Semester Foreseer // Peer Review is one of those cards players keep asking about. Here is, in plain words, what its official text says, the rulings published by Wizards of the Coast, and the combos players actually run.
Official card text
This creature enters prepared. (While it's prepared, you may cast a copy of its spell. Doing so unprepares it.) When this creature enters, surveil 1. Create a 2/2 colorless Wizard Soldier creature token named Cadet. Surveil 1.
Complete guide
Semester Foreseer is a versatile blue Wizard that utilizes the innovative prepare mechanic to provide both a board presence and future spell utility. By entering the battlefield 'prepared,' it offers players the unique opportunity to double down on their resources through a sorcery called Peer Review.
Understanding Prepare
When Semester Foreseer enters the battlefield, it enters 'prepared.' This is a specific status that causes you to create a copy of its associated sorcery, Peer Review, in exile. As long as Semester Foreseer remains on the battlefield and stays prepared, you can cast that copy of Peer Review from exile. Once you cast the spell, the creature becomes 'unprepared' and the status is removed.
Step-by-Step Resolution
First, as Semester Foreseer enters the battlefield, its prepare ability triggers, placing a copy of Peer Review in exile. Simultaneously, its enters-the-battlefield ability triggers, allowing you to surveil 1. During any of your main phases while the stack is empty, you may then choose to cast the Peer Review copy from exile by paying its mana cost ({2}{W/U}). Upon casting, Semester Foreseer loses its prepared status. The spell then resolves, creating a 2/2 Cadet token and allowing you to surveil 1 again.
Common Pitfalls
A common mistake is assuming that Peer Review exists in your deck or graveyard; it only exists as a copy in exile while the creature is prepared. Additionally, remember that being prepared is not a copiable value. if you use a clone effect on a prepared Semester Foreseer, the new copy will not be prepared unless its own 'enters prepared' ability triggers. Finally, if the creature leaves the battlefield, you lose the ability to cast the copy of Peer Review sitting in exile.
Strategic Timing
Semester Foreseer is best played when you need to stabilize the board. Since it effectively provides two bodies (itself and the Cadet token from the spell) and two instances of surveil, it is excellent for digging through your library for specific answers while maintaining a defensive line of Wizard Soldiers.
Interaction examples
CadetYou cast Semester Foreseer for {3}{U}. When it enters, you surveil 1 and a copy of Peer Review is created in exile. Later, you pay {2}{W} to cast Peer Review. This creates a 2/2 colorless Wizard Soldier creature token named Cadet and allows you to surveil 1 again. Semester Foreseer is now 'unprepared' but remains on the battlefield as a 3/3.
Roaming ThroneWith Roaming Throne on the battlefield naming 'Wizard,' Semester Foreseer enters. Its 'surveil 1' ability triggers twice due to the Throne. Note that while you get extra surveil triggers, the creature cannot be prepared 'more than once' at the same time, so you still only get one copy of Peer Review in exile.
Solemn SimulacrumIf you have Solemn Simulacrum in hand, you might cast Semester Foreseer first to surveil 1, looking for a basic land to put on top of your library. Then, you can cast Solemn Simulacrum to ensure you hit that land drop, effectively using the prepare mechanic's surveil to fix your future draws.
Guide written with AI from the official text and rulings. Official English text prevails.
How it works : Semester Foreseer // Peer Review
Original English text — Wizards of the Coast / Scryfall
- #1· Wizards of the Coast
As an effect causes a creature with a prepare spell to become prepared (including effects that state that a creature "enters prepared"), that creature's controller creates a copy of that creature's prepare spell in exile. That copy remains in exile for as long as that permanent is on the battlefield and is prepared. That creature's controller may cast that copy as long as it remains in exile. As they cast it, that creature stops being prepared.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #2· Wizards of the Coast
A creature without a prepare spell can't become prepared.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #3· Wizards of the Coast
Preparation cards can be cast only with their base characteristics.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #4· Wizards of the Coast
A creature with a prepare spell can't become prepared more than once at the same time. For example, say Bloodline Recollector is on the battlefield and is prepared. During the current turn, three creatures die. At the beginning of the end step, Bloodline Recollector's last ability triggers. When that ability resolves, since Bloodline Recollector is already prepared, the ability won't cause it to become prepared a second time or create a second copy of Ancestral Craving in exile.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #5· Wizards of the Coast
If an effect instructs you to choose a card name, you may choose the alternative prepare spell's name. Consider only the alternative characteristics to determine whether that is an appropriate name to choose.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #6· Wizards of the Coast
While copies of spells in zones other than the stack cease to exist when state-based actions are checked, this does not apply to copies of prepare spells in exile that were created as a creature became prepared.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #7· Wizards of the Coast
If a prepare spell with one or more targets has no legal targets when it tries to resolve, it won't resolve and none of its effects will happen. Since the spell was cast, the associated permanent will still not be prepared.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #8· Wizards of the Coast
A preparation card is a creature card in every zone. For example, while it's in your graveyard, Diviner of Victory is a blue creature card whose mana value is 1. It can't be the target of Stingcaster Mage's triggered ability ("When this creature enters, target instant or sorcery card in your graveyard gains flashback until end of turn. The flashback cost is equal to its mana cost.").
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #9· Wizards of the Coast
If an effect causes a creature to become unprepared, a prepared creature stops being prepared and the associated copy of its prepare spell in exile ceases to exist. If it wasn't prepared at that time, nothing happens.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #10· Wizards of the Coast
Being prepared isn't a copiable value. If a permanent becomes a copy of a prepared creature, it won't be prepared. That permanent will have the alternative characteristics, though, and some other effect could cause it to become prepared later.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #11· Wizards of the Coast
If a prepared creature loses all abilities, it won't stop being prepared, and nothing will happen to its alternative characteristics or to the copy of its prepare spell in exile.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #12· Wizards of the Coast
If a prepared creature stops being a creature, it will still be prepared, and the copy of its prepare spell will remain in exile. That permanent's controller will still be able to cast it. The same is true if a prepared creature becomes a copy of something else, even if it's then a permanent without a prepare spell.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #13· Wizards of the Coast
Only the current controller of a prepared creature can cast the copy of its prepare spell in exile. It doesn't matter who owns that creature or who controlled it when it became prepared.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #14· Wizards of the Coast
Creating a copy of a creature's prepare spell in exile ignores copy exceptions applied to that creature that would affect the copiable values of that spell. For example, say a player casts Croaking Counterpart (a sorcery that says "Create a token that's a copy of target non-Frog creature, except it's a 1/1 green Frog") targeting Diviner of Victory. The token copy of Diviner of Victory will enter prepared as a 1/1 green Frog creature, but the copy of Unwind History in exile will still be a blue sorcery. The copy of Unwind History won't be green, a creature, or a Frog, and it won't have power or toughness.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #15· Wizards of the Coast
Casting a copy of a prepare spell from exile isn't casting it for an alternative cost. Effects that allow you to cast a spell for an alternative cost or without paying its mana cost may allow you to apply those to a copy of a prepare spell cast from exile.
No other card is named in this ruling.
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