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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day

Daily Since November 2001!

Steam Augury
Image from Wizards.com

 Steam Augury
- Theros

Reviewed October 22, 2013

Constructed: 3.13
Casual: 3.50
Limited: 2.88
Multiplayer: 3.63

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst.  3 ... average.  
5 is the highest rating

Click here to see all of our 
Card of the Day Reviews 

BMoor

Steam Augury

It's instant speed card draw that forces your opponent to make a tough choice. You divide, your opponent chooses. The fact that you don't get to choose makes it a little tougher to get what you want... if your opponent knows what it is you want. But a 2-3 split guarantees you get at least 2 cards without having to tap out on your opponent's turn. It remains to be seen if there's an Izzet deck that can get good use from this, but I wouldn't mind taking it for a spin.

Constructed- 3.5
Casual- 4
Limited- 4
Multiplayer- 4.5


David Fanany

Player since 1995

Steam Augury

One of the reasons Fact or Fiction has always been good is that it confuses your opponent. They probably sat down at the table expecting to play with their own deck, not to try and understand what your deck wants at any given time. The fact is, Steam Augury does sort of do the same thing, but on a slightly different axis. However, I feel that it's somewhat like Prognostic Sphinx from last week in that it also expects you to know what you're doing and learn how to bluff (which some control players always claim they're inherently awesome at - time to prove it, I think). Above all, though, it's a card that lets you draw more cards. It's hard to make a bad one of those.

Constructed: 4/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 3/5
Multiplayer: 4/5

Michael "Maikeruu" Pierno

Today's card of the day is Steam Augury which is a four mana Blue and Red instant that has you reveal the top five cards of your library, separate them into two piles, then have an opponent choose one pile which is placed into your hand and the other is sent to your graveyard.
This is very similar to the Blue instant Fact or Fiction with the division and selection choices swapped, that combined with the multicolor aspect make this a weaker card all around. Overall it is playable in the newer formats and nets some card advantage, so an Izzet or Grixis deck may find use for it at varying levels of play.

In Limited the card advantage, though potentially small, gives this value and it is a solid play during an opponent's turn if untapped mana for removal or a counterspell was otherwise unnecessary or a bluff. The color requirement is the primary drawback as it is a weak first pick in Booster by locking you into colors, even if one is a splash, and minor card advantage is not worth splashing one color alongside the other. If both colors are your strongest in Sealed then this is an easy choice to add, but otherwise it is probably best kept in the sidedeck and is quite safe to pass in Booster.

Constructed: 3.0
Casual: 3.0
Limited: 2.5
Multiplayer: 3.0


Skid Rambo

Steam Augury is one of those cards that falls into the “maybe” it will work “maybe” it won’t work category. Maybe I will draw 3 cards. Maybe I will draw one card. I’m the type of Magic player that doesn’t like to rely on my opponent when drawing cards. Let’s try to look at the positive things going for Steam Augury. It is an instant, which means that it can be used in any situation. You could potentially draw 4 cards for 4 mana. Steam Augury cycles through your deck and puts cards into your graveyard. The bad part about this spell is that you may not get the card(s) that you actually want. Sure, Steam Augury adds some fun to the game and it can put a little pressure on your opponents, but that might be all that it does. Imagine if this card did 1 point of damage to the opponent for each card in the pile that was chosen? That ability would help explain why there is RED in the mana cost!

Constructed: 2/5
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 2/5
Multiplayer: 3/5


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