The 32 Best Drakes in Magic Ranked

Volatile Stormdrake | Illustration by Xavier Ribeiro

Drakes, dragons’ weaker cousins, have never been at the forefront of fantasy media. They’re just not as exciting as the fire-breathing, town-destroying, knight-swallowing monsters that full-blown dragons can be. In Magic, they fulfill a pseudo-”bird of prey” (or, lizard of prey?) niche in the fantasy of the setting. But that doesn’t mean drakes can’t be just as lethal or mechanically diverse as dragons.

Today, we’re diving into one of Magic’s least-supported creature types. We’re going to get to the bottom of what exactly drakes do best, and where their mechanical identity lies.

What Are Drakes in MTG?

Cerulean Drake | Illustration by Daniel Ljunggren

Drakes are a creature type in Magic: the Gathering. They are primarily found in blue, but drakes have appeared in all colors. Every drake printed so far has flying, but I wouldn’t put it past R&D to design one without flying in the near future.

Drake creatures tend to cost 3-5 mana, with statlines around 2/2-4/4. Many drakes fulfill the role of mid game card advantage in a Limited setting as they are generally overcosted for their stats, but tend to come with an additional effect like card draw on ETB, or the option to sacrifice them to counter a spell. Many of the best drake creatures come from before this precedent and general theme was established.

#32. Wind Drake

Wind Drake is the classic drake creature. A 2/2 with flying for 3, it does just about everything you’d expect from a drake creature; which is to say, it flies and has a medium sized body and doesn’t cost a whole heck of a lot to cast. That’s about it, though. Wind Drake is the weathervane by which we can measure each other drake on this list, effectively being a “flying bear.”

#31. Whirlpool Drake

Whirlpool Drake is two wheels for the price of one! A flying blocker on top of that makes this one of my favorites for Nekusar, the Mindrazer and Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind decks.

#30. Viral Drake

Viral Drake is the only drake with infect. As a 1/4 with evasion, it’s not bad at sneaking poison counters onto an opponent. Its true value lies in its activated ability to proliferate for 4 mana. This ability has no once-per-turn or tap restriction, meaning once we get a single poison counter on our opponents, we can easily dump all of our mana into proliferation, adding poison counters without having to touch another player.

#29. Nephalia Moondrakes

In possibly one of the worst promo card choices of all time, Nephalia Moondrakes was the result of Wizards looking to tamp down the power of promotional cards released alongside new sets. In a classic case of over-correction, Nephalia Moondrakes is a trash rare with an ability reminiscent of the M15 Soul cycle. Sadly, 7 mana for a 5/5 just isn't worth it, even with evasion and a one-turn buff to creatures.

#28. Skyline Predator

I have a special affinity for Skyline Predator, but I won’t lie to you and say that it's a very good card. I just couldn’t stop pulling this drake from my Return to Ravnica packs back in the day, so I figured I better start enjoying this flash flier. Years of losing have taught me that 6 mana isn’t a good rate to pay for a 3/4 creature.

#27. Drakewing Krasis

Delicate yet deadly, Drakewing Krasis is guaranteed to get at least some of its 3 damage through to your opponent, but it won’t win any dogfights in the air if its blocked.

#26. Silver Wyvern

Silver Wyvern is kind of fun in theory, but your opponent will almost never target it with removal as long as you have one blue mana up. Broadcasting your redirect so loudly just ensures you never get to use it in most cases.

#25. Stitched Drake

In comparison to Wind Drake, Stitched Drake gets you an extra +1/+2 for exiling a creature from your graveyard as you cast it. A fair common in a Limited environment, it won’t make any huge, game-changing plays.

#24. Coastal Drake

Finally! Something to play against the kavu typal Jared Carthalion decks destroying the meta! A repeatable Unsummon for 2 mana is useful when the only creature type your opponents play are kavus, but this whiffs in all other instances.

#23. Mindeye Drake

At first glance, I wanted to include Mindeye Drake in every Dimir () mill deck I could. Unfortunately, I soon realized that a 5-toughness creature is a lot harder to remove than I anticipated, so triggering the mill-5 effect happened so infrequently I eventually gave up.

#22. Scavenger Drake

Scavenger Drake synergizes fairly well with any deck that plans to sacrifice a lot of its own creatures, but starting as a 1/1 for 4 mana makes it painfully slow. It’s probably useful alongside one of the flying lords listed here, but not excellent by any means.

#21. Etherium Pteramander

A 1/1 with flying that grows into a 5/5 once you adapt it, Etherium Pteramander is great for Limited environments with lots of artifacts, like the Modern Horizons 3 set it hails from. It might’ve seen play in Pauper if it was a common, but as an uncommon it's just middling as far as its value goes.

#20. Kyscu Drake + Spitting Drake

The mono-green Kyscu Drake and mono-red Spitting Drake come from a time in Magic’s history where assembling certain combinations of specific creatures could let you tutor a much stronger creature. Think back to cards like Dark Supplicant and Urborg Panther. The Viashivan Dragon these drakes summon Polymerization-style to the battlefield is really only worth it if you can assemble its requisite parts; you never want to pay the full to cast that measly 4/4 flier.

#19. Loyal Drake

Loyal Drake is a fairly priced uncommon built for Commander. Its lieutenant ability lets you draw a card at the beginning of combat on your turn if you control your commander, notably different from other passive draw effects since it triggers after your first main phase. Most blue decks can justify using their second main to some degree, so this isn’t as much of a downside as it appears.

#18. Hazerider Drake

Mirage’s Hazerider Drake comes from a time when Magic’s meta was still very concerned with color hosing. This Azorius drake has protection from its shared enemy color, red, making it hard to remove with a plain ol’ Lightning Bolt and letting it slip by red’s fiercest flying blockers, dragons.

#17. Chromescale Drake

In a perfect world, Chromescale Drake is a 3/4 flier for that draws three when it enters. That assumes you meet the conditions for its affinity effect and see exactly three artifacts when you reveal the cards from your library, though. In a correctly constructed artifacts deck, this shouldn’t be a problem, but it hurts a lot more if you end up paying 4 or 5 mana for a 3/4 flier and get nothing else out of it.

#16. Voracious Fell Beast

A 6-mana Fleshbag Marauder is a little too pricey for a 4/4 flying body, and the Food tokens that Voracious Fell Beast creates probably won’t be used immediately since we just spent so much mana casting the thing in the first place. Useful in a pinch, but not game-defining by any means.

#15. Fell Beast of Mordor

A mono-black drake, Fell Beast of Mordor represents the evil wyverns ridden by Sauron’s Ringwraiths in The Lord of the Rings. When this terrifying creature enters the battlefield, you can devour any number of your own creatures, putting +1/+1 counters on the Fell Beast for each creature sacrificed. Then, immediately when it enters and every time it attacks, it drains an opponent for an amount equal to its +1/+1 counters. This makes Fell Beast of Mordor ideal for decks that go both wide and tall, like Ghave, Guru of Spores-led Commander decks.

#14. Wormfang Drake

Wormfang Drake is an Oblivion Ring effect that you must use on one of your own creatures when it enters the battlefield. This was originally meant as a downside on a 3/4 flier for 3 mana, but nowadays it can be used to reuse enters-the-battlefield effects and blink creatures in and out of the battlefield.

#13. Windstorm Drake

Another flying lord, Windstorm Drake grants +1/+0 to flying creatures you control, but is severely overcosted for a 3/3 with flying. A fair include if you really, really need more flying lords for your drake deck, but there are just better choices available in non-drake form.

#12. Cerulean Drake

A great sideboard card for when you’re facing a deck full of burn, Cerulean Drake frees you from worry about Lightning Bolts to the face and provides an effective blocker against those aggressive goblin decks.

#11. Gleaming Geardrake

Gleaming Geardrake slots right into any deck running a ton of Clue, Food, and Treasure tokens. It hits the field early and hangs out for a long time while we generate advantage from our sacrifice-able artifacts, and it gets us started with one Clue token for free.

#10. Thunderclap Drake

Thunderclap Drake is an excellent choice for any spell-slinging EDH deck, especially one with a cheap commander we expect to cast multiple times during a game. While you can’t use its cost reduction effect on the spell you want to copy (since the drake will be in the graveyard by the time you cast the spell), you’ll still see significant value from this 2-mana cost reducer if it hits the field early and starts discounting your instants and sorceries.

Note that Thunderclap Drake is missing a line from its text box that's been added to its Oracle text: “You may choose new targets for the copy” should be added to the end of its activated ability.

#9. Thunderclap Wyvern

Thunderclap Wyvern is a lord for your flying creatures (as if we needed more of those), but comes with flash to surprise your opponents after they’ve attacked into what they thought was a board full of weak little 1/1 Spirit tokens. It’s fairly costed and worth the include if you’re doubling-down on flying creatures of various types.

#8. Crackling Drake

Crackling Drake is the Izzet entry into Guilds of Ravnica’s cycle of uncommon, two-color creatures that cost two of each of their colors. It’s decidedly Izzet, gaining power from each spell in your graveyard or exiled by you (so your flashbacked and jump-started spells still count!). It’s also a 4-toughness body that draws a card when it enters, making it quite valuable for its cost.

#7. Glint Raker

Glint Raker flew under the radar when The Brothers’ War Commander was released. I had a lot of success running it in my Mishra, Eminent One deck—it benefits greatly from those huge mana sinks like Spine of Ish Sah.

#6. Sapphire Drake

Sapphire Drake is a sleeper card for +1/+1 counter decks, in my humble opinion. I ran one in my Reyhan, Last of the Abzan / Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker deck and it frequently ended games for me. My army of slightly-buffed Warrior tokens suddenly becomes unblockable when this drake hit the field, and I charged across the skies directly into my opponent’s face, ending the combat standoff we’d been stuck in for hours.

#5. Shrieking Drake

Shrieking Drake is another classic combo-enabler that’s valuable for being just about as cheap as a drake can get. With just an Intruder Alarm and some way to make one blue mana, you can bounce and cast Shrieking Drake infinitely, either pinging the foe each time with Impact Tremors effects or adding more and more mana to your pool before unloading a huge Fireball of some kind.

#4. Enigma Drake

Enigma Drake is a classic effect for Izzet spellslinger decks, letting you follow up a few turns of burn and control spells with a big flying threat to close out the game. Experts are divided on whether or not its better than Spellheart Chimera; I think it is, though. We don’t need trample on a creature that already has evasion; it’s a much better use of our resources to cast another instant or sorcery to remove whatever flying blocker stands in Enigma Drake’s way.

#3. Peregrine Drake

Peregrine Drake is a classic staple in infinite mana combos across numerous decks. Looping a cheap blink effect like Cloudshift lets you tap out each time the drake enters the battlefield, adding mana to your pool before untapping your lands and blinking the drake again to start the process over. While it’s a little more expensive than Cloud of Faeries, it gets the job done in a pinch, and is a great back up for when your faerie‘s removed before the combo can go off.

#2. Volatile Stormdrake

Volatile Stormdrake is inspired by Gilded Drake, but toned down to fit into the Modern meta using energy counters in Modern Horizons 3. It has a hard limit on how big of a creature it can steal in the form of how many energy counters you can afford to spend, and also comes with hexproof from activated and triggered abilities, making it a little harder to remove from your opponent’s battlefield once the exchange has occurred. However, it still only has 2 toughness, meaning it dies to removal as simple as Shock. This card doesn’t see competitive play in Modern, but it’s a fun take on an old mechanic and was very satisfying to slam down in MH3 Limited.

#1. Gilded Drake

One of two drake creatures on the Reserved List, Gilded Drake is by far the best drake ever printed. A staple of cEDH decks, Gilded Drake steals one of your opponent’s best creatures for just 2 mana. Sure, they’re get a 3/3 flier out of the deal, but that’s basically irrelevant when you’re stealing their Blightsteel Colossus.

Unlike other Control Magic effects, there are no stipulations on the target creature, and your opponent can’t get it back by destroying a permanent or waiting until the end of turn. Note that the Urza’s Saga wording printed on the card is a bit dated by today’s standards; The Gilded Drake still sacrifices itself if its ability fizzles because its target has become invalid.

Best Drake Payoffs

One of my favorite Commander decks that sees regular play is my Talrand, Sky Summoner deck. Talrand spits out 2/2 flying drakes for free whenever we cast an instant or sorcery, something we’ve determined is worth 3 mana based on Wind Drake’s existence. If you've ever wanted to build a deck entirely based on drakes, Talrand is an excellent commander.

That said, Jumpstart 2022’s Alandra, Sky Dreamer is a great second choice. Alandra also has a method for creating drake tokens, and the ability to buff our entire board of evasive fliers while we generate advantage from our draw spells.

Are Drakes Considered Dragons in MTG?

Drakes and dragons are two separate creature types in MTG. Although most drakes and dragons have flying, drakes tend to be much smaller creatures and lack the iconic Firebreathing effect that is the hallmark of many dragons. Drakes are also typically only two-legged where dragons have four legs and a pair of wings.

Are There Any Drake Commanders?

Talrand, Sky Summoner and Alandra, Sky Dreamer are your best bets for a drake-themed Commander deck. There are no legendary drakes, but both of these legendary creatures create 2/2 Drake tokens, which can be used to bolster your flock of these reptilian birds.

Wrap Up

Sapphire Drake | Illustration by Steve Prescott

Drakes may not be as well-known or as strongly supported as other creature types, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t a valued and important part of the Magic: the Gathering ecosystem. Without them, we’d have no uncommon 3-to-5-drops for our blue Draft decks, and nowhere to dump the Fell Beasts from The Lord of the Rings without giving dragons even more powerful creatures to play with.

What are some of your favorite drakes? Which unpopular creature type would you like to see covered next? Let us know in the comments here, or on Draftsim’s Discord!

Thanks for reading!