on Draftsim's Twitter/X.

Thank you for reading! For the horde!