Drawing Cards During Upkeep Versus Draw Steps
General forum
Posted on May 18, 2020, 6:02 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
There are plenty of cards that allow a player to draw additional cards, beyond their normal card draw each turn, and, in this thread, I wish to focus on triggered abilities that cause players to draw cards.
Some cards have abilities that cause their controller to draw cards that trigger during that player’s upkeep step, while others trigger during that player’s draw step, but, in recent years, there have been more instances of such abilities triggering during draw steps (i.e., Well of Ideas or Overbeing of Myth) and less of such abilities triggering during upkeep steps (i.e., Bringer of the Blue Dawn, Honden of Seeing Winds, or Arcane Denial).
That makes me wish to ask several questions: what is the difference between drawing a card during one’s upkeep and drawing an additional card during one’s draw step, why does WotC have two different variations on that ability in the first place, and, most importantly, why have there been more instances of that ability triggering during the draw step, rather than during the upkeep step, in recent years? I prefer such abilities to trigger during the upkeep step, because nearly every other ability triggers during that step, and, as far as I am aware, there are very few abilities that trigger during the draw step, apart from additional card drawing, so everything would be easier and more uniform if the upkeep step was the universal (or near universal) step during which abilities triggered. Also, WotC could have saved many words on Panopticon if they had used the same template that they used on other planar cards, such as Quicksilver Sea or Grove of the Dreampods.
What does everyone else say about this? Why did WotC have two different variations of this ability, and why has one become more commonplace, recently?
psionictemplar says... #3
My opinion is that they are trying to simplify things for newer players. Drawing all your cards for the turn during one phase seems simpler imo.
As far as drawing a card during upkeep vs draw step, you could make the case that having a card during upkeep could impact your potential plays for that turn. Imagine having a fetchland available during upkeep and drawing the land source you do/don't need. You could then make the decision whether or not it would be worth using your fetchland before your draw step.
May 18, 2020 9:01 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #4
psionictemplar, that scenario that you are presenting is a good thing, so WotC would be wise to promote it.
May 18, 2020 9:33 p.m.
They are slightly different in terms of the rules and timing. Drawing during the upkeep uses the stack and thus can be responded to. Drawing an additional card happens during the first part of the part of the draw step, where neither player has priority, so the additional draw cannot be responded to.
May 18, 2020 10:19 p.m.
There are effects that skip draw step, effects that skip upkeep, etc. They are two different steps, and draws can happen in either. By putting some draws in upkeep, those can still trigger when the draw step is skipped.
May 18, 2020 10:35 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #7
Caerwyn, pskinn01, I forgot about that, so those are both excellent points, as I imagine that certain strategies would take advantage of drawing cards during either step.
gavriel1136 says... #2
Most of the cards that reference draw step are much older. Aside from reprinted cards, WotC has streamlined the "extra effect" cards to the upkeep step, so it can be a catch-all for triggered abilities.
May 18, 2020 8:02 p.m.