One of blue’s biggest strengths is drawing cards, but there are times when you need something specific. When you’re looking for a particular card, it’s much better to search your library for it rather than draw and hope it’s on top. Luckily, there are plenty of strong blue tutors throughout Magic that let you do just that.
They might not be the most flexible tutors in Magic, but blue tutors are still great at finding certain card types. In fact, this usually isn’t a problem for the decks that run these tutors. If your deck has Merchant Scroll, for example, then you should have multiple blue instants that you’d be happy to tutor for. Either that, or your win condition is based around a particular blue instant. Even if these tutors seem narrow, they’re still excellent for the decks that want to run them.
Of course, knowing when to run these cards and which ones you should pick might not be immediately obvious. If you’re considering adding some blue tutors to your next deck, then look no further! The rest of this article will discuss the ins and outs of blue tutors, as well as which ones stand above the rest.
| Pros | Cons |
| Usually efficient | Some have narrow uses |
| Some give opponents a choice |
What Card Types Can Blue Tutors Find?
Tutors in most colors will usually have limited options for what you can find. Unless you’re running black, tutors that can get anything are quite rare. There are a few blue tutors that can search for any card, but they come with extra conditions.
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It likely won’t surprise you to learn that blue can tutor for instants and sorceries with ease. After all, no color has more of these cards than blue. Some tutors can get either type, such as Solve the Equation, while others are more narrow. Merchant Scroll, again, is a great example of how specific these tutors can be.
Artifacts are another card type that blue tutors can often find. Blue excels in artifact strategies, so this also makes a lot of sense. A common theme for these cards is that you’ll have to sacrifice an artifact in order to get another. We can see this pattern with Reshape, which also puts the artifact you search for directly into play. These cards may also restrict you to targets with specific mana values.
Lastly, there are a small number of blue tutors that can grab anything. Of course, these aren’t just a color-shifted Demonic Tutor. They normally have you search for multiple cards, and then your opponent chooses which go to your hand and which go to your graveyard. These cards are often paired with recursion packages so you can always get the card you really want.
Why Are Blue Tutors Good?
You might still be wondering why you should bother with blue tutors. After all, why should you limit yourself to getting just one card type?
These cards may not have the broad application that Demonic Tutor has, but they can still shine in the right deck. If your deck has a strong artifact theme, or if it’s focused around getting specific artifacts on the battlefield, then Fabricate might be amazing for you.
These tutors will likely be able to search for some of your best cards, even if they can’t find everything. Remember: tutor effects greatly increase the power of your deck by adding consistency. This means that you’ll probably search for the same few cards over and over, even if your deck has more potential targets. As long as your tutors can fetch a few powerful cards, it will often be worth running them.
Which Blue Tutors Are Banned?
Tutors are some of the most powerful cards in Magic, and blue tutors are no exception. Searching your deck for any card limits the role of variance in your gameplay, so it can lead to consistently strong decks. The following cards have been banned and/or restricted in at least one format on account of their power level.
| Card Name | Banned | Restricted |
| Gifts Ungiven | Commander | n/a |
| Merchant Scroll | n/a | Vintage |
| Mystical Tutor | Legacy | Vintage |
| Tinker | Commander, Legacy | Vintage |
What Are The Best Blue Tutors?
Now that you know what types of blue tutors exist, as well as why you should run them, which ones are the best? Below are some of the best options for each type, including a budget section for casual players who are still interested in this effect.
Instant/Sorcery Tutors
Mystical Tutor is the best option for searching up instants or sorceries. It might not put the card into your hand, but you can work around that downside. Because it’s an instant, you can cast it on the end step before your turn. It only costs one mana, so it’s not hard to keep one island untapped to cast it. Your opponents won’t have much time to react before you draw exactly what you need!
If you want to get a spell into your hand, your best option is likely Merchant Scroll. It can only get blue instants, making it one of blue’s strictest tutors. Still, at such a low mana cost, this will help you put together some powerful turns. Just make sure you have enough viable targets before running this one.
Lastly, Personal Tutor is a good option if you need to find sorceries instead of instants. It costs one mana, but it puts the card on top of your library. This wrinkle hurts Personal Tutor more than Mystical Tutor because this card isn’t an instant.
In order to get the card right away, you’ll have to combine it with other card draw effects. Thankfully, that’s blue’s specialty. It certainly isn’t a perfect tutor, but it can get the job done if you need to look for your strong sorceries.
Artifact Tutors
The best artifact tutor is Tinker, but it’s so strong that it’s banned or restricted in every format it’s eligible for. Sacrificing an artifact you control is a small price to pay to put any artifact from your library onto the battlefield. Not only does it search your deck for exactly what you need, but it also cheats that card’s mana cost. It shouldn’t be surprising that such a strong effect is wildly broken.
If you’re looking for an artifact tutor you can play outside of Vintage, consider Fabricate. It has the same mana cost as Tinker, but it puts the artifact into your hand. It also doesn’t make you sacrifice an artifact, so you can play this in the early game or just after a board wipe. There are plenty of decks that would benefit from grabbing their best artifact, and this card would slot perfectly into them.
This is already a card I’ve had a fair amount of success with. I’m particularly fond of blink decks, and finding Panharmonicon or Conjurer’s Closet on demand is excellent. I’m even more excited about finding new cards from The Brothers’ War, though. Phyrexian Portal seems like a sweet win condition, and I’ll be happy to see it in more games thanks to Fabricate.
Another fantastic option is Transmute Artifact. This card works similarly to Tinker, but with some key differences. First, it costs one mana less, but requires UU. Second, it does put the artifact into play, but you’ll often need to pay extra mana or sacrifice the card you’ve tutored for. If you want to get a certain artifact into your bin, then Transmute Artifact is perfect. Otherwise, this card might be much more expensive than it initially seems.
Universal Tutors
If you want to tutor for whatever you want, then Intuition is your best bet. It works very similarly to Gifts Ungiven, but that card is banned in EDH. Since Intuition is legal in all formats, we’ll use it to discuss all cards with a similar effect.
When you cast Intuition, you search your library for any three cards. Sounds pretty great, right? The catch is that your opponent chooses which one of those three goes into your hand, and the other two go into your graveyard.
If you pick the right three cards, though, you can give your opponents an impossible choice. Typically, you’ll fetch recursion pieces as well as the card you actually want to cast. Even if your opponent sends your key card to the graveyard, you can use the recursion to get it into your hand. Intuition enables some powerful combos, and could easily lead to game-winning plays.
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Budget Tutors
It’s no secret that Magic is an expensive hobby. Luckily, there are some great blue tutors out there for anyone on a budget.
Solve the Equation puts any instant or sorcery from your deck into your hand. No extra conditions, no hoops to jump through. At three mana, this might not be the most efficient option, but it’s consistent. You know exactly what you’re getting when you cast Solve the Equation, and searching for two different card types adds to its utility.
Even if there are better versions of this effect, cheating any artifact from your deck into play is powerful. Reshape is yet another artifact tutor that puts a card directly onto the battlefield, but it comes with a cost. Specifically, its mana cost.
You have to pay more mana for more expensive artifacts, so you’re not really cheating your target’s mana cost. Still, this card can find any artifact in your deck, and it works especially well with cheap cards.
My favorite play pattern with Reshape is to go find Skullclamp. Three mana to get the best card draw engine in my deck? That’s not too bad for a two dollar card!
Finally, Grozoth is just a ton of fun. If the game goes long enough, you get a 9/9 that tutors for multiple cards. That’s a ton of value, as you might expect from such an expensive spell.
What really stands out about this card, though, is that it also has transmute. Blasphemous Act, Expropriate, The Great Henge, and Void Winnower all stand out as excellent targets. In all fairness, though, Grozoth is best in slower, casual metas.
End Step
Blue has plenty of tutors to choose between, and they have a variety of uses. Some will often just get whatever you need, while others are combo pieces begging to be built around. However you decide to use tutors in your deck, I hope this article had the answers you were looking for!
