Taigam's Scheming MTG Card
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 2 |
| Rarity | Common |
| Type | Sorcery |
| Abilities | Surveil |
| Released | 2014-09-26 |
| Set symbol | |
| Set name | Khans of Tarkir |
| Set code | KTK |
| Number | 57 |
| Frame | 2015 |
| Layout | Normal |
| Border | Black |
| Illustred by | Svetlin Velinov |
Key Takeaways
- Provides utmost strategic depth by enabling card arrangement for upcoming turns and critical gameplay setup.
- While setting up draws, inadvertently discarding can deplete key resources, necessitating graveyard strategy synergy.
- In decks that prioritize draw order and graveyard interactions, Taigam’s Scheming is a versatile and meta-relevant asset.
Text of card
Look at the top five cards of your library. Put any number of them into your graveyard and the rest back on top of your library in any order.
"The Jeskai would have me bow in restraint. So I have found a people unafraid of true power."
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Taigam’s Scheming enhances your strategic depth by allowing you to look at the top five cards of your library and pinpoint key pieces for your game plan. This sets you up for future turns, ensuring you’re well-prepared for whatever your opponents might throw your way.
Resource Acceleration: The card’s ability to rearrange your library can indirectly speed up your resource accumulation. By organizing the upcoming draws, you facilitate the access to needed lands or spells, ensuring a smoother progression of your game state.
Instant Speed: While Taigam’s Scheming is a sorcery, its inclusion in decks often complements instant speed strategies by setting up your draws. This prepares you to optimally utilize your instants and flash abilities, allowing for more responsive plays on subsequent turns.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: When casting Taigam’s Scheming, there is no direct discard cost, but the card instructs you to place any number of the top five cards of your library into your graveyard. While this sets up future plays, it may deplete valuable resources, and without additional graveyard synergies, you might find yourself at a card disadvantage.
Specific Mana Cost: Necessitating both blue mana and generic mana to cast, Taigam’s Scheming can only fit comfortably in decks that fully support a blue mana base, possibly restricting deck-building options for players with limited mana fixing capabilities.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: At two mana, this card does not immediately affect the board state nor does it draw cards, which can be seen as inefficient considering other blue spells in the same cost bracket can provide instant impact or card advantage.
Reasons to Include in Your Collection
Versatility: Taigam’s Scheming offers a unique way to manipulate the top of your library, making it a flexible addition to decks that care about the order of their draws or graveyard synergy.
Combo Potential: This card is a staple in strategies that capitalize on setting up the perfect draw or graveyard stack, enabling powerful combos with future plays.
Meta-Relevance: In game scenarios where predictability and setting up key cards are crucial, Taigam’s Scheming shines by providing the control needed to outmaneuver opposing tactics.
How to beat
Taigam’s Scheming may not dominate headlines like some other blue spells in Magic: The Gathering, yet countering this setup card is crucial. With Taigam’s Scheming, an opponent can organize their next five draws meticulously, which can prepare the groundwork for powerful combos. Though it does not directly draw cards, the setup can be just as vital.
To effectively disrupt Taigam’s Scheming, consider cards that shuffle an opponent’s library. Effects like those from Field of Ruin or Ghost Quarter can forcefully reshuffle the deck, consequently wasting the meticulous preparation done by your adversary. Furthermore, strategic use of instant-speed removal or counterspells can disassemble the combo pieces they attempt to align. Thoughtseize and other hand disruption tools are also effective in pre-emptively dealing with the threats identified via Taigam’s Scheming.
Denying your opponent the fruits of their careful planning is essential. By responding with appropriate disruption or removal, you can mitigate the advantage they seek through Taigam’s Scheming, keeping you one step ahead in the strategic duel that is a match of Magic: The Gathering.
Cards like Taigam's Scheming
Taigam’s Scheming is an intriguing spell in the realm of library manipulation within Magic: The Gathering. It shares this central theme with cards like Index, which allows you to look at the top five cards of your library and rearrange them. However, Taigam’s Scheming offers a slight edge by enabling you to put any number of those cards into your graveyard, streamlining your future draws and fueling graveyard strategies.
Contemplate, another card akin to Taigam’s Scheming, permits a peek at the top four cards of one’s library, but it doesn’t offer the same level of control over the graveyard. Though cheaper in mana cost, Contemplate lacks the tactical flexibility provided by Taigam’s Scheming’s graveyard interaction. In a similar context, See Beyond lets you shuffle unwanted cards back into your library along with drawing a card, which can be advantageous but doesn’t ensure that you get the cards you need as promptly as when strategizing with Taigam’s Scheming.
When evaluating these cards side by side, Taigam’s Scheming stands out for its unique capacity to optimize future plays by tailoring both your draw and graveyard, proving to be a strategic tool for players looking to sculpt their game plan meticulously.
Cards similar to Taigam's Scheming by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Taigam's Scheming MTG card by a specific set like Khans of Tarkir, 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 Taigam's Scheming and other MTG cards:
- eBay
- TCG Player
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
See MTG Products
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Taigam's Scheming has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Historicbrawl | Legal |
| Historic | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Paupercommander | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Gladiator | Legal |
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Commander | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Pauper | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Explorer | Legal |
| Penny | Legal |
| Timeless | Legal |
