The 40 Most Disturbing and Scary Cards in Magic Ranked

Last updated on November 17, 2025

Ad Nauseam | Illustration by Jeremy Jarvis

“Magic was too scary” was something I heard a number of times in my game design classes from students when I asked them about their earliest experience with TCGs. Not because of the rules, although those also were intimidating for the Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon players, but because MTG’s wide ranging use of disturbing art just hit differently at their younger ages.

Certainly Magic has created a number of horror-infused planes, like Innistrad, New Phyrexia, and Duskmourn, but letting fantasy artists loose with the card designs and color identity in black has generated quite a body of really messed up stuff.

In a good way. Let’s have a grand tour of the scariest and most disturbing cards in Magic!

What Is Disturbing and Scary Art in MTG?

Skin Invasion | Illustration by Nils Hamm

Disturbing and scary art is horror art. But what’s that?

There are lots of ways to think about what scares us, but one I use a bit when I teach classes on the horror film (yes, I do get to teach the cool stuff!) is the distinction Stephen King makes in Danse Macabre between terror, horror, and gross out. Terror is the startling sound in the dark, a door opening, an undead moan, and the shuffle of footsteps toward you. Horror is what happens when you think about the approaching thing and what happens when you see it. What shakes us to the core in a moment of horror is different for different people. King calls things that horrify “phobic pressure points,” and maybe it’s spiders for one, clowns for another, a long dark hallway for yet another, or all together. Horror art is art that triggers such things.

King’s lowest level is the “gross out,” which feels different in a book or film than the other two ways to scare. But in card art, with no sequential narrative, the scariest cards weave horror and the gross together in a tapestry that disturbs us out of our scouring of the pack contents before we have to pass it to the left.

There’s subjectivity here, but not as much as you might think. We often share pop cultural and mythological backgrounds, so the same things get to many of us, which is why I think my top five will likely mostly hit for everyone. Let’s find out… if you dare!

#40. Atog

Atog | Illustration by Jesper Myrfors

This one is for my son, who avoided saying yes to learning Magic with me for a year when he was younger because he saw this red card, recoiled, and peaced out. No hate for the sweet Mirrodin art on Atog, but the original Jesper Myrfors art from Antiquities is what got to him. Big orange eyes, way too many teeth, and whatever is happening in the foreground. Has it just popped up from behind something? Or are those like giant shears? Whatever’s going on there, the eyes had it for my son, and it still hits him just a little bit now as an adult!

#39. Crawling Chorus

Crawling Chorus | Illustration by Michael Walsh

I know there’s plenty of horrific teeth-themed art in Phyrexia: All Will Be One, but Crawling Chorus is the card from that Magic set that gets me the most. Maybe I just watched too much weird crap in my childhood with strange concepts and bad special effects, like the Doctor Who episode when basically Stonehenge attacks:

(“The Stones of Blood” if you’re interested). But this thing is like crawling right out of my memory of crappy SF that never existed.

#38. Ghoulcaller’s Chant

Ghoulcaller's Chant | Illustration by Randy Gallegos

One more for the kids! You know this gives you middle-of-the-Thriller video vibes, right? You can almost hear the creepy music in Randy Gallegos’s art. It’s the power of something about to happen, something you can’t yet see, but have no ability to avoid. Ghoulcaller's Chant likely only gets a nod and a “Nice” from you adults out there, but if any kid ever read a blog article ever, they’d be nodding along that this is the kind of thing you see in your dreams.

#37. Zombie Cannibal

Zombie Cannibal | Illustration by Adam Rex

Zombie Cannibal lives in the same neighborhood of the unseen as the Chant. You wonder what’s in the box. But this time you almost imagine yourself inside and the horror of this thing perched up there, gnawing off gobs of your undead flesh. Are you just reanimated and not yet able to move? The whole cannibal angle is really intense. I always wondered if zombies would stop eating you when you died. Maybe not. That seems worse!

#36. Buried Alive

Buried Alive | Illustration by Greg Staples

The full shift to the horror of being in the coffin is here with Greg Staples’s Odyssey reprint of Buried Alive. The grasping hands and the unexpected POV remind me of EC horror comics from the ‘50s. And the idea is right out of nightmares.

#35. Abandoned Campground

Abandoned Campground | Illustration by Cristi Balanescu

All the abandoned lands from Duskmourn have an awesome paradoxical vibe to them, or spaces within a giant consuming house. For me, Cristi Balanescu’s Abandoned Campground is the coolest. The conceit of all these lands lends itself to Monsters, Inc. sort of vibes, but there’s something here with the mist, the circle of windows, and the tents that gets to you.

#34. Absorb Identity

Absorb Identity | Illustration by Matt Stewart

There’s a ton of cool art in Magic which makes a big deal out of the weirdness of cloning, like Evil Twin, but Matt Stewart’s Absorb Identity gives the experience. The shapeshifters are standing over your prone form in full Twilight Zone fashion, ready to consume you. Point of view games in Magic cards can never be underestimated….

#33. Village Cannibals

Village Cannibals | Illustration by Bud Cook

Speaking of point of view… have a look at Village Cannibals. Your BFF did say you looked like a snack the other day….

#32. Blood Artist

Blood Artist | Illustration by Johannes Voss

Speaking of POV, a nice bit of work is the original Blood Artist piece by Johannes Voss. At card size, it’s hard to tell if the artist has turned around to look at you or not, and the blood jars in the foreground suggest you might be hiding in the supplies. It’s also possible that you, like the woman in the back left, are a hanging source of blood. So, yeah, you are the supplies!

#31. Wall of Limbs

Wall of Limbs | Illustration by Yeong Hao Han

The perspective in Yeong-Hao Han’s art for Wall of Limbs is the key. Those hands reaching out in the left foreground could twitch at any moment as you try to slide on past. And then there’s other details. The far part of the wall is curling over like Hokusai’s Wave, and it also looks a bit like a creature hunching over the path. Is that what’s happening right now to your left? Is that why those hands are so close?

#30. Maze of Ith

Maze of Ith | Illustration by Anson Maddocks

The original art from The Dark by Anson Maddocks earns Maze of Ith its spot. I’m not sure how mazelike this is, but we’re seeing bodies being digested into a giant (checks notes) ball of intestines!

#29. Mutilate + Disturbing Mirth + Gaze of Pain

Each of these has a central body horror element I find wicked cool, like the sliced eyelids in Gaze of Pain, the toothed head top of Disturbing Mirth, and the hands wrapping into the face in Mutilate. But they each have an element that takes away from the impact for me, like the opera glasses or the other people writhing less interestingly in the background. Or, for Mirth, what the toothed brain case is doing. Is it really gonna bite you? Are you supposed to see the brain as succulent but will be Venus-fly-trapped if you reach in for some cholesterol-laden whorls? These are really creepy cards that definitely hit people, but they don’t quite come together for me as strongly as they might.

#28. Peer into the Abyss

Peer into the Abyss | Illustration by Izzy

Izzy’s Peer into the Abyss is hardcore. But it’s low on the list because it feels like a metaphor, like this is a moment our wizard will shake off when the spell is complete (if they don’t have their library milled by then!). It doesn’t seem like actual small heads are sprouting from the orifices here, just that it feels like that. Which is scary, sure, but I don’t think this hits as hard for me as it does other people. It’s also a bit on the nose that it reminds me a ton of Plagiarize, and that’s hard to shake.

#27. Amnesia

Amnesia | Illustration by Mark Poole

Maybe this is a boomer call, but I like Amnesia quite a bit. Mark Poole’s work is always a bit more comic booky, but the style actually makes the bullet hole through the brain concept that much more affecting. There’s also random needles if the dripping gore in the brain hole isn’t enough for you.

#26. Circle of Despair

Circle of Despair | Illustration by Scott M. FischerP

It’s easy to overlook this card, never reprinted since Mirage, especially because of the ruddy glow on everything, but Scott Fisher’s art deserves a second look. It’s weird that the protection circle is lined in stone, but the detail of what happens to body parts that lap outside of the line of the Circle of Despair is quite disturbing. Insta-skel is hard to survive!

#25. Twitching Doll

Twitching Doll | Illustration by Warren Mahy

I know the Anabelle vibes for Arabella, Abandoned Doll are supposed to be the thing, but a creepy cat toy filled with spiders is a lot more ew for me. There’s a ton of details in Warren Mahy’s art for Twitching Doll that take it over the top, from the train of spiders crawling up under the dress to the doll head thrown to the side. Was the doll beheaded and a cat head put on top? Did the spiders weave the cat head as a trap? Was the cat head always just inside?

#24. Sensory Deprivation

Sensory Deprivation | Illustration by Steven Belledin

Steven Belledin’s Sensory Deprivation is wicked. Human faces should not be sewn shut. The stitches pull and pucker the skin as if the person is awake and trying to open things, despite the “comforting” flavor text. But where are the eyes and teeth? What’s under this skin? A lot more little heads down to infinity? I feel like the answer has to be a stuffed cat head full of spiders. Retconned.

#23. Damn

Damn | Illustration by Tim Jacobus

We’ve got a few pieces of new art that really work for me next. Tim Jacobus’s Damn is definitely horrible, as the smiling face disintegrates. The concept just gets you. The face is a little cartoonish to really pop with horror, but it’s still super effective.

#22. Murder

Murder | Illustration by Domenico Cava

A shout-out to another update of a classic card, Domenico Cava’s Murder. The angle, the shadow, and the terrified face give this definite giallo vibes that make a card we’re used to seem fresh and scary again.

#21. Diabolic Tutor

Diabolic Tutor | Illustration by Greg Staples

I don’t think Greg Staples’s Diabolic Tutor would make everyone's list, but the expression on the face is messed up.

#20. Malevolent Whispers

Malevolent Whispers | Illustration by Greg Staples

Malevolent Whispers is Staples going back to the idea, but I think it’s a better piece. The concept is even goofier with the Bugs Bunny situation, but the facial expression is even better. Both this and Staples’ Diabolic Tutor are about how easy it is to lose ourselves to the voice of the awful, which we see far too much of these days.

#19. Grotesque Mutation

Grotesque Mutation | Illustration by Dan Scott

Dan Scott’s art in Grotesque Mutation does heavy lifting in what may be the highest degree of difficulty art on the list. We don’t generally walk around in gloves, firstly, or with the fear that under our gloves there’s a razor-toothed mouth screaming in the palm of our be-tentacled hand. But we’ve got to get into Shadows over Innistrad world, where Lovecraftian mutation is abounding. We’re borrowing the narrative fear, which doesn’t hit as hard as our own. But this art gives so much, the glove hastily whipped off the odd-feeling hand, and best of all, the maw, too deep for the hand, bigger on the inside like a TARDIS from hell.

#18. Putrefy

Putrefy | Illustration by Nicholas Gregory

Unable to Scream is pretty freaky, but I think Nicholas Gregory’s Duskmourn version of Putrefy ups the ante. The sad-eyed zombie-looking head in the cracked doll, coupled with the flavor text, is just the stuff of nightmares.

#17. Silent Hallcreeper

Silent Hallcreeper | Illustration by Joshua Raphael

How does it stay silent with all those extra long appendages? Joshua Raphael animates the logic of childhood nightmares on Silent Hallcreeper in a similar way that Mark Tedin does with his messed up Thrull token. Non-symmetrical, and recently arrived from Poltergeist’s closet, the ‘creeper here is ready to give you a surprise.

#16. Death’s Caress

Death's Caress | Illustration by James Ryman

James Ryman’s art is creepy, but perhaps largely forgotten as Draft chaff from the Obama administration. If you look closely at Death's Caress, you can see that the thumb on the giant skeletal hand is slightly dimpling her forehead. That detail always got to me in conjunction with her staring eyes in what must be her immobile face. It’s weird that the hand is red, but the longer you look at the art, the longer you start tracing the webby sinews between the fingers.

#15. Gravecrawler

Gravecrawler | Illustration by Steven Belledin

The Steven Belledin art for Gravecrawler captures zombie rage and hunger so well. The face with its one milky eye, the tension in the hands, the overall feeling of inevitability as it comes after you with no legs.

#14. Come Back Wrong

Come Back Wrong | Illustration by David Auden Nash

Come Back Wrong is a definite callback to Gravecrawler, with a sinister smile instead of a moaning scream. The mundane details, like the kicks, really help make those red eyes pop.

#13. Pulling Teeth

Pulling Teeth | Illustration by Jim Pavelec

As a kid, when I had a loose tooth, my dad would always say, “Loose tooth? Come here for a second, let me see,” in a tone of voice that made sure I never did so. His next suggestion was to tie my tooth to a doorknob and slam the door. Also, Pulling Teeth exists.

#12. Skin Invasion

One of my favorites from Nils Hamm, Skin Invasion has it all, bugs burrowing into your back, a different identity in the mirror, and what looks like slowly roasting flesh on the figure's right shoulder.

#11. Macabre Waltz

Macabre Waltz | Illustration by Jim Murray

Jim Murray’s original art for Macabre Waltz would be creepy even if the emaciated dancers weren’t galivanting so in a pool of blood. Their forms and expressions are so intense. But add the massive pool of blood, and yeah, that’s messed up.

#10. Brain Maggot

Brain Maggot | Illustration by Dave Kendall

The concept gives you the willies (and remind you of The Wrath of Khan and RFK, Jr.?), but Dave Kendall’s art on the FNM promo of Brain Maggot is visceral and grotesque. Eyeballs (?) alongside a crest of damaging spikes, brain matter leaking out the bottom of the ear, two earrings to give it all a sense of the real. But the capper is the Galactic whorl of what must be thoughts captured in the grub’s maw. Any zombie can eat brains, but memories? That’s something else.

#9. Fleshtaker

Fleshtaker | Illustration by Kev Walker

Okay, so it’s a masked killer in a cornfield coming right for us! But that’s not the part that bakes my noodle. When I first saw the Kev Walker art on Fleshtaker, I immediately wanted to know where the snot rivulets were coming from. It’s not a recently dead cow head, as there’d be blood, but what the hell is happening under that mask for the nose to be leaking?!?

#8. Progenitus

Progenitus | Illustration by Jaime Jones

Maybe this is a hot take, but this art by Jaime Jones hits down below the guts, more successfully giving me that feeling of being dwarfed by some massive kaiju force of destruction than any Eldrazi. It’s the mist, the implied distance, the heads riling up to fight some unseen foe. Progenitus is like seeing a funnel cloud on the horizon, not knowing if eventually it’s going to turn this way.

#8. Banewasp Affliction

Banewasp Affliction | Illustration by Dave Allsop

A big ol’ nope for Banewasp Affliction!

#7. Appetite for Brains

Appetite for Brains | Illustration by Michael C. Hayes

The name and cover art for a bitchin’ hair metal band in some “80s world in the multiverse,” Appetite for Brains gives good eyeball. The staring orb on the rotting zombie, filled with hunger and rage, the victim’s eyeballs rolling up in their sockets to take in their last sight. Michael C. Hayes has accomplished the very best zombie-themed art in Magic, in my opinion. I did teach a class on zombies once (told you!), so you kinda have to believe me.

#6. Thought Scour

Thought Scour | Illustration by David Rapoza

Most of David Rapoza’s awesome Magic art seems normal. Stuffy Doll give you the heebie jeebies if dolls are your thing, but Thought Scour is a whole other level, dude. I don’t really have to explain why this card is horrific, do I? But that flavor text really does pile on the flavor, doesn’t it?

#5. Treacherous Urge

Treacherous Urge | Illustration by Steven Belledin

All the “suicide food” road signs for BBQ joints with pigs and cows slicing themselves for you always make me want to become vegetarian, and Treacherous Urge gives me those vibes, as well as a certain scene from Hereditary. The fact that it’s a doll in Steven Belledin’s art only tempers it a bit. It’s still gruesome to think about.

#4. Phyrexian Unlife

Phyrexian Unlife | Illustration by Jason Chan

The original Jason Chan art on Phyrexian Unlife from New Phyrexia is everything. We seem to be capturing the moment when the scrabbling hands fall away and the oil-based takeover of the self is almost complete. There’s one last desperate look in the eyes before the curtains are drawn.

#3. Soulherder

Soulherder | Illustration by Seb McKinnon

This art is so paradoxical and mystical, with the setting sun head and the cloak of stars. But watching the people flee from the giant Soulherder with its long finger of doom is just chilling. This is perhaps a vision of Death that isn’t at all interested in playing a game of chess.

#2. Skeletal Grimace

Skeletal Grimace | Illustration by Eric Deschamps

Look, if Eric Deschamps’s art here is your #1, I’m not gonna argue with you. If you haven’t seen the Rhystic Study video on this, I’m going to argue and tell you to check it out. Skeletal Grimace is effed up, from the impossibly stretched lips to whatever the crumpled face up under the hat brim looks like.

#1. Ad Nauseam

Ad Nauseam | Illustration by Jeremy Jarvis

This is scary not just because it’s a cEDH finisher! The idea here, spiced up by the flavor text, is hardcore. Jeremy Jarvis gives us an undead scribe who not only has to keep writing after death as his body rots away, but we’ve also got someone who looks to have written their hands and forearms away over time. Perhaps they ran out of ink and started making deeper marks? Perhaps that was always the curse? Worse, though, is that not only has that injury somehow healed, but now we’ve got someone making blood siphon rigs that stick in our sufferer’s veins and strap to what’s left of the arms. Ad Nauseam is top tier MTG horror art. It is disturbing on all the levels.

A Creepy Conclusion

Skin Shedder | Illustration by Nils Hamm

Of course, there’s a large part of what’s terrifying or horrific that’s in the eye of the beholder. I’ll bet there’s a few cards you’d have on your lists that maybe no one else would. Like Clown Extruder maybe? Or any one of a dozen giant spiders? But there’s something shared, as well, especially disgusting body horror or the more universal fears, the dark, being attacked or eaten, falling, and the uncanny moment when the world shifts and something that seemed safe is really, really not.

For me, one of the ways Magic has always stood apart is with its commitment to exploring those things. This is no sanitized wizards’ duel. There will be blood. And brains. There’s a visceral sense that things are at stake, which is why I’ve played it at the kitchen table for 30 years, with no other stakes at all.

Drop your favorite scary cards that didn’t make my list in the comments or on Discord, if you would. If you lend us your brain, we promise you can take it back with you.

This time.