Chromescale Drake MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	9
Rarity	Rare
Type	Creature — Drake
Abilities	Affinity,Flying
Released	2004-02-06
Set symbol
Set name	Darksteel
Set code	DST
Power	3
Toughness	4
Number	20
Frame	2003
Layout	normal
Border	black
Illustred by	Ben Thompson

Key Takeaways

Chromescale Drake’s affinity for artifacts can lead to a lower casting cost and board advantage.
Demands specific mana and discards which may limit flexibility and deplete resources.
Versatile in decks that already support artifact themes, contributing to hand advantage and combo potential.

Text of card

Affinity for artifacts (This spell costs less to play for each artifact you control.) Flying When Chromescale Drake comes into play, reveal the top three cards of your library. Put all artifact cards revealed this way into your hand and the rest into your graveyard.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Chromescale Drake’s affinity for artifacts can significantly reduce its casting cost, allowing you to deploy a powerful flying threat while keeping resources available to play other cards, maintaining pressure and advantage on the board.

Resource Acceleration: By reducing its cost through artifact synergy, Chromescale Drake accelerates your board development. It rewards you for having an artifact-rich deck, letting you play higher-cost cards much earlier than usual.

Instant Speed: While Chromescale Drake itself isn’t an instant, its presence can alter how opponents play, knowing it could hit the battlefield unexpectedly if you’ve got the right artifact setup. This can lead to opponents playing more cautiously, essentially giving you an edge as if you had instant-speed interaction.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Chromescale Drake necessitates the discard of three cards for its Affinity for Artifacts to kick in. This could deplete your hand, leaving fewer options for later turns.

Specific Mana Cost: The drake’s mana cost demands two blue mana, potentially making it a challenging fit in multicolored decks that can’t reliably produce the necessary colors.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a total casting cost of seven, including two specific mana symbols, Chromescale Drake can be a heavy investment. Players might find alternative creatures or spells that provide similar or greater value for less mana.

Reasons to Include Chromescale Drake in Your Collection

Versatility: Chromescale Drake is a multifaceted addition to any deck that prizes the ability to manipulate artifacts for benefit. With its capacity to draw cards upon entry, it bolsters hand advantage in a variety of deck archetypes.

Combo Potential: This card has intrinsic synergy with decks that interact with the graveyard. Its affinity for artifacts can be exploited to recycle key pieces from the graveyard, enhancing the effectiveness of recursion-based strategies.

Meta-Relevance: In a gaming climate where artifact strategies are common or where flying creatures reign supreme, Chromescale Drake offers a significant tactical advantage. Its substantial presence on the battlefield can sway the game, particularly in matchups where air superiority is pivotal.

How to beat

Chromescale Drake presents a unique challenge in the MTG arena due to its Affinity for Artifacts ability, reducing its casting cost for every artifact you have in play. This makes it not only a formidable flying creature but also one that can hit the battlefield earlier than expected. To effectively confront this threat, players need to focus on two strategies: artifact removal and counterspells.

Artifact removal like Shatter or Naturalize can disrupt the affinity synergy, making the Drake more costly to cast. Moreover, direct creature removal spells such as Doom Blade or Path to Exile can eliminate the Drake regardless of its discounted cost. Counterspells are another line of defense, with Mana Leak and Counterspell serving as a bulwark against it ever entering the battlefield. Efficient mana management can go a long way because if you keep enough lands untapped, you’re signaling the potential to negate their play, which can psych out an opponent.

In rounds where Chromescale Drake may slip through your defenses, having creatures with ‘reach’ or those that can block flying creatures will be your last resort. Cards like Spiderweb Armor not only boost your creatures’ ability to deal with flyers but also enhance their survival on the battlefield. It’s all about strategic anticipation and timely reactions when facing a card with such a unique mechanic.

Cards like Chromescale Drake

The allure of Chromescale Drake as a card in Magic: The Gathering lies in its unique artifact interaction. Much like Etherium Sculptor, which reduces the casting cost of artifact spells, Chromescale Drake also rewards players for focusing on artifacts, specifically by allowing a reduced casting cost for each artifact you control while you cast it. In essence, both cards synergize with an artifact-heavy library, yet differ in their roles within a deck.

Similarities can be drawn to Thoughtsieze as well. Although it works with different mechanics—offering hand disruption—Thoughtsieze shares similarities with Chromescale Drake’s discard function, though Chromescale requires the discard as part of its Affinity for Artifacts cost reduction benefit. Thirst for Knowledge is another card that offers a link with its draw three cards, then discard two cards unless you discard an artifact card. Here, too, we see the mechanical resonance with Chromescale Drake, especially in decks that might utilize the discard of artifacts as a strategic advantage or resource.

Understanding the nuances and strategic depth of Chromescale Drake helps position it effectively within the landscape of MTG’s pantheon of cards, particularly amongst those with a penchant for artifact dynamics.

Thirst for Knowledge - MTG Card versions

Etherium Sculptor - Shards of Alara (ALA)

Cards similar to Chromescale Drake by color, type and mana cost

Leviathan - Time Spiral Timeshifted (TSB)

Breaching Leviathan - Commander 2014 (C14)

Drownyard Behemoth - Shadows over Innistrad Remastered (SIR)

Sailors' Bane - Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate (CLB)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Chromescale Drake MTG card by a specific set like Darksteel, 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 Chromescale Drake and other MTG cards: