This card reminds me of Mental Note, from
Judgment. That card was also printed in an
environment where flashback existed, but it put
the top two of your own library into your
graveyard, while this lets you choose which
player gets milled. I guess, strictly speaking,
being allowed the choice makes this one better,
since it can do the same thing as Mental Note
plus additional options. Personally, I would've
preferred it if they had just reprinted Mental
Note. It'd be the kind of quirky reprint that
players appreciate for the nostalgia. And in
this format, milling yourself is often a boon
and milling an opponent can be anywhere from
useless to letting then draw cards for free. I'm
still convinced that mill as a win condition is
dead, and it's not coming back until we get some
serious means of actually exiling the cards we
mill.
If you really want to build a mill deck, then
you certainly would want this in it. It's a
cheap cantrip that gets you a piece of the way
there. But I think more often, you'll be
targeting yourself as a means to dump all those
juicy flashback cards into your gravyeard, or
set up your Armored Skaab next turn. Not that
those are bad things to do, mind you. I think
this is a pretty good card, and I expect to see
a fair bit of it around. I'm just a little
disappointed they didn't reprint Mental Note.
Way back when Champions of Kamigawa was the
current block, I had an Ire of Kaminari combo
deck. It was pretty slow and would never be a
real thing in high-level tournaments, especially
not when it was coming from the same block as
Cranial Extraction, but the concept of running
down my own library was just too hilarious to
leave unexplored. Champions of Kamigawa was
almost eight years ago, but that concept is
still hilarious to me. Nowadays, of course, we
have lots of spells that actually want to be
cast from your graveyard and creatures that
check what's in your graveyard, and it's often
the place you most want things to be (after your
hand, arguably), so it's also perhaps more
powerful than it was in the Kamigawa era. Don't
forget you can still turn this on your opponent
if you want to, who may or may not have built
around the graveyard. I think there's at least
one Filth Casserole deck where this is an
all-star.
Welcome back readers todays card of the day is
Thought Scour an interesting take on an older
card Mental Note. Milling two cards and drawing
a card for yourself is good in decks that mill
themselves or decks focused on milling opponents
even though the first one is more powerful. In
standard I don’t see this card making much of an
impact maybe for self mill style decks as it
provides a lot of bang for such a little price.
In extended and modern this card is the same,
provides milling decks with another tool and
self mill with a decent card, the other powerful
cards in the format limit this cards
playability. In legacy and eternal this card
just don’t cut the mustard and as a dredge
enabler it is lacking compared to other cards
but it could see a fringe amount of play. In
casual and multiplayer it’s a decent and
unexciting solid card that does what you want it
to do well that is milling yourself or
opponents. In limited its great in the mill
yourself archetype a solid card to round out
that archetype. Overall an unexciting yet solid
card.
Today's card of the day is Thought Scour which
is a one mana Blue instant that has target
player put the top two cards of their library
into the graveyard then you draw a card.
This is a very easy inclusion for a deck
destruction or self-milling theme as a single
mana support card that replaces itself to
prevent card disadvantage.
For Limited the smaller deck makes milling
yourself slightly risky, but can work with
Flashback effects and the one mana cost is
easily managed. Even if the opponent is
targeted instead this is fairly effective
because it doesn't cost you a card and thins
your own deck slightly. Most Sealed pools
with above splash levels of Blue should include
this and for Booster this is a good late
in-color pick after the packs are picked clean
of removal and decent creatures.
