The 66 Best Forced Draw Cards in Magic Ranked

Last updated on March 14, 2024

Ancestral Recall | Illustration by Mark Poole

Ancestral Recall draws you three cards for 1 mana, making it the best of Alpha’s boon cycle, one of the Power Nine, and banned in almost all formats including EDH.

But what if I told you it’s also good because you can force an opponent to draw three cards for 1 mana? In a world of Sheoldred, the Apocalypse and Orcish Bowmasters, do you need convincing of that?

There are a variety of ways to punish opponents for drawing cards in Magic, and sometimes there’s just a good old-fashioned group hug in Commander. Let’s explore this underexplored part of Magic while ranking the top 66 cards of this kind.

What Are Make Opponents Draw Cards Cards?

Deep Analysis | Illustration by Jesper Ejsing

There are a few different ways to make opponents draw cards. The simplest is to just make everyone draw cards (including you!), and that can be a spell or a permanent, like the venerable Howling Mine. You can also just focus on a player, and many spells let you choose either yourself or an opponent like Blood Pact. One of the more dramatic ways to force opponents to draw cards is with wheel effects like Wheel of Fortune or partial wheels like Dark Deal. Although those force card draw and interact well with the payoffs we’ll discuss today, those aren’t quite the same.

There are lots of powerful synergies around these effects, and you can often get away with what looks like group hug before you pull the rug out because Magic players can be greedy. They may not Doom Blade your Kami of the Crescent Moon for a bit, as they look for just a few more things….

Another type of card we aren’t talking about today are cards that allow opponents to choose whether to draw a card, like my favorite counterspell in Commander, the politically expedient Arcane Denial. Cards you think about in this space often have that “may” clause like Edric, Spymaster of Trest, so keep that in mind as you read below. These cards can certainly synergize with the cards on our list, but if you really want your Fevered Visions to pop off, you don’t want to give them a choice!

#66. Farsight Adept + Soaring Show-Off

Blinking to force opponents to draw is not really supported yet, but someday, if it is, Farsight Adept and Soaring Show-Off will be waiting.

#65. Careful Consideration

You don’t quite get enough for 4 mana here, but when you need someone to draw four cards, Careful Consideration does that.

#64. Induced Amnesia

When you really need some cards or to trigger your payoffs, Induced Amnesia is there. This is mostly here if cards going in and out of exile become more of a thing, as Ashiok, Wicked Manipulator and Pia Nalaar, Consul of Revival make it seem.

#63. Wistful Thinking

Wistful Thinking is great if you have some additional discard synergies, Wistful Thinking probably isn’t good enough without those.

#62. Vision Skeins

Vision Skeins is kind of low impact, but it’s the only card that does this, so make sure you know it exists!

#61. Deep Analysis

Deep Analysis always gets cut from my normal decks, although that flashback looks tempting. In a deck where you’re wheeling a lot and this can trip your wincons from the graveyard, it seems better.

#60. Cerebral Vortex

With a payoff attached, Cerebral Vortex can end a game on the spot. But probably rarely, and probably only after a wheel.

#59. Comparative Analysis

Making surge happen makes Comparative Analysis good, but a little fussy compared to the cards to come.

#58. Blood Pact + Foreboding Fruit + Painful Lesson

You can use Blood Pact, Foreboding Fruit, and Painful Lesson as Divination with a pesky black downside, or you can really start hitting people with your Sheoldred, the Apocalypse out.

#57. Sign in Blood

Sign in Blood is the best of these effects.

56. Balor

Balor is decent, but a bit random, very red, and more annoying to play against than you’d imagine from just reading the card!

#55. Lore Broker

Besides Geier Reach Sanitarium, Lore Broker is the only card that does this effect.

#54. Compulsive Research

You can play Compulsive Research yourself like a Thirst for X kind of card, but it can also force someone to draw three, which is useful.

#53. Drown in Dreams

If you have a big or infinite mana engine, Drown in Dreams is a finisher. But otherwise, I feel like I can’t afford to cast this card pretty much ever. The instant speed is nice, so maybe I’m undervaluing it?

#52. Will Kenrith

My guilty pleasure Izzet commander partnered with Rowan Kenrith, Will Kenrith has a pretty strong second ability. Usually, I take the cards in Izzet, but you can do it in other ways. As a 6-drop, probably not enough, but the twins will surprise you.

#51. Flumph

There’s an infinite combo deck in Modern with Flumph, Orcish Bowmasters, and a card that can give indestructible. I’m sure you want to try a version of that in Commander, don’t you?

#50. Fell Stinger

A decent piece of card draw in a sacrifice deck, you can also point the Fell Stinger draws in another direction while leaving a deathtoucher around.

#49. Flame of Anor

If you have wizards and can turn this into Gandalf’s Command, it's so much the better. But the baseline for Flame of Anor is two cards drawn by whoever you like that can also serve two other useful spot removal purposes.

#48. Expansion // Explosion

A wincon in the old Wilderness Reclamation decks in Standard, Expansion // Explosion can end a player in these decks with the right damage-oriented payoffs. The floor is a 2-mana copy a spell, which is fine.

47. Braingeyser

Braingeyser still does the work, but as a sorcery that only targets one player. You can do better.

#46. Damnable Pact

Sometimes you want to press the issue, and a black card like Damnable Pact does that for you.

#45. Jace Beleren

Spreading out the card draw is often important for the payoffs we’re thinking of, and Jace Beleren does that very efficiently.

#44. Shadrix Silverquill

Shadrix Silverquill is a big, fun, toolbox dragon that can synergize well here.

#43. Pact of the Serpent

Pact of the Serpent ends someone’s night with the right payoffs. Or it can draw you your deck in elves. It’s always %#$@&! elves, am I right?

#42. Cybernetica Datasmith

I think this card is nuts, but no one seems to want it! If I’m trying to make people draw cards anyway and I have a bit of untap untap going on, I can make people draw cards while making 4/4s for myself? Cybernetica Datasmith is good stuff hiding in the bulk rare pile!

#41. Dack Fayden

Dack Fayden does dish out a lot of cards, sure. You’re probably using it to steal artifacts, but maybe it’s got more deck homes than we thought?

#40. Prismari Command

Apologies to Dack Fayden for one more bad beat, but Prismari Command is better. The forced rummage is a decent option here in a card I often would like to draw and do mean stuff at instant speed.

#39. Cut a Deal + Secret Rendezvous + Your Temple Is Under Attack

Has Richard from the MTGGolfish Podcast done enough to convince you that these cards are great for Commander yet? In fair decks, you get cards and an ally, except for Cut a Deal, which seems the most sketch. The fact that Your Temple Is Under Attack doubles as a bad Unbreakable Formation for my soldiers deck is nice. But Secret Rendezvous is just cash money in so many decks.

#38. Spiteful Visions

Spiteful Visions is a 4-mana Howling Mine effect, which isn’t usually worth it. But there’s a payoff there that synergizes well.

#37. Master of the Feast

Being a big flier is nice for Master of the Feast, but that mana value, though!

#36. Dictate of Kruphix

Flash is nice for Dictate of Kruphix, but just look at that mana value!

#35. Horn of Greed

It’s like a Simic deck in a can! Horn of Greed often counts as colorless card draw, but it also gives your opponents some agency to avoid the worst of your wincons.

#34. Rites of Flourishing

Rites of Flourishing is green! Ain’t that something?

#33. Temple Bell

The best of the 3-mana Howling Mine revisions? Temple Bell is of course extra nice if you can untap it at will.

#32. Folio of Fancies

The wheel effects at the top of this list are much more mana efficient and also have that discard element, which can also really matter for decks that use cards like Syr Konrad, the Grim. But if the pieces ever come together to make mill reasonable in EDH, Folio of Fancies will be there.

#31. Stormfist Crusader

Stormfist Crusader is a Howling Mine variant for 2 in a Rakdos shell. That works!

#30. Kami of the Crescent Moon

A Howling Mine in the command zone? Sure. Kami of the Crescent Moon does better in a multicolor 99, probably. Fragile, yes, but kinda cute, too?

#29. Fevered Visions

A Howling Mine effect and a payoff in one, this staple of Shadows over Innistrad
Limited seems good in the context of this list. Fevered Visions suffers when your opponents can dump their hands, just as with old school Black Vise decks, which is why they often used Stasis. But if you can have enough cards that force draws, even without a stax build, you can use cards like this to chip away.

#28. Oblation

Spot removal mixed with card draw? Oblation is a fine choice for these decks.

#27. Breena, the Demagogue

The Strixhaven pillow fort commander, Breena, the Demagogue makes your opponents want to hit each other to draw cards. Sounds fine to me! This curdles hard when they realize what you’re doing if you are managing to start to win, but that’s kind of the subtheme of most cards today, anyway!

#26. Baleful Mastery

Why not have your spot removal slots also contribute to the making opponents draw cards game plan with Baleful Mastery? Note the card doesn’t have to be drawn by the same opponent who loses the creature.

#25. Ertai Resurrected

It’s nice to blink Ertai Resurrected, of course. Often the card draw your opponent gets is a nuisance you pay for that privilege. But in a deck that wants an opponent to draw cards, this is all gravy.

#24. Faerie Mastermind

Part of the inspiration for this article, Faerie Mastermind is always a good card to have in Commander. Yuta’s activated ability works okay as a way to sneak in card draw for yourself on an opponent's turn, flashes in for just bonus cards a lot of the time, and it's a decent way to trigger your forced draw payoffs.

#23. Cephalid Coliseum

The pain on Cephalid Coliseum isn’t great, but as a cEDH option to dig for cards quickly, you can do worse. If you’re recurring lands and can use this in loops with your draw payoffs, this could be really great.

#22. Ancestral Vision

The “fixed” Ancestral Recall works the way you want, but you’d like these spells to go off when you have your payoffs on the battlefield, which isn’t a guarantee.

#21. Burning Inquiry

Burning Inquiry is a lot of cards and a lot of discards! It’s not a wheel effect, precisely, since you draw first, but it has the same bad feeling!

#20. Xyris, the Writhing Storm

A source of card draw, a wincon, and a good forced card draw commander?! Xyris, the Writhing Storm does a lot.

#19. Skyscribing

Skyscribing is almost as good as Prosperity, with that weird, but sometimes useful, forecast option.

#18. Fascination

Fascination is almost as good as Prosperity, with that weird, but sometimes useful mill option.

#17. Prosperity

As efficient as this kind of effect gets, Prosperity does the job!

#16. Minds Aglow

A Prosperity floor with a potential upside if players get greedy. Maybe that upside is a downside in other contexts, but here, Minds Aglow does work!

#15. Loran of the Third Path

A lovely card to blink, Loran of the Third Path is here for that reason. The card draw elements are low impact and the card is white which doesn’t generally synergize.

#14. Archmage’s Charm

You’re rarely going to use Archmage's Charm to force an opponent to draw, given the color requirements of decks that want that outcome, but you could! You can also do a lot of different, useful things with arguably the best charm for Commander.

#13. Blue Sun’s Zenith

Blue Sun's Zenith is another blue card that’s just too fun not to play but also fits this theme.

#12. Commander’s Insight

Because we needed a better Zenith, we have Commander's Insight. This doesn’t shuffle in, and I think is better in a world of spells recursion.

#11. Sublime Epiphany

Sublime Epiphany is just a great card. Flexible and powerful, I have only once used it to make an opponent draw a card in a game of EDH, but it was on their end step and it made them lose if that piques your curiosity.

#10. Coveted Jewel

There are more busted cards I can copy with Mishra, Eminent One, but if I do that once with Coveted Jewel, I draw six cards for neutral mana in a deck that usually has a Slobad, Iron Goblin effect lurking around. If you can’t sacrifice this, chaos ensues, but perhaps letting the table fight over this while you assemble your payoffs for them drawing cards is the kind of game that you like?

#9. Peer into the Abyss

Peer into the Abyss is, in some decks, just better than almost anything on this list. It can end someone’s night on the spot with the right payoffs. But 7, hard-to-cast mana is a lot, it only hits one person, and sometimes you can’t use it to get some card draw for yourself.

#8. Forced Fruition

A 6-drop is a bit much, but Forced Fruition just empties libraries. You want draw triggers? Here ya go!

#7. Kenrith, the Returned King

You aren’t playing one of the most popular 5-color commanders for its card-draw activated ability, but it’s there, so welcome to the top 10 Kenrith, the Returned King!

#6. Nekusar, the Mindrazer

Nekusar, the Mindrazer is the best forced-draw commander thanks to its card draw, ability to work as a win condition, and color identity.

#5. Anvil of Bogardan

Just what you need to make Fevered Visions work by limiting opponents to one discard a turn. Anvil of Bogardan also does a decent Howling Mine impression and would see more play if it wasn’t so expensive.

#4. Howling Mine

Am I too nostalgic for this card in various Stasis lock builds from the ‘90s? Probably. But whether you’re doing group hug, stax, or some other combination of payoffs, this is an obvious inclusion. The classic Howling Mine trick is to manipulate the tapping to adjust who gets to draw, but that seems less relevant than it used to be.

#3. Geier Reach Sanitarium + Mikokoro, Center of the Sea

I know these are really different cards and it bugs you that I put them here together. I know Geier Reach Sanitarium is generally cooler because it forces discard for your Megrim shenanigans, but for these kinds of forced draw decks, Mikokoro, Center of the Sea is just as good. You can’t overestimate having awesome effects that synergize on lands.

#2. Trade Secrets

Banned in Commander, Trade Secrets could just give two players their decks plus a Reliquary Tower in hand leaving everyone else behind if your chosen opponent engages the “may” clause at warp factor 10. Not fun for half the table.

#1. Ancestral Recall

With Ancestral Recall banned in EDH and like everywhere else, this one goes out to all the Vintage grinders!

Wrap Up

Peer into the Abyss | Illustration by Izzy

Is this good? I’d say no if we hadn’t seen the arrival of Sheoldred and Bowmasters. Even so, there’s probably an insufficient critical mass of payoffs and wincons for these strategies if they keep killing your Nekusar, for example.

Still, the payoffs are getting better and increasing. And in a world where card draw seems stapled to everything and keeps getting better, as with The One Ring, these payoffs also get better just as they are. And if your opponents are drawing eight cards between their end step and next upkeep with their Mystic Remora, why not throw more card draw around? The marginal utility of each card seen is lowered as power creep heats up. You’ll help them find their combo pieces faster, perhaps, but there’s only so much they can cast a turn.

You’re still likely climbing uphill here, but there’s something poetic about giving them exactly what they want over and over and then punishing them for their greed.

What do you think? Have these strategies worked for you in Commander? Are you piloting the Flumph combo in Modern? A year of saddening souls with Sheoldred in Standard? Let us know in the comments or in Discord.

Until next time, stay safe!