Creatures are one of the most integral part of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Magic: The Gathering. The strength of many creature's lies in their abilities, but creature evaluation always begins with those two little numbers at the bottom right of every creature card. Even so, one of the most often overlooked elements of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:creatures in Magic is their toughness.
A creature's toughness is simultaneously its defense and its health, as once a creature sustains an amount of damage equal to its toughness, it dies. This means that creatures with high toughness are among the most resilient in the game, capable of out living damage-based removal like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Lightning Bolt. So today, we'll take a look at how tough Magic creatures can truly get.
Updated on May 25, 2023, by Chris Stomberg: Who doesn't appreciate a creature with a big butt? Magic's lore involves titanic creatures including Krakens, Dragons, Dinosaurs, Eldrazi, and much more, so there's no shortage of contestants for the card with the highest toughness. While toughness is typically a measure of a creature's defensive ability, the printing of cards like Assault Formation, which allow creatures to assign damage equal to their toughness, has made these creatures sought after for toughness-themed decks.
There's also something to be said for decks simply looking to stall for time with some of the game's best blockers. Whatever your reason for needing high-toughness creatures, here's an updated list of the biggest of them.
15 💃 Phyrexian Dreadnought ൩
Despite having a mana value of only one generic🍨 mana, Phyrexian Dreadnought is one of the biggest creatures in Magic with a whopping toughness of 12. Dreadnought is also one of the oldest cards in the game, having been printed in Mirage block back in 1996.
The card shows its age in its rules text as it makes use of the outdated term "bury." Cards with the bury mechanic have been errata'd to say instead "put a permanent into its owner's graveyard" or "Sacrifice this permanent." In other words, the true cost of playing the Dreadnought is in having creatures with a total power of 12 or more on your board to sacrifice when it enters the battlefield. Otherwise, Dreadnought is going straight into the graveyard.
14 🦄 Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle ☂
This sleeping giant functions as both a land and a creature, which makes a lot of sense thematically for one of the largest creatures in the game. Once Arixmethes is in play, you'll need to cast five more spells before it transforms from a land into its titanic 12/12 body. Thankfully, the Slumbering Isle taps for two mana as a land, which helps offset its delayed arrival to the board.
Furthermore, many removal spells say that they destroy a target nonland permanent. This means that Arixmethes is safe from nearly all removal as long as it maintains a slumber counter. Once you're sure you have an opening to make an attack with the Kraken, you can fire off some spells to remove its remaining slumber counters and crack in for a modest 12 damage.
13 Ancient Stone Id𒐪ol 🍷
Yet another relatively cheap creature for its size, Ancient Stone Idol can be cast for ver🍨y 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 Idol durin🗹g your combat step for half of its original cost fairly easily.
Additionally, trample is a super important keyword for creatures of this size as they are incredibly susceptible to being chump blocked by smaller creatures your opponents control. Even if an opponent has removal to take care of the Idol, it will leave behind a similarly sizable token that also has trample unless it's exiled. All things considered, this is the kind of value we want from a card that costs so much mana.
12 Ghalt🍨a, Primal Hunger 𓄧
Speaking of discounted casting costs and trample, Ghalta has both of these traits in spades while also being a popular creature type thanks to its Dinosaur status. Ghalta is even easier to discount than Ancien💟t Stone Idol as it counts the power of each of your creatures toward its discounted cost.
This means it's not uncommon to see Ghalta hit the battlefield for a cool two green mana. Unfortunately, Ghalta doesn't provide any value upon immediately hitting the battlefield, so you'll probably want to have some kind of removal protection or method of giving the Dinosaur haste to ensure casting the card is worthwhile.
11 Unhallowed Phalanx ♔
Despite coming in at common rarity, Unhallowed Phalanx shares the distinction of being one of the toughest creatures in Ma๊gic. The creature is also a rather comedic take on necromancy as it demonstrates some of the lesser-known difficulties of raising the dead.
Phalanx isn't a playable card in most decks, but it does work quite well with a toughness-themed deck with ways of making your creatures assign combat damage equal to their toughness. Outside of that, this is a card that's best appreciated outside of constructed decks.
10 Emrakul, The Promise🍰d End
Emrakul, the Promised End is a 13/13 legendary Eldrazi from Eldritch Moon. Costing one less mana for e🐼ach type among cards in your graveyard, Emrakul has flying, trample, and protection from instants, defending it from all instant-based removal.
As if Emrakul's massive size and combative abilities weren't enough, upon entering the battlefield, Emrakul allows you to gain control of an opponent during their next turn. This allows you to make hilarious plays such as casting an opponent's removal on their own creatures or using their combat step in the worst way possible.
9 Tre💎e Of Redemption
A strictly defensive creature, Tree of Redemption is a 0/13 plant with defender for four mana. While most defense-oriented creatures provide their utility through blocking, Tree of Rede🌌mption has the distinct ability to tap, exchanging its tou⭕ghness with your life total.
This can raise its toughness when your life total is high, or set your life total to 13 if you're in dire straights.
8 Tree🐽 Of Perdition
A mono-black reflection of Tree of Redemption, Tree of Perdition is a mono black 0/13 with defender. However, while Tree of Redemption can be tapped to exchange its toughness with your life total, Tree of Perdition can be tapped to exchange its toughness with 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 the effects of enchantments.
7 ♓ 𒈔 Autochthon Wurm
Autochthon Wurm is a Selesnya wurm that costs a staggering 15 mana. Boasting an enormous 9/14 body and trample, while Autochthon Wurm's mana cost may appear overwhelming, it has convoke, allowing creatures to be tapped in order to help cast it.
When slotted i𒆙nto a deck with a large number of creatures such as token decks, Autochthon Wurm can be cast with relative ease.
6 Worldspine Wu♐rm ꦿ
Appearing in Return to Ravnica, Worldspine Wurm is an enormous 15/15 with trample for 11 mana. A green creature, you would be hard-pressed to find a creature capable of besting a Worldspine Wurm in combat due to its high power and toughness. Even in the instance that an opponent was to overcome Worldspine Wurm's incredible toughness, upon dying, Worldspine Wurm's stats are redistributed, creating three green 5/5 wurm tokens.
When paired with "anthem" effects and spells that buff all creatures under a player's control, Worldspine Wurm's death can actually result in a more threatening board state. The Wurm is susceptible to exile-based removal though, so watch out for that.
