Shivan Dragon
Creature — Dragon
Flying
: This creature gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
- CMC
- 6
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Fifth Edition
- Price
- $6.30
- EDHREC rank
- #10919
Shivan Dragon is a 5/5 flier that can pump itself for R each combat — classic threat, classic cost, classically outclassed in 2025. At six mana, you're competing with dragons that come with enters-the-battlefield effects, built-in protection, or immediate board impact, and Shivan Dragon brings none of those.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Shivan Dragon is a nostalgia pick in Dragon tribal lists — Ur-Dragon and Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm decks can run it, but it sits at the bottom of any honest curve review. Constructed formats like Modern, Pioneer, and Legacy have long since left it behind; six mana for a vanilla-adjacent creature with no ETB and no protection is unplayable in any competitive 60-card context. Standard legality is technically accurate, but Shivan Dragon won't show up in any serious list there either. It's legal everywhere that matters and playable nowhere that's cutthroat — which puts it squarely in the casual Commander bracket.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Demanding roughly the same mana investment, Demanding Dragon and Thunderbreak Regent both cost less and bring immediate value or a deterrent effect that Shivan Dragon simply doesn't. If the draw is the pump ability, Moonveil Dragon does the same trick for your whole team at a comparable price point and is a strictly better fit in any aggressive red deck.
Price Context
Current price
$6.30 mid tier
At $6.30, Shivan Dragon sits in the mid tier almost entirely on nostalgia — it's an iconic card from Magic's earliest days, and collector demand drives the price far above its competitive utility. That premium is unlikely to grow; reprints are frequent and the card sees no tournament play, so treat $6 as what you're paying for the history, not the horsepower.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.