Summary
The Incarnation creature type debuted inMagic: The Gathering’s Judgment set in 2002. These Incarnations focused on adding an ability to creatures you control if they were in the graveyard. Incarnations returned in 2007’s Lorwyn set with some extremely powerful abilities tacked onto creatures of each color that cost six mana.
The most recent cycle of Incarnation creatures debuted in Modern Horizons 2, and those creatures blew the doors off their past kindred creatures, as they featured a free evoke mechanic and immensely powerful abilities tacked onto strong, fairly inexpensive creatures.
10Guile
Part of Lorwyn’s six-mana Incarnation cycle, Guile is blue’s entry into this group of cards and delivers an extremely powerful ability that relies around abusing countermagic. Whether you employ one of thebest common counterspells of all timeor evennon-blue counterspellsto counter a spell, Guile will allow you to cast any of those cards for free.
A neat trick is employing a permanent that automatically counters spells, such as Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant or Decree of Silence to completely ice out your opponents and steal their spells for free. Toss in Solemnity alongside Decree of Silence and you have a game-ending lock that steals all of your foe’s spells indefinitely.
9Dread
If A Creature Damages You, It Dies
This card serves as a No Mercy on a stick, insofar as it has the same ability as that three-mana black enchantment. Only allowing a foe’s creature one attack to deal damage to you is eminently useful, especially in a game of Commander where the attacks will usually be coming in fast and furious.
This Incarnation having the fear keyword ability is a flavor win, as the two words are synonymous, and the artwork by Matt Cavotta is truly unsettling and, frankly, dread-inducing, as it looks like a gigantic, freakish spider demon.
8Vigor
Powerful +1/+1 Counter Enabler
Giving all of your creatures Phytohydra’s ability – prevent all damage to your creatures and put a +1/+1 counter on them for each point of damage prevented – is fairly big gains, and that’s exactly what this green Incarnation from the Lorwyn cycle does.
Of course, it doesn’t prevent any damage to itself, which is a bummer, but the ability to slap this card down and then play a Star of Extinction with a full board – putting 20 +1/+1 counters on all of your creatures (except for Vigor) – is a play that will likely cause your foe to concede on the spot.
Pair this Incarnation creature with any card that doubles or duplicates your +1+1 counters, such as Ozolith, the Shattered Spire, Hardened Scales, etc. and have a grand old time.
7Anger
Free Haste Keyword FTW
Giving haste to all your creatures is an incredibly powerful ability. So powerful, in fact, that anentire deckbuilt around the card Fires of Yavimaya from 2000’s Invasion set absolutely dominated the Standard metagame for quite a while after its release.
This Incarnation creature, from 2002’s Judgment cycle, gives all your creatures haste as long as it’s in the graveyard and you control a Mountain – two extremely easy bars to clear when playing red. While there are certainly spicier Incarnation cards, the brutally effective simplicity of this card truly shines.
6Wonder
Make All Your Creatures Fly
Much like Anger, Wonder hails from the Judgment set and gives all of your creatures a notable keyword (flying, in this case) as long as it’s in the graveyard and you control an Island.
While haste is a powerful keyword, in most scenarios it pales in comparison to flying, which provides evasion and can win you the game on the spot if you have a strong-enough board state in play when Wonder hits the ‘yard. Also, the original printing of this card features some truly brilliant artwork fromlegendary MTG artist Rebecca Guay.
5Subtlety
Memory Lapse On A Blue Incarnation
This is blue’s entry in Modern Horizons 2’s Incarnation cycle, which can all be cast for free via their evoke cost (of exiling a card that shares a color with it from your hand).
While Subtlety’s ability is by far the weakest, countering spells for free is always good, even if it will likely just go on top of your foe’s library. Seeing as this card’s countering ability is also attached to one of thebest non-blue counterspells ever, it’s still a mighty impressive combination on a 3/3 flying Incarnation.
4Endurance
Reanimate? I Don’t Think So
This green Incarnation from Modern Horizons 2 completely ices out graveyard reanimation strategies and can, once again, be cast for free thanks to its evoke ability. Endurance, in particular, is also the cheapest of any Modern Horizons 2 Incarnation, as its mana cost is only one colorless and two green mana.
It also must be noted that all of the Modern Horizons 2 Incarnations were reprinted in Modern Horizons 3 asRetro Reprints, which feature the spectacular-looking vintage treatment that all MTG cards had up until 2003’s Mirrodin set.
3Grief
Good Grief, This Card Is Powerful
Due to Fury being banned, the black Modern Horizons 2 incarnation Grief is the sole remaining member of the powerhouse Scam deck archetype that dominated the Modern metagame for 2022 and much of 2023 until Fury got the banhammer.
Despite the archetype getting hit hard, Grief is still a staggeringly powerful card. Thoughtseize is one of the best black discard spells of all time, and Grief provides a free Thoughtseize without the life loss alongside a 3/2 creature with menace that can be saved from the grave for one mana with cards like Not Dead After All and Undying Evil. Immensely strong.
2Solitude
A Free Swords To Plowshares
While discard spells are impressively powerful, no-strings-attached removal is arguably even better, and that’s exactly what Solitude provides. White’s entry into the Modern Horizons 2 Incarnation cycle tacks Swords to Plowshares (one of thebest one-mana white spells) onto a 3/2 creature with lifelink.
Swords to Plowshares is one of the best-ever removal spells, hands-down, and thesecond-best removal spellin the Commander format. Attaching that card’s ability to exile any creature, hands down, to a 3/2 lifelinker is eminently powerful and certainly deserving of the title of second-best Incarnation creature ever.
1Fury
An Astoundingly Powerful Free Ability
Not unexpectedly, the top five features all five Modern Horizons 2 Incarnations, and with good reason. These cards are absolutely busted, as they combine supremely powerful abilities with a sturdy creature and the ability to cast them for free via their evoke cost.
Fury, by far, is the best of the bunch when it comes to Incarnation creatures. This card is so strong, in fact, that it had to be banned in the supremely powerful Modern format due to its ability to wipe the board for free on turn one after a foe has played some powerful early-game threats.
Dividing damage among “any number of target creatures” is overall a strong ability and tacking it onto a 3/3 creature with double strike that can be cast for free makes Fury the best Incarnation ever printed.
