Last updated on March 26, 2024

Goblin Sharpshooter (Secret Lair) - Illustration by Mike Uziel.jpg

Goblin Sharpshooter (Secret Lair) | Illustration by Mike Uziel.jpg

MTG has its fair share of iconic cards. From Black Lotus to Lightning Bolt, Storm Crow to Colossal Dreadmaw, plenty of cards have made a name for themselves in MTG’s storied history.

A classic iconic card is Prodigal Sorcerer, affectionately known as Tim. Tim was the first pinger or creature that tapped to deal damage. But the term “pinger” has grown to encompass a broader range of cards than in Tim’s day.

Let’s look at how the definition changed and find the best modern pingers.

What Is a Pinger in MTG?

Cuombajj Witches - Illustration by Seb McKinnon

Cuombajj Witches | Illustration by Seb McKinnon

A pinger in MTG is a creature that taps to deal 1 damage to any target. The first, classic, and cleanest example is Prodigal Sorcerer. Since the days of the almighty Tim, “pinging” has become a slang term in Magic that covers any effect that deals a small amount of damage, especially if it’s repeatable. For example, Firebrand Archer “pings” your opponents whenever you cast noncreature spells, despite it not tapping or dealing its damage to any target.

I’m keeping with the more expansive, modern definition for this article. I’m looking for cards that deal small amounts of damage, either with an activated or triggered ability, and those that can do so repeatedly.

This means I’m just looking at permanents, since instants and sorceries are finite. Because repeated activations and triggers are part of the definition, this excludes cards like Flametongue Yearling and Perilous Myr since these only occur once under specific conditions. I’m also looking for consistent damage that you can build around, so variable effects like Dragon Tempest aren’t on the list since those function differently.

As far as targeting, I’m not restricting this list to cards that deal their damage to any target. That said, since getting to choose any target is naturally stronger than abilities that can hit only players or creatures, those naturally rank higher on the list, as do pingers with little to no mana costs associated with their pings and pingers that work with infinite combos.

Finally, I’m focusing on cards that you can exploit and activate rather than cards that rely on your opponents for activations. Some honorable mentions that escape this definition include Orcish Bowmasters and many “punisher” cards, like Manabarbs and Ankh of Mishra. These aren't bad cards; they're just outside our scope today.

#36. Captain Ripley Vance

Captain Ripley Vance

Captain Ripley Vance needs a lot of work to get its pinging ability online, but that work translates to a powerful pinger that scales with the game, though it’s not combo material since it only triggers once a turn.

#35. All Will Be One

All Will Be One

All Will Be One is a nifty enchantment that pings your opponents as you put counters on things. It’s a fantastic win condition alongside Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin and The Red Terror, but it can be lackluster outside those strategies.

#34. Bladeback Sliver

Bladeback Sliver

It takes work to get Bladeback Sliver online, but the work is worth the effort. Slivers excel at flooding the board with creatures. Letting them tap to damage your opponents makes for an effective wincon, even if maintaining hellbent takes a bit of effort.

#33. Curse of the Pierced Heart

Curse of the Pierced Heart

Curse of the Pierced Heart is death by 1000 cuts—or at least 20. The curse is slow but does work in Pauper sideboards, providing a steady clock against grindy decks that can’t remove it.

#32. Goblin Sharpshooter

Goblin Sharpshooter

This card is incredibly annoying to play against due to its high ceiling. In the right Rakdos sacrifice deck, this can go miles in terms of repeated 1-damage pings. Being able to hit creatures in addition to players isn’t something you typically see on this kind of card, either.

#31. Daybreak Ranger

Daybreak Ranger Nightfall Predator

Only hitting fliers restricts Daybreak Ranger’s utility, but the transformation makes up for it. Fighting a creature isn’t pinging but Nightfall Predator gives Daybreak Ranger just enough teeth to make it worth considering if you find your local meta overtaken by fliers.

#30. Bjorna, Nightfall Alchemist

Bjorna, Nightfall Alchemist

Needing to sacrifice an artifact and only hitting creatures places many restrictions on Bjorna, Nightfall Alchemist since it can’t work as a combo piece in the command zone. That said, goad on demand is very powerful in Commander, making this useful in decks with spare artifacts lying around.

#29. Court of Ire

Court of Ire

You need to retain the monarchy for Court of Ire to be at its best, but that’s pretty simple in a deck with pingers keeping your opponents down! The reward is immense: 7 damage to any target removes most threats and quickly ends games.

#28. Creeping Bloodsucker

Creeping Bloodsucker

Creeping Bloodsucker pulls double utility: It pings your opponents while enabling lifegain strategies, making cards like Sanguine Bond and Crested Sunmare that much better for a low mana cost.

#27. Staff of Nin

Staff of Nin

Staff of Nin is an EDH staple. It’s commonly used in colors with limited access to card advantage, but it’s a perfectly respectable, if expensive pinger that works well alongside Unwinding Clock or infinite combos with Clock of Omens.

#26. Crackling Perimeter

Crackling Perimeter

You’ll only see Crackling Perimeter in lower-powered Gates decks, but that specificity doesn’t deny its power. It only takes a couple of turn cycles to ping out a table and can be a fantastic way to convert unspent mana into some value, however small.

#25. Aether Flash

Aether Flash

Aether Flash has a lot of utility as a stax piece! Picking off small creatures can devastate certain strategies, especially token decks or those reliant on flickering creatures like Dockside Extortionist. Just make sure your creatures can survive!

#24. Ghirapur Aether Grid

Ghirapur Aether Grid

Ghirapur Aether Grid has many strengths. Our Treasure-saturated world makes it a breeze to put infinite artifacts into play, which this enchantment converts into a win. But any strategy focused on churning out artifact tokens can use this as a win condition or source of board control.

#23. Honden of Infinite Rage

Honden of Infinite Rage

It’s best to pair Honden of Infinite Rage with its fellow shrines, but this enchantment can also be okay solo. You’ll want some damage doublers like Furnace of Rath and another red shrine or two, but this does work in the right deck.

#22. Lesser Masticore

Lesser Masticore

Lesser Masticore’s utility is sharply reduced by its ability to only hit creatures, so it can’t be an infinite mana sink to win. But a cheap persist creature breaks easily with cards like Vizier of Remedies and a sacrifice outlet and having a way to use spare mana is always appealing.

#21. Defiler of Instinct

Defiler of Instinct

Defiler of Instinct’s biggest restriction is that it only triggers off red permanent spells. The color excels at slinging instants and sorceries around, but permanents are trickier. That said, mana ramp and incidental damage on a relatively above-rate body? There’s plenty of utility there.

#20. Dread Presence

Dread Presence

Dread Presence’s pinging effect is contingent on your ability to play Swamps, so it pairs beautifully with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. The flexibility of drawing a card or dealing damage is a nice bonus, despite this being a primarily mono-black card.

#19. Razorfin Hunter

Razorfin Hunter

Razorfin Hunter is your classic pinger: It taps and deals damage to anything. It’s also very efficient. You’re typically looking at 3 mana for the classic pingers, like Cunning Sparkmage and Prodigal Sorcerer. It’s still not amazing in the landscape of modern MTG, but respectable. Being in two colors is pretty restrictive.

#18. Izzet Staticaster

Izzet Staticaster

Izzet Staticaster has a unique set of skills. This can be a mini-board wipe that’s useful if a member of your playgroup insists on playing Soldier tokens every single game.

#17. Syr Carah, the Bold

Syr Carah, the Bold

What’s better than damage? Card advantage! Syr Carah, the Bold provides you with both. Impulse draws have become even better since this card was printed, so there’s plenty of support. It pairs nicely with Grapeshot for a burst of damage and card draw.

#16. Endbringer

Endbringer

Endbringer slaps at a Commander table. Needing colorless mana can be restrictive, but four pings a turn cycle adds up quickly. Even better, all these abilities are worth their mana cost and you don’t mind activating any of them multiple times.

#15. Glint-Horn Buccaneer

Glint-Horn Buccaneer

Glint-Horn Buccaneer’s claim to fame is the infinite combo with Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator often seen at cEDH tables. But it’s still respectable in lower-powered decks. Red’s card draw often hinges on discarding cards and this plays well with wheels.

#14. Urabrask / The Great Work

Urabrask The Great Work

One’s first impulse when they see Urabrask is to compare it to Birgi, God of Storytelling. This card only triggers off instants and sorceries, which is more restrictive and kills the Grinning Ignus combo, but it provides a win condition by itself, while Birgi requires additional pieces. The Great Work does a lot to finish things. All together? Birgi might be the stronger commander, but many storm decks won’t mind running both, as Urabrask is very powerful.

#13. Impact Tremors + Purphoros, God of the Forge

Impact Tremors Purphoros, God of the Forge

While Purphoros, God of the Forge is a stronger card than Impact Tremors, they’re often played together in the same decks. These ping your opponents relentlessly, adding plenty of pressure for aggressive decks while acting as win conditions in decks that can produce infinite ETB triggers via token production or flickering.

#12. Hellrider

Hellrider

A terrifying threat in any Cube that supports mono-red, Hellrider has stolen many a game. Haste pushes this over the top, adding 4 damage on top of your other attackers. It’s especially potent alongside tokens.

#11. Gelectrode

Gelectrode

I talked down on 3-mana pingers, but Gelectrode has the stuff. That “stuff” is an untap ability. Untapping your pingers is the easiest way to extract maximum damage and Gelectrode functions as an infinite win condition with very little work. It’s also great board control since many spellslinger decks can reliably activate this two or three times a turn.

#10. Grim Lavamancer

Grim Lavamancer

Another Cube staple, Grim Lavamancer does tons of work. It controls the board in the early game while pushing damage late, all while slipping underneath most countermagic. You need plenty of ways to fuel it; this plays best with cheap burn and fetch lands.

#9. Cuombajj Witches + Fireslinger

Cuombajj Witches Fireslinger

Taking damage is a downside, but Cuombajj Witches and Fireslinger are strong enough that you can often offset it. Cuombajj Witches gets an extra nod as one of black’s very few pingers.

#8. Guttersnipe + Fiery Inscription

Guttersnipe Fiery Inscription

At some point in their time playing the game, every Magic player has assembled an Izzet deck with Guttersnipe as the only win condition. Fiery Inscription provides the same damage for the same cost. Neither card wins the game on its own, but 2 damage adds up fast and helps push proactive decks over the edge.

#7. Blasting Station

Blasting Station

Blasting Station is primarily an infinite combo piece, and it’s an effective one. It’s trivially easy to set up an infinite sacrifice loop—Vizier of Remedies and Lesser Masticore get the job done—that turns this into a machine gun to eliminate the competition.

#6. Reckless Fireweaver

Reckless Fireweaver

A frightening number of basic game actions produce Treasure in modern MTG. With so much incidental artifact production, Reckless Fireweaver potentially deals a lot of chip damage, verging on infinite damage when paired with Dockside Extortionist.

#5. Niv-Mizzet, Parun

Niv-Mizzet, Parun

A combo piece. Board control. Card advantage. A win condition. About the only thing Niv-Mizzet, Parun doesn’t do is come down in the early turns—unless you’re packing Jeweled Lotus, of course. This card dominates lower-powered Commander tables and gives spellslinger decks an easy win condition via pings.

#4. Mayhem Devil

Mayhem Devil

Mayhem Devil is another card that benefits from the ludicrous amount of Treasure in the game. While you can and should exploit that to your end, it also turns this card into a stax piece that punishes your opponents for using lots of different abilities.

#3. Blood Artist

Blood Artist

Pinging an opponent whenever a creature dies is solid, but Blood Artist goes the extra mile by gaining you life. This card is one of the most important pieces in many aristocrat lists and one of the easiest win conditions for many infinite combos.

#2. Firebrand Archer+

I’m grouping a bunch of cards in this slot because they have very similar abilities:

The versions that trigger off noncreature spells instead of just instants and sorceries are stronger, but these are all valuable. They’re incredibly efficient for their damage output. They all stack well, especially once you get some damage doublers in play, and they’re especially great in Commander. Nobody wants to waste a removal spell on a 2-mana dork, so these spend most of the game in play and rack up plenty of damage.

#1. Walking Ballista

Walking Ballista

Walking Ballista often sees play in combo decks. It goes infinite with Heliod, Sun-Crowned and works as an infinite mana sink in any deck. However, you don’t need to play this card in a combo deck. A fair Walking Ballista still devastates. It occupies most slots on the curve, gives you a place to dump extra mana, provides board control, and pushes damage. Synergizing with +1/+1 counter strategies is another bonus, as that archetype is among the best supported in the game. This card offers incredible utility for a colorless creature.

Best Pinger Payoffs

Pingers are powerful. 1 damage doesn’t seem like a lot, but if you trigger your Firebrand Archer three times, that’s a Lava Spike in addition to Goblin Piker! Little bits of damage add up quickly. This doesn’t mean there aren’t other ways to maximize these effects.

The classical way to maximize traditional pingers that tap to activate their ability was with untap effects so you can use them multiple times a turn. Seedborn Muse is a potent card to untap with at Commander tables, but it’s simple to set up an infinite loop with Intruder Alarm and use the pingers to kill your opponent.

Curiosity and related effects are incredible with creatures that tap to deal damage. Drawing a card each time you tap Razorfin Hunter or trigger Kessig Flamebreather with a noncreature spell whittles away your opponent’s life totals while amassing tons of cards.

Damage amplifiers are also fantastic with these abilities. They could be cards that generally multiply damage dealt, like Furnace of Rath or City on Fire, or cards that add a specific number, like Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might or Torbran, Thane of Red Fell. Effects like this turn your pingers from an annoyance to a blisteringly fast win condition.

Deathtouch is invaluable with pingers that deal damage to creatures. Cards like Basilisk Collar and Gorgon Flail enable your pingers to kill anything, regardless of how much toughness it has. Adding lifelink for a bit of incidental life gain isn’t terrible either, though not as potent as deathtouch.

Wrap Up

Staff of Nin (Magic 2013) - Illustration by Dan Scott

Staff of Nin | Illustration by Dan Scott

The idea of pingers has come a long way from Prodigal Sorcerer. The mechanic has shifted from blue to red, and the term covers many more abilities than in Magic’s past. But Tim’s legacy lives on in all cards that deal tiny, repeated amounts of damage.

What’s your favorite pinger? Have you ever tried to build a deck that only won with pingers? Let me know in the comments or in the Draftsim Discord!

Stay safe, and keep chipping away!

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