Found Footage

Most Clue artifacts are single-purpose: pay a fixed cost, crack for a card, move on. This one bolts a second clause onto the front end that quietly rewires how a whole subgame plays out. The static ability lets you peek at any face-down creature your opponents control at any time, which turns the informational asymmetry that morph, disguise, and cloaked permanents rely on into your asymmetry instead. A hidden 2/2 that might be a bomb stops being a bluff the moment this sits on the table; you know whether to trade, hold, or ignore it, and your opponent knows you know. The activated mode is a smoothing tool rather than raw card advantage: surveil 2 before the draw means you can bin dead cards or bank a land, converting the Clue into card selection rather than a flat replacement. The two halves pull against each other. The draw clause rewards cracking it as soon as you can spare the mana; the peek clause rewards leaving it on the battlefield to keep reading face-down threats. Holding it costs you nothing but the card slot, which makes the sacrifice a real decision rather than an inevitability. It is a piece of hate mail addressed specifically to face-down strategies, folded inside the most unremarkable-looking artifact you could ask for.