Curate
Instant
Surveil 2. (Look at the top two cards of your library, then put any number of them into your graveyard and the rest on top of your library in any order.)
Draw a card.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Strixhaven: School of Mages
- Price
- $0.08
- EDHREC rank
- #4473
Curate lets you scry 2 then draw a card for two mana at instant speed — that's real card selection stapled to card advantage, not one or the other. Mirko, Obsessive Theorist turns every card you put on the bottom via scry into mill fuel, which makes Curate do double duty in that shell.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Mirko, Obsessive Theorist
Mirko, Obsessive Theorist mills opponents equal to the number of cards you put on the bottom of your library each turn, so Curate's scry 2 is effectively free damage on top of the draw — nearly 70% of Mirko decks run it for exactly that reason.
Octavia, Living Thesis
Octavia, Living Thesis cares about instant and sorcery count in the graveyard to pump creatures to 8/8, and Curate is a cheap instant that replaces itself while padding that count — over 63% inclusion in Octavia decks reflects how efficiently it feeds that engine.
Zethi, Arcane Blademaster
Zethi, Arcane Blademaster imprints instants and recasts them, so Curate gets repeated as free card selection every time Zethi's ability triggers — it's not the flashiest target, but free scry 2 and draw on a loop is quietly powerful.
Eris, Roar of the Storm
Eris, Roar of the Storm rewards casting instants and sorceries to put +1/+1 counters on creatures and deal damage, so Curate slots in as a cheap spell that triggers Eris while keeping your hand full — it's a role-player rather than a centerpiece at 19% inclusion.
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 |
In Commander, Curate earns its slot in decks that care about what's on the bottom of the library — Mirko being the obvious home — or in any blue deck that wants cheap instant-speed selection. Pauper is where Curate has the most competitive relevance, since the format's card-draw options are tightly constrained and scry-draw at common is legitimately above rate. In Modern, Pioneer, and Legacy, two mana for a cantrip is too slow against the available alternatives, so it stays on the bench outside of specific synergy builds. Curate is legal across the board but realistically a Commander and Pauper card.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.08 bulk tier
At $0.08, Curate is deep bulk — you'll pull it out of a common box or grab a playset for under a dollar without thinking twice. That price is stable; there's no pressure driving it up, and it doesn't need to be expensive to do its job.
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Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.