MTG Salvation

With the value you can get in this format with low cost enchantments and artifacts, removal, or even just creatures with an ability instead of good stats, it seems to be that simple beaters, or creatures with no job other than to smash face, are generally just way too costly for this format.

But there are a few exceptions. Abyssal Persecutor has a downside that's almost always irrelevant, yet gives you a 6/6 flying trampling face smasher for four. Desecration Demon is another giant flier for four mana with a downside. Or Woolly Thoctar - GRW gives you a pure vanilla 5/4. These are examples of simple beaters who are good enough for a format with three opponents, 40 life and hands full of wipes and removal.

So I'm wondering, do you guys know of any others? Creatures who give you great damage potential (ideally with evasion, because face it beaters without evasion are pretty useless) for a reasonable price?

Well, I have been searching lately for such things in white, and found
Indomitable Archangel (never mind metalcraft)
Sublime Archangel
Moltensteel Dragon (since my commander allows for it)

In black you can also get out a Tombstalker pretty easily and early.

I have a maelstrom wanderer deck and some of the best wanderer primers really like Malignus in them. I've rarely actually ever had that guy in play (even though I've been playing wanderer for years, which is surprising) so I can't say it for myself though.

Lord of extinction also has huge P/T but I think it's mostly used for jarad decks to nuke people.

Notably that the two examples I brought up are creatures that get REALLY huge, which can make up for the fact that they only beat face. They also are usually paired up with cards that grant some kind of evasion or fling effects to get around blockers.

I've seen so many nasty T1 Serra Ascendant drops that later made the difference, our play group as a whole decided to not include her anymore.

Hero of Bladehold and Archangel of Thune fit this in my eyes.

This was an interesting exercise. I was surprised how few straight 'beaters' I run, even in my mostly creature decks. Here are the ones I currently run:
Akroma, Angel of Fury
Akroma, Angel of Wrath
Hamletback Goliath
Taurean Mauler
Managorger Hydra
Scute Mob
Radiant, Archangel
Herald of the Host
Tajic, Blade of the Legion
Gideon's Avenger
Relentless Rats

I guess the theme is 'Beaters who can grow'

Some of the creatures being listed are not vanilla at all.

Already mentioned but Lord of Extinction is the ultimate Edh vanilla beater. in a four players game it's pretty common for him to be at 40+ power. I also approve Malignus.

still, I only run vanillas in one of my 7 decks and that's because I have ways to abuse the power like Momentous Fall and Chandra's Ignition.

Most of my decks have some degree of creatures that are not really good for other than beating face, although I think Yasova Dragonclaw ("power not more than manacost need not apply" aggro) is the only one with actual vanilla creatures (Leatherback Baloth). If broadened to 'might as well be vanilla for combat' (like Ghoultree), the list already grows pretty dang high.

Specifically, I'm looking for creatures whose main attributes are cost effective power and toughness, ideally with evasion.

If they have an ability, but the ability is pretty niche, they'd be 'vanilla' enough

Of particular interest are cheaper creatures that are or can get quite big

I run Rimefeather Owl in my mono-blue deck. It's not cheap, but it can get really big with a snow manabase; casting it off 7 snow islands, he's an 8/8 flier for 7 that can get bigger, and that's assuming your opponents aren't playing any snow permanents like Coldsteel Heart or their own snow lands.

The ice counters also stick around when the owl leaves play, so if he comes back you don't need to build them up again, but those permanents don't remain snow permanents while the owl is off the board (so you can't use your Sol Ring with an ice counter to activate Scrying Sheets unless the owl is out). Rimefeather Owl is also the only card that can make more than one thing snow in a single turn (only competing with Thermal Flux which is a one-shot effect limited to the current turn and Arcum's Weathervane which has to tap), which can be useful for anything from turning your mana rocks snow in order to activate the Owl's ability more, to powering up Skred.

Owl also synergizes with Rimescale Dragon, since they're both putting ice counters on things and affecting cards with ice counters on them.

• Malignus
  
• Vulturous Zombie
  
• Lord of Extinction
  
• Terravore
  
• Consuming Aberration
  

Perhaps the 'Hunted' cycle would fit the bill for this: Hunted Horror, Hunted Dragon, Hunted Lammasu, Hunted Phantasm, and Hunted Troll.

So like Quirion Dryad type dudes?

Primordial Hydra is my go-to quasi-vanilla beater in green lists. All he is is a fatty who gets bigger every turn and eventually gets trample. But I have won plenty of games with his help, especially in 1v1.

Does wurmcoil engine count?

My Zirilan of the claw has a bunch of large dragons, dragon tyrant, stormbreath dragon and lightning shrieker... yep its the only deck in any format where lighting shrieker is acceptable.

My deveri bird tribal runs commander eesha, with all the anthems it becomes quite the beater.

Forgotten Ancient is awesome, even if you don't move the counters around.

I'd never play a vanilla creature in EDH with one exception - in Doran, The Siege Tower. It's pretty fun because he makes cards like Grizzled Leotau and Indomitable Ancients playable.

I've gotten some reasonable mileage out of Baneslayer Angel. Its reasonably costed and the lifelink, flying and first strike enable it to get some reasonable value and players will rarely use spot removal on it unless really desperate as it does not fundamentally change the game. I also use Demon of Death's Gate but that is only in Kaalia where I can cheat the mana cost, though a deck that can easily pay the alternate cost may also get some decent mileage from it. Moonveil Dragon is another one I like because fire breathing for the whole team gets pretty savage. If you could reliably get the Torpor Orb online early Phyrexian Dreadnought is fantastic, as a 12/12 for 1 is a pretty solid mana to stats ratio.

Skinshifter

i used Cosi's Trickster/soldier of fortune in a UR random cards deck before to moderate success..

does sliver legion count as well? if so, then that is a pretty scary big beater if it ever lands.

I run Kodama of the North Tree as a fetchable beater in my Captain Sisay deck. I'm not sure if he'll survive the next update though, since he has no board impact whatsoever and has been useful only when the game was already down to two players so far.

I've found that I'm a pretty big fan of Cryptborn Horror. In the right deck (hello, Pestilence!) it can be a big time swing.

Quote from Lithl »

I run Rimefeather Owl in my mono-blue deck. It's not cheap, but it can get really big with a snow manabase; casting it off 7 snow islands, he's an 8/8 flier for 7 that can get bigger, and that's assuming your opponents aren't playing any snow permanents like Coldsteel Heart or their own snow lands.

The ice counters also stick around when the owl leaves play, so if he comes back you don't need to build them up again, but those permanents don't remain snow permanents while the owl is off the board (so you can't use your Sol Ring with an ice counter to activate Scrying Sheets unless the owl is out). Rimefeather Owl is also the only card that can make more than one thing snow in a single turn (only competing with Thermal Flux which is a one-shot effect limited to the current turn and Arcum's Weathervane which has to tap), which can be useful for anything from turning your mana rocks snow in order to activate the Owl's ability more, to powering up Skred.

Owl also synergizes with Rimescale Dragon, since they're both putting ice counters on things and affecting cards with ice counters on them.

And Iceberg.

Divinity of Pride

Serra Avatar

Going through my decks I can tell you that pure beaters are few and far between. It's also a somewhat ambiguous term; does something like Avenger of Zendikar count as "beater"?

Some cards that I run that a pure beaters because of their synergy with the deck would include Darksteel Juggernaut and Hellkite Igniter in Bosh, Voracious Wurm and Serra Avatar in Trostani, Grave Titan in several decks (although I can argue that the 2/2 Zombies have multiple uses as sacrifice fodder, especially in Endrek Sahr), Troll Ascetic and Thrun, the Last Troll in Uril Enchantress, Goblin Piledriver in RB Wort, and Lord of Extinction in Jarad (which almost doesn't count since it is almost always flung at an opponent rather than attacking).