Unhelpful answer, it depends, right? On colors and strategy and mana curve? Do you put Rhystic Study in every blue deck? Oddly enough I didn't put it in my enchantress deck because the enchantresses already draw a crap ton of cards and I wanted a slot for something else more interesting.
It's color specific but one of my favorite flat out draw spells is Sphinx's Revelation because it's flexible, instant speed, and includes life gain as a bonus.
The most card drawing fun I've ever had is when I get Scroll Rack and Land Tax active.
But I also think your question needs a bit of explanation. For example, if you’re playing in a normal meta Phyreixan Arena will draw you anywhere from 5 to 10 cards over the course of the game. In a more competitive meta where you won’t have that many turns, Read the Bones might be better.
Or maybe you are asking about burst draw spells? Necrepotence is a pretty good one. Necrologia is one of my favorites as well.
And then again, you might’ve playing mono-white or something, so these black spells might be useless.
rings of brighthearth
One of my pet cards. If your commander has an activated ability it's amazing. It doubles what you're trying to do, whether it's stealing with marieke ri beret or drawing cards with arcanis the omnipotent, rings shine!
Edit: I did not read the title correctly. I thought you wanted best cards in EDH. I missed the draw part but accidentally kinda got it right lol
Really context dependent question, but everyone has a favourite or two. My favourite is Fact or Fiction, simply because it’s fun from either side and it’s a card that challenges the skills of both players involved. I love choosing for people, and the amount of times someone’s chosen for me and given me great stuff to hand is awesome. Being instant speed helps too.
Honorable mentions for Greater Good, the red wheels, Necropotence and Mindmoil. That last card gets seriously overlooked and it’s a great time.
I think 1-2 mana card draw spells are underplayed. Having 5-10 of them in a deck really improves your chance of drawing enough lands early and is rarely a bad topdeck late in the game. I am including cantrips like Baleful Strix, cards like Night's Whisper and Chart a Course, and even things that specifically get lands like Satyr Wayfinder. Your card draw should not all be the ones that use a lot of mana.
Skullclamp is only a good option if you're slamming x/1s into the deck. If you have to jump through hoops, it's not really that efficient.
The most efficient is gonna be Night's Whisper - a simple +1 CA for only one coloured symbol and a generic. Brainstorm with shuffles or otherwise Desperate Ravings/Faithless Looting (note they are +0s but having flashback makes them an eventual +1). Note that B typically will have more efficient draw in this way than U (contrast ancient craving to glimmer of genius) because it also pays life, though U will have much stronger filtering effects for less or similar mana costs
Are you looking at best as in most wide going, or are you wanting to hand cycle effortlessly? Seeing recommendations such as Sphinx' Rev are curious because while powerful, they're not really strong until you're putting around 5 in to them (netting two cards for a natural +1) and 5 is a lot to spend just to draw cards. They do scale fantastically though. If it's the latter, then you won't find more mileage from anything than a Ponder or Preordain, though they technically are a +0 in terms of CA.
Can you elaborate on what you mean by "best" draw?
I've not been able to get it to work in EDH, but sandstone oracle is colourless and can work wonders for decks with bad card draw (emphasis on CAN).
to be honest, i think it might be useful for you to re-think how you approach "card draw". Is it literally 'draw a card'? Or is it 'card advantage' you mean? you could consider for example buried alive as 'card advantage', if your deck is built to abuse the graveyard. If your deck can't abuse the graveyard, then maybe it's only adding cards to your hand. At the same time, land tax by itself can get you +3 cards per turn, but the quality is always lands (which might not be all that good, depending). However, land tax+scroll rack is a card advantage engine that requires some amount of setting up, but you can end up drawing '3 cards' per turn, since you can shuffle the lands back into the deck. It's not really card draw, per se.
These are some of my favorites, mostly for digging through cards quickly. Some require more theme than others, particularly non-blue draw.
Not all of these stack up agains Blue and Black draw, and some of these are based on a creature theme. These are simply some draw spells that I like in my decks.
I've not been able to get it to work in EDH, but sandstone oracle is colourless and can work wonders for decks with bad card draw (emphasis on CAN).
I've had luck with it only in decks where I'm not really paying for it, if that makes sense? In Kiki-Jiki, it can be amazing (if taken out of the graveyard with Daretti). In Chainer, it worked OK if it came out of the 'yard. Lot's of ifs there...
Rishkar's Expertise and other "Draw equal Power" cards have proven to be quite good in non blue decks for me. I often run out of Gas in Aggro Decks and they always came in handy, especially the expertise thanks to the free cast.
Another i've used is meditate instant, 3 mana, +4 cards. It was in a "skip all of my turns" deck though, so it also synergised there.
And one i completely forgot about (that i had in a legacy combo deck) is slithermuse. I imagine in EDH, you're liable to draw anywhere from 2 to 30 for 4 mana. I don't think i've used nor have i seen it used in EDH in like... possibly ever. But i can definitely see it being good. especially in combo. especially if the combo plays things like time spiral, prosperity.
Ad Nauseam is probably the most powerful draw spell in the format if your deck is set up to abuse it, and still very good even when used "fairly." If your average cmc is around 2 or less including lands and your deck contains black, it's probably worth running even if you don't draw your whole deck.
Alhammarret's Archive is fun with looting. The key is, you're drawing twice as many cards, but discarding/topdecking the same number. (Note that with Sylvan Library, you only draw five cards and then topdeck two..)
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
Alhammarret's Archive is fun with looting. The key is, you're drawing twice as many cards, but discarding/topdecking the same number. (Note that with Sylvan Library, you only draw five cards and then topdeck two..)
Really think that Archive is a trap card tbh............
rings of brighthearth
One of my pet cards. If your commander has an activated ability it's amazing. It doubles what you're trying to do, whether it's stealing with marieke ri beret or drawing cards with arcanis the omnipotent, rings shine!
Edit: I did not read the title correctly. I thought you wanted best cards in EDH. I missed the draw part but accidentally kinda got it right lol
I so badly want to build a nice Arcanis deck haha. He's just too sweet. But making a mono blue deck can be quite difficult. Especially now when I don't have my Mind over matter, Force of Will and other cards. Feels like Arcanis will just eat a bunch of removal and will never stick.
Memory Jar is quite beefy and I see it as one of the best carddraw spells. I think it got banned before or just after its first print in Urza's Legacy.
If this is already a thread, please direct me to it.
Thanks.
We've done top 5 in various colors before, and top 10, and various such lists. Google brought up this from 2014: https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/567131-top-10-draw-spells-for-edh
Unhelpful answer, it depends, right? On colors and strategy and mana curve? Do you put Rhystic Study in every blue deck? Oddly enough I didn't put it in my enchantress deck because the enchantresses already draw a crap ton of cards and I wanted a slot for something else more interesting.
It's color specific but one of my favorite flat out draw spells is Sphinx's Revelation because it's flexible, instant speed, and includes life gain as a bonus.
The most card drawing fun I've ever had is when I get Scroll Rack and Land Tax active.
WUBRG Some of these decks can actually win games...WUBRG
How I know I should build a deck:
But I also think your question needs a bit of explanation. For example, if you’re playing in a normal meta Phyreixan Arena will draw you anywhere from 5 to 10 cards over the course of the game. In a more competitive meta where you won’t have that many turns, Read the Bones might be better.
Or maybe you are asking about burst draw spells? Necrepotence is a pretty good one. Necrologia is one of my favorites as well.
And then again, you might’ve playing mono-white or something, so these black spells might be useless.
RBGLiving EndRBG
EDH
UFblthpU
BRXantchaRB
BGVarolzGB
URWZedruuWRU
One of my pet cards. If your commander has an activated ability it's amazing. It doubles what you're trying to do, whether it's stealing with marieke ri beret or drawing cards with arcanis the omnipotent, rings shine!
Edit: I did not read the title correctly. I thought you wanted best cards in EDH. I missed the draw part but accidentally kinda got it right lol
EDH:
[Primer]C Kozilek, Butcher of Truth C
RGNikya of the Old WaysGR
Honorable mentions for Greater Good, the red wheels, Necropotence and Mindmoil. That last card gets seriously overlooked and it’s a great time.
Otherwise, the ones that are most 'auto-include' are things like Dig Through Time, Treasure Cruise and Phyrexian Arena. In white probably Mentor of the Meek. In red things like Outpost Siege and Chandra, Torch of Defiance.
There are a lot of cards that are situationally very powerful, like Shamanic Revelation, Beast Whisperer, Sram, Senior Edificer, Bedlam Reveler, and Demonlord Belzenlok.
8.RG Green Devotion Ramp/Combo 9.UR Draw Triggers 10.WUR Group stalling 11.WUR Voltron Spellslinger 12.WB Sacrificial Shenanigans
13.BR Creatureless Panharmonicon 14.BR Pingers and Eldrazi 15.URG Untapped Cascading
16.Reyhan, last of the Abzan's WUBG +1/+1 Counter Craziness 17.WUBRG Dragons aka Why did I make this?
Building: The Gitrog Monster lands, Glissa the Traitor stax, Muldrotha, the Gravetide Planeswalker Combo, Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix + Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa Clues, and Tribal Scarecrow Planeswalkers
The most efficient is gonna be Night's Whisper - a simple +1 CA for only one coloured symbol and a generic. Brainstorm with shuffles or otherwise Desperate Ravings/Faithless Looting (note they are +0s but having flashback makes them an eventual +1). Note that B typically will have more efficient draw in this way than U (contrast ancient craving to glimmer of genius) because it also pays life, though U will have much stronger filtering effects for less or similar mana costs
Are you looking at best as in most wide going, or are you wanting to hand cycle effortlessly? Seeing recommendations such as Sphinx' Rev are curious because while powerful, they're not really strong until you're putting around 5 in to them (netting two cards for a natural +1) and 5 is a lot to spend just to draw cards. They do scale fantastically though. If it's the latter, then you won't find more mileage from anything than a Ponder or Preordain, though they technically are a +0 in terms of CA.
Can you elaborate on what you mean by "best" draw?
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.
I've not been able to get it to work in EDH, but sandstone oracle is colourless and can work wonders for decks with bad card draw (emphasis on CAN).
to be honest, i think it might be useful for you to re-think how you approach "card draw". Is it literally 'draw a card'? Or is it 'card advantage' you mean? you could consider for example buried alive as 'card advantage', if your deck is built to abuse the graveyard. If your deck can't abuse the graveyard, then maybe it's only adding cards to your hand. At the same time, land tax by itself can get you +3 cards per turn, but the quality is always lands (which might not be all that good, depending). However, land tax+scroll rack is a card advantage engine that requires some amount of setting up, but you can end up drawing '3 cards' per turn, since you can shuffle the lands back into the deck. It's not really card draw, per se.
Legacy - Solidarity - mono U aggro - burn - Imperial Painter - Strawberry Shortcake - Bluuzards - bom
Not all of these stack up agains Blue and Black draw, and some of these are based on a creature theme. These are simply some draw spells that I like in my decks.
I also find Recurring Insight to be very impactful if it doesn't get countered.
Painful Truths is very efficient if you're running three colors.
And Pain's Reward is hands-down the most fun.
Of course there's always Cruel Bargain and Infernal Contract; you only need 1 life to win, right?
- Rabid Wombat
I've had luck with it only in decks where I'm not really paying for it, if that makes sense? In Kiki-Jiki, it can be amazing (if taken out of the graveyard with Daretti). In Chainer, it worked OK if it came out of the 'yard. Lot's of ifs there...
WU Bruna UW | R Kiki-Jiki R | RB New Chainer BR
Legacy - Burn | Pauper - Reanimator | Aristocrats | Burn
@votechainer2016
Currently Playing:
Multiplayer EDH Lists (click italics for a link to the thread!)
[Primer] Lord of Tresserhorn - Don't Tell Me What I Can't Do[Primer] Roon of the Hidden Realm - Rhino Blink
5 Color Tribal Guide (Slivers, Atogs, Allies, Spirits)
Also Playing (most decklists can be found on my profile)
MarathGeistKamahlGrenzoBolasThassaGitrog
PiratesZurVial Smasher&ThrasiosYennettJhoira(cEDH)Strix(Pauper)
Legacy: Maverick
Modern:
Melira PodRIP 1/19/15GWHatebearsAnd one i completely forgot about (that i had in a legacy combo deck) is slithermuse. I imagine in EDH, you're liable to draw anywhere from 2 to 30 for 4 mana. I don't think i've used nor have i seen it used in EDH in like... possibly ever. But i can definitely see it being good. especially in combo. especially if the combo plays things like time spiral, prosperity.
Legacy - Solidarity - mono U aggro - burn - Imperial Painter - Strawberry Shortcake - Bluuzards - bom
"ad nau"
0/0
Oh, you guys.
Ad Nauseam is probably the most powerful draw spell in the format if your deck is set up to abuse it, and still very good even when used "fairly." If your average cmc is around 2 or less including lands and your deck contains black, it's probably worth running even if you don't draw your whole deck.
[Primer] Erebos, God of the Dead
HONK HONK
On phasing:
Really think that Archive is a trap card tbh............
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.
I so badly want to build a nice Arcanis deck haha. He's just too sweet. But making a mono blue deck can be quite difficult. Especially now when I don't have my Mind over matter, Force of Will and other cards. Feels like Arcanis will just eat a bunch of removal and will never stick.
Memory Jar is quite beefy and I see it as one of the best carddraw spells. I think it got banned before or just after its first print in Urza's Legacy.
Who needs Colours?
My most played EDH deck:
X Kozilek, the Great Distortion
UBR Nekusar, the Mindrazer