The 30 Best Scry Cards in Magic Ranked

Last updated on April 26, 2024

Thrasios, Triton Hero | Illustration by Josu Hernaiz

Scry’s been on a journey in MTG. What started off as a throw-in mechanic for Fifth Dawn turned into a headliner for the Greek-inspired Theros block. From there, it became evergreen in Magic Origins, it was adopted into the official mulligan rules for a while, and now we’re at the point where we expect to see 10+ cards with scry in every new set (The Lost Caverns of Ixalan has 11, for what it’s worth).

With scry being such a ubiquitous part of the game, it’s no surprise there are so many cards that put the ability to good use. Let’s sift through the nearly 400 scry cards in Magic and pluck out the best of the bunch!

What Is Scry in MTG?

Mystic Speculation | Illustration by Trevor Hairsine

Scry is a card selection mechanic that lets you look at cards on top of your library and either rearrange them or put them on the bottom of your library instead. Scry always comes with a number (scry 2, scry 4, etc.) which tells you how many cards to look at while scrying. It’s completely up to you how to split those cards up and in which order to rearrange them.

For our purposes, a scry card is slightly more than just a card that has the scry mechanic. There are tons of cards with scry tacked on as a sort of bonus, but the scry function isn’t synergistic or meaningful to the overall design of the card. I decided to narrow the list down mostly to cards where scrying plays into what the card is doing or the strategy it supports.

As usual, I’m taking a Commander approach with some slight nods to Constructed. That’s just my area of expertise. If I miss a Constructed all-star that puts scry to good use, sound off in the comments!

#30. Soldevi Excavations

A mass errata of scry effects makes Soldevi Excavations the oldest ever scry effect. It’s such an obscure card that’s easy to overlook, but keep this one in mind if you’re looking for some incidental scry effects.

#29. Twists and Turns / Mycoid Maze

Twists and Turns is only as good as the number of explore creatures you’re playing, but if that’s even a minor theme of your deck this is probably an auto-include. Explore can be a bit of a toss-up mechanic, but the scry 1 on every trigger gives you more control over the outcome. Mycoid Maze isn’t half bad either and represents some free ramp later in the game.

#28. Mystic Speculation

Mystic Speculation is kind of a nothing card that becomes awesome when combined with actual scry payoffs like Knowledge and Power or some of the Lord of the Rings elves. A card that does nothing but scry isn’t really worth consideration otherwise.

#27. Siani, Eye of the Storm

Partner makes almost any creature better. Siani, Eye of the Storm combines flying-matters with some scry action, making it the perfect partner pairing with Eligeth, Crossroads Augur.

#26. Elven Farsight

Green’s really been getting in on the cantrip game lately, with Elven Farsight as one of its better options. It’s unclear when you’d want to dedicate a Commander deck slot to a green cantrip like this, but you can do worse than a 1-mana card that likely replaces itself and potentially sets up your next few draws.

#25. Faerie Seer

Faerie Seer’s what we like to call a Flying Man, a 1-mana 1/1 flier. These are usually key pieces in tempo decks, and tacking scry onto your 1-drops brings you that much closer to an ideal start. You can see Faerie Seer kicking it with Spellstutter Sprite and ninja creatures in various formats.

#24. Play with Fire

Shock with upside. Sometimes burn decks get their opponents down to just a sliver of life, where 2 damage isn’t quite enough to finish them off. That extra little scry on Play with Fire digs that much deeper to the card that actually seals the deal.

#23. Scry Lands / Temples

I’ve gone on record saying the scry lands/Temples are the quintessential strict-budget dual lands for Commander. Their effect on a game is marginal at best, but they make the opening stages of the game (hopefully) much smoother. They’re also dirt cheap and feel good to play, which is always a plus.

#22. Path of Ancestry

Typal decks just want to keep their creature of choice flowing. Path of Ancestry is a tapped Command Tower with an extra boost for typal decks trying to find their next of kin.

#21. Opt

Opt’s the go-to cantrip for decks that either don’t have access to the better ones (for format reasons, perhaps) or just want critical mass of 1-mana spells. It’s about as basic as this effect gets, but the opportunity cost is so low.

#20. Aragorn, the Uniter

Aragorn, the Uniter is a powerful commander, but as a “scry card” it’s somewhat lacking. The blue ability is clearly the worst of the four triggers, but you’ll often cast multi-colored spells that tack that scry onto some of the other effects while digging towards your next multicolored card.

#19. Battle of Frost and Fire

Battle of Frost and Fire was designed to fit giants decks in Kaldheim, but no one’s stopping you from putting this in any old deck. It’s a bit expensive for a 4-damage sweeper, but the scry 3 is a nice bonus and sets up chapter three perfectly.

#18. Season of Growth

Season of Growth is a strong build-around for a small band of decks that constantly aim spells at their own creatures. Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief and The Howling Abomination come to mind, as do mutate creatures. Scrying is mostly bonus text here, but you’re always happy with filtering in any strategy focused on a very specific category of cards.

#17. Jace, Mirror Mage

Jace, Mirror Mage, despite being aggressively mediocre, is just a cool card. Make like a Sunday afternoon and kick it, giving you one Jace to scry towards action or lands while the other draws them. It’s unfortunate they die so easily, but points for ingenuity.

#16. Oracle of the Alpha

Quick shoutout to the one Alchemy card that everyone unanimously agrees is awesome. Oracle of the Alpha sends you on a treasure hunt for Power. Scry on attacks is the perfect way to rush towards the coveted piece of Power 9, and it lets you float past those perky Moxen you probably don’t want to draw anyway. Clearly not playable in Commander, but I'd be remiss to ignore this one.

#15. Diviner’s Portent

Blue Sun's Zenith effects are a dime a dozen, but if you’re looking to draw a bunch after scrying a bunch, look no further than the d20 die-rolling Diviner's Portent. A reasonable percentage of the time you’ll turn this into a supercharged mass draw spell that filters through all the junk you don’t want to add to your hand.

#14. Serum Visions

I’m kind of sneaking these cantrips in wherever I can. Truth is, Opt, Serum Visions, and other cheap cantrips aren’t a huge priority in Commander unless you have a strong spellslinging component, but they’re also completely inoffensive. Easy to slot in and play, easy to leave on the sidelines and ignore.

#13. Behold the Multiverse

The standard 4-mana draw-2 isn’t in high demand in Commander, but Behold the Multiverse is one of the best, and it helps with “cast from exile” triggers on cards like Vega, the Watcher and The Thirteenth Doctor.

#12. Hidetsugu, Devouring Chaos

Hidetsugu, Devouring Chaos blends together form and function perfectly. Scrying helps set up high mana value spells to flip with the red ability. Sacrificing a creature per scry is a steep cost, but the second ability helps to recoup your losses.

#11. Lifecrafter’s Bestiary

Scry to find creatures, cast creatures to draw cards. Not much to complain about with Lifecrafter's Bestiary. I’ve fallen off the card lately, so I was surprised to discover this is the second most played green artifact in all of EDH. Number 1? The Great Henge.

#10. The Temporal Anchor

It’s hard to actually recommend playing The Temporal Anchor since it’s a 6-mana artifact with no effect for a full turn cycle. Untap and you’re golden, drawing minimum two extra cards per turn. It’s not a great card in general, but it is a sweet scry build-around.

#9. Nissa, Steward of Elements

The only planeswalker with X in its mana cost, Nissa, Steward of Elements puts its unique design to good use. Scry usually feels like a throwaway loyalty ability (see: Ral, Storm Conduit), but it plays directly into the 0 ability. You could blind-flip or cast Nissa for a large enough amount of mana that just about anything’s a hit, but you’re supposed to scry and leave a card on top to 0 into the following turn.

#8. Arwen Undómiel

Now this is a scry card, through and through. If you’re doing anything close to a scry theme, Arwen Undómiel is probably a top contender. Sure, all it does is spread out +1/+1 counters, but it’s an easy way to weaponize all that scrying you’ll be doing, which doesn’t normally progress your boardstate.

#7. Elvish Mariner

Elvish Mariner’s another way to affect the board simply by scrying, plus it gives you a freebie scry 1 on attacks each turn. It’s a real shame this wasn’t included in the Lord of the Rings Limited format, because it seems like it could’ve given the scry deck a much-needed boost in power.

#6. Preordain

If this was a Modern– or Legacy-only list I’d probably bump Preordain even higher, but it’s only slightly better than Serum Visions in Commander. In fact, it’s the inverse of Serum Visions and prompts discussion about whether you should draw or scry first (scry first, typically). Thankfully Ponder doesn’t scry, so I don’t have to parse out which of the two are better.

#5. Galadriel of Lothlórien

Galadriel of Lothlórien was designed as an explicit scry commander. You can ignore the “Ring tempts you” text and the card’s still a powerful scry payoff, though you might want to sneak in a Birthday Escape or something like that for some free scry 3’s.

#4. Elminster

Elminster is also a scry commander, though in a different color pair. White doesn’t add much to this card’s design compared to the previous commander, but the payoff is much higher. It generates board presence if need be, but mostly draws into extra cards while converting scry action into cost reduction for your next spell.

#3. Doors of Durin

Doors of Durin is a sleeper hit from Lord of the Rings, letting you dump creatures into play every combat. It triggers on any creature attacking, so it has an immediate impact, and there are no restrictions on the type of creatures you can cheat into play. It’s also legendary because everything’s legendary now! Scry 2 ties the whole package together mechanically, making it more likely you hit a creature worth freerolling into play.

#2. Palantír of Orthanc

Palantír of Orthanc can get messy for your opponents, though it does scale better to 1v1 environments with lower life totals. Still, in Commander you’re either drawing a card every turn or getting a mini Combustible Gearhulk that eventually turns into a mega Combustible Gearhulk. At base level you’re milling yourself and scrying every turn, so it’s hard to go wrong regardless of your opponents’ choices.

#1. Thrasios, Triton Hero

Thrasios, Triton Hero is in the upper echelon of partners, the type of card that makes whatever partner you’re pairing it with better by virtue of simply being there. It adds some of the most important colors to your deck, and its activated ability does the most Simic thing you can imagine. Scry 1’s not a throwaway either; it increases your odds of hitting a land when you just want to ramp.

What Is the Biggest Scry?

To the best of my knowledge, Nissa's Revelation holds the crown for the largest scry number written on a card, at a whopping scry 5. Of course, this isn’t accounting for scry X cards, which would be cheating.

But wait, there’s more! Boing! is an Unfinity card that scries equal to the result of a d6 die-roll, so technically that can hit a scry 6, even if it’s not written on the card.

See You at the Top!

Palantír of Orthanc | Illustration by Tatiana Veryayskaya

All that moving cardboard gives me a headache. Well, that’s scry cards for ya. I could’ve easily loosened my restrictions on this list and included anything that says the word scry on it, but at that point I’m just regurgitating a Scryfall search for you. Wait a minute… Scryfall? Why’s that name sound so familiar?

Quick note, I left off scry payoffs that don’t actually scry themselves. Sincerest apologies to Elrond, Master of Healing, Kenessos, Priest of Thassa, and Eligeth, Crossroads Augur, but I had to scry those away to the bottom. Regardless, shout out if you think I left off any critical scry cards. Remember, I want to see cards where the scry matters, not just cards that tack it on as a bonus. If you’ve got any, let me know in the comments below or over in the Draftsim Discord.

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