Knollspine Dragon
Creature — Dragon
Flying
When this creature enters, you may discard your hand and draw cards equal to the damage dealt to target opponent this turn.
- CMC
- 7
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Shadowmoor
- Price
- $1.06
- EDHREC rank
- #4366
Knollspine Dragon lands and immediately refills your hand based on how much damage you dealt that turn — in a red deck that swings big, that can mean drawing eight or ten cards off a single trigger. The seven-mana cost is real, but Neheb, the Eternal generates enough post-combat mana that you're often casting it for free or close to it.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Neheb, the Eternal
Neheb, the Eternal converts combat damage into mana, then that mana pays for Knollspine Dragon, whose trigger counts all the damage Neheb's attack just dealt — it's a self-contained engine that draws you a fistful of cards every time the loop fires.
Tannuk, Steadfast Second
Tannuk, Steadfast Second rewards you for attacking with multiple creatures and pushing through damage, and Knollspine Dragon scales directly with how wide and hard that attack hit — a board that connects for 12 means drawing 12.
Sauron, Lord of the Rings
Sauron, Lord of the Rings builds toward one massive threat attacking each turn, and Knollspine Dragon turns that single devastating swing into a full grip, keeping the pressure sustained beyond the initial assault.
Rakdos, Lord of Riots
Rakdos, Lord of Riots incentivizes dealing damage to opponents before casting creatures, and Knollspine Dragon rewards that same damage-dealing gameplan by converting a well-executed early attack into immediate card advantage.
Rivaz of the Claw
Rivaz of the Claw is a Dragon tribal commander, and Knollspine Dragon earns its slot there purely on type — but it also pulls double duty by refueling after the Dragon horde connects, which a tribal aggro deck genuinely needs.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Knollspine Dragon is a Commander card through and through — the trigger scales with the multiplayer damage totals that make it absurd, and the format's slower pace gives you time to reach seven mana without falling behind. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal but functionally irrelevant: seven mana for a conditional draw effect loses to nearly every other option those formats offer. Oathbreaker is the one competitive-adjacent format where it occasionally shows up, again in red damage-based shells that can funnel enough early hits to make the payoff worthwhile.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$1.06 cheap tier
At $1.06, Knollspine Dragon sits in the budget-staple tier — it overperforms heavily relative to its price in the decks that want it. That price is unlikely to move much given its narrow but loyal home in red damage shells; it's a stable pickup, not a fluctuating spec.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.