Creatures are one of the most integral parts of Magic: The Gathering. While many creatures’ strength lies in their abilities, a creature’s rating always begins with his two small numbers in the bottom right corner of every creature card. Still, one of the most overlooked aspects of creatures in Magic is their toughness.
A creature’s toughness is its defense as well as its health, and it dies when the creature takes an amount of damage equal to its toughness. This means that creatures with high toughness are the most resilient in the game and can do live damage-based removal like Lightning Bolt. So today, let’s take a look at just how tough Magic’s creatures can really get.
Updated May 25, 2023 by Chris Stomberg: Who wouldn’t love a creature with a big butt? Magic lore features giant creatures including Krakens, Dragons, Dinosaurs, Eldrazi, and more, so there’s no shortage of contestants looking for cards with the highest toughness. Toughness is usually a measure of a creature’s defensive ability, but with the printing of cards like Assault Formation that can deal damage to creatures equal to their toughness, these creatures are becoming more sought after in toughness-themed decks. became.
The same can be said for decks that are simply trying to extend their time with the best blockers in the game. Whatever your reason for wanting a high-toughness creature, here’s an up-to-date list of the biggest creatures.
15 Phyrexian Dreadnought
The Phyrexian Dreadnought is one of the biggest creatures in Magic with a whopping 12 toughness despite having a mana value of just one common mana. Dreadnought is also one of his oldest cards in the game, printed in Mirage block in 1996.
This card uses the outdated term “fill in” in its rules text, which indicates its age. Cards with the burial mechanic have been modified to say “put a permanent into its owner’s graveyard” or “sacrifice this permanent” instead. In other words, the true cost of playing Dreadnought is having creatures on the board with a total power of 12 or greater to sacrifice when they enter the battlefield. Otherwise the dreadnought will go straight to the graveyard.
14 Alixmethes, the island of slumber
This sleeping giant functions as both land and creature, making a lot of sense thematically as one of the biggest creatures in the game. Once Alixmethes comes into play, he needs to cast 5 more spells before it transforms from land to his monstrous 12/12 body. Thankfully, Slumbering Isle taps for two mana as a land, helping offset its late arrival to the board.
Additionally, many removal spells are said to destroy the target nonland permanent. This means that Arixmethes is safe from nearly all removal as long as he maintains a sleep counter. Once you’re confident you have a chance to attack with the Kraken, you can fire a few spells to remove the remaining sleep counters and deal 12 modest damage.
13 ancient stone statue
Additionally, Ancient Stone Idol, a relatively cheap creature for its size, can be cast for very little mana if you have enough creatures on your side of the board. Thanks to Flash and its mana discount ability, you can cast Ancient Stone Statues fairly easily during the combat step for half their original cost.
Additionally, trample is a very important keyword for a creature of this size. Because creatures of this size are very likely to be chump blocked by smaller creatures your opponent controls. Even if your opponent has removal to deal with Idle, unless it gets exiled, you’re left with an equally large token that also has trample. All things considered, this is the kind of value we want for a card that requires a lot of mana.
12 Galta, Primordial Hunger
When it comes to casting cost discounts and trample, Galta combines both of these traits and is also a popular creature type thanks to its Dinosaur status. Galta counts each creature’s power towards the discounted cost, so it’s even easier to discount than the Ancient Statue.
This means it’s not uncommon for Galta to enter the battlefield with a cool green 2 mana. Unfortunately, Ghalta doesn’t provide any value immediately on the battlefield, so you’ll need some removal protection or a way to give your Dinosaurs haste to ensure the card is worth casting.
11 Unholy Phalanx
Despite appearing at a common rarity, the Unhallowed Phalanx shares the trait of being one of the toughest creatures in Magic. The creature is also a rather comedic interpretation of necromancy, as it demonstrates some of the lesser-known difficulties of reanimating the dead.
Phalanx isn’t a playable card in most decks, but it works very well in toughness-themed decks with a way to assign combat damage equal to toughness to creatures. Other than that, this is the most rated card outside of constructed decks.
Ten Emrakul, the promised ending
Emrakul, the Promised End, is a 13/13 legendary Eldrazi from Eldritch Moon. He costs one less mana for each type of card in his graveyard, and Emrakul has flying, trample, and protection from instants, all of which protect against instant-based removal.
As if Emrakul’s massive build and combat prowess weren’t enough, once on the battlefield, Emrakul allows him to gain control of his opponent the next turn. This allows you to make some hilarious plays like casting your opponent’s removal on your own creatures or using the match step in the worst possible way.
9 tree of salvation
A strictly defensive creature, Tree of Redemption is a 0/13 plant with 4 mana defense. While most defense-oriented creatures provide their utility through blocking, Tree of Redemption has a tap ability that trades its toughness for your life total.
This allows you to increase your toughness if you have a high life total, or set your life total to 13 if you’re in dire straits.
8 perdition tree
A mono-black reflection of Tree of Redemption, Tree of Perdition is a mono-black 0/13 with a defender. However, Tree of Redemption can be tapped to trade its toughness for your life total, while Tree of Perdition can be tapped to trade its toughness for your opponent’s life total.
This ability can be used offensively, especially when Tree of Perdition’s toughness is reduced by -1/-1 counters or enchantment effects.
7 Oekson Wurm
Autochthon Wurm is an amazing 15 mana Selesnya Wurm. Boasting a massive 9/14 body and trample, his Autochthon Wurm’s mana cost may seem overwhelming, but it’s summoning and allowing creatures to tap to cast it.
Autoxon Wurm is relatively easy to cast when slotted into decks with a high number of creatures, such as token decks.
6 world spine worm
Appearing in Return to Ravnica, Worldspine Wurm is a huge 15/15 card with trample at 11 mana. Being a green creature, its high power and toughness will make it hard to find a creature that can beat Worldspine Worms in combat. Even if an opponent ends up overcoming his Worldspine Wurm’s incredible toughness, when he dies, Worldspine Wurm’s stats are redistributed, and his 5/5 green Wurm tokens are his tokens. are generated three times.
Combined with an Anthem effect or spell that buffs all creatures under the player’s control, Worldspine Wurm’s death can actually cause a more threatening board state. However, Worms are susceptible to banishment removal, so be careful.
Five Emrakul, Ion Torn
One of the three Eldrazi titans, Emrakul, the original incarnation of Eternal Rend, is a creature that often wins the game when cast. He’s a 15/15 that can’t be countered, but Emrakul doesn’t have haste, but Emrakul gives him an extra turn when he enters the battlefield, so you can use that good stat when casting.
In addition to its incredible power and toughness, Emrakul also has flying, protection from colored spells, and Anai Wyler 6. This protection from colored spells complements Emrakul’s high toughness very well, making it nearly impossible to remove without a board wipe.
Four Impervious Great Worm
Impervious Greatwurm has no trample, but is essentially a strictly stronger replacement for Autochthon Wurm. A 16/16 Impervious Greatwurm for 10 mana is called the same as the aforementioned Autochthon Wurm.
However, Impervious Greatwurm has a low cost, high power and toughness, as well as being indestructible. Between indestructible and 16 toughness, few creatures are as resilient as the Impervious Greatwurm.
3 Marit Raj
Marit Lage is not a traditional creature, but a legendary token created by the effects of the cards “Dark Depths” and “Marit Lage’s Slumber”. Marit Lage is very powerful both offensively and defensively, her 20/20 avatar in black with flying and indestructible.
Dark Depths is a land played in formats such as Legacy. This land doesn’t tap for mana like you’d expect from a land, but it does enter the battlefield with 10 ice counters on it that can be removed at a cost of 3 generic mana. When Dark Depths runs out of ice counters, it is sacrificed to generate Marit Lage. Dark Depths may seem like a mana drain, but there are many ways to get rid of these counters without paying the cost.
2 Karis and Beholder
Kharis & the Beholder are incredibly rare and obscure legendary creatures that were only available in Heroes of the Realms, a special card series given only to Wizards of the Coast employees.
Harris and Beholder as creatures are 5-mana Selesnya 1/20s that use 20 size dice. When this creature enters the battlefield, at the beginning of your upkeep, create a 1/1 white Human token and roll a 20-sided die. If the result and the number of creatures under your control are greater than 11, put a +1/+1 counter on all creatures under your control. If you successfully roll a natural 20, for each nonlegendary creature you control, he creates a token that’s a copy of that creature.
If Harris and Beholder are cards that are accessible and available, it’s safe to say that they will be a popular choice for Commander players. As it stands, however, the card is not playable in any Constructed format and is very hard to come by.
1 BFM (Big Furry Monster)
This is also illegal in all formats, but BFM is 99/99 for black at 15 mana. This creature is so large that he has been split into two cards that must be played at the same time, and this concept will be revisited by Wizards of the Coast in Eldritch Moon. Together with Meld Mechanic.
Along with its formidable size, the BFM has evasion in the form of requiring a minimum of 3 creatures to block, helping to push through damage. Needless to say, one successful BFM attack will definitely end the game.