Portent
Sorcery
Look at the top three cards of target player's library, then put them back in any order. You may have that player shuffle.
Draw a card at the beginning of the next turn's upkeep.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Commander 2018
- Price
- $0.48
- EDHREC rank
- #3898
Portent fixes the top of your library, puts a dead card on the bottom, and costs a single blue mana — the delayed draw is the only real cost, and in Commander that delay rarely matters. Aminatou, Veil Piercer turns that setup into a scry-on-demand loop, making Portent one of the most efficient cantrip-style enablers in the format.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Aminatou, Veil Piercer
Aminatou, Veil Piercer cares deeply about what's sitting on top of your library, and Portent lets you sculpt that top card before her triggered abilities fire — it's a one-mana setup piece for her entire engine.
Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign
Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign rewards you for having an odd-mana-cost card on top at combat, and Portent is the cheapest way to guarantee that condition is met before you attack.
Zevlor, Elturel Exile
Zevlor, Elturel Exile copies spells that target a single opponent and sends them to each other opponent, so Portent's top-deck manipulation hitting multiple libraries simultaneously makes it a surprisingly strong value piece here.
Neera, Wild Mage
Neera, Wild Mage replaces spells you cast with random cards from your library, and Portent lets you pre-load the top of your deck with something worth hitting — turning Neera's chaos into controlled chaos.
Xanathar, Guild Kingpin
Xanathar, Guild Kingpin lets you play cards off the top of opponents' libraries, and Portent can be pointed at an opponent's deck to bury their best card and expose something exploitable.
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, Portent earns its slot in any deck that cares about top-of-library manipulation — it's a one-mana spell that filters, sets up, and replaces itself next draw step, which is a clean exchange. Legacy sees it occasionally in cantrip-dense blue decks where stacking Brainstorm effects matters, though Ponder and Preordain crowd it out of most lists. Pauper is where Portent has the most untapped potential, since the card-quality floor is lower and a one-mana scry-plus-draw is genuinely above rate. It's not legal in Modern, Pioneer, or Standard, so the conversation is entirely about older and eternal-adjacent formats.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.48 bulk tier
At $0.48, Portent is firmly bulk — you can pick up a playset without thinking about it. That price reflects its niche demand rather than power level; in the decks that want it, it overperforms its cost by a wide margin.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Aminatou, Veil Piercer
- Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign
- Zevlor, Elturel Exile
- Neera, Wild Mage
- Xanathar, Guild Kingpin
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.