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Beasts! If there's one creature in Magic that kind of runs the gamut in terms of their power and toughness, it's definitely Beasts. Unlike a creature type like Goblins or Merfolk or even Zombies, which generally hover around similar power and toughness, Beasts are all over the map. You have Arboreal Grazer, who is a 0/3, all the way up to Krosan Cloudscraper, who is a 13/13.
Today I'm going to go over some of my favorite Beasts, along with some of the most iconic Beasts. With 516 Beasts in Magic as of writing this, it was quite a task narrowing them all down, but we did it. But we're going to break them up into two parts, because while we did it, we couldn't narrow them down that much.
Let's begin!
Arcbound Ravager
One thing I love to do when going over cards in these lists, is pointing out their age and how long they've been around. Well, Arcbound Ravager just had its 21st birthday, being born in 2004. And at that point, it wasn't even a Beast. In fact, in 2004, artifact creatures didn't even have creature types. It wasn't until Modern Masters in 2013 that the Ravager finally became a Beast. Does that make him an honorary Beast? Nah, he's legit, and erratas are super common. Just like Arcbound Ravager was in 2004, where he dominated the entire Constructed metagame with cards like Cranial Plating, Skullclamp, and the artifact lands!
Blastoderm
Blastoderm was another card that was just way outside of the box at the time. And he's even older than Ravager! With Fading 3, you could basically never attack with the Blastoderm more than three times, because it would die on the following turn due to not having any fading counters. Unless you had a card like Fires of Yavimaya, which gave the 'Derm haste, and allowed it to attack for that magical fourth turn (magical cuz 20 damage).
The fact that Blastoderm has shroud means it's basically unstoppable outside of your opponent blocking it with creatures, and having four copies in your deck meant a lot of blocking had to be done, or the damage from these guys would add up quickly.
Cavern Harpy
Cavern Harpy has been a Beast from the very beginning, which is kind of surprising to me, since it only became a Harpy more recently, through errata. It's kind of impressive how often creatures get errata for their types, but I appreciate it, because it makes creatures more accurate and versatile.
The reason I'm adding this guy is because it was a huge part of the Aluren combo, where you would play a creature like Parasitic Strix for free, the opponent would lose two life, then you would play Cavern Harpy for free, bounce the Strix, pay a life to return the Cavern Harpy, rinse, repeat. This was a banger of a combo deck back in the day (with cards like Auriok Champion and Maggot Carrier), and still sees Legacy play.
Craterhoof Behemoth
I feel like I don't really need to explain why this fat daddy is on the list. It was huge in Standard, it sees play in Legacy Elves, and it's great in Cubes. I would argue that Craterhoof Behemoth has been one of the most impactful Beasts in Magic's history, with one of the best Overrun effects ever printed.
Deathmist Raptor
This one is an interesting choice, I'm sure. I'm including it specifically because Khans of Tarkir was one of my favorite blocks, and that Standard format was one of my absolute favorites. Deathmist Raptor was a huge part of that format. In fact, you may not believe this, but Deathmist Raptor was a $20+ card at one point! With other morph cards in the format, he was a persistent menace that kept coming back.
And just like so many others, he also had an errata change to his creature type, but it's an interesting one. He was initially a Lizard Beast, but despite Lizard being a legitimate and popular creature type, he was eventually changed to a Dinosaur Beast. I guess he is a Raptor, after all...
Displacer Kitten
Cat Beast. 'Nuff Said.
But for real, this card is crazy and was also going for something like $20 when it was dominating in Legacy decks. Basically, people were using the cat to blink all of their value cards, like Stoneforge Mystic; Teferi, Time Raveler; and Baleful Strix. And in that way, it was quite effective. It's also a hugely popular Commander card!
Felidar Guardian
Felidar Guardian is another Cat Beast, and I did not think there would be two on this list. But unlike the last one, Felidar Guardian was an absolute menace. It was banned in Standard when it was present in the format for its infinite combo potential with Saheeli Rai, and it was subsequently banned in Pioneer for the same reason.
Bad kitty.
Hydroid Krasis
Hydroid Krasis is cool. Not only is it a Jellyfish creature, but it's also just so well designed. It's a card that scales really well at many different points, and the fact that you round down helps balance it just a little bit more. Paying six mana for a 4/4 flier that draws you two cards and gains you two life is just great, but you can play it for less or play it for more, and that's why Hydroid Krasis has withstood the test of time. If you like Mulldrifter, you probably also appreciate a good Krasis.
Anyway, thanks for reading and I'll catch ya next time!
Frank Lepore
