Trawler Drake
Creature — Phyrexian Drake
Flying
This creature enters with an oil counter on it.
This creature gets +1/+1 for each oil counter on it.
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, put an oil counter on this creature.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Phyrexia: All Will Be One
- Price
- $0.12
- EDHREC rank
- #16421
Trawler Drake draws you a card when it enters — and in decks that cast multiple spells per turn, it can return itself or another Drake from the graveyard, turning a single copy into a recurring engine. The cost is four mana for a 3/2 flyer, which is below rate on its own, so Alandra, Sky Dreamer shells are really the only context where that body price is worth paying.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Alandra, Sky Dreamer
Alandra, Sky Dreamer generates a 4/4 Drake token for each second instant or sorcery you cast in a turn, and Trawler Drake's recursion clause means a spell-heavy turn can rebuy it from the graveyard and trigger Alandra again — chaining tokens off a single graveyard loop.
Jin-Gitaxias
Jin-Gitaxias rewards casting noncreature spells with proliferate and card draw, and Trawler Drake slots in as a spell-adjacent body that refuels your hand on entry while the recursion clause keeps it live across multiple turns of heavy spell casting.
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 |
Trawler Drake is a Commander card through and through — the recursion engine only matters when you're casting three or four spells a turn, which is a game state that happens routinely in EDH and almost never in sixty-card competitive formats. In Modern and Pioneer it's a four-mana 3/2 that draws one card, which is embarrassingly below rate when Snapcaster Mage and similar efficiency benchmarks exist. Legacy and Vintage are non-starters for the same reason, just with even steeper competition. Play Trawler Drake in Commander, specifically in blue spell-storm or Drake-tribal builds, and nowhere else.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.12 bulk tier
At $0.12, Trawler Drake is deep bulk — you're picking it up as a throw-in or out of a bulk box, not tracking it down on the secondary market. Bulk rares with narrow Commander applications like this one don't appreciate meaningfully, so buy it if you need it and don't think twice about the price.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Alandra, Sky Dreamer
- Jin-Gitaxias
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.