MTG Star Trek’s Overlooked Anthropological Mission Is Already Powering a New Combo Deck

The card was certainly easy to miss in preview season, but as soon as Prerelease rolled around, Anthropological Mission’s power was undeniable. If you had the opportunity to play with this enchantment in a non-creature-heavy deck, the card’s potential should be clear.

To prove that point, even though it’s only day one of MTG Star Trek, Anthropological Mission has already started showing up in some brews, giving birth to entirely new combo decks. Between its Standard, Pioneer, and Modern viability, this card is bound to find a home somewhere.

MTG Anthropological Mission

Anthropological MissionAnthropological MissionWhenever you cast a noncreature spell, put a quest counter on this enchantment. Draw a card. Then discard a card unless this enchantment has three or more quest counters on it. is an insane draw engine for any MTG deck running a litany of cheap, noncreature spells. Since the quest counter for Mission goes on the card before the other effects, you only need to cast two noncreature spells before this card turns into strict card advantage.

Even before that, the Loot ability of this card is still extremely powerful, as Artist’s Talent[/tooltips]‘s popularity proves. On top of sculpting your hand, this card can help line up instants and sorceries in your grave for an early Flow StateFlow StateLook at the top three cards of your library. Put one of them into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order. If there is an instant card and a sorcery card in your graveyard, instead put two of them into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order., or dump Lessons to turn on Accumulate WisdomAccumulate WisdomLook at the top three cards of your library. Put one of those cards into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order. Put each of those cards into your hand instead if there are three or more Lesson cards in your graveyard..

Considering this, if Lessons come back to Standard after the ban of Gran-GranGran-GranWhenever Gran-Gran becomes tapped, draw a card, then discard a card.
Noncreature spells you cast cost {1} less to cast as long as there are three or more Lesson cards in your graveyard., Anthropological Mission will almost certainly be the reason. The amount of card advantage this card creates is absolutely ridiculous, even turning removal spells like Firebending LessonFirebending LessonKicker {4} (You may pay an additional {4} as you cast this spell.)
Firebending Lesson deals 2 damage to target creature. If this spell was kicked, it deals 5 damage to that creature instead. and Combustion TechniqueCombustion TechniqueCombustion Technique deals damage equal to 2 plus the number of Lesson cards in your graveyard to target creature. If that creature would die this turn, exile it instead. into cantrips.

Now, you don’t need a Lesson package for Anthropological Mission to work in Standard, but that seems like the easiest home for it. Izzet Spellementals could be yet another place where this card sees play, thanks to the heavy number of noncreature spells in the deck.

Of course, while the card has tons of potential, MTG Star Trek just went live on MTG Online and MTG Arena, so players haven’t had much opportunity to play with it yet. With the World Championships starting on Friday, November 13th, it’s very possible this card could be getting a high profile in Standard soon.

In Modern, however, Anthropological Mission has already seen some mild success, giving birth to an entirely new combo deck. Here, the card looks like what Song of CreationSong of CreationYou may play an additional land on each of your turns.
Whenever you cast a spell, draw two cards.
At the beginning of your end step, discard your hand. decks have needed for quite some time.

Anthropological Mission in Modern

It didn’t take long for Modern fanatics to start experimenting with Anthropological Mission, and the results speak for themselves. On top of prolific MTG streamer AspiringSpike coming up with some brews for the deck, Anthropological Mission has already gone on a strong league run in the hands of Grinding Emry fanatic Cesar Merjan.

With the large number of zero-drop artifacts in this deck, it’s very possible to resolve an Anthropological Mission on turns 3-4 and draw your entire deck. Boomerang BasicsBoomerang BasicsReturn target nonland permanent to its owner's hand. If you controlled that permanent, draw a card. and RepealRepealReturn target nonland permanent with mana value X to its owner's hand.
Draw a card. help a lot here, doubling as temporary removal for hate pieces and a way to reset a Mox AmberMox Amber{T}: Add one mana of any color among legendary creatures and planeswalkers you control. or Opal for free, drawing three cards total.

Mission essentially replaces Song of Creation in this shell, letting the shell drop an entire color and making the mana base much more consistent. This also lets you play a full playset of Urza’s SagaUrza’s Saga(As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter. Sacrifice after III.)
I — This Saga gains "{T}: Add {C}."
II — This Saga gains "{2}, {T}: Create a 0/0 colorless Construct artifact creature token with 'This token gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control.'"
III — Search your library for an artifact card with mana cost {0} or {1}, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle. without worry, giving the deck a powerful plan B against control decks.

If that weren’t enough, Anthropological Mission also doesn’t have the disastrous downside of discarding your hand at the end step, unlike Song of Creation. This allows you to run more reactive spells, like Metallic RebukeMetallic RebukeImprovise (Your artifacts can help cast this spell. Each artifact you tap after you're done activating mana abilities pays for {1}.)
Counter target spell unless its controller pays {3}., without worrying about your combo piece making it redundant.

On the other hand, the downside of Anthropological Mission compared to Song of Creation is that your combo turns are less explosive. Instead of drawing two cards per spell and playing an extra land, Anthropological Mission draws only one card when you cast noncreature spells.

This may make it seem like drawing through your deck with just one Mission early isn’t likely. Normally, you’d be right, but SixSixReach
Whenever Six attacks, mill three cards. You may put a land card from among them into your hand.
During your turn, nonland permanent cards in your graveyard have retrace. (You may cast permanent cards from your graveyard by discarding a land card in addition to paying their other costs.) does a ton of heavy lifting here.

So long as you have two copies of Mox AmberMox Amber{T}: Add one mana of any color among legendary creatures and planeswalkers you control. or Mox OpalMox OpalMetalcraft — {T}: Add one mana of any color. Activate only if you control three or more artifacts. in play and in your graveyard, Six makes drawing your deck with Anthropological Mission trivial. Thanks to its Retrace ability, Six basically turns all of the lands in your hand into extra Moxen. The Legend rule comes in clutch here, constantly giving Six fuel to cast.

Not only does this pseudo-combo give you tons of mana to use, but you can turbo through your deck at Mach speed. With this assembled, casting multiple Missions in the same turn, as well as Jace, Wielder of MysteriesJace, Wielder of MysteriesIf you would draw a card while your library has no cards in it, you win the game instead.
+1: Target player mills two cards. Draw a card.
−8: Draw seven cards. Then if your library has no cards in it, you win the game. to win, is trivial.

Outside of 60-Card Formats

Early signs point at Anthropological Mission being a powerful MTG contender in multiple formats, but that’s not quite a certainty yet. The card certainly looks like a perfect fit in Pioneer Lessons, for example, alongside a few other decks, but only time will tell if the card lives up to its potential.

Outside of Constructed MTG, Anthropological Mission also looks incredible in Commander. Basically any Spellslinger or Cheerio deck, from Vivi OrnitierVivi 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. to Jhoira, Weatherlight CaptainJhoira, Weatherlight CaptainWhenever you cast a historic spell, draw a card. (Artifacts, legendaries, and Sagas are historic.), will likely consider this card.

Really, any Commander deck that wanted to run Whirlwind of ThoughtWhirlwind of ThoughtWhenever you cast a noncreature spell, draw a card. will almost assuredly slot in Anthropological Mission, too. Considering Whirlwind appears in over 110,000 decks, this is bound to be an extremely popular card.

Given this high potential popularity, I wouldn’t be surprised if Anthropological Mission ends up being the expensive uncommon from MTG Star Trek. Even if the card doesn’t do anything huge in Constructed, its Commander potential is off the charts.

With this in mind, it may be in your best interest to grab a copy of Anthropological Mission sooner rather than later. Maybe even a playset of the card, if you’re as bullish on it as I am.

Stick with us here at dev.mtgrocks.com: the best site for Magic: The Gathering coverage. Be sure to check out our deckbuilder for your next big brew, and our brand new MTG Rocks Podcast! MTGRocks’ editorial and corrections policy lets us create content you can trust.