The 28 Best Dragons in Magic Ranked

Last updated on May 13, 2024

Niv-Mizzet, Parun | Illustration by Svetlin Velinov

Dragons have been a staple of the fantasy genre ever since its inception. Winged serpents are depicted in works all the way back to the times of The Epic of Gilgamesh. It’s no surprise that they’ve made their way into the world’s most popular card game.

Dragons in Magic tend to be high-cost, impactful creatures that dominate the board. Their aesthetics coupled with their iconic designs are what makes them so attractive to players, from the times of Shivan Dragon all the way to the newest releases.

Today I’ll be looking at the vast history of these beasts and unraveling the best dragons in Magic. This list focuses on a mix of Constructed and Commander viability, thought dragons are bound to show up no matter what format you're playing.

What Is a Dragon in MTG?

Nicol Bolas, the Ravager | Illustration by Svetlin Velinov

In MTG, dragons are one of many creature types, but they’re among the most iconic. Most dragons in MTG are red creatures, have flying and sizes between 4/4 and 6/6, and often have other abilities like trample and haste. There are dragon cards in every color though, and many are multicolor, especially for Commander purposes.

Of the 300+ dragon cards in MTG, 100 or so are legendary creatures, and that’s a big nod to EDH. The most detrimental aspect of a dragon’s playability is the fact that although very powerful, they usually cost 5-7 mana, and those expensive spells tend to see more EDH or sideboard play than as main deck Constructed inclusions. For this list, I’m not considering cards that turn into dragons or double-faced cards/sagas.

#28. Draco

Funnily enough, Draco’s best utility is just being an expensive card. Outside Un-sets, it’s still the most expensive MTG card around, and there’s a bunch of cards that care about mana value. It’s also a 9/9 flying creature that can be realistically cast for 8-10 mana.

#27. Timeless Dragon

Timeless Dragon is a very flexible white creature, offering you the chance to plainscycle it, get a land, and eternalize later for only 4 mana. You can also cast this dragon by paying the 5 mana upfront and eternalizing if it dies, or even getting some value if it’s discarded.

#26. Shimmer Dragon

What sets Shimmer Dragon apart from a mere Mahamoti Djinn are artifacts. Controlling four or more artifacts is enough to give this big lizard hexproof, and once you’re at that level, it’s possible to draw at least two cards a turn.

#25. Kokusho, the Evening Star

In EDH, draining for 15 every time Kokusho dies isn’t a small feat. Granted, this black creature was printed before EDH was a popular format. This dragon is a strong addition to decks that want to sacrifice things, especially if you can double the trigger with something like Teysa Karlov.

#24. Hellkite Courser

Hellkite Courser can be an expensive commander’s best friend or just used to skip a very expensive commander tax. Of course, that's on top of a 6/5 flying creature. It’s good if you manage to blink it to get the most out of a commander entering the battlefield.

#23. Piru, the Volatile

With Piru, the Volatile around, you can opt to pay the mana and keep a 7/7 flying and lifelink dragon around, or let it die to deal 7 damage to each nonlegendary creature. That's way better if you already have legendary creatures on the battlefield, so try to play some legends alongside this Mardu dragon.

#22. Velomachus Lorehold

Velomachus Lorehold gets a nod for being able to hit an opponent and cast a spell from your deck the turn it's played. It’s often seen casting Time Warps so you can do it all again.

#21. Hellkite Charger

A dragon that attacks with haste is already a good choice, and one that has a late-game ability is even better. Hellkite Charger can often deal 10 combat damage to a single player by itself.

#20. Old Gnawbone

Old Gnawbone is a green Treasure factory. More often than not, you’ll cast it and get the mana back in Treasures in the same turn. After that, you’ll have a 7/7 green creature that can generate seven Treasure tokens on its own.

#19. Sunscorch Regent

Cards that benefit whenever a player casts a spell get exponentially better in EDH. In a lifegain based deck, you’ll be able to trigger the Regent at least once before it dies, and more often than not 5-10 times. Sunscorch Regent gets big fast with +1/+1 counters, and it slows down your opponents' plans just by being there.

#18. The Ancient Metal Dragons

• Ancient Copper Dragon
• Ancient Brass Dragon
• Ancient Silver Dragon
• Ancient Gold Dragon
• Ancient Bronze Dragon

These five Dungeons & Dragons inspired dragons are all fairly interchangeable, so play whichever fits your deck best. Keep in mind that the average value of a d20 die is 10. They also get exponentially better with haste to get that saboteur effect right away. It's an obvious downside that they’re very expensive and need to hit to make something.

#17. Scalelord Reckoner

Scalelord Reckoner makes it very painful for your opponents to target it or your other dragons, making them lose their best stuff. It’s a good white card on its own, but it gets much better around other dragons and changelings.

#16. Niv-Mizzet, Parun

Niv-Mizzet, Parun does what Izzet likes most: It rewards you for playing instants and sorceries, or drawing extra cards, making it one of the best Izzet commanders. Just getting to draw a card and ping a target after an opponent plays a spell is very good. Also, adding draw a card and 1 damage to your counterspells is just icing on the cake.

#15. Dragonlord Atarka

Dragonlord Atarka is one of my favorite dragons and one that saw a lot of Standard play. You’ll get a huge 8/8 body with a strong ETB, often snipping an enemy commander or thinning out a battlefield filled with small bodies. It’s a strong body to reanimate, or to recur from the graveyard to cast again.

#14. Arcades, the Strategist

Arcades, the Strategist is the go-to Bant commander for playing with walls and defender creatures. It’s easy to build a budget and effective deck around it, but just make sure you have common cheap walls that no other deck wants, like Jaddi Offshoot or Walking Bulwark.

#13. Korvold, Fae-Cursed King

Korvold, Fae-Cursed King is an annoying card to play against. It already generates value just by entering the battlefield. In sacrifice-based decks, Korvold grows fairly large and draws you many cards, and it’s good enough to see Commander and 1v1 Constructed play in Jund decks.

#12. Akul the Unrepentant

Akul the Unrepentant saw play in Standard reanimator decks, often with Rakdos Joins Up. This way you can “reanimate” a creature from your hand. It’s also a strong body as a 5/5 flample. You can easily build an EDH deck around this Rakdos commander, focused on big creatures and sacrifice effects.

#11. Hellkite Tyrant

Hellkite Tyrant gets a high place thanks to the ability to steal artifacts from your opponents. In EDH you’ll frequently steal some mana rocks, Treasure tokens, equipment, Blood tokens, Food, and Clue tokens. There’s the alternate win condition too, but this red card is good enough without it since you can get value while setting your opponents back.

#10. Goldspan Dragon

Goldspan Dragon is a fairly sized dragon with haste that gives you Treasure each time it attacks. Not only that, but it also doubles the value of your Treasures. With so many cards that generate or synergize with Treasures, it’s easy to get an instant benefit out of your Goldspan friend. You can combo off by targeting the dragon with your own spells, too.

#9. Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon

Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon is a game-ending threat on its own, as well as an interesting infect commander. With enough mana you can hit hard with it, poison someone for 4, and even protect it via regenerate. If your infect deck is doing its thing, you won’t need more than two hits from this black skeleton dragon to end the game, and it gets better with power pumping or double strike (Fireshrieker).

#8. Bonehoard Dracosaur

Bonehoard Dracosaur is an interesting ramp target. A 5/5 flying and first-strike body is good enough to fight, but if it survives until your next upkeep, it’s giving you two cards you can cast, and Treasures/creatures along with them.

#7. Shivan Devastator

Shivan Devastator is a fireball with wings, seeing play in many formats like Standard and Pioneer. It’s a flexible red dragon that you can cast early and late. It can be a role-player or a top-end finisher in decks like mono-red burn.

#6. Niv-Mizzet Reborn

Niv-Mizzet Reborn is a combo piece in decks filled with gold cards. Just casting this dragon avatar gives you strong card advantage, and it can be tutored and cast via Bring to Light, giving birth to the deck Niv-to-Light. The card is also a unique 5-color commander.

#5. Steel Hellkite

Steel Hellkite is a colorless dragon that can frequently wrath the board and get rid of small creatures. It’s a staple of the Vintage format, being easily cast via Mishra's Workshop.

#4. Terror of the Peaks

Terror of the Peaks gets a bump in the list thanks to its reprint in Standard. There are many combos involving this red dragon and following up with big creatures, or reanimating big creatures. Or casting Smuggler's Surprise. Anyway, this card gives you firepower besides being a big flying monster.

#3. Nicol Bolas, the Ravager / Nicol Bolas, the Arisen

Just 4 mana gets you Nicol Bolas, the Ravager and immediately forces your opponents to discard. This version of Nicol Bolas is the best yet, offering you benefits immediately; the game ends quickly if you manage to turn it into Nicol Bolas, the Arisen. It's one of the best Grixis commanders too.

#2. Scion of Draco

Despite costing 12 mana, Scion of Draco can be cast for effectively 2 mana, thanks to lands like the triomes and Leyline of the Guildpact. One of the best artifact creatures in Magic, it’s a perfect fit for 5-color decks, helping your gold creatures become stronger.

#1. Murktide Regent

Murktide Regent occupies the top of this list by being a cheap and strong dragon to cast due to the delve mechanic. This blue creature has been a staple of various competitive formats since its printing. Once you have a Regent or two on the battlefield, it won’t take long until you win. What’s more, the Regent actually gets bigger if you keep delving your spells.   

Best Dragon Payoffs

There are several dragon payoffs in MTG, especially in thematic Magic sets like Dragons of Tarkir and Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate. Here’s a few of them:

• Acolyte of Bahamut can make your dragon commanders act as an Eye of Ugin for dragons. The same effect can be obtained with Dragonspeaker Shaman.
• Atarka, World Render gives you exactly what you’re looking for when attacking with dragons: double strike. Is it a win-more ability? Sometimes it is, and sometimes it’s a win condition.
• Korlessa, Scale Singer gives you huge card advantage by allowing you to play dragons from the top of your library. You’ll be constrained on mana though, because dragons aren’t cheap.
• Cards like Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind or Lapis Orb of Dragonkind are interesting mana rocks in dragon-filled decks.
• Crux of Fate is a noteworthy card if you’re into dragons. It's essentially a one-sided black board wipe.
• Dragon's Hoard draws you so many cards if you’re playing dragons. It saw a little competitive play in Standard while there was a solid Tier 1 dragons deck.
• Sarkhan is a character strongly related to dragons. Designs like Sarkhan, Soul Aflame and Sarkhan, Fireblood are effectively ramp for your dragons.
• Kaalia of the Vast and Sivitri, Dragon Master can be strong dragon commanders.
• The Ur-Dragon is the quintessential dragon commander, making your dragons cost 1 less even from the command zone, while allowing you to play any color of dragons in your EDH deck.

Are Dragons Good in MTG?

They are! Dragons are among the fiercest and most powerful creatures in MTG, and many of them see Constructed play regularly across different formats. Dragons are usually rare or mythic rare creatures, they’re big and splashy fliers, and they’re total bombs in Limited play and staples in Constructed decks.

Who Are the Elder Dragons? How Many Are There?

The original five elder dragons were printed in the Legends set: Nicol Bolas, Arcades Sabboth, Vaevictis Asmadi, Chromium, and Palladia-Mors. They’re all Elder Dragon Legends, or Legendary Creature – Elder Dragon in the newest notation.

Later expansions brought newer elder dragons as well as remakes from the first elder dragons. Dragons of Tarkir gave us: Dragonlord Silumgar, Dragonlord Atarka, Dragonlord Dromoka, Dragonlord Kolaghan, and Dragonlord Ojutai.

Core Set 2019 gave us: Arcades, the Strategist, Chromium, the Mutable, Nicol Bolas, the Ravager, Palladia-Mors, the Ruiner, and Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire.

Strixhaven gave us: Tanazir Quandrix, Beledros Witherbloom, Galazeth Prismari, Shadrix Silverquill, Velomachus Lorehold.

Finally, Modern Horizons 2 printed Piru, the Volatile as the first wedge tri-color elder dragon, bringing the total count to 21. I fully expect this wedge cycle to be completed in future sets.

Does a Drake Count as a Dragon? Why Not?

It doesn’t. Drakes can be considered small dragons. Flavor-wise, a drake is like another species, although they’re also flying reptiles. They don’t have the size and strength of dragons, or their innate magical powers. Rules-wise, they’re another creature type, so there are dragon cards and drake cards. Maybe there’s a future legendary creature that buffs drakes and dragons equally.

Wrap Up

Steel Hellkite | Illustration by James Paick

Dragons are one of Magic’s premiere creature types and they offer a variety of different playstyles. Whether you want to make a dragon-only EDH deck or play a top-tier deck in Pioneer, you can make it work with dragons.

Red is the color you should use if you’re looking to pack your deck full of dragons. There are some commanders out there that can be a huge help with getting your dragons out nice and early so you can hit some faces.

Did I miss your favorite dragon? What commander does your dragon typal deck use? Let me know in the comments below or head over to our Discord if that’s more your thing.