The 32 Best Draw Hate Cards in Magic Ranked

Last updated on January 8, 2026

Hullbreacher | Illustration by Sidharth Chaturvedi

Bahh! All those Magic players, drawing their cards, slinging their spells. The card advantage just makes me sick. You know, unless I’m the one drawing the cards.

Card draw is to Magic what shelter and sustenance are to real life: an essential. Decks that are beholden to their draw step for action are doomed to fail; you have to find ways to get extra cards to have any sort of advantage over your opponents. But sometimes drawing gets out of hand, and you find yourself lagging behind as an opponent resolves Sphinx's Revelation for X=7.

Today, we put a stop to that nonsense. And if we can’t shut down the card draw altogether, we’ll at least find ways to punish it. Let’s make those cantripping, no-good, filthy card-drawing opponents regret their hand full of options.

What Is Draw Hate in MTG?

Zurzoth, Chaos Rider | Illustration by Dmitry Burmak

Draw hate refers to effects that either prevent or punish your opponents for drawing cards. “Punishment” can come in the form of damage or loss of another resource, or that might mean you benefit from their extra draws in some way.

Note that I look at cards that interact in some way with actual card draw. There are alternative effects that simply put cards into a player’s hand but don’t actually draw (think: Impulse), which circumvents a lot of draw-hate effects. For our purposes, we care about literal draws.

I’ve also glossed over most of the “players can’t draw cards” effects like Omen Machine, Mornsong Aria, and Possessed Portal, since those get into some pretty janky combo territory and are inherently different cards on their own.

Honorable Mention: Inzerva, Master of Insights

So here’s the thing: Inzerva, Master of Insights isn’t technically real; it’s a “Heroes of the Realm” card given to a WotC staff member to commemorate their work there. In other words, don’t go rushing out to buy this card anywhere.

That said, this card works within the context of black-border rules and seems like a sweet planeswalker design that could show up in a mainline Magic set. The emblem provides the draw hate here, but it’s the scry/fateseal -2 ability that intrigues me.

#32. Mind’s Eye

I’ve never liked Mind's Eye all that much, and it slots in at the bottom to give me a nice even number for my list. I suppose if you’re struggling for card draw you can use this for slow card advantage, but it won’t put too much of a damper on an opponent who’s digging through their whole deck.

#31. Breathstealer’s Crypt

I love discovering cards I’d never seen before, and this Visions enchantment caught my eye. It gives everyone perfect information about all players’ draws, but drawing a creature costs 3 life. It’s not even just the first card you draw every turn, so it’ll especially punish creature-heavy decks. This might have a home in creature-light control decks, or I could even see it in a reanimator deck that doesn’t mind auto-pitching creatures to the graveyard.

#30. Alms Collector

Alms Collector promises much, delivers little. The issue is that this only interacts with single instances of draws, so unless your opponent’s firing off a huge Stroke of Genius, don’t expect too much. It’ll never interrupt something like an Entity Tracker or Midnight Reaper, since those draw cards one trigger at a time.

#29. Leela, Sevateem Warrior

Leela, Sevateem Warrior is a super unexciting doctor’s companion, but I’m sure it gets big fast, like a Managorger Hydra that triggers off draws instead of spells. Your opponents have a bit more agency over how big Leela gets, though.

#28. Zurzoth, Chaos Rider

Zurzoth, Chaos Rider is more eclectic than other draw hate cards because it doesn’t interact with all draws, just the ones that happen outside of a player’s own turn. Obviously the idea is to make that happen with this devil’s attack trigger, but it’ll also randomly proc when someone casts an instant-speed draw spell.

#27. Plagiarize

Notion Thief as an instant instead of a creature, and it’s much lesser known by the community at large. Why not just play Notion Thief, you ask? Well, what if you’re playing a blue deck that doesn’t support black?

#26. Ob Nixilis Reignited + Ob Nixilis, the Hate-Twisted

There was a period of Magic history when every other new planeswalker card was modeled after Ob Nixilis Reignited, to the point where 5-mana planeswalkers all kind of blended together. It’s hard to really call Ob-Nob “draw hate” since that’s entirely tied to a -8 ultimate, but that ability kills a player quick if you ever pull it off. The other loyalty abilities? Eh.

Ob Nixilis, the Hate-Twisted fits this list better but should be treated more like a 5-mana removal spell with upside, or a more costly Underworld Dreams that is a different type of permanent.

#25. Spirit of the Labyrinth

Spirit of the Labyrinth is an imminently fair card draw hoser that affects all players equally, and it has an extremely fragile body that’s weak to most removal spells as well as enchantment removal.

#24. Wedding Ring

Wedding Ring can be used benevolently or maliciously, take your pick. Forced matrimony is questionable, but at least your partner will share in your wealth of card draw and lifegain. More importantly, you’ll have what they’re having.

#23. Zur’s Weirding

Zur's Weirding can bring a game to an absolute halt, since it extends control over players’ draw steps to everyone. Whoever has the highest life total buffer has the most say over what people draw, making this blue enchantment a common inclusion in Oloro, Ageless Ascetic decks.

#22. Smuggler’s Share

Mileage varies on Smuggler's Share because sometimes you’ll run this in a pod of people who ignore it completely and let you get away with murder, while other more scrupulous pods take notice and play in a way that avoids giving you anything. The savvier the opponents, the worse it gets, and no one really needs cards that beat up on newbies.

#21. The Council of Four

Here’s a little Baldur’s Gate gem for you. The Council of Four triggers off opponents drawing extra cards or double-spelling during their own turns, but you can also benefit from its abilities during your turn. It’s not uncommon to drop this and make it back to your turn with three extra cards in hand and a small troupe of 2/2 Knight tokens in play. 0/8s block very well too, as it turns out.

#20. Urabrask, Heretic Praetor

Urabrask, Heretic Praetor isn’t guaranteed to stop your opponents’ card advantage, but the effect can occasionally be quite mean. The idea here is that your opponents’ first draws each turn are replaced by an impulse draw instead, meaning they either play that card that turn, or lose it forever. In other words, no stockpiling cards in your hand anymore while this red creature‘s in play. Meanwhile, you get an extra card every turn, which fits the signature parallel effect style of the praetors.

#19. Curse of Fool’s Wisdom

If you’re running a curse deck, or you can reliably discard cards for value, you might be interested in Curse of Fool's Wisdom. This madness spell puts a stop to one player’s incessant drawing real quick, and you might even back them into a corner if you can madness this out at instant speed in response to a big draw spell.

#18. Dogged Detective

With the right discard outlets or sacrifice outlets, a single Dogged Detective ends up being something like four or five Dogged Detectives throughout the course of the game. This black creature won’t shut opposing card draw down, but your incremental advantages from recurring this creature and surveilling over and over will add up.

#17. The Unagi of Kyoshi Island

I can't unsee the similarities of The Unagi of Kyoshi Island and Consecrated Sphinx. Though the need for an opponent to draw a second card is significant, the difference of flash gives you a much better chance of at least pulling two cards off of this powerful serpent.

#16. Tataru Taru

A big reason Tataru Taru lands this high in the ranking is its cost, because at two mana, this cute Final Fantasy card has a great chance of giving you lots of passive extra treasures and it's already replaced itself. Plus, you get to align yourself with one other player which is sometimes better than granting the whole table an extra card.

#15. Trouble in Pairs

The plagiarized art is certainly a stain on Trouble in Pairs’s reputation, but plagiarism doesn’t change the card’s effect. This white enchantment is desperate to make you notice how good white card draw has become, since it triggers off your opponents doing just about anything in excess. It also just shuts down extra turns, text that I think should be written on every permanent.

#14. The Pingertons

That nickname might be in poor taste but what’s done is done. This slot goes out to all the pingers that toss a point of damage around when an opponent draws a card. Fate Unraveler, Underworld Dreams, Razorkin Needlehead, and Kederekt Parasite are all very similar, and they’re often seen in the same decks together.

#13. Nekusar, the Mindrazer + Spiteful Visions + Scrawling Crawler

I’ve separated out Nekusar, the Mindrazer, Spiteful Visions, and Scrawling Crawler from the other pingers, since these cards come with the extra draw text. Punishing people for drawing while also giving them extra draws is an especially heinous form of cruelty.

#12. Heliod, the Radiant Dawn / Heliod, the Warped Eclipse

Heliod, the Radiant Dawn is just an oversized Auramancer, but transform this baddie and you get Heliod, the Warped Eclipse, a Phyrexian god that converts opponents’ card draw into cost reduction for your spells. And it’s just a living Vedalken Orrery as it is. Very cool design concept plus awesome flavor, and interesting that this is one of the only gods in Magic that doesn’t protect itself at all.

#11. Consecrated Sphinx

Consecrated Sphinx would’ve been easy top five on this list about 5-10 years ago, but times have changed, the game has accelerated, 6-drops are out of style, and Phyrexians are no longer in vogue. I don’t want to overextend though; a resolved Consecrated Sphinx is still incredible, but it’s just not the tilt-inducing powerhouse it was in the early years of Commander.

#10. Faerie Mastermind

Yuta Takahashi’s flashy faerie card has certainly done the World Champion proud. It made waves in Standard, and it plays outrageously well in Commander. Another instance of a card that lets people have their unmitigated card draw but piggybacks off of it well.

#9. Xyris, the Writhing Storm

Xyris, the Writhing Storm has a few notable play patterns. The first is to force the card draw upon someone by hitting them, refilling both of your hands and popping out a few snakes. Alternatively, you can play a little more politically and strike up a deal, “offering” those cards to someone instead of forcing the issue. This Temur card also casually makes snake tokens off of extra draws, so it never even needs to get into combat to be effective.

#8. Notion Thief

I’d like to know where you got the notion?

Notion Thief, that is. A 3/1 for 4 is frail enough that this rogue doesn’t get too carried away, but this is the most spiteful type of draw hate out there – the kind that stops opponents from drawing extra cards and steals those draws. It just feels so bad to fire off card draw and have someone flash this in, much like when you tutor and someone sneaks in an Opposition Agent.

Fun fact: If your opponent controls a Consecrated Sphinx and you control a Notion Thief, they can force you to draw your deck and lose the game.

#7. Leovold, Emissary of Trest

Leovold, Emissary of Trest became a ban list recipient by virtue of being legendary. If it weren’t, or if they still had the “banned as a commander” distinction, I’m confident this Sultai commander would still be legal, since Narset, Parter of Veils is essentially doing the same thing. But putting this sort of effect in the command zone just makes the miser wheel combos way too consistent, and I’ve been marginally happier ever since Leovold caught the banhammer. I’m only including this here because it’s sometimes relevant in Eternal formats besides Commander.

#6. Narset, Parter of Veils

You’d better hope you can kill Narset, Parter of Veils before its controller untaps, because their intentions aren’t pure. Narset’s loyalty ability is solid, but it’s a distraction from the egregious static ability, which works like a Spirit of the Labyrinth that doesn’t affect you. That means wheels, which often leaves opponents empty-handed and the Narset player holding a full grip.

#5. Sheoldred, the Apocalypse

Even now, looking at Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, it baffles me that this black card is as good as it is. You wouldn’t think a 4-drop with no ETB, card advantage ability, or death trigger would be all that much of a problem, and yet, Sheoldred has made their presence known across just about every format, even Vintage!

I guess 2 damage a turn is just twice as much as 1, isn’t it? And the lifegain makes it hard to race. And deathtouch? Yeah, I guess that’s there, too.

#4. Smothering Tithe

Smothering Tithe makes me roll my eyes, but there’s no denying its utility. I find this sort of cheesy mana production more annoying than fun, since it often just pays for itself and lets the controller make arbitrary amounts of mana with no real strategy involved, but that might be a more broad conversation about Treasure tokens that I’m not going to get into here. Card’s great, play it if you want to win a lot.

#3. Chains of Mephistopheles

Okay, say that all again, but slower.

I’m not sure how much use there is in talking about a $1,000 Reserved List card, but if anything, I can try to clarify how Chains of Mephistopheles works, because the oracle text sure doesn’t. TL;DR: If someone tries to draw extra cards, they either end up discarding and drawing, or milling instead, so they never actually go up on cards. It sounds like it produces an infinite loop on its own, but being a replacement effect prevents this from looping on itself.

I found a tidy little org chart on Stack Exchange that outlines the process neatly. And y’all think cards today are confusing?

#2. Orcish Bowmasters

Why does this card exist? Did no one look at Orcish Bowmasters before it went off to the presses? Was there playtesting involved? This design mistake is right up there with Nadu, Winged Wisdom and Dockside Extortionist, but these little black orcs managed to survive the Commander ban list purge of 2024. It’s just way too much efficiency for a 2-drop.

#1. Hullbreacher

I’m happy for Jeweled Lotus and Hullbreacher. They get to enjoy one another’s company on the island of unwanted, broken, and overtuned misfit Commander Legends cards that made casual Commander a worse experience to play.

Hullbreacher’s just incredibly dumb. Shutting off extra draws is fine. Creating Treasures when opponents draw is fine. But doing both and giving this blue creature flash is just distasteful, to the point where I question why people would even want to play this in a Cube environment. It just leads to net-0 unfun play patterns.

Best Draw Hate Enablers and Payoffs

Draw hate is a natural payoff by itself, since it serves the purpose of ensuring opponents don’t get too carried away with card advantage. However, we can put our draw hate to good use in other ways.

I discussed quite a few cards that have nasty combo potential with wheel effects. Cards like Narset, Parter of Veils and Spirit of the Labyrinth can force players into a hellbent situation when paired with a wheel. Leovold, Emissary of Trest got out of hand and banned in Commander.

Group slug decks also benefit from some of these punisher cards. For this archetype, you don’t want to shut down the draws, but instead let the cards flow with, Folio of Fancies, and Stormfist Crusader.

Some cards have group hug potential too, where you actually give players something beneficial in exchange for a personal advantage. Mikokoro, Center of the Sea, Temple Bell, and Geier Reach Sanitariu.

Before we wrap up, give your opponents something nice, the gift a card offerings from Bloomburrow are a more targeted approach to enabling draw hate to work for you. Give Wear Down, Long River's Pull, and Dawn's Truce a try.

Wrap Up

Sheoldred, the Apocalypse | Illustration by Chris Rahn

As with cats and skinning, there’s more than one way to hate a draw. You can be especially spiteful with the Bowmasters and Narsets of the world, or you can just play the role of a leech and sit back with your Faerie Masterminds and such. It comes down to whether you want to be the only one drawing extra cards, or if you’re fine with opponents drawing cards, so long as you can get in on the action.

Now to you, reader! Did I miss any pivotal pieces of draw hate? These effects come in a couple different forms, so it’s easy to let something slip through the cracks. But if you fill me in on any missing cards, I promise I won’t flash in my Notion Thief when you cast your Recurring Insight. Let me know if I’m missing anything in the comments below or over in the Draftsim Discord.

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