The 30 Best Ogres in Magic Ranked

Last updated on October 24, 2024

Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder | Illustration by Krharts

The lumbering brutes known as ogres are a hallmark of fantasy media, frequently found populating dungeons and the wild regions of fictional universes, ready to clobber hapless adventurers and heroes with a well-timed tree stump to the head. They’re big, scary, and usually smell bad. They’re the medium-sized foot soldiers of many a nefarious villain, and, most importantly, are an often overlooked creature type for Magic: The Gathering.

Ogres used to be a thin creature type in Magic, but recent MTG sets like Murders of Karlov Manor and Outlaws of Thunder Junction have seen the release of an exciting new batch of ogres. What niche do they fill in Magic, and which ones fill it best?

Today, we’re ranking the top ogres in Magic: The Gathering!

What Are Ogres in Magic?

Hidetsugu and Kairi | Illustration by Chris Rahn

Ogre is a creature type in Magic: The Gathering. They’re huge humanoids that primarily appear in red and black cards. Ogres have been around since Alpha’s Gray Ogre, and were printed sparingly on rather ineffective bodies for decades until they saw a return in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty.

Despite their rarity, ogres are native to many of the planes of the MTG Multiverse, including Alara, Dominaria, Kamigawa, Ravnica, Eldraine, Tarkir, and Zendikar. They’re generally violent and stupid, punching first and asking questions never. Their power and toughness often rests around 3/3 or 4/4, being smaller than the average giant but still stronger than a typical human. With a few exceptions, their abilities almost always have something to do with combat, attacking, or dealing damage.

#30. First Responder

It’s a shame First Responder doesn’t see much play. I think it might actually be one of the better ogres available in Commander. Perfect for any deck that plans on casting a lot of creatures, First Responder goes great with any cards that’ll let you flash those creatures back into play. Yeva, Nature's Herald comes to mind, and I also love that you can use it as a reliable way to trigger your Beast Whisperer should you run out of creatures to cast.

#29. Kolaghan Warmonger

Ogres have a hidden history of synergizing with other creature types. On Kamigawa, this is represented by the demon synergies common to many of the O-bakemono, and on Tarkir, it's represented by their affinity for dragons.

Kolaghan Warmonger from March of the Machine: The Aftermath has a repeatable effect to dig through the top of your library and pull out dragon cards to your hand. Having haste, its attack trigger could fire off as early as turn 2 if you hit your Sol Ring. While it won’t survive a Commander combat phase very late into the game, it should create enough value in two or three attacks to fetch whichever dragons you were looking for.

#28. Wrecking Ogre

Wrecking Ogre is the best of the bloodrush cards from Gatecrash. Five mana to activate its ability is very costly, but +3/+3 and double strike should be enough to end the game when tossed on a mid-game unblocked attacker.

#27. Ogre Chitterlord

Ogre Chitterlord returns to the rats sub-theme many of the Ravnican ogres were printed with, bringing it to Wilds of Eldraine with surprising ease. The Chitterlord is great in a deck that’s already running a lot of rats but won’t shine on its own. It’ll take three turns before Ogre Chitterlord hits your rats with the +2/+0 anthem if it’s your only source of rats, which is more than enough time for your opponent to Cast Down your 6-mana creature.

#26. Ogre Slumlord

Ogre Slumlord was a key piece to the Rats deck of Return to Ravnica’s Standard environment, running alongside Pack Rat as a much-needed deathtouch anthem and rat token generator to beef up the otherwise weak creatures. Five mana is a lot for a 3/3, but at least this rogue ogre’s effect triggers when your opponents’ creatures die, too, and not just your own.

#25. Menacing Ogre

I love cards that force your opponents to play a mind game with you. Will they try to choose the lowest number so they don’t take a ton of damage, or will they relent and give you a 5/5 with trample and haste? While it might not be the most immediately valuable ogre, Menacing Ogre can still pack a wallop on your less mathematically-minded friends.

#24. Hidetsugu and Kairi

Hidetsugu teams up with Kairi, the Swirling Sky to form Hidetsugu and Kairi, a 5-mana legendary ogre demon dragon (great type line!).

You get a free Brainstorm when it enters, which you should use to stack your library to cast a free instant or sorcery from the top. I like Hidetsugu and Kairi for their synergistic abilities, letting you dig for a way to sacrifice them immediately to cast your Rise of the Dark Realms off the top for free.

Sadly, it's a bit difficult to build around as a Dimir commander, what with its 5-mana mana value and an effect that triggers when it dies. Recasting it for 7 mana when you can’t hit the perfect reanimation spell really hurts your ability to run this card in the command zone.

#23. Hostile Investigator

With the typical 4/3 stat line and 4-mana casting cost, Hostile Investigator is already on its way to being one of the more valuable ogres. It also comes with a triggered effect that creates a Clue token whenever anyone discards one or more cards (once per turn). Normally, I find the “once per turn” limitations on cards to be more frustrating than their worth, but Hostile Investigator’s specific brand of advantage-generation scratches the itch I have for discard synergies just right.

For years, we’ve been stuck with Megrim and Raiders' Wake and Liliana's Caress and nothing else. Finally, we have another permanent I can stick to the board in my Tinybones, Trinket Thief deck.

#22. Crimson Fleet Commodore

Pauper players know all about Crimson Fleet Commodore. The card saw some play in the RG stompy decks before the format came to settle on Boarding Party. While this pirate ogre’s 2 toughness leaves it relatively fragile, its trample and 5 power and monarch trigger more than make up for its mana value.

#21. Ogre Battlecaster

Ogre Battlecaster’s repeatable flashback effect makes it one of the best ways to recur your valuable instants and sorceries and makes it a stronger creature to boot. First strike means the additional power helps Battlecaster survive combat with larger creatures, possibly making your opponent resign to not blocking instead of losing their creatures.

#20. Body Launderer

The Streets of New Capenna mythic rare Body Launderer can generate a lot of value if it sticks to the field. Its connive ability lets you filter through the top of your deck quickly to find the perfect non-rogue creature to recur once the Launderer dies, while giving you the option to buff it to the required power and toughness you’d need to play it. While Body Launderer won’t see you rushing out Griselbrand with any expediency, its effect replaces itself with a creature of at least 3 power when it dies. Plus, it's a deathtouch creature, meaning you can make an effective “trade up” into anything it does combat with.

#19. Gruul Spellbreaker

Gruul Spellbreaker is the ultimate anti-Izzet card: It’s both a 3/3 with trample and riot and a conditional Leyline of Sanctity, which makes it one of the best ways to stop those pesky Guttersnipe-coded decks from running amok on your turn. Forcing the burn player to play at sorcery speed can kneecap their deck, especially when they suddenly have to decide between Lightning Bolt-ing you or your creature on their turn.

#18. Hoarding Ogre

Hoarding Ogre is guaranteed to pay for itself, if it sticks around long enough or you roll well. While rolling a natural 20 still leaves you at a net loss on mana, I’ll take creating three Treasure tokens and slinging 3 damage running across the board for 4 mana any day.

#17. Kazuul’s Toll Collector

Anything that lets you skip the expensive equip cost of artifacts like Colossus Hammer or Kaldra Compleat is playable in my book, so Kazuul's Toll Collector is the perfect choice for the burgeoning equipment deck that’s found itself without access to the plethora of white cards that mimic this effect. Can’t run Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist? Try this red ogre warrior instead!

#16. Terror of Towashi

Terror of Towashi is a Zombify on a 4/3 deathtouching body. Its repeatable effect and type-change make it more useful than a traditional reanimate effect, letting you create phyrexians out of creatures that wouldn’t normally need that creature type. I run my Terror of Towashi in my Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos deck as both recursion and a way to trigger Brimaz again off the death of my creature.

#15. The Beamtown Bullies

The Beamtown Bullies is a card themed around goading your own creatures from your graveyard into your opponents. Forcing your foes to beat each other to death with your creatures is a fun and unique multiplayer strategy that’s guaranteed to speed up Commander games and force interaction between your opponents. While they’ll only get to attack with that goaded creature once before it’s exiled, if you force them to choose, say, Ebonblade Reaper or Master of Cruelties, you’ll see you don’t really need any others.

#14. Ruric Thar, the Unbowed

Ruric Thar, the Unbowed is about as Gruul-y as a Gruul card can get. Ruric Thar wants to punch your opponents in combat and doesn’t need any help from those hoighty-toighty noncreature spells to do it. It’s guaranteed to get 6 damage on an opponent one way or another, and its vigilance and reach make it so you’ll never worry about the punch-back.

#13. Ratcatcher

Ratcatcher is the number one tutor for rats in Magic: The Gathering. Even for its hefty 6 mana, if it survives through even just two upkeeps, you’ve gotten more than its weight in value. The 4/4 body and fear effect is just icing on the cake.

#12. Pugnacious Pugilist

Pugnacious Pugilist is a great play for either its regular casting cost or its blitz cost. Hitting the field and swinging in alongside the devil token puts 5 damage on the board no matter which way you slice it, and either dying after the blitz or sticking around to create more devils will more than pay for whatever we paid to cast it initially.

#11. Shakedown Heavy

Shakedown Heavy should shock you! A 6/4 with menace for just 3 mana?? Unheard of! And you’re telling me it’s got built-in card advantage for when your opponent inevitably decides turn 3 is too soon to take 6 damage? This guy is amazing!

#10. Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs

Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs is reminiscent of Ghostly Prison and Windborn Muse in that it disincentivizes your opponents from attacking you. Even if your opponent is swinging in with a Gigantosaurus, a humble 3/3 ogre can chump-block it easily. Three mana is even more expensive than the typical rattlesnakes and anti-attack effects like Propaganda, and it synergizes better with other red spells like Warstorm Surge and Impact Tremors.

#9. Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient

Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient is so cool. It’s the mono-red artifact commander purpose-built for exploiting activated abilities and comboing off. Kurkesh goes off with something as simple as a Gilded Lotus and a Voltaic Key on the field, tapping and untapping your mana rocks infinitely to generate more red mana than you can spend. Kurkesh just gets sillier when you factor a Liquimetal Torque in, letting this red commander double up on any activated effect you’d like.

#8. Kosei, Penitent Warlord

Ogres aren’t often found in mono-green, which makes the mechanically unique Kosei, Penitent Warlord even more unusual for its creature type.

Kosei’s effect comes online as soon as it’s every type of modified, meaning you’ve added an aura, and equipment, and some kind of counter onto it. Coming down as a 0/5 means Kosei needs those modifications to do anything in combat. But as soon as it has them, this ogre samurai becomes a powerhouse of value, refilling your hand and damaging every opponent whenever it deals combat damage to an opponent. There are a whole host of excellent modifications for Kosei, too, not least of which are double-strike enablers like Fireshrieker or equipment that add counters like Ring of Kalonia.

#7. Heartless Hidetsugu

Betrayers of Kamigawa’s Heartless Hidetsugu has the unique ability to cut every player's life total in half whenever it activates. It’s one of the best group slug cards, if not one of the best group slug commanders generally. Consistent access to a life-halver (is that the term?) means you can cut the time it takes to play a Commander game in half. The mono-red Hidetsugu cleaves through lifegain decks with ease, with its only drawback being its 5-mana casting cost and relatively vulnerable body (for an ogre).

#6. Hidetsugu, Devouring Chaos

Hidetsugu’s second incarnation in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty saw it return to the group slug style of play, with some added functionality to open up its possible play patterns. Hidetsugu, Devouring Chaos combines sacrificial scrying to stack the top of your library with whatever card you need at that moment, then you can pay and tap this ogre demon to cast that card. Sadly, you must still pay the mana required to cast that spell, but at least Hidetsugu punishes your opponents for letting you cast it in the style of Kaervek the Merciless.

#5. Ogre Battledriver

Ogre Battledriver knows how to speed up those Red Deck Wins strategies. Four mana is on the high end of what a red deck wants to spend on a spell, but its benefits far outweigh the cost. An extra 2 power on any creature that enters and a haste enabler means your army of turn-’em-sideways critters are immediate threats the turn they enter. Even a Goblin Arsonist, when played as a 3/1 that attacks immediately, can greatly shift the balance of combat in your favor.

#4. Treasonous Ogre

The option to Bolt yourself for 1 red mana sounds like a bad payoff, but it's really not. Treasonous Ogre’s basically free mana-generation effect is a staple in dozens of combos across Magic decks of every shape. Use it alongside Greven, Predator Captain to instantly make that menacing warrior a 23/23, use it with Aetherflux Reservoir and Grinning Ignus for infinite storm count, or just dump mana into a Crackle with Power to end the game.

#3. Obeka, Splitter of Seconds

Obeka’s second incarnation, hailing from Outlaws of Thunder Junction, pushes the character’s time-wizard theme even further by generating extra upkeep steps equal to the amount of combat damage it deals to an opponent. There’s no shortage of spells you can break by gaining extra upkeeps, ranging from the humble Phyrexian Arena, to anything with suspend, to game-enders like Mechanized Production.

#2. Obeka, Brute Chronologist

Commander Legends’ Obeka, Brute Chronologist is one of the most popular Grixis Commanders of all time. Obeka’s unique ability to end the turn at instant speed lets you remove any effects from the stack, getting around some detrimental effects or otherwise breaking the game in interesting ways.

Obeka decks range in power and complexity from simple threaten-themed decks where this commander can steal creatures permanently to extra turn decks that make use of Last Chance and Final Fortune to take a nearly infinite number of turns without losing the game.

#1. Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder

As one of the only 4-color legendaries in Magic, Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder sees a lot of play in Commander. It’s also got an effect to grant cascade to spells you cast from your hand, which we all know can be broken very quickly. Rather than run down the list of the best spells you could cascade with Yidris, I just want to point out that its triggered ability can stack multiple times, so if you can give it double strike (maybe with a Wrecking Ogre?) or generate extra combats, spells you cast from your hand cascade two or more times!

This ogre wizard is one of the best ways to skyrocket your board state. Despite a mana cost without any generic mana, Yidris is deceptively easy to cast and easy to stick in Commander, too.

Best Ogre Payoffs

Besides the typical typal support cards like Door of Destinies and Coat of Arms, ogres have a few other creature types that they synergize well with. The original Kamigawa block saw ogres as the servants to the powerful demons known as Oni. Yukora, the Prisoner, for example, only makes sense in a deck filled with ogres or creatures that specifically want to die. Ratcatcher, Ogre Slumlord, and Ogre Chitterlord all slot right into rat decks easily. Kolaghan Warmonger is one of the cheapest ways to dig for specifically dragon cards while still sending some damage across the board each turn.

Wrap Up

Kosei, Penitent Warlord | Illustration by Matt Stewart

Ogres have yet to really have their day in the sun. Perhaps it's because they’re not as comical as goblins, or as noble as centaurs, or perhaps it's because R&D likes to keep certain creature types thematically weak. With a long history of cards like Gray Ogre and Frost Ogre, and Incurable Ogre, it felt like we were never going to see a series of playable ogres until recently. I’m excited for the new ogres we’ve seen across the newest Magic sets and can’t wait until we visit an entirely ogre-controlled plane.

Which ogres do you think are the best? How would you run a deck based around the vanilla ogre creatures? Let me know in the comments, or over on Draftsim's Twitter/X.

Thanks for reading!