Otherworldly Gaze
Instant
Surveil 3. (Look at the top three cards of your library, then put any number of them into your graveyard and the rest on top of your library in any order.)
Flashback 
(You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.)
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Secret Lair Drop
- Price
- $9.49
- EDHREC rank
- #2497
Otherworldly Gaze lets you look at the top three cards of your library and arrange them in any order — repeatable with flashback for one blue mana — which is the kind of setup engine that graveyard and spell-count commanders run as a matter of course. Neerdiv, Devious Diver shows why: a single copy gives you two cracks at stacking your library for essentially nothing.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Neerdiv, Devious Diver
Neerdiv, Devious Diver rewards casting instants and sorceries from the graveyard, and Otherworldly Gaze is one of the cheapest cards in the format that files itself into the yard while doing meaningful work — the flashback doubles your spell count for near-zero mana investment.
Mirko, Obsessive Theorist
Mirko, Obsessive Theorist mills opponents whenever you discard, and Otherworldly Gaze stacks the top of your library so the cards you're binning are the ones you actually want there — precision setup for a deck that lives in the graveyard.
Octavia, Living Thesis
Octavia, Living Thesis counts each instant and sorcery cast from the graveyard, so the flashback on Otherworldly Gaze is a free point toward her trigger at the cost of a single blue mana.
Neera, Wild Mage
Neera, Wild Mage cascades off the top of your library, and Otherworldly Gaze does the quiet work of making sure whatever she hits is worth cascading into — stack the top, fire Neera, collect the payoff.
Runo Stromkirk
Runo Stromkirk wants the biggest creature possible sitting on top of the library on upkeep, and Otherworldly Gaze is one of the cleanest ways to guarantee that without spending a real card — flashback means you can do it twice.
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 |
Otherworldly Gaze is legal across every major format, but Commander is where it earns its slot — a singleton environment rewards repeatable library manipulation more than anywhere else, and the flashback effectively doubles the card's utility for one blue mana. In Pauper it competes in the same space as other cheap blue cantrips and sees play in graveyard-centric builds where the flashback clause is the entire reason to run it over Preordain. Modern and Legacy have access to stronger options for pure velocity, so Otherworldly Gaze mostly shows up there as a graveyard-synergy piece rather than a library-filter staple. It's not a Pioneer roleplayer of note — the graveyard decks in that format want more direct payoffs — but it's perfectly castable if a brew needs it.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Preordain does comparable library filtering for one mana without the flashback, and at a fraction of the cost it's the default replacement if you just need to smooth draws. If the graveyard interaction is the actual draw, Thought Scour mills two and replaces itself for one blue mana — you lose the stacking precision of Otherworldly Gaze but gain a card in hand and two cards in the yard, which is the right trade-off for pure graveyard-count strategies.
Price Context
Current price
$9.49 mid tier
At $9.49, Otherworldly Gaze sits in the mid tier — noticeable for a common-rarity spell but not unreasonable for a card pulling near-80% inclusion rates in its top Commander builds. The price reflects demand from graveyard and spell-count strategies rather than scarcity, so it's unlikely to crater as long as Neerdiv, Devious Diver and similar commanders stay popular.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Neerdiv, Devious Diver
- Mirko, Obsessive Theorist
- Octavia, Living Thesis
- Neera, Wild Mage
- Runo Stromkirk
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.