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Talas Researcher

Creature — Human Pirate Wizard

{T}: Draw a card. Activate only during your turn, before attackers are declared.

CMC
5
Mana cost
{4}{U}
Color identity
U
Rarity
uncommon
Set
The List
Price
$0.16
EDHREC rank
#28787
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Talas Researcher card art
Talas Researcher puts a free loot on the stack the moment it enters, then becomes a permanent discard outlet that keeps your hand churning — the kind of incremental value that compounds fast in any deck that wants cards in the graveyard or hand manipulation. The reason to run it is Mind Over Matter: discard a card, tap anything, repeat, and you have the foundation of a game-ending engine on a two-mana body.

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 not legal
oathbreaker legal

Talas Researcher is a Commander card through and through — the format's longer games give its looting ability time to matter, and the singleton graveyard and combo decks that populate the format are exactly where a cheap, persistent discard outlet earns its slot. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal but competes with a much higher bar for two-mana creatures, and the lack of immediate board impact makes it a non-starter in those formats. Oathbreaker mirrors Commander closely enough that the same logic applies: if your planeswalker gameplan wants hand filtering or a discard trigger, Talas Researcher fits.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.16 bulk tier

At $0.16, Talas Researcher is pure bulk — the kind of card you pick up as an afterthought and rarely regret. Given that it slots into any blue combo or graveyard deck with almost no opportunity cost, that price is unlikely to move meaningfully unless a high-profile commander suddenly makes it a staple.

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Sources

Mentioned

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