The 41 Best Trample Cards In Magic Ranked

Last updated on March 12, 2026

Craterhoof Behemoth | Illustration by Chris Rahn

Trample is one of the more iconic keyword abilities in Magic, and it’s incredibly well-balanced compared to many other abilities while still being an important upgrade in the right situations. It’s also subtly complex for such a simple idea, leading to some really interesting designs when combined with other design features. Some would say it’s Magic’s best keyword, and I couldn’t argue with them too much.

It’s been around since Alpha and has been a feature of the game pretty much constantly since then, meaning it’s appeared on plenty of cards and MTG sets over the years. Which are the best of these cards, though? And which creatures make best use of this mechanic?

Let’s take a look!

What Are Trample Cards in MTG?

Hydroid Krasis | Illustration by Jason Felix

Trample appears on cards in many different ways in Magic. This includes “French Vanilla” creatures where this is the only word that appears in the text box to cards that grant trample, creatures that have it under specific circumstances, and other cards that care about your creatures having trample. For today, I’m going to limit the offerings to only creatures that have trample printed on them as a keyword. This means cards that don’t always have trample, like Kogla and Yidaro, don’t have a home here.

I’ll also be giving extra points to cards where trample actually matters in the design of the card, too. An incredible ETB creature that wins the game but also has trample may not feature as highly as it would on other people’s lists. We’re here for trample, after all, not just good cards!

#41. Surrak and Goreclaw

Starting off with a green creature that does quite a lot with trample in Surrak and Goreclaw. Giving all your other creatures trample is always useful in a green deck, as many of that color’s beefers are designed specifically not to have trample. Also, you can sneak a win out of nowhere by getting this in on an unsuspecting opponent. Really nice green card, and one that shows off the power that the keyword can bring to the table.

#40. Earth King’s Lieutenant

Ally decks got a ton of new studs with the Avatar: The Last Airbender release. I especially like Earth King's Lieutenant as a cheap ally buffer. The cheap and wide nature of allies means this card can grow pretty large with its ally ETB trigger. It's minuscule on its own, but thrives in a well-built ally deck.

#39. Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger

Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger is one of those cards that’s good, plus it happens to have trample. Don’t get me wrong, flavorfully I think it should have trample, as Clexy is pretty swole, but it’s not really doing anything for the design overall. There’s no way it misses the list if you’re wanting to look at the best creatures with trample, but I’m keeping it further down because the trample on it isn’t as interesting as it is on other creatures.

#38. Frenzied Baloth

Aggro decks often just need speed and protection. Frenzied Baloth is a cheap aggro creature to ease the gameplay for your aggressive attacks. A 3/2 with trample and haste is great for 2 mana, even if it’s a hard , and this creature protects against counter and fog spells.  This card is a great way to trample through control decks’ early tactics.

#37. Zetalpa, Primal Dawn

Ah, Zetalpa. Primal Dawn… such an iconic white card. You may think I’d file this away as a card where trample isn’t that much of a relevant part of the design, but you’d be wrong there! The keyword soup is the design of Zetalpa, and trample is one of the better keywords included, especially when paired with double strike. If anything, missing trample here would have been a crime, so it definitely needs an inclusion on this list.

#36. Michelangelo, On the Scene

Massive creatures with trample are almost no-brainers sometimes. Michelangelo, On the Scene is a measly 2/2, but gets a pump for each land you control when it ETBs. So in the late game, you may get a 9/9 or 12/12 creature with trample for the reasonable cost of 6 mana. To add even more value to this card, when it dies, you can cast it again after combat or on another turn. Heroes in a Half Shell almost made these rankings as a great 5-colored typal card draw engine. The trample doesn’t add overwhelming value, other than helping this card trigger the draw effect.

#35. Multani, Yavimaya’s Avatar

The most basic design that makes use of trample is a card that is capital-M Massive. Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar certainly checks that box. It works slightly better than that, too, as your opponent is going to need to deal with it if they want to live, which means that a recursion ability doesn’t go amiss at all. Trample works here more than you think!

#34. Tyrranax Rex

Cards that want to get in for damage are pretty good targets for trample, which is why Tyrranax Rex and its toxic ability are a match made in heaven. Of all the keywords on this super-French vanilla card, trample is the most important in my book, otherwise it’ll be difficult to get those 4 poison counters on your opponent!

#33. Sire of Seven Deaths

Sire of Seven Deaths is one of my new favorite keyword soup cards in MTG. This Eldrazi has seven keywords that make it incredible in combat, including trample. If you could throw deathtouch on here with a card like Bow of Nylea, then you have one deadly Eldrazi!

#32. Scarlet Spider, Ben Reilly

Web-slinging is an interesting way to reduce a casting cost, with a downside of playing slower. Scarlet Spider, Ben Reilly takes the downside of returning a creature to your hand, and makes it an advantage. This creature gains counters equal to the mana value of the returned card. And trample is what makes all those counters well worth it. A big creature with trample for 2 mana, I'm in!

#31. Kodama of the West Tree

Kodama of the West Tree is another good example of a card that gives trample to your other stuff. Yes, you need to modify your creatures to give them trample, but pass out a few counters and you’re easily there. Giving your other stuff a combat damage ability is also a good boon here and fits nicely with something that cares about trample.

#30. Stonecoil Serpent

Stonecoil Serpent is a colorless creature I feel is still underrate. It scales with the game, has multiple ways to get damage through, and has no color identity. Sneaky reach also catches people out from time to time. Trample might not be a great addition, but having trample and protection from multicolor makes it a good way to get some damage through.

#29. Soul of the Harvest

Soul of the Harvest is a great elemental, card advantage in mono-green, and is a good beater. Of course, trample doesn’t do a great amount here, but the rate is still amazing, and of course that trample is an upgrade to the card that would exist if it didn’t have the ability. Not the most interesting, but it needed to be on the list!

#28. Tifa Lockhart

Tifa Lockhart, and later in the rankings Mossborn Hydra, strike fear into opponents without the right removal. Tifa’s power doubles through landfall triggers, but the key is that this card has trample. You can exponentially grow Tifa's power with a card like Perilous Forays, and trample seals the game.

#27. Ghalta and Mavren

Spoilers, this isn’t the last time Ghalta is going to show up, but Ghalta and Mavren is a sweet addition to the big green dinosaur, and one that makes more big green dinos! These team up cards were really a slam dunk in design and flavor, even if I did have to face an opponent with three of these at prerelease….

#26. Emrakul, the Promised End

Let’s be honest, if there’s a card out there with the most unnecessary trample, it has to be Emrakul, the Promised End…. However, it feels like it would have been a flavor fail to leave it out at the same time, even with flying. Funnily enough, the original iteration Emrakul, the Aeons Torn didn’t have trample!

#25. Quartzwood Crasher

Quartzwood Crasher isn’t just a card with trample. It really cares about trample. Ikoria has a number of creatures that “represented” their keywords, and this was the trample creature at the rare slot. It’s a really nice design, though, where they could have just gone with “give your trample creatures +X/+X” and be done with it. Far from busted, you want to play it if you’re running shenanigans with trample.

#24. Brawn

Brawn is what a lot of people would call the original trample creature. Part of the Judgment incarnation cycle, it’s probably the easiest way to give all your creatures trample. You don’t even need it on the battlefield! This one is quite iconic, and it still sees a lot of play today. With good reason!

#23. Hydroid Krasis

There’s so much I love about Hydroid Krasis, and have loved since I played it in Standard. Trample is really key here, as it comes in handy in the late game. It has flying of course, but you don’t want it to be chumped by a 1/1 flier, do you? It's mostly outclassed by The Goose Mother these days, but that doesn't have trample, does it?

#22. Sin, Unending Cataclysm

Sin, Unending Cataclysm is a great transferer of counters with little downside. When this card enters, you can transfer a ton of counters from any number of permanents. You then get the great flample combo with a potentially massive creature. When this creature dies, you can then transfer those counters to another creature. With proliferation and permanents like Geometric Nexus, you should have a sinfully good time.

#21. Bloodthirster

Bloodthirster is another member of the flample gang, but this is super important as it has an absolutely incredible on-hit ability. It gives you multiple additional combat phases in a multiplayer game, and making sure it can get in for combat damage against everyone is key to making it work. Definitely one case where adding trample to flying isn’t overkill.

#20. Knuckles, the Echidna

Is there anything worse than having a large double strike creature be stopped by a weeny blocker? Probably, but trample takes care of this problem. Knuckles the Echidna is a fast and powerful legendary creature, with an alt wincon to boot. The trample and double strike on this card help create Treasure tokens. Use these tokens to ramp up your strategies or collect enough to win the game.

#19. Hellkite Tyrant

Hellkite Tyrant is a great red card, let’s be honest. And while the win-the-game ability doesn’t technically need trample, it has another ability on hit that trample clearly does help with. Now that we’re in the days of abundant Treasure tokens and Clue tokens, that part is maybe less important. But it’s still there, and I’m sure many games are still won because someone has been whacked over the head with a Tyrant!

#18. Giant Adephage

Exponential cards are always great fun, and Giant Adephage is a very trample-y version of an exponential effect. Getting in for damage starts this off, and if you can find a way to give your stuff haste, as well as get some extra combats… well, you’re cookin’! You could mess around with Spawnwrithe if you want the minature version of this.

#17. Krang, Utrom Warlord

Krang, Utrom Warlord is the bomb card you need for any artifact creature deck. This massive artifact creature has killer keywords and gives those same keywords to all of your artifact creatures. The most important of these keywords is indestructible, but giving all your artifact creatures trample is also incredible. Use cards like Hedron Archive to ramp up your curve, and then boost creatures like Roaming Throne and Karn, Legacy Reforged with great keywords.

#16. Cosmic Spider-Man

Similar to Krang, Utrom Warlord above, Cosmic Spider-Man is a keyword soup enabler for a specific build. This 5-color creature pumps your spiders with a ridiculous amount of good keywords, including trample. After the release of Marvel’s Spider-Man, we got great spiders like Spider-Punk. And you can’t forget about other powerful spiders like Arasta of the Endless Web and Spinner of Souls. Build an army of spiders and swing hard with Cosmic Spider-Man.

#15. Gishath, Sun’s Avatar

Big dinos have trample. That much is obvious. So clearly, one of the biggest, baddest dinos needs trample! Not only does Gishath, Sun's Avatar have trample, it also has a saboteur ability, and one that’s probably even scarier than the 7/6 hasty body coming at you. The beloved fans of Gishath ensure this is a fan-favorite Naya commander ()!

#14. Atarka, World Render

Flample is still a strong ability, even if a little overkill at times. You know what makes it even more overkill? That’s right, double strike, the exact ability that Atarka, World Render gives your dragons. To be fair, double strike is still pretty good here, as it quickly brings that flample damage to lethal. And quite a few dragons out there also have trample.

#13. Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant

Another Ghalta for the list is Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant. It’s big and bad, and of course it has trample. But let’s be honest: The 12/12 trampling body isn’t why this is played. It’s the enters ability. Still, having the 12/12 on top of whatever else you cheat in isn’t bad at all!

#12. Cultivator Colossus

Cultivator Colossus is a card that just wouldn’t really work if it didn’t have trample. Yes, you still get the lands, but a big part of the fun is the card’s body! The same could be said of any ol’ chonker, but this one has a fun effect attached to it that makes it into a chonker, so it’s more fun overall!

#11. Kalonian Hydra

If you’re playing with trample, you’re also going to be playing with some Large creatures, with a capital L. They're not unknown to make some good use of +1/+1 counters, which is where Kalonian Hydra gets into the fun zone. It does need to attack, but if you’re trying to make the most of trample, how do you plan on winning if you’re not attacking?

#10. Phyrexian Obliterator

Phyrexian Obliterator is an unusual black card on today’s list, but it has certainly earned its spot. Possibly one of the most commonly misread cards, at least by a blocking player on their first combat step with it, trample is a super integral part of the equation here. Without trample, chumping becomes somewhat viable, but otherwise you need to find a way to deal with this one. Scary stuff to see it swinging at you!

#9. Vigor

Vigor is a bit of a crazy card when you read it. It makes combat incredibly difficult, as if trample weren’t doing that enough already! Of course, there are still ways around the effect, but if you’re trying to get in at your opponents, they won’t like to see this hitting your board!

#8. End-Raze Forerunners

Not everything can be a Craterhoof Behemoth, but End-Raze Forerunners does a pretty good impression! With a wide enough board this boar does pretty much the same work as it’s big cousin, and having vigilance is a good little bonus when it doesn’t quite get there on the one swing (if that ever happens!).

#7. Defiler of Vigor

The Defilers from Dominaria United was a scary looking cycle when first previewed, but they didn't break anything. Defiler of Vigor is still one of the better ones though, quickly making a board get out of hand. If you’re doing trample-y things, this is a good way to just… help things along a little. With the right set up, this can win the game the turn it comes down, which is always worth checking out.

#6. Managorger Hydra

Managorger Hydra was one of the first cards I was blown away with when I started playing. It was fresh out and turning a few heads of longtime players, if I remember correctly. Clearly with the rise of EDH and multiplayer formats it’s gotten better, and it grows at a ridiculous rate. You can easily get this out early and in a couple of turn cycles it’s taking chunks out of opponents. I always forget how fast this gets out of hand in the right pod.

#5. Mossborn Hydra

Another hydra with huge trample upside, yes please! Mossborn Hydra doubles its counters with every landfall trigger. Paired with Tifa Lockhart, both cards can grow exponentially, but this hydra keeps those counters going forward. So load up your deck with lands like Fabled Passage and cards like Bristly Bill, Spine Sower.

#4. Blightsteel Colossus

Blightsteel Colossus has to be one of the Timmy-est cards ever to exist, while still being somewhat of a relevant threat. Clearly with infect, the trample on the card is incredibly important, and a way to close out a game single-handedly. Seeing this on the board in 1-on-1 is a problem, and it’s still important in multiplayer.

#3. Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider

Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider is a great design, calling back to the original praetors for the benefit/tax effect, but it feels very green in caring about counters. The taxing effect catches people out in all sorts of ways, but clearly adding extra counters is going to do some great things to your trampling creatures. Of course, a 6-mana 6/6 trample and haste creature is going to do a good amount, too!

#2. Ghalta, Primal Hunger

As a potential 2-mana 12/12 trampler, Ghalta, Primal Hunger is just a great trample card! I’m not even going to say more because… well, look at it!

#1. Craterhoof Behemoth

Of course, there’s probably no doubt that Craterhoof Behemoth was going to be on the list, and I can’t really imagine anyone saying it shouldn’t be at the top. It’s an incredible trampling…. Oh… Oh no. This breaks my rules of the list as it doesn’t have trample naturally….

Whatever, rules are meant to be broken, and if we’re thinking of big trampling creatures there really can be no other. The Hoof-Daddy is big and scary, and let’s be honest, this is really the card designers' mistake, isn’t it?

Best Trample Card Payoffs

Trample feels like enough of a payoff in itself, but there are some other advantages to playing with it. One card that springs to mind is Ram Through which is a green removal spell that also doubles as a burn spell if you have trampling creatures. What’s really fun is using this on a 1/1, and doming your opponent for a bunch with one of your fatties. Fantastic design.

The other way you want to make the most out of trample is on-damage effects. Curiosity is a classic example, but there are other options out there. The trick is finding an effect that cares about hitting your opponent that’s in your colors (the Swords of X and Y are good if you’re struggling!).

One of the best keywords to pair with trample is deathtouch. A creature only needs to do 1 damage with deattouch to kill another creature. Therefore, after 1 damage is dealt, the rest can be dealt to players with trample. Give your tramplers deathtouch through cards like Basilisk Collar, Ohran Frostfang, All-Out Assault, and deal the vast majority of your damage to players.

A few commanders that can really benefit from these trample cards are Stonebrow, Krosan Hero, General Marhault Elsdragon, and Kamahl, Heart of Krosa works even if you don’t have creatures with trample.  

Best Cards That Give Trample

There are many, many cards that give trample, and identifying the best is tough, although the best ones fall into two categories.

First are cards that give mass trample. The best of these are Craterhoof Behemoth effects that give your whole team trample (as well as other benefits). These mass pumps are usually expensive, but they’re very effective if you get the right effect and are great for wide boards.

If you’re looking at the cheaper end of the curve, you’re probably looking more for an aura that’ll give one of your creatures trample. Rancor is a great example, as it only costs 1 mana but keeps coming back and even buffs your dude. Very efficient if you want to make a creature slightly more of a threat.

One more trample-enabler to highlight is Yuna, Hope of Spira for enchantment decks. You can ditch massive enchantment creatures like Summon: Bahamut and Overlord of the Mistmoors early, and reanimate them with trample!

Wrap Up

Quartzwood Crasher | Illustration by Antonio José Manzanedo

A bit like the excess damage from trample, we’re finishing off. It’s been a fun ride, looking at some of the biggest battlecruisers in Magic, and there are truly some gems here. Trample is a great mechanic, and not every game has an effect like this, so it does feel kinda uniquely Magic.

What are some of your favorite trample cards? Did I miss any off this list that I really shouldn't have? Let me know all my mistakes down below in the comments or over on the Draftsim Discord or Threads page.

Until next time, I hope your excess damage is dealt to a player!