1. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
With Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, all noncreature spells cost one mana more to cast.
This ability is not to be underestimated. A single copy of Thalia can destroy your opponent’s tempo and wreck their counterplay. Two copies grind a game to a halt for everything but creatures.
Thalia has always been a dominant card, so of course, it has the Pro Tour record to show that.
It was used in the winning decks of Pro Tour London and Pro Tour Minneapolis and appeared to have nine other Pro Tour top 8s.
2. Phyrexian Revoker
While many other hatebears have abilities that affect the whole game, Phyrexian Revoker is different.
Not only is it an artifact creature, but it’s also far more precise. When it enters, you can choose a nonland card. That card’s activated abilities can’t be activated.
Since it can hit nearly any card, Phyrexian Revoker is the perfect answer to any combo piece and dominant ability-based cards in general. You can disable everything from planeswalkers to mana rocks to even an opponent’s enchantments.
This power earned it play in Pro Tour Minneapolis’ winning deck and Pro Tour Magic Origin’s second-place entry.
3. Leonin Arbiter
A Commander staple, Leonin Arbiter is infamous for its ability to shut down tutors.
While it’s on the battlefield, players have to pay two mana whenever they search their library. And if you get Leonin Arbiter down early, they might never be able to get that mana.
An early Leonin Arbiter can shut down fetchlands. At the same time, a late-game copy can still cause havoc with tutoring or combo piece removal.
You can see this hatebear at work in its 7 Grand Prix top 8s. It was also used in the deck that won silver at the 2013 Magic World Championship!
4. Containment Priest
Containment Priest is powerful even among other hatebears, since it has flash.
With that ability, as long as you have two mana open, you can always get it in and answer your opponent’s plays. Specifically, Containment Priest exiles any nontoken creature that enters the battlefield but wasn’t cast.
This combination of abilities makes Containment Priest a favorite of Vintage, Commander, and Legacy, formats where cheating in powerful creatures is a beloved strategy.
Unsurprisingly, it was used in the deck that won the Eternal Weekend 2017 and the deck that earned second place in Vintage Super League Season 5.
5. Ash Zealot
Graveyard hate at its most aggressive, Ash Zealot deals three damage to a player whenever they cast a spell from a graveyard.
On its own, this ability hoses flashback, escape, and retrace. It is attached to a 2/2 body with haste and first strike to make for a genuinely imposing card.
Because of its power, Ash Zealot has racked up an impressive 10 Grand Prix top 8s, as well as a dominant performance in Pro Tour Theros.
Not only that, but Ash Zealot’s low cost and versatile abilities make it a must-have for many mono-red Commander decks that don’t have other great options to shut down graveyard play.
6. Spirit of the Labyrinth
A star of the infamous Death & Taxes deck, Spirit of the Labyrinth stops all players from drawing more than one card per turn.
While unremarkable on its own, this ability can be catastrophic when playing against the draw-focused decks of Vintage and Legacy.
Spirit of the Labyrinth is a genuinely punishing card. It can singlehandedly disable Power Nine cards in a way few other cards can.
It’s for these reasons that it is one of the best hatebears. Its use in the first place deck for Grand Prix Las Vegas 2017 is evidence of that.
7. Gaddock Teeg
A legendary hatebear, Gaddock Teeg prevents players from casting any card with a value of 4 or greater or an X in its casting cost.
Together, these abilities let Gaddock Teeg shut down the win conditions of hundreds of decks.
Gaddock Teeg is an excellent answer to ramp, midrange, control, and anything else that relies on high mana value cards as win conditions. Its power in Commander is even more remarkable, where it can outright stop your opponents from even casting their marquee creatures.
No wonder Gaddock Teeg has been used seventeen times in top 8 Grand Prix decks, including two first places!
8. Drannith Magistrate
Few cards can shut down as many strategies as this hatebear can.
While Drannith Magistrate is on the battlefield, your opponents can only cast spells from their hands. This card singlehandedly shuts down Storm, as well as a dozen other archetypes that cast their spells from exile or the graveyard.
It’s hard to list other hatebears with such an asymmetrical or impressive effect.
Drannith Magistrate has seen play in over a dozen decks in the Strixhaven Championship, and it’s been a Commander staple ever since its release in Ikoria: Lair of the Behemoths.
9. Collector Ouphe
Collector Ouphe stops the activated abilities of all artifacts from being activated.
That means you can say goodbye to Moxen, Affinity, and Baubles. While it isn’t always included in the main deck, Collector Ouphe remains the silver bullet for any deck that’s over-reliant on their artifact’s abilities.
A fantastic sideboard option, Collector Ouphe was played in the deck that won the Eternal Weekend North America @ Pittsburgh, PA.
Not only that but Collector Ouphe was also used in three of the top 8 decks of 2019 Eternal Weekend @ Yokohama.
10. Grand Abolisher
As long as it’s your turn, Grand Abolisher stops your opponent from casting spells or activating the abilities of their creatures, artifacts, or enchantments.
Essentially, when Grand Abolisher is out, your spells can’t be countered and you don’t have to worry about flash or other instants either. Your combo is safe, and your attacks are too.
Grand Abolisher’s power is attested to in its four Grand Prix top 8s, including a second place. As well as that, this hatebear has also been used in dozens of competitive white Commander decks.
Honestly, it is a hatebear for those times when you absolutely cannot allow your opponent to interfere.
11. Ethersworn Canonist
While other hatebears shut down artifacts, Ethersworn Canonist punishes everything else.
Players can only cast one nonartifact spell per turn while it’s out on the battlefield. And for an artifact deck, that’s fine. But for anything else, Ethersworn Canonist ruins tempo and can outright destroy archetypes like Storm or Bogles.
Proof of Ethersworn Canonist’s dominance can be seen in Pro Tour Amsterdam 2010, used in the winning deck and another top 8 entry.
It was also an essential piece of Birthing Pod decks before the latter card was banned in Modern due to the absurd power of its namesake deck.
12. Scavenging Ooze
A classic example of graveyard hate, Scavenging Ooze isn’t only an excellent hatebear.
It can rapidly become a high power and toughness threat when you use its ability to exile creature cards from graveyards. It even gains you life too.
Because of its versatility, Scavenging Ooze is a beloved card among competitive players.
Since its release in Commander 2011, this hatebear has been used in five decks that managed to achieve Pro Tour top 8s.
