Summary
The Bat creature type was first introduced inMagic: The Gathering’sHomelands set released back in 1995. Despite the type being around in the game for so long, there aren’t as many Bat creatures as you would expect. There are only around 50 Bats in the game.
Despite the low number of Bats, there are plenty of powerful ones that see play across the many formats of Magic. Some Bats support other Bat cards, while others have generic effects that synergize with a ton of different strategies. All of them are useful in the right decks, but some shine above the others.
10Eyetwitch
Learn With Bats
Eyetwitch is a very simple card, but one of the easiest ways to learn is to add Lessons from your sideboard into your deck. Eyetwitch is a great creature to sacrifice or use as a chump blocker since you actively want it to die to learn.
Since Eyetwitch only costs one mana, this allows you to immediately get it on the battlefield. Even in the late-game, it’s useful as then you may get the more impactful Lessons that cost more mana so you can cast them as soon as you add them.
9Voidwing Hybrid
The Most Toxic Bat
In a toxic deck, Voidwing Hybrid is going to be a key player in your deck as it can constantly recur itself back to your hand whenever you proliferate, something you’ll find yourself doing often. Since Voidwing Hybrid has flying, it’s harder to block allowing you to connect for damage to start getting poison counters on your opponent(s).
Its low mana cost helps to ensure you can always cast it. Although toxic one means it takes a while tohit ten poison counters, since you are going to be proliferating a lot this will be able to reach ten much quicker than it appears.
8Screeching Scorchbeast
A Flying Menace
Screeching Scorchbeast acts as a fantastic payoff for mill strategies, creating 2/2 tokens for every card milled each turn. Rad counters also cause more mill, letting you force mill to your opponents even quicker to flood the battlefield with Zombie Mutant tokens.
It does cost a fair bit of mana, but if you’re playing a rad counter deck, you will be milling yourself so adding on a reanimator package can get it to the battlefield quicker. Once it’s on the battlefield, Screeching Scorchbeast doesn’t even need to attack to get the most out of its effects, so long as you have other ways to mill.
7Moonstone Eulogist
Death For Blood
Moonstone Eulogist is something that can quickly snowball if it’s not taken care of quickly. There are many ways to sacrifice a ton of artifacts for little cost, letting Moonstone Eulogist grow with +1/+1 countersand gain life(and there are ways to go infinite with that).
Moonstone Eulogist has two separate effects, both of which are solid on their own. The effect to make Blood tokens for creature tokens is minor but feeds into its other effects if you have no other way to generate artifacts. The Blood tokens are great for getting rid of dead cards in your hand as well as digging through your deck for your main cards.
6Essence Channeler
Essence Channeler is very unique in that it is the only Bat in Magic that doesn’t naturally have flying. Instead, it only gains flying when you lose life during the turn (and gains vigilance too). On the contrary, lifegain causes it toincrease in stats to make it a bigger threat.
Even if Essence Channeler gets removed, you can just move the counters over to another creature so all the stat increases don’t go to waste, turning a completely different creature into another threat your opponent will have to deal with.
5Darkstar Augur
The Dark Confidant Bat
Darkstar Augur is both amazing and dangerous. You do want to have some source of lifegain in your deck, as Darkstar Augur will cause you quite a bit of burn damage. If you use its offspring ability, you’ll get double the effect, but double the potential burn.
Darkstar Augur provides a ton of card advantage, but it’s a card that should be played sparingly unless you can counteract the life loss it’ll provide. However, in the right decks, this tradeoff of life for cards can be worth it to ensure you draw your best cards.
4Mirkwood Bats
Turn Tokens Into Pain
Mirkwood Bats is a fantastic card for any deck built around tokens. So long as you’re creating or sacrificing them, your opponents will be losing life. There is a plethora of ways to create aninfinite amount of tokens, causing infinite burn damage to win the game.
Mirkwood Bats is a creature that while on its own isn’t anything special, when used with token synergies, it becomes amazing. Mirkwood Bats is a bit costly in mana, but once it hits the battlefield you can win the game off of its effect.
3Zoraline, Cosmos Caller
Gain Life And Creatures
If you’re planning on building a Bat deck, Zoraline, Cosmos Caller is going to be at the center. The lifegain from attacking with a Bat triggers off of every Bat attacking, not just once for every Bat. Thislets you gain a ton of lifeby simply attacking.
The extra attraction of Zoraline is the reanimation ability. It brings back any permanent with a mana value of three or less, and there is no shortage of amazing ones at that mana range, including other Bats that can let you keep the pressure up.
2Deep-Cavern Bat
Steal Your Opponent’s Best Cards
Deep-Cavern Bat is a very simple card with a simple effect, but just because it’s simple doesn’t mean it’s bad. It’s far from bad, and one of the most useful effects you can have. It can get rid of a card in your opponent’s hand that can hurt you later.
Even if Deep-Cavern Bat gets removed and your opponent gets the card you exiled back, you still get the information of what is in your opponent’s hand so you can plan your future turns around that information. You still get to look at your opponent’s hand even if Deep-Cavern Bat is removed before it ever gets a chance to exile a card.
1Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal // Temple Of The Dead
The Bat God
Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal is a creature that’s hard to permanently take care of since if it dies,it transforms into a land. If you’re playing a discard deck, transforming Temple of the Dead back into Aclazotz is easy since it only costs three mana to do so.
Aclazotz forces your opponent to discard cards, punishing your opponents from discarding lands if they choose to do that. Its stats and abilities are both excellent to verify your life total stays high and your hand stays filled once your opponent has no cards left to work with.
