Scour the Laboratory

Instant

Delirium — This costs {2} less to cast if there are four or more card types among cards in your graveyard.

Draw three cards.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (43)

MagicMarc on What mad science am I …

3 years ago

In case you have not seen these. Here are a couple in a "Frankenstein's Monster" kind of theme.

Brain in a Jar, Scour the Laboratory, Amass the Components, Alchemist's Apprentice. Including the Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde card as well; Civilized Scholar  ^Flip.

And, in case you wanted to see the lineup for the Delver of Secrets  ^Flip series, you can see all three here: Once It Was Human.

I am a fan of mad scientist decks, have fun building your deck.

Hardhitta7 on 4 Color Delirium

6 years ago

Awesome deck! I think Scour the Laboratory is a little too expensive, might be better to run cantrips like Serum Visions or Opt. Might want a few Fatal Push as well, it answers a lot of threats for 1 mana and gets an instant in the bin.

hoardofnotions on Niv-Mizzet, Passive Ping-Win | V-CLB

6 years ago

Hey, thanks again for all the help with my Jori En deck!

could Dragonlord's Prerogative, Jace's Ingenuity, Keep Watch, Lat-Nam's Legacy, Scour the Laboratory one of these over artificer's epiphany be worth it? I just see the epiphany as the weakest draw spell you have so i keep coming back to it

Izzet Signet over bauble or armilary sphere? mana ramp that's a staple. it's cheaper to get the extra mana than bauble and actually puts you up on mana unlike the sphere. Any Thoughts on a swap?

Have you had good experiences with the 2/1 first strike land?

xxehcxx on

6 years ago

I agree that Kefnet is hard to turn on, and we do have Ishkanah, Grafwidow's ability to win with when the board stalls. I'm planning on switching back to Glimmer of Genius as it is the most consistent draw spell we have, but for FNM tomorrow I'll give Scour the Laboratory another go. I like Painful Truths, as it is one of my pet cards, but I'm not sold on it over another card draw instant, as we are playing a Torrential Gearhulk deck. For slow decks I board a Jace, Unraveler of Secrets for recurring card draw and a pusedo-wincon. I also like him against Zombies. Being able to bounce twice then start drawing has been a lot better than Glimmer of Genius, which I side out. As for Grim Flayer, turning on opponents removal is part of the nature of the deck, but I'm not really interested in turning on their Fatal Push. When they use a more expensive removal spell I find that I can almost always survive, as all of our creatures are at least 2 for 1s, but Fatal Push is just too efficient, letting them set you back and have enough mana to advance themselves. Maybe I'm wrong, but that is the observation I have made. I'll update the deck again soon.

xxehcxx on

6 years ago

Hi there majinboston! Scour the Laboratory has been really good for me, but I find it hard to justify playing it. Glimmer of Genius is always 3U, easier on the mana, and digs a card deeper. Hieroglyphic Illumination is not really comparable, as it's main effect is worse, and the cycle is just not really what this deck is in the market for. I would like to know what you think about the card draw options. As for ending the game faster, I like the idea of adding a big flyer for when the board stalls, as Ishkanah, Grafwidow tends to induce. I saw a Japanese player using Kefnet the Mindful in their version of the deck and having good results. Any thoughts?

Here is the Japanese deck with Kefnet

dreamistt on Cascade cascade cascade cascade cascade cascade..

6 years ago

Waste Not seems like a waste in a deck focused on the combat damage/cascade instead of wheel effects (Kydele at the helm). I'd also remove said wheel effects Windfall, Whispering Madness and Reforge the Soul (specially since you won't be cascading if you cast it for the Miracle cost). Maybe keep Wheel of Fate as a target for 0 cmc. And did you seriously go for Notion Thief + Wheel effect (aka Leovold's reason for being banned?). This would be a reason to really hate on your deck (which you said you would try to avoid this time).

Consuming Aberration is a strong and annoying creature to deal with, but it does seem out of place here. Is your plan to kill everyone via combat/cascading or do you want to mill everyone out? He does so much better in Chaos Yidris/Storm Yidris...

Hellkite Tyrant would be better off in an artifact heavy deck (even though you have a bunch of mana rocks and stealing artifacts is always fun, I think it doesn't impact the game as much as you'd like).

Damia, Sage of Stone requires you to wait a whole turn before doing something. So, unless you go for some extra turn cards, I'd rather have a bunch of effects that drew me cards immediately or increased the number of cards drawn each turn: Mulldrifter, Thoughtcast for the Affinity, Scour the Laboratory for the Delirium, Recurring Insight is almost guaranteed to draw you 6+ cards since it has rebound and Pore Over the Pages untaps some lands for you.

Deepfathom Skulker, Mask of Memory, Bident of Thassa, Tandem Lookout all provide extra card draw from combat. Staff of Nin provides a good passive card draw (and the 1 damage basically means opponents' creatures have 1 less toughness if needed).

Null Profusion is one of the weird cards that could work really well with Yidris. If you manage to drop a Thought Vessel or Reliquary Tower AFTER it, the hand-restriction is nullified and it's important to notice it grants you a draw for playing lands as well.

Did you purposefully let extra turn cards out? Better than netting an extra attack step would be netting an extra turn.

Boundless Realms could also be interesting since it grants a cascade into 6- and ramps you a lot in the mid game (which is very important in your deck). Zendikar Resurgent would also work really well, granting an extra draw per creature spell and doubling up your mana, even though it doesn't thin your deck as Boundless Realms does.

I'd drop Elixir of Immortality since you have better options such as Praetor's Counsel and Seasons Past.

Whispersilk Cloak and Trailblazer's Boots seem unnecessary. Most of the time there'll be someone with not enough defenses to stop your Yidris. And if there are, you'd be better off clearing the path instead of going through and relying on a good cascade to turn the tables. You could also try Intimidation or Shizo, Death's Storehouse since Fear often translates into unblockable (you just have to attack the right person)

Savage Ventmaw is mostly used with Aggravated Assault or Hellkite Charger for infinite (or near infinite) combat steps. Since you don't enjoy infinite combos, you could go for the Hellkite (it's also cheaper). Metalwork Colossus works pretty well with a good number of mana rocks.

If you feel like spending some money, Scroll Rack allows you to "choose" your cascades.

jandrobard on Esper Control for AKH

7 years ago

Looks fine. Cycling Curator and bringing him back with Lili sounds like a fun play, and most of the deck seems solid. Maybe tweak your draw suite? Scour the Laboratory is only going to be played for it's delirium cost fairly late game or at least only after lili's online, but doesn't really need the cost reduction every game I guess.

therealjuicyjon on Esper Control (AER)

7 years ago

Although it does have at least one of each, getting the single enchantment into the graveyard isn't going to happen very often. Delirium probably won't happen often before a gearhulk dies, which means turn 6-8 usually. Esper isn't really the shard for delirium payoffs, either. Maybe Descend upon the Sinful Scour the Laboratory is probably still too slow, since you'll almost never have delirium before turn 4.