There are few types of creatures in Magic: The Gathering that are more majestic than horses. Found in every suit of the game and also in a few artifacts, horses have seen tragically few cards printed under the creature type compared to others.
Just because there aren’t many horses out there doesn’t mean there aren’t some impressive ones. Whether you’re looking to overwhelm your friends and foes with a new Horse-based Commander deck or just looking for some variety in your creatures, these cards won’t make you say ‘blink’ when you include them.
10 Breakthrough of the Hippocampus
The hippocampus might be a bit of a stretch, being a mythological sea monster, but it has Horse creatures in its typing, so it works. This uncommon from Theros can be played at instant speed thanks to its flash ability, making its ability to enter the battlefield open up another creature you control that can happen at instant speed.
Realistically, the best use for Breaching Hippocamp is as a backup combo piece for your Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker combo. Copying Breaching Hippocamp with Kiki-Jiki can unlock Goblin, allowing you to make infinite copies of Hippocamp that all have haste.
9 Charger Cosmos
Some creatures do one thing and do it exceptionally well. Cosmos Charger makes all of your prediction cards much more versatile by reducing the cost of banishing them from your hand while allowing you to do so at instant speed.
Foretell may be a bit limited as a mechanic, but a Commander deck with Edgin, Larcenous Lutenist from Honor Among Thieves Secret Lair Drop as your commander can make good use of Cosmos Charger. Since all of your spells are foreshadowing when Edgin is out, you can hold your entire hand in exile and just wait for your opponents to try to stop you.
8 Thundering Mightmare
The interesting thing about Innistrad is that there are ghosts all over the plane, including horse spirits that say Thundering Mightmare. When it comes into play, or when another creature comes into play and Thundering Mightmare isn’t paired, you can chain those two creatures together.
While Thundering Mightmare is attached, both creatures get +1/+1 counters whenever the opponent casts the spell. Almost any creature you combo with it will grow into a powerful creature, especially with all the other effects that produce extra +1/+1 counters.
7 Keleth, Sunmane Familiar
As a partner commander, you can pair Keleth, the Sunmane Familiar with another legendary creature with a partner, making it the perfect carrier for your aggro Commander deck. Paired with an attack-rewarding commander, preferably one that synergizes with a Voltron-like strategy or has an attack trigger, Keleth is a great creature to accompany.
The nice thing about Keleth is that he will put up counters for himself as he is also considered one of your commanders. Attacking an open board or circling blockers by attaching gear and aura to Keleth can quickly turn this horse into a brutal attacker.
6 Hippocampus Wavebreak
An interesting creature to consider in a control-based Commander deck, Wavebreak Hippocamp does one thing, but it does it extremely well. The first time you cast a spell during your opponent’s turn, you draw a card.
Depending on how your deck is built, you can draw up to three cards until the game returns to you. With a deck full of enchantments or ones with cheap return cards, you’ll be able to keep your hands full of spells when it’s your turn again.
5 Nightmare
Nightmare, one of the original rare creatures since the Alpha deck, is a powerful force in a mono-black deck. This steed’s power and toughness are equal to the number of Swamps you control, often making it a 6/6 by the time you cast it, since it costs six mana.
This fearsome steed is even worse because it has flight that allows it to drop down from above to destroy large chunks of your opponent’s life total. If you’re in a multicolor deck or one with a lot of non-basic lands, play Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth to turn all your lands into Swamps to boost your nightmare.
4 Akroan horse
One of the sillier cards to make its way into Magic, the Akroan Horse is just an innocent, giant wooden horse that isn’t anything special other than being a big horse, and it certainly doesn’t have a bunch of soldiers hiding inside.
When Akroan Horse comes into play, you give it to your opponent. Then, at the start of the opponent’s turn you gave it to, each opponent gets a 1/1 Soldier creature token. Your opponent does get a creature while you’re spending mana and it’s potentially their turn to do nothing to your board, which is rarely a good thing, as a constant stream of Soldier tokens flooding the board can cause a lot of chaos in the game.
3 Pony Bill
Favorite pony Bill is embarking on a journey that will take you to the Misty Mountains of Middle-earth, although he’s more likely to let you deal a lot of damage to your opponents.
When pony Bill enters the battlefield, you can make two food tokens, an effect that has huge potential with token-based decks. You can then sacrifice a food token to allow a creature you control to deal combat damage with its toughness instead of strength. You can turn Bill into a 4/4 on his own, but when you combine him with other toughness-boosting effects or high toughness creatures, he can do some serious damage.
2 Crested Sunmare
If left alone, Crested Sunmare can be a particular nightmare for your opponents. At the end of each player’s turn, if you gained life during the turn, you can make a 5/5 Horse creature token, which is the absolute power of the ability.
Even better, Crested Sunmare gives your other horse creatures indestructibility for as long as Crested Sunmare is in play, turning those tokens into an unstoppable engine. There are tons of ways to gain life in the game of Magic, making it very easy to gain a token every turn with very little effort on your part.
1 Shadowfax, Master of Horses
When it comes to strong mounts, you won’t find a better mount than Shadowfax, Master of Horses. First, Shadowfax gives all horse creatures you control speed, which, while somewhat limited, can be used with Changeling creatures or the sorcerer’s 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 a lower power than Shadowfax’s four and put it directly into play by tapping and attacking when Shadowfax attacks. There’s also a fun bit with Shadowfax telling the players the meaning of haste, an evergreen mechanic that isn’t usually explained on the card, a fun reference when Gandalf tells Shadowfax to “show us the meaning of haste.”