Deep Analysis
Sorcery
Target player draws two cards.
Flashback—
, Pay 3 life. (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.)
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Secrets of Strixhaven Commander
- Price
- $0.30
- EDHREC rank
- #1451
Deep Analysis draws you two cards twice — once on cast for three mana, again from the graveyard for two life — giving you four cards for a combined investment that compounds naturally over a long game. In any deck that wants to fill the graveyard or recur instants and sorceries, it earns its slot; Neerdiv, Devious Diver in particular treats the flashback half as a free trigger waiting in the bin.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Neerdiv, Devious Diver
Neerdiv, Devious Diver cares about casting spells from zones other than your hand, and Deep Analysis sitting in the graveyard ready to flashback is exactly the kind of deferred resource engine Neerdiv wants to exploit for repeated value.
Rootha, Mastering the Moment
Rootha, Mastering the Moment copies instants and sorceries, and Deep Analysis is a cheap enough sorcery that copying it turns four cards into six for minimal extra investment — strong enough that over half of Rootha decks run it.
Shiko and Narset, Unified
Shiko and Narset, Unified reward frequent noncreature spell casting, and Deep Analysis provides two separate cast events across its main and flashback halves, doubling the triggers for minimal total mana.
Octavia, Living Thesis
Octavia, Living Thesis counts instants and sorceries cast from anywhere, so Deep Analysis's flashback half is a second spell-count tick that helps push Octavia's cost reduction while refueling your hand.
Sauron, Lord of the Rings
Sauron, Lord of the Rings generates value off casting spells each turn, and Deep Analysis's two-phase payoff — cast now, flash back later — supplies a reliable drip of card advantage to keep Sauron's engine humming across multiple turns.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Deep Analysis is most at home: long games reward the flashback half, and four cards across two casts at a combined cost of three mana plus two life is a genuine return on investment. In Pauper it competes honestly, since the format's card-draw options are constrained and the graveyard half is cheap enough to cast off a modest life total. Legacy and Vintage have access to far more efficient draw — Brainstorm, Ponder, Treasure Cruise — so Deep Analysis is strictly a niche pick there, usually only in dedicated graveyard or flashback-matters builds. It's not legal in Pioneer or Standard, which is no loss given the competition in those pools.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.30 bulk tier
At $0.30, Deep Analysis is bulk — you can pick up a copy as a throw-in without a second thought. It's been reprinted often enough that the price is unlikely to move, so there's no reason to hesitate on acquiring it.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.