Drake Support (Reworked)
Custom Cards forum
Posted on Sept. 18, 2022, 6:14 p.m. by Stardragon
Some changes were made and added 5 new drakes (#10-14) to round off this set
Made some much needed drake creatures (that are decent) for the tribe including a tri color commander let me know what you all think of them.
1.
- basically a looting and token engine just really liked the art had to make a card from it
2.
- A standard control card tap a card for a turn nothing to special but better than a lot of low rarity drakes that they made
3.
-Just a bulk rare draw engine. Art made look like it was a fish eater so made ability around that
4.
-A Fog with wings not much eles to this card: Changes made expanded on its end combat phase ability and made all combat phases in case you run into an infinite combat deck (small but useful ability) also made it hybrid mana and 1 colorless cheaper
5.
- A mana doubler and filter with basic land search, can really help you if your getting color/mana screwed: Changes took out a green mana added a colorless mana and made one of the green a hybrid mana since it being mon-green was causing issues with the color pie
6.
-a aggressive red Wind Drake that can help clear the field of small creature: Changes took out a red mana and added a colorless mana to help with the casting cost
7.
- An Earthquake with wings
8.
a late game aggressive creature that makes tokens that finish the game faster: Changes made added blue to the casting cost didn't like it gruul it didn't feel right also made 2 colorless cheaper and reduced it's power and toughness to help come out faster
9.
-A tutor for drakes, that can basically search for one by itself
10.
-A functional reprint of Gilded Drake because it too expensive
11.
-Since i have a Gold and copper scale drake decided to have a silver one as well, LOL
12.
- A Diamond Lion with wings and the ability to either ramp or reload your hand- also since I had a scale drake for the other rarities needed one for mythic
13.
-A Lieutenant for your drakes work that gives you a rystic token engine plus a drake token doubler so if it doesn't make any tokens it will still be useful to fill the skies. Also really liked the art
14.
-A snow drake that acts as temporary removal.
15.
-The big boy himself has a lot that you could ask for in a commander has a lord effect that enables better attacks, brings more bodies to throw at your opponent, and can protect key cards by phasing them out: Changes changes his last a bit since he did have anything made the green mana justified in his cost now you can choose between +1/+1 counters for your drakes or tap a non flying creature for better defense since that tapped creature can't attack you for a turn
- Alternate commander for the precon im building. Upgrading Talrand, Sky Summoner and making him a villain (there are so few non black villians in magic) that has expanded his definition of a Sea due to a lust of power and believing it's his destiny.
TheOfficialCreator says... #3
Paradise Drake has a LOT of combos, lol.
But other than that, izzet has quite a few drakes so idk that it's fair to say that the triple mana is unrealistic, but I will admit that the red and green are usually splash colors for drakes, so while izzet, simic, and temur drakes make sense, gruul really don't.
Still, three cheers for drake tribal support!
September 18, 2022 7:28 p.m.
Stardragon says... #4
legendofa Frist Ik drakes are Blue centered deck I've made a Drake mono blue tribe commander.
Second i didn't want Kazirak to be white I wanted one of my favorite tribes to in one of my favorite colors, and green has plenty of big flyers Ancient Bronze Dragon, Bounteous Kirin, Giant Dustwasp ect so Parardise Drake really isn't out of color, true it rare for green to bigger flyings but i would go as far as as that, and even if it was off color who care? Wizards have made plenty of off color cards over the years.
Talking about Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm why? One Miirym is a copy commander and it's a dragon creature not a drake, Kazirak isn't even close to Miirym in abilities either so again why bring her up? Because she's a big Temur flying like Kazirak?
Only two cards are triple red in a commander deck of 100 i don't see a problem with it and if your going to be using Kazirak your going to splashing in red and green anyways so no it won't be hard to splash red and green in a deck thats made to have red and green in it. And red and green combination drake same as the mono red argument in's going into Temur deck so you'll have no problem splashing the colors in.
September 18, 2022 7:39 p.m.
Stardragon says... #5
TheOfficialCreator As stated above if my commander is temur it makes since to have at least one gruul drake since gruul is part of the temur color wedge and i only made one because i really doesn't fit that well and even than i had rougher time making feel like a drake, an off color color drake yes but a drake none the less.
September 18, 2022 7:43 p.m.
TheOfficialCreator says... #6
It's definitely not the most heinous break ever, and if it's for a precon that does make sense.
September 18, 2022 8:11 p.m.
Stardragon I'd like to start this comment by saying that your art selections are excellent, and thank you for providing the sources. You matched art to card beautifully.
Every green flyer printed these days either has a secondary color or is part of a five-card cycle. The ancient dragons and kirin are both mono-color cycles, and Giant Dustwasp is from a set where the color pie was specifically being messed with. Cards from Planar Chaos can't really be used as color precedence. And yeah, WotC has made off-color cards, but those are widely considered either mistakes or one-offs.
I brought up Miirym to suggest that Drakes can be made more distinct from Dragons, but I didn't really make that clear. There's a little more depth in than for Drakes, and Gruul/Temur Dragons is a much deeper archetype than Boros/Jeskai Dragons. Expanding Drakes into will allow them a distinct identity, other than "Dragons but smaller."
Are you intending all of these cards specifically for Commander, and even more specifically for a Kazirak commander deck? If so, are you intending an approximately balanced color distribution, or would one color be more heavily weighted? If this is all specifically for Kazirak, then your approach makes sense for that context.
September 18, 2022 8:16 p.m.
Stardragon says... #8
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Yes these were made with commander in mind I don't play any other format (other than commander spin offs like oathbreaker or two-headed giant). And yes all these cards would made for a Kazirak precon with blue as the core with red and green splashed in. At this point drakes are mono blue you could stretch it to izzet with Crackling Drake and Enigma Drake (my favorite drake art) which to be honest made drakes izzet by themselves Crackling more so than Enigma.
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Two things here I don't play white very much (other than in my one Naya deck and my mardu vampire deck) so other than treasure, life gain and exile I don't know what to do with white.
But your right I would love to have drakes be more than just mini dragons. But they don't have a identity to latch on to other than instant and sorcereies which are a dime a dozen and I want more than that for drakes.
- I choose temur because it's one of favorite schemes (Jund being the other), Grixis I felt was the wrong color for drakes and Jeskai I felt would just shove them down the instant and sorcery path even more (Prowess if expanding on the idea) plus again little experience with white.
But temur I felt had best the window for them to spread their wings (pun absolutely intended) while still keeping the izzet main core (if I'm being completly honest i truly think Bant is right colors for drakes and a unique tribe for bant since bant angels and knights never came to be, but there nothing to go on for that and again white.) and gain an identity of thier own because temur is such a flexible color scheme for the pie
September 20, 2022 1:01 a.m.
It sounds like you're creating these mostly around personal use and preference, which I can absolutely respect. Are you planning on proxying and/or using these cards in a live match?
September 20, 2022 1:06 a.m.
Stardragon says... #10
legendofa Personal preference yes everyone does no matter what they may say when they make customs otherwise theres little point in doing it. Personal use also yes but anyone is free to use any card I make just pay the $19.99 plus sperate shipping handling processing taxes and hidden fees.
Joking aside yes I plan on it once Kazirak is done I'll make a 0 rule commander. I feel like it's not there yet to run a drake deck
September 20, 2022 1:42 a.m.
Stardragon says... #11
legendofa Ik your not to on board with temur drakes but what do you think of the reworks I did are they better?
TheOfficialCreator Got rid of the gruul drake made it temur i just didn't like in gruul
September 22, 2022 2:38 p.m.
I like the intention of Fog Drake, but if I may take a shot at rewording it:
"When Fog Drake enters the battlefield, prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn. If a player would start an additional combat phase this turn, instead that player doesn't."
Paradise Drake can still be cast in mono-green. I might just be too much of a stickler here, but I think would be appropriate. The effect itself is big ramp and fixing; I would put this in a blink deck for sure.
I think Highland Drake is on a very good place right now. It's self-reinforcing once it gets started. My only though is to maybe cut more off the cost, and make it a 5/5 or so to compensate, so that it can come out faster. This is just personal taste.
For Kazirak, could you please clarify if the combat damage trigger is intended to happen once per creature dealing damage or once per combat? "Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage" vs. "Whenever one or more creatures you control deal combat damage".
September 22, 2022 9:27 p.m.
Stardragon says... #13
legendofa I'm terrible at wording thing right so I'll fix Fog drake on the morrow.
For Kazirak yes it meant to be when a creature deals combat damage to an opponent make a token not sure if I should change that to once per turn or not don't want it to pushed or OP. Will also fix that as well as lot of grammar mistakes I found on him tomorrow as well
September 22, 2022 11:35 p.m.
Stardragon says... #14
legendofa & TheOfficialCreator- Made 5 new drakes let me know what you think of them and fixed Fog and Kazirak (it takes like 24 hours for MTG.design to update the cards so the updated cards will come tomorrow but i did fix them)
September 23, 2022 2:16 p.m.
TheOfficialCreator says... #15
Kazirak is very, very powerful. I love it. It has the potential (and high likelihood, tbh) to double your creature count every turn. And in the colors of Terror of the Peaks, no less. Very strong, but not busted, I don't think. I might consider upping the cost by one.
I like the Diamond drake. I don't know that the card draw ability makes a whole lot of sense given the original purpose of Lion's Eye Diamond, but I suppose it makes sense that a drake would do that.
September 23, 2022 2:30 p.m.
Stardragon says... #16
If I'm going to be completely honest I still don't see the in point Lion's Eye Diamond ik it suppose to be a power effect but the discarding your hand for three mana mean you can use the mana on activated abilities which can be powerful but I rarely think it worth giving up your hand for unless you have 1 or 2 dead weights in your hand I. I just though it fits with drakes so i made a drake into one
September 23, 2022 5:05 p.m.
Lion's Eye Diamond is a key card in a lot of dredge, reanimator, or other recursion decks that want a full graveyard, as well as decks that can empty their hand quickly for a minimal discard.
I'll review the Drakes in detail when I have more time, but I see some very interesting ideas in there.
September 23, 2022 6:56 p.m.
Okay, I'm checking out the new cards.
Gilded Drake is expensive for a reason--it's essentially a two-mana Control Magic, and that effect starts at five mana these days. I don't think a functional reprint would bring the price of Gilded Drake down, Gold Scale Drake would become another $300 card (if it were printed officially). A functional reprint of a card isn't a bad idea by itself, but if someone showed up with, say, two functionally identical Mana Crypts with different names, that's going to be the center of a lot of discussion. Tread very carefully here.
Silver Scale Drake feels like it could be a rare, but that's completely a gut reaction. I like the ability, but maybe make it a 2/3? It feels like it's right on the edge of great and overpowered. Pardic Arsonist - restriction + Faithless Looting + flying = a very active card.
Diamond Scale Drake runs into color pie issues again with its mana tap ability. I would drop that, push the stats up to 3/3, and call it good. The draw ability is more on-color than the "add three mana" ability, but it's an LED reference, so it can work.
Talrand's Sky Captain (nice callback with the name and flavor text) could use some clarification on when an additional token is created, similar to my question for Kazirak. Does it trigger on every token, or when one or more tokens are created? I strongly suggest the second option, since it's already got double evasion and can create tokens independently. And 5/8 is a powerful stat line, especially at five mana. This thing can basically win games by itself. I would dial the stats back quite a bit, maybe down to 4/6.
I like Tundra Drake. My one tiny quibble is the aesthetics of next to , but that can't be helped. Mechanically, I think this one is where it needs to be. I would test it with adding a "non-land" condition, but it may not be needed.
September 24, 2022 3:21 a.m.
Stardragon says... #19
legendofa- While im not going to argue Ik a lot of these new drakes need tweaking i will say the reason why Gilded Drake is so expensive is not because of it's effect (though it does help) it's because it's on the damnable Reserve List (it needs to die) so it will never be reprinted and despite what wizards says they will never make a functional reprint on any reserve list card which drives up the price so i think Gold Scale Drake is fine with the most minor of tweaking. But I did take most of what you said to heart and tweaked the new drakes.
I did tweak Gold Drake i made and gave it flash and the ability to target non-land permanents instead of just creatures
I reduce Silver Scale Drake's ability to 2 damage and looting one card instead of two
Took out the adding mana of any color ability to Diamond Drake and buffed it to a 3/3
I reduced the P/T of Sky Captain and added the "when one or more tokens are created" clause, though i don't see the difference between that and whenever a token is made, it still doubles every drake token made.
Tundra Drake was always meant to be non-land i forgot to add it MB.
September 24, 2022 10:55 a.m.
For Sky Captain, the difference between "Whenever you create a Drake token, create another one" and "Whenever you create one or more Drake tokens, create another one" can be seen most directly with Talrand's Invocation. With the first wording, you would get a total of four Drakes, 2 (from Invocation) + 1 (first Sky Captain trigger, off first Drake) + 1 (second Captain trigger, off second Drake). With the second wording, you get a total of three Drakes, two from Invocation and one from the trigger.
September 24, 2022 11:59 a.m.
Stardragon says... #21
legendofa and TheOfficialCreator
Here's my first crack at a procon for drakes
legendofa says... #2
My first thought here is that there are a couple more Drakes with a color identity than with , and Paradise Drake in particular gives a strong, resilient flyer to green, which is out of color. Especially with Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm now, I think you could move Kazirak from to without causing problems.
I also think you might becoming down too heavy on . If nothing else, Drakes are a very -centric tribe, so triple and combinations feel like they would cause mana problems when paired with a lot of cards. It's hard to splash in a deck, even if you're also splashing .
September 18, 2022 7:15 p.m.