MTG Players Rediscover Game-Changing One-Mana Enchantment

In Magic: The Gathering, as in all card games, hidden information is a major part of proceedings. Since players’ hands aren’t common knowledge, layered psychological sub-games of bluffing and counter-bluffing are possible, adding a ton of extra strategy. Piercing this veil of secrecy can give you a huge advantage, therefore, as many MTG players are learning this week as they become reacquainted with classic enchantment Telepathy.

Telepathy MTG

While Telepathy has been part of Magic for 28 years, first printing in 1998’s Urza’s Saga, it’s mostly flown under the radar. This lack of recognition baffled MTG content creator Intentional Misplayers Club, who shared a video espousing the card’s virtues earlier this week. As a result, this old-school one-drop now has more eyes on it than it has had in a while, which is apt given what it does.

For your one-mana investment, Telepathy forces all of your opponents to play with their hands revealed. This is fairly underwhelming in constructed, where hand sizes are often small, and you only have one opponent, but it’s a different story in Commander. Knowing exactly what all three of your opponents are holding is a massive edge and can be particularly devastating in certain matchups.

In Combo decks, for example, Telepathy lets you ensure that the coast is clear before you push for your win. It’s also great against Combo decks for a similar reason: it lets you keep an eye on opponents’ hands and prepare for whatever plans they’re assembling. Interaction lives and dies on timing in Commander, after all, and Telepathy helps you nail it every time. This is particularly true for targeted discard spells like Thoughtseize Thoughtseize Target player reveals their hand. You choose a nonland card from it. That player discards that card. You lose 2 life. , which get a lot better with guaranteed results.

Beyond your own game plan, Telepathy also has a major impact on the political landscape in your Commander games. Players who typically bluff and deal their way to victory will have a much harder time when everyone knows their hands. This will also likely shift your opponents’ focus onto each other rather than you, since every threat they draw will be immediately apparent.

It’s worth noting that Telepathy has a downside, though: the reduced rate of play it creates. With all hands revealed at all times, every draw is new information for everyone at the table, which can take a while to process. Decision-making will almost certainly take longer, since there’s a lot more to factor in than usual. For this reason, it may be worth discussing the card with your playgroup before adding it to your deck, since time can often be limited on Commander nights.

Info Wars

If your playgroup is fine with it, Telepathy is a fantastic addition to a wide range of MTG Commander decks. The extra hand knowledge makes Commanders like Sen Triplets Sen Triplets At the beginning of your upkeep, choose target opponent. This turn, that player can't cast spells or activate abilities and plays with their hand revealed. You may play lands and cast spells from that player's hand this turn. and Isperia the Inscrutable Isperia the Inscrutable Flying
Whenever Isperia deals combat damage to a player, choose a card name. That player reveals their hand. If a card with the chosen name is revealed this way, search your library for a creature card with flying, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle. much more reliable, and in the former case, even saltier than before. It’s also great for those trying to play Control in the format, giving Commanders like Grand Arbiter Augustin IV Grand Arbiter Augustin IV White spells you cast cost {1} less to cast.
Blue spells you cast cost {1} less to cast.
Spells your opponents cast cost {1} more to cast. perfect information to base all countermagic decisions on.

As a cheap enchantment, Telepathy is also an easy add to any kind of blue Enchantress deck. It’s cheap enough for you to tutor right into play with Zur the Enchanter Zur the Enchanter Flying
Whenever Zur attacks, you may search your library for an enchantment card with mana value 3 or less, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle. , for instance, and it can serve as a game-changing cantrip in Tuvasa the Sunlit Tuvasa the Sunlit Tuvasa gets +1/+1 for each enchantment you control.
Whenever you cast your first enchantment spell each turn, draw a card. lists. Factor in its solid value in decks like Vivi Ornitier Vivi Ornitier {0}: Add X mana in any combination of {U} and/or {R}, where X is Vivi Ornitier's power. Activate only during your turn and only once each turn.
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, put a +1/+1 counter on Vivi Ornitier and it deals 1 damage to each opponent. that care about noncreature spells, and this classic has a surprisingly wide range of homes.

Despite all of its virtues, Telepathy isn’t played as much as you’d expect in Commander. According to EDHREC stats, around 29,100 players run it, which is decent, but hardly impressive. Given its low cost, and widely applicable effect, there’s plenty of room for this cheeky enchantment to spread its wings.

For now, however, Telepathy remains relatively little-known, which also means it’s a very cheap card to pick up. On TCGplayer right now, you can pick up a near-mint copy for as little as $0.35, thanks to its low popularity and wide array of reprints. If you’re looking for a cheap card that can genuinely turn entire Commander games on their head single-handedly, then consider digging up this hidden gem and giving it a go.

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