Heightened Awareness MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	5
Rarity	Rare
Type	Enchantment
Released	2000-06-05
Set symbol
Set name	Prophecy
Set code	PCY
Number	37
Frame	1997
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Pete Venters

Key Takeaways

Secure consistent card advantage with additional draws, fostering a full hand and varied options.
Optimizes resource access, increasing likelihood of drawing key accelerants and lands.
Instant speed offers tactical flexibility and the element of surprise during gameplay.

Text of card

As Heightened Awareness comes into play, discard your hand. At the beginning of your draw step, draw a card.

"It startles me how alive one feels on the edge of death." —Barrin, master wizard

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Heightened Awareness is a powerful tool for players looking to maintain a full grip of options. By enabling you to draw an additional card each turn, it ensures that you steadily pull ahead in resources as the game progresses.

Resource Acceleration: This spell might not directly produce mana or artifacts, but it accelerates your access to resources by increasing your chances of drawing into your deck’s accelerants and land drops. This can give you an essential edge in casting more demanding spells sooner.

Instant Speed: The ability to play this enchantment at instant speed offers you the flexibility to adapt to the battlefield dynamics in real-time. You can surprise your opponent by drawing cards at the end of their turn or in response to an action they take, keeping them guessing about your hand and next move.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: One of the hurdles when playing Heightened Awareness is its initial discard requirement. Casting this card forces you to discard your hand, which can put you at a severe disadvantage, especially if you do not have a reliable way to refill your hand. This steep cost demands a strategic deck build and timing to mitigate the potential resource loss.

Specific Mana Cost: Its casting cost is not only color-specific but also quantity-specific, requiring three blue mana. This can be cumbersome in multicolored decks where blue mana isn’t abundantly available. It’s a card tailored for monoblue or heavy blue decks, which narrows down its adaptability across various deck types.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Heightened Awareness has a significant mana value, which is five in total. This price point for its effect to draw an additional card each turn can be on the higher side when compared with other cards that provide similar benefits. It’s essential for players to weigh this against other options that may offer more immediate or cost-effective advantages.

Reasons to Include Heightened Awareness in Your Collection

Versatility: Heightened Awareness is a powerful addition to any deck that aims to maintain card advantage. As an enchantment, it enables strategies that focus on drawing cards to keep your hand full and options open.

Combo Potential: This card shines in decks that capitalize on drawing multiple cards. It can catalyze combos with effects that trigger upon drawing cards or discarding, enhancing various combo-driven playstyles.

Meta-Relevance: In an environment where information is key, Heightened Awareness can be a game-changer. It keeps your hand refreshed, helping to navigate through disruption-heavy or control-oriented metas with relative ease.

How to beat Heightened Awareness

Heightened Awareness is a unique Aura that can be both a tool and a test for any avid player of Magic: The Gathering. Upon casting, it forces the player to discard their hand, while simultaneously offering a strong upside of drawing an additional card each turn. To outmaneuver this card, it’s vital to structure your play around its weakness.

Making the most of graveyard synergies or playing cards that benefit from discarding can turn Heightened Awareness’s downside into an advantage. Alternatively, employing instant-speed removal when the controlled creature is most vulnerable—just before the card draw step—ensures that the opponent doesn’t capitalize on their investment. Utilizing strategies such as hand disruption can also pressure the opponent into a precarious position, pushing them to make suboptimal plays. Additionally, having enchantment removal at the ready ensures Heightened Awareness won’t leave a lasting impact on the game state. With careful strategy and foresight, players can effectively navigate the challenges posed by Heightened Awareness.

The key is to recognize the game’s momentum, prioritize threats, and manage resources effectively. In doing so, players will find that they can not only beat Heightened Awareness but also turn its potential disadvantages into their stride towards victory.

Cards like Heightened Awareness

Heightened Awareness offers MTG players an intriguing dynamic by elevating their hand size to seven cards, setting a new benchmark in card advantage. In comparison, Visions of Beyond provides a different approach, granting an instant draw of three cards when a graveyard is filled with twenty or more cards. While Visions of Beyond lacks the perpetual hand size increase that Heightened Awareness grants, its lower mana cost and instant speed make it a more versatile option in the right deck.

Another peer in the card-advantage race is Recycle, allowing a player to draw a card each time they cast a spell, but restricting their hand size to two. Though Recycle offers a continuous flow of cards, Heightened Awareness ensures a robust hand without the need to cast additional spells. Finally, there’s Spellbook, which offers an unlimited hand size at no cost but doesn’t provide the immediate boost to hand quantity like Heightened Awareness does.

Each of these cards has its own role, catering to different strategies and deck builds. Heightened Awareness stands out by not only increasing hand size but also filling it instantly, a powerful effect for those looking to have a variety of choices at their fingertips throughout the game.

Cards similar to Heightened Awareness by color, type and mana cost

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Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Heightened Awareness MTG card by a specific set like Prophecy, 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 Heightened Awareness and other MTG cards: