Vein Drinker

Vein Drinker card image

Vein Drinker: Creature - Vampire, Commander 2017. Flying. R, Tap: This creature deals damage equal to its power to target creature. On Mana Grove.

Mana cost
{4}{B}{B}
Mana value
6
Type
Creature - Vampire
Colour identity
Black and red (BR)
Power / toughness
4/4
Rarity
Rare
Set
Commander 2017 (C17)
Released
2017-08-25
Collector number
130
Artist
Lars Grant-West
Commander rank
21,522 (by how often it appears in Commander decks)
Keywords
Flying

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About Vein Drinker

Vein Drinker is a Magic: The Gathering card, a rare black creature from Commander 2017 (C17), a Commander product released in August 2017. It is collector number 130 in that set, with art by Lars Grant-West. It costs {4}{B}{B} (four generic and two black mana) to cast, for a mana value of 6. It is a 4/4 creature. Its colour identity is black and red. It is legal in Modern, Legacy, Vintage, Commander, Duel Commander, Oathbreaker, PreDH and Penny Dreadful. It has been printed in 2 sets, from Shards of Alara (2008) to Commander 2017 (2017). The latest aggregated market price for this printing is $0.30 (normal finish, as of 2026-11-11).

Card text

Flying

{R}, {T}: This creature deals damage equal to its power to target creature. That creature deals damage equal to its power to this creature.

Whenever a creature dealt damage by this creature this turn dies, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.

Market price

Latest aggregated market price for the normal finish of this printing: $0.30 (as of 2026-11-11).

The figure covers this printing only; other printings carry their own price on their own page.

Format legality

Legality of Vein Drinker by format. Formats in which it is not legal are not listed.

ModernLegal
LegacyLegal
VintageLegal
CommanderLegal
Duel CommanderLegal
OathbreakerLegal
PreDHLegal
Penny DreadfulLegal

Other printings of Vein Drinker

Vein Drinker has been printed in 2 sets. The other printings are listed newest first, with the rarity and release year of each.

PrintingRarityYear
Shards of Alara (ALA) #91Rare2008

Official rulings

Four official rulings apply to Vein Drinker, newest first.

  • If Vein Drinker's first ability causes Vein Drinker and the targeted creature to deal lethal damage to each other, they'll be destroyed at the same time. Vein Drinker's triggered ability will trigger, but it will have been put into a graveyard before it would receive any counters. The ability will do nothing when it resolves.
  • Each time a creature is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, check whether Vein Drinker had dealt damage to it at any time during that turn. If so, Vein Drinker's third ability will trigger. It doesn't matter whether the damage was combat damage or not. It also doesn't matter who controlled the creature or whose graveyard it was put into.
  • When the first ability resolves, if the targeted creature is still on the battlefield but Vein Drinker is not, Vein Drinker will still deal damage equal to its power as it last existed on the battlefield to the targeted creature.
  • When the first ability resolves, if the targeted creature is no longer on the battlefield, the ability doesn't resolve for having no legal targets. No damage is dealt.

Similar cards

Other creature cards with a black and red colour identity, ranked by how often they appear in Commander decks.

In these precons

Vein Drinker is in the decklist of these preconstructed Commander decks.

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