All 5 Card Draw Doublers in Magic Ranked

Thought Reflection | Illustration by Chris Seaman

Hello planeswalkers! What's better than getting something nice? Getting double of that nice thing. MTG has many doubling effects, and today we’ll be looking at card draw doublers. There may be some confusion about this term but we’ll give you a hard definition and explain how these cards can benefit you.

These cards may not always be needed to gain card advantage, but that is their aim and that’s what we’ll be looking at today. Are these cards really that advantageous? Quite possibly. Will I learn what builds these cards fit well in? I sure hope so. Am I asking questions just to answer them? How’d you guess? Should we get on with the rankings? Definitely!

What Are Card Draw Doublers in MTG?

Teferi's Ageless Insight | Illustration by Kieran Yanner

These rankings look at a small subset of cards that give a player extra card draw by modifying how many cards another effect would draw. Most of these effects read: “If you would draw a card, draw two instead.” So that’s our focus here, replace one draw with two (plus Eruth because it fits a similar niche).

Now, here are some examples of cards and card draw effects that won’t be in these rankings. Cards that give an additional draw like Howling Mine, activated abilities like Yawgmoth's Bargain, and cards like Nasty End that just increase their own draws under certain conditions.

We’re looking at cards with the same text as Thought Reflection below. “If you would draw a card, draw two cards instead.”

#5. Vnwxt, Verbose Host

Vnwxt, Verbose Host is the only card on this list with some sort of requirement: To double your draw, you need to have max speed. This homunculus is included because as soon as the max speed requirement is satisfied, the text reads exactly like Thought Reflection. Deal damage quickly and early to double your draws in the mid-game and gain a huge card advantage over your opponents.

#4. Thought Reflection

Thought Reflection is the standard for this category. This card doesn’t need any conditions or interactions, it just doubles the cards you draw. A mana value of 7 is brutal, but this card greatly ramps up your card advantage and has a place in slower formats like Commander.

#3. Eruth, Tormented Prophet

Eruth, Tormented Prophet is slightly different than the other cards on this list but essentially plays the same. Instead of doubling your draw, you turn a single draw into two impulse draws. The obvious downside of this is that those cards remain in exile if they aren’t played this turn. However, this creature fits well into curves, has good stats, and storm decks truly use the double impulse draw well.

#2. Alhammarret’s Archive

Alhammarret's Archive is a doubling machine. This legendary artifact doubles your lifegain abilities and doubles the number of cards you draw after your first draw step draw. The MV doesn’t fit so well into many decks, but this card slots in with cards like Oloro, Ageless Ascetic, Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, and Kwain, Itinerant Meddler.

#1. Teferi’s Ageless Insight

Teferi's Ageless Insight is a massive card draw enchantment. It costs you some curve speed on turn 4, but the potential card advantage is too enticing. This card works wonderfully with simple draw cards like Ponder or strategies with card draw payoffs like Psychosis Crawler.

Best Draw Doublers Payoffs

Doubling the cards you draw has obvious upsides for card advantage and outpacing your opponents. Here are a few strategies, cards, and ideas to match with the cards above for the best outcomes.

If you want to truly ramp up your card draw you need cards like Brainstorm, Faerie Mastermind, and The Speed Demon to make sure you’re drawing more cards consistently.

We didn’t mention them above in the rankings, but conditional draw cards like Tezzeret, Artifice Master or Blood Scrivener can be quite useful.

Morska, Undersea Sleuth, Raffine, Scheming Seer, and The Locust God are great commanders for draw strategies.

Turn those extra draws into counters with Wizard Class or Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim, or even damage with Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind or Psychosis Crawler.

And we can’t forget about alternate wincons like Laboratory Maniac if you include some self-mill with your extra card draw.

How Does Abundance Interact with Draw Doublers?

Abundance replaces a draw effect with a new effect looking at the cards on top of your library. According to the rulings: “If you use this on a multi-card draw, each replaced draw is handled separately.” So, the effect of Abundance can be used separately on each of your extra draws.

The main nuance here is Abundance uses the word “may.” So Teferi's Ageless Insight replaces one card draw with two, and then Abundance gives you the option of choosing which of those draws you want to replace.

What if I Have Two Draw Doublers in Play at the Same Time?

Doubling effects will compound and you draw a total of four cards per normal draw. You can’t have two copies of Teferi's Ageless Insight, but if you had this card and Thought Reflection then every draw except your first would net you four cards. The exception to this of course would be Eruth, Tormented Prophet because of the exile effect.

Wrap Up

Alhammarret's Archive | Illustration by Richard Wright

This has been a short list, but hopefully with large insights for you. Card draw doubling cards are not a common theme or strategy, but they provide players with a great way to gain card advantage. It’s not the size of the rankings, but rather how you use them!

Thank you for taking time to read this article. If you have even more time, check out all the other wonderful articles on Draftsim. You can also join in the conversation by following us on X or joining the official Discord server.

Stay safe and may you always draw the cards you need.