Nicol BolasNicol Bolas | Art by Edward Beard, Jr

Welcome to Too-Specific Top 10, where if there isn’t a category to rank our pet card at the top of, we’ll just make one up! (Did you know that Diary of DreamsDiary of Dreams is the only Book that cares about instants and sorceries and draws cards?)

Secrets of Strixhaven dropped an unexpected twist on us this month: Books!

While the set itself only contains only a single new Book, Diary of DreamsDiary of Dreams, Wizards went ahead and used the opportunity to reprint Codie, Vociferous CodexCodie, Vociferous Codex and give him the new subtype of Book. They then went back in time a bit with the likes of Five Hundred Year DiaryFive Hundred Year Diary and gave every artifact depicting a book the Book type. This ended up being quite extensive, with 47 cards in the game now being officially declared "Books".

The problem is, there's not really a commander that cares about Books yet. Sure, there's Codie, who is a book, but he's a complete non-bo with Books, given that he doesn't let you cast permanents, which notably every single Book is.

Of course, there was another Book-themed commander in Secrets of Strixhaven that didn't get the Book type, but inarguably fits the mold: Page, Loose LeafPage, Loose Leaf.

Now, does Page do anything for Books? No. Does 90% of its text not do anything in Commander? Yes. But dang it, I want to build around Books, and Page lets me take a page out of that book. So let's do this!

Top 10 Books

Criteria: Books of the colorless variety. As is tradition, however, all results are ordered by EDHREC score.

10. Mazemind TomeMazemind Tome

(20.3K Inclusions, 0.24% of 8.58M Decks)

I have tried Mazemind TomeMazemind Tome in many a deck, and the basic takeaway I've come up with is if that if you care about scrying, this can be a great tool. If you're just looking for a cheap, generic means of drawing a few cards, you'll almost always find yourself instead spending all your mana on casting cards from hand and then scrying instead.

The question is: if we're in colorless with a mana dork in the command zone and access to all sorts of huge mana rocks, like Thran DynamoThran Dynamo, will we have enough mana lying around that we'd actually use this?

9. River Song's DiaryRiver Song's Diary

(23.3K Inclusions, 0.27% of 8.58M Decks)

So. We have a commander that cares about instants and sorceries, and a Book that cares about instants and sorceries. Could we actually make this whole Page thing work?

Well, I looked into it, and the problem isn't that you can't make Page, Loose LeafPage, Loose Leaf's grandeur ability work. It takes finding a repeatable return effect and finding one of the two Spy KitSpy Kit effects in the game, but yes, you absolutely can return your commander to your hand, discard it, and essentially tutor for a huge impactful spell.

Which is where the problem lies: there aren't any huge impactful spells in colorless that are really worth searching up.

There are board wipes galore, and a lot of them will feel fairly one-sided in colorless, but as for anything that even approaches winning the game, the list is Rise of the EldraziRise of the Eldrazi. End of list. Now, if we could cast that over and over again with River Song's DiaryRiver Song's Diary, that would be something! But we can't, because Rise of the Eldrazi exiles itself before Diary can exile it.

So, with apologies, there will be no cool secret commander shenanigans with Page. As for whether River Song's Diary can stand on its own two feet? Yeah, I think so. Getting it down early and just farming the table's spells should do a lot and is worth the inclusion!

8. Sarevok's TomeSarevok's Tome

(24.6K Inclusions, 0.29% of 8.58M Decks)

We were just talking about the ability to play huge mana rocks, like Thran DynamoThran Dynamo, in colorless, and lo and behold, probably the best of the various four-mana-to-make-two-mana rocks appears before us as a freshly christened book. Which gets me wondering: should we be trying to be more thematic here?

If grandeur secret commander shenanigans aren't a real option and we're leaning into Books, why not go full Bracket 1 "Ladies in Chairs" here and start in on a library theme deck? It'd cut out the Dynamos of the world, but if we have the Sarevok's TomeSarevok's Tomes and Sisay's RingSisay's Rings, we should get by fine, right?

7. Grimoire of the DeadGrimoire of the Dead

(26.5K Inclusions, 0.31% of 8.58M Decks)

Still, even a Bracket 1 deck needs to actually try to win the game, and what better way to do so than with Grimoire of the DeadGrimoire of the Dead? A battlecruiser game that's gone on for a while is sure to have fully stocked graveyards, and this grabs creatures from all of them. That's exactly the kind of swing that will either result in a win or a board wipe, which is all you can ask for in the Bracket 1 world.

6. The Underworld CookbookThe Underworld Cookbook

(31.3K Inclusions, 0.36% of 8.58M Decks)

If we're going to go deep on Books, there are a lot of Jalum TomeJalum Tomes in the world that don't do anything but use a lot of mana to draw a single card. With that in mind, is there a place for The Underworld CookbookThe Underworld Cookbook to then translate those cards into Food?

I don't think so. While there is an argument to be using AsmoranomardicadaistinaculdacarAsmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar as our commander over Page, simply for the color access that would let us play the two black Books in Tarrian's JournalTarrian's Journal and The Book of Vile DarknessThe Book of Vile Darkness, even that version would hardly care about Food outside of the possibility of searching up an Academy ManufactorAcademy Manufactor.

5. Tamiyo's JournalTamiyo's Journal

(58.1K Inclusions, 0.68% of 8.58M Decks)

Clues, on the other hand, are generically useful, whether that be cracking them to draw cards because we have more mana than a minor deity, or hoarding them so that we can Demonic TutorDemonic Tutor repeatedly, that's a token we can use. The only sad thing? Tamiyo's JournalTamiyo's Journal is the only Book that cares about them besides the notably blue Five Hundred Year DiaryFive Hundred Year Diary.

4. Tome of LegendsTome of Legends

(58.4K Inclusions, 0.68% of 8.58M Decks)

Page won't be naturally stacking up page counters on Tome of LegendsTome of Legends, being a 0/2 that we'll mostly be tapping for mana. That said, you still get the initial counter from Tome entering, and then another from Page entering, and I know I'm happy to pay two mana for two cards...

3. Geth's GrimoireGeth's Grimoire

(59.7K Inclusions, 0.70% of 8.58M Decks)

Geth's GrimoireGeth's Grimoire is one of the best cards you can see in a discard deck, meaning it would probably be another great addition to the AsmoranomardicadaistinaculdacarAsmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar Book deck. With that said, it's not something you can rely on if you're not making opponents discard, so we'll be skipping on this one.

2. SpellbookSpellbook

(70.8K Inclusions, 0.83% of 8.58M Decks)

With almost the entirety of the Book genre having something to do with card draw, however, SpellbookSpellbook is sure to come in handy! Normally this would be where I would also tack on some insights about how we can abuse a zero-mana artifact as well, but that's not really what we're doing today with our Bracket 1 Library deck. So... onward to number one!

1. Venser's JournalVenser's Journal

(72.5K Inclusions, 0.85% of 8.58M Decks)

Maybe it is good that we're aiming for a low-powered bracket, however, because I have to say: Our number one Book? I'm not impressed with it. We've already shown we can get unlimited hand size for zero mana, and if we're looking for upside in on that same effect that's within our library theme? Library of LengLibrary of Leng is right there.

So why is Venser's JournalVenser's Journal seeing so much play? Put simply, lifegain decks. More specifically, blue lifegain decks that both want to gain a ton of life and are likely to have a bunch of cards.

As for our purposes? Well, there are worse things to be doing in our theme than gaining five to ten life each upkeep. Hopefully its enough to keep us around in the long game.

Honorable Mentions

Are there more interesting Books to add to our deck? You bet! We have a lot of more colorful Books and commanders for them to go over, however, so let's take a look at them in the decklist itself.

Now, I know what a lot of you are thinking: like, half of these cards have nothing to do with libraries! Well, you'd be correct, if you didn't take alternate arts into account. Luckily, blueprints and the like are very library-esque, which got us pretty far on some much needed essentials, like Unwinding ClockUnwinding Clock, Psychosis CrawlerPsychosis Crawler, and Aetherflux ReservoirAetherflux Reservoir. After all, even in Bracket 1, games gotta end, right?

As for how the deck plays, it's a slow, plodding adventure through some truly awful Books that make me smile almost as much as the cute commander does. You make a bunch of mana, draw a bunch of cards, and eventually pay it all off with either some impactful effects that care about all these things you're doing, or just some good old fashioned aggro with an emphasis on Books.

As for if you could make a better Book deck, though? I don't really think the infrastructure is there yet. I do think we'll eventually get a shout-out to the Dewey decimal system that will have us able to search for specific Books, and probably a couple dedicated commanders. But for now? I'd say Bracket 2 is about the limit, at least if you're going to stay true to theme.

That said, if you are more Book-inclined and want to go all in? There are a few more options out there that can expand the palette a bit.

Aside from the previously mentioned Codie, Vociferous CodexCodie, Vociferous Codex, who is selfish and won't let you play any other Books, there are only four other commanders who mention Books directly. The three legal ones get you a Book upon entering, although none of those Books seem to care much about other Books, either. Maybe Books are just naturally selfish? The last is Ignacio of Myra's MarvelsIgnacio of Myra's Marvels, who is stamped with that there acorn that says he isn't legal, but that's never stopped you before, has it?

There are also a right cavalcade of commanders featuring books in their art, some of which are quite good and have some overlap with the better Books out there.

Which brings us to the last thing to consider: the Books we eliminated from contention today.

Top 10 Colorful Books

1. Monster ManualMonster Manual
2. Folio of FanciesFolio of Fancies
3. The Book of Exalted DeedsThe Book of Exalted Deeds
4. Tarrian's JournalTarrian's Journal
5. Five Hundred Year DiaryFive Hundred Year Diary
6. Marina Vendrell's GrimoireMarina Vendrell's Grimoire
7. Summoner's GrimoireSummoner's Grimoire
8. Wizard's SpellbookWizard's Spellbook
9. Tamiyo's LogbookTamiyo's Logbook
10. The Book of Vile DarknessThe Book of Vile Darkness

The first thing that this list makes clear is that we did this whole thing on hard mode. I've waxed poetic many a time about how good a finisher Folio of FanciesFolio of Fancies can be, and Venser's JournalVenser's Journal is an entirely different kettle of fish when combined with Marina Vendrell's GrimoireMarina Vendrell's Grimoire.

So to answer my earlier question, if you wanted to build an actually good Book deck? I think I'd go with Tasha, the Witch QueenTasha, the Witch Queen and go all-in on the good blue and black Books. Although what would probably be even more fun than that would be to keep it in Bracket 2 and build a true Elder Dragon Highlander deck with Nicol BolasNicol Bolas. Now there's a Dragon that can enjoy a book.

Nuts and Bolts

There always seems to be a bit of interest in how these lists are made (this seems like a good time to stress once again that they are based on EDHREC score, NOT my personal opinion…), and people are often surprised that I’m not using any special data or .json from EDHREC, but rather just muddling my way through with some Scryfall knowledge! For your enjoyment/research, here is this week’s Scryfall search.

What Do You Think?

So... what are Books actually for? Honestly, I think the answer right now is just flavor, but that doesn't mean they won't be for more at a later date. Right?

And finally, what is your favorite Book? Can you play it with Page, Loose LeafPage, Loose Leaf, or is it of the more coloric variety?

Let us know in the comments, and we'll see you at the library table. Shh!