[Top 10] MTG Arena Best Creature Decks

Updated:

29 Dec 2020

Since Ugin decks have become popular, fewer people have been brave enough to continue playing creature-based decks since they won’t have any counters to the Spirit Dragon. However, just recently, more decks have been focused on shutting down Ugin decks resulting in a decline in the users of said deck. Don’t get me wrong, there are still a lot of these Ugin users but thanks to harsh control decks, creatures are back on the board. Goblins are still practically the best type of creature deck in Historic and Rogues are their counterpart in Standard. Read on for the other creature decks that are still really great in the meta today.

10. Merfolk

What’s good about this deck?

Cheap spells, allowing you to build your board state early
Great interactions between cards
- There are Merfolks that give counters and buff other creatures you have. There are also creatures that benefit from having many Merfolk on the battlefield

How to play this deck effectively?

Unlike other green creature decks, Merfolk does not have a ramp aspect to it
- Hitting your land drops early is crucial as you need to maximize mana output every turn
You can never run out of gas with this deck as Collected Company can help you bring out more threats
Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca is a versatile card that can give different advantages on your side depending on the scenario
- It is a good card to have if you have a huge board state since you can activate its abilities for almost no cost.

Decklist

4 Kumena’s Speaker
4 Merfolk Branchwalker
4 Merfolk Mistbinder
4 Merfolk Trickster
4 Meerow Reejerey
4 Silvergill Adept
3 Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca
4 Collected Company
2 Censor
4 Disallow
2 Unclaimed Territory
4 Breeding Pool
4 Hinterland Harbor
2 Botanical Sanctum
4 Fabled Passage
4 Island
3 Forest

9. Elves

What’s good about this deck?

Elves give a good balance of early game stability and late-game threat
- With cards that help you ramp, you are almost guaranteed to bring out threats that will be useful in closing out games
Collected Company is guaranteed to hit almost all the time
- With most cards having converted mana cost less than three, you are certain that you will not whiff on your CoCo

How to play this deck effectively?

Use the early game to pressure the opponent
- Ramping is always a great way to pressure the opponent from doing things that they don’t want to
- Cards like Nissa and Vivien Reid are good to have in the early game as it creates a threat that the opponent needs to address immediately
Maximize your mana output every turn
- Since Marwyn can tap for huge amounts of mana, make sure that you drop your other creatures first using your Forests before tapping Marwyn for mana. This guarantees that you are able to maximize your turn.

Decklist

2 Nissa, Who Shakes the World
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Elvish Clancaller
4 Marwyn, the Nurturer
4 Allosaurus Shepherd
4 Elvish Archdruid
3 Beast Whisperer
3 Fierce Empath
2 Craterhoof Behemoth
2 The Great Henge
4 Collected Company
2 Castle Garenbrig
18 Forest

8. Elementals

What’s good about this deck?

This deck has a great value engine that is difficult to stop once it gets up and running
- Cards like Risen Reef and Genesis Ultimatum are among the best cards that you can cast in this deck as they give a massive advantage to your side.
The addition of Yorion allows you to play more cards while presenting another threat that you can cast if you run out of gas
- It is also a great card to cast since your creatures have ETB effects

How to play this deck effectively?

Since you are running a three-colored deck, mana can be an issue most of the time
- Use Arboreal Grazer to drop much-needed mana early on.
- With the early mana advantage, you can start casting Hydroid Krasis for cheap or continue ramping with Uro and Risen Reef
Play for the long game
- This deck can easily overwhelm the opponent before. However, due to the shift in the meta, that is no longer the case.
- You can still outrun your opponent but it is much safer to play for the long game, utilizing mana and card advantage to pull ahead.

Decklist

Yorion, Sky Nomad - Companion

4 Arboreal Grazer
3 Hydroid Krasis
4 Leafkin Druid
4 Risen Reef
4 Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath
4 Omnath, Locus of the Roil
4 Cavalier of Thorns
4 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
2 Aether Gust
4 Cultivate
3 Mystical Dispute
4 Genesis Ultimatum
4 Ketria Triome
4 Breeding Pool
4 Steam Vents
4 Stomping Ground
4 Temple of Mystery
2 Temple of Epiphany
2 Temple of Abandon
4 Fabled Passage
43 Island
3 Forest
2 Mountain

7. Mono-green Food

What’s good about this deck?

You have an excellent ramp engine to provide you mana advantage
Trail of Crumbs can help maximize your deck’s potential
Huge creatures can overrun your opponent early on

How to play this deck effectively?

Just like all green deck,s it is always essential that you drop you ramp cards early
- Having mana advantage over your opponent can guarantee you win as you can create huge threats early on
Since you have large creatures, you can easily bring out The Great Henge
- Once you have cast The Great Henge, you can guarantee that you have a huge advantage against your opponent as it buffs your other creatures, draws you cards, gives you extra mana, and gains you life.

Decklist

4 Gilded Goose
3 Questing Beast
4 Feasting Troll King
4 Lovestruck Beast
1 Thrashing Brontodon
2 Kazandu Mammoth
4 Tangled Florahedron
4 Wicked Wolf
3 Witch’s Oven
2 The Great Henge
3 Trail of Crumbs
2 Vivien, Monsters’ Advocate
2 Crawling Barrens
2 Bonders’ Enclave
4 Castle Garenbrig
16 Forest

6. Red Deck Wins

What’s good about this deck?

Aggro is the name of the game
This is a tried and tested deck that you can use to string together wins efficiently
- It satisfies the criteria of an efficient deck since it gives you a high win percentage and guarantees that you get to play many games.

How to play this deck effectively?

Maximize your mana in the early turns
- Being an aggressive deck, you need to drop your bombs at the start so you can already chip away at the opponent’s life total
Don’t let the match go towards the end game
- It is possible that at the end game, you will already lose gas and that is a huge disadvantage since you will be relying on top decks
- End the game as early as you can so you can queue in the next game immediately, maximizing your playtime.

Decklist

4 Bonecrusher Giant
4 Robber of the Rich
3 Torbran, Thane of Red Fell
2 Akoum Hellhound
2 Ox of Agonas
3 Rimrock Knight
3 Fervent Champion
4 Fireblade Charger
4 Anax, Hardened in the Forge
4 Embercleave
2 Spikefield Hazard
4 Castle Embereth
18 Mountain

5. GPG

What’s good about this deck?

God-Pharaoh’s Gift is a very valuable engine that can turn the tide on any game
You can bring back your creatures to get more value out of them
- All creatures in this deck have ETB effects and combined with GPG, you can get the maximum value out of them once they are reanimated from the graveyard.

How to play this deck effectively?

This deck’s gameplay is not divided into the early game, mid-game, and late game.
- The only phases that are relevant in this deck are pre-GPG and post-GPG
- In the pre-GPG phase, you need to ensure that you cast your creatures that have specific ETB effects. Keep attacking with them until they get killed since filling up the graveyard is key before you play GPG
- Once you have already cast GPG, you are already in the driver’s seat since you can just pick which creature-effect you need most in order to win the game.
I wouldn’t worry too much about my creatures or my key pieces being placed in the graveyard since the whole gameplay of the deck revolves around getting these threats back from the graveyard to the battlefield.

Decklist

4 Champion of Wits
4 Angel of Invention
3 Minister of Inquiries
2 Dream Trawler
4 Chart a Course
2 Refurbish
4 Strategic Planning
2 Wrath of God
2 Cast Out
1 Search for Azcanta
4 God-Pharaoh’s Gift
3 Gate to the Afterlife
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Hallowed Fountain
2 Ipnu Rivulet
3 Irrigated Farmland
1 Castle Vantress
1 Castle Ardenvale
5 Island
4 Plains

4. Sacrifice

What’s good about this deck?

Very flexible style of play
- You can play this as a deck that generates massive amounts of damage through its combos or you can play it as a creature beatdown deck with Korvold on the field.

How to play this deck effectively?

Establish your board presence in the early game to ensure maximum damage during the later stages
- Prioritize getting your cat and the oven on the battlefield since it can already start pinging the opponent for one.
Small damages accrue throughout the game
- Be patient with this deck since you will be needing some assembly before you deal massive amounts of damage.
- That being said, keep on pinging the opponent even if it’s just one damage as it will accumulate more towards the endgame.

Decklist

4 Cauldron Familiar
4 Priest of the Forgotten Gods
4 Dreadhorde Butcher
4 Mayhem Devil
4 Woe Strider
3 Midnight Reaper
2 Bonecrusher Giant
2 Korvold, Fae-Cursed King
3 Collected Company
3 Claim the Firstborn
4 Witch’s Oven
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Blood Crypt
2 Rootbound Crag
2 Woodland Cemetery
1 Phyrexian Tower
2 Swamp

3. Gruul Aggro

What’s good about this deck?

Having landfall effects in your deck is great since these cannot be countered
- Not only that, but your gameplay also gets diversified with different landfall triggers from different creatures.

How to play this deck effectively?

Since you are playing green and red, you have two possible scenarios for the early game
- If you have a hand that is mostly green, you can just play for the long game and prioritize ramp
- If your hand is mostly red, you can be hyper-aggressive and pressure the opponent early on.
The deck is pretty straightforward after you have already played most of your cards as you will just play towards your advantages

Decklist

4 Akoum Hellhound
4 Migratory Greathorn
4 Brushfire Elemental
4 Skyclave Geopede
2 Skyclave Pick-Axe
1 Embercleave
2 Fire Prophecy
3 Spikefield Hazard
4 Ram Through
4 Rolling Regrowth
2 Balaged Recovery
3 Cleansing Wildfire
2 Blazing Volley
4 Fabled Passage
2 Castle Embereth
8 Forest
7 Mountain

2. Rogues

What’s good about this deck?

Rogues are still one of the top-tier decks in the current standard meta
- They combine control, mill, and aggro concepts into one deck.
- This can deal with any deck that it faces due to its wide range of threats

How to play this deck effectively?

Keep dropping Rogues at the start to produce bodies for attacks and to help fuel the opponent’s graveyard
- Almost all creatures in your deck are very easy to cast so you won’t really have a problem in the early game
- Once you fill-up the opponent’s graveyard, your creatures can get buffs so you can end the game pretty easily
Once you have already established your board and have creatures that are already dealing damage, you can just focus on controlling the game by stockpiling your removals and counterspells

Decklist

4 Thieves’ Guild Enforcer
4 Soaring Thought-Thief
3 Brazen Borrower
3 Zareth San, the Trickster
4 Drown in the Loch
2 Heartless Act
2 Cling to Dust
2 Eliminate
3 Didn’t Say Please
2 Jwari Disruption
3 Into the Story
2 Bloodchief’s Thirst
2 Shark Typhoon
4 Zagoth Triome
4 Clearwater Pathway
4 Temple of Deceit
1 Castle Vantress
1 Castle Locthwain
4 Fabled Passage
3 Swamp
3 Island

1. Goblins

What’s good about this deck?

The best creature deck in Historic, hands down
It is a very aggressive deck but it does not encounter the usual mono-red problem of stalling in the late game due to lack of resources.
- With cards like Conspicuous Snoop and Muxus, you are guaranteed to have more than enough firepower to close out the game whether it is in the early game or in the very late game.

How to play this deck effectively?

Use Skirk Prospector and Wily Goblin’s treasures to ramp towards your larger threats in the early game
- Creating tokens with Krenko will help you achieve much more since you practically have unlimited mana on your turns
Once you have already set up your ramp, you can start chipping huge chunks out of your opponent’s life
- Goblin Warchief and Goblin Chieftain can make your measly 1/1 goblins into powerful creatures that can swing for lethal

Decklist