Loyal Drake
Creature — Drake
Flying
Lieutenant — At the beginning of combat on your turn, if you control your commander, draw a card.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Commander Masters
- Price
- $0.32
- EDHREC rank
- #5008
Loyal Drake draws you a card every turn your commander is in play — that's consistent, low-maintenance card advantage stapled to a 2/2 flier for three mana. The catch is the lieutenant clause: if your commander isn't on the battlefield, it's just a mediocre body, which makes it a liability in decks that routinely lose their commander to removal or tuck.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Alandra, Sky Dreamer
Alandra, Sky Dreamer's token-generation trigger fires on the second spell you cast each turn, so Loyal Drake's guaranteed upkeep draw directly fuels that count — the more cards in hand, the more spells you chain, and the more 4/4 Drakes flood the board alongside it.
Errant and Giada
Errant and Giada want to cast spells each turn to trigger their connive engine, and Loyal Drake keeps the hand stocked without spending a spell slot on the turn it matters, letting you use your mana for actual threats instead of drawing cards.
Volo, Guide to Monsters
Volo, Guide to Monsters copies every creature spell that shares no types with creatures already on the battlefield, and Drake is a Beast — a type Volo lists rarely see — so there's a real chance the copy trigger fires, turning one card-per-turn into two bodies and two draws.
Kangee, Sky Warden
Kangee, Sky Warden pumps all Birds you control, and Loyal Drake is a Drake not a Bird, so the synergy is purely functional: it keeps the hand full in an aggro-tempo deck that runs out of gas quickly after dumping its curve.
Cynette, Jelly Drover
Cynette, Jelly Drover cares about tokens and noncreature spells, and Loyal Drake doesn't interact with either directly — it earns its slot here purely as steady draw in a deck that can otherwise run dry after committing its hand to the board.
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 |
Loyal Drake is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but the only place it actually sees play is Commander. In Legacy and Vintage the lieutenant mechanic is irrelevant — those formats have no commander zone, so Loyal Drake is just a 2/2 flier for three mana with no upside, nowhere near competitive. Oathbreaker does have a command zone, so the trigger technically functions, but the format's faster clock and smaller starting hand size make a slow, conditional draw engine much harder to justify. Commander is where Loyal Drake belongs: the longer games, the prevalence of commanders that stay in play across multiple turns, and the value of grinding out card advantage over five or six turns all play directly to its strengths.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.32 bulk tier
At $0.32, Loyal Drake is firmly bulk — easy to pick up as a throw-in or from a bargain bin. Bulk rares with narrow lieutenant conditions don't tend to spike, so expect the price to stay in this range unless a pushed lieutenant commander drives sudden demand.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Alandra, Sky Dreamer
- Errant and Giada
- Volo, Guide to Monsters
- Kangee, Sky Warden
- Cynette, Jelly Drover
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.