Thought Scour MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 9 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost1
RarityCommon
TypeInstant
Abilities Mill

Key Takeaways

  1. Thought Scour cantrips while simultaneously milling, providing dual benefits to blue-centric decks.
  2. The instant’s flexibility allows for strategic plays at opportune moments, maintaining tempo.
  3. Its specificity to blue mana bases does restrict its utility in non-blue decks.

Text of card

Target player puts the top two cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard. Draw a card.

"As you inject the *viscus vitae* into the brain stem, don't let the spastic moaning bother you. It will soon become music to your ears." —Stitcher Geralf


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Thought Scour has the primary benefit of letting you draw a card, offering you the chance to see more of your deck and thereby increasing your options. The milling effect also strategically places cards in your graveyard, which could be leveraged by decks designed to utilize the graveyard as a resource.

Resource Acceleration: Though it doesn’t produce mana or tokens like some other spells, Thought Scour can be instrumental in fueling strategies that depend on a stocked graveyard. By filling your graveyard quickly, it accelerates your access to powerful delve spells or enables other graveyard synergies, effectively speeding up your game plan.

Instant Speed: The ability to play Thought Scour at instant speed offers flexibility, allowing you to wait until the most advantageous moment. Whether it’s during the opponent’s end step or in response to an action, instant speed ensures you can adapt to the changing game without sacrificing tempo.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: While Thought Scour helps to fuel graveyard strategies and cantrip, it does necessitate targeting a player to discard two cards from the top of their library, which could inadvertently benefit opponents with graveyard-based tactics.

Specific Mana Cost: Thought Scour requires blue mana, making it a strict fit for decks that can produce this color. This limits its inclusion to primarily blue or multicolored mana bases, potentially excluding it from mono-colored strategies outside of blue.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Though Thought Scour represents a low mana investment at just one blue mana, in some scenarios, other spells at the one-mana slot could compete for a place in a deck due to their immediate impact or versatility compared to the mill and draw effect Thought Scour provides.


Reasons to Include Thought Scour in Your Collection

Versatility: Thought Scour serves a dual purpose of drawing a card while filling the graveyard, an essential tactic for decks that thrive on having resources in the bin. Its low mana cost makes it a staple for a variety of blue-centric decks.

Combo Potential: In combination with cards that benefit from graveyard interactions, Thought Scour can be a catalyst for powerful plays. It fuels strategies revolving around delve mechanics or reanimator themes, ensuring seamless integration into combo-driven decks.

Meta-Relevance: Thought Scour has seen play in various competitive decks across different formats. Its relevance continues in metas where graveyard synergy is key, and efficient cantrips are prized for their role in deck consistency and speed.


How to beat

Thought Scour is an unassuming yet powerful card that fuels graveyard strategies and ensures card flow in Magic: The Gathering. A low-cost instant, it allows a player to draw a card and simultaneously forces any player to put the top two cards of their library into their graveyard. While it seems minimal, the impact on the game can be significant, particularly in formats like Modern where graveyard interaction is potent.

To combat Thought Scour, proactive graveyard management is key. Cards like Relic of Progenitus or Rest in Peace can disrupt graveyard-based strategies by exiling the contents, rendering Thought Scour’s functionality moot. Surgical Extraction can target crucial cards dumped by Thought Scour, removing them from the game entirely. Additionally, playing around graveyard strategies by prioritizing instant-speed removal or counterspells like Negate, which can directly counter Thought Scour, can help maintain control over the battlefield and preserve your library.

Strategic deckbuilding and timely reactions are essential. By incorporating anti-graveyard measures and being aware of your opponent’s potential to leverage their graveyard, you can effectively neutralize the advantages Thought Scour provides and safeguard your deck from its subtle yet powerful effects.


BurnMana Recommendations

As we delve into the intricacies of Thought Scour, it’s clear that its strategic value in MTG cannot be understated. It’s a card that provides card advantage and fuels graveyard strategies with ease, pivotal for decks that capitalize on these elements. The instant speed of Thought Scour grants flexibility, allowing players to adapt on the fly and maintain tempo. If you’re keen to further explore the synergies and applications of Thought Scour in your decks, or investigate ways to counter its effects effectively in the meta, we invite you to stay with us. Dive deeper to unlock the full potential of your MTG gameplay with Thought Scour by your side.


Cards like Thought Scour

Thought Scour has carved out its own niche within the arsenal of instant-speed card draw spells in Magic: The Gathering. It shares common ground with Visions of Beyond, which can also offer card advantage but is conditional on having twenty or more cards in a graveyard to draw three cards. Thought Scour, contrarily, always mills two cards and then draws you a card, promoting graveyard strategies.

Another card that comes to mind is Serum Visions, though its primary function is to scry rather than to mill, followed by drawing a card. Thought Scour’s immediate mill effect can be crucial for setting up delve mechanics or enhancing cards like Snapcaster Mage, which Serum Visions cannot replicate. Mental Note is nearly identical in effect to Thought Scour but without the added benefit of targeting, making Thought Scour more versatile in disrupting an opponent’s strategy.

Evaluating the utility and synergy with other cards, Thought Scour stands out for its ability to quickly populate the graveyard, becoming a subtle yet powerful tool for players adept at leveraging their graveyard as a resource.

Visions of Beyond - MTG Card versions
Serum Visions - MTG Card versions
Mental Note - MTG Card versions
Snapcaster Mage - MTG Card versions
Visions of Beyond - Magic 2012 (M12)
Serum Visions - Arena League 2004 (PAL04)
Mental Note - Judgment (JUD)
Snapcaster Mage - Innistrad (ISD)

Cards similar to Thought Scour by color, type and mana cost

Ancestral Recall - MTG Card versions
Jump - MTG Card versions
Sleight of Mind - MTG Card versions
Twiddle - MTG Card versions
Unsummon - MTG Card versions
Siren's Call - MTG Card versions
Power Sink - MTG Card versions
Blue Elemental Blast - MTG Card versions
Spell Blast - MTG Card versions
Magical Hack - MTG Card versions
Riptide - MTG Card versions
Winter's Chill - MTG Card versions
Mind Bend - MTG Card versions
Denied! - MTG Card versions
Hydroblast - MTG Card versions
Whispers of the Muse - MTG Card versions
Ertai's Trickery - MTG Card versions
Force Spike - MTG Card versions
Opt - MTG Card versions
Envelop - MTG Card versions
Ancestral Recall - Intl. Collectors' Edition (CEI)
Jump - Magic 2010 (M10)
Sleight of Mind - 30th Anniversary Edition (30A)
Twiddle - Introductory Two-Player Set (ITP)
Unsummon - 30th Anniversary Edition (30A)
Siren's Call - Collectors' Edition (CED)
Power Sink - 30th Anniversary Edition (30A)
Blue Elemental Blast - Magic Online Promos (PRM)
Spell Blast - 30th Anniversary Edition (30A)
Magical Hack - Intl. Collectors' Edition (CEI)
Riptide - The Dark (DRK)
Winter's Chill - Ice Age (ICE)
Mind Bend - Tenth Edition (10E)
Denied! - Unglued (UGL)
Hydroblast - World Championship Decks 1998 (WC98)
Whispers of the Muse - World Championship Decks 1998 (WC98)
Ertai's Trickery - Planeshift (PLS)
Force Spike - Seventh Edition (7ED)
Opt - Jumpstart 2022 (J22)
Envelop - Judgment (JUD)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Thought Scour MTG card by a specific set like Magic Online Promos and Dark Ascension, 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 Thought Scour and other MTG cards:

Continue exploring other sealed products in Amazon
See Magic products

Printings

The Thought Scour Magic the Gathering card was released in 8 different sets between 2012-02-03 and 2022-07-08. Illustrated by 3 different artists.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12002-06-24Magic Online PromosPRM 1022312015normalblackJeff Miracola
22012-02-03Dark AscensionDKA 522003normalblackDavid Rapoza
32014-03-14Duel Decks: Jace vs. VraskaDDM 212003normalblackDavid Rapoza
42017-11-17Iconic MastersIMA 762015normalblackDavid Rapoza
52019-11-07Mystery BoosterMB1 5222015normalblackDavid Rapoza
62020-07-17JumpstartJMP 1852015normalblackDavid Rapoza
72020-09-26The ListPLST IMA-762015normalblackDavid Rapoza
82022-07-08Double Masters 20222X2 3512015normalborderlessJeff Miracola
92022-07-08Double Masters 20222X2 652015normalblackJulie Dillon

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Thought Scour has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
PauperLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Thought Scour card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

DateText
2011-01-22 Follow the instructions in the order listed on the card: if you target yourself, you’ll put the top two cards of your library into your graveyard and then draw a card.
2011-01-22 If the target player is an illegal target when Thought Scour tries to resolve, it won’t resolve and none of its effects will happen. You won’t draw a card.

Recent MTG decks

Continue exploring other format decks
More decks