MagicTheGathering.fyi

Scrivener

Creature — Human Wizard

When this creature enters, you may return target instant card from your graveyard to your hand.

CMC
5
Mana cost
{4}{U}
Color identity
U
Rarity
common
Set
Vintage Masters
Price
—
EDHREC rank
#22812
Buy on TCGplayer
Scrivener card art
Scrivener enters the battlefield and returns an instant from your graveyard to hand — a 3/3 body stapled to a Raise Dead for your best spell. The cost is five mana and the creature type restriction on what it can recur, which matters until you pair it with Ghostly Flicker and a mana engine and suddenly it doesn't matter at all.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern not legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper legal
oathbreaker legal

Scrivener is a Commander card through and through — the format's slower pace lets a five-mana creature actually resolve, and the infinite blink loops it enables with Ghostly Flicker are devastating at a singleton table where graveyard hate is spread thin. In Pauper it's seen genuine play as a combo enabler, since the format's common pool makes the blink package accessible and the life totals stay low enough that looping drain effects closes games. Legacy and Vintage are legal on paper, but Scrivener will never see a table in either — five mana for a 3/3 that recurs an instant is not a sentence those formats want to read.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

208 decks
DisplacePeregrine DrakeScrivener

DisplacePeregrine DrakeScrivener

Infinite LTB; Infinite ETB; Infinite storm count; Infinite mana lands you control can produce; Infinite magecraft triggers; Infinite blinking; Infinite landfall triggers; Infinite untap of lands you control

View on Commander Spellbook ↗
92 decks
Illusionist's StratagemPeregrine DrakeScrivener

Illusionist's StratagemPeregrine DrakeScrivener

Infinite card draw; Infinite draw triggers; Near-infinite LTB; Near-infinite blinking; Near-infinite landfall triggers; Near-infinite magecraft triggers; Near-infinite mana lands you control can produce; Near-infinite storm count; Near-infinite untap of lands you control

View on Commander Spellbook ↗

Price Context

Current price

unknown tier

Current price data isn't available for Scrivener, but as a common from a mid-2000s set it historically sits well under a dollar and should be easy to find in bulk. Pick it up physically rather than spending on a single order — it's the kind of card you find in a dime box.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

← All cards

Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.