Possibly more so with any other color in Magic the Gathering, Blue is a force to be feared if it has the right spells at the right time. Tutor cards are likely to add a level of consistency to your deck that no other types of Magic cards can add.
Whether we’re playing standard, modern, or commander, we’ve all had that moment where we need that one card to win the game. However, we don’t have to rely on luck all the time.
Blue tutor Cards can help you get the spells that you need to march straight ahead onto victory. Below are some of the best tutors that blue mages like you and I should be aware of when we try to build our blue decks.
Honorable Mention
Polymorph
| Recommended Formats: | Commander, Modern, Penny Dreadful |
Destroy target creature. It can’t be regenerated. Its controller reveals cards from the top of their library until they reveal a creature card. The player puts that card onto the battlefield, then shuffles all other cards revealed this way into their library.
Wizards.com – Gatherer – Magic: The Gathering.[1]
Pros
Cons
- Decks with “Teferi, Time Raveler” that can cast Polymorph and use Teferi to make sure your combo works.
- Commander decks that want to use Polymorph to summon high mana cost creatures like the “Worldspine Wurm” or “Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre”.
- Battling against decks that are focusing on Instants, Sorcery, and Artifacts that may disrupt the combo.
- Playing against Mill decks due to the possibility of your opponent milling your card combo before casting Polymorph.
Due to the strict deck-building requirements needed to turn “Polymorph” into a true blue tutor, it doesn’t quite make the list for me.
However, Polymorph can sometimes be the most powerful card in your deck if you’re built to abuse it!
Polymorph may initially seem costly for a blue tutor card, but if you know you are going to be getting a game-winning threat with it every time, 4 mana is a steal.
This card works great if you have only one creature in your deck, let’s say, Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, maybe?
You typically don’t play Polymorph to destroy your opponent’s creatures, instead, you are looking to destroy your own creatures. If you are new to Magic and don’t know the trick behind Polymorph decks, it goes a little something like this.
But wait, if you only play 1 creature in your deck, what do you target when you cast Polymorph?
If you play a deck with only a single creature in it, then you are always guaranteed to get that creature and put it straight onto the battlefield whenever you cast Polymorph targeting a creature you control.
Instants, sorceries, or enchantments that produce token creatures or creature lands (Manlands) are all ways to technically not have other creatures in your deck but still give you a way to have creatures to use as targets for Polymorph.
In a pinch, the card can also attack as removal for your opponent’s creature if that has something in play that is far too dangerous. Sure, they will get to replace it with a random creature from their deck, but more than likely, whatever they get is going to be way less scary than what you just destroyed… Hopefully.
Although not considered by many to be a proper tutor, I think it’s still worth mentioning for those players looking to play something a little bit spicy in blue – Whoever says blue is boring hasn’t played with a Polymorph deck.
1. Reshape
| Recommended Formats: | Commander, Penny Dreadful |
Search your library for an artifact card with mana value X or less, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle.
Pros
Cons
- Combo-focused decks with cards like Faith’s Reward.
- Commander decks that focus on controlling the moves of your opponents and slowing down the phase of the game until you can execute your combo.
- Playing against any heavy-creature green decks. This card may be just too slow against decks that deal tons of damage before you get to your win condition.
Aside from the mana cost, you also need to sacrifice an artifact to cast Reshape.
This tutor card allows you to search your library for an artifact with the mana cost of X. After getting the artifact card you need, the card will be put directly into the battlefield rather than your hand.
The cost of the Reshaped card spiked in 2019 with the release of the card “Bolas’s Citadel” and helped to form a deck that dominated the modern meta until Mox Opal was banned back in 2020.
Artifact-themed decks are still a popular idea to build a deck around and so the value of this card is always worth considering when looking for a tutor for those blue decks
2. Solve the Equation
| Recommended Formats: | Commander, Penny Dreadful, Historic, Pioneer |
Search your library for an instant or sorcery card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.
Pros
Cons
- This card is great for getting powerful sorcery and instant cards that can heavily damage your opponent.
- Solve the Equation can be used for getting counter cards and preventing your opponent from making a play.
- Creature-focused decks. This card can only search for Sorcery and Instant cards, preventing synergy with pure creature decks.
One of the great tutor cards in the Strixhaven set is Solve the Equation.
This card lets you search your library for Instants and Sorcery cards and put them in your hand. This card is a great addition for spell-focused players.
For a cheap mana cost, you can get powerful spells that can lead you to victory. Aside from this, you can also secure your victory by simply getting a counterspell to stop your opponent’s getting in between you and victory.
3. Transmute Artifact
| Recommended Formats: | Commander |
Sacrifice an artifact. If you do, search your library for an artifact card.
Pros
Cons
- This card is great for getting more Mana Rocks during EDH/ Commander play. Mana Rocks can help give you the necessary mana needed for making huge plays.
- Transmute Artifact synergizes well with artifact-focused decks. You can instantly put your powerful artifacts into play by sacrificing an artifact with the same mana cost.
- Decks that do not focus on artifacts. You have to sacrifice an artifact card to put another artifact into play, which reduces its synergy with spell-focused or creature-focused decks.
Mystical Teachings lets you search for any Instant card and put it into your hand.
While this card has a higher mana cost compared to other Blue Tutor cards, players still use it in the Pauper format because of its affordable price.
For 1 Black Mana and 5 Mana of Any Color, you can play Mystical Teachings from your graveyard. This card is great for Grixis Control decks which have been a threat in the Pauper League in MTGO.
4. Mystical Teachings
| Recommended Formats: | Commander, Penny Dreadful, Pauper, |
Search your library for an instant card or a card with flash, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.
Pros
Cons
- This card is great for Grixis Control decks in Pauper. While it has a high mana cost, it is still great for getting cards that can counter and control your opponent’s win conditions.
- Mystical Teachings has high synergy with Instant Cards and Spell slinger decks. If you want to build a deck focusing on Instant Cards, this tutor can be a significant addition.
- Mystical Teachings can only search for Instant Cards so it does not have high synergy with artifact or creature decks.
Mystical Teachings lets you search for any Instant card and put it into your hand. While this card has a higher mana cost compared to other Blue Tutor cards, players still use it in the Pauper format because of its affordable price.
For 1 Black Mana and 5 Mana of Any Color, you can play Mystical Teachings from your graveyard. This card is great for Grixis Control decks which have been a threat in the Pauper League in MTGO.
5. Fabricate
| Recommended Formats: | Commander |
Search your library for an artifact card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.
Pros
Cons
- This card has high synergy with Mono-blue decks in the Commander format because of powerful artifacts like Mindslaver.
- Fabricate is great for searching artifact cards that can give you more mana and ramp up during the early game.
- This card is not so great for aggro decks, the Fabricate is typically used to ramp up and control your opponent’s decks and win the game.
Another tutor card for Artifact players is Fabricate.
This sorcery card instantly brings your desired artifact to hand after casting it. Players can counter this card but this tutor card can help you get your win conditions easily.
We typically see fabricate in mono-blue Tron modern decks. The Fabricate and Mono-blue Tron decks dominated the latest MTGO Modern League. You can also use Fabricate on Mono-blue Karn decks in Legacy Format.
6. Tinker
| Recommended Formats: | Vintage |
Search your library for an artifact card, put that card onto the battlefield, then shuffle.
Pros
Cons
- Even though it is restricted in Vintage format, some players still use this card to summon powerful Artifacts for a lower mana cost.
- Tinker is banned in both Legacy and Commander. It is not legal in Modern play as well. However, a community-made format called Premodern accepts Tinker as a playable card.
Do you enjoy giving your opponent a hard time deciding?
Then this card is for you. Intuition lets you pick three cards in your library and reveal them to your opponent. Your opponent will have to choose one from the three cards and you get to put that card in your hand.
This card is also great for decks that allow you to cast from your graveyard because the other two cards that you pick instantly go to your graveyard. Players usually use Intuition in Legacy and Vintage Formats.
7. Intuition
| Recommended Formats: | Commander, Legacy, Vintage |
Search your library for three cards and reveal them. Target opponent chooses one. Put that card into your hand and the rest into your graveyard. Then shuffle.
Pros
Cons
- Intuition is great for Omni-Tell decks in Legacy because you can cast powerful creatures like Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath from your graveyard.
- Many players also use Intuition with the Underworld Breach card so you can cast all of your cards from your graveyard.
- Decks that do not recast from their graveyard because you risk putting the other two cards that your opponent did not choose in your graveyard.
Do you enjoy giving your opponent a hard time deciding?
Then this card is for you. Intuition lets you pick three cards in your library and reveal them to your opponent. Your opponent will have to choose one from the three cards and you get to put that card in your hand.
This card is also great for decks that allow you to cast from your graveyard because the other two cards that you pick instantly go to your graveyard. Players usually use Intuition in Legacy and Vintage Formats.
8. Personal Tutor
| Recommended Formats: | Legacy, Commander |
Search your library for a sorcery card, reveal it, then shuffle and put that card on top.
Pros
Cons
- Intuition is great for Omni-Tell decks in Legacy because you can cast powerful creatures like Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath from your graveyard.
- Many players also use Intuition with the Underworld Breach card so you can cast all of your cards from your graveyard.
- Decks that do not recast from their graveyard because you risk putting the other two cards that your opponent did not choose in your graveyard.
Personal Tutor is one of the best tutor cards for blue players because of its low mana cost.
For only one blue mana, you can search your library for any sorcery card and put it on the top of your deck.
One of the famous legacy decks that use Personal Tutor is the Doomsday deck. This card lets you cast the Doomsday card and possibly win the game. This card is a low mana tutor card that can bring you powerful sorcery cards that can overturn your game.
9. Mystical Tutor
| Recommended Formats: | Commander, Vintage |
Search your library for an instant or sorcery card, reveal it, then shuffle and put that card on top.
Pros
Cons
- This card is great for any copy, mill, or spell-focused decks because it lets you get the spell cards for only one mana cost.
- Mystical Tutor is also great for getting counter cards and preventing your opponents from making a play on their turn.
- Decks that are focusing on creatures, because this card focuses on searching for instant and sorcery cards.
What is better than a tutor card that only costs 1 mana?
A tutor card that can search for Sorcery and Instant Cards, of course. Mystical Tutor is a pocket pick for most blue players because it is incredibly cheap to cast.
Mystical Tutor is only legal in Commander or EDH. The Wizards of the Coast also restricted this card in the Vintage Format.
The Mystical Tutor has high synergy with any commander deck containing blue cards, especially with self-mill decks.
Why Are Blue Tutors Important?
No matter what color deck you play, Tutor cards help you get closer to your winning condition.
Blue players focus on controlling their opponents and the flow of the game. Blue Tutor Cards help you get those necessary Instants or Sorcery cards needed to prevent your opponent’s gaining control and winning the game.
Some Tutor cards are so incredibly powerful that the Wizards of the Coast have to ban them in multiple formats.
An example would be the Tinker card which could help you summon powerful artifacts by turn 2. This just proves how powerful Tutor Cards are when used correctly.
If you have an empty couple of slots in the blue deck you are trying to put together, you should maybe think about adding some tutors to add that next level of consistency to your game plan!