...or how to get ahead in EDH/Commander.
Card draw in Commander, in my opinion, can be as important, if not more so, than tutoring.
Magic the Gathering is, at its core, an exercise in resource management. Your primary resource being cards. This is why you are only allowed, unless a card in play states otherwise, to draw one card per turn. It is also the reason you start with the number of cards you do.
Being able to draw more than one card in your turn gives you a resource advantage over your opponents. This is why Consecrated Sphinx is considered by many to be such an over-powered card in Commander.
In a one on one game you will get to draw one card on your turn and then two on your opponents, which means you'll draw three times as many cards as they will. In a multi-player game that becomes something far more unbalanced.
Personally I tend not to play the Sphinx but it is considered by many to be one of the top blue creatures in Commander.
But that's all I'm going to say about this particular Sphinx for the rest of the article. Instead let's rewind slightly and go right back to basics:
There are two types of these cards:
Thoughtflare looks much better but it's the same outcome 1 extra card and it costs 3UR. I accept that it has advantages you get to discard two cards that may be useless in the current game state and replace them with what are hopefully better ones.
In Commander spells such as these are limited. Instead you need recurring or reusable card draw and for that you need permanents.
When you are looking at permanents that let you draw more cards you need to keep in mind that you are looking to gain a resource advantage over your opponents. Thus cards like Howling Mine, Temple Bell and Dictate of Kruphix are to be avoided. Not only do they let your opponents draw the same as you they will gain the benefits from the cards before you do.
However, to quote an advert we have on TV in the UK, "there is another way." There are cards that "care" when things happen that then let you draw one or more cards.
My favourite of these, and I'm not alone in this, is Rhystic Study which lets you draw a card when one of your opponents casts a spell, although they may pay 1 to prevent this. Early in the game this can give you a fantastic resource advantage. Windreader Sphinx, have you cottoned on that Sphinxes tend to let you draw cards, lets you draw cards when a creature with flying attacks. Read that carefully. It doesn't have to be your creature, or attacking you and you still get to draw a card. Very useful in a multiplayer game. Bident of Thassa is a classic example of drawing a card when a creature deals combat damage. Although, personally I think its ability is a little too green in flavour to be on a blue artifact.
Speaking of which while Blue and Black reign supreme when it comes to drawing cards the other colours do have a certain number of options themselves. Green is next on the list and, as always, revolves around creatures and in most cases creatures that are coming into play.
Note the difference between Garruck's Packleader which is "another creature" and Soul of the Harvest's "another nontoken creature". Both of these only care when the creature comes into play.
Primordial Sage on the other hand requires you to cast the creature. So keep in mind it really does pay to double check the wording of the card so that you know which one works best in your particular deck.
There are three white cards that stand out; Inheritance, Armistice and Mentor of the Meek. Each have their merits but also their limitations.
If White's options are limited then Red's are pretty much non-existent. Every red draw card requires a discard either before or after the draw. Therefore this isn't giving you a resource advantage, although it does allow you to cycle through your cards more quickly until you find the card or cards you are looking for,
In red you're restricted to using cards like Epiphany Storm, Mad Prophet and Daretti, Scrap Savant. I confess I have been beaten, soundly, by a Daretti commander deck it still requires the deck to be set up to make use of cards being discarded and a lot of graveyard recursion - a subject on my list to discuss in a future blog post.
Speaking of Planeswalkers at the time I am writing this there are 14 Planeswalkers, including 3 variants of Jace, that allow you to draw cards in one fashion or another. Unsurprisingly none of them are white and the red ones require you to discard cards.
So when it comes to making sure your hand in full and you're keeping ahead of your opponent's card count you now know what to look for.
I am more than interested to know what you think so, please, if you do drop by leave me a comment and keep your eye out for a new post next week.
Personally I tend not to play the Sphinx but it is considered by many to be one of the top blue creatures in Commander.
But that's all I'm going to say about this particular Sphinx for the rest of the article. Instead let's rewind slightly and go right back to basics:
Cards that let you draw more cards.
There are two types of these cards:
- Permanents - Creatures, Enchantments, Artifacts and Planeswalkers
- Non-permanents - Instants and Sorceries.
Divination is simple you cast the spell and draw two cards, which means for an outlay of 2U you get an extra card. Sign in Blood requires you to loose two life and play a BB for the same privileged.
Thoughtflare looks much better but it's the same outcome 1 extra card and it costs 3UR. I accept that it has advantages you get to discard two cards that may be useless in the current game state and replace them with what are hopefully better ones.
In Commander spells such as these are limited. Instead you need recurring or reusable card draw and for that you need permanents.
When you are looking at permanents that let you draw more cards you need to keep in mind that you are looking to gain a resource advantage over your opponents. Thus cards like Howling Mine, Temple Bell and Dictate of Kruphix are to be avoided. Not only do they let your opponents draw the same as you they will gain the benefits from the cards before you do.
For me the benchmark for a permanent that lets me draw extra cards has to be Jayemdae Tome.
For 4 colourless mana, with no downside, you get to draw a card. Simple, straightforward, card advantage. This also tells us that a card is considered to be worth 4 colourless mana. If we can draw cards and pay less then we are gaining an advantage.
Consider Bloodgift Demon for a moment, for 3BB you get a 5/4 Flying body that lets you, or another player you choose, draw a card for the loss of 1 life.
The way Commander games tend to work paying 1 life each turn, from your starting total of 40, is preferable to paying 4 colourless mana in order to draw a card. This is especially true early in the game. However, as good as that body is it makes Bloodgift demon vulnerable to board wipes; spells that destroy all creatures or similar. Phyrexian Arena, the card on which Bloodgift demon is based, maybe seen to be preferable. It is easier to cast and is less vulnerable, but on the downside offers you no benefit in combat.
On the other extreme Baleful Force, which is more expensive to cast, has a much bigger body but doesn't fly, has a slight variation on the theme of paying 1 life to draw a card. The Elemental lets you do so each upkeep, not just your own.
On the other extreme Baleful Force, which is more expensive to cast, has a much bigger body but doesn't fly, has a slight variation on the theme of paying 1 life to draw a card. The Elemental lets you do so each upkeep, not just your own.
These three cards all have one drawback; they all dictate to you when you can draw more cards, that is during the upkeep phase. But there are plenty of Black cards that give you more freedom to draw cards when you want to, you just have to be willing to accept the pain that comes with it. Erebos, God of the Dead and Greed are great examples of this.
So Black is great at letting you draw cards but in most cases it exacts a cost of forcing you to pay life to do so. Blue, as we have already seen, has no such downside.
Archivist is probably the simplest example of a blue permanent that lets you draw cards. A 1/1 creature which you tap to draw a card. Simple, straightforward, no pain and all gain. But in Commander such a card is extremely underpowered. Compare it with the mighty 3/4 Arcanis the Omnipotent and his ability to tap and draw three cards.
If you dig deeper you'll find even better though. Take Sphinx of Magosi for example. Sure you have to pay 2U but there's no tapping and you get to draw a card and then put a +1/+1 counter on Sphinx of Magosi. Keep in mind he is already a 6/6 Flying creature. In a short space of time you can have huge flying body and a significant card advantage.
My favourite of these, and I'm not alone in this, is Rhystic Study which lets you draw a card when one of your opponents casts a spell, although they may pay 1 to prevent this. Early in the game this can give you a fantastic resource advantage. Windreader Sphinx, have you cottoned on that Sphinxes tend to let you draw cards, lets you draw cards when a creature with flying attacks. Read that carefully. It doesn't have to be your creature, or attacking you and you still get to draw a card. Very useful in a multiplayer game. Bident of Thassa is a classic example of drawing a card when a creature deals combat damage. Although, personally I think its ability is a little too green in flavour to be on a blue artifact.
Note the difference between Garruck's Packleader which is "another creature" and Soul of the Harvest's "another nontoken creature". Both of these only care when the creature comes into play.
Primordial Sage on the other hand requires you to cast the creature. So keep in mind it really does pay to double check the wording of the card so that you know which one works best in your particular deck.
When it comes to drawing cards white really is the poor cousin out of the five colours and if you're playing mono-white you're probably going to want to run artifacts to help you draw cards.
Having said that White does draw cards but your options are extremely limited. Mesa Enchantress and Kor Spiritdancer care about Enchantments while Puresteel Paladin cares about Equipment artifacts.
There are three white cards that stand out; Inheritance, Armistice and Mentor of the Meek. Each have their merits but also their limitations.
In red you're restricted to using cards like Epiphany Storm, Mad Prophet and Daretti, Scrap Savant. I confess I have been beaten, soundly, by a Daretti commander deck it still requires the deck to be set up to make use of cards being discarded and a lot of graveyard recursion - a subject on my list to discuss in a future blog post.
You may have noticed that Kiora, the Crashing Wave is multicoloured. She is both Blue and Green. Her -1 ability is a clear indication of this duality. Drawing a card, that's a blue ability and laying an additional land which is green.
When you start looking at multicoloured cards then the game opens up a whole world of possibilities.
Some of the creatures you gain access to are very powerful and colours like white and red get access to the straight up draw they desperately need.
Multi-coloured enchantments also offer great opportunities to draw cards but can often be more demanding in their requirements as they seek to emulate the design concept behind their colour combinations.
Of course if you are playing a mono-red or mono-white Commander deck and you do need decent, reliable permanents to draw you cards then we have travelled full circle and are back to looking at artifacts.
When it comes to artifacts you have equipment cards like Diviner's Wand that grant the ability to draw cards to creatures they are equipped to. You also have cards that let you tap to draw but are conditional like Illuminated Folio, which, you'll note, is a lot cheaper to activate than Jayemdae Tome. However, you have to reveal two cards that share the same colour when you activate it. Easy when you're playing a mono-coloured deck right? There are also artifacts like Mind's Eye that care when something happens, in this case your opponents casting a spell.
I hope you've enjoyed the first proper article I've written for my blog. Although it's not supposed to be an exhaustive list it does contain some of the best permanents that draw cards that you'll see used in Commander decks. I certainly use plenty of those listed and few others I chose not too.
I am more than interested to know what you think so, please, if you do drop by leave me a comment and keep your eye out for a new post next week.
Phil
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