mtg how does sylvan library work with dredge

Sylvan Library is not necessarily a staple of Legacy, but it’s a powerful little bit to any deck that can support it, and it sees a healthy amount of play to this day in any deck that has green. And as with a number of these cards, it’s had legs to its efficacy and usage over the years: what is effectively no worse than a free Brainstorm is pretty powerful when you’re getting it every turn! The ability to pay life to keep more than just one card also gives decks the ability to refuel out of nowhere…particularly since Sylvan Library is green without a strict color requirement, meaning that decks with a toe in that color have the ability to further fuel their fires. Sylvan Library is an interesting curio from the old days of Magic, when flavor and weirdness tended to dictate what cards did more than rigid color philosophies.

In fact, it’s probably one of the best card advantage and selection tools in 93/94 and similar formats. That’s actually very valuable, sometimes allowing aggressive green decks to keep up somewhat with blue card drawing in older formats. As such, the Library offers a very powerful option for a low cost, in a color you might not expect to see it. This was a power that wasn’t generally available for most decks until later on: decks with blue used the likes of Brainstorm after its release, and the next card that stayed on the table and did it so effectively was probably Sensei’s Divining Top. Sylvan Library is good even if you balk at paying four (or eight!) life, because you always have the option to simply arrange your upcoming draw steps for no cost, turn after turn. It’s interesting to note that abilities similar to Sylvan Library have actually reappeared in green for various recent cards, including thoroughly new-style designs with modernist keywords, like Nessian Wanderer.

Mtg how does sylvan library work with dredge