a little less U-heavy than treasure trove, but that's not saying much.
Mode
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(7 votes)
I read the daily "Three Lights at the End of the Tunnel" article about the scepters, where they clarified their decision of the cost. yet i still think that at least a mana cost of UU instead would have been ok and reprintable as well.
BrimandVormay
★★☆☆☆ (2.2/5.0)(8 votes)
this card still lets you draw a free card with no downfalls, the cost is negligible.
Reminds me of Bloodletter Quill. Bloodletter Quill was never especially impressive, and it didn't have to compete with Jace Beleren for the three-mana card-drawing slot--and Jace is better. This isn't a horrible card, per se, but I don't see it tearing up the tournament scene anytime soon. Or ever.
Selez
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(8 votes)
There are SO many better choices. Yes, this beats Jayemdae Tome in a blue deck, but the tome wasn't anything special to begin with.
True_Smog
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(3 votes)
This card is even worse than Rod of Ruin.
Ava_Adore
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(4 votes)
man this card sucks, there are heaps of way better cards out there
one of the most unimpressive esper cards i have seen
Interesting that putting UU in the casting cost and U in the activation cost doesn't really improve things over Jayemdae Tome: only 1 less mana to cast and same amount of mana to activate.
Agree with the person who said Scepters of Dominance and Insight were better. I wonder why this one is so weak? Something in the R&D FFL made them concerned about Esper's card drawing power I guess...
Gabriel422
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Simply put: Jayemdae Tome sucks. And this holds ever since I started playing, that is from 7th edition. I don't care if it dominated the fields some 15 years ago.
If Jace Beleren can draw a card every two turns out of three for free (with some protection, admittedly), is '3, Tap: Draw a card.' really too much to ask for?
keeds4
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Coming from Fourth Edition experience, a blue artifact is amazing to me.
leomistico
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
Compared to Jayemdae Tome, this isn't even better, since requires {U} to cast and activate. I think the 4CMC of the activate ability is the most sad aspect of this card. Maybe a {1}{U}{U} casting cost and a {1}{U}{U} activating cost should have made this card a lot better, since paying 4 mana to draw a card is frustrating.
As it is, the only advantage over Jayemdae Tome is that you can cast it turn3, then start to activate it turn4, but I think I would cast Jushi Apprentice turn4 with a counter ready to be played just in case, and start to draw from turn5, always protected... Moreover I wouldn't play this card turn3 anyway, because I think I would cast something that give me tempo or have some revelance in play, rather a card that doesn't do anything per-se!
That said, I have some impression that could be better than it seems...
3/5
Cheza
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Skip the {3} in the activation cost, and R&D would have made a nice card worth the rarity.
I would never compare this card to Jayemdae Tome, but rather to Phyrexian Arena. And without any untap effects, this card would trade -1 life (Arena) towards -1 mana for that turn.
DarthParallax
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
listen, yes this card sucks, but I think I FINALLY realized what MaRo said when he said the game needs bad rares. kind of. They wanted a Scepter sub-cycle for Esper. What else but card drawing for blue? And yet...just try to imagine what it would have meant if it was, say, 1U to case, 2U to activate. That's a moderately smexy card, isn't it? Perhaps not in Jace's league, but...it is quite good nonetheless.
They HAD to nerf this one. Tap, something else: draw a card is simply such a breakable power that the something else, and the casting cost, pretty much have to be too high to make good in Standard.
They make a couple things here and there...but almost everything 'playable' can also get out of control and screw you up- posterboy Howling Mine testifies.
Controlled, repeatable, efficient Card Drawing? it will never get better than Jace 1.o, without probably getting banned like Jace 2.o
JFM2796
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Whenever I see a card from this cycle I just get mad. They could have given Esper some cool rares. Instead we get these. The card design is very lazy and unambitious as well. 1.5*
NoobOfLore
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Consider Diviner's Wand for wizard decks. It requires a creature to run, but it requires no colored mana, and gives a boost whenever you draw a card from any source.
Baconradar
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
This card doesn't suck. In a grinding blue control deck it gives you serviceable instant speed draw.
It isn't good of course, not in the modern world. I give it 2.5
spirit_of_blue
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
If you don't mind playing creature instead of artifact, then just use ArchivistIt has its disadvantages but in long run Archivist is generally better than Scepter.
alextfish
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
According to Tom LaPille's article from 30th Jan 2009, they tried this card at 1UU to cast and 2U to activate. Apparently It was way too good in their FFL blue controlly decks, so they bumped up the activation cost. Personally I agree it looks awful at this cost, and I suspect the problem in their big control decks was cards other than this. But that's the reason they stated.
Comments (22)
a little less U-heavy than treasure trove, but that's not saying much.
one of the most unimpressive esper cards i have seen
Agree with the person who said Scepters of Dominance and Insight were better. I wonder why this one is so weak? Something in the R&D FFL made them concerned about Esper's card drawing power I guess...
If Jace Beleren can draw a card every two turns out of three for free (with some protection, admittedly), is '3, Tap: Draw a card.' really too much to ask for?
As it is, the only advantage over Jayemdae Tome is that you can cast it turn3, then start to activate it turn4, but I think I would cast Jushi Apprentice turn4 with a counter ready to be played just in case, and start to draw from turn5, always protected... Moreover I wouldn't play this card turn3 anyway, because I think I would cast something that give me tempo or have some revelance in play, rather a card that doesn't do anything per-se!
That said, I have some impression that could be better than it seems...
3/5
I would never compare this card to Jayemdae Tome, but rather to Phyrexian Arena. And without any untap effects, this card would trade -1 life (Arena) towards -1 mana for that turn.
And yet...just try to imagine what it would have meant if it was, say, 1U to case, 2U to activate.
That's a moderately smexy card, isn't it? Perhaps not in Jace's league, but...it is quite good nonetheless.
They HAD to nerf this one. Tap, something else: draw a card is simply such a breakable power that the something else, and the casting cost, pretty much have to be too high to make good in Standard.
They make a couple things here and there...but almost everything 'playable' can also get out of control and screw you up- posterboy Howling Mine testifies.
Controlled, repeatable, efficient Card Drawing? it will never get better than Jace 1.o, without probably getting banned like Jace 2.o
It requires a creature to run, but it requires no colored mana, and gives a boost whenever you draw a card from any source.
It isn't good of course, not in the modern world. I give it 2.5