Gilded Drake
Creature — Drake
Flying
When this creature enters, exchange control of this creature and up to one target creature an opponent controls. If you don't or can't make an exchange, sacrifice this creature. This ability still resolves if its target becomes illegal.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Urza's Saga
- Price
- $183.34
- EDHREC rank
- #2486
Gilded Drake steals the best creature on the board the moment it enters — for two mana. The catch is that you hand over the Drake itself, but in Commander, where opponents routinely play generals and haymakers worth five to ten mana, that trade is almost always embarrassing for the other side; naming two with Talion, the Kindly Lord means you draw a card on top of it.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Talion, the Kindly Lord
Talion, the Kindly Lord triggers off the Drake's two-mana cost, so stealing a creature and drawing a card off the same play is routine. Gilded Drake is one of the cleanest two-drops to name when Talion is in play, and the drain effect means the opponent loses life just for the Drake entering.
Zedruu the Greathearted
Zedruu the Greathearted wants to donate permanents it owns — and Gilded Drake's exchange creates exactly that opening. After the swap, Zedruu can reclaim ownership of the stolen creature and give the Drake back to its original owner, letting you repeat the theft with flicker effects while Zedruu draws cards and gains life off each donated permanent.
Sen Triplets
Sen Triplets locks an opponent out of their turn, and Gilded Drake handles the threat that would otherwise punish you for tapping out. Taking the strongest creature on the board removes the most dangerous blocker or attacker while Sen Triplets is doing its control work.
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 |
Commander is the primary home for Gilded Drake — a two-mana unconditional creature theft at instant-speed is absurd in a format defined by expensive commanders and game-warping threats. In Legacy, it's legal but rarely played; the format moves too fast for a creature-based steal that hands back a 3/3 flier to matter consistently. Vintage has the same theoretical legality but even less incentive, since broken artifact and spell strategies don't care much about creature-for-creature exchanges. Gilded Drake is not legal in Modern, Pioneer, Standard, or Pauper, which effectively makes Commander and Oathbreaker its real metagame.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Nothing fully replicates what Gilded Drake does at two mana, but Treachery and Control Magic cover the steal effect at a higher cost and without handing anything back — Treachery in particular is strong because it untaps lands to pay for itself. If the goal is specifically the enter-the-battlefield trigger for abuse with flicker or donation engines, Bribery hits harder by going straight to the library, though it's a sorcery and carries its own price tag.
Price Context
Current price
$183.34 premium tier
At $183.34, Gilded Drake sits firmly in the premium tier — this is a single-printing Reserved List card, and that price reflects it. It holds value because supply is fixed and Commander demand is not going anywhere, but you're paying for irreplaceability, not raw power relative to cost.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Talion, the Kindly Lord
- Zedruu the Greathearted
- Sen Triplets
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.