Chart a Course
Sorcery
Draw two cards. Then discard a card unless you attacked this turn.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Jumpstart
- Price
- $0.35
- EDHREC rank
- #1885
Chart a Course draws two cards for two mana — unconditionally if you attacked this turn, and at the cost of discarding one if you didn't. In creature-heavy or evasion-focused blue decks, the attack trigger fires often enough that this frequently reads as a two-mana Divination that replaces itself cleanly; commanders like Octavia, Living Thesis, who want to fill the graveyard and fuel instants and sorceries, make even the discard mode a feature rather than a tax.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Octavia, Living Thesis
Chart a Course feeds Octavia, Living Thesis on two axes — it counts as an instant or sorcery to whittle down her cost via the spellcasting trigger, and the discard mode dumps cards into the graveyard to fuel her reanimation targets. Attacking with the token she generates means you'll draw two more often than not.
Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student
Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student wants to flip by drawing multiple cards per turn, and Chart a Course is a cheap two-card burst that pushes her closer to the threshold. The attack condition aligns naturally with Tamiyo's own combat-oriented flip clause.
Breeches, Brazen Plunderer // Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator
Breeches, Brazen Plunderer // Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator is a pirate-tribal attack deck that will almost always satisfy Chart a Course's combat requirement, turning it into a clean two-mana draw-two. Cantripping efficiently while your pirates are connecting is exactly the refueling this pair needs.
Admiral Beckett Brass
Admiral Beckett Brass wants your pirates swinging every turn, so Chart a Course's attack clause is trivially active — two mana for two cards that help you find more pirates or the steal payoffs Beckett rewards. The discard mode is an acceptable fallback when you're forced to hold up interaction instead of attacking.
Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar // Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator
Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar // Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator runs multiple pirates into combat every turn to maximize Malcolm's treasure triggers, meaning Chart a Course nearly always draws two. The deck wants burst cantrips over slower draw engines because the games it wins move fast.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Chart a Course is a reliable two-mana draw-two in any blue deck that attacks — the condition is low-friction in most creature strategies, and even the discard-one mode is passable in graveyard-synergy builds. In older Constructed formats like Legacy and Modern it sees fringe play in aggressive blue shells and reanimator strategies that actively want cards in the graveyard, though Brainstorm and Treasure Cruise push it down the pecking order in Legacy. Pioneer is where it finds more meaningful Constructed niches, slotting into blue-red and blue-black aggro decks that attack early and want cheap refueling. Standard playability varies by metagame; it competes against whatever two-mana draw spells are currently in print but consistently makes creature-combat decks' lists. Across all formats, Chart a Course is valued for the same reason: it's conditionally a two-mana draw-two, and that ceiling is hard to ignore.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.35 bulk tier
At $0.35, Chart a Course sits firmly in bulk territory — it's a pick-up-by-the-handful card with no reason to hesitate on price. Bulk uncommons with consistent Commander play rarely spike dramatically, so this is a stable floor rather than a ticking buylist.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Octavia, Living Thesis
- Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student
- Breeches, Brazen Plunderer // Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator
- Admiral Beckett Brass
- Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar // Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.