Definitely Drawing *PRIMER*

Commander / EDH Bracket 3 Casual Combo Mill Mono-Blue Multiplayer Tap/Untap

NV_1980

Artifact (17)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Caged Sun
• 1x Crawlspace
• 1x Elixir of Immortality
• 1x Folio of Fancies
• 1x Isochron Scepter
• 1x Library of Leng
• 1x Mana VaultGC
• 1x Mindcrank
• 1x Nyx Lotus
• 1x Sapphire Medallion
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sky Diamond
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Throne of Eldraine

Enchantment (11)

• 1x Counterbalance
• 1x Freed from the Real
• 1x Jace's Erasure
• 1x Memory Erosion
• 1x Mind Over Matter
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Pemmin's Aura
• 1x Propaganda
• 1x Psychic Corrosion
• 1x Rhystic StudyGC
• 1x Sphinx's Tutelage

Land (35)

• 1x Academy Ruins
• 1x Ancient TombGC
• 1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1x Halimar Depths
• 1x Homeward Path
• 20x Island
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Seat of the Synod
• 1x Terrain Generator

Instant (10)

• 1x Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Cyclonic RiftGC
• 1x Dramatic Reversal
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Mystical TutorGC
• 1x Opt
• 1x Pongify
• 1x Stroke of Genius
• 1x Swan Song

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Enter the Infinite
• 1x Fabricate
• 1x Fractured Sanity
• 1x Gitaxian Probe
• 1x Maddening Cacophony
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Traumatize

Commander (1)

Creature (15)

• 1x Alandra, Sky Dreamer
• 1x Ancient Silver Dragon
• 1x Bruvac the Grandiloquent
• 1x Chasm Skulker
• 1x Consecrated SphinxGC
• 1x Faerie Mastermind
• 1x Fleet Swallower
• 1x Ioreth of the Healing House
• 1x Laboratory Maniac
• 1x Nezahal, Primal Tide
• 1x Psychosis Crawler
• 1x The Mindskinner
• 1x Toothy, Imaginary Friend
• 1x Tribute Mage
• 1x Trinket Mage

Planeswalker (3)

• 1x Jace, Memory Adept
• 1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• 1x Jace, Wielder of Mysteries

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Welcome to Definitely Drawing {U}

Hi there! Welcome to the primer of this mono-blue, reactionary, card-advantage and mill deck, commanded by Arcanis the Omnipotent. A mysterious wizard from Dominara’s pre-mending era, as well as a pit-fighter of some renown in the Grand Coliseum of Otaria. His deck has been designed to provide a ton of draw that simultaneously impacts opposing decks in a negative way by forcing large quantities of mill. This deck is played in casual formats. It’s not meant to be used in a competitive fashion, but of course anyone is welcome to try! Feel free to comment on anything you (dis)like throughout this primer; hopefully you will enjoy it!

Why Arcanis?

Tap to draw three cards, with no downsides other than Arcanis’s casting cost, is pretty strong. Especially when mechanisms are included to untap him, so that he can be utilized multiple times per turn. Blue offers the perfect selection of cards for this, along with a vast arsenal of draw- and filter spells to augment the boons Arcanis can offer. To top it off, with a mana-reserve at hand, he can be returned to hand when he’s targeted by hostile spells/abilities, and prevent recasting him from becoming more expensive.

Strengths and Weaknesses

The following ten parameters have been used to determine the strength of the deck. For each, a score of 5 (very good), 4 (good), 3 (mediocre), 2 (bad) or 1 (very bad) has been allocated; when totalized this score represents the power rating of the deck (maximum score is 50 points).

• Mana: indicates the availability of mana sources within the deck.
• Ramp: indicates the speed at which mana sources within the deck can be made available.
• Card Advantage: indicates availability of filter- and draw resources represented within the deck.
• Overall speed: indicates the deck’s potential for pace, based on resource availability and mana curve.
• Combo: indicates the measure of combo-orientation of the deck.
• Army: indicates the deck’s creature-army strength.
• Commander: indicates how much the deck is commander-oriented/dependent (less dependency is better).
• Interaction: indicates how much this deck can mess with opponents’ board states and turn-phases.
• Resilience: indicates whether the deck can prevent and take punches.
• Spellpower: indicates the availability and strength of high-impact spells.

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Mana: 3

Artifacts are the main source of additional mana for this deck. As blue has no direct ramping, these cards are all of top priority in order to obtain success. Nine artifact mana sources have been included, as well as two cards that will double available blue mana and two resources that will allow casting blue spells cheaper.

Ramp: 1

This deck contains one ramp option.

Card Advantage: 5

The bread and butter of this deck. Divided by category, this deck contains eighteen direct draw engines, two filter- and draw mechanisms and five tutors. In all, plenty of methods to keep a steady supply of resources coming my way.

Overall speed: 3

No ramp, but plenty of mana rocks and a whole lot of draw. Combined, this gives the deck an average measure of speed (provided that the additional draw allows one to get to the mana rocks and the deck’s land-base at the appropriate time).

Combo: 4

There are a number of different combos that will allow for infinite mana, infinite draw and most importantly; infinite mill. Well over twenty cards can be combined in a number of ways to provide the final push one needs to keel over an opponent or two.

Army: 2

Out of the fifteen creatures within this deck, most of them come with options for additional card advantage; draw, tutor and the milling of opposing libraries. In terms of pure combat power, the army does consist of a few heavy hitters; but mostly it is focused on utility.

Commander: 5

It seemed to make sense, to have a golden-oldy commander in terms of card-advantage lead the pack on this deck. However, considering the deck's many, many card advantage resources, Arcanis is definitely not indispensable for the winning strategy.

Interaction: 3

Messing with opponents’ libraries is a fun bit of interaction this deck is pretty decent at. Six means of doing this during opposing turns have been included, along with six more during one’s own. Then there’s two options included to counter opposing spells (of which one can be repeated, free of charge!) along with a few bounce/destruction spells for removal and two resources for restricting opposing creature attacks.

Resilience: 1

This deck is not very dependent on the presence of many permanents on the battlefield, so wipes won’t affect it as much as permanent-rich decks. However, aside from an option to reshuffle the graveyard into the deck’s library, there’s not much else this deck offers to make the deck more sturdy.

Spellpower: 3

A couple of spells featured in this deck are truly titanic. However most are of medium or lesser power in terms of impact. Categories most used include draw spells, some bounce options and a respectable amount of mill spells.

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Total power score: 30

In terms of power, this deck scores above average. Its speed slightly exceeds the average single color deck’s speed. Its offensive power is not particularly high, and it’s also not very apparent from the outset, but it is there and can hit hard in an instant without much prior warning.

General strategy

This deck aims to mill opposing decks as a result of its wielder (and sometimes opponents) drawing lots of cards. It also contains some secondary and tertiary win conditions including methods to deal extensive (combat) damage and milling ourselves to victory. The deck needs to be played passively at first, reactionary if forced into it, while it builds up draw-resources and combos/synergies. Then it drops the heavy end of the hammer. Usually the following three, simple phases are executed:

1. Cast rocks and cheap draw spells to obtain early advantage.
2. Start looking for combo pieces while casting/using card-draw and mill permanents.
3. Casting combos that draw vast amounts of cards to close out games.

Since this deck contains a number of different win-conditions, it’s recommended to primarily use its counter-, bounce- and removal options against opposing win-conditions, in favor of protecting one’s own (though these are obviously of strong secondary priority).

Starting hand

At least three cards in the starting hand ought to be lands (or two lands and a Mana VaultGC, Sol Ring, Arcane Signet or Sapphire Medallion). It is recommended not to start a game without this hand (even if one has to mulligan down to three cards). The ideal hand would also contain some additional ramp and/or draw options.

Early game

In this deck, one needs the capability to draw extensively if one is to mill extensively. The deck contains several permanents (and non-permanents) that will allow for that, but first resources are needed to cast them. As the deck’s wielder, one also wants to ensure that extensive draw and mill can be used combined. This can be accomplished by not exposing (casting) either side of the synergetic combination until both become available. This reduces the timespan the opposition has to get rid of combo cards.

So as always one starts out by gathering resources. Mana rocks like Mana VaultGC, Sky Diamond, Sapphire Medallion, Arcane Signet, Sol Ring or Thought Vessel need to be dropped asap. Simultaneously, aim to cast cheap draw/filter options like Brainstorm, Folio of Fancies, Gitaxian Probe, Ponder, Preordain and Sensei's Divining Top. The main objective of these is to scour the deck for win-conditions. This can also be done by making use of actual tutors like Fabricate, Mystical TutorGC, Tribute Mage and Trinket Mage.

The early game ends when one has the means to establish a draw/mill-based board-presence during the next phases. It also ends when opposing players start becoming aggressive, and the deck’s user has the means to react.

Mid game

On average, five or six turns into a game, all involved players will have gathered enough resources to start the first genuine aggression. For this deck’s controller, this means casting/using Arcanis the Omnipotent or other great card-draw options. These would include Blue Sun's Zenith, Consecrated SphinxGC, Mystic Remora, Rhystic StudyGC, Stroke of Genius, Teferi's Ageless Insight and Tolarian Winds. Ideally, any of these cards would then be combined with the milling power of Folio of Fancies, Jace's Erasure, Psychic Corrosion and Sphinx's Tutelage.

While busily casting the cards supporting the main game-plan, one needs to keep protecting oneself from being overrun by the opposition’s game-plan. Counters/removal like Mana Drain and Pongify will be used for this purpose. There’s also permanent response available in the form of Counterbalance and Propaganda.

The mid-game ends either when a game-winning combo becomes available OR transitions into the end-game automatically because opponents are milled-out before obtaining the game-winning combo.

End game

The deck contains a couple of ways to cause some infinite pain on the opposing side. For more information on these, see the column ‘Combos and synergies’ below. A win through combat damage can be accomplished too, but is far less likely.

Combos and synergies

• Arcanis the Omnipotent + Mind Over Matter: Infinite card draw.
  1. Tap Arcanis to draw a card.
  2. Use Matter’s ability to discard one of the drawn cards and untap Arcanis; which allows the draw of three more cards.
  Rinse and repeat. Combined with Library of Leng, one can keep ‘tutoring’ for all cards needed while discarding the ones not needed immediately back on top of one’s library.
• Enter the Infinite + Psychic Corrosion/Jace's Erasure/Sphinx's Tutelage: Insta-mill the library of one or more opponents by drawing one’s deck.
• Enter the Infinite + Psychosis Crawler: Insta-kill all opponents by drawing one’s deck.
• Bruvac the Grandiloquent + Traumatize/Fleet Swallower: Insta-library mill.
• Rogue's Passage + Fleet Swallower: Makes it easier to land a hit with Swallower, which in turn guarantees a lot of mill.
• Isochron Scepter imprinted with Dramatic Reversal + Mana VaultGC/Thran Dynamo/Throne of Eldraine: Infinite colorless/colored mana.
  1. Tap any of the mentioned mana rocks for at least 3 mana.
  2. Use 2 of this mana to have Scepter cast a copy of Reversal. This will untap the mana-rock and Scepter; netting at least one mana per go.
  Rinse and repeat. The infinite mana can be used to:
  1. draw one’s deck with cards like Blue Sun’s Zenith or Stroke of Genius.
  2. untap Arcanis an infinite amount of times with Pemmin’s Aura.
  3. trigger Sphinx’s Tutelage as often as needed to mill a library or two.

Card Choices – mainboard

Lands

Reliable sources of mana, and some utility:

• Academy Ruins: a great facilitator to recur the deck’s artifacts.
• Ancient TombGC: helps to get some important cards (like artifact mana rocks) onto the battlefield a little earlier.
• Boseiju, Who Shelters All: as some of the deck’s spells are game-winning, this will ensure their successful casting.
• Flooded Strand/Misty Rainforest/Polluted Delta/Scalding Tarn: in here as filters.
• Geier Reach Sanitarium: a draw option in case a turn is ended with some spare mana.
• Halimar Depths: acts as a one-time filter when it enters the battlefield.
• Homeward Path: added as a precaution to get back Arcanis the Omnipotent in case someone manages to steal him.
• Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx: staple land in a single-color, permanent-rich deck, in which it is easy to reach high levels of devotion to the deck’s color.
• Reliquary Tower: combines well with the card-advantage this deck can generate.
• Rogue's Passage: can be very useful to make some heavy hitters unblockable.
• Seat of the Synod: helps to obtain metalcraft for Mox Opal.
• Terrain Generator: the deck's single ramp card, though it can only use land cards that are already in my hand.

Rocks & Mana Acceleration

Cards used to accelerate mana-availability:

• Arcane Signet: very nice rock for low-cost casting.
• Caged Sun: allows the tapping of islands for {U}{U} and empowers the deck’s creatures to boot!
• Mana VaultGC: as this deck contains a number of ways to cheaply untap artifacts, this card becomes very useful.
• Sapphire Medallion: cheapens every blue spell in this deck by 1.
• Sky Diamond: enters tapped but still yields some nice {U}.
• Sol Ring: a CMC1 artifact that comes into play untapped and grants 2 colorless when tapped; almost the best turn 1 start-up card anyone could wish for.
• Thought Vessel: not in here for the mana primarily, but for the unlimited hand-size it grants.
• Thran Dynamo: a solid mana-rock that can be tapped for three colorless mana.
• Throne of Eldraine: solid mana rock that can be tapped for {U}{U}{U}{U}, not to mention for some excellent draw.

Draw, Scry and Tutor

The mechanisms that provide card advantage:

• Ancient Silver Dragon: a very strong attacker with an even stronger draw potential; absolutely devastating when it connects.
• Blue Sun's Zenith/Stroke of Genius: expensive but dependable (recurring) draw instants. Can be used as an outlet for infinite mana, in case one manages it.
• Brainstorm: very versatile draw/filter card for just {U}.
• Consecrated SphinxGC: in a playgroup featuring four players, this guy easily yields an additional six cards that can be drawn extra each turn (usually more).
• Enter the Infinite: granted, it costs an ungodly amount of mana to cast, but in a lot of circumstances casting this spell ends the game in the caster’s favor anyway.
• Fabricate: makes finding important artifacts a lot easier.
• Faerie Mastermind: its triggered ability, that it can trigger itself (but doesn't have to) is exceptionally effective.
• Gitaxian Probe: caster gets to peek at an opponents’ hand AND draw a card for a next-to-nothing CMC; deal!
• Jace, the Mind Sculptor: super-versatile planeswalker in this deck, can be used every turn as a scry mechanism, a Brainstorm or a bouncer. His ultimate ability, all out exile, is insane as well.
• Mystic Remora: no-one pays the taxes levied by this enchantment, so it’s guaranteed to generate a bunch of additional draw.
• Mystical TutorGC: great tool to search for instant/sorcery win-conditions.
• Nezahal, Primal Tide: excellent draw enabler and strong attacker.
• Opt: cheap scry and draw.
• Ponder/Preordain: neat little filtering/draw spells that are cheap to cast.
• Rhystic StudyGC: people hate being taxed, and one wants to bank on that hate!
• Sensei's Divining Top: cheap filtering and draw in a single artifact; by far one of the most common cards to be seen in EDH and a staple in any draw-deck.
• Toothy, Imaginary Friend: gets big when its controller draws and allows one to draw (potentially a lot) when it dies.
• Tribute Mage: gives one the chance to tutor for Isochron Scepter (which can be an important combo-piece) or Thought Vessel (which can be mighty handy in case one needs an infinite hand-size).
• Trinket Mage: gives one the chance to tutor for some very handy artifacts like Library of Leng, Mana VaultGC and Sensei's Divining Top.

Milling

When this deck draws, others lose library content:

• Bruvac the Grandiloquent: multiplies the effect of all milling in this deck by two.
• Fleet Swallower: basically Traumatize imprinted onto a powerful creature’s damage dealing capabilities.
• Fractured Sanity: wow, an amazingly powerful mill card for only CMC3.
• Folio of Fancies: draw (for everyone) and mill in one; the perfect card for this deck.
• Jace, Memory Adept: combination of draw and excellent milling planeswalker.
• Jace, Wielder of Mysteries: forces milling and allows for some additional draw.
• Jace's Erasure: mill on draw that affects a single opponent.
• Maddening Cacophony: lots and lots of mill in a single go.
• Memory Erosion: you want to cast something? It’s going to cost you!
• Mindcrank: the opponents lose life AND library.
• Psychic Corrosion: mill on draw that affects every opponent.
• Sphinx's Tutelage: one of the best mill cards of all time (when combined with extensive draw). Especially deadly against single-color decks.
• The Mindskinner: insanely powerful mill as it turns all our critters into potential mill engines based on power against everyone at the same time; and its own power is 10!
• Traumatize: target opponent loses half his/her library.

Bouncing, countering and destruction

The deck’s supply of cards that reduces the value of the opponent’s field:

• Counterbalance: makes casting spells a bit of a gamble; has potential to counter spells practically for free.
• Counterspell: are there blue decks without this spell.
• Cyclonic RiftGC: the best bounce-spell ever in MTG; used defensively in this deck.
• Pongify: cheap removal.
• Psychosis Crawler: combined with the deck’s card-advantage mechanisms, this is the deck’s most deadly creature.
• Swan Song: a cheap-to-cast counterspell.

Utility

Trinkets that enhance my strategic capabilities.

• Alandra, Sky Dreamer: as I’ll be drawing more than one card just about every turn (not to mention 5+ in some cases), this seems like a wonderful creature that profit from the deck’s overall theme.
• Chasm Skulker/Crawlspace/Propaganda/Silent Arbiter: the ultimate defense against a deck that tries to go wide.
• Dramatic Reversal: can be used to untap mana rocks and creatures to great effect.
• Elixir of Immortality: a library reset button; mostly in here to recur permanents lost due to opposing removal (or the deck’s own milling).
• Freed from the Real/card:Ioreth of the HealingHouse/Pemmin's Aura/Thousand-Year Elixir: in here for untapping Arcanis.
• Isochron Scepter: an artifact that can have so many uses; favorite imprints include Dramatic Reversal, Counterspell, Reality Shift and Mystical TutorGC.
• Laboratory Maniac: its controller wins if he/she mill him/herself out.
• Mind Over Matter: if used to untap Arcanis, this card will most likely end the game.

Card Choices – sideboard

In case one’s meta allows for a sideboard in the EDH format (maximum 10). These are the cards that are in there at the moment. More ideas are of course appreciated:

• Burnished Hart/Solemn Simulacrum: meant to be used in case the meta is a bit speedier than average, in order to increase early ramp.
• Curse of the Swine: when the meta includes decks that use many large creatures/cheat large creatures onto the field.
• Phyrexian Metamorph: can be included to copy handy artifacts (like Isochron Scepter).

Notable exclusions

This deck is still evolving. The following cards were considered but not added (yet):

• Archmage Ascension: great card that works well in a slower meta, but takes a bit too long to use effectively otherwise (especially because the deck doesn’t contain means to add quest counters through other means than draw).
• Back to Basics: this causes some fun disruption but it causes some problems with the deck’s land base too.
• Fact or Fiction: was in this deck for a while, but replaced with more direct artifact tutors.
• Jace's Archivist: works very well combined with many of the deck’s cards, but has the unfortunate side-effect of milling ourselves. The deck has only limited means available to recover from this.
• Kami of the Crescent Moon/Temple Bell: cheap draw mechanisms that allows everyone to draw, which is not we want.
• Omniscience: not all that useful in this deck and very expensive to cast.
• The Magic Mirror: not a bad draw card but very expensive to cast for what it does (even when taking cost-reduction into account).

Thank you for reading!

Appreciate the time you took to read this primer. Hopefully it was entertaining and useful to you. If so, feel free to leave a +1 and/or feedback of any kind in the comments below. Thanks again!

Date added	6 years
Last updated	1 day
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	11 - 0 Mythic Rares 36 - 0 Rares 19 - 0 Uncommons 13 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.09
Tokens	Ape 3/3 G, Bird 2/2 U, Drake 2/2 U, Squid 1/1 U