Read the Tides
Sorcery
Choose one —
• Draw three cards.
• Return up to two target creatures to their owners' hands.
- CMC
- 6
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Core Set 2021
- Price
- $0.09
- EDHREC rank
- #22743
Read the Tides draws three cards and, if you chose creature, returns a creature to its owner's hand — six mana for a cantrip with a conditional bounce stapled on is not a good rate. Cheaper, unconditional draw spells exist at nearly every point on the curve, and this one asks too much mana to justify the flexibility.
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, Read the Tides is legal but rarely correct — six mana is a steep ask when Windfall, Fact or Fiction, and Drawn from Dreams all do more for less. Pauper is where it actually sees a home, since the card pool for blue draw at common is shallow enough that a modal spell drawing three is genuinely worth considering. In Legacy, Modern, and Vintage, it doesn't see play; those formats have access to Brainstorm, Ponder, and Ancestral Recall, and six mana at sorcery speed is unplayable at that competition level. Pioneer sits in the middle — legal, but outclassed by cheaper options without the commons-only restriction to make the tradeoff worthwhile.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.09 bulk tier
At $0.09, Read the Tides is deep bulk — the kind of card you pull from a box rather than buy. That price is stable because demand is low and supply is high; there's no spike scenario here.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.