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Demons is a creature type.

Details[]

It is almost exclusively used on black cards. In proper folklore, demons are usually described as evil spirits. However, in Magic: The Gathering, they are almost universally horned beasts which usually walk upright and are at least to some degree sentient, but also display feral and most certainly malevolent behavior.

Defiler of Souls ARB

Multicolor Demon Creature

Demons are in general very cost effective creatures with powerful and/or evasive abilities on big bodies. However, they are also usually bound to high and intensive mana costs which usually include at least two colored mana. Regardless, there are also somewhat cheap Demons, which usually compensate for their large bodies and cheap cost, with disadvantageous upkeep costs.

The creature type Demon and the word "demon" in itself fell largely out of favor for Wizards of the Coast, after the release of the early sets due to its satanic connotation and also problems with Dungeons & Dragons. For a large portion, the creature type Horror was used for creatures which would have usually been Demons. However, the creature type has since been revived. 

Oni[]

Until the arrival of the Kamigawa block, Demon was a creature type used for large sized rare creatures, and the creature type was only used irregularly. This changed with Champions of Kamigawa because this set, and the other sets in the same block are rooted in Japanese Folklore.  It had also made use of the Japanese version of the Demon called Oni.

A few Oni's were portrayed as having a symbiotic relationship with Ogres in Kamigawa with Demons losing disadvantageous effects if the player also controlled an Ogre, and Ogres gaining abilities or losing disadvantageous effects if the player also controlled a Demon.

The Oni's in Particular were (a * beside the name denoting a symbiotic effect with ogres):

Ogres with beneficial effects dependent Demons:

  • Blood Speaker
  • Bloodthirsty Ogre
  • Raving Oni-Slave
  • Takenuma Bleeder
  • Villainous Ogre

Additionally, Mark of the Oni is an enchantment dependent on controlling a Demon, and Oni Possession is an enchantment which turns a creature into a Demon, both also appearing in the Kamigawa Block.

Multicolored and Non-black demons[]

Demons are almost exclusively black creatures. However, Shimatsu the Bloodcloacked and Oni of Wild Places are two notable exceptions both being red. Also, all multicolored demons with the exception of Illusory Demon are also red, and only Prince of Thralls, and Sol'kanar the Swamp King are another color besides black and red, both being also blue.

The red-black multicolored demons are:

It should also be noted that five of the nine demons that are either neither multicolored or not-black are legendary. Meanwhile, the only legendary mono-black Demon that did not come from Kamigawa block (in which all rare creatures are legendary) is Spirit of the Night.

Other Demons[]

The Unglued card Infernal Spawn of Evil may also be counted as a Demon. However, that creature type was crossed out on the card and replaced with Beast. The exact opposite is true for the related card Infernal Spawn of Infernal Spawn of Evil from Unhinged. Regardless, both cards depict mice.

Other Demon related cards[]

  • Boris Devilboon produces 1/1 black and red demon creature tokens named "Minor Demon"
  • Demon's Jester
  • Demonfire
  • Demonic Attorney
  • Promise of Power can put a flying Demon Token into play whose power and toughness is equal to the number of cards in your hand when it comes into play.
  • Tomb of Urami can put a legendary 5/5 flying Demon token named "Urami" into play.

In other languages[]

Language or script Title Romanization
French
25
Démon
German
25
Dämon
Italian
25
Demone
Portuguese
25 25
Demônio
Spanish
25
Demonio
Russian
25
Демон Demon
(GOST 2002)
Japanese
25
デーモン Dēmon
(Hepburn)
Korean
25
악마
(惡魔)
Angma
(Revised romanization)
Simplified Chinese
25
恶魔 Èmó
(Pinyin)
Traditional Chinese
25
惡魔 Èmó
(Pinyin)
Ok3 mo1
(Jyutping)
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