There is rarely a better feeling inMagic: The Gatheringthan being able to search your library for the perfect card you need in any situation. These cards, colloquially called tutors thanks to many of the original cards in this design space all follow a similar naming convention, and are incredibly powerful at what they do.
If you’re looking to jump into Modern, one of Magic’s more powerful formats, or you are looking for some neat cards to play with, a tutor or two can help make your game a little more consistent, and a lot more fun.
Technically, and I mean very technically, there are plenty of spells that are tutors that also fall under the ramp category. All the Fetchlands are tutors since they have you searching your library for a card, it just so happens to be specifically a land card. One of the best green creatures ever, Primeval Titan, is known for its ramping ability but is a great land tutor as well. We tried to keep these Modern tutors to pure tutor spells unless they fit into a specific niche.
8Stoneforge Mystic
A Sword As Sharp As Death
While the days of powerful Equipment synergies might have been left behind in the era of Modern Magic, Stoneforge Mystic is still incredibly powerful card that can fuel some very strong synergies.
When Stoneforge Mystic enters the battlefield, you get tosearch up an Equipment card, show it to everyone, and then put it in your hand. You can get literally any Equipment off the Mystic, and there are some excellent pieces of equipment to grab. Batterskull is a common grab, as well as any of the available Mirran Swords and the exceptionally powerful Kaldra Compleat.
7Expedition Map
It’ll Take You Anywhere You Want To Know
I know we said we weren’t going to talk about land tutors in Moder, but Expedition Map does such a good job at enabling combos and synergies that we had to include it. This one mana artifact lets you pay two mana to go searching your library for any land and put it into your hand.
Expedition Map is often found in Eldrazi Tron and Amulet Titan decks, letting you go snag whatever missing piece of the Tron land trio you might be missing. Expedition Map is also great at grabbing singleton lands, ones with a more toolbox effect that is nice to have or have a more narrow use that doesn’t necessitate you having it every game.
6Eladamri’s Call
He’s Calling Your Name
Tutoring up whatever creature you need at any given time gives you a huge advantage in a game and one of the most straightforward tutor spells in Magic is Eladmari’s Call. This multicolored card lets you search your library for a creature card, show it to everyone, and then put it into your hand.
This card is slightly more difficult to cast since it costs two different colors of mana, but in Modern, where you have access to tons of mana fixing, that isn’t going to be a problem most of the time. Eladamri’s Call really shines in decks that revolve around having specific creatures in play, whether its for a specific combo or effect.
5Profane Tutor
A Special Sort Of Evil
Even though black is often considered to be the color of hard tutors, not many are played in Modern. The exception is Profane Tutor, a black tutor spell that doesn’t actually have a casting cost.
Instead, you have to suspend it, pay two mana, exile it from your hand, and then put two time counters on it. You remove one of those counters at the start of your upkeep, casting the spell once all the time counters are gone. Once it resolves, you search your library for a card and then put it in your hand. Ad Nauseam is the deck that plays Profane Tutor the most, letting you grab any number of combo pieces to take the game over in your favor.
4Eldritch Evolution
Some Unnatural Comes This Way
A creature tutor spell with a small drawback, Eldritch Evolution is a three-mana sorcery spell that requires you to sacrifice a creature into order to cast it. Once it resolves, Eldritch Evolution lets you search your library for a creature card with a mana value of at most, two more of the sacrificed creature’s mana value.
So if you sacrifice a one mana creature, you’re able to go tutor up a creature that costs at most three mana and put it directly into play. Eldritch Evolution is a bit more niche than other green tutor spells but still has a few deck archetypes built around it.
3Chord Of Calling
Do You Hear The People Sing?
Chord of Calling is another creature tutor spell, one that costs more mana, but also can be cast for free, and does something that sets it apart from Eladamri’s Call. Chord of Calling has convoke, a special keyword that lets you tap creatures to pay for either a generic mana, or for a mana of that creature’s colors.
So if you tap a green creature, you may use it for either paying towards the X cost of Chord of Calling or for one of the green mana symbols. What sets Chord of Calling apart from other tutors is that it will put whatever creature you find directly into the battlefield, which can give you an instant enter the battlefield effect. It is also at instant speed, letting you use it at the end of your opponent’s turn, giving you free rein on your turn to do whatever shenanigans you want with the creature you grabbed.
2Urza’s Saga
The Stories Urza Could Tell
There’s rarelya card so versatile as Urza’s Saga, which is why it is currently one of the most played card in Modern right now. Urza’s Saga is an enchantment and a land at the same time, and when you play it, you start a short clock on the card.
As a Saga, it has three stages that you progress through until you have to sacrifice it, and the last chapter lets you search your library for an artifact card with a mana cost of either zero or one and put it directly into play. Many Modern decks have adopted this card, running a small suite of artifacts that can work in any situation.
1Summoner’s Pact
Make A Pact With A Titan
Do you like living on the edge?Do you like a free creature? Then Summoner’s Pact might just be the spell for you. This zero-mana spell lets you grab any creature from your deck, put it into your hand, and then shuffle your deck.
The tricky part is that at the beginning of your next upkeep, you have to pay two generic and two green mana. If you don’t, you lose the game entirely. That’s not a problem for decks that run Summoner’s Pact, since they typically run a ton of ramp spells, accelerating you up in lands and mana incredibly quickly.
