The 31 Best Troll Cards in Magic Ranked

Last updated on September 10, 2026

Gyome, Master Chef | Illustration by Steve Prescott

Like many little bookworms, my first exposure to trolls came from a fairy tale about Three Billy Goats trying to cross a bridge. Then I met another one in a girls’ bathroom. And I met a few more on an adventure in Middle-earth. I got to beat up some trolls in Fable, and now I get to meet some when we visit new planes in Magic.

There are plenty of trolls that are available for you to sleeve up, but which troll can give you the most bang for your buck? The best of them are all here, and they brought their appetites. Good thing there’s a master chef among them to keep everyone fed!

What Are Trolls in MTG?

Challenger Troll | Illustration by Svetlin Velinov

Troll is a creature type in Magic. Uthden Troll and Sedge Troll from Alpha were the first trolls in the game, and we're approaching 100 of these creatures as of late 2026.

Overall, trolls tend to stay in Jund () color identities, with some exceptions like Sea Troll and Charging Troll, and the sorcery on the back of Augmenter Pugilist. Since regeneration has been a theme for trolls, they’re mostly green+ these days since regeneration fits that part of the color pie.

Aside from regeneration, trolls come in big, medium, and small bodies. They’re often simply trolls, but there are a few troll shamans and troll druids to keep an eye on.

There are a couple of other spells that either mention or deal with trolls. Provoke the Trolls is a red spell that buffs a creature by 5 power if it survives the 3 damage the spell deals to it, while the third chapter of Waking the Trolls creates a bunch of 4/4 Troll Warrior tokens.

Honorable Mention: Masterful Ninja

I- what? Masterful Ninja can be both in your hand and on the battlefield. This feels like it breaks physics.

#31. Icehide Troll

Icehide Troll is a pretty unassuming 3-mana 2/3 until you have 2 mana from a snow source available. Then it can turn itself into a 4/3 with indestructible, which is a pain to deal with in combat. Notice that tapping it is an effect rather than a cost, so you can activate its ability even if it's already tapped.

This troll warrior was very good in Kaldheim Limited, and it plays well with snow commanders like Jorn, God of Winter or Isu the Abominable.

#30. Sporeback Troll

Graft is one of the few mechanics that let you move counters around. Sporeback Troll’s abilities help you to regenerate both it and your other creatures with counters on them, but it’s a little too costly. It only comes in with two counters of its own, so you almost need Hardened Scales effects to make its power and toughness worth it.

#29. Mossbridge Troll

Mossbridge Troll is pretty niche, but I have to admit I like the niche it occupies. The auto-regenerate is really good, and tapping other creatures to give this troll +20/+20 feels silly.

#28. Faunsbane Troll

The role tokens in Faunsbane Troll‘s home set of Wilds of Eldraine made it excellent in its Limited format. Auras isn't a common theme for Golgari () outside of that set, so it doesn't crop up anywhere else all that often. When it does, it'll almost certainly be seen alongside Rancor.

#27. Rendclaw Trow

Rendclaw Trow is just a 3-mana 2/2, but wither and persist make it considerably more annoying than those stats suggest. Persist lets it come back to play after it dies, while wither makes it a particularly nasty blocker.

This combination of abilities has also given Trow a niche home in Commander decks built around -1/-1 counters, sacrifice, and death triggers, and it plays very well with Secrets of Strixhaven‘s Gorma, the Gullet as a commander.

#26. Forum Necroscribe

Forum Necroscribe has one of the most annoying forms of ward: Whenever an opponent targets this troll warlock, their spell or ability is countered unless they discard a card.

And your opponents will want to target it, because this troll’s repartee ability is even more annoying. They better get rid of this ASAP, or you'll bury them in card advantage.

#25. Troll Ascetic

You could do a lot worse for a first mutate target than Troll Ascetic. Casting your mutate commander on it results in a hexproof commander that can be regenerated, which is a decent start.

#24. Thrun, the Last Troll

This is an uncounterable creature that also can’t be targeted but can be regenerated. That’s Thrun, the Last Troll in a nutshell. You’re probably more likely to be running it with the other Thrun than anywhere else these days.

#23. Old-Growth Troll

I feel like you could make a Vince McMahon meme where you start with a 4/4 for 3, add trample, and then give it a way to boost your mana base until you want to bring back a token with 4/4 power/toughness and trample. There may not be many specific places to play Old-Growth Troll, but it’s a solid placeholder in its mana slot while you look for something with more synergy.

#22. Lotleth Troll

Discarding cards is one of the ways you can put creatures into your graveyard, so it’s pretty good that Lotleth Troll can do it to grow with +1/+1 counters. An annoying but beatable threat, to be sure.

#21. Gluttonous Troll

Designed to get better early on in multiplayer games, Gluttonous Troll is a decent token generator and sac outlet. Its ability lets you pump it up temporarily to survive tough combats or take out a bigger threat.

#20. Honor Troll

10/10 for the pun in the card name. The Strixhaven Honor Troll is decent as a card that can amplify your lifegain and stays strong while your life total increases. Vigilance is always appreciated.

#19. Tom, Bert, and William

If these three ring a bell, yeah, it's those three trolls that Bilbo and the dwarves meet just as they start their journey in The Hobbit.

In Magic, Tom, Bert, and William turns basically any of your creatures into card advantage. Pay a single mana, choose your victim, then draw cards equal to its power and discard one. No tap symbol or once-per-turn restriction involved. It’s just a repeatable sacrifice outlet that becomes downright silly when you start to feed it beaters.

The troll itself is also pretty hard to deal with: It comes back from the dead if killed, but no longer as a creature. It’s an artifact instead, which tend to need different tools to remove than creatures.

#18. Varolz, the Scar-Striped

Varolz, the Scar-Striped is a graveyard commander that wants to use your dead creatures to buff your living creatures rather than reanimate them. Imagine using the scavenge ability on Yargle and Multani to give something eighteen +1/+1 counters, plus whatever doubling/adding shenanigans you have on board.

#17. Striding Shotcaller

A 2-mana 0/4 with reach isn’t exciting, but Striding Shotcaller only needs one or more of your creatures to connect with an opponent to become prepared. That unlocks Run the Play, an X-spell that puts +1/+1 counters on your creatures, gives those creatures flying for the turn, and replaces itself by drawing a card.

Striding Shotcaller needs both a board and a way to get the first hit through, but once you do it's a really scary way to mass pump your army.

#16. Challenger Troll

Here’s what I’d like to call a “trample payoff”. Challenger Troll makes your high-powered creatures blockable by only one creature per combat, which means that token decks can’t just pump out a bunch of 1/1 humans to lethally block your creatures anymore.

#15. Trollbred Guardian

Trollbred Guardian has +1/+1 counter synergies that let it grow on its own and gives trample to your other creatures with counters. It’s also a big frog for Grolnok, the Omnivore, although that deck doesn’t naturally lead in the counters direction.

#14. Hunted Troll

If you want to have an 8/4 ahead of schedule, there has to be some kind of setback. For Hunted Troll, that setback is giving an opponent a quartet of blue faeries. Flying faeries. Yeah. If only there were some way to pay that off….

#13. Grismold, the Dreadsower

As I was saying, opponent token payoffs. Grismold, the Dreadsower turns everyone’s token deaths into +1/+1 counters for itself. And it has trample. Good times all around.

#12. Thrun, Breaker of Silence

Thrun, Breaker of Silence is the kind of commander you can suit up with a bunch of equipment and auras and just keep swinging at your opponents. It can’t be countered, so there’s never any fear of that. It’s indestructible during your turn, so no fear of chump blockers with deathtouch. And it’s nearly hexproof. Nearly.

#11. Eccentric Pestfinder

Secrets of Strixhaven‘s Eccentric Pestfinder is a 4-mana 5/5 trampler, so that’s already a solid baseline. And its prepared spell makes it a solid token engine.

Notice that Eccentric Pestfinder can become prepared at the beginning of any player's end step, not just yours. The catch is that Turn Stones is a sorcery, so you'll usually have to wait until your next main phase to cash it in.

The icing on the cake? Secrets of Strixhaven also brought a very good Golgari commander that cares about lifegain and pests: Blech, Loafing Pest.

#10. Ribtruss Roaster

Devour is an ability that asks you to sacrifice creatures when the devour creature enters, giving it +1/+1 counters for each creature it eats. That tends to be a bit of a risky move: If opponents then kill your big creature, you end up with nothing.

Ribtruss Roaster is among the better creatures with devour because it starts to rebuild the board you just sacrificed at the beginning of your end step. And, importantly, the trigger cares about all +1/+1 counters, not just those it got from devour.

Five mana for a 3/3 that needs some setup is still a meaningful weakness, especially if somebody kills it before your end step. But if it survives, the stream of expendable, life-gaining bodies can get out of hand very quickly!

#9. Augmenter Pugilist / Echoing Equation

The flexibility of MDFCs is always their highest selling point. Augmenter Pugilist gives you the potential for an 8/8 creature that you pay 3 mana for, or you can use Echoing Equation to turn your army into clones of your best creature.

#8. Feasting Troll King

Feasting Troll King got a boost thanks to all the food-lovers printed since Throne of Eldraine. It’s very green in terms of devotion, but it’s yet another way that you can use Food tokens and food artifacts to your advantage.

#7. Clackbridge Troll

Speaking of Billy goats…. I really like the flavor on Clackbridge Troll, and not just because of the goat tokens. Each of your combat phases while it’s on the field gives opponents a chance to tap this troll and prevent it from attacking. Which sounds good, but they give you life and cards for your trouble. Feeding the troll truly is a bad habit.

The galaxy brained way to use Clackbridge Troll is by pairing it with effects that give creatures -1/-1 and some death payoffs so that you get three triggers the moment those goats enter.

#6. Svella, Ice Shaper

Yup, a snow troll commander. What a world. Svella, Ice Shaper is actually pretty useful: Its first ability pumps out Icy Manaliths that you don’t have to sac like you do with Treasure. The second one lets you pull something from the top four cards of your library, which is a decent number to make sure it doesn’t fizzle by being all lands. Apparently Svella’s used at the helm of land destruction decks, and now I’m getting some very evil thoughts.

#5. Golgari Grave-Troll

Golgari Grave-Troll is practically made for graveyard strategies, specifically the ones that care about having creatures in your graveyard. Its dredge ability lets you return it to hand in exchange for some milling, which should let you put more counters on it when you next cast or cheat it in. Removing a counter to regenerate it is just the cherry on top.

#4. Guardian Augmenter

Guardian Augmenter should never be accused of being a big, dumb troll. This wizard has flash and does a lot of work to protect your commander(s) between a +2/+2 buff and hexproof. It’s less competitive than some cards, but it’s just so heckin’ useful.

#3. Troll of Khazad-dûm

Troll of Khazad-dûm comes from the “big, dumb creature” mold of trolls, but it does that job so well. Swampcycling lets you put it into your graveyard to fetch a land, then you can use a cheap effect like Persist to bring it to the battlefield ahead of schedule. It also has to be blocked by three creatures, which makes your opponent’s decisions that much tougher. Probably better in Constructed than in Commander, which is reflected in the fact that this got banned in Legacy.

#2. Gyome, Master Chef

Maître Gyome has been a popular commander on its own, but multiple sets with intrinsic food themes have given this troll a larger market. Gyome, Master Chef gives you ways to generate more Food tokens, and its activated ability gives your token and non-token food more utility. It’s an essential card if you’re producing food, whether Gyome is the center of your strategy or you’re using someone else like Shelob, Child of Ungoliant.

#1. Grave Researcher

A 3-mana 3/3 that surveils 1 each upkeep would already be respectable. But Grave Researcher comes with one of the strongest reanimation spells ever printed right on it: Reanimate.

It fuels itself, too: At the beginning of your upkeep, you surveil 1, and if there are at least three creature cards in your graveyard afterwards, it becomes prepared. You can then Reanimate something during your main phase. And as long as Grave Researcher is still alive and you have three creatures in your graveyard, you get to keep doing it in each of your turns!

Best Troll Payoffs

There still isn’t a true troll lord to date, but Secrets of Strixhaven has given trolls some more clear synergy. Eccentric Pestfinder and Ribtruss Roaster both produce pest tokens (and the Pestfinder cares about gaining life, like Honor Troll does), while cards like Grave Researcher and Tom, Bert, and William have reasons to care about creatures dying or ending up in the graveyard.

Cauldron of Essence and Blech, Loafing Pest play into lifegain, sacrifices, and pests. They aren’t explicit troll payoffs, but this seems to be the strategy and archetype that Wizards had in mind for the latest trolls.

Are There Any Troll Commanders?

There are! Magic currently has eight legendary creatures printed with troll in their type line as of The Hobbit:

• Bortuk Bonerattle — A commander that can return creatures from your graveyard.
• Grismold, the Dreadsower — A token commander that grows whenever creature tokens die.
• Gyome, Master Chef — A food commander that generates Food tokens and uses them to protect creatures.
• Svella, Ice Shaper — A Gruul commander that ramps before turning all that mana into free spells.
• Thrun, Breaker of Silence — A Voltron mono-green commander that’s extremely difficult to interact with.
• Thrun, the Last Troll — The original extremely-difficult-to-kill Thrun, also mono-green.
• Tom, Bert, and William — A sacrifice commander, and a great card advantage engine.
• Varolz, the Scar-Striped — A graveyard and +1/+1 counter commander.

What you won’t find is a dedicated troll typal commander. None of these legendary creatures reward you for controlling trolls or even references the troll creature type. You can certainly put together a troll-heavy Commander deck (if you play a Golgari commander, you have about 50 trolls to choose from), but your commander will be supporting some other theme rather than trolls specifically.

Wrap Up

Clackbridge Troll | Illustration by Svetlin Velinov

And that’s the tale of trolls in Magic! Some are big, dumb creatures that just won’t die. Others are food connoisseurs. Still others are more specialized, like the sac outlets and ones that care about the creatures in your graveyard.

Which are your favorite trolls in Magic? What kinds of trolls do you want to see in future sets? Do you want any of the legendary trolls to return? Let me know in the comments below or over on Draftsim’s Discord. And check out The Daily Upkeep newsletter to stay up to date on the latest MTG news.

Thanks for reading, and remember, don’t feed the trolls! Gyome will want a word….