The Best Card Draw in Blue
Since the beginning of days, when Richard Garfield, Ph.D. first crawled out of that primordial slime and spoke Magic into the world, blue has reigned as the preeminent color for drawing cards. Though Ancestral Recall sits rightly out of our mortal grasp, a multitude of strong blue card draw remains available to us in Commander. The following are some of your best options.
Top Blue "I'm not Ancestral Recall" Spells that Draw
Though the aforementioned Ancestral Recall sets an impossibly high bar for one-off card draw effects, it turns out you can draw at a significantly worse rate than three cards for one mana and still feel pretty good about it. These instants and sorceries all provide you with a single infusion of card advantage at a fixed rate.
Lórien Revealed
Three cards for five mana is an acceptable rate, if not particularly exciting. What makes Lórien Revealed really tick is its islandcycling. Rather than sitting stranded in hand when you're stuck at four mana, Lórien Revealed can turn itself into your fifth land. Likewise, an opening hand with two lands feels far more keepable with a card that can turn itself into an Island for a single mana. On later turns, instead you cast it as intended for a hand refill. There is rarely a bad time to draw this card.
Plea for Power
Usually, Plea for Power is going to draw you three cards for four mana. That puts its floor at a Concentrate which is entirely respectable. Occasionally though, when you can convince two of your three opponents that it's in their best interest, it instead serves as a four-mana Time Walk. This is a pretty incredibly upside, even if it only happens when three-quarters of the table is dealing with a figurative archenemy that isn't you.
Quick Study
Admittedly, Quick Study is an extraordinarily boring card. Two cards for three mana is fine, but it doesn't exactly inspire. Quick Study earns its place on this list with its ability to be played at instant speed, a weakness of its classic counterpart, Divination. This allows you to keep up mana for a Counterspell or a bluff thereof, simply casting Quick Study during the end step prior to your next turn. It won't always be relevant, but the flexibility is nice.
Conditional draw spells you should play if your deck supports them
Top Blue X Spells that Draw
There are times in Commander when you acquire an unethical amount of mana. In those moments, you may only be limited by the number of cards you have available to cast. Fortunately, blue has access to a variety of X spells that happily scale to whatever mana you have available to sink.
Finale of Revelation
A common dilemma facing players casting X spells is knowing how much to invest into : do you go all in, or do you leave a bit of mana up in case you draw something you want to play? Finale of Revelation skirts that issue by untapping five of your lands so long as is or more. The removed maximum hand size is a nice bonus as well, ensuring you eventually have the opportunity to play everything you draw. Getting to equals isn't always easy, but Finale of Revelation is the draw spell you want in your hand if you're there.
Even the Score
Paying three mana on top of is pretty standard for instant-speed card draw (see Stroke of Genius). Even the Score offers an incredibly discount on this rate... so long as one of your opponents is drawing a bunch themselves. Since you won't necessarily know when that opportunity will arise, leaving a large amount of mana available every turn might not be practical. Fortunately, when considering paying for X cards, even something as little as equals or is a really solid rate. For that reason, it feels logical to look at Even the Score as an almost modal spell that can be cast late with a big , but also has value in games when you can't afford to dedicate an entire turn to drawing.
Gadwick, the Wizened
We're cheating a bit by not leaving Gadwick, the Wizened for the creature section below, but he really does feel more akin to Blue Sun's Zenith than a Mulldrifter. Looking at Gadwick's rate, you'd love to see him either with flash or a cheaper. Instead, you're given a 3/3 body and, more importantly, a tap on cast trigger. This trigger can be used to tap down scary would-be attackers, remove blockers, or even slow down an opponent's board progression by tying up a big mana rock, like Thran Dynamo. His value at equals makes Gadwick feel in some ways like a less risky inclusion than other X draw spells.
Honorable mentions
Top Blue Creatures that Draw
Sure, blue can have powerful card draw on its creatures too. Why not?
Faerie Mastermind
Player spotlight cards tend to be well-designed for Standard viability, but 2021 World Champion Yuta Takahashi's Faerie Mastermind has proven itself an incredible value engine in EDH as well. Assuming your opponents are also doing their best to play a game of Magic: The Gathering, they'll be trying to draw extra cards as well. That being the case, it's not horribly uncommon for Faerie Mastermind to draw you three cards between the end of your turn and the beginning of your next. That's to say absolutely nothing of its activated ability that can force the draw trigger in a pinch. Oh, also, it's a 2/1 flyer for two. And it has flash. Crazy value.
Archmage Emeritus
Here's a creature that no one wants to see you untap with. Even if you aren't copying spells to take full advantage of the Magecraft triggers, Archmage Emeritus will rip through your deck at an absurd rate. The biggest shot against the 2/2 is that it typically needs to survive a turn cycle before it can really start to generate value. Happily, any counterspells you use to protect it will draw you cards as well.
Pollywog Prodigy
Is that you, Esper Sentinel? Pollywog Prodigy may be a bit more dependent on its power to draw cards, but its ceiling is far higher with the potential to draw multiple cards each turn. Before we get too ahead of ourselves, you do really need to be playing a deck that's either going to reliably trigger the Prodigy's evolve a few times or provide power buffs through other means. Manage that, though, and this little Frrog will take you places.
Honorable mentions
Top Blue Enchantments that Draw
Blue may not have as many "enchantments matter" cards as some other colors, but that doesn't stop it from having some of the best card-drawing enchantments in the business. If you're looking for repeated effects that spread value out over multiple turns, these are great options to consider.
Rhystic Study
Anyone who's ever played a game with Rhystic Study will not be surprised by its inclusion in this list. No other enchantment in the game will net as much incidental card advantage. The biggest knock against it, besides the price tag, is how quickly friendships end from the repeated "dO yOu PaY tHe OnE?" That is a very legitimate reason that some players choose to skip it, but if you're strictly looking at power level, Rhystic Study is hard to beat.
Mystic Remora
Did you know a remora is a fish that uses a sucker-like organ to attach itself to larger marine animals? Likewise does Mystic Remora feed off of other players, granting you a card every time they play a noncreature spell unless an exorbitant tax of is paid. Though its cumulative upkeep means you're unlikely to keep it around for more than a few turn cycles, that's more than enough time to get a grip full of cards. An excellent deal for a paltry initial investment.
Coastal Piracies
These three entries get lumped together for obvious reasons. Though Reconnaissance Mission and Bident of Thassa are effectively strictly better versions of Coastal Piracy, a deck that wants one will usually benefit from all three. If you're playing a bunch of the small, evasive creatures that blue is known for, curving into one of these on turn four will keep you flush with cards for turns to come.
Honorable mentions
Top Blue Cantrips
A cantrip is a spell that replaces itself with a single card when cast. Usually they're cheap to play and have only minor effects beyond the card drawn. By definition, cantrips do not provide card advantage since they don't net you any cards. For this reason, it's usually unwise to count them toward what's colloquially considered "card draw" in your deck. Nevertheless, cantrips can be powerful tools in Commander to quickly draw through your deck and find more pertinent pieces to your gameplan.
Brainstorm
Played across a variety of formats, Brainstorm reigns supreme as the gold standard for cantrips. Though playing it doesn't net you any cards beyond its replacement, your hand can end up with three new cards it if two you already had are placed on top of your library. This becomes incredibly potent with fetch lands and other shuffle effects that will prevent you from redrawing those unwanted cards. Plus it's an instant. If you haven't Brainstormed into a cracked fetch land at the end of an opponent's turn, have you even lived?
Ponder
Of all the cantrips, Ponder has the acclaim of showing you more cards than any other. If you look at the top three cards and don't like any of your options, shuffling for Hail Mary on the fourth is pretty solid. Sorcery speed is a bit of a drag, but if you're digging for something specific, Ponder is a great option.
Preordain
Though Preordain shows you fewer cards than Ponder, it compensates by giving you a bit more control, allowing you to ship zero, one, or two cards to the bottom of your library before committing to a draw. This granularity may be relevant for planning out your next turn.
Honorable Mentions
An Embarrassment of Riches
Set after set, blue continues to earn its reputation as the premier card-drawing color. Though these are some of the best, the cards presented here only begin to scratch the surface on your playable options. What are some of your favorites that we've missed?
Next time, we'll explore victory at any cost with black card draw.
