All 19 Saprolings and Thallids in Magic Ranked

Last updated on January 15, 2024

Psychotrope Thallid | Illustration by Dave Kendall

Saprolings are Magic’s classic 1/1 green creature token. They’ve been used for years as chump blockers, Skullclamp targets, and easy convokers.

Before all that, they were the by-product of a cycle of green fungus creatures from Fallen Empires. They’ve since become ubiquitous, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a set without mention of our favorite 1/1 creature token.

Are you a true Sap-head? Does the thought of going wide indefinitely excite you? How about meticulously counting different instances of spore counters per turn? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, pull up a log and lemme plant some seeds in your head!

What Are Saprolings and Thallids in MTG?

Thallid Omnivore | Illustration by Mathias Kollros

The Thallids are a cycle of mostly fungus-type creatures originally from 1994’s Fallen Empires. Most are linked by a unique un-keyworded ability that imitates the propagation of fungus spores.

At the beginning of your upkeep, each original thallid you control gains a spore counter. At any point, you can remove three spore counters from a thallid to create a creature token that is a 1/1 saproling. Most thallids outside of the original Thallid, have an additional activated ability that involves sacrificing a Saproling as part of the cost.

Each thallid is its own self-sufficient ecosystem. A few thallids aren’t entirely self-sufficient like the old ones, but they could be slotted into a fungus deck with no trouble.

If this ability feels slow and, well, bad, that’s because it might be! Three turns to build up for a 1/1 won’t be winning you any Vintage tournaments, but it’s a challenging ability to build around in a casual format like Commander.

My criteria for rating the thallids is (relatively) simple:

• First I look at the spore counter ability. Do they make good use of the spore counter ability? Can they speed up the clock on propagation, or can they hit the field early to get a head start on spore counting? Do they synergize with the other thallids’ spore counters?
• Next, how powerful is their ability? Is it going to win you the game, or just generate some light card advantage?
• Finally, how does all that figure into the mana cost? You can’t have your fungal friends bankrupting you for what is an ostensibly slow ability.

Honorable Mentions

Several fungal Thallid-adjacent cards didn’t make the cut since they aren’t “true” Thallids with the spore counter ability.

Blightreaper Thallid / Blightsower Thallid + Slimefoot, Thallid Transplant

The Blightreaper Thallid does not deal in spore counters and at best creates two saprolings. It has its uses, but they're probably limited to Limited. Slimefoot, Thallid Transplant does bring in a spellbook of many great fungi and saproling-related cards but does not meet criteria on its own.

Deathbloom Thallid + Tukatongue Thallid

Deathbloom Thallid and Tukatongue Thallid replace themselves with a Saproling when they die but won’t ever make more than one.

Thallid Soothsayer + Thallid Omnivore

Thallid Soothsayer and Thallid Omnivore are both fair sacrifice outlets for your Saprolings, but they fall short on flavor. And Psychotrope Thallid is just plain better than Soothsayer in a Saproling deck.

Sporecrown Thallid + Thelon of Havenwood

I’m also omitting Sporecrown Thallid and Thelon of Havenwood. It's a great choice for a Saproling and fungus deck, but Sporecrown is still just a lord effect and doesn’t fit within the criteria. Thelon is the only legendary creature referencing spore counters, so it’s a great commander.

Still, it doesn’t technically count for our purposes.

#19. Deathspore Thallid

Deathspore Thallid is the only mono-black “true” Thallid with a spore counter ability. Its sacrifice ability fills a removal slot that Thallids desperately need to be filled, and -1/-1 per Saproling is a pretty even trade.

It’s also only two mana, so it can hit the field early and start pumping out tokens quickly.

#18. Thallid Shell-Dweller

Despite its decidedly common rarity power level, I love this one. Thallid Shell-Dweller is an 0/5 defender with the generation half of the spore counter ability, but no sacrifice outlet. That’s all well and good because an 0/5 for two mana is a pretty good defender in slower formats.

Its survivability means it’ll stick around until you can drop a Sporesower Thallid or Sporoloth Ancient to kick it into high gear.

#17. Thallid Germinator

Thallid Germinator’s sacrifice ability gives any target creature +1/+1 until the end of the turn, and that’s about it. In a deck built around fungi, Pallid Mycoderm buffs your board better for just one more mana, so I wouldn’t bother with this one unless you’re reaching for filler.

#16. Pallid Mycoderm

The fungus-and-Saproling anthem effect that Pallid Mycoderm brings to the table is valuable in a deck built around going wide with creature tokens. Anthems are most effective when you control a ton of creatures, and a Saproling deck should do just that.

#15. Vitaspore Thallid

Haste was color-shifted in green in Planar Chaos, resulting in the release of Vitaspore Thallid among others. Saccing a Saproling to give creature haste is, well, okay. It’s nothing to write home about, that's for sure.

I’m sure there are situations when this is very useful, but your fungus deck isn’t looking to swing with your comparatively weak Thallids. Its greatest upside is the lack of a mana cost in that activation, so you can drop your big Feral Thallid and hit the ground running for no additional mana.

#14. Thallid Devourer

Early MTG was big on unequal power/toughness boosts. Thallid Devourer continues that trend by giving itself +1/+2 until the end of turn for each Saproling it can devour.

For three mana you get to swing with a 3/4 creature three turns later, so watch out!

#13. Thorn Thallid

Now we’re talking! Is Thorn Thallid a Triskelion? No. Is Thorn Thallid as close as you can get to Triskelion without becoming an artifact? Also no (that title probably goes to Ghave, Guru of Spores).

A single damage for every three spore counters is too steep a cost to make this very viable without some extra support from proliferate effects. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to win with a barrage of thorns to the face. It’ll just be very, very hard.

Also, please divert your attention to Heather Hudson’s artwork. I love him.

#12. Thallid

Regular ol’ Thallid is a 1/1 for one green mana with only the Saproling-generation half of the spore counters ability, no sacrifice outlet. It's the most basic form this ability takes, and one of only two at one mana.

The standard Thallid makes a great four-of 1-drop for a constructed fungus deck.

#11. Spore Flower

Spore Flower also doesn’t technically make Saprolings on its own. It does, however, have a repeatable Fog effect it activates in exchange for its three spore counters.

Green fogs are a dime a dozen, but this is the only fungus-themed one.

#10. Elvish Farmer

One of the bog-standard Fallen Empires Thallids, Elvish Farmer’s sacrifice outlet grants you a two life bonus. A few life here and there are always appreciated, and the lack of a mana cost on this ability means you can theoretically activate infinitely if you’ve got enough Saprolings on the board.

#9. Mycologist

Mycologist is the color-shifted Elvish Farmer and ranks very similarly to it. The only stand-out about it is that its lifegain ability probably has the slightest bit more use in a white deck, so it gets to outrank the Farmer by the slimmest margin.

#8. Fungal Bloom

This one’s not technically a Thallid, but I’m including it because it still mentions the spore counters unlike the honorable mentions. Fungal Bloom is an enchantment with the implication of a fungus.

Its activated ability lets you put a spore counter on a fungus for two green. That’s one of the only ways to grow your Fungi artificially, and its two mana value means it’ll see play the early game.

#7. Feral Thallid

The biggest, strongest Thallid around. Feral Thallid is six powers worth of rippling, uh, muscle? (Do mushrooms have muscles?)

Feral Thallid’s spore counter ability doesn’t create Saprolings. Instead it removes three spore counters from itself to regenerate, a useful effect considering its measly three toughness. Six mana for a 6/3 that can’t even protect itself for a few turns is costly.

On the other hand, this card could make a great spell for the top end of the curve in your fungus deck.

#6. Psychotrope Thallid

Psychotrope Thallid is one of the best around. Three mana for a 1/1 isn’t cheap, but Psychotrope’s sacrifice ability might as well read “: draw a card” with how easy it’ll be to create fodder in a fungus deck.

Amazing design on this one, no additional notes.

#5. Propagator Primordium

The Propagator Primordium may not be a thallid or saproling by name, but it does the thallid thing with a great payoff of reanimating a fungus. It even plants a couple of copies thanks to the digital-only mechanic, conjure.

#4. Savage Thallid

Savage Thallid is the “timeshifted” Feral Thallid, this time one mana cheaper, a little weaker, and with the missing Saproling-creation ability. As a bonus it can regenerate any target fungus, making it the best protection available in your Saproling deck.

#3. Sporesower Thallid

Sporesower Thallid is a 4/4 for four and can exchange three spore counters for a Saproling. What makes Sporesower really good is that its triggered ability puts a counter on each fungus you control, not just itself. This doubles your Saproling output per turn and is basically an auto-include in any deck built around the spore counters.

#2. Sporoloth Ancient

Sporoloth Ancient goes hand-in-hand with Sporesower Thallid. The Sporesower ups the number of spore counters you generate each turn, and the Ancient reduces the cost for a Saproling down to two counters.

With both on the field each Thallid creates enough spores to pump out a Saproling each turn!

#1. Utopia Mycon

In a deck built entirely around fungi and Saprolings, Utopia Mycon is effectively a Phyrexian Altar. It suffers from the same slow build-up that all spore counter creatures do, but at one mana it gets a head start on ticking those spores up.

Plus it ramps you into more Thallids when the time finally comes. This is a top-tier Thallid and even sees play in decks without fungi tribal themes.

Best Saproling/Thallid Payoffs

While the Thallids themselves usually include an outlet for the mountain of Saprolings you create, there are a few non-fungi cards that make great additions to a Saprolings deck.

My personal favorites are Sporemound and Life and Limb. Life and Limb solves the problem of never having enough Saprolings to sacrifice, letting you Zuran Orb your way out of a jam. Sporemound makes a Saproling each time a land enters the battlefield under your control. Combined these cards are an unstoppable infinite loop that creates infinite Saprolings, ending the game immediately in a draw. What fun!

Besides those you can always look for cards that want you to sacrifice lots of creatures. Mycoloth comes to mind as a thematic finisher with the devour mechanic.

Finally, you can use the proliferate mechanic to speed up your spore counter generation. Contagion Clasp and Contagion Engine are the best ways to achieve that, but Bloom Hulk and Pollenbright Druid are on-theme proliferators.

The Mycotyrant + Slimefoot, the Stowaway + Slimefoot and Squee

These three are so good that almost any saproling deck can benefit from them. The Mycotyrant is a great commander of saprolings and can grow to be massive. Slimefoot, the Stowaway upscales your deck into aristocrat status and the token-generating ability doesn't require tapping, pretty good for an uncommon, right? Then the duo of Slimefoot and Squee turns four mana and a saproling into a reanimated creature, and it can make saprolings every turn, yes, please!

Is a Saproling a Plant or a Fungus?

A Saproling creature token is neither a plant– nor a fungus-type creature. This is understandably confusing considering the Saproling token art makes them look like animated versions of various twigs, branches, bushes, trees, shrubs, roots, and, of course, fungi.

Wrap Up

Thallid Germinator | Illustration by Marco Nelor

While the Thallids aren’t the strongest Saproling-generators by far, they’re a unique cycle of cards with a very thematic ability that makes for an interesting deck-building challenge. They’re the sort of creature that shines in low-power formats and are just begging to be built around. Even if you don’t go full-fungus mode, they’re still useful when slipped into any other deck that makes use of lots of Saproling creature tokens.

What do you think? Is Utopia Mycon really the best Thallid? What would you like to see in new Thallid cards? What sorts of payoffs are you using in your Fungus decks? Let me know in the comments below or over on Draftsim's Twitter.

Thanks for reading, and keep propagating!