Creature tokens have been a part of Magic: The Gathering since the very beginning, with Richard Garfield introducing the type to enable the Wasp-spawning antics of The Hive back in Alpha. Since then they’ve grown in both quality and quantity, appearing regularly in new sets and typically playing a role in key archetypes, be they typal strategies or Aristocrats builds.
Despite their widespread nature, creature tokens don’t command a huge amount of respect among players. The word ‘Token’ brings to mind a 1/1 Goblin or a 2/2 Knight more readily than it does a serious threat on the board. However, these ten tokens buck that trend, bringing a level of power and complexity that rivals even the best regular creature in the game today.
10 Marit Lage
Marit Lage is truly the mother of all tokens. Not only is she the biggest creature token of all time, she’s also the biggest creature of all time full stop, discounting Un-set nonsense like B.F.M. and Infinity Elemental.
Her 20/20 flying, indestructible body represents an instant win in many gameplay scenarios, forcing your opponents to use exile-based removal if they want to avoid being devoured in one bite.
Originally, the 30 mana investment required to free Lage from the Dark Depths land made her appearances rare, but, as is their way, Magic players found a way to get around that. Cards like Thespian’s Stage and Vampire Hexmage allowed you to release the Kraken much earlier than intended, eventually leading to Dark Depths being banned in the Modern format.
9 Vecna
Now a household name thanks to Stranger Things, the Arch-Lich Vecna has long been one of the primary antagonists in the world of Dungeons and Dragons. He made his Magic debut in Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, where a series of dark artifacts can conjure him to wreak havoc on your opponent’s day.
Using the Book of Vile Darkness in combination with the Hand and Eye of Vecna, you can call him forth as an 8/8 indestructible Zombie God who can draw you cards, create Zombie tokens, and buff himself or another creature once per turn. While the setup required makes this unlikely in formats outside of Commander, when Vecna gets going he can be very hard to stop.
8 Smaug
Die-hard Tolkien fans may have been disappointed initially to see Middle-earth’s most iconic Dragon reduced to a mere token, but once they caught a glimpse of his effect that disappointment quickly faded into glee. In what is certainly one of the most absurd lines of text ever printed on a Magic card, token or otherwise, Smaug creates a staggering fourteen Treasure tokens upon his death.
This opens up the door to a huge array of powerful combos, but it’s completely viable in fair decks as well, easily ramping out a power play or two on Treasure mana alone. And while you do have to sit through the slow start on There and Back Again to see Smaug soar, the fireworks when he does are more than worth the wait.
7 The Blood Avatar
The end goal of Extus Narr’s grand plan at Strixhaven, the summoning of the Blood Avatar would ultimately prove his undoing. Thankfully, its power is much easier to control in token form.
The Blood Avatar is a highly aggressive Rakdos token that fares particularly well in formats like Commander, where the crucial text ‘each opponent’ it possesses can do the most possible work.
Getting him out is a costly endeavour, as Extus found, requiring either eight mana, two mana, and three sacrifices, or something in between. The spell that does so, Awaken the Blood Avatar, serves as an Edict for all opponents, however, and the Avatar himself can quickly burn down the whole table with its attacks, making the sacrifice worth it in a dedicated deck.
6 Boo
Sometimes a token is great because it has good stats or a useful suite of abilities, and sometimes a token is great because it’s a cute Hamster that everybody loves. Boo falls firmly into the latter, admittedly specific, category, serving as a constant companion to Minsc, in both his creature and planeswalker forms.
He's more than just a pretty face, however. Boo comes with both trample and haste, abilities that seem wasted on a humble 1/1, but both versions of Minsc offer ways of buffing him up into a much more serious threat. Throw in the ability to bring Boo back if your opponent is cruel enough to remove him, on the planeswalker form at least, and you have a token that’s good enough to see use in Legacy.
5 Kaldra
Summoned by assembling, Infinity Stone style, three pieces of legendary equipment, Kaldra is a pulsing plasma Avatar from Fifth Dawn. Slowly teased over the course of the Mirrodin block, with the Sword and Shield of Kaldra appearing in Mirrodin and Darksteel, respectively, the final reveal of Kaldra that came with the Helm was exciting indeed.
When summoned, Kaldra immediately equips all three of its signature items, resulting in a 9/9 indestructible, first strike, trample, haste monstrosity that can exile those it defeats in combat. It may have been outclassed in recent years by Modern Horizons’ Kaldra Compleat, but the power of that card doesn’t match the theatrics and flair of the original.
4 Keimi
Enchantress decks have long been part of the Magic deck ecosystem, typically featuring a cast of beautiful, ethereal women who can wring extra value out of the enchantment cards you play. And while Keimi, the Frog friend of Tatsunari, looks out of place in such a lineup, make no mistake: he’s an Enchantress at heart.
Not only is he summoned initially by playing an enchantment with Tatsunari out, but he also drains each of your opponents for one life each time you play an additional enchantment while he’s hopping around. This adds a nice aggressive edge to Enchantress strategies, giving them an outlet to victory that isn’t just ‘bury your opponent in card advantage.’
3 The Atropal
As a token created by another token, we’re going really deep on this one. Deep into the Tomb of Annihilation, that is, the most iconic and treacherous dungeon card featured in Adventures in the Forgotten Realms.
If you can endure the pain and reach the Cradle of the Death God, then The Atropal is yours: a 4/4 legendary God Horror with deathtouch.
You may, understandably, have been expecting more from a creature with the ‘God’ type line, but The Atropal is actually very powerful when you consider the low opportunity cost of summoning him. Tomb of Annihilation doesn’t need to go in your deck, and ‘venture into the dungeon’ effects are plentiful, meaning you can conjure The Atropal almost as an afterthought.
2 Ragavan
Before he became the scourge of eternal formats in his solo career, Ragavan was the loyal companion of Kari Zev, a sky Pirate from Kaladesh. Leaping into the fray whenever she attacked, Ragavan made up for his 2/1 stats with his fierce reliability: he’d show up every turn, without fail, even if he fell in combat the turn before.
While Kari Zev wasn’t an incredible card in terms of power level, it put in solid work here and there, and when it did people saw, and loved, Ragavan. His good name may have been tarnished due to associations with format-warping power, but for those who were there from the start, Ragavan is just a loyal Monkey in some cute steampunk goggles.
1 Mechtitan
Voltron decks are a staple part of Magic’s archetype roster, but Mechtitan represents the first literal Voltron card the game has seen. Demanding seven mana and five total creatures to summon via the Mechtitan Core, the payoff here had to be huge in order to be worth it. Thankfully, it was.
Reading like a shopping list for keyword soup, Mechtitan has flying, vigilance, trample, lifelink, and haste. Oh, and 10/10 stats to boot. With these powers combined, Mechtitan can end games in just a couple of swings.
The fact that you get the creatures you merged to summon it back when it dies is the icing on this delicious, Gundam-flavoured cake.