Strategic PlanningHow it works & interactions with other cards

How Strategic Planning Works

When you cast Strategic Planning, you look at the top three cards of your library. You then choose one of those three cards to put directly into your hand. The remaining two cards are placed into your graveyard. This differs from drawing a card because you get to see multiple options and decide which one fits your hand best, while the others provide utility for graveyard-based strategies.

Step-by-Step Resolution

First, you pay the mana cost of one blue and one generic mana to cast the spell. As it resolves, you check the top three cards of your library. If your library has fewer than three cards, you simply look at all remaining cards. Next, you select one card from the cards you looked at and add it to your hand. Finally, you move all other cards that you looked at but did not choose into your graveyard. Strategic Planning then finishes resolving and is placed in your graveyard.

Common Mistakes

A frequent error is treating this effect as 'drawing' a card. Because the card is put into your hand rather than drawn, it will not trigger abilities that fire when a player draws a card. Additionally, players sometimes forget that the unselected cards must go to the graveyard; you cannot choose to leave them on top of your library or shuffle them back in.

Strategic Timing

Since Strategic Planning is a sorcery, you must cast it during your main phase when the stack is empty. It is best used early in the game to fix your mana base or late in the game to find a specific win condition or answer. It is especially powerful in decks that can recur spells or creatures from the graveyard, effectively turning the 'discard' aspect into a second hand.

Interaction examples

Setting up the Graveyard

Windfall

You cast Strategic Planning and see three cards. You choose a powerful creature to keep in your hand, while putting a copy of Windfall into your graveyard. Later, you can use effects that return sorceries from your graveyard to hand to reuse Windfall, taking advantage of the cards Strategic Planning placed there earlier.

Digging for Answers

Ponder

If you have already used Ponder to organize the top of your library, Strategic Planning allows you to take the best card you saw while clearing the other two less-useful cards away into the graveyard. This ensures your next natural draw is fresh rather than a card you already knew you didn't want immediately.

Low Library Interaction

If you only have two cards left in your library, you cast Strategic Planning and look at both. You choose one to put into your hand and put the other into your graveyard. You do not lose the game for being unable to look at a third card, as the spell instructions are followed as completely as possible.