The World Spell
Sagas were built as scripts you watch resolve in order, and this one bends that grammar with a decision at the front: start where you like. Chapters I and II are identical, a Sylvan Library-style dig seven cards deep that filters a non-Saga permanent into hand and buries the rest at random. Chapter III is the payoff worth waiting for, dropping up to two of those permanents onto the battlefield for free. Read ahead lets you jump straight to III and skip both front chapters, cheating the finale two full turns early at the cost of the card advantage those digs would have banked. That is the evaluation baked into the card: mine twice and pay for it in tempo, or fast-forward to the free plays and pay for it in a thinner hand. The non-Saga restriction is what stops III from cheating another copy of itself into play and folding the effect into a loop; instead it steers toward the fatties and value engines a green ramp shell is already stocking. The chapters are lopsided enough that the choice of starting counter becomes a real assessment rather than a formality, which is close to the clearest argument for why read ahead was worth printing at all.
