THS: Creatures

This is a list of all creatures in Theros broken down along the following axes:

• Flyers vs. non-flyers (defenders are listed separately, regardless of whether or not they fly).
• Must-kill vs. other. I use “must-kill” to mean that the creature needs to be dispatched if it is controlled by an opponent, otherwise you are unlikely to win a long game. This helps determine the value of removal in the format, especially removal that kills/exiles creatures or turns off activated abilities. Powerful creatures that must attack in order to be problematic are usually not categorized as must-kill since they can potentially be blocked, e.g., Horizon Scholar. Creatures with other kinds of evasion (e.g., intimidate, unblockable) are usually listed as must-kill if they have power >= 2. This is necessarily a subjective evaluation — for instance, I categorized Advocate of the Beast as must-kill, but not Warden of Evos Isle and Banisher Priest.
• Power/toughness.
• Color/rarity.

The columns to the right provide summaries of the info for all must-kill, all non must-kill, all flyers, and all non-flyers, as well as the totals. The rows at the bottom provide summaries of the info across all colors.

This list includes all creatures, including those that are unlikely to see play (such as a vanilla 1/1 for 1 mana), since the playability of a creature is determined in large part by the power/toughness of other creatures in the format, and by the quantity and quality of removal in the set.

Some initial thoughts:

• The vast majority of creatures, including must-kill creatures, have toughness <= 4.
• About half of all creatures, and 63% of must-kill creatures, have toughness <= 2.
• Must-kill creatures have lower toughness than other creatures.