Barrin's Codex
Artifact — Book
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a page counter on this artifact.
, 
, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw X cards, where X is the number of page counters on this artifact.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Urza's Saga
- Price
- $0.45
- EDHREC rank
- #22531
Barrin's Codex costs five mana to play, then another five activations of tapping it to finally draw a card — ten total mana sunk across multiple turns for a single draw effect. It is one of the least efficient card-draw engines ever printed, and no deck should run it.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Barrin's Codex is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but legality is not a recommendation. In Legacy and Vintage, the card is unplayable — formats that run Ancestral Recall and Brainstorm have no use for a five-mana artifact that asks you to wait five more turns. In Commander, where slow engines are tolerated, the activation cost is still prohibitive: five untap steps to accumulate counters means opponents have long since drawn into their winning lines before Barrin's Codex ever fires. It is a historical curiosity, not a role-player.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.45 bulk tier
At $0.45, Barrin's Codex sits firmly in bulk territory, and that price reflects its play value accurately. Don't expect it to climb — there is no competitive context that rehabilitates this card.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.