The 40 Best Devoid Cards in Magic Ranked

Last updated on November 28, 2024

Smothering Abomination | Illustration by Aleksi Briclot

Eldrazi are one of the iconic threats in Magic’s history. They’re destroyers, feeding on mana and life energy. Annihilators, you might say. They’re colorless creatures in terms of their Magic’s alignment, but how can we merge that with colored mana?

Meet devoid cards, which are colorless cards that have colored mana as part of their mana cost. What’s up with this? How does it work? And which cards are the best?

Come with me for a journey into devoid!

What Are Devoid Cards?

Fathom Feeder | Illustration by Clint Cearley

Devoid cards have the devoid keyword as part of their rules text and can be virtually any card type. Devoid cards have at least 1 color of mana in the pips of their casting cost, but the devoid ability removes their color. So, a creature with protection from black can still be damaged by Slaughter Drone. On the downside, you can’t use a creature with devoid with color-specific lords and tutors.

Devoid was introduced in Duel Decks: Zendikar vs. Eldrazi, then used in Battle for Zendikar and Oath of the Gatewatch. The mechanic made its first return in Modern Horizons 3 and its Eldrazi Incursion Commander precon.

In ranking these devoid cards, I’m considering their usage in Commander, but you’ll deploy them differently there than in other formats due to color identity rules.

#40. Forerunner of Slaughter

Forerunner of Slaughter is a haste enabler, although an inefficient one since it uses an activated ability. That is, if you’re only considering giving your own creatures haste. Activating the ability to grant haste to an opponent’s creature can be a life-saving (or death-delaying) political move.

#39. Ruination Guide

Ruination Guide can lend a hand in a deck built around morph, manifest, cloak, or disguise, since your face-down creatures are colorless, and it now has a devoid commander that it can help, too. If you’re making a bunch of colorless artifact creature tokens, the Guide can give them a slight power boost.

#38. Devoid Counterspells

This is the grouping for Void Shatter and Spell Shrivel. I don’t think I need to extoll the value of counterspells, now do I? Honorable mention to Horribly Awry: Love the art, but you’re far too restrictive to be truly useful.

#37. Call the Scions

This devoid sorcery gives you a pair of Eldrazi Scion tokens, which is the going rate for 3 mana. Call the Scions, and any other devoid card with green in its mana value that generates these tokens, can fit in with Raggadragga, Goreguts Boss, who turns those 1/1 tokens into 3/3s.

#36. Void Grafter

Void Grafter doesn’t tell me exactly where to put it, although I can see its use as a creature with flash that’ll also provide your commander or other key creature with hexproof until end of turn.

#35. Fathom Feeder

Fathom Feeder is right at home as a colorless card for Dimir () commanders because it punishes your opponents’ libraries. Its ability says “each,” so it’s not committing a crime, for better and/or worse.

#34. Basic Token Generators

Eyeless Watcher gives you a pair of Eldrazi scion tokens, essentially dropping three bodies for the price of one. It’s only as an ETB, unlike a similar devoid card that’s a little more reliable. Eldrazi Skyspawner is the 1B to the Watcher’s 1A, being cheaper but only giving you one token. Scion Summoner is the third-string goaltender/catcher/point guard of this tier since it doesn’t even have flying. Eldrazi Repurposer belongs in the picture too since it’ll give you two tokens, just with different timing.

#33. Drowner of Hope

This devoid Eldrazi gains points over the others that bring tokens when they enter because it’s got a little more going for it. Drowner of Hope also gives you an ability that can tap down creatures to disrupt your opponents, although its fuel (Eldrazi Scions) can be a little hard to come by.

#32. Hope-Ender Coatl

Hope-Ender Coatl beats out the other devoid counterspells because it’s also a body. A flying snake, to be precise. It gives your opponent a way out, but that just means that you should be playing it when they’ve tapped out all their mana for a big play.

#31. Eldrazi Linebreaker

I first misread this card as “Eldrazi Linebacker”. I wonder if either common misreads or football could be the theme of another Secret Lair someday. Anywho, Eldrazi Linebreaker is pretty intimidating, especially if you use it to give its buff to something that’s already huge.

#30. Propagator Drone + Titans’ Vanguard

More and more of these devoid cards play into Eldrazi Scions, and I like the effort to make devoid as a whole more playable. Propagator Drone gives your tokens evolve, which can turn your chump blockers and sac fodder into a viable army. If your Selesnya () deck is a kinda split between tokens and +1/+1 counters, this eldrazi might be worth a shot.

You can also go the aggro route, pairing the Drone with Titans' Vanguard. With both on your side of the battlefield, your army has plenty of growth potential.

#29. Basking Broodscale

Basking Broodscale should be able to find a home in +1/+1 counter and proliferate decks. It comes down for 2, it can adapt for 2, and it’s an easy way to generate tokens to ramp you or give you sac fodder.

#28. Benthic Infiltrator

Benthic Infiltrator is an unblockable creature with ingest, which makes it fit in with decks like ninjas that care about not being blocked or other saboteur effects. It’s also a mono-blue creature, although I’d probably prefer something smaller and cheaper.

#27. Writhing Chrysalis

These Modern Horizons 3 cards really make me think that someday, we’ll be talking about things like “Jund () Eldrazi” in Commander. I mean, look at this guy! Writhing Chrysalis comes in with sac fodder and grows when you sac other eldrazi, for Pete’s sake.

#26. Blisterpod

Guess what! It’s a devoid creature! With green in its mana value! You know what that means? Eldrazi Scion token incoming. How does Blisterpod do it? Death trigger that replaces itself. Standard. Decent. Moving on.

#25. Birthing Hulk

Although it’s a little big and clunky for Commander compared to the other token generators, I’ve got to give a hat tip to this Hulk and move it up a little. Birthing Hulk is still a combo piece that can give you tons of tokens, mana, and triggers, and should be respected as such.

#24. Inverter of Truth

I just think it’s neat. Inverter of Truth has a primary home in EDH as one of the creatures that you’ll want to give your opponents with The Beamtown Bullies. Switching your library for your graveyard is silly, but making your opponent do it is my kind of chaos.

#23. Catacomb Sifter

A “colorless” Golgari () card should play into the graveyard somehow, and Catacomb Sifter doesn’t disappoint. It gives you a token when it enters, and that token is good sac fodder. This Eldrazi also scries as a death payoff, so it earns its Sifter name.

#22. Brood Monitor

I often talk about 2-for-1s on bodies being a good deal when you bring down a creature, but how about a 4-for-1? Brood Monitor comes with a trio of Eldrazi Scion tokens, which is the kind of ETB you can flicker with Emiel the Blessed or use to get three copies of something impactful with Esix, Fractal Bloom. Perhaps cast one Brood Monitor to generate three Brood Monitor tokens and then add nine Eldrazi Scion tokens. I like that.

#21. Spawn-Gang Commander

Spawn-Gang Commander comes in with a trio of extra bodies and gives you an eldrazi-specific sac outlet. I want to give it points for being a goblin, but I see it as replaceable unless you’re running it with other eldrazi. Part of me might use it in a Rakdos () goblins or sacrifice deck just to get four bodies to toss around. Herigast, Erupting Nullkite might gets some use of it, though.

#20. Abstruse Appropriation

I’d almost expect Abstruse Appropriation to have blue or red in its mana value with the black, but I can see the logic of white. Removal that lets you use the thing you remove for your own nefarious purposes always gets a look from me.

#19. Fanged Flames

A 2-mana burn spell is a solid start, although Fanged Flames is restricted to sorcery speed and creature or planeswalker targets. It exiles its target if it would die this turn, so that helps to make up the gap.

#18. Prophet of Distortion

A 1-drop with an activated ability that gets you cards is workable, although the colorless mana needed to activate that ability can be a challenge in a non-eldrazi deck. Still, some decks can naturally use Prophet of Distortion, like anything with Vhal, Candlekeep Researcher.

#17. Snapping Voidcraw

Mana dorks that generate two mana per activation always have a place, and Snapping Voidcraw also can also draw you cards in a pinch.

#16. Deepfathom Skulker

Deepfathom Skulker is another bardic, “jack of many trades, master of none” type. It gives you cards when your creatures deal combat damage, and it can grant unblockable. You can use it in all kinds of rogue and rogue-adjacent decks, but it’s more likely unharmonious budget-friendly filler than an important game piece.

#15. Emrakul’s Messenger

Maybe it’s because I’ve been researching an Alela, Artful Provocateur deck lately, but I like what Emrakul's Messenger brings to the table. It has three relevant creature types in faeries, Eldrazi, and rogues. All three of those creature types have strong typal support and some cards with the kindred type that strengthen them. And it’s a 2-mana flier that can help your acceleration if you aren’t attacking or blocking with it. I wouldn’t worry too much about the 1-toughness unless you’re facing a deck that generates pings like a production line.

#14. Sowing Mycospawn

I appreciate how Sowing Mycospawn doesn’t limit the type of land that you can bring out of your library when you cast it, or the type of land you can exile (goodbye, indestructible lands) when you kick it. Fungus players, are you sleeving this up?

#13. Herald of Kozilek

It wouldn’t be an Eldrazi-focused list without mentioning Kozilek! Herald of Kozilek has a role outside Eldrazi these days; while reducing the cost of colorless spells helps Eldrazi, color identity means that Izzet+ (+) artifacts is pretty cozy.

#12. World Breaker

Another Eldrazi that’s useful in lots of places without being mandatory anywhere, World Breaker’s destruction potential is twofold. It’s got removal as a casting trigger, while you have to sacrifice a land to return it to your hand from your graveyard. You can make it cheaper with Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma, and it fits with commanders that let you replay lands from your graveyard, like Titania, Protector of Argoth.

#11. Kozilek’s Unsealing

I’m really high on Kozilek's Unsealing. I see it functioning almost as a background for any of those Big MV decks that splash into blue. It’s a payoff for casting 4-, 5-, and 6-MV cards by giving you Eldrazi Scion tokens that can help you to climb that ladder to your big mana finishers. And those bigger bashers get you cards!

#10. From Beyond

From Beyond is one of those cards that’s good and useful, although not in any sort of “you simply must run it” kind of way. And that’s while only using this enchantment as a token generator. Eldrazi Scion once again showing up as accelerators and sac fodder.

#9. Path of Annihilation

It’s like seeing the path of a tornado that’s hit your metropolis in SimCity (3000 was my jam back in the day). Path of Annihilation is yet another big mana payoff, and it turns all your Eldrazi into color-fixing mana dorks. Now you don’t have to sac your Eldrazi Scions to make them useful.

#8. Sire of Stagnation

This mythic Eldrazi was probably meant to be played with Ulamog's Reclaimer, Oracle of Dust, and the ingest creatures, but Dimir is a good color pairing to be in if you’re exiling cards from the top of your opponents’ libraries. Oh, and it’s like an enemy landfall trigger? That also gives you two cards?? Get real. Umbris, Fear Manifest looks like the perfect home for Sire of Stagnation.

#7. Sifter of Skulls

Sifter of Skulls has an ability that can be doubled by Teysa Karlov. It turns your nontoken deaths into tokens, and you can either crack your Eldrazi Scions for mana or offer them to your favorite sacrifice outlet. Need I say more?

#6. Eldrazi Displacer

Eldrazi Displacer is one of those eldrazi you’ll be happy to have by your side in all kinds of blink decks, or decks that have it at least as part of their strategy. You need colorless mana (of course) to activate the ability, and your creature comes back tapped, but it’s certainly a valid option.

#5. Ugin’s Binding

It bounces. It needs blue mana. It can be singular, or it can be a mass-bounce effect. And I’m not talking about Cyclonic Rift. Ugin's Binding is a little more situational than the Rift, given that you can only use the mass-bouncing ability if Ugin’s Binding is in your graveyard.

#4. Smothering Abomination

This Eldrazi is part sac outlet, part sac payoff. Smothering Abomination is a mandatory sac outlet, although there are aristocrats and other decks that probably don’t care all that much.

#3. Ulalek, Fused Atrocity

Building an Ulalek, Fused Atrocity deck looks like a fun challenge. If you run it as a devoid commander, you’ll need to generate colored mana for your devoid cards of choice, and you’ll need colorless mana for your commander’s ability. Ulalek gets the creative gears churning, without a doubt.
Now why isn’t the devoid commander topping this list? Because I value versatility as much as raw power. You simply aren’t going to use Ulalek other than as a commander, while other devoid cards have proven that they can be useful in many different decks.

#2. Ghostfire Slice

Ghostfire Slice looks like a very promising card that could see play virtually anywhere. I’m thinking specifically of burn decks or spellslinger decks that can multiple the damage or copy the spell. Your odds of finding a Commander table where you can’t cast this just for R are pretty slim, and I could see this becoming one of those uncommons that fetches a fiver unless it sees frequent enough reprints.

#1. Slip Through Space

It’s a 1-mana spell! It's a cantrip that replaces itself in your hand! It’s Slip Through Space! Granting a creature unblockable for is pretty great, and it’s useful in all kinds of strategies. Whether you’ve got a big toxic or Voltron’d commander that wants to swing for lethal commander damage, you’re going for the Ramses, Assassin Lord alternate win condition, or otherwise have payoffs for dealing combat damage to your opponents, Slip Through Space is probably one of the most mainstream devoid cards available.

Best Devoid Payoffs

The first that comes to mind is Ulalek, Fused Atrocity of course. Since it has a 5-color identity for Commander purposes, it is the commander if you want to build a themed devoid deck. Azlask, the Swelling Scourge is another 5-color Eldrazi and an excellent annihilator card for EDH purposes, although it doesn’t have devoid. Not that anything specifically tracks your devoid cards, yet.

Many of the devoid cards from Modern Horizons 3 have abilities that help with color fixing, whether they give you Eldrazi Scion tokens to help with your colorless production (Spawn-Gang Commander), turn your Eldrazi multicolor mana dorks (Path of Annihilation), are MDFCs (Drowner of Truth), or change how your mana can be used (Abstruse Appropriation).

Some devoid cards themselves are colorless-matters payoff cards. Tide Drifter and Vile Aggregate care about colorless creatures, while Molten Nursery and Thought Harvester care about colorless spells. Cultivator Drone is a mana dork that’s restricted to colorless usage. You can grow your colorless army with a Titans' Vanguard, too.

Corrupted Crossroads is a land that's designed specifically for devoid-related color fixing.

Vannifar, Evolved Enigma looks like another potential EDH home. The second mode of its combat step trigger puts +1/+1 counters on your colorless creatures, and your devoid creatures count whether they’re cloaked or face-up.

In theory, you could run an eldrazi deck with devoid cards fronted by Morophon, the Boundless. This 5-color commander can even make some of the dual color devoid eldrazi free to cast, like Forerunner of Slaughter or Fathom Feeder.

Does Devoid Count Toward Devotion?

Yes! Devotion cares about the colors of the pips in the mana costs of permanents you control, not the actual color of the cards themselves. A devoid creature with a black pip counts toward black devotion, etc.

Can You Use Devoid Cards in a Colorless Commander Deck?

No. If you’re running a commander with a colorless identity like Zhulodok, Void Gorger, you can’t run any devoid cards in its deck. The pips in the mana costs and rules text of devoid cards all count towards color identity, but a colorless commander’s decklist can’t have any color pips anywhere (besides reminder text).

Wrap Up

Blisterpod | Illustration by Ryan Barger

And that’s my take on the best devoid cards in Magic! It’s the kind of mechanic that’s totally tied to Eldrazi. I’ve seen that Mark Rosewater has had second and even third thoughts on devoid, like how it maybe should have never been a keyword, or how it should perhaps have been a supertype. Oh, to peek into those alternate timelines!

Which devoid cards do you use most, and in which formats? Which MH3 cards am I overlooking or overrating? Let me know in the comments below, or over on Draftsim’s Discord!

Until next time, stay safe!