The 45 Best Citizens in Magic Ranked

Last updated on April 29, 2025

Rigo, Streetwise Mentor | Illustration by Scott Murphy

While Magic: The Gathering has a lot of powerful creature types such as demons or dragons, some others are somewhat humbler or, why not, common as is the case of citizens.

Don’t be fooled though. These regular creatures can compete toe-to-toe against some other typical decks despite not being a tribe at all. Today, I will go over which citizens are the best, and of course, the best tools to maximize them.

Intrigued on what this list has to offer? Let’s find out!

What Are Citizens in MTG?

Bess, Soul Nourisher | Illustration by Leonardo Santanna

In Magic: The Gathering, citizen is a creature type that represents ordinary people within the game's lore. Unlike races such as elves or goblins, citizen is a class type rather than a species, meaning it often appears alongside other creature types (e.g., elf citizen, human citizen).

Citizens gained increased prominence in Streets of New Capenna, where they played a major role in the Brokers faction, focusing on the shield counter and alliance mechanics. They also appear across various plane-specific sets, including The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, where most halflings were given the citizen creature type.

This list ranks the best citizens ever printed, evaluating them based on their strength as build-around pieces, Commander options, and even win conditions.

#45. Jolly Gerbils

Jolly Gerbils turns generosity into card draw. If you love making deals at the table, these gerbils will keep your hand full while spreading goodwill with the gift mechanic.

#44. Sky Crier

A perfect tool for group hug and political strategies, Sky Crier lets you build alliances while keeping your own hand full. On top of that, with flying and lifelink, it provides small but consistent life swings that help you stay alive, especially if you find a way to make it bigger.

#43. Inside Source

Two bodies for 3 mana is always great, and Inside Source fits perfectly as a payoff for detective-themed decks.

#42. Head of the Homestead

A solid token generator, Head of the Homestead brings three bodies for 5 mana, making it a great addition to go-wide strategies and providing excellent synergy for sacrifice outlets or convoke strategies.

#41. Goblin Maskmaker

While face-down strategies or decks aren’t as popular, Goblin Maskmaker provides a unique cost reduction effect for those looking to explore disguise or morph mechanics.

#40. Gathering Throng

Squadron Hawk effects are always useful, and while Gathering Throng hasn’t seen much play, it still offers solid value in the right deck. It may not seem flashy as a 3/1 for 3 mana, but its ability to tutor up additional copies from your deck means it refills your hand and ensures a steady stream of creatures. Of course, its value goes up with cards like Brainstorm or Jace, the Mind Sculptor to shuffle the cards back into your deck for re-tutoring later on.

#39. Expendable Lackey

Expendable Lackey plays beautifully with loot effects as you can pay just 2 mana to create an unblockable creature directly from your graveyard. This may not seem too impressive, but when paired with cards like Basilisk Gate which can pump it, it can become a serious threat or even a win condition.

#38. Civic Gardener

Civic Gardener is a highly underrated card that maximizes the value of tap abilities from creatures like Wellwisher or Timberwatch Elf, letting you reuse their effects multiple times per turn. While it’s sadly not an elf itself, it still fits well in Commander decks that rely on creatures with powerful tap abilities. Notably, it can untap Gaea's Cradle to add an insane amount of mana from one phase to another.

#37. Harvestrite Host

Harvestrite Host is a great addition to rabbit decks or go-wide white strategies as it provides immediate value by buffing a creature’s power whenever it or another rabbit enters the battlefield. That said, the real payoff comes when you trigger this ability twice in a turn and draw a card, making it an efficient engine for decks that spam small creatures as a card advantage tool.

#36. Meriadoc Brandybuck

A perfect commander for halfling tribal or Food-based decks, Meriadoc Brandybuck turns your attacks into a steady supply of Food tokens.

#35. Peregrin Took

Peregrin Took pairs beautifully with Treasure, Clue, and creature token generators, turning incidental token creation into an ongoing resource advantage. On top of that, it lets you sacrifice three Foods to draw a card, ensuring you always have fuel for your game plan.

#34. Pompous Gadabout

A strange but effective evasive beater, the whole point of Pompous Gadabout was to sidestep face down, non-named creatures with disguise. It doesn't actually line up well against tokens, which do in fact have names.

#33. Cat Collector

Cat Collector is a purr-fect addition to lifegain decks. When it enters, it creates a Food token, immediately fueling its second ability—whenever you gain life for the first time each turn, you get a 1/1 white cat token. In decks that trigger lifegain consistently, this generates an army of cats over time, making it a strong inclusion in Selesnya lifegain, Orzhov aristocrats, or token-focused decks.

#32. Cleanup Crew

A versatile toolbox creature, Cleanup Crew brings a big body and flexible removal all in one. For 6 mana, you get a 6/6 human citizen that can destroy an artifact, destroy an enchantment, exile a card from a graveyard, or gain 4 life when it enters the battlefield. This makes it a great inclusion in decks that need answers to problematic permanents while maintaining solid board presence.

#31. Darling of the Masses

A must-have for citizen tribal decks, Darling of the Masses is both a lord and a token generator. As a 2/4 elf citizen for 4 mana, it boosts all your other citizens by +1/+0, making even small tokens more threatening. On top of that, whenever it attacks, you create a 1/1 citizen token, ensuring a steady flow of creatures to keep the pressure on.

#30. Disciplined Duelist

A resilient and hard-hitting threat, Disciplined Duelist brings double strike and built-in protection to Bant Voltron decks.

#29. Dockside Chef

A cheap and efficient sacrifice outlet, Dockside Chef is perfect for aristocrats and artifact-based decks. It comes down early and provides a repeatable card draw engine by letting you sacrifice an artifact or creature, making it invaluable in decks that generate Treasure, Food, or Clue tokens, as well as in strategies that want creatures in the graveyard for recursion.

#28. Gary Clone

A swarm enabler with a hilarious name, Gary Clone is a great fit for go-wide token decks and white weenie strategies. Thanks to squad, you can pay extra to create multiple copies when you cast it, instantly filling the board with an army of identical citizens. The real fun comes when they attack together, boosting each other’s power and making even a small army of them a serious threat.

#27. Greenbelt Radical

Greenbelt Radical is a sneaky finisher for aggressive decks that combines disguise with a teamwide buff that catches opponents off guard.

#26. Prosperous Innkeeper

Prosperous Innkeeper does everything a green midrange or token deck wants. As a 1/1 for 2mana, it immediately creates a Treasure token, giving you ramp or fixing on the spot. At the same time, its second ability gains you 1 life whenever another creature enters, making it a fantastic inclusion in go-wide strategies, lifegain decks, or blink-based archetypes.

#25. Sizzling Soloist

Sizzling Soloist keeps your opponents on the back foot every time you play a creature. Whenever a creature enters under your control, an opponent’s creature can’t block that turn, making it easier to swing in. However, if you trigger this ability twice in a turn, that creature must attack on its controller’s next combat, forcing awkward attacks and breaking up potential defensive plans.

#24. Skullport Merchant

A fantastic value engine, Skullport Merchant brings mana acceleration and card draw to any deck that loves sacrificing resources, making it a perfect fit in aristocrats, sacrifice, and Treasure-heavy decks.

#23. Streetwise Negotiator

Streetwise Negotiator is perfect for Doran, the Siege Tower decks, where toughness matters more than power. Its backup ability grants another creature the “assign combat damage equal to its toughness” effect, making it a great way to boost high-toughness creatures for an explosive attack when Doran isn’t around.

#22. Swooping Protector

Swooping Protector is a great defensive tool that can quickly shield key creatures. Flash lets you drop it in at just the right moment—whether to ambush an attacker, save a creature from removal, or set up an unexpected blocker.

#21. Unlucky Witness

A staple in Pioneer Rakdos Sacrifice decks, Unlucky Witness is an incredible 1-drop that fuels card advantage while feeding sacrifice engines. When it dies, you exile the top two cards of your library and can play one of them until your next end step, making it a perfect target for Deadly Dispute or Witch's Oven.

#20. Witty Roastmaster

Witty Roastmaster is a cheap common win condition for token generator decks, turning every creature that enters the battlefield into direct damage to all opponents.

#19. Duchess, Wayward Tavernkeep

Duchess, Wayward Tavernkeep is a commander that rewards aggressive play, as every time a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, it gets a quest counter you can cash in for Junk tokens—little artifacts you can sacrifice for an impulse draw. A great choice for red decks to get a leg up in card advantage.

#18. Feasting Hobbit

Feasting Hobbit goes big in Food-based decks. Devour Food 3 lets it enter as a massive threat if you've stockpiled enough tokens. Its built-in evasion ensures that smaller creatures can't block it, making it even more difficult to deal with in combat, and at just 2 mana, it has the potential to close out games quickly—especially if you can protect it

#17. First Responder

First Responder screams blink shenanigans. At the end of your turn, you can bounce a creature and put +1/+1 counters on First Responder based on that creature’s power, making it not only a potential threat but also a perfect enabler to re-enable strong enter-the-battlefield abilities.

#16. Frodo, Sauron's Bane

A flavorful, Ring-centered card, Frodo, Sauron's Bane can evolve from a citizen to a scout, then a rogue that outright wins the game if you've been tempted by the ring four times.

#15. Lobelia, Defender of Bag End

If you enjoy stealing your opponent’s resources, Lobelia, Defender of Bag End is for you. It exiles the top card of each opponent's deck and lets you play them for free or drain life at the mere cost of sacrificing an artifact, fitting perfectly as a payoff in artifact token strategies.

#14. Lobelia Sackville-Baggins

Another Lobelia, but this one cares about Treasure generation. Lobelia Sackville-Baggins steals recently dead creatures from opponents' graveyards and turns them into Treasure tokens based on the creatures' power. As you can imagine, running both Lobelias is highly advisable due to their synergy.

#13. Moira Brown, Guide Author

Moira Brown, Guide Author is a solid pick for Boros aggro or equipment decks. When they enter, they create Wilderness Survival Guide, an equipment that buffs a creature based on the number of quest counters among your permanents.

What's important is that every time you attack, it adds a quest counter to a nonland permanent, strengthening the equipped creature over time.

#12. Pain Distributor

Pain Distributor is a chaotic and aggressive option for group slug or artifact-punishing decks. It forces players to create a Treasure token when they cast their first spell each turn, which can speed up the game and fuel explosive plays. However, its second ability turns that generosity into pain—whenever an artifact an opponent controls goes to the graveyard, they take 1 damage, making it brutal against Treasure-heavy decks.

#11. Rapacious Guest

Another Food payoff, Rapacious Guest is a perfect fit for sacrifice decks. It generates a Food whenever one or more of your creatures deal combat damage, ensuring a steady supply of resources.

Its second ability, however, is the one that makes this interesting as every time you sacrifice a Food, Rapacious Guest gets a +1/+1 counter, making it grow into a serious threat. If that wasn’t enough, when it leaves the battlefield, an opponent loses life equal to its power, making it a great target for sacrifice loops and cards that can sacrifice artifacts for free such as Atog.

#10. Rigo, Streetwise Mentor

Rigo, Streetwise Mentor is a payoff for strategies that rely on small creatures. It enters with a shield counter, giving it built-in protection, but its real strength is in its ability to draw a card whenever you attack with small creatures. This makes it an all-star in decks that run cheap and evasive creatures like Faerie Seer or Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive.

#9. Saradoc, Master of Buckland

Leading a halfling army, Saradoc, Master of Buckland is a perfect commander for tribal and go-wide strategies. It continuously builds your board by creating a 1/1 Halfling token whenever it or another small nontoken creature enters, making it a natural fit for Selesnya or mono-white creature-heavy decks. Its second ability lets you tap two halfings to boost it power and gain lifelink, turning it into a strong attacker while helping you stabilize.

#8. Savvy Trader

Bringing graveyard value and cost reduction, Savvy Trader is a fantastic option for decks that recycle resources and play spells from exile or the graveyard. When it enters, it exiles a permanent from your graveyard to play it later, making it a solid recursion tool. On top of that, it reduces the cost of spells cast from outside your hand, synergizing perfectly with mechanics like foretell.

#7. Scheming Fence

A sneaky ability thief and shutdown piece, Scheming Fence is a fantastic tool for disruption decks. As it enters, you can choose any nonland permanent and shut down its activated abilities, which makes it a great answer to problematic mana dorks, combo pieces, or powerful artifacts. On top of that, Scheming Fence steals those abilities, letting you use them as if they were your own while ignoring color restrictions.

#6. Sierra, Nuka's Biggest Fan

Fueling both Food synergies and combat rewards, Sierra, Nuka's Biggest Fan is an exciting commander to build around quest counters. Every time your creatures deal combat damage, it gains a quest counter and creates a Food, giving you both a resource to sacrifice and a way to scale their power.

The real strength comes from it second ability—whenever you sacrifice a Food, you can pump a creature by the number of quest counters on Sierra, making even the smallest creature a serious threat.

#5. Ms. Bumbleflower

If you're looking for a unique Bant commander, Ms. Bumbleflower might be your pick. Vigilance is already a nice touch for a defensive commander, but the real fun is in the ability—whenever you cast a spell, an opponent draws a card, but you get to put a +1/+1 counter on something and give it flying. If this triggers twice in a turn, you get to draw two cards yourself. This could shine in a group hug or spellslinger deck, rewarding multiple spell casts while slowly building up evasive threats.

#4. Banquet Guests

This one’s pretty spicy for decks that generate a lot of Food. Affinity for Food means you can cast it super cheap, and Banquet Guests enters with twice X +1/+1 counters. Plus, it has trample and can become indestructible for just 2 mana and a Food, making it a large threat that’s hard to get rid of.

#3. Bess, Soul Nourisher

If you're into go-wide token strategies, Bess, Soul Nourisher is your kind of commander. Every time a 1/1 creature enters, it gets a +1/+1 counter, and when Bess attacks, everything with base power 1/1 gets buffed based on the number of counters Bess has. This fits well in Selesnya tokens, making your tiny creatures into serious threats.

#2. Boss's Chauffeur

A classic big-body grower, Boss's Chauffeur enters with a number of +1/+1 counters equal to the number of creatures you control. It also grows whenever another creature enters under your control, and if that wasn’t enough, you get a bunch of 1/1 Citizens when it dies, making it a perfect tool when paired with proliferate and sacrifice outlets.

#1. Delighted Halfling

Delighted Halfling is a fantastic mana fixer for Commander. It not only produces colored mana specifically for legendary spells but also ensures those spells can't be countered. This makes it an excellent tool against blue-based control decks and powerful counterspells like Force of Will.

Best Citizen Payoffs

If you're building a citizen-focused deck, adding the right payoff cards takes your strategy to the next level. Most of these cards reward you for having many citizens on the battlefield while others simply become stronger when paired with citizens.

Some cards, like Darling of the Masses, serve as anthem effects, boosting the power of all your citizens.

Then there are cards like Ceremonial Groundbreaker and Take to the Streets, which are useful in any deck but become significantly better when paired with a citizen-heavy board state.

Of course, generic tribal support cards like Banner of Kinship and Adaptive Automaton also serve as citizen payoffs. If you’re looking to build around citizens, these are all great options to amplify your deck’s strength and take full advantage of the typal go-wide playstyle.

What Cards Make Citizen Tokens?

Several cards generate citizen tokens, either as a primary effect or alongside additional value. Darling of the Masses is a classic example, creating a 1/1 citizen token whenever it attacks, while artifacts like Citizen's Crowbar and Courier's Briefcase also produce Citizen tokens while offering extra utility.

Among the strongest Citizen token generators are Grand Crescendo and Rabble Rousing, which stand out for their ability to create multiple tokens at once. For Commander players, Kitt Kanto, Mayhem Diva and Phabine, Boss's Confidant serve as excellent citizen-focused commanders, generating tokens while enabling aggressive and political gameplay.

Are There Any Citizen Commanders?

Yes, several legendary creatures with the citizen subtype can be used as commanders:

• Bess, Soul Nourisher
• Duchess, Wayward Tavernkeep
• Frodo, Sauron's Bane
• Lobelia, Defender of Bag End
• Lobelia Sackville-Baggins
• Meriadoc Brandybuck
• Moira Brown, Guide Author
• Ms. Bumbleflower
• Peregrin Took
• Rigo, Streetwise Mentor
• Saradoc, Master of Buckland
• Sierra, Nuka's Biggest Fan

Wrap Up

Boss's Chauffeur | Illustration by Yangtian Li

Citizens may not be a tribe per se, but as you can see, a couple of cards can benefit the strategy as a whole, as well as tons of cards that will let you add multiple tokens of the type to the field at once.

Do you like this creature type? Which one was your favorite? Let us know in the comments!

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Take care, and we will meet again in my next article.