Summary
The Lizard creature type has existed sinceMagic: The Gathering’s Exodus set in 1998. While the number of actual Lizards was originally small, all Viashino creatures were retroactively made into Lizards with the release of Outlaws of Thunder Junction in 2024, now having a little less than 200 cards in the Lizard card pool.
There are a lot of Lizards in Magic, many of which are very strong. Lizards have seen play in competitive decks in constructed formats as well as used as synergies in various Commander decks. Many Lizards stand out on their own and together in dedicated Lizard decks.
10Viashino Pyromancer
Old Burn Staple
Viashino Pyromancer used to be a big part of burn decks, dealing two damage when it enters the battlefield while having solid stats for a two-drop. Although it’s fallen out of favor lately, it’s still a very useful Lizard to have in aggressive decks.
Viashino Pyromancer is a Lizard Wizard, the latter creature type that is relevant for decks runningWizard’s Lighting that lets you deal three damageto any target for one red mana if you have a Wizard, letting Viashino Pyromancer deal five burn damage when combined with Wizard’s Lightning.
9Blazing Rootwalla
It’s Madness!
Blazing Rootwalla commonly sees play in Madness decks as a way to get a free creature on the battlefield. Although the stats and effect on the battlefield aren’t particularly exciting or strong, it keeps you even on card advantage by giving you a solid card to discard while keeping more impactful cards in your hand.
Blazing Rootwalla is most commonly used with Vengevine, which can be put onto the battlefield from the graveyard when you cast your second creature spell. Since madness still casts the card, Blazing Rootwalla gives you a free creature cast.
8Gev, Scaled Scorch
Face Of Lizard Decks
Gev, Scaled Scorch is a great legendary Lizard if you are looking to build a Lizard Commander deck, and also a great choice for Lizard-based burn decks. The ward plays into the burn theme that Lizards acquired in Bloomburrow, with plenty of support.
Gev gives all your creatures +1/+1 counters and incidental burn damage for each Lizard you cast. This lets you amass a more threatening battlefield of Lizards while each one brings your opponents' life total closer to zero. In multiplayer games, Gev can give up to three +1/+1 counters for each creature entering.
7Kylox, Visionary Inventor
Sacrifice For Spells
Kylox, Visionary Inventor is unique for an Izzet (blue/red) card as it wants you to actively sacrifice your creatures. This, in turn, gives you instants and sorceries you can cast for free, depending on how much you sacrifice.
Kylox does require you to build your deck around it so you don’t whiff on exiling an instant or sorcery spell. As such, it’s best to use these with types of cardsthat create creature tokens. This not only gives you free creatures to sacrifice, but if you exile them off of Kylox, you’ll still be able to actually cast them rather than lose them forever.
6Basking Broodscale
Go Infinite With Lizards
Pauper players are likely very familiar with Basking Broodscale, as it is the key card of a combo deck in the format. When enchanted with the Aura Sadistic Glee, it gets a +1/+1 counter whenever a creature is put into the graveyard.
Since Basking Broodscale makes a token you can sacrifice whenever a +1/+1 counter is put on it, these two cards make up an infinite combo that can make Basking Broodscale have an infinite amount of counters while generating aninfinite amount of colorless mana. If you have a way to dump that mana into a win condition, it’s possible to win the game off of this combo.
5Flamecache Gecko
Lizard’s Own Burning-Tree Emissary
What makes Flamecache Gecko so good is that so long as an opponent lost life the turn you cast it and it successfully enters the battlefield, you essentially got to cast it for free. It gives you a red and a black mana, which is the same amount of mana you need to cast Flamecahce Gecko.
It’s useful if you’re in Rakdos (black/red) colors, as it can give you the required mana needed to cast the other cards in your hand if you don’t have a black source of mana. It also helps you to loot through your deck to find more action if you have nothing useful in it.
4Iridescent Vinelasher
Make Lands Painful
Iridescent Vinelasher is a fantastic Lizard, capable of coming into the battlefield with a copy of itself if you have two extra mana to pay. This thenturns all lands entering the battlefieldinto burn damage. If you used the offspring ability, lands will do two damage.
Since it isn’t legendary, having multiple copies of Iridescent Vinelasher can do a turn of burn damage for the simple cost of playing your lands for the turn. If you have fetchlands, you can trigger the effect multiple times a turn, causing massive burn with extra copies.
3Party Thrasher
Crash And Convoke The Party
Party Thrasher is the perfect card for any deck that frequently exiles cards that you cast later. It can only convoke noncreature spells, but this just means you will be spending mana to cast exiled creatures and using them to cast your noncreature spells.
Party Thrasher lets you exile cards yourself so you don’t have to rely on other spells to startconvoking noncreature spells. If you are also playing a deck that plays out of the graveyard, Party Thrasher can discard cards while digging you deeper into your deck.
2Bloodspore Thrinax
Bloodspore Thrinax is a great way to ensure all your other creaturesenter with +1/+1 counters. There is no limit on the number of creatures you’re able to sacrifice for its devour cost, so if you have an excess amount of creatures, you can have Bloodspore Thrinax enter with a ton of counters.
If you have ways to proliferate or add extra counters onto Bloodspore Thrinax, its effect gets even better. If you’re playing a +1/+1 counter deck, you’ll want to make room for Bloodspore Hrinax with how useful it is for that strategy.
1Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar
Keep Your Partner Close
Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar is one of the handful of cards with partner, letting you play two commanders if they both share the ability. Kediss essentially makes it so your commanders will be doing damage to everyone, not just one opponent. This lets you quickly rack up damage in cases where you would have to focus on one opponent at a time.
Kediss is a creature that will hang back in combat due to its poor stats, but its effect is what makes it so useful, especially since you can always have access to it in the command zone.
