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Moxonomy

Gamble

SorceryRed mana

The cheapest unconditional tutor in the game, and the discount comes entirely from a drawback that combo decks learned to manage. For one red mana you fetch any card in your library, a rate normally reserved for tutors costing three or four; the balancing friction is the random discard, which fires after the search resolves. That ordering is the whole design, and the probability runs against you in a way that is easy to misread. Because the tutored card joins your hand before the discard, every other card in your grip is a body shielding it: the more cards you already hold, the likelier the random pitch lands on something else. An empty hand is the worst case for protecting your target, because that target becomes the only legal card to discard. Decks that lean on Gamble therefore split into two camps. The first holds a healthy hand so the discard scatters harmlessly across cards they didn't need. The second tutors for something they're happy to throw away (a reanimation target, a flashback spell, fuel for graveyard recursion) and treats the discard as a free trip to the yard rather than a cost. Red has almost no other access to library tutoring, which is why a card with a genuine downside has endured for a quarter century: it is the color's only real door to consistency, and the players who run it have spent that long learning which side of the gamble they're actually playing.

Gamble (j20)
J20 · #6rare
Pricing
Normal:
Foil: $68.59
Oracle Text

Rules text

Search your library for a card, put that card into your hand, discard a card at random, then shuffle.
Legalities

Format Status

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

Other printings

11 sets
Show all 11 other printings
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