The 33 Best Lizards in Magic Ranked

Last updated on August 15, 2025

Gev, Scaled Scorch | Illustration by Taro Yamazaki

Bloomburrow is one of the first main Magic sets that treated lizards as a relevant creature type, and it gives us reasons to consider lizards as creatures that work together, not unlike Theros with minotaurs.

Lizards are joined by the viashino, getting a boost in numbers and in power level, so it's a great time to focus on these scaly and cold reptiles and see what they have to offer.

There are nearly 200 lizards printed in MTG, and these are the best ones you should consider for your decks, either to build a lizard Commander deck or in lower-powered formats like Standard.

What Are Lizards in MTG?

Basking Broodscale | Illustration by Caio Monteiro

Lizards in MTG have the lizard creature subtype, and often represent small, cheap creatures, often with minor self-pump abilities. As of 2024, all viashino in MTG are now lizards, and this list has many cards that show viashino in the card text, and have since been errata'd to lizards.

Lizards in MTG are mainly red creatures, with some green creatures and black creatures here and there, and the occasional splash into other colors. Bloomburrow reflects that by giving them an aggressive mechanical theme, so most lizards printed in Bloomburrow care about dealing damage to your opponents or whether they’ve taken damage or lost life in a given turn.

#33. Izzet Polarizer

Although digital-only (read: MTG Arena), this lizard gives you what Izzet () mages usually want, a good counterspell in Ionize or a good burn spell in Electrolyze. Izzet Polarizer embodies the principles of counterburn perfectly, and it's a card your opponents would rather see on the battlefield than dead.

#32. Iguana Parrot

Iguana Parrot is a welcome keyword soup card for a common blue lizard. Of course flying and prowess work especially well, the vigilance opens up this pirate to work for waterbending as well as attack. Each of these are rather unique for lizards, just a tidbit of that magic of Avatar: The Last Airbender at work I suppose.

#31. Station Monitor

Station Monitor is a cool little payoff for the double-spell deck from Edge of Eternities. Consistent ways to pop out fliers are great reasons to keep a card around.

#30. Ashroot Animist

Ashroot Animist is a thick lizard for the 4-power matters theme in . Even if that annoyed player gives a shrinking blue enchantment to Ashroot, it is still a trample enabler and I love the efficiency on pump spells like Phytoburst and the forced block on Enlarge.

#29. Vine Gecko

Vine Gecko’s value comes from the kicker synergies it enables. It’s an average to bad card, but you’re playing it in a deck filled with kicker spells to make them better.

#28. Zirilan of the Claw

Zirilan of the Claw is a clunky red commander who’s better known in casual pods for cheating dragons into play. This could easily be a mono-red dragon commander, and there are interesting synergies to be had by cheating specific dragons into play, like using Balefire Dragon to kill some enemy creatures or Hellkite Tyrant to steal artifacts.

#27. Immolation Shaman

Immolation Shaman can deal a lot of damage to your opponents with its activated ability, and even hamper some infinite combos based on activation loops with its triggered ability. You can play this card if you need an extra lizard or shaman for synergies.

#26. Basking Broodscale

Basking Broodscale starts as a mere 2/2 that can turn into a 3/3 and give you an Eldrazi Spawn token. It’s also an early play in eldrazi decks that usually don’t have that much to do on turns 2-3 besides casting ramp. It really shines in +1/+1 counter decks where you can proliferate or put extra counters on this card and produce more ramp tokens.

#25. Magebane Lizard

Magebane Lizard is another hate-lizard, so to speak. It’s a way to fight control decks and storm combo decks, while also punishing players that spend more than one removal spell to deal with it.

#24. Frilled Mystic

Frilled Mystic is a card that has the Mystic Snake pedigree. It’s hard to cast at , but adding a 3/2 and countering a spell is a solid tempo play. It was once a role-player in Standard, and it’s at its best in a flash deck.

#23. Basking Rootwalla

Getting a free 1/1 instead of discarding a card isn’t bad, especially a 1/1 that can be relevant later as a 3/3. Basking Rootwalla is a classic card, and there are lots of ways to madness it, either by drawing and discarding, or even as a response to your opponent’s discard effects.

#22. Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar

Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar is an interesting and cheap partner commander who supports their partner very well. You can pair this excellent lizard commander with Voltron commanders that will deliver a strong hit on each opponent instead of just one, or a commander with a good saboteur ability to get more value. It's also an uncommon, making it a great Pauper commander.

#21. Party Thrasher

Party Thrasher gives you another way to exploit the impulse draw effect in red (exile the top card, and you can play it later). You can discard a card and exile two so you get some card selection this way, and if you don’t have the mana, you can convoke them with your creatures. There’s a strong synergy with cards like Young Pyromancer and Monastery Mentor which supply you with the tokens needed to convoke the spells.

#20. Infested Thrinax

Infested Thrinax is combat math hell for your opponents, and one excellent token generator. If you’d have a big combat turn or just get your creatures destroyed, you can flash this in and make many 1/1s. It’s also a 4/4 that you don’t mind throwing under some big creature or trading.

#19. Rivaz of the Claw

Rivaz of the Claw offers you a good dragon commander, providing ramp and creature recursion. It’s good to pair with red discard and draw effects, stocking dragons for later use, or to synergize with red-black dragons like Bladewing the Risen.

#18. Mezzio Mugger

If you have a lot of mana or Treasures lying around, a blitzed Mezzio Mugger can be a surprise trick in the late game, allowing you to cast up to four cards. As a 5-drop, it’s somewhat lacking because it’s hard to attack with a 3/3, unless you want to cash it in for cards. You can also blitz it on turn 3 for a desperation land drop, even if it's your opponent's.

#17. Underdark Explorer

Underdark Explorer is one of the few cards that grant the initiative, which is a very powerful mechanic in 1v1 games and more balanced in EDH. Several cards that grant the initiative at 4 and 5 mana, including this one, ended up being banned in formats like Pauper. Because it’s a black card, it can be ramped out fast thanks to Dark Ritual.

Underdark Explorer itself is okay to bad, but cards that grant the monarch or the initiative are viewed through other lenses.

#16. Unruly Krasis

Unruly Krasis is high above the curve on stats alone, offering you a 4/4 trample for 3 mana, that you can later adapt to turn it into a 7/7. Not only that, but attacking with the Krasis turns one of your small 1/1s or 2/2’s into a much larger threat.

#15. Agate Instigator

Agate Instigator is a lizard from Bloomburrow with the Impact Tremors effect. You can turn your lizard synergies on simply by playing creatures; any will do, not just lizards. Moreover, you can have double the effects thanks to this card’s offspring ability.

#14. Viashino Pyromancer

Viashino Pyromancer has been a nice aggressive 2-drop in mono-red decks. It deals damage on ETB, so it doesn’t need to attack. It’s also a wizard, and Izzet Wizards decks have been performing well lately with good synergies involving Adeliz, the Cinder Wind or Naban, Dean of Iteration.

#13. Alpha Deathclaw

Alpha Deathclaw is a juiced-up Ravenous Chupacabra, effectively being a Vindicate on a 6/6 body. You can later make it monstrous to get a 10/10 that destroys something else. An awesome threat for a x deck.

#12. Whiptongue Hydra

Whiptongue Hydra is very dependent on the metagame and the boardstate, but it’s a good creature to have around, especially in a creature toolbox deck. Being able to tutor this 6-drop at the right time can be devastating to your enemies when they rely on their fliers.

#11. Laughing Jasper Flint

Outlaws of Thunder Junction‘s Laughing Jasper Flint is a good mixture of a theft commander and an outlaws-matter one. You’ll want to play an outlaw-typal deck with this card to see more of your opponents’ cards, and the creatures you steal this way are also outlaws. This way, your synergies and your board get stronger as the game goes on.

#10. Lizard Blades

Lizard Blades is an awesome mix between a 1/1 double strike creature and an equipment that grants double strike later on. It’s very annoying for your opponents because if they kill the equipped creature, they still have to deal with the 1/1 lizard.

#9. Hellspur Posse Boss

Hellspur Posse Boss offers you a lot of power coming out of nowhere, bringing two hasty mercenaries that can give +1/+0 to other creatures you control. This card is another reason to run outlaws.

#8. Hired Claw

Hired Claw can easily become a 2/3 (or greater) without any help from other cards, and allowing lizards to deal direct damage is a strong incentive to play this creature type. In an EDH deck like Ognis, the Dragon's Lash with many hasty lizards, the damage can pile up pretty quickly.

#7. Fireglass Mentor

Fireglass Mentor is a 2-drop that lets you play one of two cards, offering constant card advantage. You just need to deal damage consistently, but that's not hard to do if you build a deck around this effect, especially given that dealing damage is the core lizard mechanic. It's quite good in Bloomburrow Sealed or a BLB Draft.

#6. Iridescent Vinelasher

Iridescent Vinelasher is an awesome 1-drop for aggressive decks, being able to deal damage without needing to attack. Each fetch land you play domes them for 2, and if you pay the offspring cost, you'll have two of these in play. It's not hard to combo this card with a Cultivate / Scapeshift type card, and you turn on the damage-based synergies that lizards have to offer.

#5. Flamecache Gecko

Flamecache Gecko is the lizards' Burning-Tree Emissary that can also rummage if you don't have a better play, or if you have excess mana or useless cards. You know how this goes if you’ve played Burning-Tree Emissary, and it’s a very aggressive play on the early turns.

#4. Ognis, the Dragon’s Lash

Ognis, the Dragon's Lash is a very popular Jund commander and a solid Treasure commander when paired with hasty creatures, Fires of Yavimaya, and the like.

There’s plenty of good stuff you can do with Treasure in these colors, and Jund colors also synergize with token creation, sacrifice, or just sheer artifact numbers. On rate, you also get a 3/3, attack with haste, and make a treasure token.

#3. Hearthborn Battler

I dismissed this card as a combo-hate card, but then I realized it also triggers when you double-spell, too. Hearthborn Battler is excellent, and you'll feel great when you play two spells and deal 2 damage on top of the benefits you're already getting. Attack with a 2/3 haste, play two burns spells and deal 2 more damage? Solid. There are also OTJ synergies like the plot mechanic, Slickshot Show-Off, and the like.

#2. Valley Flamecaller

Valley Flamecaller is a powerful warlock and enabler for lizard synergies, making the damage from cards like Iridescent Vinelasher and Hired Claw much more potent. It’s a good addition to aggressive decks if you rely on lizard-typal synergies.

#1. Gev, Scaled Scorch

Gev, Scaled Scorch is absurd. This Bloomburrow commander gives a +1/+1 counter to each lizard you cast in 1v1, and up to three counters in EDH. It's also a 2-mana 3/2. The power of a deck that Gev is in or commands depend on the strength of other lizards, of course, but this card is already a strong incentive to play a typal lizard deck. It's also one of the best cards in Bloomburrow Limited.

Best Lizard Payoffs

There aren’t that many specific lizard payoffs for you to run a lizard-typal deck, so if you’re running lizards, they’ll usually carry their own weight. That said, here are a few cards that you should run that support a lizard-centric strategy.

Hired Claw and Gev, Scaled Scorch offer you a big incentive to fill your decks with lizards. Dealing damage to your opponents on attack or getting a buff on your creatures is huge, and having all of this on a Gev is a good start for a Commander deck. Valley Rotcaller has “Each opponent loses X life” when it attacks, where X can be the number of lizards you control, so it’s an enabler and a payoff for the strategy. Valley Flamecaller strengthens your ping and damage engines. It’s very strong alongside Gev, Scaled Scorch, Hearthborn Battler, and more.

Mudflat Village and Rockface Village offer you some benefits if you control a lizard, and they’re lands that don’t have any downside besides only generating colored mana for creatures.

Three Tree City is a typal staple, so if you have many lizards on the battlefield, this card produces a lot of mana.

Spider-Ham, Peter Porker is aggressively costed at if you stretch to green. It's a solid anthem that animals appreciate.

Wrap Up

Valley Flamecaller | Illustration by Justin Gerard

And that’s all there is to know about lizards, folks. These cold-blooded little guys got some love from WotC, both in Bloomburrow and Streets of New Capenna.

Standard is a nice place for lizards to shine, and Gev, Scaled Scorch provides the muscle needed to thrive in EDH. It’s an exciting time to be a lizard fan, and I like them in multiple MTG formats.

What about you? What’s your favorite lizard outside of Bloomburrow? Let me know in the comments, or in our Discord Server.

Thank you for reading, and may the sun provide the heat you need.