Pattern Recognition #390 - Scry and Surveil

Features Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

20 November 2025

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Hello Everyone! My name is berryjon, and I welcome you all to Pattern Recognition, TappedOut.Net's longest running article series. Also the only one. I am a well deserved Old Fogey having started the game back in 1996. My experience in both Magic and Gaming is quite extensive, and I use this series to try and bring some of that to you. I dabble in deck construction, mechanics design, Magic's story and characters, as well as more abstract concepts. Or whatever happens to catch my fancy that week. Please, feel free to talk about each week's subject in the comments section at the bottom of the page, from corrections to suggested improvements or your own anecdotes. I won't bite. :) Now, on with the show!

And welcome back! Today's subject is one that I've covered before, but it's also one of those that can stand to be reviewed every once in a while. I can't expect people to have read all my work. Some of them were and are quite bad. But this topic wasn't one of them, I would like to think!

Scry and Surveil are two sibling mechanics formed years apart and do quite similar but very different things. Originally from Invasion block with Opt, but formally codified in Time Spiral, Scry N was an ability that let you look at the top N cards of your library and put some/any/none/all of them back on top of the library or at the bottom in the order of your choosing. This mechanic was widely regarded as a success after the first forays, and has become a staple of the game since.

Surveil was introduced as a concept in Odyssey with Think Tank, and turned into an activated ability with Rummaging Wizard. But it was turned into an actual Keyword in Guilds of Ravnica, where it was the signature ability of the Dimir Guild for that set. When you Surveil N, you look at the top N cards of your library and either put them back on top of your library in any order, in any amount and the rest go to your graveyard.

Two very similar mechanics, two very different results.

For starters, both mechanics can be considered '0 cost' abilities. That being, Adding Scry 1 or Surveil 1 to a card doesn't actually add mana value to a card, but can instead be used to help justify a rounding up of the mana cost. Opt and Consider are effectively the same, where the mana value of drawing a card at instant speed doesn't come up to a single , so Scry/Surveil 1 is slapped on to act as a rounding agent.

Sadly, these two mechanics quickly fall out of lockstep with each other. The first reason is, I think, the most important. Scry sends cards to the bottom of your library. Surveil sends them to the Graveyard. And one of those is far more accessible and reliable than the other. A Surveil effect is effectively indistinguishable from a self-mill effect, and anyone who has been in the same game as a deck that wants as many cards in the graveyard as fast as possible knows how much of a danger this can be.

Which is why as you get higher Scry and Surveil numbers, you get more Scry cards that have these higher numbers. There are 29 cards that Scry 3, but only 11 that Surveil 3. 3 or 1 for Scry/Surveil 4 respectively. 15 versus 5 for Scry X against Surveil X.

Now, the case could be made that this is simply a result of Scry being around for longer than Surveil, but I disagree. Yes, obviously Scry was coded into the game years in advance, but if I take a slice of the game over time - say, War of the Spark and look at the numbers over time when both systems are well defined and well used and even then, Scry happens more often than Surveil.

It's actually fairly easy to see this - at least in my opinion - as Wizards won't put both mechanics into the same set without good reason. On my end, this makes it easier to collate them and check things over. But the reasoning for this is sound. Scry and Surveil occupy the exact same design space in the game, with only a slight non-overlap that I've already covered. Where the cards go if not to the top of the deck.

There's also new players to consider. Yes, they do exist. We get them every day. But Wizards wants to keep the two mechanics separate between sets to better not confuse them by having them try to distinguish between them in the same pack they just opened. And at a glance, words that begin with 'S' and have a number following them can slip past people.

Now, because of how baseline they are, how fundamental they are to the game at this point, Wizards has experimented with building archetypes around these two mechanics. Some have been good, others not so much - but still viable in their own way.

In the realm of the less-than-successful, we have The Lord of the Rings. Now, for thematic reasons, the Elves in the set where given a theme of being able to Scry, and benefit from it. With Arwen Undomiel acting as a Signpost Uncommon, and Elrond, Master of Healing and Galadriel of Lothlorien at Rares for people who wanted to play Brawl. Commander? What's that? Anyway, this attempt at an archtype didn't stick for a few reasons. Mostly because there was little to no support for it outside of Middle Earth. does a few things, but it doesn't do Scry, and had to carry pretty much the entire deck outside of those few additional cards. It wasn't balanced, it wasn't fun to play, and it just didn't gel.

I'm sure someone out there is going to offer a contrary opinion. Please Do. I could use it.

In the mid range - if only because there's been support in all the relevant colours before and since, Surveil. Starting out as a Ravnica Guild Mechanic already started it off on the right foot with more hits than misses over the years. Guilds of Ravnica - the set itself - gave us a massive 28 cards that Surveiled in of themselves or cared about when you did it. Given the average 'new mechanic' gets about 10-12 cards in a set, this was good! Like, really, really good!

And because Surveil shared so much design space with Scry, the more enfranchised players were quick to understand the mechanic and treat is as just another Scry in terms of deck building, but with more things built around it for the time. We players could instantly adapt to it, and for new players, it's actually very easy to understand. You look at the top N cards of your library and if you don't like any of them, you put them in the graveyard!

When teaching, Scry is a tiny bit harder for new players to 'get' as they don't as easy understand why you would want to put anything to the bottom of your library. Surveil is better in this regard because it's a distinct choice with obvious outputs for the cards, and even in a limited format, it was a hit!

Look, Surveil came out of the gate swinging and never looked back. It didn't need to.

Lastly, we get to , and their Scry. Less than an archetype than a theme, Scry in these two colors is a representation of how well they work together for deck manipulation. What? Don't believe me? Well, unlike Surveil, there are only six cards that Scry in both colors. Ah, that's an inclusive AND, not an Either/Or situation. You see, while the other colours have historically trended toward card draw in some stripe or another, with 's pure draw, 's sacrifice to draw, 's Impulse Drawing, and doing it because they stapled it to a creature, doesn't really get harder draw mechanics? Instead, what they have been getting more and more of in place of card draw is Scry effects. They won't draw more cards, but they will check to see if what they want is coming or not. And if not, there it goes! Then can go get what was kept, knowing what is coming next, and not trusting to blind luck.

Brawl players for this archetype get Elminster, Hylda of the Icy Crown and Oji, the Exquisite Blade. And only one of those get a leader for their Brawl deck that actually cares about Scrying! I've built the Elminster Scry deck, by the way. The primary wincon was to cast Approach of the Second Sun, then Scry down it it and cast it again. It was.... rough. Alternate wincons included a side-order of fliers, but that was that, and not really on subject.

But partly because Wizards hasn't tried to force it, the theme and playstyle can be reinforced without issue. There's no innate 'out' that is enabled through this like Surveil can enable.

After all, the graveyard is far more powerful than the library for a lot of decks out there.

All told? Surveil is better than Scry. It doesn't help that Wizards screwed up and made the Surveil Lands - Undercity Sewers is better than Temple of Deceit because they have land types. Otherwise, they would be pretty much equivalent. But that's a complaint for a different day.

But that won't stop me from seeing the utility in both and utilizing them whenever I can. They are both great additions to any card effect, and top-deck manipulation is something that can never be underestimated. It doesn't matter where cards go when they don't go back on top of the library, they're set aside so you can get to the stuff you want faster.

Which is exactly what they do, and why they're so fundamental to the game now. To help may the play experience better in all formats and at all skill levels.

Thank you all for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it. I'll see you next week!

Until then, please consider donating to my Pattern Recognition Patreon. Yeah, I have a job (now), but more income is always better, and I can use it to buy cards! I still have plans to do a audio Pattern Recognition at some point, or perhaps a Twitch stream. And you can bribe your way to the front of the line to have your questions, comments and observations answered!