Summary

• Mercenaries in Magic lack modern support, but Thunder Junction and Fallout sets have revitalized interest in the creature type.
• Some newer Mercenaries like Robaran and Taii Wakeen offer unique abilities, but older Mercenaries may not be as competitive.
• Outlaw creatures like Wasteland Raider and Vial Smasher bring edict effects and additional damage, enhancing deck building options.

A cursory glance at all of the Mercenary creatures in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Magic: The Gathering will show you that the creature type hasn't received much love in recent years. With less than 100 Mercenaries in the game, those that do exist are split between sets from the late 1990's and early 2000's, and those that have seen a resurgence in sets like Fallout and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Outlaws of Thunder Junction.

Thunder Junction in particular gave players a new-found reason to care about the Mercenary creature type, since it's one of the five types encompassed by 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the 'outlaw' batch. Even so, you're going to have trouble digging up relevant Mercenaries from Magic's past, given the power discrepancies between the earliest and latest Mercenaries in the game.

10 Robaran Mercenaries 🥃

Just Barely Good Enough

Printed in 2022, Robaran Mercenaries just barely sneaks in next to some of the better Mercenaries in Magic, which doesn't bode well for any of the old-bordered Mercenaries from many years before. Those cards just don't hold up in the landscape of modern card design.

This Merc has a fairly negligible statline and doesn't do anything all on its lonesome, but decks with good 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:activated abilities attached to their legends don't mind a second shot at those abilities. Captain Sisay comes to mind as the clearest example of a commander that wants access to this card.

9 Taii Wakeen, Perfect 🥃Shot ꦐ

Steady... Aim...

There's something satisfying about the idea of a sharpshooter rewarding you for taking the 'perfect shot' (i.e.: dealing exact damage to a creature). It's a fantastic blend of flavor and function on a card with some pretty massive upside... if you line up your shots right.

The best use of Taii Wakeen is alongside cards that can deal damage multiple times per turn. You can dump a bunch of mana into Taii Wakeen's activated ability, then go absolutely wild with cards like Goblin Bombardment or Pyrohemia, which get the damage boost on each individual activation for that turn.

8 ๊ Thrill-Kill Disciple ꦫ

A Junky Squad Of Mercs

Fallout made good use of the Mercenary creature type. That release in close proximity to Outlaws of Thunder Junction helped revitalize the creature type, giving it enough moder💛n-day support to make a deck built around Mercenaries at least somewhat viable.

Thrill-Kill Disciple also puts the 🌱squad mechanic to good use, letting you ditch cards from your hand for extra copies of this creature. Those copies eventually become Junk tokens, which in turn become extra cards you can cast to replace the cards you discarded for extra Disciple tokens in the first place.

7 Vial Smasher, Gleeful Grenadier 🍎

An Outlaw With Explosive Potential

Vial Smasher's second iteration isn't nearly as broken as its competitive all-star counterpart, but she's still got enough going for her in outlaw decks. She tacks on a point of damage to any of your outlaws that enter the battlefield, with a respectable statline for a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:two-mana creature.

Slim chance Gleeful Grenadier ever makes it into the command zone, but it'll definitely be a part of any deck built around Thunder Junction's outlaw creatures. Vial Smasher has a natural home in the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Most Wanted Commander precon, though it might pop up in some niche 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Goblin decks too.

6 🎐 Wasteland Raider

An Absolutely Killer Squad

The word 'mercenary' gives us the slang term 'merk,' which is exactly what Wasteland Raider does to your opponents' boards when you squad it enough times. It's one of many 'edict creatures' that force players to sacrifice something when they enter the battlefield, and it might be the best version ever printed.

A lone Raider will claim one creature from each player, and each additional copy you make demands another sacrifice. You can break parity by 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:sacrificing expendable tokens or creatuജre⭕s with death triggers, leaving you with an army of 4/3 Raiders while opponents are left burying their dead.

Remember you'll have to sacrifice the Wasteland Raiders if you have no other creatures to sacrifice instead!

5 Claim Jumper 𒁏

Twice The Catch-Up Potential

White's developed into an incredibly robust color in modern Commander. However, it's always lagged behind in the ramp department, relying on catch-up mechanics to keep up with other colors' mana generation.

Claim Jumper is the latest catch-up card that fetches plains, similar to the tried-and-true Knight of the White Orchid. It can ramp you twice if you're still behind on lands after you fetch the first plains. It's pretty lackluster after that point as a 3/3 with 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:vigilance, but it does make for a great blink targe🎶t if opponents start ramping out of control again.

Claim Jumper doesn't specific 'basic land,' so you can fetch up dual lands, triomes, or any non-basic that has the plains subtype.

4 Gunner Conscript 𓄧 🐈

Suit Up And Go To Town

Gunner Conscript's a beefy beatdown creature for 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:aura and equipment decks, preferably ones that play with both card types. Cards like this can hit hard, and the native trample means your opponents can't just throw chump blockers in the way.

One of the weaknesses of playing auras and equipment is that you're down on resources and tempo if your opponent answers the creature you invested time and mana into. Conscripts solves that to some extent, since it'll leave behind some Junk tokens if it was properly suited up on its way out.

3 Kellogg, Dangerous Mind 🔯

Part Of This Well-Balanced Outlaw Deck

Kellogg is one of many Treasure commanders, or at least a great inclusion in the 99 of another 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Treasure deck. It has the distinction of being a red-black card, the color pair most closely associated with 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Thunder Junction's outlaw archetype.

Kellogg needs a little help from other Treasure generator༺s, but with some support this Mercenary can start nabbing creatures from your oppone♏nts. What you do with them is completely up to you, but make sure you have a few sacrifice effects on hand, since those creatures will return to their owners if Kellogg leaves the battlefield.

2 Angelic ꧃Sell-Sword

Serra Angel, Hold My Beer

Serra Angel's such an iconic Magic card from the very first set, Alpha. Angelic Sell-Sword won't ever have that same iconic status, but it's a colossal power level improvement nonetheless. It's basically Serra Angel with multiple lines of bonus text and an additional relevant creature type.

Simply getting an extra Mercenary token when this enters is already great, but you get another one on every other non-token that enters, and that ability's not limited to once per turn. Throw in a random card-draw ability that's easy to achieve and you've got an incredible midrange threat on your hands.

1 𝔍 Rakdos, The Muscle

A Savage Killer In Every Sense

It's embarrassing just how big of a delta exists between Rakdos and any other Mercenary creature in existence. This fifth iteration of Rakdos is an absolute powerhouse, providing a sacrifice outlet and card advantage on top of sheer stats and a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:protection ability.

Rakdos can also somehow double up as a secret mill win condition too, cutting huge chunks out of an opponent's library any time you sacrifice a creature. Not that Rakdos really needs to engage in this strategy; a near-unkillable 6/5 with flying and trample for just five mana should end the game in short order.