1. Vault Skirge
If you need an explanation for why Phyrexian mana is so powerful, I’ll show you Vault Skirge. This 1/1 Imp with flying and lifelink costs only one generic mana to play since you can pay the black Phyrexian mana with two life instead. Doing so is a great idea.
That way, you get a highly efficient artifact creature. With flying and lifelink, Vault Skirge isn’t only hard to block; it also gains you your lost life back in only two turns. No wonder then that it’s a staple of Affinity decks, picking up a total of five Top 8 Pro Tour finishes.
2. Chimney Imp
No list of MTG Imps is complete without the infamous Chimney Imp.
While players have mocked its underwhelming stats ever since its release, certain pro players have seen the value in this card regardless. After all, Chimney Imp has seen use in three Pro Tour Top 8 draft decks. And that’s including one first place.
Chimney Imp is a 1/2 Imp with flying for the steep cost of five mana. However, when it enters, your opponent puts a card in their hand on top of their library, setting them back a turn. This ability might come at a steep price, but evidently, it is workable.
3. Stinkweed Imp
A mainstay of the Dredge strategy, Stinkweed Imp seldom hits the battlefield.
That might be surprising, given that it’s an okay creature. You get a 1/2 flying Imp with a Deathtouch-style ability for three mana.
No, players prefer to mill this Imp into their graveyards, from where they can best exploit its Dredge 5 ability. When next they’d draw a card, they can instead mill five cards and return this Imp to their hand. This ability sets up the rest of the Dredge strategy.
It should come as no surprise then that this 1/2 flying Imp has an impressive professional track record. Stinkweed Imp saw play in three Pro Tour Top 8 decks, plus three World Magic Cup Top 8s.
4. Blim, Comedic Genius
MTG’s first legendary Imp, Blim, Comedic Genius, is an excellent and unique Commander. And a popular one too, seeing play in nearly a thousand decks, making it EDHREC’s 276th most played Commander.
Whenever Blim deals combat damage to an opponent, they gain control of one of your permanents. Then each player discards cards and loses life equal to the number of your permanents they control. In multiplayer games, that’s some severe disruption.
Although Blim can work in a deck’s 99, it shines as the Commander. There, it lets you build a strategy focused on giving your opponents cards with awful downsides and then punishing them for controlling them too.
5. Skirge Familiar
Skirge Familiar is a 3/2 flying creature with one excellent ability. You can discard a card to add one black mana. This way, all your cards will always have value – you can discard dead draws to pay for your win conditions. Alongside an X-cost spell, Skirge Familiar is deadly.
For these reasons, Skirge Familiar saw a reprint in Modern Horizons 2. Even before it was Modern-legal, though, it had seen competitive success. Skirge Familiar has one Pro Tour Top 8 and saw use in the 2000 Invitational’s winning deck.
6. Putrid Imp
Putrid Imp is one of the most potent Imps ever printed, and for a good reason.
It’s a cheap discard outlet that’s surprisingly aggressive. Pro players have used Putrid Imp in two Pro Tour Top 8 decks and one Worlds Legacy Top 8 finish.
Although this 1/1 Imp only costs one mana, it has two excellent abilities. You can discard a card to give Putrid Imp flying until the end of turn. Also, If you have at least seven cards in your graveyard, it gets an extra +1/+1.
Although Putrid Imp can be dangerous on its own in the right circumstances, it’s the discard ability that makes this card shine. For only one mana, you can selectively discard your whole hand. Doing so enables powerful Dredge strategies.
7. Demon’s Jester
Demon‘s Jester is one of the most aggressive Imps on this list. And that might seem strange. At first glance, it is a 2/2 flying creature for four mana – underwhelming. However, if you’re Hellbent – have no cards in hand – it gets an additional +2/+1. For a common card, that’s excellent.
Demon’s Jester is a mainstay of Imp tribal, as much as that’s a thing. After all, it’s an excellent reward for other Imps’ discard outlets. Not only that, but it has a Pro Tour Top 8 too. The pro who drafted it saw this card’s great potential.
8. Cadaver Imp
Cadaver Imp is a great utility creature at a common rarity. That’s why it has seen such success in the Peasant format – although it has one Pro Tour Top 8 finish. You may return a creature from your graveyard to your hand when it enters the battlefield.
This recursion ability is beneficial in formats like Limited, Pauper, or Peasant that lack the high-powered reanimator cards of other decks. Not only that, but Cadaver Imp also has flying, letting it chip in a few points of damage, too; after you’ve cast it.
9. Soot Imp
Soot Imp punishes your opponents for playing nonblack spells. Whenever a player does, they lose one life. Against a spell-slinger or creature-heavy strategy, Soot Imp can punch far above its weight.
Although this Imp hasn’t seen professional play, it had a reprint in the Divine vs. Demonic Duel Deck. There it was, a win condition. Against a mono-white Angel deck, Soot Imp could cost an opponent a hefty amount of life.
10. Daggerclaw Imp
Play Daggerclaw Imp when you need to put pressure on an opponent. At an uncommon level, there are few better cards for their cost. Especially back in Guildpact, where Daggerclaw Imp was released.
This three-mana-value creature has impressive stats, even today. If you look past the minor downside of being unable to block, you get a 3/1 with flying. That’s a lot of damage if your opponent can’t kill it. No wonder then that it has one Pro Tour Top 8 finish.