Evanescent Intellect MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	1
Rarity	Common
Type	Enchantment — Aura
Abilities	Enchant,Mill
Released	2014-02-07
Set symbol
Set name	Born of the Gods
Set code	BNG
Number	38
Frame	2003
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Dan Scott

Key Takeaways

Evanescent Intellect enhances your card draw, ensuring strategic flexibility and better combat decisions.
The enchantment’s instant speed allows for reactive play, maintaining an edge over opponents.
Requires careful management due to its discard cost, specific mana needs, and high activation cost.

Text of card

Enchant creature Enchanted creature has ", : Target player puts the top three cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard."

The mind is a vessel that may be emptied like any other.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: By investing mana into Evanescent Intellect, you can steadily siphon additional cards from your library, fortifying your hand and supplying you with more options in combat and strategy.

Resource Acceleration: While not a direct source of mana, this enchantment can indirectly expedite your game plan by uncovering the necessary components faster, ensuring pivotal spells are within reach when needed.

Instant Speed: Activating Evanescent Intellect doesn’t require a tap, allowing you to utilize its card draw ability at the end of your opponent’s turn or in response to their actions, thus keeping your strategies versatile and unpredictable.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Evanescent Intellect necessitates pitching a card to activate its ability. This can result in a net loss of hand advantage, critically detrimental if you’re struggling to maintain card resources during gameplay.

Specific Mana Cost: The enchantment requires both blue mana and one generic mana, making it less versatile and harder to incorporate outside of blue-centric or multicolor decks that can reliably produce the necessary mana types.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a combined activation and casting cost equating to three mana, there are more efficient draw spells available. This can be particularly taxing in early gameplay or in turns where mana efficiency is vital.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Evanescent Intellect offers a level of utility that can slide into numerous decks, particularly those that capitalize on manipulating both player’s decks and hands. Its ability to enchant a creature and potentially draw cards makes it adaptable in various game situations.

Combo Potential: This enchantment opens up synergies in decks that revolve around drawing cards or using the graveyard as a strategic resource. It can act as a cog within a machine of intricate decks built for combo-driven play.

Meta-Relevance: In a gameplay environment where hand disruption and deck manipulation are key, Evanescent Intellect could act as a subtle yet powerful tool. It aligns seamlessly with strategies that exploit the opponent’s resources, which can be particularly effective against control decks needing specific answers.

How to beat

Evanescent Intellect stands out among enchantments that focus on gradual card advantage in Magic: The Gathering. Its unique ability allows a player to essentially mill an opponent, slowly grating away at their library card by card. This can be quite the intimidating tactic, especially for those playing strategies that rely heavily on particular cards within their deck. To overcome this enchantment, speed is of the essence.

Dealing with Evanescent Intellect requires swift removal or disruption. Cards like Naturalize or Disenchant are direct answers, efficiently ridding the battlefield of this pesky spell. Players can also consider utilizing counter spells to prevent the enchantment from hitting the field in the first place. For a more comprehensive approach, executing a faster deck strategy that outpaces the milling process or employing graveyard retrieval spells can mitigate the effect of Evanescent Intellect.

Ultimately, tailoring your deck to anticipate such enchantments and integrating a mix of preventive and reactive solutions will place you in an advantageous position. This allows players to maintain the rhythm of their game plan while neutralizing the looming threat that Evanescent Intellect poses.

Cards like Evanescent Intellect

The Evanescent Intellect gathers intrigue as a niche aura card within the rich tapestry of Magic: The Gathering. It allows for gradual card draw through its ability to tap the enchanted creature for the purpose of milling and drawing cards. This feature creates direct similarity to the likes of Chronic Flooding, which also mills cards, though it does so whenever the enchanted land becomes tapped, and there is no additional draw.

Another comparable card is Mental Vapors, which follows the discard pathway to draw but specifically targets your opponent’s hand. This can disrupt strategies, yet it doesn’t enable you to draw as Evanescent Intellect does. On the other hand, there’s Pilfered Plans, a sorcery that combines milling the opponent with the instant advantage of drawing two cards. Although it does not allow for repeated use as Evanescent Intellect does, the immediate effect can be more impactful in a single turn.

In weighing the strategic value and situational use of each card, Evanescent Intellect presents itself as a continuous source of card advantage but requires setup. Comparatively, its counterparts offer different modes of disruption and immediate reward, illustrating the diverse approaches available to players crafting their decks.

Cards similar to Evanescent Intellect by color, type and mana cost

Cloak of Invisibility - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Evanescent Intellect MTG card by a specific set like Born of the Gods, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Evanescent Intellect and other MTG cards: