Mental Note MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost1
RarityCommon
TypeInstant
Abilities Mill

Key Takeaways

  1. Mental Note bolsters graveyard-centric tactics, enabling reanimation and threshold abilities for strategic depth.
  2. Instant-speed casting of Mental Note allows precise timing for optimal graveyard management and synergistic plays.
  3. Despite its advantages, Mental Note demands careful deck integration to mitigate self-milling risks and mana constraints.

Text of card

Put the top two cards of your library into your graveyard. Draw a card.

Some minds are more open than others.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Mental Note places the top two cards from your library into your graveyard, setting up potential card advantage through graveyard synergies. This can fuel strategies that benefit from a stocked graveyard, such as reanimator decks or those involving flashback and other abilities that can be activated from the graveyard.

Resource Acceleration: While Mental Note itself doesn’t provide direct mana or treasure tokens, it accelerates your resources by filling the graveyard quickly. This can enable thresholds for cards that become more powerful with a certain number of cards in the graveyard, or enhance delve abilities, effectively reducing the mana cost of powerful spells.

Instant Speed: Mental Note’s instant-speed nature provides strategic flexibility, allowing you to wait until the most opportune moment to cast it. Whether it’s at the end of your opponent’s turn or in response to an action that requires immediate graveyard filling, its instant speed can be a significant tactical advantage.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: The Mental Note card obligates players to place the top two cards of their library into their graveyard, a move that could inadvertently discard crucial strategies or valuable cards needed later in the game.

Specific Mana Cost: With a mana cost that includes blue, Mental Note may not fit seamlessly into decks that don’t heavily feature blue mana or multicolor decks that prioritize other colors.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: While only costing a single blue mana, an argument could be made that there are alternatives in the card pool that could accomplish graveyard fueling or cantrip effects with more cost efficiency or added benefits.


Reasons to Include Mental Note in Your Collection

Versatility: Mental Note offers utility across various deck types due to its ability to quickly populate the graveyard. This function is key in strategies revolving around threshold, delirium, or reanimation.

Combo Potential: This card can be a cog in the engine for combos, synergizing with cards that benefit from having certain card types in the graveyard or that retrieve cards from the graveyard for repeated effects.

Meta-Relevance: In environments where games tend to drag out or in metas teeming with graveyard-centric decks, Mental Note can play a pivotal role. It shifts the game state subtly yet substantially, often at the perfect moment.


How to beat

Mental Note, a staple in some Magic: The Gathering decks, capitalizes on strategic graveyard filling. Unlike spells that focus solely on drawing, Mental Note quickly churns through your library, placing the top two cards into your graveyard while drawing you a card, a subtle yet potent method to set up future plays or enable graveyard synergy.

To effectively counter Mental Note, consider cards that punish graveyard strategies or those that offer graveyard hate. Rest in Peace, for example, can stop the graveyard interaction entirely by exiling cards instead of sending them to the graveyard. Graveyard-based decks rely heavily on such mechanics, and hindering this particular pipeline can be catastrophic to their game plan. Furthermore, applying consistent pressure and forcing the Mental Note player to deal with threats on the board can distract them from executing their strategy effectively.

Ultimately, understanding and disrupting the synergy that Mental Note enhances within a deck is key to overcoming this spell’s influence in the game. Appropriate sideboard choices and strategic plays during the match are paramount to gaining the upper hand against decks incorporating Mental Note.


BurnMana Recommendations

Understanding the nuances of Mental Note can be pivotal in fine-tuning your MTG deck to its optimal performance. If you’re crafting a strategy that thrives on a filled graveyard, this card’s ability to swiftly modify your library’s composition could be the catalyst you need. However, knowing when to implement such tactics and what counter-strategies to anticipate is just as important. Dive deeper into the world of MTG where each card can be a game-changer and your next move is a testament to your skill. Discover more strategies, synergies, and tips for dominating the battlefield with Mental Note and cards alike. Elevate your game today.


Cards like Mental Note

Mental Note stands as a unique spell in MTG, offering players a quick way to cycle through their deck with its fast-paced, instant card advantage. Like Thought Scour, it draws a card and mills two from the top of a player’s library into their graveyard. The similar milling effect makes Thought Scour a close comparison, although Thought Scour targets any player, adding slight versatility compared to the self-mill of Mental Note.

Visions of Beyond provides another point of comparison. While not offering the milling synergy directly, it rewards players with significant draw power in decks that capitalize on a well-stocked graveyard. Meanwhile, cards like Strategic Planning allow the player to look at the top three cards of their library, keeping one in hand and sending the rest to the graveyard, providing a controlled selection unlike the random mill of Mental Note.

Overall, Mental Note carves out its niche for MTG enthusiasts seeking to augment graveyard strategies or fuel delve and flashback. Its simplicity and instant speed ensure that it remains a valuable tool in the right deck, where every card in the graveyard counts as much as in hand or on the battlefield.

Thought Scour - MTG Card versions
Visions of Beyond - MTG Card versions
Strategic Planning - MTG Card versions
Thought Scour - Dark Ascension (DKA)
Visions of Beyond - Magic 2012 (M12)
Strategic Planning - Portal Three Kingdoms (PTK)

Cards similar to Mental Note 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 Mental Note MTG card by a specific set like Judgment and World Championship Decks 2002, 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 Mental Note and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Mental Note Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2002-05-27 and 2002-08-14. Illustrated by Bradley Williams.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12002-05-27JudgmentJUD 461997normalblackBradley Williams
22002-08-14World Championship Decks 2002WC02 rl461997normalgoldBradley Williams

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Mental Note has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderLegal
OathbreakerLegal
PauperLegal
PremodernLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal

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