1. Bedlam Reveler
Bedlam Reveler is a fantastic Devil creature – and here’s why. It’s a 4/3 with prowess that discards your hand when it enters, then draws you three cards. If played at the right time, like when you have an empty hand, it’s an Ancestral Recall attached to a deadly threat.
Not only that, but you can cast Bedlam Reveler for as little as two red mana. See, it costs one mana less to cast for each instant or sorcery in your graveyard. It’s the perfect way to recharge your hand after playing a barrage of spells.
Of course, a card as impressive as this has an equally impressive track record: Six Grand Prix Top 8s, two Pro Tour and Mythic Championship Top 8s, and three World Championship Top 8s.
2. Festival Crasher
The Devil tribe’s version of Kiln Fiend, Festival Crasher, is a 1/3 common-rarity creature that costs two mana – one generic, one red. And whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, it gets +2/+0 until the end of turn.
Festival Crasher, while unassuming, can rapidly become a deadly threat. Alongside a few buff spells, its power can quickly reach lethal proportions. For that reason, it’s an obvious inclusion in the glass cannon-style Kiln Fiend decks viable in the Pauper format.
3. Flayer of the Hatebound
Flayer of the Hatebound is the best Devil for graveyard-based strategies. Not only does it have undying, but whenever it or another creature enters the battlefield from the graveyard, its ability triggers. That creature deals damage equal to its power to any target.
Combined with Ichorid, Narcomoeba, and Prized Amalgam – creatures that return themselves to play when specific triggers are met – Flayer of the Hatebound can deal impressive damage. Get two of these Devils into play, and you can quickly end a game.
It’s no surprise then that Flayer of the Hatebound has seen professional play, picking up a Grand Prix Top 8. The card has been a favorite of Dredge strategies ever since its release in Dark Ascension.
4. Gibbering Fiend
When Gibbering Fiend enters the battlefield, it pings each opponent for one damage. Then, if you have Delirium, Gibbering Fiend will ping each opponent again during their upkeep. For a two-mana-value creature, that’s not an inadequate ability.
Although it hasn’t seen much competitive usage, Gibbering Fiend remains a practical creature for its cost. I’ve found it incredibly potent in Limited, a format where opponents will be less able to remove it.
5. Hellrider
With over twenty Grand Prix Top 8s finishes and a Top 8 Finish in a Pro Tour and a World Championship, Hellrider is an imposing Devil creature. It’s the perfect four-drop for an aggressive deck, rewarding you for attacking with your whole board.
Whenever you attack with a creature, Hellrider deals one damage to the player or planeswalker that creature is attacking. For planeswalkers, that’s a death sentence. For the opposing player, it means they’ll take damage even if they can block.
Hellrider isn’t a puny creature either. It’s 3/3, with haste. That means, the turn you cast it, you can attack for guaranteed damage with it alone.
6. Asmodeus the Archfiend
Asmodeus the Archfiend might be a “fixed” version of the infamous Griselbrand, but that doesn’t mean that this legendary Devil isn’t a sound card. Of course, it is, and it’s an excellent inclusion in mono-black Commander. Any card that can draw you seven cards in a single turn is incredible.
With Asmodeus the Archfiend in play, any time you would draw a card, you exile it facedown instead.
For three black mana, you can “draw” seven cards. Then, for one mana, you can put all the cards you’ve exiled this way into your hand. Then lose one life for each card drawn this way.
7. Vexing Devil
One of the few one-mana-value cards that can deal more damage than a Lightning Bolt in a single turn Vexing Devil was a staple of Burn decks for years.
See, when it enters the battlefield, an opponent can have it deal four damage to them. If they do, you sacrifice the Vexing Devil. However, if they don’t, they have to deal with the 4/3 creature you only spent one mana on casting.
Pros used Vexing Devil in four Grand Prix Top 8 decks, and for a good reason. It is an excellent test of skill. A weaker player will choose the wrong option for their circumstances and either take massive damage or be unable to kill this menacing creature.
8. Zurzoth, Chaos Rider
Zurzoth, Chaos Rider is, hands-down, one of the best creatures from the Jumpstart expansion. It’s the 270th most popular Commander on EDHREC, too, used in over 1010 decks.
After all, Zurzoth is a legendary Devil with a unique playstyle and a Devil lord.
Whenever the opponent draws their first card each turn – outside of their turn – create a 1/1 red Devil creature token. When that token dies, it deals one damage to any target. Also, whenever you attack a player with a Devil, both you and that player each draw a card, then discard at random. Then Zurzoth makes another Devil token, and the cycle continues.
9. Rakdos Cackler
Imagine this: For a single mana, black or red, you can get a 2/2 creature. This card exists. It’s called Rakdos Cackler.
Although it can’t block if you use its Unleash ability to turn it from a 1/1 to a 2/2, you won’t need to. Any deck that plays Rakdos Cackler doesn’t care about blocking; it cares about dealing lethal damage to the opponent as fast as possible.
That strategy is practical too. Rakdos Cackler has one of the best histories of professional play out of any MTG Devil. With fourteen Grand Prix Top 8 finishes and one Pro Tour Top 8 finish, Rakdos Cackler is a one-drop to be respected.
10. Mayhem Devil
The cornerstone of the Jund Food deck in Historic, Mayhem Devil deals one damage to any target whenever a player sacrifices a permanent.
And the deck’s strategy is simple – sacrifice as much stuff as possible to tear apart anything your opponent plays.
Mayhem Devil has seen use in four of the Top 8 decks of the 2020 Mythic Invitational and seven Top 8 decks across several Players Tours. Not only that, but this combo piece Devil has two Top 8 Mythic Championship finishes too!
