Drawn From Dreams: Exclusive Magic Core Set 2020 Preview Card
June 20, 2019
Written by Liam Merrick
If Modern Horizons taught us anything, it’s that Wizards of the Coast likes to revisit classic and powerful cards of yesteryear. Often these newer versions are ‘fixed’ and are thus not always as powerful or fun. In saying that, I for one loved casting Deep Forest Hermit at Modern Horizons Prerelease; and while Cabal Therapist isn’t as exciting as casting a blind Cabal Therapy on turn one and ripping combo pieces out of your opponents hands (did I mention I love Legacy), it does offer new design space for decks.
Does a fixed version of a card make it any less fun, exciting or powerful? Well not exactly, but often it becomes a little more expensive in terms of mana or colour requirements or is narrower; See Force of Will vs Force of Negation.
Core Set 2020 will follow this trend of offering a fixed version of a classic card. For reference, here is the original:
Dig Through Time is an extremely powerful draw and selection spell that lets you look at seven cards and take two of them. It is an instant speed-spell allowing you to hold up counterspells or removal, and Delve meant that you were rarely paying more than UU to cast it. This allowed control and combo players alike flexibility in when to cast this spell and for how much. It was rightly banned in both Modern and Legacy after impacting both formats greatly, and it is still a highly played card in EDH and Australian 7 Point Highlander (RIP Blue Moon).
We move away from Dig Through Time and, thanks to Wizards of the Coast, introduce you to a new rare from Core Set 2020: Drawn from Dreams.
It’s a 4-cost sorcery, which makes it harder to cast than Dig Through Time but the text is the same (except the remaining cards go to the bottom of your library in a random order). There is no question that this is an extremely powerful effect. The question is: Will the mana cost of 4 and sorcery speed limit this to EDH? I think not!
War of the Spark introduced us to a wealth of powerful Planeswalker cards, two of which are very important to Drawn from Dreams’ chance of becoming a powerful role player in the Standard metagame. Teferi, Time Raveler allows us to play sorcery spells at instant speed, which means that we can basically cast Dig Through Time in Standard. It’s also important to note that we’re not drawing two these two cards; instead they’re put into our hand, avoiding our opponent’s Narset, Parter of Veils. Many Esper and blue-based control decks in Standard are already playing a high number of Teferi, Time Ravelers, which leads to Drawn from Dreams being an incredibly powerful tool in the control player’s arsenal going forward.
Does this card have what it takes to make it into Modern? A four cost sorcery needs to be very powerful and basically game-winning in order to make it into a deck, especially when it competes against Jace, the Mind Sculptor for space. It might not find a home in Modern, but it is certainly a powerful card that will see Standard and Commander play.
At time of writing, spoilers have only just began, but you can bet that I’m drafting this Pack 1 Pick 1 like it’s an M14 draft! Core Set 2020 Prerelease takes place July 5 – 7 and the full set will release the following week. Be sure to head to your local game store and check out these new cards in action.
Thanks to freelance journalist and presenter Alice Clarke and to Wizards of the Coast for providing this preview card. Follow Alice on Twitter @Alicedkc.
