We used to build these 150-card Highlander decks. Rhystic Study was one card I always threw into mine. It is a bit conditional. If your opponent always has mana to spare without paying for Study affecting his ability to do anything, the card will sit there doing absolutely nothing. Usually, that won't happen. Opponents will either lose tempo to keep you from drawing cards or let you have the card advantage that Rhystic Study offers. Mana denial of some sort could make paying for this even harder on an opponent, although it also means the opponent won't be playing as many spells, but even a few draws from this will make it worth the effort. Basically, Rhystic Study is cooler and better than it looks. But It's best in multiplayer because multiple opponents will be playing spells and most of them won't be paying the mana, so you'll draw lots of cards.#189: Story Circle
Story Circle boasts the considerable honor of making the old "Circle of Protection" cards obsolete. They took up a lot of space in sideboards and were generally annoying for deckbuilding, although potentially game-winning. Various reincarnations were attempted, like the "Rune of Protection" cycle that changed the activation cost from 1 to W and had the bonus of cycling so that if you had one you didn't need, you could cycle it away for something useful. Story Circle was the best thing that ever happened to this whole concept. It added a white mana to the initial cost, dropped cycling, but let you set the color you wanted when it came into play, making it a one-size-fits-all version of the Runes of Protection. No good against artifacts (unless you have color-lacing effects), but awesome against one-color decks.#188: Mystic Remora
You'll notice that Mystic Remora is similar to Rhystic Study. It costs less mana and has a cumulative upkeep, so while it can be played earlier, it won't be sticking around for very long. It also doesn't trigger on creatures, which is too bad. But it's better than Rhystic Study because your opponent must pay 4 to prevent you from drawing a card. Rhystic Study's effect can be ignored by certain opponents. Mystic Remora makes paying to prevent the draws so prohibitively expensive that it's unlikely to happen at all. This is a deceptively good enchantment. When used with bad cards, all it will do is net you a little card advantage and die when paying the upkeep is no longer convenient. Used with the right support, Mystic Remora is a card-drawing engine worthy of even the most competitive decks.
You'll notice that Mystic Remora is similar to Rhystic Study. It costs less mana and has a cumulative upkeep, so while it can be played earlier, it won't be sticking around for very long. It also doesn't trigger on creatures, which is too bad. But it's better than Rhystic Study because your opponent must pay 4 to prevent you from drawing a card. Rhystic Study's effect can be ignored by certain opponents. Mystic Remora makes paying to prevent the draws so prohibitively expensive that it's unlikely to happen at all. This is a deceptively good enchantment. When used with bad cards, all it will do is net you a little card advantage and die when paying the upkeep is no longer convenient. Used with the right support, Mystic Remora is a card-drawing engine worthy of even the most competitive decks.
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