Underplayed Draw Spells for Commander
Welcome to The Jankyard, a place filled with cheap alternatives for expensive Commander staples. Everything here is under $5, and can be just as good, if not better, than their popular expensive counterparts.
Every Magic player's favorite three words is “draw a card.” No matter what your deck's strategy is, you more than likely can benefit from more cards in hand. While you may be quick to add
Pyretic Charge
The best mechanic to come from Thunder Junction was Plot, and the ability to pay the cost of a spell ahead of time to play it for free later. Like all semi-wheel effects, their value is relative to how many cards you have in-hand when you cast it. Playing
Pyretic Charge can turn a discarded hand into a massive buff for all your creatures, allowing for it to be a great spell no matter when it's cast. In addition, you can keep it plotted for when you're ready to strike or when you need more cards.
| Pyretic Charge | ||
| Pyretic Charge (Extended Art) |
Monastery Siege
As always, the number one thing I look for in cards is their versatility. There’s nothing worse than holding a card all game because you’re waiting for something better to come along.
Monastery Siege gives you a choice between two options; it can either draw you cards each turn like a blue
| Monastery Siege | ||
| Monastery Siege |
Insight
Like any spell that requires your opponents to play certain colors, Insight can be a horrible inclusion when facing a table that has no green in any of their decks. After all, for the same mana cost you can play
You’d also be saving around $44, which makes each draw from Insight feel so much sweeter.
| Insight |
Mind Unbound
At first glance Mind Unbound might seem extremely overcosted. And it is, but only for the first couple of turns. After that the card draw advantage you’ll have over your opponents will only grow, and this is before any proliferate shenanigans are added.
There’s a laundry list of commanders that will benefit from Mind Unbound’s inclusion, each looking to synergize with the card in different ways.
| Mind Unbound |
Sazacap's Brew
There are about 20+ cards that do the exact same thing as Sazacap’s Brew, with each costing between one and three mana to draw more than you discard. While each may have its own additional payoff and may benefit certain strategies more, Sazacap’s Brew allows for the most versatility at only two mana.
If you choose to gift the tapped fish, you can buff a creature at instant speed while giving the 1/1 to a player that may not be a threat. If you decide not to, it’s just as good as
| Sazacap's Brew |
Kiora, the Rising Tide
For three mana, Kiora, the Rising Tide’s loot effect is a bargain and a great addition to any deck that looks to fill a graveyard, blink, or just needs to get rid of some dead draws. Her second ability is not as difficult to trigger as you may think, and the 8/8 Octopus the trigger makes is a threat that your opponents will need to deal with or block. In the event that Scion of the Deep is removed or dies, you can just make another!
The main downside to Kiora, the Rising Tide’s second ability is the fact that the token is legendary, so you can only have one on the board at a time.
| Kiora, the Rising Tide | ||
| Kiora, the Rising Tide (Borderless) | ||
| Kiora, the Rising Tide (Extended Art) |
Browbeat
Due to players starting the game with 40 life, Browbeat will almost always lead to at least one player taking damage, especially in the early game. However, your chances of drawing go up as life totals go down, and your opponents must decide if stopping your draw spell is worth the sacrifice. In addition, it’s a perfect inclusion in a deck that runs damage modifiers like
| Browbeat | ||
| Browbeat | ||
| Browbeat |
Diresight
Diresight is starting to slowly gain the attention of players, but still only sits at around 16k on EDHREC. For three mana you draw two and lose two life, but the most important part is the surveil two. Black loves nothing more than having cards in its graveyard, and with Diresight you get to control what goes into the graveyard and what goes to hand.
The only downside to the card is losing two life; but its Commander, you have 40 to spare.
| Diresight |
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Further Reading:
Kaspar Renken
Kaspar Renken is a graduate of Western Connecticut State University, and has been playing Magic since War of the Spark. He began playing Standard for a short time before finding EDH and the friendships that come from multiplayer formats. When he’s not playing or building decks, he can probably be found working on his Mustang.
