A fiendishly powerful draw spell for black, that
was probably concocted by actual fiends! While
Blue, the "king of draw", is puttering around
with Divination for the same price, Read the
Bones gets deeper into your deck and is more
likely to get you the card you need. That 2
life? Well, that's the cost of greatness, isn't
it? Black is no stranger to paying life points
to get what it wants, and it has enough lifelink
effects to afford the cost.
It's an open secret that black's card drawing
is almost on par with and sometimes better than
blue's, at least in certain sets; the fact that
you usually pay life or some other additional
cost means that it can be cheaper on average.
Read the Bones is one of the best card-drawing
spells in the current Standard environment, not
just because of its cost but because you can
choose to dig deeper than two cards if you need
to and get rid of anything that isn't useful
right now - that is a deceptively powerful
feature that hasn't been around since Preordain.
Fortunately, Read the Bones isn't as stupidly
broken as Preordain, but it is certainly worth
playing.
Today's card of the day is Read the Bones which
is a three mana Black sorcery that has Scry 2
then draw two cards and you lose two life. This
is very similar to Sign in Blood, but with one
extra mana to cast, Scry 2, and is easier to run
in multicolor decks. Two life is a small price
to pay for the range of options this provides
and life drain or Lifelink effects are available
to offset that. Overall this is going to see
play in a variety of Black decks with or without
other colors and can be Scry support for Blue as
well.
In Limited this is a powerful card that can
dig through ten percent of your deck, which is
not at all insignificant. With a single Black in
the casting cost it does not require a
mono-Black deck and is well worth considering
for any deck with a splash or more of the color
in Sealed.
For Booster this can be drafted fairly early
depending on the pack and it can be a large
asset in finding key cards, though support with
some sort of life drain such as Grey Merchant is
recommended.
Welcome back Pojo readers. Today’s card happens
to be in my top 5 Theros cards. Read the Bones
instantly found a home in a few of my decks. I
really like the ability to draw cards outside of
the Blue mana base. Some players may not like to
pay 2 life for two cards, but I see this as a
small price to pay. Plus, the life loss fits
perfectly with Black mana’s tradition of paying
life for cards. The ability to Scry 2 cards
before you draw makes read the Bones a versatile
deck thinner. The best thing about Read the
Bones is the mana cost. One black mana gives
this card a chance to fit in any deck. Overall,
Read the Bones is a great sorcery to draw cards.
It is useful in every format.
