Over the yearsMagic: The Gatheringhas printed some amazing creatures for players to build decks around. Creature cards have seen a huge boost in power, pushing them past the other card types in terms of importance in your deck. Creatures you may play on your first turn have become especially valuable, with one-mana creatures being front and center for many decks.
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In Eternal formats like Legacy and Modern, these creatures have risen to the top as some of the best in Magic’s history. Whether it is because they are powerful attackers or have some game-changing ability these one-mana value creatures have become staples in Magic games.
10Deathrite Shaman
Despite being banned in both Legacy and Modern, Deathrite Shaman remains one of the best creatures in Magic. It is extremely versatile in its casting cost of just one green/black hybrid mana, andit ramps you by exiling a landfrom any graveyard, either yours or your opponent’s. Then, it can start slowly whittling down your opponent’s life total or healing your own by exiling cards from any graveyard.
You can use this ability aggressively by keeping your opponent’s graveyard empty, or use it defensively when they try to return something from the graveyard.
9Mother Of Runes
Mother of Runes has been keeping your creatures safe since Urza’s Legacy and will likely keep doing so for years to come. Just by tapping Mother of Runes, you may give any creature protection from a color of your choice, including itself.
With Mother of Runes in play your creatures can dodge just about every spot removal card in the game. Alternatively, you may also use Mother of Runes to push damage through or to create unfavorable blocks between your and your opponent’s creatures.
8Allosaurus Shepherd
Immediately after its release Allosaurus Shepherd quickly became one of the premiere Elf cards in Eternal formats. Originally from Jumpstart, this one-mana Elf ensures all your other Elves enter the battlefield safely by preventing them from being countered.
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Allosaurus Shepherd is also an easy win-condition, where for just six mana you can turn all your Elves into 5/5 Elf Dinosaurs until end of turn. Since they retain the Elf creature type, they still gain bonuses from other cards like Elvish Archdruid, making them even stronger.
7Delver Of Secrets
The only double-faced card on this list, Delver of Secrets has been a long-time staple for Modern and Legacy decks andrecently made a return to Standard. Delver of Secrets rewards players for loading their decks with instants and sorceries by transforming from a 1/1 creature to a 3/2 with flying if the top card of your library is one of those card types.
It only takes a few attacks with Delver to realize how much pressure three damage can be on your opponent, especially when it is combined with a few burn spells and other efficient creatures.
6Monastery Swiftspear
Perhaps one of the most straightforward creatures on this list, Monastery Swiftspear is a pure aggro creature. With haste, it can attack the same turn you cast it, immediately putting pressure on your opponent as soon as it enters the battlefield.
As a 1/2 it might not be particularly impressive until you start casting other spells to trigger its prowess ability, and suddenly it’s a 3/4 and all you did was cast some cantrips. Since it can grow in power and toughness, it can easily outclass your opponent’s creatures with just a few spells.
5Death’s Shadow
This massive one-drop creature has a huge condition to resolve it but one that is easily met in Modern and Legacy. Death’s Shadow is a 13/13 creature, one of the largest in the game and certainly the largest one-mana creature, but it loses power and toughness equal to your life total.
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Using plenty of fetch lands and shock lands to reduce your life total to a reasonable amount lets you quickly cast Death’s Shadow, giving you a powerful creature to help you stabilize against your opponent.
4Goblin Welder
Primarily used in the Painter Legacy deck, Goblin Welder is a key component in keeping the deck running, in case your opponent decides to try and ruin your fun. All you have to do is tap Goblin Welder and pick an artifact you control in play and one in your graveyard. You can then swap the places of those cards and keep your Painter’s Servant and Grindstone combo going.
Goblin Welder can also be used in Commander to great success, trading a Treasure token for a Blightsteel Colossus or some other powerful artifact.
3Dragon’s Rage Channeler
Dragon’s Rage Channeler fills a similar role as Delver of Secrets but with a little more versatility than the Insect. Every time you cast a non-creature spell, Dragon’s Rage Channeler lets you surveil one, smoothing out your draws while also helping you accelerate its delirium ability.
Once delirium triggers, Dragon’s Rage Channeler becomes a 3/3 and gains flying, gaining evasion, and hitting harder than ever.
2Esper Sentinel
Esper Sentinel is a great card because no matter whatit is always doing something. Early on, Esper Sentinel is likely helping you draw a few cards while your opponent works on establishing their board. If they can’t pay the tax, you start drawing cards and can quickly outpace your opponent.
Once they start paying the one (or more) mana to stop you from drawing cards, you are taxing them out of other plays. Keep boosting Esper Sentinel’s power, and you’ll all but be guaranteed to draw cards for every spell your opponents play.
1Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer is easily one of the best one-mana creatures in Magic. It provides both mana resources in the form of Treasure tokens and card advantage by stealing the top card of your opponent’s library and letting you cast it until the end.
Ragavan is so powerful that it is banned in Legacy, but that hasn’t stopped it from taking over Modern instead.
