All 26 Specters in Magic Ranked

Last updated on March 14, 2024

Thief of Sanity | Illustration by Igor Kieryluk

A Hypnotic Specter on turn three was the nuts of kitchen table Magic in the mid 90s. We lived in such fear of that original Douglas Shuler art!

These days, specters are one of the weaker creature types. And there are only 26, so a full specter typal deck needs, like, a Scooby Doo Universes Beyond release to really work (Please, WOTC! Call me. I already have the mechanics and some card designs!). This is a bit of a romp through the tale of Magic power creep, since many of these were rares.

Still, there are at least three excellent specters in MTG, including a banger in Wilds of Eldraine. Plus, the art on these cards is wicked awesome, especially if you’re one of those people who start getting ready for Halloween in July. “Those” people. Heh. Totally not me at all!

Zoinks! Let’s investigate, Scoob!

What Are Specters in MTG?

Specter of Mortality | Illustration by Daarken

Specters are a creature type that has been around since Alpha with the iconic Hypnotic Specter. That feared card provided the general template for most specters over time and their relation to discard effects.

#26. Shrieking Specter

4 more mana than a Hypnotic Specter that doesn’t fly and has a worse discard effect. Why? Insane art by RK Post, though. Like, what? The flags along its back are what gets me.

#25. Dread Specter

First off, this art by Kathryn Rathke is absolutely nuts. I love it! She only did three Magic cards, unfortunately, including the head-scratcher of a spell Torrent of Lava with its equally “what?” art with, like, emus of whatever just strolling on by.

In terms of the card, Dread Specter is an ever worse, unplayable Cockatrice.

#24. Entropic Specter

90s rares, am I right? This is a particularly mean-spirited drawback on a creature. Entropic Specter is probably fun if your EDH table is full of Reliquary Tower suckers? But I can’t imagine playing this.

#23. Urgoros, the Empty One

Six mana is a lot for a supersized specter. Urgoros, the Empty One is just not up to snuff. If you’ve ever drawn a card off this, drop us a note in the comments. Otherwise, we’ll take that as dodgy evidence that it never happened. This is legendary, though, so if you like the idea of playing an unpopular mechanic like discard that will get the EDH table to hate you but don’t want the pressure of playing with a good card as your commander, look no further!

#22. Reaper of Night

When the adventure side of this was cast in Throne of Eldraine Limited, especially with a Lucky Clover out, it was rough. But Reaper of Night isn’t very good otherwise.

Boo that it is, confusingly, one of only two specters that don’t fly. It’s cheeky that it can earn its wings if you keep the discard train going, but nope.

#21. Specter of the Fens

Another Limited banger, this time for Strixhaven, Specter of the Fens was a problem in Draft, where it would just suck the life out of you in those slow, durdly games. I don’t see this as playable otherwise.

#20. Scythe Specter

Discard that hits everyone is good if you’re trying to make that work in Commander, but it’s no longer 2011 and I need more than Scythe Specter for 6 mana! The mechanics also have a weird disincentive, like an echo of the sadness that was Entropic Specter. Players don’t want to discard their high value cards??

#19. Tainted Specter

I know this is terrible, but Tainted Specter is tempting, right? That sweet, scary art by Chippy pulls you in, and then you think about targeting yourself and doing a little Dry Spell action?

#18. Liliana’s Specter

Liliana's Specter is an underwhelming 3-drop in a world of Virus Beetle clones, but this was the card that starting pushing Cackling Fiend design downwards on cost, so respect. Still, if you’re blinking creatures for discard, there aren't that many and you probably want this.

#17. Silent Specter

I guess you could really do things by sneaking around with morph? Silent Specter seems like a beating if you could get away with it. But I don’t know how often that ever worked.

It could have, though! I would have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for you darn kids and your dog!

#16. Abyssal Specter

The nerfed Hypnotic Specter from Ice Age, Abyssal Specter costs 1 more mana for 1 more toughness, which was kind of a deal breaker, as Ice Age’s Necropotence taught us to start playing real Magic and forget about these creatures for a bit.

#15. Needle Specter

Not in the top tier of wither cards, though Needle Specter is curious. As a 1/1 for 3, you worry about playing it, but if you’re buffing it, you’re laying water to hands. This is probably better than I think, but it just seems so fragile!

With the flying wasp in front of a lightning storm, we’re definitely encroaching on the airbrush stylings on the sides of van conversions in the 70s that we see in so much MTG unicorn art, but in a good way! Christopher Moeller’s art is, as they said back then, bitchin’!

#14. Blizzard Specter

Maybe Abyssal Specter is better than Blizzard Specter with its blue pip, but the option there is nice, especially in a discard-heavy deck where the bounce can double as inefficient removal? I don’t quite buy it, but it doesn’t specify nonland, so maybe that’s okay?

#13. Headless Specter

Okay, so they printed Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis in this set. Was Hypnotic Specter still haunting enough dreams that we had to nerf it with Headless Specter and require the hellbent condition in 2019? Props to Anastasia Ovchinnikova for the worm beetle dragon thing it’s riding on. Metal!

#12. Hollow Specter

I gotta pay 1 to make Hollow Specter into a Hypnotic clone, every attack, which is a bummer. If I have a lot of mana lying around, gottem, I guess?

#11. Sedraxis Specter

Sometimes that unearth is going to really hose someone! Otherwise, three different pips for Sedraxis Specter is asking a lot.

The art, though, is the best of Cole Eastburn’s limited, but metal, oeuvre of MTG art. The specter is like Santa whipping on, instead of reindeer, giant horned bird skulls with reins across their eye sockets! “On Blinker, on Gazer, on Peeper and Creeper! On Gawker, on Snitcher, on Snooper and Trooper!”

#10. Doomsday Specter

Okay, add the blue pip to Abyssal with a required self-bounce and you get more of a Thoughseize effect than a Specter's Wail. That seems fine-ish. These planeshift self-bounce ETB cards are kind of fun to brew around in EDH.

#9. Hypnotic Specter

Hypnotic Specter is a beautiful design. No notes.

#8. Whispering Specter

This upgraded Hollow Specter still offers that dream of mass discard. That’s perhaps gonna actually happen in an infect deck, but really this is here because infect is busted and infect decks will even put up with 3-mana flyers like Whispering Specter when they need to.

#7. Shimian Specter

Obviously these Jester's Cap effects are pointless in Commander, but I immediately want to play this in Modern, as ridiculous as that sounds. But I see tryhard lists out there with this, Orcish Bowmasters, Grief, etc. Wouldn’t it feel great to yank all The One Ring copies? Super jank!

Another super creepy art movement, though! It looks like Anthony S. Waters’ Shimian Specter is flying on the winged skull of a Dread Wight. Nice.

#6. Guul Draz Specter

I see Guul Draz Specter as WOTC’s apology for Entropic Specter. This one at least synergizes with itself! A 5/5 flyer for 4 is a decent enough payoff if you can get your discard deck to work. If they’re getting hit with this while they try to topdeck removal? That’s the dream, right?

Bonus points for Mark Tedin’s SKULL FLASHLIGHT art, which means this is going right into that Scooby Doo Commander deck WotC is gonna call me to design! (You know the sequence in like every episode where they all go through like a thousand different doors? I’ve got a card for that).

#5. Blazing Specter

Giving back Abyssal Specter’s one toughness and adding haste with the red pip was the ticket to Tom van de Logt’s 2001 World Championship run with Blazing Specter, Dark Ritual, removal and burn. Good enough for victory for the champ!

#4. Fell Specter

There aren’t that many cards with Fell Specter’s text, borrowed from Liliana's Caress. So if you’re trying to do the Megrim thing, you probably need this card.

#3. Nightveil Specter

Now we’re talking! Opponents tilt when you beat them with their own cards, and Nightveil Specter is a pretty effective way to do that. You keep the cards until you need them. You do have to keep it alive, as they go bye-bye when they Lightning Bolt this.

#2. Thief of Sanity

Thief of Sanity is a better Nightveil Specter. Arguably harder to cast, but looking at three cards is very nice.

#1. Specter of Mortality

Specter of Mortality requires a decent amount of self-mill, but if you’re doing that you get a blinkable, customizable board wipe that also gets Toski, Bearer of Secrets while you’re at it! That sounds perfect for Commander, although I get that’s a tall order for 60-card formats.

This thing is running at bulk rare prices, which is wild. Why wouldn’t you run this in your reanimator deck?

Best Specter Payoffs

There aren't a lot, as these cards are pretty underpowered for Commander, but there are two kinds of decks that sort of want them.

Discard Decks

The 3-mana Hypnotic Specter clones are all decent enough in discard matters decks like Tinybones, Trinket Thief, Tourach, Dread Cantor, Cao Cao, Lord of Wei and many others. Tergrid, God of Fright decks run these cards less often, generally because you’ve also got the sacrifice idea to work with, and the 3-mana flyers leave to make room for edicts and other unpleasantries. Repeatable discard is valuable, as underpowered as these decks can be with three opponents.

Gimme Yer Stuff Decks

This is really mostly for Nightveil Specter and Thief of Sanity, which have a decent home in decks that want to play your opponents’ cards, helmed by such groan-inducing commanders as Tasha, the Witch Queen, Xanathar, Guild Kingpin and others who can be powerful but are often played just to annoy tables you think deserve it. People hate losing to their own cards more than they hate discarding things, so this kind of deck’s always an interesting social experiment, if nothing else!

Wrap Up

Fell Specter | Illustration by Dimitar Marinski

Every time Liliana of the Veil is in Standard, “low resource” decks show up to clear the board of creatures, empty hands and put both players in topdeck mode. That’s better for the deck with simple wincons like the black discard deck and bad news for other types of decks, when all goes according to the black player’s plan.

Hypnotic Specter and most of the specters to follow were the progenitors of that model. The dream of repeated discard was always there, and it always at least scared casual players. It’s just that a planeswalker is a bit easier to make work in that scenario than flyers that have to connect for damage.

In Commander, discard and mill (often smashed into the same “super fun at parties!” decks) haunt us from our varied experiences in 60-card formats, but they have a hard time breaking through with cards and mechanics designed mostly for a 2-player game. But they exist, and just like the Mystery Machine will be looking for those specters in the creepy old house where all the strange noises are coming from, you can guarantee Magic’s specters will find their way into these decks.

Do you run a discard deck in Commander? Does it ever win? Jinkies! Tell us the war stories in the comments below or on Discord!