All 31 Mounts in Magic Ranked

Last updated on February 26, 2025

Miriam, Herd Whisperer | Illustration by Viko Menezes

These days, with a new MTG set there’s a big chance that we’ll get a new creature type with new mechanics and typal interactions. In an Old-West setting, similar to games like Red Dead Redemption, or midst the carnage of a multiplanar Death Race, good guys, bad guys, and speed demons alike gotta saddle their trustful mounts.

Outlaws of Thunder Junction brought mounts to MTG, and Aetherdrift kicked them up a notch. Mounts behave a little bit like vehicles that are always creatures, but are they any good?

Let’s find out if there are any mount creatures worth saddling up and taking for a spin.

What Are Mounts in MTG?

Bridled Bighorn | Illustration by Edgar Sánchez Hidalgo

Mounts are creatures first introduced in Outlaws of Thunder Junction that all share the saddle mechanic. All mounts have a Saddle N ability, with N ranging between 1 and 5 (for now). To saddle a mount, you need to tap any number of other creatures with total power N or greater, where N is the saddle value. It's fairly similar to vehicles and crew, although you can only saddle at sorcery speed (that's to say, while the stack is empty during your main phase).

Mount and saddle are more of an offensive mechanic pair than vehicles and crew, since you’ll get the most out of the mechanic while you’re attacking with a mount that’s been saddled. That being said, you can use mount creatures for blocking too.

There are 17 mount creatures in OTJ, and most of them are green and white, because GW is the color pair that cares about mount creatures the most, especially for Limited formats. There were nearly as many in Aetherdrift as well. With that out of the way, let’s rank all mounts and see which of them you should consider including in your decks and why.

#31. Drover Grizzly

Starting things off, here’s Drover Grizzly, a 4/2 bear that was in OTJ to make the 4-power matters theme work in Limited. It can push some combat damage through while saddled thanks to its trample ability.

#30. Bridled Bighorn

Bridled Bighorn is a 3/4 white creature with vigilance that can get some attacks in, and if you can’t use your 2/2’s to attack anymore, mount this card and generate some tokens. It’s interesting in a go-wide strategy.

#29. Quilled Charger

Quilled Charger is a nice top-end red creature in Limited. 5/5 menace when mounted is huge and ends games quickly.

#28. Bounding Felidar

Bounding Felidar is large and has huge potential in decks that go wide. It costs 6 mana though, so it’s a little low in the rankings. It could be better with something like cycling tackled on.

#27. Giant Beaver

Giant Beaver is a solid 4/4 vigilance for Limited that performed well in green decks. Saddle 3 isn’t trivial, but at least you’ll get a +1/+1 counter if you saddle it.

#26. Brightfield Glider

While a 2/3 flying creature with vigilance can have its day in Limited, Brightfield Glider doesn’t scream much value to me. The main reason this card won’t be considered for many decks is the saddle 3 requirement to even make this creature worth attacking with. There are much better cheap cards to pump up or equip, and honestly, I may like this card a little more if the vigilance and flying keywords were switched.

#25. Venomsac Lagac

A deathtouch creature that has high toughness becomes even more of a deterrent. Venomsac Lagac can saddle up and put some pressure on your opponent’s blockers with deathtouch and decent toughness. Most likely, this card would do better as a defender, and you’d probably have to saddle multiple 1/1s or a better attacker to get the saddle benefit. Venomsac Lagac has value in Limited but nowhere else.

#24. Alacrian Jaguar

Alacrian Jaguar gives you value by pumping up more than its saddle cost requires. A 6/6 with vigilance can be a great play in Limited, and the low saddle cost also ensures you can saddle this card almost every turn. The value would be there in Limited if the rest of green's cards weren't so pushed, but I don’t see this card making splashes in any other formats.

#23. Brightfield Mustang

Brightfield Mustang is a slight curve-anchor that has some upside. I’m not thrilled with 4-mana for a 3/3, but the low saddle cost can help this horse to get bigger and act as a blocker. I wouldn’t be inclined to include this white creature in any non-Limited format.

#22. Trained Arynx

Trained Arynx is a super solid Limited card, being a 3/1 that can get first strike when saddled. The cost of inclusion as a 2-drop is very low, and it was deemed one of white's best commons in OTJ Limited.

#21. Gila Courser

Gila Courser starts to step things up, impulse drawing whenever it attacks while saddled. Plus it has Saddle 1, which means any small critter or token can crew it.

#20. Autarch Mammoth

Autarch Mammoth probably isn’t what a green creature-centric deck is looking for at 6-mana, but it isn’t valueless. Creating tokens reliably can have wonderful effects when you pair it with cards like Parallel Lives or Jaheira, Friend of the Forest. Plus, you’re 3/5 of the way to the saddle cost with the token you create when this card enters.

#19. Gilded Ghoda

Gilded Ghoda is in a similar vein to cards like Charming Scoundrel and Riveteers Requisitioner. The goal is to get a creature out quickly that can give you some Treasure tokens to jump ahead of the curve. Gilded Ghoda requires you to tap another creature, but it has wonderful mana upsides if you have a free shot at an opponent.

#18. Gloryheath Lynx

With a repeatable way to fetch plains from your deck, Gloryheath Lynx can bring the value you lose from saddling other creatures. Even if it’s a little overkill, a card like Wylie Duke, Atiin Hero is a wonderful play on turn 3 to saddle up and get a plains in your hand. I like this card's consistency and land advantage, but it doesn’t provide much value in other aspects of a game.

#17. Dracosaur Auxiliary

If I’m in a death race, I want a dinosaur dragon mount for sure! Little boy’s dreams aside, Dracosaur Auxiliary can provide some well-needed direct damage when saddled. If you can attack unhindered, it doesn’t help you to saddle, but this card’s saddle ability can help remove opponent’s blockers or do damage before the blocking step. The mana value is a little rich for me, but direct damage can always be used somehow.

#16. Lagorin, Soul of Alacria

With the addition of many new mounts and vehicles from Aetherdrift, these typal decks can be quite interesting. Lagorin, Soul of Alacria can give +1/+1 counters to two of your mounts or vehicles for a saddle cost of 1. This fits perfectly into a Selesnya deck () with cheap creatures and cards like Miriam, Herd Whisperer and Mobile Homestead.

#15. District Mascot

District Mascot may just be the cutest mount and quite decent as well. This card fits well into a proliferate or mount-centric kind of deck. It’s a quick starting card that wants to gain counters quickly and has some artifact hate if you need it. I can see this card being a part of many green decks going forward, so show this mascot some love!

#14. Congregation Gryff

Congregation Gryff was the original Selesnya mount build-around card for Limited. It’s a solid 1/4 with flying and lifelink already. Sometimes it’ll get in as a 2/4 or 3/5 while mounted, and that’s hard to race. It’s also a good creature to equip or enchant.

#13. Rambling Possum

Rambling Possum is a strong build-around creature. You could mount it with a creature that has a good ETB like Elvish Visionary, attack as a 4/5, and get to recast the Visionary again.

#12. Stubborn Burrowfiend

Stubborn Burrowfiend can be a good enabler and a payoff for a self-mill strategy. It also sometimes hits incredibly hard for a 2-drop.

#11. Switchgrass Grazer

The only non-paper card on the list, Switchgrass Grazer is an Alchemy card that focuses on slowly opening up combat for your aggressive creatures. When saddled and attacking, it pings creatures and perpetually makes them unable to block or remove damage. This can be killer when you swing with aggressive creatures like Emberheart Challenger or creatures criminal creatures like Magda, the Hoardmaster.

#10. Unswerving Sloth

What’s not to love about a saddle ability that also untaps your creatures? Unswerving Sloth provides constant pressure and enables your defenses as long as you can saddle it. This is a very interesting card in Limited, in other formats with convoke abilities, and with cards like Order of Whiteclay.

#9. Bulwark Ox

Bulwark Ox is my favorite mount card from Aetherdrift. This can be a solid piece in a +1/+1 counter deck to give some counters and protect the creatures you’ve invested in. It should also be in every Selesnya mount/vehicle deck for sure. The MV and saddle cost are well worth this card's early-game presence and late-game protection.

#8. Ornery Tumblewagg

Ornery Tumblewagg should play well alongside a +1/+1 counters commander, with this green creature being able to spread the counters and even becoming a counter doubler if it attacks while saddled. This card makes a good Luminarch Aspirant impression.

#7. Calamity, Galloping Inferno

Calamity, Galloping Inferno is your typical Limited bomb, attacking as a big hasty creature and also creating copies of the creatures that saddled it. It’s a nice addition to an extra attack-steps Commander deck since you keep the copies of the creatures until your end step.

#6. Seraphic Steed

Having first strike and lifelink makes Seraphic Steed a good creature already. It’s a nightmare against red decks with some auras or equipment around, and if you can mount it, you’ll get a 3/3 flying angel for your efforts. Not bad at all.

#5. Fortune, Loyal Steed

Fortune, Loyal Steed is a solid card by itself, as a 2/4 that can scry 2 on ETB. The saddle cost is the lowest at 1, and after you attack with Fortune while saddled, you get to blink both this card and the creature that saddled it. Unlike Rambling Possum, the creature that saddled Fortune will return to the battlefield and not to your hand. 

#4. Archmage's Newt

Archmage's Newt is small, but this blue creature can wreak havoc if it hits once. Getting to play instants and sorceries with flashback is strong, and you’ll cheat a big spell if it’s saddled. The big challenge is the hoops you have to jump through, as hitting with a 2/2 without evasion or haste isn’t trivial, and there’s also the saddle 3 cost. It’s safer to think of this card as something similar to a Dreadhorde Arcanist, in the sense that you’ll hit with a 2/2 and cast something cheap again. 

#3. Caustic Bronco

Caustic Bronco does a good Dark Confidant impression when it attacks. You can choose between paying life equal to the mana value of the revealed card, or having each opponent lose life if the Bronco is saddled. This black creature is an excellent addition to aggressive and midrange decks.

#2. Guardian Sunmare

Not to be outdone by Crested Sunmare, Guardian Sunmare can be just as strong and effective. There are so many 3-or-less-mana permanents in white and white-splashed decks that can change a game: removal like Temporary Lockdown, creatures like Heliod, Sun-Crowned, or even mount support like Cloudspire Captain. The fetch value of this card is awesome, and I can’t wait to see what kind of speed this steed can breed.

#1. The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride

The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride is a 6/5 frog horror with trample and haste, which is already Constructed-playable material by itself. It gets better if you saddle it, though. Let’s say you saddle it with a 3/3, then Gitrog attacks and deals combat damage to a player. You’ll get to sacrifice the 3/3, draw three cards, and put up to three lands on the battlefield. The card is solid both as a Standard-level threat and a Commander card.

Best Mount Payoffs

Green-white has been the mount-matters color pair in both OTJ and DFT. Congregation Gryff and Miriam, Herd Whisperer are cards that reward you for playing and saddling lots of mounts, and DFT gave us Lagorin, Soul of Alacria to add to the mix.

Creatures that need to tap or untap to give you a benefit work here too, and Wylie Duke, Atiin Hero is an awesome example. It’s a 4/2 with vigilance, so it’s not tapping to attack, but you'll draw a card if you use Wylie Duke to saddle a mount. Better yet, it can saddle every printed mount as of DFT except Autarch Mammoth.

MTG has a few mechanics like inspired that incentivize you to tap and untap a creature, best of them being King Macar, the Gold-Cursed and Pain Seer. The same thing can be done with those crazy untap cards from Shadowmoor like Knacksaw Clique and Order of Whiteclay.

Bucolic Ranch is a land you’ll want to include in your mounts-matter deck. Similarly, cards like One Last Job, Throw from the Saddle, and Frontier Seeker get better if you have mounts in your deck.

A handful of mounts can fit quite well into +1/+1 counter decks. Using cards like Bulwark Ox alongside cards like Bristly Bill, Spine Sower, and Luminarch Aspirant is a solid strategy.

Mounts often play a little bit slower as they need to tap other creatures and create combos. Cards like Intrepid Stablemaster, Get Lost, and Split Up can help you ramp, or slow down your opponents.

Finally, it’s interesting to turn a drawback into a benefit with mounts (and vehicles, for that end too). If your creature has to attack every turn or is goaded but you don’t have a profitable attack, it’s better to mount another creature or crew another vehicle instead.

Round Up

Archmage's Newt | Illustration by Edgar Sanchez Hidalgo

Mounts are a nice new addition to MTG, both as a unique creature type and gameplay-wise. The cowboy and death race themes are wonderful flavor additions to the MTG universe. Although many of the mounts will see more play in Limited, a few can see Standard or EDH play, so don’t sleep on the possible synergies of mounts.

What do you think about mounts? Are you excited to try them in Limited and Constructed? Let me know in the comments section below, message us at our Draftsim Twitter, or join the Draftsim Discord.

Thanks for reading guys, and I’ll see you next time.