Helica Glider
Creature — Nightmare Squirrel
This creature enters with your choice of a flying counter or a first strike counter on it.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths
- Price
- $0.10
- EDHREC rank
- #25538
Helica Glider is a three-mana 2/1 with flying and first strike until end of turn — a combat trick stapled to an evasive body, which sounds fine until you realize neither half is good enough to justify a card slot. Aggressive formats want this effect cheaper; Commander wants it to do more.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Helica Glider sits in an awkward spot across every format where it's legal. In Pauper, commons with flying need to either cost one or two mana or come with a relevant enters-the-battlefield effect to compete, and Helica Glider offers neither. Modern and Pioneer have long since moved past three-mana 2/1s that require attacking to activate their best trait. Commander is the format most likely to find a home for it, but even there, a 2/1 that temporarily gains first strike on offense doesn't threaten any board state worth threatening — it needs a dedicated voltron or combat-tricks-matter shell, and those decks have stronger options at this slot.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.10 bulk tier
At $0.10, Helica Glider is deep bulk — the kind of card that fills a draft chaff box. That price reflects accurate demand: virtually no competitive or casual Commander shell is hunting for this effect, so there's no pressure pushing it upward.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.