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Moxonomy

Archmage of Runes

Creature — Giant Wizard3 generic manaBlue manaBlue mana

Cost reduction and card draw have lived in separate creatures for a long time: one body to make your spells cheaper, another to refill your hand after you cast them. Stapling both onto the same frame is the point here, because the two abilities feed each other. The discount lets you chain spells you could not otherwise afford in a turn, and each of those spells replaces itself, so the tempo you gain by casting more never costs you the cards to keep casting. That loop is what makes this more than a straight Baral, Chief of Compliance analog: the reduction alone shortens your spells, but the draw trigger keeps the shortening from emptying you out. The 3/6 body is doing quiet structural work too. Six toughness sits above the common red burn thresholds and shrugs off most early attackers, so the creature is built to survive the turn it lands and start compounding rather than trade off on arrival. That defensive stat line is the concession that pays for the engine: a five-mana wizard that dominates a game if it lives has to be hard to kill by damage without being hard to remove by exile or bounce. What it represents is the maturation of the spellslinger payload from a card that rewards volume into one that manufactures it.

Archmage of Runes (fdn)
FDN · #372rare
Pricing
Normal:
Foil: $22.57
Oracle Text

Rules text

Instant and sorcery spells you cast cost 1 generic mana less to cast. Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, draw a card.
Legalities

Format Status

Standard
Legal
Pioneer
Legal
Modern
Legal
Legacy
Legal
Vintage
Legal
Commander
Legal
Pauper
N/A
Brawl
Legal
Historic
Legal
Alchemy
Legal
Timeless
Legal
Standard Brawl
Legal
More formats
Old School
N/A
Premodern
N/A
PreDH
N/A
Pauper Commander
N/A
Oathbreaker
Legal
Gladiator
Legal
Penny Dreadful
Legal
Duel Commander
Legal
Future Standard
Legal
COMPETITIVEBRAWL
Legal
TLR
N/A
Printings elsewhere

Other printings

1 set
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