Ophidian
Creature — Snake
Whenever this creature attacks and isn't blocked, you may draw a card. If you do, this creature assigns no combat damage this turn.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Magic Online Promos
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #25998
Ophidian trades its combat damage for a card draw, which sounds clean until you realize a 1/3 that can't trade profitably with most blockers and dies to nearly every removal spell is doing a lot of work to replace itself. In 1999 this was a draw engine; in 2025 it's a nostalgia pick that worse versions of Curiosity make redundant.
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 | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Ophidian is outclassed by enchantments like Curiosity or creatures like Bident of Thassa effects that don't require connecting with a 1/3 body — it will draw you one card and then get chumped into irrelevance. Pauper is the one format where Ophidian is worth a second look, since the card pool is shallow enough that a repeatable draw effect on a creature has real value in tempo-oriented blue decks. Legacy and Vintage both have access to every card ever printed, which means Ophidian is purely a nostalgia slot in a powered cube rather than a competitive inclusion. Oathbreaker follows the same logic as Commander: the effect is real but the rate is wrong.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data isn't available for Ophidian at the moment, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for current buylist and retail figures. Older common-rarity creatures from early sets can swing unpredictably based on collector demand rather than play demand, so don't pay a premium expecting Ophidian to see a competitive resurgence.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.