A quick note: this guy is the replacement for
Ponder, not Index, so don't get snarky, water
mages. Having said that, Bolas sure knows how to
pick his minions. This guy's obvious use is
alongside creatures like Delver of Secrets and
Snapcaster Mage, blocking early attackers and
holding a Runechanter's Pike (when did you ever
see Ponder do that?). He's destined, though, to
find homes far beyond that: a lot of spell-based
decks in both competitive and
casual settings struggle to defend themselves
against creatures and to have something to do in
the face of counterspells or hand disruption,
and a card that lets them do both while still
advancing their main plan is nothing short of
amazing. Underestimate this card at your own
peril.
Today's card of the day is Augur of Bolas which
is a two mana Blue 1/3 that lets you look at the
top three cards of your library, reveal an
instant or sorcery from them, add it to your
hand then place the remaining cards at the
bottom of your library. As a merfolk and
three toughness creature this has decent use
both in tribal and control decks as a blocker
attached to a useful effect. Other cards may be
better at library manipulation or as a two mana
creature, but having both in one makes this a
strong choice in multiple designs. Overall
this will likely see play across many levels and
should remain relatively popular for the
foreseeable future.
In Limited there usually aren't as many
non-creature spells available in the creature
driven format to really have enough to get the
most out of this effect. Any removal or
other useful cards can be a huge advantage to
running Augur, but the odds are somewhat against
that with a large supply of creatures and
sixteen or more lands in a forty card deck.
A two mana 1/3 is playable though and if your
pool has powerful spell support then this is a
great card that can be maindecked in Sealed or
drafted early on after a bomb spell.
