Welcome back! One of the more obscure-yet-popular creatures we haven't yet ranked are Phoenixes! Phoenixes have been around since the beginning of the game, even though it looks like there are only about 37 Phoenixes in the game.

Phoenixes often share similar qualities. They're almost always red, sometimes White, and they almost always have flying and haste. The other commonality they have is that nearly all of them can return from the graveyard to either your hand or the battlefield when a certain criteria is met. I say "nearly all" because I haven't made sure that every Phoenix can do this, so I just wanted to cover my bases.

As usual, these are going to be a combination of cards that are fan favorites, iconic staples, and competitive all-stars, so nothing is really off-limits.

Let's begin!

Arclight Phoenix

I think it's hard to argue that Arclight Phoenix is the best Phoenix of all time. While it may not be a staple in more casual formats like Commander, it has seen competitive play in nearly every format it's been legal in, including Standard, Pioneer, and Modern. While its method of reanimating it can be more tricky than some of the other Phoenixes on the list, the decks that are taking advantage of it are often quite well-suited to do so.

Ashcloud Phoenix

Ashcloud doesn't see a ton of play nowadays, but it was the go-to red flier in Khans of Tarkir Standard. A 4/1 flier for four mana that you need to kill twice is a pretty good deal, especially since, as a morph, you can flip the Phoenix back over when you have the mana and do it all over again. Given that a player has enough mana, this was an extremely hard threat to get rid of, especially considering each time you flipped it up it was also dealing two damage to each player.

Aurora Phoenix

Aurora Phoenix is an interesting one, and likely wouldn't have made the list if not for the fact that it's in an extremely cool Legacy deck based around the cascade mechanic and the card Creative Technique.

The premise of the deck is that all of the cards have cascade, and all of your cascade cards hit Creative Technique. The two cards you hit will either be ridiculous monsters like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn or Apex Devastator, or you'll hit something smaller and cascade again, all the way down into another Creative Technique. It's a cool deck, is what I'm saying.

Chandra's Phoenix

Chandra's Phoenix is one of the most normal Phoenixes there is. It's a simple 2/2 for three mana;.it has flying and haste; and it comes back to your hand whenever you deal damage to an opponent with a Red instant, Red sorcery, or Red planeswalker. This is the kind of Phoenix you want in a Standard aggro deck, which is where you could frequently find this one. There's not a ton to say about Chandra's chicken. It's just a solid threat.

Detective's Phoenix

Detective's Phoenix is one of the newer offerings on this list, but it's managed to find some good homes since it was released in Modern Horizons 3. We have the usual flying and haste on a 2/2, but as a bestow creature, we're getting a tremendous amount of value. We can cast it as a normal 2/2, or we can bestow it for one mana, giving any creature flying, haste, and +2/+2.

If that wasn't enough, you can also bestow from the graveyard! So long as you're able to get a good amount of cards in your graveyard to fuel bestow, it's easy to see why this ended up being a competitive player.

Joshua, Phoenix's Dominant

Joshua might be kind of cheating, since he's only a Phoenix on his transformed side, but he's still a Phoenix nonetheless! The newest card on the list, Joshua has already been seeing play in Standard, Pioneer, and Modern as an upgraded 3/4 Seasoned Pyromancer. When he transforms into his Phoenix side, you end up doing four damage over two turns before reanimating other creatures with mana value six or less.

As a White Phoenix, you're also getting lifelink, and one of the best parts is that you get to flip this back over to its Joshua side after the final chapter, where you get to loot another two cards. When you take the whole package into account here, it's no surprise this has been seeing play.

Otharri, Suns' Glory

Otharri might not be the most popular Phoenix on the list, but it's easily one of my favorites and will always have a home in my Vintage Cube. Again, as a White Phoenix, you're getting lifelink here, but you're also getting Rebel tokens that grow in number each turn. If you can manage to keep a Rebel token around after Otharri dies, you can tap it to return Otharri back to the battlefield. The best part is that you get to keep your experience counters throughout all of Otharri's deaths and rebirths, so you will always recruit one Rebel more than he previously gave.

Rekindling Phoenix

Rekindling Phoenix is no longer the king chicken it once was, but back during Ixalan Standard, this was a difficult creature to deal with. It was so problematic that I also remember this Phoenix being a $20 card. If a deck had red in it - whether it was Mono-Red, Black/Red, Naya, etc. - they were likely running some number of Rekindling Phoenix. As with most Phoenixes, a four-power flier for four mana that you need to kill twice was typically a very good deal.

Anyway, thanks for reading and I'll catch ya next time!

Frank Lepore

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