Modern's Most Efficient Creatures by CMC
Modern forum
Posted on Oct. 13, 2014, 8:35 p.m. by forestlore44
Obviously Tarmogoyf is the most efficient creature in the 2CMC slot, but what are some of the other most efficient creatures in other CMCs?
Wild Nacatl has to be the most efficient 1 drop. And Arcbound Ravager would like to argue with Tarmogoyf . Ravager can get bigger, but Tarmogoyf can go in more decks. I'm not sure myself which one is more efficient myself, but it's worth considering.
October 13, 2014 8:40 p.m.
Since efficient creatures are the core of modern, you could have just asked "What are the best creatures in modern?"
October 13, 2014 8:41 p.m.
I'm not really sure how you can say Wild Nacatl is more efficient than Noble Hierarch .
October 13, 2014 8:58 p.m.
I guess I play too much commander. Also, Dark Confidant and Snapcaster Mage are pretty efficient. It's hard to have a definitive answer when different cards play different roles.
October 13, 2014 9:02 p.m.
Captainbob1338 says... #13
Delver of Secrets Flip takes the cake for me as best one drop.
October 13, 2014 9:02 p.m.
ChiefWannaHacka says... #14
The question becomes "efficient at doing what?" Like there is a large difference in which is more efficient in modern between Wild Nacatl and Noble Hierarch when it comes to 1 drops.
October 13, 2014 9:24 p.m.
BrandonJamesCAC says... #15
As far as curve only goes, 1:1
You have to go Isamaru, Hound of Konda and then next is a 65% chance 3/2 Delver of Secrets Flip in my opinion.
Two drop - Fleecemane Lion and Serra Avenger
Gets dicey once you start going into 3/4 drops.
October 13, 2014 9:54 p.m.
vampirelazarus says... #16
Isamaru isn't that great in modern.... Goblin Guide is better.
Also, Fleecemane Lion and Serra Avenger .... are just.... not the most ideal.... I can see Serra Avenger , what with AEther Vial , but....
We've got much better things already.
October 13, 2014 10:03 p.m.
BrandonJamesCAC says... #17
Oh definitely not the best. Just tossing out random creatures above the curve. Of course Goblin Guide is better
October 13, 2014 10:11 p.m.
I think Death's Shadow and Hunted Horror win at the most P/T to CMC ratio there is. I mean technically. Obviously they both have downsides, but based entirely off of just sheer CMC to P/T ratio, these guys take the cake.
October 13, 2014 10:54 p.m.
slovakattack says... #19
surprised not to see Deathrite Shaman being suggested for the 1CMC slot....
October 14, 2014 12:56 a.m.
DarkMagician says... #23
I'm gonna take a crack at this:
@cmc 1: I'm gonna go with Noble Hierarch . She ramps your stuff outthen proceeds to buff your crcreatures. The reasons I'm going with Hierarch over other notable creatures are pretty simple. - Wild Nacatl can put a bigger hurting on you're opponent in the early game but requires the right lands to be in play.
Birds of Paradise can ramp you but on its own it does nothing for aggro.
Delver of Secrets Flip is borderline broken but requires a little bit of tinkering to become something so Hierarch wins by a hair here in my opinion.
Goblin Guide is the exact opposite of BoP, he plays aggro better than any other one drop in the format but I'm not a fan of digging my opponent out of a mana pocket and helping them to sculpt their hand (though the information gained from Goby Guide goes a long way towards making up for this).In short Hierarch is just more flexible. Deathrite Shaman would have won this slot easily before the fall of the banhammer.
@cmc 2: This one is a tough slot especially since turn two is widely considered to be the most important turn in the format. Obviously Goyf edges out the other two drop creatures in the format solely because of how quickly he grows and how easy it is to splash for him so I'm not going to list him here. Second to Goyf I'd have to go with Snapcaster Mage . Once again it comes down to versatility. Snappy can do it all, as a 2/1 he's an okay blocker taking most other 2 cmc creatures out with him and can actually play decent aggro with a little bit of aggro. Also the flash means he can surprise block. Outside of combat he's copy 5-8 of any instant or sorcery in the format, who doesn't want four more copies of Bolt and Path in their control deck?
@cmc 3: I really like Knight of the Reliquary here. It ramps, grows quickly to beat face and smooths out your draws.
I'll stop here since 4+ cmc has far to many options for me to narrow it down.
October 14, 2014 3:08 a.m.
Femme_Fatale says... #24
It also really depends on what deck you are playing. Turn 2, 6 damage swinging from Kor Duelist is oh so pleasurable. Then in any landfall aggro deck, a Steppe Lynx can do seriously consistent 4 damage a turn.
I am going to have to say that Goblin Guide is no longer reds most efficient one drop creature. That is now being replaced with Monastery Swiftspear . Trust me. I have done playtests with her.
So lets choose the best 1 cmc for each colour shall we?
: ... wow, this is hard. Uh, it depends on the deck ... for my Kor Legions deck, it would be Kor Duelist
. For a lifegain deck, it would be Soul Warden
/Soul's Attendant
, Martyr of Sands
or Serra Ascendant
. For knights, it would be Student of Warfare
. For humans, it would be Champion of the Parish
. For Landfall, Steppe Lynx
. For zoo, Loam Lion
. For tokens, Doomed Traveler
. Finally, Dryad Militant
for hatebears.
: Delver of Secrets
Flip
. For illusions, Phantasmal Bear
.
: ... ... ...
. . . . . . . . .
I kid I kid! Obviously Death's Shadow ;p Maybe Vampire Lacerator or Guul Draz Vampire for vampy vamps.
: For goblins or creature based RDW, Goblin Guide
. For classical RDW, Monastery Swiftspear
or Grim Lavamancer
.
: Noble Hierarch
is the number one, followed closely by Birds of Paradise
due to the unrestricted mana thing. In zoo, Wild Nacatl
.
: Wow, my knowledge of this goes out the window. GATHERER! For aggro, Signal Pest
, and for sideboard tech, Hex Parasite
.
October 14, 2014 8:43 a.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #25
I think we're discussing efficiency in terms of sheer size and immediate impact, rather than Noble Hierarch facilitating later plays or cards like Snapcaster Mage and Kitchen Finks . When you include that type of thing, we might as well be discussing what is the best creature at each CMC.
To the efficiency discussion, I believe Wild Nacatl to be the most efficient one drop, Tarmogoyf to be the most efficient 2, Knight of the Reliquary to be the most efficient 3, Phyrexian Obliterator to be the most efficient four and Thundermaw Hellkite to be the most efficient five-drop.
October 14, 2014 5:30 p.m.
The thing is, if you limit the discussion to creatures with big butts at each cmc, and don't consider impact on future plays, you're almost exclusively limiting yourself to green creatures, because that's basically what green does.
October 14, 2014 6:06 p.m.
SkyRaider42 says... #27
In terms of cmc to power, Force of Savagery wins 3 drop
October 14, 2014 6:06 p.m.
DarkMagician says... #28
Best and most efficient are not the same thing. If you're opponent has a Go for the Throat in hand and only has 3 life left while you have a bolt in the yard Snapcaster Mage is now the best two drop. Best is situational. OP asked for the most efficient not the largest.
October 14, 2014 6:11 p.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #29
From the way it was worded, and the usage of Tarmogoyf as an example, I think the OP was going for size/cost ratio more than anything. The word "efficiency" is kinda vague, anyway.
October 14, 2014 6:14 p.m.
DarkMagician says... #30
In a vacuum Goyf is the most efficient two drop so declaring him as the most efficient doesn't really give a general direction. As you said so yourself "efficient" is a vague term GlistenerAgent
October 14, 2014 6:24 p.m.
vampirelazarus says... #31
You know what this discussion is missing?
A solid definition of "efficient"
October 14, 2014 6:27 p.m.
SkyRaider42 says... #32
I think we should ask the op, but he probably means cmc/pt ratio
October 14, 2014 6:34 p.m.
forestlore44 says... #34
By efficient i didnt just mean something limited to power/toughness : mana cost ratio exclusively but in generic terms for generating the most advantage in driving a deck forward for the mana cost e.g. 'The most bang for your buck'
October 14, 2014 7:14 p.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #35
Again, what does "bang for your buck" mean? That still says "what's the best creature?" to me.
October 14, 2014 7:31 p.m.
BrandonJamesCAC says... #36
Yes, I felt stupid for mentioning Isamaru, Hound of Konda and Delver of Secrets Flip Thinking 100% above the curve for Izza and then the 3/2 bug.
If it's a best creatures thing, I am not good enough at MTG to answer.
October 14, 2014 7:39 p.m.
So we're talking about cards that can do the most work (be it damage or utility or sheer game-winning power) in each CMC without needing a lot of extra effort to be put into it. This means that while Tarmogoyf needs cards in graveyard to get bigger, we all know that this happens so naturally in the format that it's a given that he'll be massive for his CMC. This also means that a card like Figure of Destiny , though it has the potential to become amazing, requires such a large mana investment that it stops becoming as efficient as it could be. Realistically, it is too vulnerable to removal to ever really become an 8/8, and instead tends to become a liability if you invest too much mana/tempo into it.
So for 1 CMC, we've got Wild Nacatl who is often a 3/3 turn 2 with very little work done, since fetches and shocklands are rampant in the format. We've also got Noble Hierarch , which ramps and boosts your attackers. Goblin Guide is a very strong aggressive play, downside is luck-based. Idk which one is best though
October 14, 2014 7:55 p.m.
Femme_Fatale says... #38
You can't just say which one is best, you have to do like I did and group them based on their colours. In this way you are already signifying the different decks each one can be put into. Would you put Kor Duelist
in a build? No, you never would. Thusly each card is subjective to its own areas and one should rather look at the value of that impact on the entire game with respect to each other card.
For example, in DW, I have found that Monastery Swiftspear
trumps Goblin Guide
all the time. There are four reasons for this. 1), Monastery Swiftspear
gives nothing to the opponent like Goblin Guide
does. 2), She gets much stronger than Goblin Guide
from just playing the deck like you normally would. 3) Her toughness and her prowess means she can survive through a lot more attacks and also be pretty decent at defense. And 4), The only downside Monastery Swiftspear
has to Goblin Guide
is one power, but this is completely irrelevant when we consider the entire nature for a DW deck to have a bunch of instants and sorceries tied in with Monastery Swiftspear
's prowess.
Obviously Monastery Swiftspear
doesn't work if that DW deck is heavily creature based or in a goblin deck, both of which Goblin Guide
shine. So now the next step is to compare the effectiveness of a noncreature heavy DW deck to a creature heavy DW deck and/or a goblin deck (not comparing to the two combined). I'm pretty certain we will all agree that a noncreature heavy DW deck is the victor here, but what about the others?
Ever since the inclusion of Treasure Cruise
it looks like 
delver trumps illusion tribal, so Delver of Secrets
Flip
wins . is a no brainer with Death's Shadow
in Suicide , 
and . Noble Hierarch
would definitely beat Wild Nacatl
due to the prevalence of Noble Hierarch
in a lot of other decks. For , ... well I don't know. I'm just gonna say Soul Warden
because it is seen so often and is a staple of any life gain deck.
I did forget multi-coloured though, and you could most likely say that Slippery Bogle is in that reign.
October 15, 2014 11:42 p.m.
DarkMagician says... #39
@Femme_Fatale You can still sit down and figure out which card gives you the most bang for your buck in a vacuum without listing their decks. Actually once you start listing decks then it's no longer a vacuum setting. And for the record never is to strong of a term to apply to just about anything in mtg, a friend of mine has a junk deck that runs Kor Duelist and it's pretty effective.
October 15, 2014 11:54 p.m.
BrandonJamesCAC says... #40
I agree 110% about Goblin Guide In my worthless opinion, I love when I get to stock up my lands for turns 3-6 then scry away
October 16, 2014 1:28 a.m.
MaksWell42 says... #41
Nyx-Fleece Ram could find a place on this list as a two drop 0/5. A good blocker that gains life is nice early on.
October 30, 2014 1:18 a.m.
Femme_Fatale says... #42
Nyx-Fleece Ram can get Dismember ed for all I care. It has NO modern value.
Unless someone shows me differently that Nyx-Fleece Ram is in Soul Sisters.
Anyways, a white two drop would be more along the lines of Thalia, Guardian of Thraben . ... Wait, is that it? Am I like, seriously missing something here? I guess we do have Ajani's Pridemate , but soul sisters is a pretty weak deck.
October 30, 2014 1:34 a.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #43
Leonin Arbiter is probably the second-best mono-white two-drop outside of Thalia. If we're not restricted to white, Voice of Resurgence is far and away the best.
Rman92011 says... #2
I'd put Emrakul, the Aeons Torn in the 15cmc slot.
October 13, 2014 8:37 p.m.