Ponder
Sorcery
Look at the top three cards of your library, then put them back in any order. You may shuffle.
Draw a card.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Lorwyn
- Price
- $2.79
- EDHREC rank
- #146
Ponder looks at three cards, orders or shuffles them, and draws one — all for a single blue mana, which is about as efficient as cantrips get. It's a staple in every format that allows it, and Storm, Force of Nature decks in particular treat it as a core engine piece rather than a flex slot.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | banned |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Ponder is banned in Modern, which tells you everything about its power level — one mana to see four cards and sculpt your draw was deemed too consistent for a format that punishes slow starts. Vintage and Legacy both allow it, where it sits among the best cantrips in the game alongside Brainstorm. Commander gives it a pass because you're playing 100-card singletons against three opponents, so the raw card-selection ceiling matters more than the speed advantage, and no single tutor-light cantrip breaks the format.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Storm, Force of Nature
Storm, Force of Nature cares about casting spells in sequence and building storm count, and Ponder's ability to stack the top of your library before you start chaining means you're never walking into a blank when the engine is live.
Shiko and Narset, Unified
Shiko and Narset, Unified rewards casting noncreature spells and benefits from tight sequencing, so Ponder does double duty — it filters toward the spells you need and itself counts toward any spell-count payoffs.
Elsha, Threefold Master
Elsha, Threefold Master can cast noncreature spells from the top of the library, so Ponder's ability to arrange the top card isn't just selection — it's directly setting up what Elsha will cast for free on the following turn.
Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign
Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign puts the top card of your library into play for free if its mana value is odd, so Ponder's stack-manipulation is effectively a tutor effect — put the right odd-cost spell on top, attack, get it free.
Aminatou, Veil Piercer
Aminatou, Veil Piercer generates value from cards with specific conditions in exile and the graveyard, and Ponder's shuffle clause can reset a cluttered top-of-library to find the pieces Aminatou needs to fire.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$2.79 cheap tier
At $2.79, Ponder sits firmly in the cheap tier — affordable enough that there's no reason to omit it from any blue Commander deck that wants card selection. Given its banned status in Modern, this price is essentially the floor for a card that sees play everywhere it's legal.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.