Reprinted 2x total; appeared once in a dedicated reprint set (Time Spiral Remastered).
Clicking links to purchase cards directly supports ManaBleed via affiliate commissions at no extra cost to your order pool.
Draining Whelk
30-Day Market Trend
Paste this anywhere to show a live, auto-updating price widget for this card.
Oracle Data
Flying
When this creature enters, counter target spell. Put X +1/+1 counters on this creature, where X is that spell's mana value.
Official Judge Precedents
For spells with 
in their mana costs, use the value chosen for X to determine the spell's mana value.
Draining Whelk's ability counters the target spell even if you can't put counters on Draining Whelk, most likely because Draining Whelk left the battlefield before the ability resolved.
If the target spell is an illegal target by the time Draining Whelk's ability tries to resolve, the spell doesn't resolve. You don't put any counters on Draining Whelk. If the target is legal but the spell can't be countered, you do put counters on Draining Whelk.
