Facet Reader
Creature — Human Wizard
, 
: Draw a card, then discard a card.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths
- Price
- $0.09
- EDHREC rank
- #22858
Facet Reader trades a tap and a mana to let you look at the top card of your library and either keep it or bin it — repeatable library manipulation stapled to a two-mana body. It's a role-player, not a headliner, and earns its slot only in decks that specifically reward the tap activation or care about what's on top.
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, Facet Reader occupies the low end of the card-selection spectrum — it doesn't draw cards, so it competes against options that do, and it usually loses that fight outside of dedicated synergy shells. Pauper is where it sees the most legitimate play, slotting into tempo and value decks that can chain activations and need cheap, repeatable library control. In Modern, Legacy, and Vintage, the effect is simply too slow and too mana-intensive relative to the format's power baseline — Facet Reader won't make those 60-card lists. Pioneer and Oathbreaker follow the same logic as Commander: playable only if the deck is built around what it does.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.09 bulk tier
At $0.09, Facet Reader is deep bulk — you're buying a playset for the price of a pack of gum. That price is stable because demand is narrow and supply is abundant; don't expect movement in either direction.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.