Summary
Magic: The Gathering’s Skeletons have been around since 1996’s Mirage set, with new Skeletons being released fairly sparingly over the course of the game’s history.
While the number of Skeletons is fairly small (only about 80 Skeleton cards exist in Magic: The Gathering currently), the power of them is anything but small. There are a lot of strong Skeleton cards in the game, some of which were so strong it led to their ban and restriction of certain formats. Skeletons have been getting a lot of support recently, so the best ones tend to be pretty recent.
10Dimir House Guard
The Common Tutor
Dimir House Guard does a whole lot for being a simple card. The fear is nice, though the main attractions are its other effects. Dimir House Guard offers a free sacrifice outlet, something especially useful in many sacrifice-focused decks in the game.
While being able to sacrifice for free is great,tutoring is often better. Thanks to Dimir House Guard’s transmute ability, by discarding it you can get any card with the same mana value. This makes it easy to get any four-drop card directly out from your library to add consistency to your decks.
9Death Tyrant
Turn Death To Zombies
Death Tyrant is a card that, without exiling, can be hard to get rid of. It can always come back to the battlefield so long as you have the six mana to pay for the ability, and can be done at instant speed, letting you use any unused mana to bring it back so you have it on your battlefield before your turn starts.
Death Tyant shines in combat, turning any creature death into2/2 Zombie tokens. This makes both attacking and blocking great for you, as even losing combat will allow you to replace the creatures right away.
8Skeleton Crew
Boost Your Skeletons
Skeleton Crew is a lord for Skeletons (a creature that gives all creatures of a certain type +1/+1). As with many Skeletons, Skeleton Crew can return itself to the battlefield by paying a mana cost, making it hard to permanently get rid of.
The stat boost is nice, but in decks that move cards out of the graveyard frequently, it’ll create more Skeleton tokens for you to use. It’s a must-run card in any Skeleton deck, and helps to keep your board presence so you’re able to defend yourself while waiting to have the mana to bring your Skeletons back.
7Demilich
Re-Use Your Spells
Demilich can potentially be cast for free, so long as it’s in a deck where you’re casting a lot of instants and sorceries. This Skeleton encourages it in fact, as Demilich can copy any instant or sorcery spell when it attacks to re-use your best spells.
Even if Demilich gets removed, if you have excess instants and sorceries in the graveyard, you can exile them to bring Demilich back. Frequently, Demilich is played in spellslinger decks as a one or two-of, as it’s a solid attacker and blocker that can be cast for free.
6Emperor Of Bones
Reanimate All Graveyards
Emperor of Bones acts as both graveyard hateand a reanimation tool. It can bring out any creature and give it haste, turning a threatening attacker into a must-answer threat as early as turn two. Even if you’re not reanimating something, getting rid of a key card in the graveyard is powerful enough on its own.
Its adapt ability can turbo out Emperor of Bones' effect, though with other +1/+1 counter support, can keep reanimating creatures. Emperor of Bones' effect isn’t once per turn, so if it’s exiled a handful of cards you can bring them all back in one big swoop.
5Skithiryx, The Blight Dragon
Skeletal Infect
Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon is one of the few creatures with both flying and infect, and far and away the best of the lot. The Dragon Skeleton has built-in protection with its regeneration ability, and being able to give it haste for just one mana makes it an immediate threat.
Infect and flying are a deadly combination, as it makes it harder for your opponents to block to help bring their poison count closer to ten. If it ever reaches ten, that opponent loses the game. With stat-boosting cards, this can be accomplished in just one attack with Skithiryx.
4Bladewing, Deathless Tyrant
Graveyards Creating Tokens
Bladewing, Deathless Tyrant does cost a fair bit of mana to use, but it pays off as soon as it connects to an opponent for damage. It does require your opponent to have creature cards in their graveyard to get the full effect, but in formats like Commander, this will be rather common. Thanks to its haste, unless your opponent(s) has removal or a blocker ready for Bladewing, its effect is going off.
The creature tokens that Bladewing, Deathless Tyrant makes are fantastic, as 2/2s with menace are annoying to block, especially when combined with spells and permanents that give them higher stats.
3Tinybones, The Pickpocket
Pickpocket Your Opponents
Tinybones, the Pickpocketis a fantastic one-dropthat has the possibility to cast any permanent from an opponent’s graveyard. It’s best used when paired with cards that force your opponent to discard.
Even outside of the effect, Tinybones, the Pickpocket is a solid blocker thanks to its deathtouch. It forces your opponent into a game of “block and lose their creature or let you cast a spell in their graveyard.” Since it’s a one-drop, you can get it down on the battlefield at any point, and potentially start taking advantage of it as soon as the second turn begins.
2Tinybones, Trinket Thief
Extra Discard Punish
The original Tinybones card is still one of the best Skeletons in Magic. It helps to cover one of the biggest downsides ofplaying forced discard decks, losing out on card advantage. Everything is a one-for-one trade (most of the time), but Tinybones, Trinket Thief replaces the card you used to force a discard at the cost of one life.
While this effect alone would make Tinybones, Trinket Thief great, it has the added bonus of dealing massive burn damage to anyone with no cards in their hand. Since Tinybones only sees play in forced discard decks, this is something that’s easy to accomplish.
1Golgari Grave-Troll
The Dredging Menace
Golgari Grave-Troll doesn’t look too special at first glance, it’s a fairly expensive creature to cast, and its effect isn’t too spectacular on the field. What makes it so good is its dredge six ability. This allows you to mill a ton of cards, so in graveyard-based decks it’s a fantastic way to easily dump a bunch of cards into your graveyard.
Golgari Grave-Troll is so good that it’s currently banned in Modern and restricted in Vintage, with Legacy as the only format you’re able to play four copies of it. It still sees play in Vintage Ichorid decks, and as a niche deck in Legacy based around the dredge mechanic.
