Drana's Emissary MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 3 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost3
RarityUncommon
TypeCreature — Vampire Cleric Ally
Abilities Flying
Power 2
Toughness 2

Key Takeaways

  1. Drana’s Emissary offers card advantage by consistently draining your opponent’s life while boosting your own.
  2. Uninterrupted ability triggers enable resource conservation for playing other spells during crucial moments.
  3. While powerful, the card requires specific mana and may be less efficient in decks without synergy.

Text of card

Flying At the beginning of your upkeep, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.

"The taste of freedom is sweeter than blood."


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Drana’s Emissary works to slowly tip the scales in your favor each turn. This incremental life-draining ability can be considered a form of card advantage through continuously weakening your opponent’s life total while bolstering your own, possibly even drawing out key responses prematurely.

Resource Acceleration: While Drana’s Emissary does not directly provide mana or token creation, its consistent life gain sets up a reliable foundation for cards and abilities that capitalize on life changes. This steady gain and drain can be a subtle yet effective form of accelerating your win condition, especially within the right deck.

Instant Speed: Although Drana’s Emissary itself isn’t played at instant speed, its ability triggers at the beginning of your upkeep which means it works its magic without using valuable mana during your main phases. This lets you keep resources ready to react instantly with other spells when it’s not your turn, maintaining both pressure and flexibility.


Card Cons

Specific Mana Cost: Drana’s Emissary demands both black and white mana to cast, potentially restricting its inclusion to only Orzhov or multicolored decks that can accommodate these requirements.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a converted mana cost of three that includes two colored mana, it may be considered costly for an effect that triggers only during your upkeep, especially when alternatives may provide more immediate impact on the game.

Discard Requirement: While not directly requiring discard, Drana’s Emissary doesn’t offer any card advantage itself. In a situation where you’re behind, it might require you to play other cards to sustain its life-drain ability, indirectly affecting your hand and resources.


Reasons to Include Drana’s Emissary in Your Collection

Versatility: This card is a strong addition to any life gain or vampire-themed deck. With an ability to passively drain opponents each turn, it serves multiple roles by contributing to your health total while chipping away at your opponent’s life.

Combo Potential: Drana’s Emissary can become a linchpin in combos with cards that capitalize on life total changes. When combined with cards like Cliffhaven Vampire or Sanguine Bond, the resulting synergy can be a game-changer.

Meta-Relevance: Given that many popular formats currently feature incremental damage and life gain strategies, having a reliable life-draining creature can be a significant edge. Drana’s Emissary’s continual life drain keeps opponents on a clock and pressures control strategies.


How to Beat Drana’s Emissary

Drana’s Emissary presents a unique challenge on the battlefield of Magic: The Gathering, serving as a constant source of life-drain against opponents. Similar to cards with life-link abilities, this flying creature can steadily tip the scales in favor of its controller. Understanding its strengths is key to forming a successful strategy to counter it.

When combating Drana’s Emissary, removal spells are your ace in the hole. Instant-speed spells like Fatal Push or Path to Exile can efficiently dispatch this nuisance before its ability triggers, negating the life-drain effect. Board wipes such as Wrath of God or Damnation also provide a clean solution to reset the playing field.

For those employing creatures, blockers with reach or flying characteristics, like Silklash Spider or Thundermaw Hellkite, can serve as formidable defensive measures. However, employing enchantment removal like Disenchant on cards like its pairing partner, Cliffhaven Vampire, disables the potency of their combined abilities.

In summary, Drana’s Emissary requires timely removal or strategic creature placement to hinder its influence during a match. With a balanced combination of precision removal and savvy board control, you can ensure its impact is minimized, allowing you to maintain the upper hand.


BurnMana Recommendations

Understanding the interplay of Drana’s Emissary within MTG can be a gamechanger, subtly tipping the balance one life point at a time. If you’re looking to refine your Orzhov strategy, enhance a vampire deck, or simply appreciate the value of consistent life-drain mechanics, this card is a strategic asset worth considering. With a keen eye for its advantages and potential drawbacks, you can craft a deck that leverages the Emissary’s abilities to full effect. Ready to expand your MTG knowledge and optimize your deck-building skills? Join our community of enthusiasts and experts who are just as passionate about MTG success as you are.


Cards like Drana's Emissary

Drana’s Emissary is a unique creature in Magic: The Gathering, offering a blend of offensive and defensive capabilities. In the realm of vampires, it stands out for its ability to deal damage while simultaneously providing a life gain each turn. When looking at Cliffhaven Vampire, one can observe a similar synergy between life loss and gain, yet it requires other cards to trigger its effect. On the other hand, Drana’s Emissary does so autonomously at each upkeep.

Examining Blood Artist, we notice a different approach to leveraging life totals. Though not a direct analogue, it capitalizes on creatures’ deaths, rewarding you with life points and chipping away at your opponent’s health pool, an effect that can stack for significant swings in a game. In contrast, Drana’s Emissary’s consistent effect can be seen as a slower but steadier option, less dependent on board state. Lastly, Malakir Familiar gains advantage from gaining life by becoming a more formidable attacker, offering an offensive angle compared to Drana’s Emissary’s persistent attrition.

While each card has its own niche within the spectrum of life manipulation strategies, Drana’s Emissary holds a favorable position for players seeking a reliable, turn-after-turn impact, enhancing both their survivability and offensive reach in Magic: The Gathering.

Cliffhaven Vampire - MTG Card versions
Blood Artist - MTG Card versions
Malakir Familiar - MTG Card versions
Cliffhaven Vampire - Oath of the Gatewatch (OGW)
Blood Artist - Avacyn Restored (AVR)
Malakir Familiar - Battle for Zendikar (BFZ)

Cards similar to Drana's Emissary by color, type and mana cost

Breena, the Demagogue - MTG Card versions
Sin Collector - MTG Card versions
Kunoros, Hound of Athreos - MTG Card versions
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Breena, the Demagogue - Commander 2021 (C21)
Sin Collector - Magic Online Promos (PRM)
Kunoros, Hound of Athreos - Theros Beyond Death (THB)
Greasefang, Okiba Boss - Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Promos (PNEO)
Edgewalker - Scourge (SCG)
Teysa, Orzhov Scion - Ravnica Remastered (RVR)
Souls of the Faultless - Guildpact (GPT)
Orzhov Pontiff - Guildpact (GPT)
Necrotic Sliver - Secret Lair Drop (SLD)
Stillmoon Cavalier - Eventide (EVE)
Gwyllion Hedge-Mage - Mystery Booster (MB1)
Scholar of Athreos - Theros (THS)
Restless Apparition - Modern Masters 2015 (MM2)
Blood-Cursed Knight - Magic Origins (ORI)
Daxos the Returned - The List (PLST)
Pious Evangel // Wayward Disciple - Shadows over Innistrad (SOI)
Kambal, Consul of Allocation - Double Masters 2022 (2X2)
Tymna the Weaver - Commander Legends (CMR)
Unraveling Mummy - Hour of Devastation (HOU)
Vizkopa Vampire - Ravnica: Clue Edition (CLU)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Drana's Emissary MTG card by a specific set like Battle for Zendikar and Mystery Booster, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Drana's Emissary and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Drana's Emissary Magic the Gathering card was released in 3 different sets between 2015-10-02 and 2019-11-07. Illustrated by Karl Kopinski.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12015-10-02Battle for ZendikarBFZ 2102015normalblackKarl Kopinski
22019-11-07Mystery BoosterMB1 14192015normalblackKarl Kopinski
32020-09-26The ListPLST BFZ-2102015normalblackKarl Kopinski

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Drana's Emissary has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderRestricted
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PioneerLegal

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