Obsessive Search
Instant
Draw a card.
Madness 
(If you discard this card, discard it into exile. When you do, cast it for its madness cost or put it into your graveyard.)
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Dominaria Remastered
- Price
- $0.07
- EDHREC rank
- #7724
Obsessive Search draws a card for free when you're hellbent — the catch is you have to actually be hellbent to flip it from an instant into a zero-mana cantrip. In Octavia, Living Thesis builds that burn through hand resources aggressively, that condition is a feature, not a bug.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Octavia, Living Thesis
Octavia, Living Thesis decks cast spells relentlessly to trigger the commander's power-setting ability, and Obsessive Search turns an empty hand from a liability into a zero-mana card that keeps the engine spinning.
Geralf, the Fleshwright
Geralf, the Fleshwright cares about casting instant and sorcery spells to generate Zombie tokens, and Obsessive Search slides into that gameplan as a free spell when you're hellbent — triggering Geralf, the Fleshwright while refueling at no mana cost.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Obsessive Search occupies a narrow niche: hellbent-matter decks and spell-count engines that actively want a cantrip costing zero mana once the hand is empty. Outside that context, a conditional draw-one rarely earns a slot over unconditional options. In Pauper, the hellbent condition is harder to engineer consistently across a 60-card singleton equivalent, though aggressive blue shells that pitch cards freely can make it work. Legacy and Vintage both have access to Obsessive Search, but the competition from Brainstorm and Ponder makes it irrelevant in those formats. Oathbreaker follows the same logic as Commander — viable only in dedicated hellbent builds.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.07 bulk tier
At $0.07, Obsessive Search is deep bulk — buy a playset for the price of a pack reroll. Price stability is essentially guaranteed since demand is narrow and supply is abundant, so there's no urgency either way.
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Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.