Anvil of Bogardan
Players have no maximum hand size.
At the beginning of each player's draw step, that player draws an additional card, then discards a card.
How It Works
Anvil watches every player's draw step, including yours. The normal draw for the turn happens first as a turn-based action. Only then does Anvil trigger. Here is the full sequence on a single turn.
Net result: you keep the same hand size and dig one card deeper. The for-turn draw nets a card, then Anvil swaps one card for a fresh one. Because no player has a maximum hand size, nobody discards down at cleanup either. The whole point sits in Step 2: there is a real priority window after Anvil triggers and before you are made to discard.
Reading The Result
- The for-turn draw and the Anvil draw are separate. You draw your one card for the turn first, as a turn-based action that never uses the stack. Anvil's ability only triggers after that, and the card it draws is a second, distinct draw.
- The trigger uses the stack, so there is a window. Once Anvil triggers it goes on the stack and you receive priority. You can hold instants, flash spells, and instant-speed abilities here, before the draw-then-discard ever happens.
- Draw then discard is one resolution. When the trigger resolves you draw and then discard with nothing in between. You do not get priority to play the card you just drew before the discard half takes a card.
Tips
If your for-turn draw is an instant or a card with flash, cast it in response to the Anvil trigger. It leaves your hand and reaches the board before the discard half can take a card, so you spend the card instead of pitching it.
In response to the trigger on your turn, cast an instant-speed tutor like Vampiric Tutor or Enlightened Tutor that puts a card on top of your library. When the trigger resolves you draw that exact card, then discard something you no longer need.
Dredge replaces a draw, so when the Anvil draw would happen you can dredge a card back from your graveyard instead. Then discard that same card to the second half of the trigger, setting it up to dredge again on your next draw step.
Discard a card with madness to the Anvil trigger and its madness ability gives you the option to cast it. The madness trigger goes on the stack after Anvil has fully resolved, so you finish the draw-and-discard first, then choose to cast the pitched card.
Misplays
You draw your one card for the turn first, as a turn-based action. Anvil's ability triggers only after that draw, and the card it gives you is a separate, second draw. Treating them as one draw skips the priority window that sits between them.
Once the trigger resolves you draw and then discard as one action. You cannot cast a spell or play the card you just drew before the discard half forces a card out. If you wanted to use that drawn card, you needed to act in the window before the trigger resolved.
Each Anvil triggers and resolves on its own. You draw one and discard one for the first, get priority, then draw one and discard one for the second. They never combine into a single draw-two-discard-two.
Anvil reads "each player's draw step," so it triggers on your own draw steps as well as your opponents'. The no-maximum-hand-size clause and the draw-then-discard apply to everyone at the table while Anvil is out.
Combos
Each of these stops the extra Anvil draw on your opponents' turns. Narset caps them at one draw per turn, so the additional draw never happens. Notion Thief replaces it, drawing you the card instead. Either way the discard half still fires, so every opponent loses a card on their own draw step and slowly empties out.
Chains replaces every draw after the first one in a player's draw step with a discard, or a mill if their hand is empty. The Anvil draw is a second draw, so a player with cards in hand discards, then draws for it under Chains' replacement, then still discards again to Anvil's own clause. The table loses a card a turn to that stacked replacement, on top of whatever Anvil itself already takes.
Anvil forces every opponent to discard on their own draw step, which is exactly what these engines feed on. Waste Not turns each opponent discard into mana, a zombie, or a card, and Bone Miser pays you for the type discarded. The value lands every turn cycle without you spending a thing.
Fine Print
- The discard is an effect, not a cost. If a player's Anvil draw is somehow prevented and their hand is empty when the trigger resolves, they simply do not discard. Nothing about the trigger requires a card to be there for it to resolve.
- No maximum hand size is a continuous effect set by timestamp. If another permanent sets a player's maximum hand size to a number, like Null Profusion or Cursed Rack, timestamp order decides the result. Whichever effect entered the battlefield last is the one that applies.
- Multiple draw-step triggers go on the stack in turn order. If two abilities trigger at the beginning of the same draw step, say one you control and an Anvil an opponent controls, they are placed using active-player-first ordering. The trigger placed on the stack last is the one that resolves first.
Governing Rules
Rulings last verified: June 2026
Official Rulings
If multiple effects modify your hand size, apply them in timestamp order. For example, if you put Null Profusion (an enchantment that says your maximum hand size is two) onto the battlefield and then put Anvil of Bogardan onto the battlefield, you'll have no maximum hand size. However, if those permanents entered in the opposite order, your maximum hand size would be two.
The triggered ability is put onto the stack after you have already drawn your card for the turn.
If there are two Anvils on the battlefield, they trigger and resolve separately. This means that you first draw one card and discard one card, and then do it again. You do not draw two cards and then discard two cards.
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Request a cardSources
- Scryfall: Anvil of Bogardan (Visions #141): oracle text, legality, and the official rulings dated 2009-10-01 and 2013-04-15.
- EDHREC: Anvil of Bogardan: synergy partners and deck inclusion data.
- Wizards of the Coast: Magic Comprehensive Rules: the CR references listed under Governing Rules.