Flailing Drake
Creature — Drake
Flying
Whenever this creature blocks or becomes blocked by a creature, that creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- G
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Tempest
- Price
- $0.15
- EDHREC rank
- #31009
Flailing Drake enters as a 4/3 flier for four mana, then hands your opponent a permanent +1/+1 counter boost to any creature they control — a real cost that hands the table something every time it enters. It's a niche piece that requires a built-in payoff to justify, not a default inclusion.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Flailing Drake is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, and that's essentially the full list of places it sees any consideration. In Commander it finds its narrowest but most defensible home: decks that deliberately weaponize the counter gift — think Obosh, the Preypiercer voltron targets, or political builds that trade the buff for goodwill — can extract actual value from the downside. Legacy and Vintage have no interest in a four-mana 4/3 with a drawback when the format offers far cleaner threats. Oathbreaker mirrors the Commander case at a smaller scale.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.15 bulk tier
At $0.15, Flailing Drake is deep bulk — easy to acquire and easy to cut without financial pain. Bulk rares with narrow applications rarely climb unless a new commander creates a specific demand for the drawback, so treat it as a freely swappable experiment rather than a pickup to hold.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.