Uba Mask
If a player would draw a card, that player exiles that card face up instead.
Each player may play lands and cast spells from among cards they exiled with Uba Mask this turn.
How It Works
Uba Mask is on the battlefield and it is your draw step. Here is what happens to the card you would draw, and the window you get to use it.
Use it or lose it. The exiled card is only yours for the turn it was exiled. A Mountain you turn up but never play is gone for good once the turn ends. The card pays off when your curve is low enough to cast what you exile the same turn you exile it.
Reading The Result
- The draw never happens. Uba Mask replaces the draw, so the card is exiled instead of entering a hand. Anything that watches for a card being drawn never sees a draw to react to.
- The permission lasts one turn. You may play the land or cast the spell from exile during the turn it was exiled. Once that turn ends, the chance is gone and the card is stranded.
- It changes where, not when. Uba Mask only lets you play the card from exile. A sorcery is still a sorcery, a land still uses your land play for the turn, and you still pay the full cost.
Tips
Cast Wheel of Fortune or Windfall while Uba Mask is out. Every opponent pitches their hand and would draw seven fresh cards, so all seven are exiled face up instead. They rarely have the mana to cast seven cards in one turn, so most of that new hand rots in exile and is gone next turn.
Uba Mask hits you too, so keep your own deck cheap. In aggro or artifact decks your draws cost little enough to cast the same turn you exile them, so you keep your card flow while the rest of the table loses theirs. The flatter your curve, the more one-sided the lock.
Enlightened Tutor and other artifact tutors fetch Uba Mask reliably, so you can set the lock up the turn you want it rather than waiting to draw it. Land it before a wheel for the most value.
Misplays
You cannot bank exiled cards to play on a later turn. The permission ends when the turn ends, and everything you did not play stays in exile permanently. You only get to play a card during the exact turn Uba Mask exiled it.
Uba Mask changes the zone you play from, not when you may play. You cannot cast a sorcery on an opponent's turn just because it sits in exile, and a land you exile still uses your one land play for the turn. Instants are the only thing you can cast outside your main phase.
Uba Mask watches for the word "draw" and nothing else. Cards milled, discarded, or tutored straight to hand are untouched. If an effect moves a card to a hand without using the word "draw," it is not exiled and plays normally.
Combos
Uba Mask exiles every card an opponent would draw and grants permission to play it this turn. Drannith Magistrate says your opponents can't cast spells or play lands from anywhere other than their hand, which strips that permission away. Opponents draw into exile and can never play what they find, while the permission still works for you. The two together shut every opponent out of new cards for the rest of the game.
Fine Print
- Draw triggers never fire. The draw is replaced before it happens, so abilities that trigger when a player draws a card, like Nekusar, the Mindrazer or Smothering Tithe, never see a draw and do not trigger. The replacement removes the draw entirely rather than just redirecting the card.
- Stacking replacement effects. If two effects both want to replace the same draw, for example Uba Mask and another card that changes how that player draws, the player who would draw chooses which order to apply them. That choice can change where the card ends up.
Governing Rules
Rulings last verified: June 2026
Official Rulings
You can't play cards you exiled with Uba Mask on previous turns.
Any cards you don't play just remain exiled when the turn ends.
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Request a cardSources
- Scryfall: Uba Mask (Champions of Kamigawa #272): oracle text, legality, and the two official rulings dated 2004-12-01.
- EDHREC: Uba Mask: synergy partners and deck inclusion data.
- EDH-Combos: Uba Mask + Drannith Magistrate: the draw-lock package.
- Wizards of the Coast: Magic Comprehensive Rules: the CR references listed under Governing Rules.