All 37 Tyranids in Magic Ranked

Lictor | Illustration by Games Workshop

The push for Universes Beyond hasn’t just introduced new characters and IPs to Magic but entirely new creature types to name with Arcane Adaptation! The foray to the wild world of Warhammer 40,000 invigorated familiar creature types like demons, and it introduced a new one: tyranids!

Tyranids are often insectile and always dangerous, the foot soldiers of a ravenous hive mind that consumes the galaxy as it spreads. How did Magic adapt them, and are any worth running? Let’s look below!

What Are Tyranids in MTG?

The Swarmlord | Illustration by Antonio Jose Manzanedo

Tyranids are a creature type exclusive to the Warhammer 40,000 Universes Beyond crossover. They were all printed in the Tyranid Swarm precon, led by The Swarmlord. They use the ravenous mechanic and generally care about +1/+1 counters. All tyranids fall into a Temur () color identity.

#37. Genestealer Locus

Genestealer Locus lacks power. It might prevent early poke damage, but it won’t matter later in the game. It’s a Limited card that found its way into a Commander product.

#36. Venomthrope

Venomthrope plays nicely with Indominus Rex, Alpha, but little else since its color identity prevents it from playing with Odric, Lunarch Marshal or Kathril, Aspect Warper.

#35. Tyranid Harridan

Tyranid Harridan mostly suffers from being slow. You can just do so much more on a 6-mana threat these days.

#34. Malanthrope

Malanthrope offers okay graveyard disruption. It sets the graveyard player behind, but being trapped at sorcery speed severely limits its capabilities. It'd play best in a flicker deck that overcomes this restriction.

#33. Hormagaunt Horde

Hormagaunt Horde is another slow one. It’s a very resilient threat and ravenous nets some upfront value, but is a lot just to put it back in your hand before investing more mana into casting it.

#32. Gargoyle Flock

Gargoyle Flock is a neat card in creature-heavy or flicker decks that reliably make creatures enter each turn. It plays well with alliance cards like Galadriel, Light of Valinor since one alliance trigger becomes two, but it’s also costly and limited since it only triggers on your turn.

#31. Lictor

Lictor could be cute with token doublers; a 3/3 is substantially larger than your average token. But you really need a way to break it for it to be exciting.

#30. Clamavus

Clamavus offers a sketchy power boost. It doesn’t help to distribute counters or anything, so it leans towards the win-more category: It’s great once you have a board full of creatures loaded with counters, but bad otherwise.

#29. Screamer-Killer

Screamer-Killer feels better-suited as a setup card to play before your expensive creatures rather than an expensive creature itself. It pales in comparison to Terror of the Peaks and Warstorm Surge, which not only work with small and big creatures but have more flexible applications since the creatures only need to enter the battlefield.

#28. Termagant Swarm

Termagant Swarm works well in sacrifice decks: You get a creature with a strong death trigger that results in more sacrifice fodder. If you get the card draw off ravenous, it looks even better.

#27. Ravener

Ravener creates memorable moments in Commander because of how it determines attackers. Since you pick which player the creature attacks, you can doom an opponent or use it as a political tool, sending a significant threat towards a player with the blockers to handle it.

#26. Trygon Prime

Trygon Prime deals some pretty serious damage on attacks, buffing itself and one other creature and slipping the other target past blockers. It's purely offensive though, so you need to be attacking to maximize it.

#25. The Red Terror

The Red Terror is infamous for its combo potential. Pair it with Shalai and Hallar or All Will Be One or anything else that makes it getting a counter into a point of damage, and you win. Outside the combo space it barely matters; it’s just a big creature that gets bigger.

#24. Haruspex

The burst of mana from Haruspex is undeniably strong, though the fact that it consumes the counters makes it a ritual rather than a reliable ramp spell. At this point, Magic has so many creatures that tap for mana equal to their power without consuming the counters that this one falls to the wayside, even if it adds counters itself.

#23. Tyranid Prime

Tyranid Prime gives +1/+1 counter decks a reasonable means of counter distribution. Evolve often falls off later in the game when your creatures are no longer large enough to keep up, but getting counters on your mana dorks and cheap cards makes closing the game easier and rewards cards like Danny Pink that want as many creatures to gain counters as possible.

#22. Acolyte Hybrid

Acolyte Hybrid has potential as a repeatable artifact destruction card, though its small size holds it back. How often does a 2/2 survive combat? With a little attention to unblockable, or maybe Reconnaissance to get the attack trigger, it could be strong.

#21. Broodlord

Though Broodlord has a strong ability, the cost is steep, which seems to be a running theme with tyranids. We’re talking 5 mana for a 4/4 that adds one counter, 6 mana to get two counters, and so on. I’m not dismissing it entirely out of respect for the mana that counters decks generate with cards like Gyre Sage and Kami of Whispered Hopes, but proceed cautiously.

#20. Hierophant Bio-Titan

Hierophant Bio-Titan rumbles with the best threats in Magic, right up there with Eldrazi. Its cost reduction mechanic is pretty strong since you pick and choose where the counters come from, and you don’t always need to remove five counters for this to be worth casting. No trample sucks, but the titanic ability sort of makes up for it by making chumping blocking harder.

#19. Toxicrene

Toxicrene is a mana fixer that doubles as land hate; taking away abilities nerfs the best lands in the format, like Field of the Dead, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, and Cabal Coffers. It’s a fairly unique effect that handles multiple lands without tipping towards mass mana denial.

#18. Old One Eye

If you like one big green creature, why not have two?

Old One Eye builds a fast battlefield. The token it creates isn’t legendary, so you can get up to flicker nonsense, or just play it straight and narrow. Two triggers from Elemental Bond or Outcaster Trailblazer is pretty good, and it even gives you the fuel to discard cards and bring Old One Eye back for round two.

#17. Winged Hive Tyrant

Winged Hive Tyrant plays best with cards like Arwen, Weaver of Hope that put counters onto your creatures as they enter for the haste buff. Otherwise, it’s just a respectable finisher that sneaks your creatures through most opposing defenses for a swift win.

#16. Genestealer Patriarch

Genestealer Patriarch fall into the “really cool but not really good” category. You can only spread infection counters by attacking, so your opponents have a full turn to remove it before it becomes a problem, and you have to worry about it dying in combat, and the infection counter does nothing if the Patriarch is removed before you kill the infected creatures. That’s too many fail cases to make it a staple though it is, again, very cool.

#15. Deathleaper, Terror Weapon

Deathleaper, Terror Weapon rewards playing hasty creatures with its double strike ability, but it does even more. This works with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and red’s many other token copiers, plus cards like Raph & Mikey, Troublemakers and Ghired, Conclave Exile that put creatures into play tapped or attacking.

#14. Purestrain Genestealer

Purestrain Genestealer has great potential, but it also suffers from needing combat. It’s great to remove counters from it to get lands into play, and you can always refresh the counters, but how many combats can this thing see before it dies?

#13. Aberrant

Aberrant is one of the most “expensive” ravenous cards in the sense that you want to cast it for a big chunk. Many of them work with a smaller number, but you want at least five counters on this thing. It still suffers from the combat issue, but it can outscale the other threats.

#12. Nexos

Making every land into Ancient Tomb requires a heavy restriction like only spending that mana on X-spells. Nexos is one of the strongest dorks for the archetype for this very reason. It doesn’t matter outside it, but when you fill a niche this well….

#11. Tervigon

If you can make Tervigon unblockable or just very large, it poses a serious threat. In a format like Commander that’s filled with board wipes, a titanic threat that creates a board all on its own and maybe draws a card has a strong appeal. Maybe you pair it with Chandra's Ignition to clear a path?

#10. The Swarmlord

The Swarmlord was the face commander for Tyranid Swarm, and while it’s not a very good commander (6 mana is far too much for a commander that encourages sacrificing and recasting), it’s a powerful support piece in counter decks. The card draw is very powerful, and it becomes a substantial threat alongside a cheap commander. Since it cares about counters broadly, it even has sneaky synergy with persist and undying loops and with saga creatures.

#9. Atalan Jackal

Atalan Jackal is similar to Purestrain Genestealer except haste goes a long way towards making it more impactful. It often gets a land and forces your opponent to have removal or a blocker the turn you play it; no time to find something better! Since it has trample, it also carries +1/+1 counters extremely well.

#8. Exocrine

Exocrine staples a board wipe to a creature, which is always pretty impactful; when your creature wipes the board, you end up ahead as the only player with a creature. Toss in a potential card from ravenous, and you push that advantage further. And this doubles as a burn spell since it damages all players, squeezing in those last points of damage. It’s a complete bomb so long as you have the ramp package to back it up.

#7. Sporocyst

Sporocyst works well in ramp decks because it’s both a ramp spell and a card to ramp into. It plays best in landfall decks because it puts so many lands into play all at once—perfect for overwhelming your opponents in a single turn.

#6. Tyrant Guard

Tyrant Guard plays differently than other ravenous cards because you’re perfectly happy to cast this for X=0. A 3-mana creature that sacrifices itself for the sake of all your other creatures is a perfectly playable card, especially with recursion effects. If it gets any bigger, maybe even draws a card, that’s just upside.

#5. Zoanthrope

Zoanthrope smacks incredibly hard. Between the burn and ward, it’s an annoying threat that closes a game quickly. Nothing about it is broken; it’s just a great rate on a powerful threat.

#4. Mawloc

Mawloc is similar to Zoanthrope but has broken containment from Commander and sneaks into Cubes, where its fight ability really shines. You can cast it as a big threat, or just for 2 to bolt the bird. Though similar to Zoanthrope, it comes out on top because green is better suited to exploiting ravenous than Izzet ().

#3. Magus Lucea Kane

Magus Lucea Kane has quickly become the most popular X-spell commander, with good reason. Not only does it produce an obscene amount of mana, it copies those X-spells. If those are tyranids with ravenous, you just get a token copy that maybe draws another card if X exceeded 4. Or you could vaporize the table with Crackle with Power.

#2. Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph

Probably the most recognizable tyranid, Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph is one of the most popular Izzet commanders (). It pairs up with spellslinger payoffs like Thermo-Alchemist and Kessig Flamebreather that ping your opponents, as Starn’s trigger effectively triples that. Games end swiftly when every spell your cast comes with a Lava Spike for each opponent.

#1. Biophagus

Every time I read Biophagus, I’m surprised there isn’t a restriction somewhere. You aren’t restricted by color; or by its power; or by what you can spend the mana on. It’s just a dork that taps for , and it rewards you if you happens to spend that mana on a creature. Though its power is subtle, Biophagus can absolutely dominate a game.

Best Tyranid Payoffs

Tyranid Harridan is the only direct tyranid payoff. If you really want to lean into tyranid typal, you’ll need generic payoffs like Chronicle of Victory, Harmonized Crescendo, and Herald's Horn.

More broadly, tyranids care about +1/+1 counters, which have way more payoffs. Since most tyranids enter with counters or spread them, you can focus on cards like Kodama of the West Tree, Armorcraft Judge, and Abzan Falconer that enhance creatures with counters.

What Are Tyranids in the Warhammer Universe?

Tyranids are essentially intergalactic locusts, an alien swarm that sweeps across the galaxy, consuming any and all organic matter in their path. They can consume planets within weeks and leave behind nothing. All organic material—and any genetic material that could upgrade the swarm—births more tyranids. They’re the ultimate hunters, a species that view anything else as prey for their Hive Mind to feed upon.

Will Tyranids Be Reprinted in MTG?

This is exceedingly unlikely. Tyranids have only appeared in the Warhammer 40,000 Commander decks. Because the creature type is so deeply tied to the property, these cards probably can’t be reprinted in sets that aren’t affiliated with Warhammer, and those Commander decks have been out of print for several years. It’s possible that another collaboration in the future could set up reprints, but don’t bet on it.

Wrap Up

Tyranid Prime | Illustration by Mathias Kollros

Tyranids are a terrifying force that attack relentlessly, and every extra bit of flesh—ah, mana—you feed them strengthens the swarm. While many of these cards are mediocre, quite a few of them offer interesting designs and the ravenous mechanic itself is a lot of fun. We probably won’t see them ever again, but I wouldn’t hate a redux.

Do you like tyranids? Would you want to see them come back? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord!

Stay safe, and thanks for reading!