Izzet is what happens when you mix “i can totally handle this” confidence with a hand full of cantrips and a deep need to cast two spells every turn. If you’re looking for the best Izzet creatures, you’re probably chasing one of two feelings: either you want your deck to hum like a machine, or you want to win out of nowhere and pretend it was “inevitable.”
And yeah, same.
Before we get to the ranking, quick housekeeping: if you’re fuzzy on common mechanics that show up in blue-red decks, these two are worth bookmarking: Ward in MTG guide and the Ultimate guide to Deathtouch.
What counts as an Izzet creature?
For this list, “Izzet” means the creature has a blue-red color identity. Most of the best ones reward you for spellcasting (spellslinger), copying spells, drawing cards, or turning “noncreature spell” into real pressure like tokens, counters, or direct damage.
How i ranked the best Izzet creatures
I ranked these on a mix of:
- Ceiling: how disgusting the card gets when it’s supported
- Floor: whether it still does something when you’re behind
- Deckbuilding pull: does it make you want to build around it
- Table impact: does the table have to respect it immediately
Now, the fun part.
The 30 best Izzet creatures ranked
30. Nivix Cyclops
A budget classic that turns every cheap instant into a threat. It looks innocent until you go “cantrip, cantrip, protection spell,” and suddenly someone is doing math they did not plan on doing.
Best pairings: cheap cantrips, protection, and any “make it unblockable” trick.
29. Stormchaser Mage
Prowess plus flying plus haste is still a clean package. It’s not flashy, but it punishes stumbles and turns your early interaction into real damage.
Best pairings: low-cost interaction and combat tricks that force through damage.
28. Lore Drakkis
Mutate gets weird fast, and Lore Drakkis is one of the reasons. Every mutate is a clean little rebuy for an instant or sorcery, which is exactly what a grindy spellslinger deck wants.
Best pairings: cheap mutate creatures, bounce effects, and efficient spells worth looping.
27. Izzet Staticaster
This thing is a menace in the right pods. It cleans up tokens, punishes small utility creatures, and quietly keeps certain strategies from ever stabilizing.
Best pairings: untap effects, pinger synergies, and ways to boost its damage.
26. Izzet Guildmage
If your deck has a lot of two-mana instants and sorceries, Guildmage turns “good” into “gross.” Copying interaction, copying draw, copying burn, it adds up fast.
Best pairings: efficient two-mana spells and any plan that cares about spell copies.
25. Wandering Mind
The “top six, grab a noncreature spell” effect is exactly what Izzet wants in midrange games. It smooths draws and keeps your hand from turning into three lands and regret.
Best pairings: spell-heavy lists and decks that want selection without spending a full turn.
24. Dack’s Duplicate
A clone that hits fast and usually hits hard. In creature-heavy games, it’s frequently the best creature on the table with haste stapled on.
Best pairings: metas with big creatures, sacrifice outlets, and “blink the clone” nonsense.
23. Sprite Dragon
The permanent counters matter. It snowballs quickly, dodges ground stalls, and makes your “setup turn” look like a kill turn.
Best pairings: cheap noncreature spells, extra combat steps, and protection.
22. Crackling Drake
It’s the “fair” payoff that hits like an unfair one. It grows off spells in graveyard and exile, which means a lot of the usual graveyard hate barely slows it down.
Best pairings: cantrip density, discard-draw effects, and removal that buys time.
21. Stormcatch Mentor
Cost reduction plus prowess is such a clean Izzet sentence. It helps you double-spell earlier, and it’s a real threat when you’re forced to pivot into combat.
Best pairings: instant-heavy lists and turns where you want to chain 3 to 5 spells.
20. Third Path Iconoclast
Every noncreature spell becomes board presence. That’s it. That’s the whole pitch. And it works because you were going to cast those spells anyway.
Best pairings: cheap interaction, card draw, and any anthem or “go wide” finisher.
19. Balmor, Battlemage Captain
One of the best “spells become combat” commanders and payoffs. The trample clause is the difference between “nice buff” and “oh, i’m dead.”
Best pairings: token makers and low-cost spells that let you trigger multiple times in one turn.
18. Rielle, the Everwise
If you like looting, rummaging, and wheels, Rielle turns that into a real engine. You discard once, you refill, and suddenly your graveyard is a second hand.
Best pairings: rummage spells, wheel effects, and cheap interaction to protect the engine.
17. Galazeth Prismari
Treasures and artifacts turning into spell fuel is a big deal. Galazeth makes a spell-heavy deck feel like it’s secretly ramping like green.
Best pairings: Treasure production, Clue production, and artifact-heavy spellslinger shells.
16. Mizzix of the Izmagnus
Experience counters get out of hand fast. Once Mizzix sticks, your expensive spells stop being expensive, and your opponents start acting like every untap step is a crisis.
Best pairings: big mana-value instants and sorceries, and a plan to protect Mizzix for one turn cycle.
15. Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph
It’s a build-around that turns “one damage” into “actually lethal.” Ping effects become real removal, and your opponents learn to fear your harmless little triggers.
Best pairings: pingers, one-damage sweepers, and repeatable sources of exactly 1 damage.
14. Bria, Riptide Rogue
Prowess for the whole squad changes how combat works. Bria plays like an aggressive spellslinger deck that never has to choose between “cast spells” and “attack.”
Best pairings: cheap spells, token production, and evasive threats.
13. Jhoira of the Ghitu
Classic “suspend a problem” commander. You load the chamber, then the table spends three turns arguing about who is supposed to stop you.
Best pairings: huge spells, board wipes you can plan around, and ways to survive until the counters come off.
12. Iron Man, Titan of Innovation
This is an artifact deck disguised as an Izzet creature. It attacks, makes a Treasure, and upgrades your artifacts into bigger artifacts. It snowballs in a very “Tony Stark would absolutely do this” way.
Best pairings: artifact toolboxes, sacrifice-friendly artifacts, and utility targets at multiple mana values.
11. Malcolm, the Eyes
Double-spelling for Clues is exactly the kind of steady value Izzet wants. It pressures early, it generates resources, and it quietly makes your “play two spells” plan consistent.
Best pairings: cheap spells, clue payoffs, and ways to use artifacts beyond just drawing cards.
10. Stella Lee, Wild Card
She rewards the exact thing you already want to do, and she does it at a pace that feels rude. A clean commander for spellslinger, storm-adjacent lines, and long games where your “second spell” is always a setup for the next turn.
Best pairings: cheap instants, untap effects, and extra turns where “next turn” matters a lot.
9. Veyran, Voice of Duality
Doubling magecraft triggers gets silly immediately. If your deck is built around “cast or copy,” Veyran turns every turn into a fireworks show.
Best pairings: magecraft creatures, spell-copy effects, and cheap interaction to keep the engine alive.
8. The Locust God
Every draw becomes a hasty flier. That’s not “nice value,” that’s a win condition that scales with the most common thing you already do in Magic, which is draw cards.
Best pairings: wheel effects, repeatable draw engines, and ways to turn a swarm into lethal.
7. Ral, Monsoon Mage / Ral, Leyline Prodigy
Ral is the kind of card that makes storm players sit up straight. Cost reduction and spell-copying is already dangerous, and Ral has been a real engine for storm-style decks across formats.
Best pairings: ritual-heavy spell chains, graveyard recursion for spells, and anything that rewards high spell count turns.
6. Kraum, Ludevic’s Opus
Kraum punishes opponents for playing Magic normally. If they double-spell, you draw. And it closes games faster than it has any right to because it comes with haste and evasion.
Best pairings: partner shells, interaction-heavy builds, and anything that wants card flow without spending mana.
5. Spider-Man 2099
It’s a newer Izzet legend that plays differently: it shows up later, then turns “outside your hand” casting into damage pressure. Foretell, adventure, impulse draw, it all adds up.
Best pairings: foretell, adventure spells, and effects that exile cards to play this turn or next.
4. Pinnacle Emissary
Artifact casting that makes evasive Drone tokens is a real engine, especially in shells where artifacts are basically spells. It builds a board without asking you to stop doing your normal thing.
Best pairings: low-cost artifacts, artifact token makers, and ways to turn a pile of fliers into a kill.
3. Vivi Ornitier
Vivi is powerful enough that it’s been banned in Standard and even got a digital rebalance on Arena. In Izzet shells, it grows, pressures life totals, and converts your spellcasting into both damage and momentum.
Best pairings: cheap noncreature spells, free or near-free interaction, and protection because everyone knows what happens if Vivi untaps.
2. Niv-Mizzet, Parun
This is the classic “answer it now” threat. Every spell becomes damage. Every draw becomes damage. If the table gives you an inch, Niv takes the whole game.
Best pairings: wheels, cantrips, and any “draw a card” loop that turns into a win.
1. Niv-Mizzet, Parun
Yeah, again. Because if you’re ranking the best Izzet creatures, Parun is still the final boss. It ends games, it controls boards, it punishes interaction, and it has clean combo finishes that players have respected for years.
Best pairings: Curiosity-style effects, wheels, and enough cheap interaction to force it through.
A few honorable mentions i still love
If you’re building deeper than 30 cards, i still think these deserve a look: Dominus of Fealty, Elemental Expressionist, Aegar, the Freezing Flame, Etherium-Horn Sorcerer, and Nucklavee.
Wrap up
Izzet wins games by turning small decisions into a chain reaction: sequencing, spell density, and choosing the right payoff creature for your plan. If you pick the best Izzet creatures for what your deck is actually trying to do, you’ll feel the difference right away. Your turns get smoother, your “setup” becomes pressure, and your opponents start holding up mana just in case.
And honestly, that’s when Izzet is at its best.