Contingency Plan
Sorcery
Surveil 5. (Look at the top five cards of your library, then put any number of them into your graveyard and the rest on top of your library in any order.)
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- The List
- Price
- $0.26
- EDHREC rank
- #11864
Contingency Plan looks at the top five cards of your library and arranges them in any order — no draw, no milling, just pure sequencing control for one blue mana at sorcery speed. In most decks that's too narrow to justify a slot, but Octavia, Living Thesis makes every instant and sorcery in the graveyard count toward her spell-count trigger, so the cheap blue sorcery type alone earns it a seat.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Octavia, Living Thesis
Octavia, Living Thesis needs a critical mass of instants and sorceries in the graveyard to flip creatures into 8/8s, and Contingency Plan earns double duty — it's a one-mana blue sorcery that fuels the count while setting up exactly which spells or threats you'll draw next.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Contingency Plan is legal across Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Pauper, and Oathbreaker, but it sees virtually no play outside Commander. In Pauper it's technically available, but surveil and scry effects at common do the same job with more upside. In Legacy and Vintage, cantrips that actually draw a card are so cheap and plentiful that Contingency Plan never makes the cut. Commander is its only real home, and even there it's a narrow role-player rather than a staple — run it when your commander or engine specifically rewards sorceries in the graveyard, and cut it everywhere else.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.26 bulk tier
At $0.26, Contingency Plan sits firmly in bulk territory and is unlikely to move unless a new commander pushes graveyard-sorcery synergies into the mainstream. Buy it without hesitation if the effect fits your deck — there's no meaningful financial downside at this price.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.