Spiketail Drake
Creature — Drake
Flying
Sacrifice this creature: Counter target spell unless its controller pays 
.
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Prophecy
- Price
- $0.22
- EDHREC rank
- #25544
Spiketail Drake puts a 3/3 flier on the board that forces your opponent to pay an extra mana or sacrifice a spell — a meaningful tax stapled to a relevant body. Four mana for that effect is the ceiling, not the floor, and most blue decks have cheaper ways to apply the same pressure.
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 |
In Commander, Spiketail Drake occupies a narrow slot: tap-out control and spellslinger builds that want both air presence and soft counterspell coverage. The problem is that the tax is optional — opponents with mana open will just pay it — which makes Spiketail Drake worse than dedicated counterspells at stopping anything critical and worse than a pure 3/3 flier at closing games. Legacy and Vintage are legal but ignore it entirely; four-mana do-nothings don't survive those formats' speed. Oathbreaker is the most plausible competitive home, where the constraint of a 60-card, 20-life format makes every point of evasive power and every counterspell effect count a little more.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.22 bulk tier
At $0.22, Spiketail Drake is deep bulk — you're paying for cardboard, not demand. That price won't move; nothing in its current play patterns suggests a breakout role is coming.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.