Sylvan Library

Enchantment

At the beginning of your draw step, you may draw two additional cards. If you do, choose two cards in your hand drawn this turn. For each of those cards, pay 4 life or put the card on top of your library.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Oldschool 93/94	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (46)

DemonDragonJ on Advice for a Green/White EDH …

3 days ago

Poly_raptor, given that this deck shall have a strong focus on creatures, I would like for it to have at least one card that searches my library for one or more creatures.

Also, what about Kami of Whispered Hopes, Circle of Dreams Druid, or Sylvan Library? Each of those cards works with one of the planned themes of this deck, so I am certainly considering them, for it.

Balaam__ on Heart of Darkness Challenge - Pt. II - Yarok

6 days ago

@Andramalech hmm…the latest iteration leaves me scratching my head alright, but not necessarily in a good way. I figure since I have zero experience in the format (and my technical expertise in other formats is…questionable, at best) I’m probably missing something, so feel free to spell it out for me. I should probably have posted this to my profile page instead where I could easily delete it post-reply to hide my shame. Anyway, if I’m way off and there’s some high level technical brilliance at work here, feel free to let me have it with both barrels.

Right, so first things first. I love Reanimator. It’s my favorite archetype, far and away, so that immediately caught my attention. That said, I have concerns. Some (and by some, I mean a large number) of your creatures don’t actually have any ETB triggers that feed into your commander’s ability. Elder Brain, Ulvenwald Captive,  ^Flip Wharf Infiltrator etc etc etc don’t do anything in tandem with the commander (Hunted Horror actually works against you). Same goes for many of the other non-creature permanents, like Crawling Infestation, Mirri’s Guile, Sylvan Library etc etc.

It’s not like there are no contenders that work with Yarok but there are far, far fewer than I would have expected. Perhaps there is a synergy or design motif I’m missing? I’m not sure. In any case, if the body of creatures function well together, separate and apart from the commander’s inherent trait, then all well and good. It’s possible I’m just naïve and assume that EDH builds always want the commander for the commander’s actual ability, when that’s not entirely true.

Secondly, and this may once again betray how little I know of EDH, but I was looking at your commander’s color identity (I hate that term, it sounds so ‘woke’) and by extension your chosen lands and spell pips and whoa boy—a single Blood Moon would be catastrophic. Cyclonic RiftGC could ‘take care of it’, by which I mean it would bounce it to be replayed the very next turn, and I only saw maybe one or two other ways to deal with any blood moon type effect. Does it see play in commander?

These are preliminary thoughts from someone with no EDH experience, so take them with an ocean’s worth of salt. I do like the deck in principle, but I think there’s work to be done.

KongMing on Cut Off One Head and Two More Shall Take Its Place

3 weeks ago

I also use Garruk's Uprising in my Zaxara deck for the great card replacement it gives. It sounds crazy, but I'd maybe cut Sylvan Library for it - you can potentially draw more cards off the Uprising (including on opponent's turns) and, rather than losing life, it gives you wide Trample, so it's not a dead card if you draw it while fishing for a wincon Turn 7-9.

Flarhoon13 on For all Intet's Purposes, Dreaming Dragons

1 month ago

Intet lost, should have mulliganed probably. Land screwed, cast Devastation Tide twice after Reclaiming it. Sylvan Library didn't find a land and so I missed a couple land drops. Taylor's Altair Ibn-La'Ahad deck did work with those exiled assassins but Thomas took it down with Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit and Sam, Loyal Attendant.

bankrupt_on_selling on Mayael's Opera House

1 month ago

I like playing mayael and I love looking at decklists for new ideas and to contrast and compare. How come you don't play Sylvan Library?

KongMing on Group hug but snake, so Boa Constrictor

3 months ago

Hey, another recommendation I just realized as I was reading the card: Sylvan Library. The effect is worded, "choose two cards in your hand drawn this turn." That means effects that draw you extra cards on draw step, like from Kami of the Crescent Moon, would feed into that pool, effectively expanding your selection of cards to put back on your topdeck. In the Kami example, instead of putting 2 of 3 cards on your topdeck, you're choosing 2 of 4. It's an interesting synergy that adds more asymmetry to the Group Hug effects, besides Sylvan Library being a fantastic way to generate card advantage.

From the Gatherer Rulings:

12/8/2022	If you control other triggered abilities that allow you to draw cards during your draw step, you can choose to order Sylvan Library's ability before or after those abilities. Triggered abilities controlled by other players will resolve before triggered abilities you control.

bankrupt_on_selling on Lathril's Dark Elfball

3 months ago

Skyshroud Poacher seems really good. Sylvan Library is really good. Nurturing Peatland seems worthy.

NV_1980 on Sigarda, Font of Blessings

3 months ago

Hi, I was curious about this deck so I played a few test-games with it. Mostly I was wondering whether it had enough momentum. After five test-games I found that it might be a bit lacking on this front. This is not surprising since it doesn't carry that many ramp/mana source cards. In terms of additional draw, it could also use some work.

For mana/ramp, I'd recommend Delighted Halfling, Birds of Paradise, Burgeoning, Exploration, Nature's Lore and/or Three Visits. For additional draw/filtering, perhaps cards like Mirri's Guile, Scroll Rack, Sensei's Divining Top or Sylvan Library.

It's also easier to share abilities between creatures when you include Odric, Lunarch Marshal. Good luck with this brew.