MTG: 10 Best Horses

There are few creature types in Magic: The Gathering more majestic than Horses. Found across all colors of the game and a few artifact ones as well, Horses have seen tragically few cards printed under the creature type compared to others.


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Just because there aren’t a lot of Horses out there doesn’t mean there aren’t some impressive ones though. Whether you’re looking to take down your friends and foes with a new Horse-based Commander deck or are just looking for some variety in your creatures, these cards won’t have you saying ‘neigh’ if you include them.

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10 Breaching Hippocamp

Image of the Breaching Hippocamp card in Magic: The Gathering, with art by Christopher Burdett

A hippocamp might be a bit of a stretch since it’s a mythological sea monster, but it has Horse in its creature typing, so it works. This uncommon from Theros can be played at instant speed thanks to its flash ability, making its enter the battlefield ability to untap another creature you control capable of happening at instant speed.

Realistically, the best use for Breaching Hippocamp is as a backup combo piece for your Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker combo. If you copy Breaching Hippocamp with Kiki-Jiki, you can untap the Goblin, allowing you to make infinite copies of the Hippocamp, all of which have haste.

9 Cosmos Charger

 Image of the Cosmos Charger card in Magic: The Gathering, with art by Nils Hamm

Some creatures do one thing and do it exceptionally well. Cosmos Charger makes all your foretell cards much more versatile, reducing the cost to exile them from your hand while also giving you the ability to do it at instant speed.

Foretell might be a bit limited as a mechanic, but a Commander deck with Edgin, Larcenous Lutenist from the Honor Among Thieves Secret Lair Drop as your commander can make good use of Cosmos Charger. Since all your spells have foretell with Edgin out, you can keep your entire hand in exile, just waiting for your opponents to try and stop you.

8 Thundering Mightmare

Image of the Thundering Mightmare card in Magic: The Gathering, with art by Lorenzo Mastroianni

The interesting thing about Innistrad is that ghosts are all over the plane, including Horse ghosts with the printing of Thundering Mightmare. When it comes into play or when another creature comes into play, and Thundering Mightmare is not paired, you can bond the two creatures together.

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As long as Thundering Mightmare is bonded, both creatures get +1/+1 counters on them whenever an opponent casts a spell. Pretty much any creature you pair with it will grow into a powerful creature, especially with any other effects that produce extra +1/+1 counters.

7 Keleth, Sunmane Familiar

 Image of the Keleth, Sunmane Familiar card in Magic: The Gathering, with art by Jesper Ejsing

As a partner commander, you can pair Keleth, Sunmane Familiar with another legendary creature with partner, making it the perfect mount for your aggro Commander deck. When paired with a commander that rewards attacking, possibly one that synergizes with a Voltron-like strategy or has an attack trigger, Keleth is a great creature to accompany it.

The neat thing about Keleth is that it will put counters on itself since it is also considered one of your commanders. Attacking into an open board or getting around blockers by attaching equipment and auras to Keleth can quickly power this Horse up into a brutal attacker.

6 Wavebreak Hippocamp

 Image of the Wavebreak Hippocamp card in Magic: The Gathering, with art by Caio Monteiro

An interesting creature to consider for a control-based Commander deck, Wavebreak Hippocamp does one thing but does it exceptionally well. The first time you cast a spell during an opponent’s turn, you get to draw a card.

Depending on how your deck is built, you could draw upwards of three cards by the time the game makes its way back to you. With a deck full of cantrips or ones with cheap flashback cards, you’ll be able to keep your hand full of spells once your turn comes back around.

5 Nightmare

Image of the Nightmare card in Magic: The Gathering, with art by Vance Kovacs

One of the original rare creatures from all the way back from the Alpha set, Nightmare is a powerhouse in a mono-black deck. This Horse’s power and toughness are both equal to the number of Swamps you control, oftentimes making it a 6/6 by the time you cast it since it has a cost of six mana.

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This terrifying horse is made worse since it has flying, letting it swoop down from above to take out large chunks of your opponent’s life total. If you’re in a multicolor deck or one with a lot of nonbasic lands, go ahead and play an Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth to turn all your lands into Swamps to give your Nightmare a boost.

4 Akroan Horse

Image of the Akroan Horse card in Magic: The Gathering, with art by Seb McKinnon

One of the sillier cards to make its way to Magic, Akroan Horse is just an innocent, giant wooden Horse, nothing notable other than being a big Horse, and it certainly doesn’t have a bunch of Soldiers hiding in it.

When Akroan Horse comes into play, you give it to an opponent. Then, at the start of the turn of the opponent you gave it to, each of their opponents gets a 1/1 Soldier creature token. Your opponent does get a creature while you are spending mana and potentially taking a turn to do nothing to your board, which is rarely a good thing, having a steady stream of Soldier tokens flooding the board can cause a lot of chaos in a game.

3 Bill The Pony

Image of the Bill the Pony card in Magic: The Gathering, with art by Christina Kraus

Fan favorite Bill the Pony is off on a journey that will take you to the Misty Mountains in Middle-earth, though more likely, he will let you deal a good amount of damage to your opponents.

When Bill the Pony enters the battlefield, you get to make two Food tokens, an effect that has tons of potential with token-based decks. You can then sacrifice a Food token to let a creature you control deal combat damage with its toughness instead of its power. By itself, you can turn Bill into a 4/4 creature, but when paired up with other effects that boost toughness or with creatures with a large toughness stat, you can deal some serious damage.

2 Crested Sunmare

Image of the Crested Sunmare card in Magic: The Gathering, with art by Lucas Graciano

If left alone, Crested Sunmare can be its own type of nightmare for your opponents. At the end of each player’s turn, if you’ve gained life during the turn, you get to make a 5/5 Horse creature token, an absolute powerhouse of an ability.

Even better, Crested Sunmare gives your other Horse creatures indestructible as long as Crested Sunmare is in play, turning those tokens into an unstoppable engine. There are tons of ways to gain life in Magic, making it very easy to get a token every turn with very little effort on your end.

1 Shadowfax, Lord Of Horses

 Image of the Shadowfax, Lord of Horses card in Magic: The Gathering, with art by Valera Lutfullina

When it comes to powerful Horses, you will find no better steed than Shadowfax, Lord of Horses. First up, Shadowfax gives all Horse creatures you control haste, which, while a little limited, can be used with Changeling creatures or the enchantment Arcane Adaptation to turn all your creatures into Horses.

The real power comes from Shadowfax’s ability to take a creature card from your hand with lower power than Shadowfax’s four and put it directly into play tapped and attacking when Shadowfax attacks. There’s also a fun flavor piece with Shadowfax which tells players the meaning of haste, an evergreen mechanic that isn’t typically explained on a card, a fun reference when Gandalf says to Shadowfax, “show us the meaning of haste.”

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