Replacements: Rhystic Study

Do you hate having to ask "do you pay the 1?" Learn about some substitutes for the most broken draw spell in EDH!

We've all been asked the question "do you pay the 1?" Heck, many of us have probably had to ask that question at some point. Rhystic Study can be powerful, yet annoying. That, combined with how expensive it is, makes it less appealing to the more budget conscious or casual players.

Why is Rhystic Study so expensive

Before EDH became the main way to play Magic, this common from Prophecy could be found in people's boxes of bulk. In 1v1, other cards, that actually advanced your board state, were more likely to see play. Plus, your opponents tended to just pay the 1. However, when EDH came along promising multiplayer, Rhystic Study became a huge advantage. Say you play it on turn 3. This means that each of your opponents probably have just 1 spell to play (e.g Cultivate), meaning they will not have any mana left to the pay the tax. That's 3 extra cards for you. As the game goes on sure, they will have more mana, but also they will get greedy and want to cast more spells. I've had this draw me upwards of 10 cards in one turn rotation!

There's also a mental game that is played here, as it can make your opponents try to play around it. Maybe they play that Cultivate on turn 3 instead of Llanowar Elves and Rampant Growth because they only want to give you 1 extra card. The opportunity cost is 1 extra mana.

Between the mental tax and the physical tax, Rhystic Study is flat out one of the best card draw spells in EDH, making it worthy of its high price tag.

This week, I want to help you draw tons of cards without making your friends groan. We're only going to look at cards that fit the following requirements:

• Draws (only) you a card on a regularly game occurring action by an opponent
• Makes your opponent question which game action they want to take

Honorable Mention

It would be remiss of me to not mention the other well-known blue draw spell: Mystic Remora.

It is a bit outside of the self imposed $5 budget for this series, but you can get a heavily played copy for under that. You still have to ask your opponent "do you pay the 4" and it only triggers on noncreature spells, but that is hardly a downside.

In casual commander games, I've found that if you play this on turn 1, it actually does not draw as many cards you would think. Often, casual players do nothing on turn 1. Turn 2 they may play a mana rock or do nothing again. Turn 3 may be when they really start to play noncreature spells. Mystic Remora's cumulative upkeep cost can actually end up setting you behind, because on turn 2 you would have to use half of your mana to keep it around. And then on turn 3, you would use 2/3rds of your mana.

Don't get me wrong, Mystic Remora is still an extremely strong card and it makes players question if they should not cast on noncreature spells. Even so, it is a bit too expensive and may not produce the best results in more casual circles.

When you draw, I draw

Maybe your opponent already has a Rhystic Study or Mystic Remora in play. Or they're drawing a bunch of cards, off of combat, with a Coastal Piracy effect.

How about you draw, when they draw, using Psychic Possession?

EDH is a very political game where deals are made all of the time. How about you make the ultimate deal and get married! Wedding Ring allows you to draw and gain life when an opponent gains life, and vice versa.

In both cases, you are drawing whenever your opponents draw and you are making them weigh the benefits of you drawing alongside them. They are essentially spending their own resources to give you extra cards.

Catching your opponent red (black? green?) handed

Green is one of the most popular colors because it can do just about anything. It can ramp, draw cards, play big, powerful creatures and destroy artifacts and enchantments.

Landfall strategies helmed by Omnath, Locus of Rage or Tatyova, Benthic Druid are heavily weighted towards the color green when they play the likes of Avenger of Zendikar, Azusa, Lost but Seeking, or Scute Swarm.

Decks with a high attack power theme, like Ghalta, Primal Hunger, or decks using elves, led by Lathril, Blade of the Elves, like to overwhelm the board with lots of green creatures.

This is why Insight can be such a powerful draw engine. Just for playing their decks, you draw a card. They may be worried about casting too many green spells for fear of what they will give you.

Similarly, black decks tend to care about the graveyard. They want to put stuff into the yard and reanimate it for much cheaper. Syr Konrad, the Grym wants to mill each player and deal damage. Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker can easily get into sacrificing and reanimating loops.

How about you draw each time a black card enters the graveyard with Compost?Maybe they will end up putting fewer cards into the graveyard.

For both Insight and Compose, they can slow down your opponents as they decide just how many spells they want to play.

Sacrificing junk

Here's some of the most popular token types:

• Treasure
• Map
• Clue
• Junk
• Food
• Blood
• Gold

Of these, you are most likely to see treasure because mana acceleration is one of the two most important parts of EDH.

Between dedicated treasure decks led by Vihaan, Goldwaker or Prosper, Tome-bound, and cards that casually make one here and there like Deadly Dispute, rarely does a game goes by without treasures making an appearance.

This makes a card like Viridian Revel an intriguing option for card draw. You balance out the advantage they are getting on mana with card draw, the other most important part of EDH. Should they sacrifice 10 treasures? Because that would draw you 10 cards.

You tap, I draw

The last card I want to mention is Runic Armasaur. At first, you may think "wait, how often does a land not tap for mana?" Or "what creatures have activated abilities that don't generate mana?"

Any Fetchland from the expensive likes of Wooded Foothills to the ubiquitous Evolving Wilds will trigger you to draw.

Krenko, Mob Boss is the most popular commander of one of the most popular tribe, as it essentially doubles the amount of goblins you control each turn when it taps to activate. Every time they do so, you would draw.

Shorikai, Genesis Engine is an insane card advantage engine in any artifact or Azorious strategy that taps to draw cards. When they draw, you draw.

Because your opponents aren't going to NOT crack their fetchlands and because their whole deck is built around their commander, Runic Armasaur a great way to capitalize on these types of common actions.

Cleanup

All of these options never bring out the same disgusted reaction from your opponents. There is something to be said for de-powering your decks with the goal of increasing the fun for the table. These cards, in the right circumstances, can all provide similar levels of card draw while not annoying your opponents! So toss aside the Rhystic Study and save yourself $40!