Arcbound Ravager is the card everyone names first when Modular comes up, and for good reason, but it is far from the only Modular creature worth knowing. Mirrodin block and the two Modern Horizons sets combined produced roughly twenty cards with the ability, and several of them earn a real place in a deck.
Some of these creatures work best as payoffs, converting a big pile of counters into an even bigger threat. Others work better as fodder, cheap bodies meant to die early and hand their counters up the chain.
This ranking looks at the strongest Modular creatures outside Ravager itself, covering what each one does and where it fits best, whether that is competitive Modern Affinity, casual Commander, or Limited.
Knowing this tier list also helps collectors prioritize which Modular singles are worth tracking down versus which ones are closer to bulk commons.
Zabaz is a one-mana legendary creature from Modern Horizons 2 that adds an extra +1/+1 counter to any Modular trigger, whether the counters are entering with a new creature or transferring on death. That single static ability multiplies the value of every other Modular card in the deck.
Its low cost and legendary status also make it a natural Commander choice, letting an entire deck's identity form around stacking Modular triggers as high as possible.
Arcbound Reclaimer lets you put a dead Arcbound creature card from your graveyard on top of your library at no mana cost, giving a Modular deck a way to reuse its best pieces without needing dedicated graveyard recursion spells. It pairs especially well with Arcbound Ravager, letting a deck loop its best sacrifice fodder repeatedly.
Because the ability costs nothing beyond itself, it slots into almost any artifact shell without straining the mana base.
Arcbound Overseer is an eight-mana 6/6 that adds a +1/+1 counter to each Modular creature you control at the beginning of your upkeep. It functions as a tribal lord for Modular decks specifically, growing every relevant creature on the board turn after turn rather than boosting the whole team generically.
Its high cost keeps it out of faster formats, but in a grindy Commander game it can take over quickly if left unanswered.
Arcbound Shikari, alongside creatures like Arcbound Mouser and Arcbound Prototype, filled out the low end of the Modular curve in Modern Horizons 2's Limited environment. These cards are less about singular power and more about giving a Modular deck a smooth curve of cheap, aggressive bodies.
Outside of Limited they are role players rather than headline cards, but they remain reasonably priced ways to round out a budget Modular Commander deck.
Scrapyard Recombiner was the first new Modular card printed since Fifth Dawn, arriving well before the Modern Horizons revival. Its ability lets you search your library for an artifact creature card when it dies, functioning as a soft tutor toward whatever the deck's best target is at the time.
It works particularly well alongside big-value artifact creatures like Walking Ballista or the various Gearhulks, letting a Modular deck fetch exactly the payoff it needs.
Power Depot stands apart from every other Modular card as the only one printed on a noncreature permanent, in this case a land. When it enters, it comes into play with counters that can be removed to add mana of any color, making it a flexible fixer in an artifact-heavy manabase.
It has never fully found its ideal payoff card, but its uniqueness as the sole noncreature Modular permanent makes it a notable pickup for a completionist Mirrodin block collection.
A well-constructed Modular deck usually mixes cheap fodder creatures, a handful of recursion pieces like Arcbound Reclaimer, and at least one true payoff like Zabaz or Arcbound Overseer to make the accumulated counters matter. Leaning too hard into any single category tends to leave the deck either too slow or too fragile. Once a build is finalized, storing it in a proper plastic deck box keeps the whole 100-card Commander stack together between games.
Collectors assembling a full playset across both eras of Modular cards should expect to pull from Mirrodin block singles, Modern Masters style reprints, and the two Modern Horizons sets, so organizing by set helps keep a growing binder manageable.
Zabaz, the Glimmerwasp is widely considered the strongest dedicated payoff.
Yes, Power Depot is the only noncreature permanent with the ability.
It returns a dead Arcbound creature from the graveyard to the top of your library for free.
Modern Horizons 2 added the largest wave of new Modular cards.
As your collection of Modular creatures grows across sets, keep them sorted in a dedicated binder like the EVORETRO 9-Pocket Binder Pages so you can find the right piece for whichever build you are testing next.
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