I played in two Theros Block Constructed Grand Prix Trials today. One of the major things I learned is that [scryfall]Dakra Mystic[/scryfall] is not only fun, its very, very strong. At least in this environment.

[scryfall]Courser of Kruphix[/scryfall] is one of the most popular and probably (at the very least) in the two three or so best cards in the format. Its not only very popular in Theros Block Constructed, but it has found its way into Standard and Modern (although I would like to note that its often misused in Standard). Its a great card. The card advantage it can produce over time is huge for its cost, the lifegain can matter when burn is pretty popular, and its a good early blocker against aggressive decks.

On the other hand, both you and your opponent see the top card of your deck. You are able to do this so that you can play the land off of your library. Your opponent can see it to make things less complicated. However, what the Mystic does in this situation is control your opponents draws. Better yet, if you have a scrying effect, you can control your own draws as well and just discard extra lands while getting rid of key cards your opponent needs. Sometimes you can even keep them off of mana. Couple of times today I managed to keep my opponents on three mana. In this format, that’s very little.

[scryfall]Prognostic Sphinx[/scryfall] + [scryfall]Dakra Mystic[/scryfall] + Courser controlled by opponent is just dirty.

Of course, you can mess with just your normal, everyday scries as well. First time I did this in each match I got a small groan when they understood they had just punted, because they forgot the Mystic. After getting them once, they try to outsmart me, but because they generally just scry for 1, they can’t hide a card under the top card of their library. Also, since I control whether we draw the card or not, if they put a weak card on top of their library, I might just be able to draw a good card with no cost to me, since they are just getting something meaningless.

Also, because Mystic is so cheap to use, it can begin to gain the advantage very early in the game.

Of course, there’s the possibility that you inadvertently save your opponent from a manascrew as you think you are screwing them on cards, or you might just be digging closer to the card they really, really need. The former is a real concern, but I think its worth risking it. The latter one is faulty logic. Don’t let it affect your thinking.

And have fun with mysticism.