MTG Salvation

Heya Guys, these SCD and MCD have been invaluable in helping me build and tune my cube but there are a few which I'm surprised are missing. One such card is Sylvan Library, I have a feeling this is because it is obviously good to most people so it hasn't come up for an in depth discussion.

However, I'd like to hear some thoughts on it as whenever I need to make room for alterations to my green section this card looks at me funny as no one's actually played with it yet.

My thoughts are that it's really good in an aggressive green deck which can draw a few cards from it without caring about the steep cost in life and that it gets worse as your deck gets slower. That being said it still turns your draw step into a pseudo-brainstorm (or maybe closer to ponder?) which can help to draw relevant spells later in the game.

It seems like everyone includes this card so please give me some idea of how its meant to be used and why it's in so many lists.

Thanks

Think about it with fetchlands and other shuffle effects, and think about it like a free sensei's diving top. It's a selection/draw engine in the color that needs it most. It also gets better with life gain.

So it plays well even if you never draw additional cards from it? Think I'm gonna have to force draft it next time I get the chance so I can make a better evaluation of it.

Thanks for the input.

Not only is the card good with shuffle effects but I've drawn extra cards from Sylvan Library many times. One of the top 5 green cube cards in my opinion.

There are games when you won't use it to draw cards, and it's still a very good card just for the selection, especially with shuffle effects (that are quite common in green, might I add). In games where you're not under pressure and can pay life for the cards, it becomes amazing.

It's great with shuffle effects and top effects are always nice, but the real reason this card is great is because you can draw extra cards off of it. It's surprisingly relevant a lot of the time.

If you look at a typical game of magic, most of the time you are playing only a land and one spell a turn. If you get to look at the top three of your library and get to choose which one of those cards you want to draw (the card you want to cast, or land you want to play), then you have basically drawn those cards and just stored them on the top of your library until you're ready to cast them . . . or shuffle them away. For two mana that is amazing. It's a great card.

What everyone else said. I rate it among the 10 best green cards and it's worth splashing for much of the time.

Cheers,
rant

This is exactly what I hoped to hear, it can stay and I'll look forward to running it in the future. Thanks guys.

@Rubin: Good point, there's only 10 fetchlands so that interaction isn't the most reliable but Green has a bunch of its own shuffle effects which I hadn't thought about.

One of my favorite green cards. Play it, and don't forget the card draw option - if you are not under immediate pressure, drawing one or even two additional cards can win games.

Real men take 8. That is all.

I love Sylvan Library. It's like a free Top activation every turn with the additional ability to draw extra cards. I probably average about 1 extra draw per game with this card. Combine it with shuffle effects to increase its value (just like Top) or use it to draw an extra card when it's clutch to do so. I play it in pretty much every deck with green mana available.

I personally tend to play this card very aggressively in terms of the drawing option. If I see three lands on top I usually have no problem taking 8 to get a much higher probability of drawing live over the course of the next turns and vice versa.

Correct. You have to be dredging all three cards to not have to put any back.

Quote from Ausschliessi

Also great with Words of War as you can always just replace all 3 draws to get in 6 damage.

Correct. And without paying any life. I used to love pulling this off in my classic cube.

I miss words of war because of that interaction, such is cube though.

Quote from Nof

Sylvan Library has a MD% of 83% in our Cube, for a green non-creature spell average of 62%.

I've never had a green deck that I've not wanted to play this? I guess the 17% comes from people who switch colors but still grabbed this early?

It has lots of neato rules interactions in larger cubes, too, like with Niv-Mizzet and Lorescale Coatl. But it won't have the same good juju with Miracle cards that Top does

-AA

Card selection in a color that traditionally has very little of it. Good.

Very good card is very good.

I think Sylvan Library is very overvalued in general, but especially on these forums.

It's a good card and I'm happy to play it in any base green deck I have, but I don't think it's a top 10 green card by any stretch.

It nets you an average of one card and works well with shuffle effects and has a few interesting interactions, but you do give up the cost of having another card in it's place in your hand (or topdeck) for that turn as well as paying 1G which is often better spent in the early game for green.

Unless you're playing a deck with a lot of lifelink, it will usually get you 0-1 cards and is basically a Sensei's Divining Top that doesn't cost mana but that can't get you a card immediately. In a plurality of games, it's an overcosted Mirri's Guile.

I would play the card in every cube of every size, but I end up passing this card far more than most people for other green bombs and that has been a strategy I'm very happy with.

People tend to play too passively with the card. If I am not playing against red or another hyper aggro build, I almost always end up drawing three plus cards off of it.

Card selection tends to be undervalued in my opinion. We play a highlander format, and cannot sculpt perfect curves and perfect balances of effects. Hell, even when we can, how often have you drawn six lands or all ramp creatures and no fattie or two lands and then not drawn another for 5 turns or a million other situations?

Quote from Phantizle

I almost always end up drawing three plus cards off of it.

You're saying your average game with Sylvan Library is taking 12-16+ damage off of it?

Your cube must be slower than the original MODO cube.

Quote from Blimpy

You're saying your average game with Sylvan Library is taking 12-16+ damage off of it?

Your cube must be slower than the original MODO cube.

Actually, my cube is pretty fast, but when you are playing green, and they are not playing aggro, you are usually in the beatdown role, and don't tend to care much about your own life total. I take 12 from this thing ALL the time, and don't tend to lose because of it.