Hello and happiest of days to each of you! Today I want to talk about my adoration for the Casual, Constructed, and Commander Classic card Fact or Fiction (FOF)! I don't think many people joining the game recently understand how good, and beloved, this card was when it was printed. So, I want to look at a brief history of card draw from before Fact or Fiction, why I and everyone else ran it then, and then why you should still be running it today!

I started playing when The Dark and Revised were the newest sets on the block. We had a restricted list then for Casual and Constructed that included all of the powerful ramp cards like Moxes, but a there was a lot all broken card draw on that list like Bazaar of Baghdad, Ancestral Recall, Braingeyser, Library of Alexandria and Wheel of Fortune (and don't sleep on the nasty power of Contract from Below). At the time Howling Mine was beloved, and Green's Verduran Enchantress was a big deal!

When I started playing there was Greed from Legends where you had to spend 2 life and to draw a card. Jayemdae Tome was a mainstay in in "The Deck" to tap for four and draw, and then you could count Jalum Tome as an option as a Looter (so named today because of Merfolk Looter, a card I bring up later). This is what we had to work with thanks to all the powerful, broken cards being on the restricted list. (I'd also argue Sylvan Library belongs in the conversation too).

Then Ice Age debuted and brought with it Portent and Brainstorm, a little enchantment you might have heard of called Necropotence, and the still beloved (or behated depending on your viewpoint) in Multiplayer and Commander Mystic Remora.

Mirage block soon after gave us Impulse, Mind Stone, Dream Cache, a fair X-spell drawer in Prosperity, the first sac into card draw Phyrexian Vault and Teferi's Puzzle Box too. Reparations? Infernal Contract was nasty! Ophidian? Great!

Impulse felt very fair at the time: Instant speed and you dig four cards to draw one. That's the most digging you'd do for that cheap at instant speed. I tossed it into tons of decks, from Five Color to Vintage, where I could dig for most of what I needed from Ancestral Recall to Demonic Tutor to Regrowth to answers to win-cons. Impulse was pretty strong there. At the time I was a member of a Vintage lovers board called Beyond Dominia where I posted my decklists and was going to tournaments. I got some pushback saying that Impulse was only good for combo brews, but nope, it was good elsewhere too!

Tempest gave us Merfolk Looter, the broken and soon-restricted Intuition, the great Aura Curiosity that drew cards when you did damage, Dregs of Sorrow, the Group Hug Horn of Greed, this set's nasty Infernal Contract with a mass loss - Meditate, Necrologia, Pursuit of Knowledge and Recycle all with their own weaknesses, everyone's 'favorite' buyback spell Whispers of the Muse, one of favorites Treasure Trove, and then one of the best, strongest cantrip dorks ever in Wall of Blossoms. Save for Mediate and Intuition, there was nothing too busted here.

But then Urza's Saga arrived and screwed up everything on the card draw side of things! The X draw spell of the era with Stroke of Genius? Greater Good is still busted in Commander and Casual to this day. A free or mana positive draw spell in Frantic Search? Memory Jar was insta-banned. Argothian Enchantress with shroud and for two mana? A free Timetwister in Time Spiral? The broken and banned Yawgmoth's Bargain? Grafted Skullcap enabled the Burning Bridge brew. And not to mention Attunement and Replenish. Yavimaya Elder was big in the "The Rock" brews and Windfall even today defines the "Draw Seven" archetype. Urza's Blueprints? We also had the nicer Archivist, Opportunity, and Raven's Familiar. I also like Thieving Magpie as a little flying Ophidian.

Because of how nasty everything was, people left the game and Masques was the overcorrection. Very little was notable from this block, though they did slip through the multiplayer broken Rhystic Study, Accumulated Knowledge, Armistice, and the free card draw Gush (that eventually had action taken against it later). I feel Coastal Piracy is pretty fair in go wide brews and and I'm a fan of Collective Unconscious as well.

And then Invasion block came and helped put everything right. Fact or Fiction became the dominant casual, multiplayer, Five Color, Constructed powerhouse of the day since it was fair. We also got Phyrexian Arena, Five Color adored Allied Strategies, everyone's favorite Opt, Probe, and then even another forgotten Draw 7 classic that was great for its time and now too - Whirlpool Warrior!

But FOF came to dominate all Constructed formats, too. It was a four-cost instant speed dig five and then your foes choose how to split the cards into two piles. You'd often either get three okay cards or two good cards, but opponents don't get to know what's in your hand. You also bin the cards you don't pick, which can lead to some shenanigans. You can have one person agree to a Truce to split into two piles of 0 and 5 to fill your hand. It stepped into a time where all card draw was either broken like Stroke or Time Spiral or Bargain or Rhystic Study, or just okay like Brainstorm, or Opportunity or Treasure Trove.

It was so good it developed into an acronym to end all arguments - EOTFOFYL! End-of-turn, Fact or Fiction, you Lose!

It was embraced heavily in Vintage and then was restricted there. After, a lot of players would slide into Impulse for the instant speed digging and I told them "Told You So."

Hopefully that gives you some context on what led up to Fact or Fiction, and why it was so heavily played. But now, let's talk about why you should still be playing it.

Of course, Fact or Fiction still gets some play here and there (at around 4% played on EDHREC.com). This tends to be the first spell I add to card draw in my Commander brews along with Mulldrifter. It's an instant, it's splashable, and so much more!

I adore casting this in response to someone casting a spell that hurts another player and we need an, answer like Wrath of God or Cyclonic Rift. Target the other person to get a counter and they'll give it to you in the split. It's also good in response to a game winning combo. Just love it and embrace it as an emergency buoy for others.

I also like it as a Rattlesnake rattle prior to a foe attacking you. Cast it, and let them know what answers you just drew to force them to attack elsewhere. Rattlesnakes are cards in multiplayer that send folks elsewhere like Seal of Doom or Lieutenant Kirtar because they don't wanna lose their creature to an on-board threat. This also includes small deathtouch creatures too like Typhoid Rats.

I also enjoy it in brews that are graveyard focused, since the cards you don't pick will go to the graveyard instead of our libraries. Threshold or Delirium thrive from that kind of feeding. You can flash back Deep Analysis and make use of Escape and Jump-start and tons more graveyard mechanics. Reanimation? With Academy Ruins to reload?

Don't sleep on Fact or Fiction as a ramp-ish adjunct with Crucible of Worlds and Life from the Loam. Green has tons of these synergies!

Also, note these cards don't count as being drawn for something like Underworld Dreams, but they do trigger stuff that wants to go to our graveyard from our library like Sidisi or Gaea's Balance or getting a certain dork to play from Future Sight that dominated when it was printed. It's brilliant there too.

I also want to point out that this does help pull off a bunch of cards from our library's top to get more.

What are some good Commanders for it?

Sidisi, Brood Tyrant - As I alluded to above this original fun Sultai leader in the first set will mill three when she ETBs or swings! Then, she'll trigger and spawn 2/2 whenever one or more creatures head to our bin from our library.

Alela, Cunning Conqueror - This legendary four-drop flying 2/4 will turn our first cast on other turns into a 1/1 flyer Faerie! When they deal combat damage, you can goad something, but just once per. That's great to make a flying blocker outta nowhere and then goad too.

Gisa and Geralf AND Muldrotha, the Gravetide - Next up are these two dorks that let us cast permanents on our turn from our graveyard. The idea with FOF here is to load the graveyard up with the goods. Gisa and Geralf mills four when they arrive and then you can cast a Zombie on our turn, but just once/turn. Muldrotha will let us cast one permanent of each type on our turns!

Zethi, Arcane Blademaster - Zethi will ETB with an exiled instant from our graveyard for each time she's kicked. Then when she swings you copy and cast them. That's great here with FOF to recast it over and over again!

Kess, Dissident Mage - On each of our turns, Kess gives one instant or sorcery in your graveyard flashback. That's amazing with FOF since it filled it once, you drew tons, and now you can recast it again for more cards drawn and then more in the graveyard too!

Spellslingers - Anhelo is first up, and he gives the first instant or sorcery you cast each turn a free copy if you sac something with power 2 or greater. Talrand is one of the oldest spellslingers printed and makes a 2/2 flying Drake whenever you cast and instant or sorcery spell. Kalamax triggers just for the first instant cast each turn if Kalamax is tapped. But then you'll make a free copy of that instant! Kalamax also gets a counter too!

I hope you enjoy this all up and down. Embrace your inner FOF!