The 51 Best Combat Damage and Saboteur Cards in Magic Ranked

Last updated on June 26, 2026

Shadowmage Infiltrator | Illustration by Tomasz Jedruszek

Ever since the beginning, there was turn 1 Dark Ritual + Hypnotic Specter. The dread of having to discard a card without even choosing was real, and people felt as if they were being sabotaged each time the specter hit. 

What was rare became common practice and the game changed the focus from combo- to combat-oriented play. There are many creatures with the ability “Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, do X,” nicknamed the saboteur ability. These abilities are very relevant, especially in Commander gameplay, where the game designers want to incentivize creatures attacking each turn and dealing combat damage.

What Are Saboteur Abilities in MTG?

Anowon, the Ruin Thief | Illustration by Magali Villeneuve

Saboteur is a term that describes creatures that give you a benefit whenever they deal combat damage to a player. In MTG, dealing combat damage to a player is usually the way you win the game. Sometimes you’re less interested in the amount of damage you dealt in favor of the instant benefit these abilities give you.

A classic example is ‘90s Constructed staple Ophidian. It’s a 1/3, and when it would deal damage to a player, you decide between dealing 1 damage and drawing a card. Of course, usually drawing a card is much better than 1 damage, so that’s what players decided most of the time. Saboteur designs evolved a lot over time. Ten years later we got Dimir Cutpurse, a creature that makes your opponent discard and makes you draw when it deals combat damage to a player, a clear evolution on the theme.

Saboteur creatures are usually blue or black since those are the sneaky colors, but you can find them among all colors. Rogues are the creature type that’s mostly associated with UB colors and saboteur abilities.

While most saboteur cards are too slow to see 1v1 Constructed play, they shine in EDH. The format is slower and most of the time you can get an evasive creature through one of your opponents’ defenses. Just having a saboteur creature in play makes everybody care more about the combat step. Many legendary creatures are designed with this in mind, and this list is filled with famous commanders.

#51. Shark Shredder, Killer Clone

This slot was once occupied by Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni, but Shark Shredder, Killer Clone pushes everything far enough down the curve that it's going to be the better ninja-reanimator of the two most of the time, just missing out on Ink-Eyes' regeneration.

#50. Shadowmage Infiltrator

Another relic of MTG’s past, Shadowmage Infiltrator has relevant evasion built in, and it draws a card whenever it connects. It also has relevant creature types as a human wizard and sees play in more casual and low-powered formats.

#49. Trygon Predator

Trygon Predator is also on the downswing these days. It was actually played in Vintage at some point, seeing as you could wreck opponents’ powerful mana rocks whenever the Predator hits. That still holds true of Commander, though you see the card way less frequently now.

#48. Phage the Untouchable

There’s no other saboteur ability better than killing an opponent straight away. What sets Phage the Untouchable back is that it’s going to be hard to achieve this most of the time. It’s a 4/4 with no evasion. Your opponent can even flicker it, making you lose the game. There’s some shenanigans you can do with effects that prevent you from losing, or ones that give your opponents a copy of Phage.

#47. Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons

Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons is a popular -1/-1 counters commander, and with some evasion it’s able to shrink creatures or even kill them outright. There’s a huge number of cards that spread -1/-1 counters and proliferate support, so you’ll be making lots of snakes in no time with Hapatra around.

#46. Nashi, Moon Sage’s Scion

Nashi, Moon Sage's Scion is a rat ninja that sees play in ninja EDH decks or theft decks. Its saboteur ability allows you to cast one card from the top of a given library, yours or theirs. Being able to pay life instead of mana to cast the spell is a nice tempo play, and if you’re low on life, you can opt for the cheapest card or a land.

#45. Shroofus Sproutsire

The first time I read this card, I wasn’t impressed at all. But then, I realized that it makes a 1/1 saproling for each point of damage. Just attacking with Shroofus Sproutsire and a Rancor nets you three tokens. Plus, it adds the benefit for all saprolings you have, so pay attention to all the green cards that generate a bunch of saproling tokens, including the Limited menace Sprout Swarm.

#44. Etrata, the Silencer

Etrata, the Silencer needs to hit an opponent three times for them to lose the game, or less if some doubling synergies are involved. The problem is that when it hits, you’ll shuffle it into your library. You can use something like Strionic Resonator to speed up the process. Another possibility is to use clone effects–Sakashima of a Thousand Faces or Loki, Lord of Misrule come to mind.

#43. Hypnotic Specter

Look, making an opponent discard a card at random is strong. The closest WotC has come to reusing this effect is in cards like Urgoros, the Empty One, which is a 6-drop, or Headless Specter, a card that requires hellbent to work. Hypnotic Specter is a classic card, but it doesn’t have a home. What’s more, drawing cards is relevant at any point in the game, while discarding tends to be less effective in the late game.

#42. Fallen Shinobi

Fallen Shinobi has a hell of a saboteur ability. Being able to get two cards is huge, but you’ll also get to cast them for free. The Shinobi also has two relevant types, zombie and ninja. This card’s seen some Vintage play, where you can ninjutsu it with fast mana after attacking with a 1- or 2-drop.

#41. Thief of Sanity

Thief of Sanity saw lots of play when it was Standard-legal, either as a main deck inclusion or out of sideboards. You can still play it in EDH decks that care about dealing damage or Dimir theft decks. Selecting one of three of your opponents’ cards is a lot better than drawing a single card.

#40. Donatello, Gadget Master

Donatello, Gadget Master has a neat saboteur ability. The creature’s pretty small, but sneak makes it easy to get the first trigger and start doubling up on artifacts, whether that means a surge of mana from a second Relic of Sauron or two finishers like Portal to Phyrexia and Cityscape Leveler.

#39. Ninja of the Deep Hours + Moon-Circuit Hacker

These three ninjas draw you a card when they connect, and they have the ninjutsu/sneak abilities. Even if they don’t have evasion themselves, they can exploit other creatures’ evasion. Moon-Circuit Hacker isn’t as good as Ninja of the Deep Hours in the long run, but it’s cheaper to cast and usually gets you a card. Oroku Saki, Shredder Rising hits harder, but also docks a point of life when it connects.

#38. Ingenious Infiltrator

Ingenious Infiltrator is the evolution of Ninja of the Deep Hours, having similar stats but also granting the saboteur ability to all ninjas you control. Its best characteristic is the cheap ninjutsu of .

#37. Gishath, Sun's Avatar

When Gishath, Sun's Avatar deals combat damage to a player, you’ll get to put some dinos on the battlefield for free. It’s got trample and haste to ensure you’ll do some damage at least. Gishath is frequently used as a dinosaur commander, and it's still one of the best reasons to build around the creature type.

#36. Amarant Coral

Aggro often suffers in Commander because you need to beat up three players, but Amarant Coral finds an elegant solution: It punches all of your opponents equally, and it benefits handsomely from any form of damage doubling and the like.

#35. Angel of Destiny

Angel of Destiny changes the rules of the game a little bit. You’re letting some damage go in favor of gaining life, but if you have 15 more life than your starting life, you’ll make someone lose. On top of that, it’s a 2/6 with double strike, so you’ll gain at least 4 life with each attack. Even if you’re not winning the game this way, you can explore other synergies like Exquisite Blood or Sanguine Bond.

#34. Zurgo and Ojutai

A tag-team of Zurgo Bellstriker and Dragonlord Ojutai, Zurgo and Ojutai extends the saboteur ability to all your dragons. The selection offered by the combat damage trigger is exactly what made the Dragonlord so powerful back in its day, and Zurgo's haste makes it easy to sneak in hits.

#33. Koma, World-Eater

Seven mana gives you an 8/12 trample creature, plus very relevant protection in ward 4. Where Koma, World-Eater excels is that you get to make four 3/3 tokens whenever you deal combat damage. With 8 power worth of trample damage, your opponents will need to lose a lot of creatures to prevent that from happening.

#32. Zareth San, the Trickster

Zareth San, the Trickster reanimates a permanent from your opponent’s graveyard when it deals damage to a player. That can be helped by its pseudo-ninjutsu ability, making it another improvement over Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni.

#31. The Infamous Cruelclaw

The Infamous Cruelclaw is an infamous way to cheat expensive cards into play. The ability to cast a card from your library for free by discarding another card is very strong, and although you can’t choose what to cast, you can certainly spread some heavy hitters around your deck and hope for the best.

#30. The Pride of Hull Clade

The Pride of Hull Clade is a very interesting Simic commander. By itself, you can pay 4 mana for it to attack as a 3/15 and draw 15 cards! This can be the linchpin of a toughness-matters deck, or a self-contained plan that just draws a bunch of cards on its own.

#29. Ant-Man, Elusive Avenger

Plenty of creatures make Treasure when they connect with an opponent, but few scale with damage dealt like Ant-Man, Elusive Avenger. Why not turn Monstrous Rage into Dark Ritual, or use a bunch of equipment to mimic The Reaver Cleaver?

#28. Tovolar, Dire Overlord

Tovolar, Dire Overlord is a strong payoff for a werewolf typal deck, and the creature gets even better on its nightbound side. It's the de facto best commander for its respective creature types in Commander, and that's before you even factor in the back half.

#27. Old Gnawbone

Old Gnawbone transforms your creatures into Treasure-makers. Treasures are really good, and in many situations you’ll drop the Gnawbone, attack, make mana, and cast another spell. It opens up the possibilities for casting ridiculous X-mana spells. If this card is your commander, the Treasures also serve as insurance to pay for commander tax.

#26. Quilled Greatwurm

Here’s a 7/7 trample creature that can become a 14/14 after just one hit. Not only that, but Quilled Greatwurm grants this bonus to all your other creatures. If you already have an established board, it’s quite the lord.

#25. Niv-Mizzet, Guildpact

While arguably not even in the top 3 or 4 Niv-Mizzets, Niv-Mizzet, Guildpact has one of the strongest saboteur abilities available. It’s not hard to build a deck around it or to add this card to a Niv-Mizzet Reborn deck because they legends care about roughly the same suite of cards. Once X=3, you’re drawing three cards and can Lightning Helix your opponents like crazy.

#24. Shoreline Looter

Looter il-Kor was the long-standing unblockable looter for a long time, then came Suspicious Stowaway, which was a clear upgrade. Despite being an uncommon, Shoreline Looter occupies this space best now, giving you full unblockability and the ability to keep the cards you draw once you hit threshold, which it actively works towards.

#23. Rankle, Master of Pranks

Rankle, Master of Pranks offers you a symmetrical choice that affects both players. Discarding, drawing a card and losing life, and/or sacrificing a creature. You’ll always choose the more relevant ability for the moment. It gets even better in EDH decks like Tergrid, God of Fright, where you’ll profit if they discard cards or sacrifice creatures.

#22. Lightning, Army of One

Lightning, Army of One has a powerful damage doubling ability that’s a perfect political tool in Commander; it increases your damage dealt, but also the sources of damage from your other opponents. It’s a great way to convince your opponents to attack each other and ensure the control or ramp player doesn’t get out of control. It’s group hug, Boros edition!

#21. Obeka, Splitter of Seconds

When you deal combat damage with Obeka, Splitter of Seconds, you get that many upkeeps. Each card that says “at the beginning of your upkeep” becomes a powerhouse with Obeka around. Examples include Court of Ambition, Phyrexian Arena, or Twilight Prophet.

#20. Edric, Spymaster of Trest + Toski, Bearer of Secrets

Originally printed in Commander 2011, Edric, Spymaster of Trest allows you to dump a bunch of elves/tokens on the board, attack, and draw a lot of cards. Fast-forward 10 years and we got Toski, Bearer of Secrets, a much better card and a solid uncounterable commander. This legendary squirrel’s got the same saboteur bonus as Edric but one-sided, and is indestructible. These are often used in go-wide green-based EDH decks or token decks.

#19. Marisi, Breaker of the Coil

Marisi, Breaker of the Coil is a goading Naya commander , and you can build decks around it to maximize the saboteur ability. With Marisi, you’ll want to go wide with creatures and start hitting so that your opponents’ creatures remain goaded often. It’s usually best to have your opponents fight amongst themselves, and consistently goading their creatures can quickly snowball in your favor.

#18. Silas Renn, Seeker Adept

Silas Renn, Seeker Adept is widely played in cEDH thanks to the partner mechanic, mainly with Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh. Silas allows you to cast artifacts from your graveyard, so if you self-milled a card like Lion's Eye Diamond or Lotus Petal, you can cast them for free from your graveyard. Silas Renn works well in more grindy midrange decks, allowing you to sacrifice artifacts for value and recast them.

#17. Jaws, Relentless Predator

Few cards flood the board with artifact tokens like Jaws, Relentless Predator; the only thing more terrifying than the amount of Blood it generates is the price tag from one Secret Lair exclusive printing. It’s perfect in aggressive artifact decks as both a reward for cracking Treasures and a fabulous enabler for Reckless Fireweaver variants.

#16. Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel

Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel sees play due to its stats in flier/tempo decks. A 2/1 with flying and flash is a great creature, and you’ll be able to loot when it connects. The fourth time you loot, you’ll cast the discarded card without paying the mana cost.

#15. Storm, Force of Nature

Storm, Force of Nature is a crazy commander built around the idea of giving storm to spells that don’t have the ability. But to achieve that, you need to deal combat damage with it. It’s a novel way to play storm in EDH that doesn’t leave you restricted to cards like Chatterstorm or Grapeshot. Even if you’re not winning via a flashy combo, it’s great value to cast some spells, hit with Storm, and cast a Lightning Bolt or a Preordain.

#14. Kotis, the Fangkeeper

Kotis, the Fangkeeper is one of the premiere combat damage commanders thanks to its Villainous Wealth riff; stack some buffs on it (commonly auras since these are great enchantress colors) and smack your opponents to steal their cards. Most Voltron decks have the weakness of all their eggs going on their commander, but the card advantage Kotis generates patches that weakness fairly well.

#13. Battle Angels of Tyr

Battle Angels of Tyr has the myriad mechanic, which is especially strong on a saboteur creature. You can hit all your opponents at once, and when you do, you’ll get to draw cards, gain life, or create Treasure. This can catch you up from a lost game, and in the best case scenario, you'll actually put yourself in the lead.

#12. Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor

Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor is one of those saboteurs that gives every creature you have the ability, letting you draw a card and lose 1 life per hit. It’s particularly powerful in black aggro decks where you already have a board presence and can capitalize on the card draw. Getting online on turn 3 means your 1- and 2-drops benefit from the ability, though note that Gix extends its ability to your opponents as well.

#11. Glissa Sunslayer

First strike and deathtouch are a great combo because whenever Glissa Sunslayer becomes blocked, it kills its blocker first without receiving damage. Your opponent has to choose between losing a creature or facing down one of Glissa’s three different saboteur abilities, and none of the options are great for them.

#10. Anowon, the Ruin Thief

Anowon, the Ruin Thief, one of Magic's strongest rogue commanders, turns your rogues into mill machines. What’s more, you’ll draw a card if you mill creatures this way. Drawing up to three cards per combat in a 4-play game is a nice incentive for playing with rogues, which lend themselves to dealing combat damage often.

#9. Ancient Dragon Cycle

The Ancient Dragons like Ancient Brass Dragon are all massive fliers with a saboteur ability that lets you roll a d20 and get a benefit multiplied by the result. The blue dragon draws cards, the green dragon distributes +1/+1 counters, and so on. These are excellent in decks that can cast them as finishers and in decks that give haste to creatures, and they’re among the top dragons you can run in EDH decks.

#8. Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow

Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow is a very popular Dimir commander . One of the best ways to build this deck is to fill it with cheap evasive ninjas and hit your opponents, revealing expensive cards to put into your hand while dealing massive damage to your opponents. Revealing something like Time Warp hits everyone for 5 and sets up an extra turn. If you hit with three ninjas, it’s usually game over. Brainstorm is a must-have with Yuriko, setting up the top cards of your library, thus inflicting the most damage.  

#7. Lathril, Blade of the Elves

Lathril, Blade of the Elves is one of the most popular elf commanders out there. Not only does it make elves when it deals combat damage to a player, it's got a built-in wincon when you have enough of them. A nice aspect of Lathril is that its saboteur ability is tied to the amount of damage, so you can buff Lathril’s power with elf lords, equipment, or something very specific like Immaculate Magistrate or Timberwatch Elf.

#6. Enduring Curiosity

Enduring Curiosity’s been a very efficient card draw engine ever since its printing. It has flash, so your opponents aren’t going to expect the effect, and drawing a card with each creature that hits keeps the cards flowing. Suddenly your 1/1 fliers are a lot more menacing. Plus, if your opponents kill this glimmer, you get to keep a non-creature version of the effect on the field.

#5. Unstoppable Slasher

“They lose half their life.” Unstoppable Slasher’s strong saboteur ability is a pain to deal with, especially when coupled with cards that double life loss, instantly killing your opponent. This combo has been played to good success in formats like Standard and Pioneer. It’s hard to deal with the Slasher efficiently outside of exile-based removal, since it comes back with stun counters when it dies.

#4. Brago, King Eternal

Brago, King Eternal is a famous blink commander. When Brago connects, you’ll get to blink all nonland permanents you want, and filling a deck with good ETB cards is an easy task in WU. In addition, Brago has flying and isn’t that expensive, so you can start connecting early in the game.

#3. Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder

Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder is a 4-color commander that can give cascade to your spells when it hits someone. You need to deal only 1 point of damage, so trample really helps. Once the Yidris train gets going, you’ll be able to generate a lot of value. This goes very well with other cascade/discover mechanics or effects that care about exiling other cards.

#2. Psychic Frog

Psychic Frog’s been making some moves in Eternal formats lately, to the point of being straight-up banned in Legacy. While this saboteur effect isn’t the flashiest, it’s very consistent. It’s easy to cash in extra cards to grow this frog or to exile three from your graveyard and take it to the skies. While you have cards in hand, it’s very hard to block Psychic Frog profitably, and it can be a hell of a win condition too.

#1. Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer

Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer is one of the best 1-drops out there. Getting a Treasure and impulse-drawing your opponent’s top card is very, very good. Its dash ability is a perfect fit due to the surprise effect. Ragavan is a card that’s seen play in every MTG format where it's legal, and left unchecked, it dominates a game.

Best Combat Damage Enablers

You want to enable saboteurs by giving your creatures evasion when they don’t already have it, or clearing the way for them to connect. Here are a few examples.

Blue and black are prime colors for dealing combat damage. You’ll complement your game plan with black removal, allowing creatures to attack freely, and blue bounce spells and counterspells to protect your plans.

Krydle of Baldur's Gate is also a way to ensure that at least one creature will pass through. To make one or more of your creatures unblockable, try Thassa, God of the Sea. Ninja Teen lets you sneak cards in from the graveyard; since your sneaky creature is unblocked, it lets you get the damage trigger. Depending on your threat, could be a steep discount.

Kaito, Cunning Infiltrator gives a saboteur creature you control unblockable, and the card itself profits from the damage dealt.

Taking your attackers to the skies with a card like Archetype of Imagination can be pretty effective.

Resorting to red and green can also help. These colors have plenty of ways to grant your creatures trample or menace, or straight-up make blocks impossible. Look for cards like Overrun, Falter, or Pyrewood Gearhulk.

Some options that are very strong to build around if you’re looking to play saboteurs are Felix Five-Boots and Mirror Room // Fractured Realm. These cards can double your triggered abilities from combat damage.

Another way to get your opponents through blockers is by tapping them down. This is typically a blue ability, with cards like Sleep and Assassin Gauntlet, though white gets in on the fun with Blinding Light, Bond of Discipline, and a few others.

One-sided sweepers also bust through blockers. The most ubiquitous is the Game Changer Cyclonic Rift, though black also has Plague Winds. You can also use more niche sweepers like Damning Verdict and Raise the Palisade so long as you configure your deck to make the effect asymmetrical.

Wrap Up

Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder | Illustration by Karl Kopinski

Saboteur cards are a huge part of the game, and while they usually don’t have an impact right away, your opponents fear their ability to connect and generate value. These are usually blue and black creatures, but they can appear in all colors. It’s very common nowadays to see legendary creatures having something to do with saboteur abilities, because it’s easy to build an EDH deck around a card-engine system.

But enough from me, let’s hear it from you. Which are your favorite saboteur cards? Do you play any of the cards on this list? Let me know in the comments below or over in the Draftsim Discord. And check out The Daily Upkeep newsletter to stay up to date on all the latest MTG news.

Stay safe out there, and hope your future attacks connect.