I wasn’t drawing enough cards.

Now, the designer in me knows that White and Red are the worst colors for drawing cards. Sure, there’s an occasional cantrip and the archaic “slowtrip” from Ice Age, but they had the words “Draw a card” added on to make “bad” cards “better.” Bandage doesn’t seem like a good card to play in multiplayer just to draw a card.

How important is drawing a card in the first place?

The obvious notion is that the more cards you see the more options you have which can lead to better chance of winning. The best way to see more cards is to draw them, but that’s not the only way. See: Sensei's Divining Top. You look at the top three cards and take ten minutes deciding which order they need to be in at the end of every turn. This is why people love that card: In small increments, the card will, theoretically, help you win more games.

But that isn’t the only card that helps you in small increments. Last week, Muse Vessel put out an interesting look at one of the better card-drawing cards in Commander: Rhystic Study. While it was focused on how much attention you want to bring to yourself, the idea is that you could, over time, draw enough cards to help you get what you need to win. It’s one of those cards that people love to argue about—the pain of reminding everyone to pay more mana versus drawing more cards.

White doesn’t have anything like this, nor does Red. And when I built my Brion deck, I added two of the better drawing cards that fit with the theme of the deck:

Sacrificing creatures and gaining life are two things that Brion and other parts of the deck do well. These can’t be my only two card-drawing outlets; Skullclamp always has a target painted on it, and if I have no way to gain life, I can’t draw extra cards. Only two cards in this entire deck that let me draw more cards. But that’s begging the question:

How important is drawing a card in the first place?

It’s more than just giving you a better chance of winning the game; card-drawing is the action of feeling like you have a chance in the game. Like everything good in life, it gives you hope. You hope that the top card of you library can save you from defeat, or at least turn it around in your favor. There’s nothing more deflating in the gaming experience than knowing you can’t do anything while all of your opponents, and friends, are enjoying the game you’re really not playing. It’s not just a better chance of winning; it’s a better chance of enjoying the game along with everyone else.

Sitting there in the two-player game in which I noticed this problem with my deck, I barely had any cards in my hand. If this was a four-player get-together, I’d sit there bored and, most likely, losing. Now, I don’t care if I lose games of Magic. I’m a Johnny/Spike/Melvin; I do care if I lose because my deck isn’t working properly. This issue isn’t with the play style, or even if I draw the wrong cards at the wrong time, it’s about not having the right cards in the deck in the first place.

I can deviate from what I would like to do with the deck and throw in a couple of other White/Red drawing cards (Dragon Mage, Mesa Enchantress, etc.), but I feel that would ruin what I’m trying to do.

Create creatures to fling, fling them, gain life. If it doesn’t work in that context (or is a silver bullet), I really don’t want it in the deck. And this is where the world of Commander, and casual Magic in general, differs from competitive Magic. There might be better options out there, but I have to get away from the theme of my deck. Mind's Eye is a great inclusion, but my most common opponents know that card is too good, and I don’t have enough copies for every deck I have. (How come no one is clamoring for that to be a “staple?”) When I play that card, both it and I have targets on our heads.

Time to do some digging for cards I don’t actually have. If you haven’t taken a look, the White/Red section on drawing cards is pretty thin. Most of them are cyclers, which means you can’t even get the benefit of the card. But there were a few that caught my eye for the awkward White/Red combination of Commanders:

This can be seen as a political card, and that’s fine. In your deck, flinging and having access to Red, having opponents gain 3 life isn’t all that important. If you wanted to, you could even benefit from an opponent’s gaining life. Remember Punishing Fire? Paying to draw a card, and returning a burn spell to your hand, isn’t all that bad. Sure, it’s not optimal, but this way, you can pick off tokens if you want to. The fact that I’m excited about paying 5 mana to draw a card tells you how awful the card-draw is in these colors.

Armistice is important because it’s card-draw that’s reusable and can be done at any time. Most of the other card-draws are instants or sorceries; this can sit on the table, and players might leave it alone because at least they’re getting a benefit from it. The majority of the other cards are cantrips that only really replace themselves.

I’m not a real fan of this card in general, but paying 5 life to draw three cards isn’t that bad when you have a good portion of your deck devoted to gaining life. The thing to remember about this card is that it says “any player,” not “any opponent.” Take the 5 damage, and draw the three cards. Most of the Red drawing has a discard rider to it as well, so enjoy this while you can. If you’re playing Purity in your deck, you can gain 5 life and draw three cards, which seems like a much better deal.

Does the girl kinda look like Miranda Kerr? Is this just a cheap ploy to lead all those Internet searches of Miranda Kerr to this site? Ignoring the art (I miss the Foglios), this actually fits into the Brion deck very nicely. The “death tax” of 3 mana is a little steep, but the ability to allow this on any creature, not just your own, can make this into a very powerful card. You’re flinging creatures, so you might as well benefit from it besides Skullclamp.

None of the White cards are in new borders, which tells you how far back you have to dig to get okay drawing in White. This one is a little different and has to fit into a certain deck. You don’t care if Brion is exiled—you can place him into the command zone—but the rest of your White creatures can certainly be an issue. If you were creating tokens, like with White Sun's Zenith or any other of the token-generators, you would be more than happy to draw the cards then, since you can’t get them from the graveyard. This one takes a bit more planning, but could work perfectly.

This one is a dangerous game you’re playing, because once you skip two draws, opponents can kill it and set you back two turns. It’s a bit harder to kill since it’s an enchantment; however, the draw-seven-cards line, when opponents read it for the first time, means “kill it.” If you have a way to protect it, play it; drawing seven cards can be backbreaking.

You should have more life than one of your opponents (its requirement is one opponent, not all), so you could draw two cards from this. It does combo nicely with Well of Lost Dreams.

You’ll notice that you don’t see Wheel of Fortune and its ilk in that list. It’s a type of card where you have to feel comfortable giving your opponents more cards as well (same with Temporary Truce and Truce). There are times when that’s appropriate, but if I can avoid it, I can.

To draw cards in a deck like Brion, you need to have an opponent gain life, take damage, pay a ton of mana, skip your draws, or have more life than an opponent. There aren’t that many ways to draw cards in a White/Red deck. If the idea of drawing cards to you is important, you need to find a way to make it work. There are some cute synergistic ideas here, but being cute can get you killed.

As I’m reworking my deck, I’ll incorporate some of these options in there, see how they play out, and report back to you. For me, being able to draw cards is important, both to my chances of winning the game and to having fun as well. I like to do both as much as possible when I play Commander. I’m more interested in having fun, and sometimes you need that little hope to continue playing this game. And that’s what you need to decide for yourself:

How important is drawing a card in the first place?