It always feels go to get rewarded for playing spells inMagic: The Gathering. Sometimes you get to create Treasure tokens while other times you get to draw extra cards. The prowess mechanic helps your creatures grow stronger with each spell you cast, turning small creatures into powerful attackers.
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Prowess is a fairly exclusive mechanic and is on a relatively small number of creatures compared to other common keywords. It works by giving the creature +1/+1 whenever you cast a non-creature spell. While there might not be many creatures in Magic with prowess, these are certainly among the best the game has to offer.
10Invasion Of Regatha // Disciples Of The Inferno
The front part of this battle cardmight not have prowess but once it is defeated it transforms into an efficient damage dealer with prowess. The Invasion of Regatha can either take out another battle or burn an opponent for four damage which isn’t bad at all.
Once transformed into the Disciples of the Inferno, the creature gains prowess and an extra little bonus for casting non-creature burn spells. If a non-creature source, like Lightning Bolt, deals damage to a creature, battle, or opponent, it now deals an extra two points of damage.
9Shu Yun, The Silent Tempest
This legendary creature is a fascinating one-hit wonder in Commander games, capable of taking out an opponent in one attack under the right conditions. Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest is a Jeskai commander thanks to the hybrid mana ability to grant a creature Double Strike if you pay mana after casting a non-creature spell.
All you have to do is cast a few non-creature spells to pump Shu Yun up a bit and then make it unblockable in some way. Once its power is at least eleven or higher, and it has Double Strike, Shu Yun can dish out 22 or more points of commander damage, instantly removing an opponent from the game.
8Aisha Of Sparks And Smoke
The Universes Within version of Ken, Burning Brawler card from the Street Fighter Secret Lair, Aisha of Sparks and Smoke gives you a way to cast your spells for free once it deals damage.
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When Aisha deals combat damage to anything, you can cast a sorcery spell from your hand with a mana value less than or equal to the amount of damage Aisha dealt for free. This ability gets around timing restrictions from sorcery spells too, effectively making them all instants.
If you can give Aisha Double Strike you can cast two spells for free which is pretty darn good during combat.
7Elsha Of The Infinite
Another legendary creature that makes use of your non-creature spells is Elsha of the Infinite. With Elsha out, you can peek at the top card of your library at any time, letting you plan your draws a bit with some deck manipulation and extra draw effects.
By manipulating the top card of your libraryyou can cast non-creature spells from the top of your library at instant speed. Being able to cast artifacts, enchantments, and even battles at instant speed to surprise your opponents is a powerful effect and one that has tons of potential for some fun shenanigans.
6Bedlam Reveler
Even though it has fallen off in popularity, Bedlam Reveler is still a fantastic prowess creature with a very strong enter-the-battlefield ability. Normally, Bedlam Reveler costs eight mana, but that value is reduced by one generic mana for each instant or sorcery in your graveyard.
Often times you’ll be able to cast it for just four mana, but later in the game, it can be a two-mana powerhouse.
When it does enter the battlefield, Bedlam Reveler helps refill your hand by discarding whatever cards you currently have, if any, and drawing you three cards. Ideally, you’ll be discarding zero cards and just drawing three instead.
5Monastery Swiftspear
There’s not much to Monastery Swiftspear as far as abilities and effects go, but its low cost and quick hits make it one of the better creatures with prowess in Magic. This one-mana 1/2 creature has haste, letting it attack the turn it comes out and becomes stronger the more pump or burn spells you cast to keep the board clear.
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Monastery Swiftspear is particularly good in Pauper decks since it can quickly overcome many other creatures in the format with its speed and growth. Ideally, you play Monastery Swiftspear on turn one, attack for a point of damage, and then on turn two you’re able to cast a few spells to pump it up.
4Harmonic Prodigy
Oftentimes found at the center of powerful combo decks, Harmonic Prodigy gives your Shaman and Wizard creatures a dangerous boost to their triggers. Every time an ability of a Shaman or Wizard card you control activates, Harmonic Prodigy triggers that ability a second time.
This ability works with itself, of course, giving it double prowess triggers for each non-creature spell you cast. But the real power comes when paired with commanders like Veyran, Voice of Duality, whose magecraft ability can trigger multiple times over.
3Soul-Scar Mage
One of the all-star creatures in burn decks, Soul-Scar Mage adds a unique twist to your burn spells while also being able to swing in for some serious damage. All non-combat damage you deal to creatures an opponent controls is now dealt in -1/-1 counters instead of regular damage.
This lets all your burn spellsnow reduce your opponent’s creatures' power and toughness instead of just dealing damage that falls off at the end of the turn. With Soul-Scar Mage you can slowly deplete strong creatures and push past them, or still use your burn spells to remove their creatures from the board.
2Khenra Spellspear // Gitaxian Spellstalker
A two-mana trampler with prowess is already a pretty darn good creature but Khenra Spellspear isn’t done there. For four mana you can transform it to the back side, where the real fun begins.
As Gitaxian Spellstalker, it keeps the trample ability while gaining ward 2 and an extra prowess ability. For each non-creature spell you cast, Gitaxian Spellstalker now gets +2/+2, and with base stats of 3/3, it will grow to 5/5 by casting just one spell.
1Monastery Mentor
Easily one of the best creatures with prowess is Monastery Mentor. It has prowess, of course, growing stronger with each non-creature spell you cast, but more importantly, it also creates 1/1 Monk tokens that also have prowess with each non-creature spell you cast.
The spell doesn’t have to resolve either, you get the Monk token even if the spell is countered. Once you’ve cast a few spells, you’ll have multiple creatures out with prowess, and if you chain a few non-creature spells together, you can quickly overwhelm an opponent.
