Demons are some of the most formidable creatures in MTG. Their association with black is possibly more powerful than any other creature type, although they have been known to flirt with other colors like red and blue. They are black’s answer to white’s Angels.
Burning Rune Demon, Rune-Scarred Demon, Herald of Anguish, Scourge of the Skyclaves, Razaketh, the Foulblooded, Rakdos, Lord of Riots, Doom Whisperer, Vilis, Broker of Blood, Demonlord Belzenlok, Dream Devourer, Gyruda, Doom of Depths, and Spawn of Mayhem are some of the best MTG Demons out there.
Other Demons that are also highly rated are Demon of Dark Schemes, Demon of Loathing, Demon of Catastrophes, Rakdos the Showstopper, Taborax, Hope’s Demise, and many more that we haven’t covered below. All of the cards listed below have a five-star rating in the MTG Community.
1. Burning-Rune Demon
This card is a mythic rare from Kaldheim that costs six to cast.
It’s a 6/6 Demon Berserker Creature with flying. When it enters the battlefield, you may search your library for exactly two cards not called Burning Rune Demon that have different names.
You reveal the two cards, an opponent chooses one, you put the chosen card into your hand and the other in your graveyard.
The trick is to give an opponent a choice that’s not really a choice by playing recursion and having redundancy in your deck.
2. Rune-Scarred Demon
Rune-Scarred Demon is a card that some players prefer to Burning-Rune Demon.
It has a converted mana cost of seven and is a rare 6/6 black Demon creature with flying. When it enters the battlefield, you search your library for a card, put it into your hand, and then shuffle.
Your opponent doesn’t get to see which card you chose, and it can be any card you want – land, artifacts, sorcery, instant, creature, whatever.
3. Herald Of Anguish
Herald of Anguish is a mythic rare black 5/5 Demon with a converted mana cost of seven.
It has Improvise, which means you can use artifacts to reduce the casting cost by tapping them for one colorless mana. The Herald also makes each opponent discard a card at the beginning of your end step.
You can also pay one colorless and one black and sacrifice an artifact to give target creature -2/-2 until end of turn. Remember, Clues, Blood tokens, and Treasures are artifacts too.
4. Scourge Of the Skyclaves
Scourge of the Skyclaves is a mythic rare from Zendikar Rising that costs only two to cast!
It gets better as you or your opponent become low in life because its power and toughness are equal to twenty minus the highest life total among players. It has a kicker cost of four colorless and one black.
If it is kicked, each player loses half their life, rounded up. It doesn’t have flying but can grow very powerful if the highest life total among players is only one or two.
5. Razaketh, The Foulblooded
This guy is a gargantuan 8/8 legendary Demon creature with flying and trample.
It’s black, of course, and you have to pay five colorless and three black mana to cast it. As if this wasn’t enough, it lets you pay two life, sacrifice another creature and search your library for a card -any card – which you put into your hand.
It, therefore, acts as a tutor for more Demons or other winning cards. Eight airborne trample damage is devastating, and there aren’t many flying creatures this big.
6. Rakdos, Lord of Riots
Rakdos, Lord of Riots, costs only two black and two red to cast and is a 6/6 with flying and trample.
The drawback is you can’t cast it unless an opponent lost life this turn. That’s easy enough to arrange with red burn spells.
It’s a mythic rare that says creature spells you cast cost one colorless mana less for each life your opponents lost this turn.
7. Doom Whisperer
Doom Whisperer is a black 6/6 Nightmare Demon creature from the Guilds of Ravnica set. It has flying and trample. For two life you can Surveil 2.
This means you look at the top two cards of your library, consign any number to your graveyard, and put the rest on top of your library.
With a casting cost of only three colorless and two black mana, it can be an opponent’s worst nightmare! Especially as you go digging through your deck to find more Demons with Surveil.
8. Vilis, Broker Of Blood
Vilis, Broker Of Blood is a legendary, black 8/8 monstrosity from the 2020 Core Set.
It lets you pay one black to give target creature -1/-1 until end of turn. In addition, whenever you lose life, you draw that many cards ….very black!
9. Demonlord Belzenlok
No opponent wants to be facing this bad boy! It’s a 6/6 legendary Elder Demon creature from the Dominaria set with flying and trample.
When it enters the battlefield, you exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a non-land card. You then put that card into your hand.
If its mana cost is four or more, you repeat the process. Being black though means it drains you for one life for each card you put into your hand this way. It’s a superb card drawing engine when you have some life to spare.
10. Dream Devourer
Dream Devourer costs one and a black to cast and is a 0/3 Demon Cleric creature.
It exploits the foretell ability by giving foretell to each non-land card in your hand without foretell. The foretell cost is the card’s mana cost minus two colorless mana.
Dream Devourer gets +2/+0 until the end of turn whenever you foretell a card. Foretell is a powerful tool that lets you pay for a spell in two installments. For expensive spells like Demons, you don’t have to accumulate as much mana to cast them as you would without foretell.
11. Gyruda, Doom Of Depths
The sea has its own hell, and in it dwells Gyruda, Doom of Depths, a legendary Demon Kraken creature.
It is a blue/black 6/6 with Companion, meaning your starting deck contains only cards with even converted mana cost. You can choose to use Gyruda as a Companion, meaning you can cast it once from outside the game.
When Gyruda enters the battlefield, each player puts the top four cards of their library into their graveyard. You can put a card from among these cards into the battlefield under your control, provided that its mana cost is even.
12. Spawn Of Mayhem
This black Demon creature is a 4/4 mythic rare from Ravnica Allegiance.
It costs only two colorless and two black to cast. However, you can also cast it for its Spectacle cost of one colorless and two black if an opponent lost life this turn. It has flying and trample.
In typical black tradition, it deals one damage to each player – that includes you. Then, if you have ten or less life, you can put a +1/+1 counter on it. It’s an excellent card for the early game and can grow to a considerable size as you lose life.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for some five-star Demons, you can’t do much better than Burning Rune Demon, Rune-Scarred Demon, Herald of Anguish, Scourge of the Skyclaves, Razaketh, the Foulblooded, Rakdos, Lord of Riots, Doom Whisperer, Vilis, Broker of Blood, Demonlord Belzenlok, Dream Devourer, Gyruda, Doom of Depths, and Spawn of Mayhem.
They are big, black, and nasty and will usually win you the game.
