[Single Card Discussion] Gilded Drake

[Illissius]

I'm currently running three in my SB of Faerie Stompy and have been very happy with them to date.

Interesting. I always assumed Faerie Stompy was one of the decks which doesn't want Drake because that's one place a 3/3 flyer on the other side of the board can actually get in the way. (As opposed to, say, a deck with various large creatures of its own, against which a Drake is just a speedbump.) But maybe I was wrong.

Thank you sir. You have been promoted from Captain to Colonel. You are dimissed for the rest of the evening, Colonel Obvious.

I thought this was pretty clever, actually.

[Obfuscate Freely]

Control Magic effects are powerful because they generate card advantage, and they do so while dealing strictly with permanents on the board. Using just one card to both remove your opponent's Tarmogoyf from play, and create a Tarmogoyf of your own, is awesome.

Gilded Drake, on the other hand, does not generate card advantage. It simply trades for an opponent's creature. Of course, if the opponent's creature is better than a 3/3 flyer, Drake is superior to a simple removal spell (superior to whatever extent the stolen creature is better than a 3/3 flyer). The problem with it, though, is that if your opponent can use a removal spell of their own on the stolen creature, they get to continue smacking you around with your own card.

Basically, Drake acts as a spot removal spell that can be largely counteracted by your opponent's own spot removal spells. Increasing the versatility of your opponent's cards like this is generally not a good idea.

[Illissius]

I guess that's true. But by the same token, all the other Control Magic effects (besides Dominate) can be countered by your opponent's removal too, and they get the original creature back rather than a Drake.

[Damnosus]

This doesn't work very well. You cannot use equlibrium to bounce the creature that triggers it. So if you want them to have no creatures you would need to play another creature after the drake to get the drake back. You can bounce infinitly (given enough mana) with two drakes but they will always have one under their control, which they can block with and letting it die to mess up your combo.

Wow...you are right. I just looked at Equilibrium again, and yea, you are very very correct. Has it always been the case though? I have an acquaintance who uses it a lot...he has some explaining to do...

[Mordel]

One thing that I thought of about drake that is sort of problematic is that drake's casting cost is the ideal casting cost of stuff to stop in the format in many situations: spellsnare, cb etc. Sort of obvious, but still it hasn't really been noted yet as far as I have seen.

One thing I definitely do not agree with is this business about if dreadstill or TA has dropped their fatty, you're fucked...based on what? Last time I checked, neither of those decks have much removal before or after siding and they largely coast through games on the wings of disruption and sometimes the fatty comes down before the disruption can completely do its job...this is especially applicable for dreadstill being as in some cases if they want to win quickly, they will have already expended some resources on getting the 'naught on the table and that doesn't count the dazes or whatever they have used trying to keep you from doing whatever...

[rleader]

I tried combining Vial Horror + Affinity into one deck a while back and though I only tested against a few decks, it was kind of fun being able to abuse volrath's stronghold/drake/scepters.

I got the idea from scepters/stylus's being cheap artifacts that are useless outside of the combo, being fuel for ravagers/cranial plating. I figure since everyone in legacy wants to make affinity worse (slower) by turning it into a combo or control deck, I could at least make it suck in a different way that's more fun.

[Forbiddian]

Control Magic effects are powerful because they generate card advantage, and they do so while dealing strictly with permanents on the board. Using just one card to both remove your opponent's Tarmogoyf from play, and create a Tarmogoyf of your own, is awesome.

Gilded Drake, on the other hand, does not generate card advantage. It simply trades for an opponent's creature. Of course, if the opponent's creature is better than a 3/3 flyer, Drake is superior to a simple removal spell (superior to whatever extent the stolen creature is better than a 3/3 flyer). The problem with it, though, is that if your opponent can use a removal spell of their own on the stolen creature, they get to continue smacking you around with your own card.

Basically, Drake acts as a spot removal spell that can be largely counteracted by your opponent's own spot removal spells. Increasing the versatility of your opponent's cards like this is generally not a good idea.

I'll point out a specific situation, the one where the opponent has a 3/3 Flying (or close) himself. In this situation Gilded Drake is 1U for a 3/3, which is still pretty good. He gets much better than that if your opponent's creatures are bigger (2x the difference... keep in mind that you're taking the advantage away from your opponent AND getting the advantage for yourself, like you play a 3/3 Flying for 1U AND you give it permanent +2/+2 AND you give one of their guy's permanent -2/-2). He gets worse if you can only zap something smaller. I think Gilded Drake is a very solid card, but I would imagine that it fits only a tiny niche.



Keeping in mind the following two cards: Control Magic (2:1, answered by Enchantment removal minus the summoning sickness) and Sower of Temptation (3:1, answered by creature removal minus the summoning sickness), Gilded Drake has some upsides. Note: I'm not discussing combos like Unsummoning the Gilded Drake or Stylusing him.

Gilded Drake cannot be played in a Weenie deck where a 3/3 will consistently wall you out or even trade 1:1 with your guys. The 3/3 Flying has to be kinda a throwaway, so you either have to be playing big creatures yourself (that can dwarf the Gilded Drake) or no creatures at all. Preferably some of your creatures have flying so the Gilded Drake doesn't completely walk through you during a stalemate.

Gilded Drake cannot be maindecked in a metagame where a large number of opposing decks either don't run creatures at all or one where a 3/3 Flying is better than their guy. I think it's mainly sideboard material in most metas just off of that. Combo Decks (although you can burn bridges against Ichorid by choosing the less-commonly-selected mode) + Weenie Decks + Hardcore Control Decks = situations where GD is pretty much dead.

You also need to expect some creature removal. Whereas Gilded Drake functions as a pretty good card most of the time, Sower of Temptation absolutely breaks the game open, giving your opponent ~3 turns to dig an answer or die. However, Gilded Drake is reasonably resistant to removal. Although not really since you stick your opponent with a 3/3 Flying instead of whatever they had.

Or Enchantment removal (similar justification for Control Magic, although slightly less upside). Although this is much more rare, because the only reason they'd have enchantment kill is if you played Enchantments game 1 (or hinted strongly at having bombs like you played a SDT), and then if they had Enchantment kill, it'd probably be ok to play Control Magic anyway, if for no other reason than to bait Enchantment kill and give their dude summoning sickness.

The casting cost... I view as more of a liability. I can't really imagine Draking your opponent's Turn 2 play (even Goyf, the best two drop, isn't too scary until mid game). You should probably use your Turn 2 to setup cards and just take the beats for 2 anyway. I'll certainly pay 1U to kill my opponent's 3/3 flying and create a 2/2 flying of my own. Unless of course, you're running a low mana curve deck and might not be able to get to 4-5.


Now I hope you can see the absolutely puny realm of usefulness that Gilded Drake fills. I really can't imagine this as sideboard material, and in most decks it functions as borderline 1:1 removal against the lion's share of opposing decks.

Only against Dreadstill and Team America does the card really shine (and a few other decks), but Dreadstill at least can shove it back up your ass by playing a Counterbalance before their Nought most of the time.

[scrumdogg]

Control Magic effects are powerful because they generate card advantage, and they do so while dealing strictly with permanents on the board. Using just one card to both remove your opponent's Tarmogoyf from play, and create a Tarmogoyf of your own, is awesome.

Gilded Drake, on the other hand, does not generate card advantage. It simply trades for an opponent's creature. Of course, if the opponent's creature is better than a 3/3 flyer, Drake is superior to a simple removal spell (superior to whatever extent the stolen creature is better than a 3/3 flyer). The problem with it, though, is that if your opponent can use a removal spell of their own on the stolen creature, they get to continue smacking you around with your own card.

Basically, Drake acts as a spot removal spell that can be largely counteracted by your opponent's own spot removal spells. Increasing the versatility of your opponent's cards like this is generally not a good idea.

Gilded Drake being blue, it a fairly reasonable assumption that you have access to counterspells. How many times have you drawn the counter the turn after your opponent dropped his giant piece of fat? This is assuming your opponent even has relevant removal, in deck much less in hand. What exactly is Team America going to do to that Tombstalker you've just stolen? Snuff it Out? Is Aggro-Loam going to be able to DD that Terravore or Crusher (or even a Goyf...)? One of the reasons I'm excited about Gilded Drake in a Stompy shell is the ability already have Chalice @ 1 down, locking out the best removal spell in the game. Can the situation you described happen? Yes it can, but even then, I would much rather be facing the clock of my (their...) 3 power Gilded Drake than the gawd-awful huge thing it stole (which they felt compelled to use a removal spell on...).

[FoolofaTook]

It seems like Gilded Drake would combo really well with any bounce spell since where the bounce winds up is material to the value of the exchange. I may have to dig out my Man-O'Wars again and see if they combo well with the drakes. Bounce is a lot of fun, if not particularly effective a lot of the time.

[Isamaru]

The naysayers are wrong... then again, they always are.

I'll throw a few bones. You can try using Gilded Drake with Flickerform or Dance of the Many or Mistmeadow Witch.

[scrumdogg]

Ohmmmmmmmmm

[Obfuscate Freely]

I guess that's true. But by the same token, all the other Control Magic effects (besides Dominate) can be countered by your opponent's removal too, and they get the original creature back rather than a Drake.

Control Magic @ Co. get hit by Krosan Grip, which is obviously a big liability. In fact, when I have them in my deck, I try to sideboard them out if my opponent is bringing in Grips. However, Grip (and Disenchant effects in general) are significantly less prevalant than creature removal, which means we have to pay more attention to how effective Gilded Drake is when the opponent can kill the stolen creature.

More importantly, though, the point I was trying to make is that Drake should not even be compared to Control Magic, because its effect is so different. It is a 1-for-1 trade, and will always leave your opponent with a threat still in play. This is why I tried to view it as a removal spell.

However, I also like Forbiddian's way of looking at it. He described Drake as a 3/3 or better for , with the added bonus of shrinking an opponent's creature down to a 3/3. For me, evaluating the card in this way reveals it to be rather strong in certain situations.

I guess I was mostly thinking of Drake as a removal spell for a deck with relatively few other targets for the opponent's removal. In that case, taking someone's Tombstalker just to bring their Diabolic Edict online would be crappy. However, this isn't a problem in a deck like Faerie Stompy, which provides the opponent with plenty of removal targets already. In such an application, Drake seems perfectly functional as an impressively-undercosted threat, as long as the opponent has some suitably juicy targets for it.

[Mordel]

Ugh, all this talk about gilded drake makes me miss my old janky fish/gro deck that rocked three of them along with four bouncers. Good times.

[mercenarybdu]

Awesome SB card when you are up against a field full of players who love playing big things or control for the matter of creatures larger than 5 in power.

I wouldn't use it anywhere else other than a SB.