Magic: the Gathering players around the world enter a sort of mini-Christmas season every quarter of the year. Spoiler season is starting to rev up, and players are starting to get invested in the latest set, which has its prerelease events on January 30th and 31st. The advent of spoiler season is eats up countless hours as players dig for new information, look at the new cards spoiled every day, and most importantly, discuss the viability of the spoiled cards in various formats. While Extended is the format of focus right now (since that's what the PTQ and Pro Tour circuit are doing) , players are interested in what happens to Standard most when a set comes out, because it's the most affected by the change. Cards with lower power levels are more likely to be played in the 2-year set, and more importantly this year, players everywhere are looking to topple Jund, the monstrosity of a mid-range deck that plays card advantage spells in the form of Cascade from Alara Reborn, strong discard spells, and a suite of the most powerful removal spells in Standard. It's a tough combo that recently has seen some resistance in the form of two decks - UWr Control (played to 1st place at the Star City Games 5K in Los Angeles by Pro Luis Scott-Vargas) and Uber Control (a Grixis-colored control deck that tops out at Cruel Ultimatum).

What do these two decks have in common, besides being the control player's answer to Jund? They're both running card drawing spells that are, at best... well, not that good.

Enter this little number - Mysteries of the Deep.

Now, I know what you're thinking - Alex, this card is terrible. Why would anyone ever play it, let alone play it in a constructed format? Au contraire, my friends. Mysteries of the Deep is one of the most exciting things to hit Magic since, well, they said they were reprinting Smother. The card is everything control wants right now, and for quite a few reasons.

Let's take a look at the one reason why this card stands out to begin with - its type. Mysteries of the Deep is an Instant draw spell, and we haven't had one of those in a while, now have we? Mysteries gives Blue decks in Standard the ability to do something that they haven't been doing all that much - playing spells at the end of an opponent's turn. Drawing is something that, up until quite recently, could be done on your opponent's turn. It was customary to leave mana open in your Blue deck, counter anything relevant, and then draw cards at the end if you could. Cards like Fact or Fiction allowed control players to maintain control and eek out an advantage over time. That's something that Mysteries is going to help Standard Blue decks do from now on - because, objectively, it's the first Instant draw spell since 2000 that will be able to do something more than just get you a +1.

What do I mean by getting just a +1? All of the most powerful Instant speed draw spells printed in the last decade, be they Thirst for Knowledge, Think Twice, or Careful Consideration only generated, at most, 1 card for their user. In fact, the last instant draw card that did more than a +1 was Opportunity in 7th Edition, but its cost and blue commitment limited its usefulness. In fact, Accumulated Knowledge was the only Instant card printed in the 00's that could generate the advantage that Mysteries of the Deep can generate, and you had to have 2 of them in your graveyard!

But, there is a bit of a catch - you have to have had a land come into play under you control the turn you play Mysteries of the Deep in order to get that third card, and that's a bit of a hoop to jump through, although some members of the Magic community (Evan Erwin, for instance) think that the hoops are set too high. I'm on the fence about the drawback on Mysteries of the Deep, and I'll explain why.

To run a 5th turn Mysteries of the Deep on your opponent's turn means you have to have drawn five lands, and one of those lands has to be a Fetchland. You also have to not break the Fetch. The probability of drawing one of eight Fetchlands in your deck by turn five (if you're on the play) is approximately 82%. So realistically, it's not that difficult to get the Fetch and play Mysteries (drawing the requisite lands in a 26 land deck, by the way, by turn five, has a 42% probability). We know that drawing the cards all in the right order is going to not happen a fair amount of the time.

But all the while that you're not setting up the Mysteries combo, you're working on it. WUr Control and Grixis playing cards like Divination or Jace Beleren in the early game, increasing the amount of cards drawn, and increasing the likelihood of getting three cards out of Mysteries.

But what does all this mean? Compared to other draw spells in Standard, where does Mysteries of the Deep stand? Where does the format put this card, realistically? In my opinion, there are two cards that Mysteries of the Deep has a chance at replacing in the format - Mind Spring and Courier's Capsule. Both have seen a decent amount of play in the Star City Games 5K events, so let's do some comparing.


Against Mind Spring: If you can get a Mysteries of the Deep to play on turns 5-7, and draw the three cards, especially if it's on your opponent's turn, then Mysteries is a directly superior card toMind Spring set at 3UU, because it draws the same amount of cards, is Instant speed, and doesn't have UU in the casting cost. Mysteries slowly drops off as Mind Spring can pick up more X mana while maintaining counter backup, though, and Mind Spring clearly outclasses Mysteries in the late game.


Against Courier's Capsule: Mysteries doesn't get into play early like a Capsule can, although you never want to give up your turn 2/3 Flashfreeze/Negate if you can help it, and to be honest, your ability to play Couriers Capsule will have to spread over two turns if you want to maintain counter support. Late game, you can play the Capsule and break it in the same turn, making 2UU for two cards. Mysteries of the Deep, for one more mana, gives you the opportunity to draw three cards for an additional mana at 4U. In most cases, you can't take advantage of Courier's Capsule early enough to give it's lower casting cost the credit, and Mysteries on turn five, even your own turn five, is almost assuredly better than Courier's Capsule on turn four.

So, where do I stand, after all this has been said? Mysteries of the Deep is a complex card, and it will take skill and inventive deck design in order to take the most advantage of it. Still, it is better than a few draw spells in Standard, and can definitely find a home in control decks running Blue after Worldwake. I would run it over Courier's Capsule in any deck running it, and it's a solid substitution for Mind Spring that may, over time, prove better than the Magic 2010 Sorcery.

Have a great weekend, and check back with us throughout the next two weeks as we discuss the Worldwake spoiler season.