[Single Card Discussion] Gilded Drake

[Illissius]

Gilded Drake
:1::u:
Creature -- Drake
3/3
Flying
When Gilded Drake comes into play, choose one -- sacrifice Gilded Drake; or exchange control of Gilded Drake and target creature an opponent controls. If you can't make the exchange, sacrifice Gilded Drake. This ability can't be countered. This effect doesn't end at end of turn.

So, you get their creature, they get the Drake. Unlike pretty much all other Control Magic effects in the format (Control Magic, Threads, Sower of Temptation, Shackles, Dominate, and so on), it neither cares how big or expensive the creature is, nor can they get it back later by destroying a permanent. Also, it costs :1::u:. So unlike many of the other popular options, Gilded Drake only gets more powerful the more big creatures are in the metagame and the bigger they are, because the larger the creature you take, the less the 3/3 flyer they get in exchange matters. Basically, as Vedalken Shackles and Threads of Disloyalty get worse, so Gilded Drake gets better. And there's never been as many and as big creatures running around as there are right now. Tarmogoyfs are everywhere, along with Tombstalkers, giant Terravores and Countryside Crushers, and not to mention Mr. Gigantically Fucking Mind-Blowing Goddamned Huge himself, Phyrexian Dreadnought. So this would seem to indicate, logically, that Gilded Drake is also now more powerful in the format than it's ever been before.

The question, then, is exactly how good does this make it? Because if it merely got an upgrade from "utter goatshit" to "goatshit which is somewhat less utter", that's not of as much interest to us. Is it now good enough to play over all the other thievery in some decks, in some cases? Because I haven't seen it anywhere.

More than incidentally, Gilded Drake also gets a lot better when you can combo it with bounce, especially repeated bounce. Here's the cards I found which do more than just a single-shot Unsummon or Boomerang effect and are better than or equal to half terrible:

Cryptic Command
Repeal
Venser, Shaper Savant
Capsize
Waterfront Bouncer
Tradewind Rider
Astral Slide
Parallax Wave
Flickerwisp
Rise // Fall

Not all too inspiring, unfortunately. The options range from marginally to not playable.

I also wonder if there's any good way (besides just taking something as big as possible in exchange) to minimize the impact of your opponent having a 3/3 flyer in particular, as opposed to any other creature, but I haven't found anything -- like, say, a flying Mishra's Factory -- which would do that.

[Mordel]

It's funny: I loved drakes in my TS deck years ago and they were dynamite then and even rocked them in a BGu Rock deck a few years back in extended when angry ghouls were all the rage, but I have never considered running him since.

Now that I actually think about it, with all of the goyfs, stalkers and 'naughts floating around, the drake seems pretty awesome, but in the same token, I have not been seeing much creature theft in lists.

I suppose that could either be because theft is not effective enough to take up a slot OR people have not bothered to dig out their copies of drake and test them.

[spirit of the wretch]

I'm a big fan of Thrash/r and therefore always looking for a substitute for the Swords. I did think about the Drake (a Highlander stable) for a while and here are my 2c:
- Reusing the Drake has "danger of cool things" written all over it! There just isn't any Bounce spell that's worth running it, just to combo with the Drake. It takes up too many slots for the limited usefulness.
- You give your opponent a basically unblockable hasted (if you didn't catch a Stalker) beater, which is really bad, if you need the removal to survive.
- This card just sucks against any Aggro.dec. Sure stealing their Goyf/Lord/Warchief... is good, but facing a free Lightning Bolt every turn isn't. It pretty much sucks against Control.dec (Mono W, Mono U, 43 lands, Landstill,..) too, not to mention combo.
- If you play a deck playing bounce spells (Rushing River, Echoing Truth,...) maindeck, you're really screwed.

So, while it's more powerful to steal a creature it's much saver to just kill it. If you play in a meta full of Aggro Loam and TA it might be worth it but I think it's just dead in too many MUs.

[Damnosus]

It is definitely an interesting card. The best trick I have seen with him however, is when you have an equilibrium in play: infinite creature control for only three mana. Saw it in an MUC deck which was pretty effective.

[Shawon]

As far as (aggro-)control decks go, I think Gilded Drake is useful in a deck such as (Legacy) Control Slaver. While I don't think Gilded Drake is objectively the best form of blue removal in Control Slaver's arsenal, I think it's useful in that deck because its drawback is minimal. You don't care about getting hit for 3 a turn because after taking into account the creature you stole, and the fact Gilded Drake needs 7 turns to kill you, you would've taken control of the game given Slaver's gameplan.

[quicksilver]

It is definitely an interesting card. The best trick I have seen with him however, is when you have an equilibrium in play: infinite creature control for only three mana. Saw it in an MUC deck which was pretty effective.

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.

[Roman Candle]

I like Gilded Drake when the opponent has a creature that is bigger than 3/3. However, it isn't as good when an opponent only has creatures that are smaller than 3/3. Plus, Gilded Drake has flying.

[The Legacy Weapon]

How about Gilded Drake combined with Mark of Eviction? Mark of Eviction is reusable and is ok by its self. It's dirt cheap as well. With Drake though, you have infinite creature theft.

[frogboy]

I like Gilded Drake when the opponent has a creature that is bigger than 3/3. However, it isn't as good when an opponent only has creatures that are smaller than 3/3. Plus, Gilded Drake has flying.

A+.

[Poesjuh]

The question is, in what situation would you prefer a Gilded Drake over a removal spell or a normal creature (such as Goyf, Tombstalker or whatever other creature you might play)...?

If there are more situations where you would want a Gilded Drake, then it's worth running, if it's 50/50 it's worth testing, if it's less then why play it?

[SpikeyMikey]

I like Gilded Drake when the opponent has a creature that is bigger than 3/3. However, it isn't as good when an opponent only has creatures that are smaller than 3/3. Plus, Gilded Drake has flying.

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

[Jaynel]

I've been thinking about this a little bit. I think Gilded Drake could be effectively (ab)used in a mono-Blue Fish deck. Something with Waterfront Bouncer and Standstill to recoup card advantage, along with AEther Vial and guys like Spiketail Hatchling and Cursecatcher. It could definitely be complemented with a Dreadstill-esque manabase (Mishra's Factory and Wasteland) and counter suite (4 Force of Will and 4 Daze).

If it would be better than the Merfolk decks running around, I'm not sure.

[Roman Candle]

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

I like irony when people understand it. However, irony is significantly less amusing when people don't understand it. Irony also doesn't have flying.

[Guevera59]

Is this worth testing in that relatively new nogoyf.dec? I feel as if epochrasite is the weakest part of the deck and people will be happy to find another 2 drop in place of it. The fact that it can be vialed in seems good...

[TheInfamousBearAssassin]

I like irony when people understand it. However, irony is significantly less amusing when people don't understand it. Irony also doesn't have flying.

I was going to give you negative points for being a Professor Nitewolf knockoff, but this was a pretty classy comeback. +2.

[Mordel]

Jaynel:

As a huge fan of fish-type decks, I have wracked my brain over trying to make the archetype work and have run into the issue of too much utility and not enough hard impact over other stuff that I could just copy+paste. Maybe that's just me.

The whole "wouldn't removal be better" argument seems stupid to me because while I can kill/bounce/remove a dreadnaught or TS in many situations, I would prefer the classiness of jacking their beatstick and then smashing their face with it. I hate to be obvious, but in most situations a removal and a kill mechanism crammed into one package is often better than either on their lonesome. If all some has to contribute is something along the lines of: "durrrr I wanna just keep it simple and kill shit." don't bother to reply, honestly.

[morgan_coke]

best argument i've ever heard for including blue in slide. but still not a good enough one. It's not like slide decks are hurting on the deal with dudes front.

[XTermina11nvasionX]

I fully understand why people would suggest running Gilded Drake in their sideboard, but I contend the perception its use is unilateral to simply "larger" creatures.

Is it a 'Control Magic' built in to a 3/3 flyer? Yes. But what makes this card significantly more tantalizing than its competition is its luscious casting-cost. Ultimately, when deciding to board this in, have you considered perhaps what is more important to you: Taking three a turn or grabbing an opponent's Tarmogoyf or Phyrexian Dreadnought, etc.? Is it that necessary to put yourself on a clock as well?

I say simply "no", and here's why:

When stealing an opponents' creature, have you taken into consideration you yourself will be dealt damage the turn after? They will gain the advantage first with the attack. And, assuming the creature actually was worth the steal, is it necessary to put yourself at risk by not being able to just simply vanquish it before it actually turns into a serious clock? Remember, your opponent has answers as well. And assuming the juice is worth the squeeze, you'll be faced with having to contend with a 3/3 flyer on top of expending some sort of defense mechanism from your hand to protect the Drake's C.I.P.

The truth is, there are so many various ways to send a creature to the graveyard that people tend to bypass other conditions that would make something like Gilded Drake fully acceptable in the right deck. But is it really an alternate win condition or a stall tactic? I know that if I'm going to drop Gilded Drake, I know my opponent has already established his deck as having a far more aggressive approach than I have simply because I opted to substitute a main-deck slot for a card which is inherently situational and not as flexible as some other choices against a primarily aggro opponent. It's nothing more than a "techy" solution, but can ultimately spell your own death as well.

I've seen it happen.

[scrumdogg]

I'm currently running three in my SB of Faerie Stompy and have been very happy with them to date. FS has the creatures to stop a Drake from 'Lightning Bolting' you, unlike many decks. However, I would like to digress a moment to state how stupid that comparison is, btw. Would you take a Lightning Bolt to steal your opponents Tombstalker, Goyf or Dreadnought? If you wouldn't, you are a drooling fuckwit who deserves to lose that game... FS also has access to the best method of recursion, killing it in combat & then bringing it back with Sword of Light & Shadow. As for times where you don't have a solid target...patience wins Magic games, if they don't have a threat, then you are winning, quit whining (although that does make it a SB card in all likelihood as I do not want Gilded Drake in my opening hand versus combo...). It also pitches to Force of Will, imprints on Chrome Mox & bluffs itself as some sort of counterspell.

[Nonex]

I'm currently running 2 in my Aluren sideboard. I use them against decks like Aggro Loam where creatures are either bigger that Drakes or have interesting abilities (Dark Confidant). I also board them in against Ichorid since I can just choose to sacrifice it and remove all Bridges from Below or steal a reanimated fattie. The deck strategy already involves 3 Man-o'-War and 2 Chain of Vapor, so bouncers here are natural elements. The fact that 90% of my opponents don't know the card's current errata and the other 10% don't even know the card also helps.

I've also seen decks like Survival or Cephalid Breakfast run 1 as a silver bullet. What do you think?

[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 :1::u:, 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.