Thunder Drake
Creature — Elemental Drake
Flying
Whenever you cast your second spell each turn, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Ravnica: Clue Edition
- Price
- $0.20
- EDHREC rank
- #20076
Thunder Drake grows without a ceiling — every instant and sorcery you cast after it lands adds a +1/+1 counter, turning a vanilla 1/1 flyer into a genuine aerial threat by mid-game. The four-mana entry cost is the honest downside, and in any deck not dedicated to spell volume it rarely justifies the slot.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Alandra, Sky Dreamer
Alandra, Sky Dreamer triggers on each instant or sorcery you cast, and Thunder Drake counts every one of those same spells — the two cards scale off identical fuel, so Drake reliably becomes a 4/4 or larger before Alandra's token engine has even peaked.
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 | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Thunder Drake is a Commander card first and almost exclusively. In spell-heavy blue builds — particularly those helmed by Alandra, Sky Dreamer or similar cast-matters commanders — it accumulates counters fast enough to close games as a secondary win condition. In Pauper it's legal but competes poorly with cheaper cantrip payoffs that don't ask for four mana up front. Legacy, Modern, and Pioneer have no realistic homes for it; the power level gap versus format staples is too wide to bridge with counter accumulation alone.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.20 bulk tier
At $0.20, Thunder Drake is deep bulk — a pickup cost that makes it easy to test in any Commander brew without hesitation. Bulk rares and uncommons at this price point rarely move unless a new commander dramatically spikes demand, so expect it to stay in this tier.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.