Purifying Dragon
Creature — Dragon
Flying
Whenever this creature attacks, it deals 1 damage to target creature defending player controls. If that creature is a Zombie, this creature deals 2 damage to it instead.
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- The List
- Price
- $0.09
- EDHREC rank
- #23160
Purifying Dragon enters the battlefield and immediately starts taxing your opponents one damage per untapped nonbasic land they control during their upkeep — a persistent, repeating drain that punishes greedy mana bases without requiring any setup. The cost is a five-mana 4/4 flying body that does nothing the turn it arrives, which makes it too slow for competitive tables but a reasonable pain-piece in midrange Commander pods.
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 | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Purifying Dragon fills a niche in land-tax and Dragon-typal strategies — it's not a staple, but it's a legitimate choice in decks built around punishing nonbasic lands alongside cards like Zo-Zu the Punisher or Blood Moon effects. In competitive 60-card formats — Legacy, Modern, Pioneer — Purifying Dragon doesn't see play; five mana for a delayed, conditional ping is far too slow when those formats end before the trigger accumulates meaningful damage. Vintage is theoretically legal but the card has no presence there for the same reasons. Purifying Dragon is a Commander card through and through.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.09 bulk tier
At $0.09, Purifying Dragon is firmly bulk — you're essentially paying for the cardboard. Bulk Dragon staples rarely spike unless a new commander pushes the tribe hard, so don't expect movement, but at this price the barrier to slotting it into a Dragon or land-tax build is effectively zero.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.