Read Ahead in MTG: Rules, History, and Best Cards

Last updated on September 7, 2024

The World Spell | Illustration by Adam Paquette

With the release of Dominaria United lore-lovers were greeted by the return of some fan-favorite characters, villains, and mechanics. One of those was sagas: enchantments that come into play with lore counters that are added during that players first main phase.

Each chapter of a saga grants a different effect, triggering once per turn until the final chapter ability resolves, after which it's sacrificed.

Read ahead is a mechanic that gives sagas something new to play with and makes them much more versatile. Let’s take a look!

How Does Read Ahead Work?

Braids's Frightful Return | Illustration by Dominik Mayer

Read ahead is an ability that allows a saga to enter on any specific chapter of your choice. Previous chapters don’t trigger if you choose to read ahead.

The Brief History of Read Ahead in MTG

Read ahead was introduced on saga enchantments that appeared in Dominaria United in 2022. It’s not an evergreen mechanic as it was newly created for this set.

When Do You Decide to Read Ahead?

Read ahead can only be used as a saga enters the battlefield. In other words, after the spell resolves, but right before it actually enters. After it’s on the battlefield the chosen chapter and future chapters continue to trigger as normal.

Do You Read Ahead When You Cast a Saga?

No, you choose to read ahead (or not) as a saga enters play. You do not have to announce whether you're going to read ahead or not when you cast the spell or while it's on the stack. Once it resolves, you choose if you're going to read ahead as it enters.

Can you Read Ahead the Next Time a Saga Triggers?

No, read ahead can only be used when the saga is entering the battlefield. If you were to cast a saga with read ahead normally and have it start at chapter I and then blink that saga, you could choose to read ahead and have it enter the battlefield this time on chapter II.

Is Read Ahead Good?

Whether or not read ahead is good is highly subjective and very dependent on the deck you slot the cards into. What I can say is that it grants sagas a level of versatility that they didn’t have before.

For instance, say you don’t want to wipe all of your 2/2s off the board by playing The Elder Dragon War starting at chapter I, but wouldn’t mind refreshing your hand with some new cards. You can cast it and read ahead to chapter II instead.

Gallery and List of Read Ahead Cards

Read ahead appears on a total of 10 cards in Dominaria United. One for each color at uncommon plus one for each color except green at rare, and one for green at mythic.

• Braid's Frightful Return
• Founding the Third Path
• Love Song of Night and Day
• The Weatherseed Treaty
• Yotia Declares War
• The Cruelty of Gix
• The Phasing of Zhalfir
• Urza Assembles the Titans
• The Elder Dragon War
• The World Spell

There's also Barbara Wright from Doctor Who, which grants the read ahead ability to all sagas you control.

Best Read Ahead Cards

Of the read ahead cards out there, I have four that I’d suggest keeping in mind while deckbuilding.

Urza Assembles the Titans is great specifically for chapters II and III for any superfriends decks.

All of The World Spell is technically good, but specifically chapter III for any green stompy decks.

The Cruelty of Gix’s chapter III is amazing for that wonderful graveyard theft. I mean, recursion.

The Phasing of Zhalfir is good for chapter III, especially if you can play it for chapter I to phase something of yours out and then blink it to read ahead to chapter III for a board wipe.

Decklist: Read Ahead Sheoldred in Pioneer

The Elder Dragon War | Illustration by Filip Burburan

Here's a former Standard concoction (now Pioneer-legal) I was able to come up with to display how the mechanic works for you to play around with. I make no promises that this is a tier 1 deck.

Sheoldred, the Apocalypse is your wincon here. Its ability plus the other direct player damage dealers just wind your opponent down. The defenders are there to hold the line so to speak while you get Sheoldred going, but also as a power source for Blight Pile to help pile one some damage.

Other cards are present to remove problem creatures your opponent controls, and the sagas are there to use read ahead as needed to get back creatures from the graveyard, give you a blocker in the air, or to speed up the drawing process.

The sideboard includes some cards needed to either speed you up to meet aggro or help cheaply remove even more creatures. A board wipe is included in case things go extremely south as you can rebuild with your graveyard as needed.

Wrap Up

The Phasing of Zhalfir | Illustration by LA Draws

Read ahead is a welcome improvement to sagas. While the enchantments have always had a wide range of power and abilities, they always had one constant: They had to go in the order they were written. By giving us this flexibility Wizards has allowed us to have a card in hand that can have a much wider range of abilities to be cast at sorcery speed.

How do you feel about read ahead? Do you think older sagas should be revamped with the new treatment? Let us know in our Discord, on Twitter, or in the comments below.

That’s all from me for now. Stay safe, stay healthy, and wash your hands!