Way back in the old days, I was mostly playing the casual Five Color, multiplayer, and Limited. I was on the Five Color Ruling Council too. Five Color was the default casual format of the day. Then a card was released that defied traditional mana requirements and broke out all over the place and very quickly dominated everything Casual.

Sure, Future Sight may have a rough triple blue in the casting cost, but once it resolves the backbreaking card advantage over time can bury a table. You can cast any spell or drop any land from the top of your library. It's not true card draw, sure, but it sometimes feels like it. And yes, everyone else get to know what's coming, but that's fine. Everyone tweaked their mana-bases to cast it more easily and grabbed stuff like Academy Rector to drop Future Sight into play from their library. It was so prolific that in my set reviews or decks, I will often refer to something as a version of Future Sight!

And today, I want to go over all of the different ways Future Sight Effects can work for you in Casual and Multiplayer!

When it Costs Life Not Mana

How about versions of Future Sight where pay life for your cards instead of mana? Bolas's Citadel is also rough to cast (triple black is true to Future Sight form), but it lets you play cards off the top of your library for basically free while also serving as win condition by tapping and sacrificing ten nonland permanents to make each opponent lose 10 life. Gwenom, Remorseless becomes a Bolas's Citadel for the rest of the turn when she attacks. Of course, casting spells like this isn't actually free, but cheating mana costs is almost always broken, especially in 40 life formats.

When They are on a Flash Engine

Next Up we have a subset of Future Sight Effects that double as Flash Engines (shoutout to my recent article "You Should Be Including a Flash Engine in Your Decks"). Elsha of the Infinite is up first, and lets you cast noncreature spells from the top of our library with Flash (I also just built a deck around Elsha). Errant and Giada lets you cast flyers and spells with Flash from the top of your libraries too!

When They are Just Generally Good

Sometimes a Future Sight effect is just plain good and worth running by that merit alone. Crystal Skull, Isu Spyglass taps for a blue mana while also letting you play historic lands and spells off the top(artifacts, legendaries, and sagas is a pretty large group of cards)! Experimental Frenzy lets you play anything off the top, but it does prevent you from playing cards from your hand (luckily we can destory it for ). Madame Web, Clairvoyant lets you cast Spider spells from the top of your deck... and all noncreature spells too! That last part is the real meat and potatoes of this card, and the spiders are gravy.

When it Ramps You

Everyone adores ramp and mana making, and these Future Sight variants can help with that! Augur of Autumn lets you play lands from the top of your library (a classic Green take on Future Sight), but if you control three or more creatures with different powers, you can also cast creature spells off the top! Case of the Locked Hothouse is an Exploration effect (letting you play an extra land every turn), and once you've solved it by controlling seven lands, you can play lands, creatures, and enchantments from off the top. Oracle of Mul Daya is a classic, letting you drop an extra land every turn and letting you play lands off the top, but your opponents get know what's on top, like Future Sight. Traveling Chocobo lets you play lands and Bird spells off the top, with the extra benefit of doubling triggers caused by lands or birds entering the battlefield!

When They are For Creatures

After lands, folks tend to move to creatures next as the most important card type, so there are five Future Sights for them. Eladamri, Korvecdal is a creature Future Sight, and has an ability to play a creature from the top of your library or from your hand for free! Elven Chorus lets all your dorks tap for one mana of any color.

Garruk's Horde was the first of these creature Future Sights printed, but your foes will still know what we draw. Vizier of the Menagerie lets us cast creatures off the top and we can use mana of any type to cast them! Viven, Monsters' Advocate has those ever-important two static abilities, and then +1s to make a blocking 3/3 with your choice of vigilance, reach or trample. Then we can -2 her to play a free, cheaper creature from our library when we cast our next creature spell.

When They are for Artifacts

There are Future Sights for Artifacts too! Mm'menon, the Right Hand does that, and lets us tap our artifacts for mana to cast spells from anywhere other than your hand. Mystic Forge is Future Sight for artifacts and colorless spells and you can tap it to pay a life and exile the top card of your library.

When They are for Spells

Instants and Sorceries are next! Johann, Apprentice Sorcerer lets you cast an instant or sorcery off the top once per turn (that is each turn, not just your turn). Melek, Izzet Paragon reveals the top card of your library, but it lets you cast instants and sorceries off the top and even makes a free copy you can choose new targets for. Precognition Field has the added bonus of being able to exile the top card of your library to keep digging for instants or sorceries.

When They Have a Fun Restriction

There are some Future Sight variants that have weird and interesting restrictions. There are two Equipment in blue and green that want to be equipped to do their thing. The Reality Chip will let you cast anything off the top when it's equipped. Summoning Materia lets you cast creatures off the top when it's equipped to something, and it also gives the creature it's equipped to +2/+2 and vigilance and the ability to tap for . Into the Pit can cast anything... but only if you sac something.

When You Can Build Around It

Then we have some options that suggest potential brewing oppotunities. Assemble the Players will let you cast a creature spell with power 2 or less off the top once a turn, which is great with Hate Bears. Falco Spara, Pactweaver lets you pull counters off of your creatures to cast spells off the top. Nalia de'Arnise can cast Clerics, Rogues, Warriors, and Wizards off the top and then really amps up the team when you have a Full Party.

Next up are these two legendary dorks. Galea, Kindler of Hope is ideal for Voltron brews since you can cast Auras and Equipment and equip them for free! Glarb, Calamity's Augur will tap to surveil 2 and can cast anything off the top as long as it costs at four or more!

Now let's turn to this Simic colored legendary duo. Isu the Abominable can cast snow spells from our the top of our library! Then when they arrive Isu can get bigger by spending a mana. The Fourth Doctor casts a historic spell off the top once per turn, but then you'll also make a Food token.

When They are for Kindred Brews

And now let's turn to Kindred Future Sights! Conspicuous Snoop reveals the top card of your library ands lets you cast Goblins off the top, but also gains the activated abilities of goblins revealed this way. Emperor Mihail II is a Future Sight for Merfolk and then has a merfolk cast trigger to pay to make a Merfolk token! Hakoda, Selfless Commander is a Future Sight for Allies! You can sac this legendary dork and grow your team's toughness and then save them with indestructible.

Korlessa, Scale Singer is a Future Sight for the most popular tribe out there: Dragons! Realmwalker is a Future Sight for a creature type of your choice. Finally, we have Sigarda, Font of Blessings. She gives all of our stuff hexproof and is a Future Sight for Angels and Humans!

When They are Broken

This broken one will take us home! For eight mana, One with the Multiverse combines Future Sight and Omniscience. You can cast stuff off the top and once per turn you can cast a spell off the top or from your hand for free!

And there we go! I hope you enjoyed this deep dive on all the kinds of Future Sights out there! Which one is your go to?