Academy Researchers

Creature — Human Wizard

When this creature enters, you may put an Aura card from your hand onto the battlefield attached to this creature.

CMC
3
Mana cost
{1}{U}{U}
Color identity
U
Rarity
uncommon
Set
Urza's Saga
Price
$0.20
EDHREC rank
#25325
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Academy Researchers card art
Academy Researchers puts an Aura directly onto the battlefield the moment it enters — no mana cost, no enchant restriction beyond legality — which turns any ETB setup into a free tutor-and-deploy for whatever enchantment you've built around. The cost is a 2/3 body that folds to a stiff breeze and a trigger that fires exactly once, so the entire plan depends on pairing it with something like Fool's Demise to keep the engine looping.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander
legacy
modern
pioneer
standard
vintage
pauper
oathbreaker

Academy Researchers is a Commander card through and through — the singleton format rewards the specific ETB loop it enables, and enchantress builds have the density of Auras to make the free attachment consistently matter. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but irrelevant; the power ceiling of those formats makes a 2/3 that cheats one Aura into play laughably underpowered next to the available alternatives. Modern sees it the same way — legal, unplayed, outclassed. Academy Researchers earns its slot only where the game is slow enough and the enchantment payoffs powerful enough that one free Aura deployment can define a game state.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.20 bulk tier

At $0.20, Academy Researchers is deep bulk — the kind of card you pick out of a commons box rather than order. That price is stable by default; there's no competitive demand pulling it up, so it stays accessible indefinitely for the niche Commander builds that actually want it.

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.