Top 20 Iconic Elementals in Magic

Ever since we revisited them in Lorwyn Eclipsed, we’ve had our minds on Elementals here at Card Kingdom. We love a nostalgic look through Magic’s rich history, so here’s our list of the most iconic Elementals of all time. We picked these ones for varying factors of fame, playability, power and infamy. Did we manage to get all of your favorites?

TOP 20 ICONIC ELEMENTALS IN MAGIC

20. LUTRI THE SPELLCHASER

Kicking things off is a bit of a fan-favorite, Lutri, the Spellchaser. Lutri is famous for clamorings to unban it from the Commander Banlist. In April of 2020, it hit the banlist on the very same day it was previewed, essentially because with the way Companion worked, it would be legal in basically any Commander deck that was at least red and blue colors, which effectively gave them an extra card over everyone else. 

It took almost six years, but it was finally unbanned by Wizards after consultation with the Commander Format Panel in February 2026. It remains banned as a Companion, but you can now put it in the 99 of your decks, which made a lot of people very happy.

19. SHRIEKMAW

Shriekmaw is probably the elemental I encountered the most of when I first started playing Commander, and for many years – basically until Ravenous Chupacabra hit the scene – it reigned as one of the better options for an EtB removal spell low on the curve, that could be reanimated when needed.

It’s a little long in the tooth beak now, but it’s still a cube all-star and had a chance to shine in various competitive events, including in Jacob Wilson’s 2nd place Melira Pod deck at Pro Tour Born of the Gods in 2014, winning back to back GPs in 2008 in Kobe and Denver for Yuuta Takahashi and Gerry Thompson, and of course in the winning Worlds 2007 list Doran Rock from Uri Peleg. 

18. BRINE ELEMENTAL

Brine Elemental is infamous rather than famous, and it’s because of a particularly egregious lock that could be performed with it. Alongside Vesuvan Shapeshifter, you could essentially force your opponent to skip their untap step every single turn. And yeah, it says each opponent – meaning in Commander it meant nobody else got to play. Affectionately named “Pickles”, the combo causes a lot of salt. 

It was good enough for Standard, too, winning GP Krakow for Paul Cheon and US Nationals for LSV in 2007.

17. SKULLBRIAR, THE WALKING GRAVE

Skullbriar is such an iconic Commander card. It was one of the earliest made-for-Commander designs, and it featured a part of the design space that even today is rarely used. Skullbriar can retain any counters on it while it moves between exile, the battlefield, the graveyard, and the command zone. The only way to oust those counters is to bounce it back to hand or hit it with a shuffle effect. Back then, “tucking” a Commander – forcing a shuffle of it in the deck with a spell like Chaos Warp – was an act you couldn’t replace with sending it to the CZ, and it wouldn’t be until 2015 that the tuck rule would change. 

Skullbriar has arguably gotten stronger since then, and its design space has been explored a few more times – and it always makes for an interesting time.

16. BANE OF PROGRESS

Bane of Progress has long reigned in Commander as one of the most mana efficient ways to clean up the board and present a threat. It can regularly grow beyond ten power, and in today’s environment awash with artifact tokens, it can get large quickly. There’s never a bad time to cast a Bane of Progress, and I rely on it to this day as a strong answer to too much nonsense.

15. VOICE OF RESURGENCE

Despite enjoying a strong run in Standard over 2013 and 2014, what most people remember Voice of Resurgence for isn’t its competitive run, but for holding up the price of Dragon’s Maze booster boxes, which otherwise has basically no value in at all unless you were lucky enough to a hit a shockland reprint from RTR or GTC. A brief resurgence in Modern kept the price up, but after a reprint in 2017, this Elemental’s time in the sun was coming to a close.

It’s still pretty deece Duel Commander, though.

14. WILDGROWTH WALKER

Wildgrowth Walker rocked onto the scene in Ixalan Standard, and immediately began taking names. The high initial toughness on a two drop that grows with the game and nullifies some amount of counter-aggro thanks to decent amounts of lifegain was quite the combination. It features in Jean-Emmanuel Depraz’s 2018 World Magic Cup Winning Golgari Aggro list, and has since enjoyed something of a resurgence in Modern thanks to the Amalia Benavides Aguirre Amalia Life deck and the Abzan Chords of Calling Chord Toolbox variant.

It was good enough of a strategy to see Amalia banned in Pioneer!

13. MALIGNUS

What people are scared of when facing Xenagos, God of Revels isn’t really Xenagos… It’s Malignus. Malignus comes into play for five mana, and it’s usually somewhere between a 15/15 and 20/20 at least. Xenagos pumps that up by that much again, and suddenly people are dying.

Malignus came out in beloved set Avacyn Restored, and has since become something of a go-to large creature in many Commander decks that like to haste out, double strike, or otherwise fling their creatures with some velocity. 

12. RUNAWAY STEAM-KIN

This little aggressive two drop featured in a wide range of Red Deck Wins decks during Guilds of Ravnica standard, where over time, the archetype would hit the top tables of Mythic Championships and World Championships in the 2018/2019 seasons.

It’s an efficient engine to be sure – letting  you stock up mana when you cast red spells, which mono-red decks are wont to do. 

Eventually, of course, it rotated – but now finds a home in cEDH, where it features regularly in Ral, Monsoon Mage, Zada Hedron Grinder, and Dargo + Rograkh lists. 

11. VENGEVINE

Can you believe Vengevine was still kickin’ it in Bazaar Aggro in Vintage recently? This grassy elemental refuses to die, and it’s easy to see why. You get a free 4/3 haste from the yard when you cast your second creature spell of the turn. That’s a lot of free value.

Vengevine put up decent results in various Standard decks throughout its time in the format, but most remember it for the dominance in Modern Dredge lists and Legacy lists featuring Survival of the Fittest. Martin Muller took Dredge to the Top 8 of Mythic Championship IV, and when you look at the field, many of the format’s best players did well with it too. 

When you look really closely at the field, you see that it was actually a Hogaak deck that featured Vengevine.

Still iconic. 

10. RISEN REEF

Remember when Golos was legal in Standard? Risen Reef remembers. Risen Reef is a repeatable Coiling Oracle, which is quite the upgrade. Bant Golos and Simic Ramp was where Risen Reef captured our attention, where it powered out threats fast with Arboreal Grazer.

While it has showed up in Elementals decks in Modern, it’s now in Commander where it enjoys a home as a staple of Elementals decks.

9. REVEILLARK

Reveillark was one of the most popular win-con combo-come-value-engines in the Commander format in the 2010s. If you check out Commander Spellbook, you can see it features in over 30 different combos in various colors. They all net you infinite ETB and LTB triggers, infinite death triggers, and infinite sacrifice triggers, and you can add on whatever crazy payoff you like to this loop in order to win the game.

It’s a fun card, and it saw some good play in Standard and in Modern Birthing Pod lists back in the day. 

8. OMNATH, LOCUS OF CREATION

While there are other Omnaths that could have made this list, it’s Omnath, Locus of Creation that takes a spot at #9 today. Omnath is a powerful card, and so powerful in fact that it was banned shortly after release in Standard (and Brawl). Getting banned after two weeks was quick. 

Omnath gives bonkers amounts of value, and can really snowball games while other decks are still setting up. It still sees some play in formats it’s legal in (like Pioneer and Modern) but doesn’t dominate those formats in the same way it ruined Standard. 

7. THE MH2 ELEMENTALS

Subtlety aside, the Modern Horizons 2 evoke elementals have all seen extensive play, and have to some degree been problematic enough to see bans. Grief and Fury featured in Modern deck Scam, which dominated Modern until Fury saw a ban. The deck featured evoking the two creatures while using cheap Feign Death spells to bring them back for a second EtB, which would end up with them staying in play to attack and block with.

While Scam decks did see play with Mono Black scam afterwards, Grief eventually was terminated from Modern and Legacy for being such a powerhouse.

On the other end of the scale, Solitude and Endurance have both seen good amounts of play as strong answers, and because they’re not as egregious, players enjoy them a lot more.

I’ve decided to group these ones under one number, otherwise the list would be a lot longer (or feature fewer other Elementals). Oh, and Subtlety exists.

6. MULDROTHA, THE GRAVETIDE

Muldrotha is an iconic Commander, and still to this day sits in the Top 30 Commanders most popular in the format (pulled from quantity of decklists on EDHREC). It’s easy to see why – you can cast multiple spells from your graveyard per turn, in a three color deck, with no additional costs to pay, and no exiling cards and copying them. It’s a hell of a lot of value, and it’s also in Sultai colors. Go figure.

5. ANIMAR, SOUL OF ELEMENTS

We touched on Commander 2011 with Skullbriar earlier, but another Elemental is arguably way more iconic, and that’s Animar, Soul of Elements. I remember the first time I played against Animar and that cost reduction on creature spells allowed the deck to combo off with Cloudstone Curio or the classic Palinchron/Peregrine Drake. 

I remember the 10th time I played against Animar and I tried to Anguished Unmaking it, before realizing that yes, it had protection from both of my deck’s colors. 

Animar is a hell of a Commander, and one that still holds up to this day. You can have a lot of fun playing it with Morph creatures thanks to the cost reduction. 

4. MAELSTROM WANDERER

While Animar is indeed iconic, I’d say Maelstrom Wanderer might end up slightly higher on this list. It’s a real haymaker, and one that lends some serious value to your decks. Debuting in Planechase 2012, Maelstrom Wanderer Cascades twice, and gives your creatures haste. That can cause a serious swing, and the deck has gotten way better with time. Imoti, Celebrant of Bounty, Apex Devastator and Genesis Ultimatum are the kinds of big splashy Timmy cards to enjoy in this build. 

3. FLICKERWISP

As we hit the Top #3, we’re now getting closer to some of the most iconic creatures in Magic, let alone some of the most iconic creatures in the game. Up first is Flickerwisp, an iconic Death and Taxes and Flicker deck card that has seen extensive play in Modern, Legacy, Cube, Commander and Duel Commander. The powerful act of getting extra value or removing a blocker or removing a land from play while deploying a flyer is one that has stood the test of time. 

Flicker as an archetype is only going to get stronger over time as the game speeds up and EtBs get more powerful, which is why Flickerwisp has aged like fine wine.

2. AVENGER OF ZENDIKAR

Avenger of Zendikar has forever been a finisher in Commander. While it saw some play in Standard for a few months in RUG Control and Valakut Ramp back in 2011, it hasn’t ever really been much of a competitive card. Instead, it’s the top end for most green decks in Commander that care about making a lot of land drops. 

Fetchlands are what makes this thing good, and it’s in decks that can recur them from the graveyard that Avenger does the most work. 

1. MULLDRIFTER

And finally, we reach the most iconic Elemental of all time – at least if it were up to me. Mulldrifter, MullyD, whatever you want to call it; it’s loved by Magic players of all kinds, for all formats of play. It’s such an iconic design that we even saw it revisited in Nulldrifter. 

There’s not much more to say than “if you don’t know Mulldrifter, do you know Magic?”.

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What do you think of our Top 20 Iconic Elementals list? Did it hit everything you expected? Should Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim have made it on there? Or maybe even Magmatic Force? Let us know on socials.