Voracious Reader

Creature — Eldrazi Homunculus

Prowess (Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)

Instant and sorcery spells you cast cost {1} less to cast.

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
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (38)

Elnxida on Cost Reduction Cards

4 months ago

I've noticed a few* omissions, namely effects that let you pay an alternate cost - which can be less than the regular cost (Zombie creaturess: Rooftop Storm) or reduced by other effects (Samurai: Kentaro, the Smiling Cat).

*Yeah, so I decided to do a proper search and it bloated into more than a "few"... Sorry for the wall of text, but here you go!

You've already got Fist of Suns and Jodah, but here are some less ubiquitous ones:

Echo: Thick-Skinned Goblin

Slowly Increasing 1/turn: As Foretold

Runes: Runeforge Champion

Fist of Suns and Jodah-like: Leyline of Mutation

Alchemy, Dragons: Sarkhan, Wanderer to Shiv

Pay life instead as Activated Ability: Marshland Bloodcaster

Alchemy, cards you don't own 1/turn: Grenzo, Crooked Jailer

From Exile 1/turn: Charred Foyer / Warped Space

Colorless 1/turn: Darksteel Monolith

Creature from exile 1/turn: Tlincalli Hunter

Conditional, Cycling: New Perspectives

Pay life instead 1/turn: Cramped Vents / Access Maze

Additionally, other regular omissions:

Flash: Cunning Nightbonder

Instants and Sorceries: Voracious Reader  ^Flip

Creature spells: Krallenhorde Howler  ^Flip, Honest Rutstein

One Giant: Invasion of the Giants

Target me! (auras, buffs, mutate): Spellwild Ouphe, Elderwood Scion

First Kicked: Vine Gecko

Historic: Ballad of the Black Flag

Not your turn: Geyser Drake

Aura and Equipment: Golden-Tail Trainer

Next Spell (honorable mention?): Hardened Berserker, Saheeli, the Gifted

Pay counters instead: Mutated Cultist

Dragons: Nogi, Draco-Zealot

Alchemy, Dinosaurs: Scalespeaker Shepherd (Not sure why is isn't linking, but I promise it exists)

Alchemy, from graveyard: Shellfish Scholar

Instants and Sorceries MV5+: Spectacle Mage

Prepared: Uvilda, Dean of Perfection  ^Flip

Undaunted keyword: Durnan of the Yawning Portal

First instant/sorcery, conditional: Eluge, the Shoreless Sea, God-Eternal Kefnet

Alchemy, Goblin: Goblin Influx Array

Next instant/sorcery (honorable mention?): Maelstrom Muse

Face-down: Panoptic Projektor

Doctors: The Eleventh Hour

Cards from exile: Commander Liara Portyr

Next instant/sorcery, conditional: Elminster

Spells you don't own: Gonti, Canny Acquisitor

Coward_Token on March of the Machine

2 years ago

DemonDragonJ: Yeah I'm guessing it's because it makes most artifacts tokens die, namely Incubators.

I'm disproportionally dissapointed that they didn't use the phyrexian transformation cards for more humor, e.g. my white-red Devil idea; most of them don't change that much in personality. The could have instead e.g. had Chrome Host Hulk  ^Flip been more like Voracious Reader  ^Flip

So uh Phyrexian Archivist is just a reprint with an added creature type, could have done some kind of twist.

Ephara, Ever-Sheltering: calling it now, the THB Demigods will be the new cycle of mono-colored Gods.

Polukranos Reborn  ^Flip: one of the more fun usages of the psi-symbol omen in the art

Botanical Brawler: kinda weird flavor that this works well with Incubate.

Wrenn's Resolve: yesss, I'm happy that Reckless Impulse got a functional reprint already

Dance with Calamity: kinda red Ad Nauseam?

Polaris on Flashback + cost reduction.

3 years ago

This also goes for overload, kicker, etc. When you cast a spell, you determine the total cost like this: First, apply the mana cost or alternate cost you're paying. Then, apply additional costs (like kicker), then effects that increase the cost (like an opponent's Thalia, Guardian of Thraben). Finally, apply cost reductions (like Voracious Reader or Diregraf Rebirth's own effect). It basically makes sure you get the most for your mana.

ellie-is on Voracious Spellcasting

4 years ago

@Chino90: Thanks! My only issue with Discovery / Dispersal is that it costs one more mana compared to Tome Scour, which can be an issue (I guess not as big an issue if Voracious Reader is in play). And while choosing what cards you're throwing away is nice, Tome Scour mills a whole five cards which's really great for getting Cryptic Serpent into play early.

I'm gonna add it to the maybeboard and playtest it at some point though, see how much of a difference it makes in practice! Thanks for the suggestion :)

bradc1988 on Burn Motherf*cker, Burn!

5 years ago

I like Curious Homunculus  ^Flip but the flipped dude Voracious Reader doesn't synergise that well with your instants/sorceries. No effect on Counterflux / Serum Visions / Lightning Bolt , no one hard casts Rift Bolt , and Thunderous Wrath should only be Mircaled. So you only gain a benefit from Jaya's Immolating Inferno and Fight with Fire , and Jaya's Immolating Inferno is dependant on 6 other cards being on the field!

Feels slow, high CMC, and the synergy could be better. I agree with pretty much everything PhoenixNest said.

supersalamandar on SuperBait181 V2

7 years ago

Thoughts on Recent Additions

Docent of Perfection-this card is so much worse than metallurgic summonings why cant you see this

Goblin Electromancer- dual color requirements and unimpressive body makes this worse than curious homunculus, speaking of which,

Curious Homunculus- Better than I thought it was going to be, Voracious Reader  ^Flip is a good beater/blocker and 4 toughness + prowess makes it hard to remove with burn

Niblis of Frost/Talrand, Sky Summoner- I never found myself wanting to cast these cards. 4 mana is a lot of investment into something that will just eat a removal spell

Thing in the Ice  ^Flip- Not quite as good as I had imagined it being, but I think it still merits a slot due to its ability to take over a board if left unchecked

As Foretold- this card is bonkers, its so good

Sphinx's Tutelage- Also I'm not as high on this card anymore, there are a lot of matchups where it will just help the opponent

Abrade- very good, all star card

Insidious Will/Rewind- Agreed that 4 mana is too much for these counterspells.

Misdirection- This is much less good than Force of Will.

Pongify/Rapid Hybridization- I cut one of these for an option that had some card advantage/manipulation

Gamble- Went down the gamble. The addition of Rise from the Tides means that Personal Tutor is more likely what we want in the deck

Qolorful on Storm

7 years ago

While it is slightly less effiecient in the beginning of the game, you might actually prefer Curious Homunculus  ^Flip to baral. You only have 2 counterspells unless I missed something, so you would probably get more value out of post flip Voracious Reader  ^Flip. It usually can flip fairly quickly in my experience.

OOBS on

7 years ago

Definitely interesting cards to toy around with. I wrote them off as slow durdle cards that didn't contribute enough to the gameplan when I was first building the deck, but looking at the deck they could do a bit more. Contingency Plan is typically card disadvantage until you realize how many cards have flashback/aftermath in addition to being a very obvious enabler for early Cryptic Serpents and Voracious Reader  ^Flips. The only remaining problem with it is that oftentimes I'd rather be playing another one of my 2 drops in order to get a more immediate benefit. Pieces of the Puzzle looks good in that it almost guarantees I draw 2 nonland cards and then throw the rest into the grave for fuel, but if you are taking spells, you will likely only ever throw 1 spell into the grave with it (assuming you hit the required spells to draw). Thanks for the input!