Scry is a keyword action with one instruction: look at the top cards of your library and decide which of them you want to draw next. The Comprehensive Rules define it in one line, "To scry N means to look at the top N cards of your library, then put any number of them on the bottom of your library in any order and the rest on top of your library in any order" (701.22a), and the reminder text on Opt says the scry 1 version in two sentences: "Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card on the bottom." Scry is not a draw, it happens when the spell or ability that says it resolves, and a card you bottom is gone until you shuffle. Everything else follows from two other rules: your library is a hidden zone you normally may not look at (400.2, 401.2), and a card only counts as drawn when a draw puts it into your hand (121.1).
This guide is part of our MTG keywords and mechanics glossary, the index of every mechanic guide on Mana Grove.
Below: how scry works and the edge cases players get wrong, how scry differs from surveil, the list of things scry does not do, the scry cards Commander players actually run, read from our card database, and a real heuristic for deciding whether the card on top stays there.
How scry actually works
Three steps, and why looking is not revealing
Scry N is three actions in a fixed order. You look at the top N cards, and only you look: rule 401.5 treats an effect that lets a player "look at the top card of their library" as something different from playing with it revealed, and rule 701.20a defines revealing as showing a card "to all players". You put any number of them on the bottom in any order, where any number includes none and includes all of them, and rule 401.4 adds that the owner "doesn't reveal the order in which the cards go into the library". Then you put the rest on top in any order, so with scry 2 and two keepers you choose which one you draw first. That last choice is why scry 2 is far more than twice scry 1.
Scry is a keyword action, not a keyword ability: it lives in section 701 of the rules with destroy, sacrifice and shuffle, something a card tells you to do rather than something a permanent has. Preordain says "Scry 2, then draw a card"; Viscera Seer says "Sacrifice a creature: Scry 1". Our card data records it in the keywords column all the same, which is how the counts below were made.
Scry is not a draw
The card you leave on top is not in your hand yet. Rule 121.1 says "A player draws a card by putting the top card of their library into their hand", and rule 121.5 spells out the consequence: an effect that arranges cards without using the word "draw" has not drawn them. So scry never triggers "whenever you draw a card" abilities, never counts against a one-card-per-turn draw limit, and never loses you the game on an empty library. On Preordain the scry and the draw are two separate things in the order written (608.2c): you arrange first, then you draw the card you left on top.
It happens on resolution, so it can be answered first
A scry on a spell happens when the spell resolves (608.1). A scry on a triggered ability, such as the "When this land enters, scry 1" on Temple of Epiphany or the upkeep trigger on Thassa, God of the Sea, goes on the stack first (603.3) and resolves only after every player passes. In that gap an opponent can shuffle your library, mill you or make you draw, and you look at whatever is on top when the ability finally resolves.
Multiple scry instructions do not merge
"Scry 1, then scry 1" is not scry 2. Each instruction is its own look followed by its own decision, and the second look happens after the first placement. Cryptic Annelid prints the point on the card: "scry 1, then scry 2, then scry 3" shows you up to six cards over three steps, never six at once. Two Temples entering together give you two scry 1 triggers that resolve one after the other (608.1), not one scry 2, and each is a separate scry event for anything that triggers "whenever you scry" (701.22d).
A short or empty library
Scry 2 with one card left looks at one card: "Any part of an instruction that's impossible to perform is ignored" (101.3). Scry 1 with no cards left looks at nothing, but the scry still counts: rule 701.22d says an ability that triggers whenever a player scries "triggers after the process described in rule 701.22a is complete, even if some or all of those actions were impossible." So Matoya, Archon Elder, "Whenever you scry or surveil, draw a card", still draws after a scry on an empty library, and that draw is what loses you the game (121.4). Cards that count "the number of cards looked at while scrying this way", such as Elvish Mariner and Elminster, simply get a smaller X.
Scry 0 is not a scry
Rule 701.22b: "If a player is instructed to scry 0, no scry event occurs. Abilities that trigger whenever a player scries won't trigger." It comes up more than it sounds. The Scarab God has you scry X where X is your number of Zombies, so with none you do not scry at all, and Kozilek's Command with X at zero makes its target scry 0 and then draw. In both cases the scry-triggered abilities stay quiet.
Several players scrying at once
Myr Custodian has you scry 2 and then lets each opponent scry 1. When several players scry at the same time, rule 701.22c has them look at the same time, decide in APNAP order (the active player first, then the others in turn order, 101.4) and move their cards at the same time.
Scry vs surveil
Surveil looks like scry and differs on one word. "To surveil N means to look at the top N cards of your library, then put any number of them into your graveyard and the rest on top of your library in any order" (701.25a). Scry sends the cards you do not keep to the bottom of your library; surveil sends them to your graveyard, which makes it a graveyard tool as much as a filter.
| Scry | Surveil | |
|---|---|---|
| Rule | 701.22 | 701.25 |
| Cards you look at | The top N, privately | The top N, privately |
| Cards you keep | Back on top, in any order | Back on top, in any order |
| Cards you do not keep | The bottom of your library, in any order | Your graveyard |
| Told to do it with 0 | Nothing happens and nothing triggers (701.22b) | Nothing happens and nothing triggers (701.25c) |
| With an empty library | Still counts for "whenever you scry" (701.22d) | Still counts for "whenever you surveil" (701.25d) |
| Best in | Any deck that wants its next draw to be the right one | Decks that also want cards in the graveyard: reanimation, flashback, delirium |
The two are separate keyword actions, so a card that triggers "whenever you scry" does not see a surveil, and the other way around. The payoffs that want both say so in their text: Matoya, Archon Elder and Planetarium of Wan Shi Tong both trigger "whenever you scry or surveil". In a graveyard deck surveil is usually the better card at the same cost. Everywhere else the two are close, with one catch at a Commander table: a creature you surveil away sits in your graveyard, where an opponent's reanimation spell can take it, while a card you scry to the bottom stays in your library.
Explore, the closest keyword among our other guides, reveals the top card instead of looking at it privately and can put a land into your hand; our explore guide covers it. Thrasios, Triton Hero, "Scry 1, then reveal the top card of your library", chains scry with a reveal: arrange privately, then show everyone whatever is on top once you have.
What scry does not do
- It does not draw. The card stays in the library until something draws it (121.1, 121.5): no draw triggers, no draw restrictions, no loss from an empty library.
- It does not reveal anything. Looking is private (401.5, 701.20a), and the order you bottom cards in stays yours (401.4).
- It does not shuffle. A bottomed card stays on the bottom until an effect shuffles your library, which also means an opponent's shuffle undoes your work.
- It does not put cards into your hand or graveyard. That is a draw, or surveil, or a different effect.
- Two scries do not add up. Scry 1 twice is two looks at the top card, each its own scry event (701.22d), never a scry 2.
- Scry 0 does nothing. No look, no placement, no trigger (701.22b).
The best scry cards in Commander
Our card database holds 425 Commander-legal cards with the scry keyword, and 420 of them carry a numbered scry instruction on their front face: 226 scry 1, 153 scry 2, 22 scry 3, three scry 4, one scry 5 and 15 scry X. Of those 420, by colour that is 141 blue, 75 white, 68 colourless, 53 multicolour, 32 red, 31 black and 25 green cards, and 28 of them are lands, ten of those the Temples. The only scry 5 is Nissa's Revelation; two of the three scry 4 spells are Foresee and Tamiyo's Epiphany, both "Scry 4, then draw two cards." These are the scry cards Commander players run most, ordered by how often they appear in Commander decks.
| Card | Cost | What scry is doing for it |
|---|---|---|
| Path of Ancestry | Land | Scry 1 whenever its mana casts a creature that shares a type with your commander |
| Opt | {U} | Scry 1, then draw, at instant speed: the cleanest one-mana filter in the game |
| Preordain | {U} | Scry 2, then draw: three cards seen for one mana, the best one kept |
| Viscera Seer | {B} | A free sacrifice outlet that turns every death into a scry 1 |
| Temple of Epiphany | Land | One of ten Temples: a two-colour land that scries 1 as it enters tapped |
| Read the Bones | {2}{B} | Scry 2, then draw two: four cards seen, the best two kept, for 2 life |
| Serum Visions | {U} | Draw a card, then scry 2: the draw first, then a look at your next two |
| Rivendell | Land | Scry 2 for {1}{U} whenever you control a legendary creature |
| Lifecrafter's Bestiary | {3} | Scry 1 every upkeep, then a card for each creature spell you pay {G} for |
| The Scarab God | {3}{U}{B} | Scry X each upkeep where X is your Zombie count, and scry 0 with none |
| Thassa, God of the Sea | {2}{U} | Scry 1 every upkeep on an indestructible enchantment |
| Thrasios, Triton Hero | {G}{U} | Scry 1, then reveal: a land lands, anything else is drawn, for {4} as often as you can pay |
Then the cards that pay you for scrying. Matoya draws a card whenever you scry or surveil. Arwen Undómiel puts a +1/+1 counter on a creature, Celeborn the Wise grows by the number of cards looked at, Galadriel of Lothlórien lets you reveal the top card afterwards and put a land onto the battlefield, and Planetarium of Wan Shi Tong goes furthest: whenever you scry or surveil, look at the top card and cast it for free, once each turn. Because these trigger per scry event, they want many small scries rather than one big one.
Keep it or bottom it: a heuristic
Nothing about scry is hard to execute. The decision is the whole mechanic, so here is a way to make it that does not rely on feel.
- Count lands first. Add the lands on your battlefield to the lands in your hand. If the total is below what your next two turns of spells need, a land on top stays and a spell you cannot cast yet goes to the bottom. If you already have enough lands for everything in hand, a land on top is almost always bottomed.
- Ask what you need next turn, not what is best in a vacuum. A removal spell when an opponent's commander just landed beats a bigger card you cannot use yet. Scry is a question about your next draw step, not about the rest of the game.
- Compare the known card with a fresh draw. The card on top is known; the card under it is an average draw from the rest of your library. Keep the top card only if it beats that average right now. A second copy of a legendary permanent you already control, a seven-mana finisher on two lands, or a card with no legal target is below average, so it goes.
- With scry 2, order the keepers. If both stay, the one you want first goes on top. If one stays, the other goes to the bottom without hesitation; leaving a weak card on top "to protect the good one" costs you a full draw.
- Scry before a draw is a different decision from scry after a draw. On Preordain the scry comes first and the draw follows immediately, so the card you leave on top is in your hand seconds later: judge it as "do I want this now?" On Serum Visions the draw comes first, so the scry 2 sets up next turn's draw step and you judge the two cards against next turn's mana. And if a fetch land, a tutor or a wheel will shuffle your library before your next draw, the arrangement is gone: scry toward a card you can use before the shuffle, or treat the look as information only.
- Repeated scry is a licence to bottom. With a scry 1 every upkeep from Thassa or Lifecrafter's Bestiary, bottom anything that is not exactly what you need. Each turn brings a fresh look, and the bottomed card would have cost you a draw.
Using scry in a deck follows the same logic. In a two-colour Commander deck a Temple is a land you were already playing with a free scry attached, so the only question is whether your curve can afford a tapped land. In blue, Opt and Preordain are one-mana cards that make the rest of your deck better. Viscera Seer earns its slot in decks that never think of themselves as scry decks, because a free sacrifice outlet that also filters is still a free sacrifice outlet. Build around the payoff creatures only with a commander that scries every turn: three scry 1 triggers a turn is an engine, one is not. Browse the Commander hub for each commander's page.
Frequently asked questions
What does scry do in MTG?
To scry N is to look at the top N cards of your library, then put any number of them on the bottom in any order and the rest on top in any order (Comprehensive Rules 701.22a). Scry 1 is simply "look at the top card, keep it there or put it on the bottom."
What is the difference between scry and surveil?
Both look privately at the top N cards and put the ones you keep back on top in any order. Scry puts the others on the bottom of your library (701.22a); surveil puts them into your graveyard (701.25a), which also feeds graveyard strategies. A "whenever you scry" ability does not trigger on a surveil.
Is scry a draw?
No. A draw puts the top card of your library into your hand (121.1); scry only arranges the library. The card you keep on top is drawn later, by your draw step or by a spell that says draw. Preordain's "Scry 2, then draw a card" is a scry followed by a separate draw.
Do two scry 1 effects make a scry 2?
No. Each scry is its own look and its own placement, one after the other. You may see two different cards, or the same card twice if you kept it on top the first time, but never two cards at once.
Can I scry with an empty library?
You can be told to, and the scry counts as having happened even though there was nothing to look at (701.22d, 101.3). It does not lose you the game; only a draw from an empty library does that (121.4).
Does scry 0 trigger "whenever you scry" abilities?
No. Rule 701.22b says no scry event occurs when a player is instructed to scry 0, so nothing triggers.
A note on the name: Scry, our card search
Most card searches start with a word you already know. The interesting ones start with an effect you cannot name. Scry, the search behind our card browser, matches on what the rules text does rather than on the keyword, so a question in plain language works, and this is a live search you can open: look at the top card of my library and put it on the bottom, which brings back the scry cards alongside the cards that arrange the top of the library without using the word. We borrowed the name from the mechanic, not the other way around: the keyword action came first, and nothing in the rules sections above refers to the product. Scry reads the English rules text, so a description of the effect in English gets the best results. How Scry reads a question has more examples.
Build a deck that knows its next draw
Open a list in the deck builder and count the cards that look at the top of your library. A deck with three or four cheap scry effects and a Temple or two turns more of its draw steps into the card it needed, which is the quiet edge behind a blue list that never seems to stumble. Browse the public decks pages to see how other builders spend those slots. Grover can take a brief such as "give this deck more ways to fix its draws without slowing its curve" and propose swaps in plain language, and the Suggestions tab, powered by Tutor, scores them against the rest of your list. Try the deck builder without an account.
Create a free Mana Grove account to build with the full deck builder and format legality checks, see plans and pricing for more time with Grover, Scry and Tutor, and read the rest of the MTG keywords and mechanics glossary, including explore and cascade, two other mechanics that live on the top of your library.
Sources
- Magic: The Gathering Comprehensive Rules, effective September 25, 2026: https://magic.wizards.com/en/rules. Read on October 13, 2026. Rule 701.22 (Scry) including 701.22a, 701.22b, 701.22c and 701.22d, rule 701.25 (Surveil) including 701.25a, 701.25c and 701.25d, rule 701.20a (Reveal), rules 400.2, 401.2, 401.4 and 401.5 (the library as a hidden zone, arranging and looking at cards in it), rules 121.1, 121.4 and 121.5 (drawing), rules 608.1 and 608.2c (resolving spells and abilities), rule 603.3 (triggered abilities and the stack), rule 101.3 (impossible instructions) and rule 101.4 (APNAP order) are quoted or paraphrased above.
- Mana Grove card database, MTGJSON build of September 14, 2026: the scry keyword, the Commander legality, the mana cost and the rules text of every card named above, the count of 425 Commander-legal cards with the scry keyword, the 420 whose front-face rules text carries a numbered scry instruction with the split by scry number and by colour, and the count of 28 Commander-legal lands with scry including the ten Temples, each card name counted once and a double-faced card by its front face. Commander play frequency is the deck-inclusion popularity rank carried in the same data.
This article is updated when the Comprehensive Rules change the scry entry or when a set adds a scry card worth listing. The date at the top is the last revision.