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Ian Malcolm, Chaotician
Legendary Creature — Human Scientist
Whenever a player draws their second card each turn, that player exiles the top card of their library. During each player's turn, that player may cast a spell from among the cards they don't own exiled with Ian Malcolm, and mana of any type can be spent to cast it.
2 / 2
$7.56Buy on TCGPlayer
“Steal everyone's top decks by encouraging chaos and card draw.”
Midrange
Intermediate
Combat damage, Tokens swarm
Wheels, Group Hug, Spellslinger
Strategy
Ian Malcolm, Chaotician is all about turning card draw into chaos and resource advantage. Every time a player draws their second card in a turn, Ian exiles the top card of their library—which anyone can then cast from exile using any color of mana. Your game plan is to encourage table-wide draw effects, then capitalize on the mayhem by casting opponents' cards before they can. This turns the whole table's library into a shared resource pool that you control the flow of.
The deck wins by leveraging stolen spells and resources to outvalue opponents. You'll pack card-draw payoff cards that trigger Ian multiple times per turn, then fill the deck with effects that draw cards for everyone—wheels, group hug effects, and symmetrical draw engines. As the game progresses, you'll have access to more exiled cards than anyone else, letting you tutor-like casting patterns. Victory comes from either casting key threat cards you've stolen, using them to generate value or tempo, or simply grinding out advantage until opponents can't keep up.
Strategy generated by Tapped Decks AI. Not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast.
Key Synergies
Budget Build
Replace pricey wheels like Windfall with cheaper alternatives like Dark Deal or Winds of Change; use mass draw like Omen Machine or Dictate of Kruphix over expensive symmetrical draw engines.
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Inclusion = % of Ian Malcolm, Chaotician decks running this card. +lift = percentage-point boost over the format average.
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Art Variants
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