Psionic Snoop is a 0/3 Human Rogue creature with Flash costing {2}{U}. Its defining ability is its enter-the-battlefield trigger: it connives. Conniving means you draw a card, then discard a card. If the discarded card was not a land, Psionic Snoop receives a +1/+1 counter. This means that even if you only have lands in your hand, the draw still occurs. However, you will only get the counter if you discard a nonland card.

The Flash ability allows you to cast Psionic Snoop at any time you could cast an instant. This is useful for surprising your opponent, perhaps sneaking in a blocker after their attack or responding to a creature entering the battlefield. Its low power makes it vulnerable, but its high toughness ensures it can survive many common attacks, particularly on its own. The +1/+1 counter from conniving makes up for its initially fragile 0/3 statline.

The connive ability interacts with effects that manipulate your hand. Cards like Wheel of Fortune might increase the odds of discarding a nonland card and gaining the counter, while others like Serum Vision might provide an extra card to be discarded. Conversely, effects that reduce the number of cards in your hand, like Thoughtseize, will potentially affect the outcome of the conniving ability. The interaction with effects that replace your draw will alter the conniving draw, which does have a significant effect on the counter trigger.

Finally, note that even if you have no cards in hand when Psionic Snoop enters the battlefield, you will still draw a card due to the connive trigger. However, since you will have to discard a card, you will be forced to discard the drawn card, meaning that the +1/+1 counter will not be added.

Psionic Snoop's strategic value lies in its ability to generate card advantage while providing a surprisingly resilient body, thanks to its high toughness and the potential for significant stat boosts. The Flash ability allows it to be played reactively, disrupting opponent's attacks or countering surprise threats. Its Connive ability is crucial; it allows the player to filter their hand, finding better cards while potentially powering up Psionic Snoop itself. This makes it especially useful in decks that need to dig for answers or specific cards.

Decks that heavily utilize instant and sorcery spells, or those relying on efficient card draw, benefit most from Psionic Snoop. It shines in strategies that can leverage the potential +1/+1 counter generation. Consider pairing it with cards like Opt to fuel its connive ability consistently. This combo allows you to draw a card, discard a land (or a card you don't need) and still have a powerful 1/3 creature with evasive power on the field. A common strategy is to sacrifice a weaker creature or a low-value card before Psionic Snoop enters play, making the discard from connive less of a setback.

Psionic Snoop's roles can be categorized as follows:

• Card Draw Engine: Connive serves as a form of card advantage, making it a useful engine in decks looking to cycle through their deck efficiently.
• Defensive Wall: Its high toughness makes it an unexpectedly sturdy blocker against many common early-game creatures.
• Tempo Disruptor: Flash allows for reactive plays, disrupting opponent's plans and providing a much-needed counter to a key aggressive play.
• Value Engine: In the right deck, particularly those that don't mind sacrificing less-valuable cards to fuel its power, the Psionic Snoop can easily surpass its base stats, becoming a formidable threat.

Thus, Psionic Snoop is a flexible card useful in various strategies that benefit from card filtering and a reactive defensive creature. Its success hinges on maximizing the benefit of its Connive ability through smart card management.

Psionic Snoop's low mana cost and Flash ability make it a powerful tempo play, particularly in decks that benefit from card draw and discard synergy. Its Connive ability allows it to grow quickly, turning a potentially fragile 0/3 into a significant blocker or attacker depending on what you discard. Decks prioritizing card advantage will find Psionic Snoop to be a valuable asset.

The effectiveness of Psionic Snoop is highly dependent on the quality of cards in your hand. Discarding a high-value card to boost its power will significantly improve its impact, while discarding a land will leave it vulnerable. Therefore, building a deck around discarding spells, or cards that provide value even when discarded, significantly enhances this creature's contribution. Cards like Underworld Breach, Faithless Looting, and Cathartic Reunion are excellent companions, enabling you to fuel Snoop's growth while setting up future plays.

Another strong synergy exists with cards that benefit from discarding cards. Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger and The Underworld Cookbook both directly profit from discarding cards, and provide a further incentive to use Psionic Snoop's Connive ability. The ability to proactively discard high-value cards is key to maximize the value of this strategy, ensuring you are maximizing the effect of the Connive trigger without sacrificing key components of your gameplan.

Finally, the Flash ability on Psionic Snoop allows it to be played as a surprise blocker against aggressive strategies, buying you crucial time to develop your board state. This makes it a valuable addition to control and tempo decks that want to disrupt early aggression. Consider pairing it with other defensive tools, such as Counterspell or Pacifism, to further solidify your defensive posture.

Psionic Snoop's viability hinges heavily on its Connive ability and Flash. In formats like Standard and Historic, its 0/3 body with Flash offers a degree of protection against many aggressive one-drops and early-game threats. The Connive ability provides card advantage, crucial in these formats, and the potential for a +1/+1 counter adds resilience. However, its fragile body means it's vulnerable to removal, and its reliance on discarding a nonland card to grow makes it inconsistent. It's unlikely to be a standout performer in these competitive environments, though it could find a niche in specific archetypes that benefit from card filtering and a late-game resilient blocker. Cards like Opt and Consider could be used to set up favorable discards. Its low cost might make it a playable sideboard option against aggressive strategies.

In Commander, Psionic Snoop's value is significantly lower. While the ability to sneak in a Connive trigger at the end of an opponent's turn is helpful, the small body and overall impact are easily overshadowed by the power level of Commander. The card selection provided by Connive is nice, but rarely impactful enough to warrant a slot in a 99-card deck, especially given the many other powerful options available at three mana or less. More impactful value engines will almost certainly be prioritized.

Overall, Psionic Snoop's best chance at seeing play is likely in limited formats. Its Flash ability and Connive offer decent value for its mana cost. It's not a powerhouse, but it will certainly hold its own in a draft setting and can become a solid threat once it has a few +1/+1 counters on it.

Psionic Snoop shines in situations where you need to quickly disrupt your opponent's plans or bolster your board presence, especially in the later turns. One scenario involves using it to counter a sudden aggressive push. Imagine your opponent has a Goblin Guide and a Bloodghast attacking, putting you on a low life total. Playing Psionic Snoop with Flash allows you to block one creature while simultaneously drawing a card and potentially discarding an unwanted land to add a +1/+1 counter, making it a more formidable blocker or a potential attacker in the following turns. The additional card draw helps find answers to your opponent's remaining threats.

Another impactful scenario utilizes Psionic Snoop's connive ability to dig for specific answers. Suppose you're facing a board with a troublesome Giant Growth-boosted creature, and your hand is full of lands. Playing Psionic Snoop lets you cycle through your hand, searching for removal spells like Doom Blade or Lightning Bolt. The discarding of a land then strengthens the Snoop, allowing it to potentially survive the next combat phase and continue to apply pressure or block. This exemplifies how its ability to both filter your hand and provide immediate board presence is incredibly valuable.

Finally, consider a scenario where you have several low-cost spells in hand and need to get rid of dead weight. Playing Psionic Snoop on your turn, potentially after casting a few smaller spells, provides a way to discard unnecessary cards (that might be more detrimental later) while simultaneously drawing a replacement and getting a 1/3 creature to defend. This ability to manipulate your hand strategically makes Psionic Snoop a very flexible and powerful addition to a control or tempo deck.

Psionic Snoop, a common from the Streets of New Capenna (snc) set, represents a fascinating evolution in the design space of cheap, efficient tempo creatures. Its unique combination of Flash and Connive offers immediate impact on the board state while simultaneously contributing to card advantage. Prior to its release, similar effects were often spread across multiple cards, necessitating a specific deckbuilding strategy to maximize their utility. Psionic Snoop's efficient mana cost, however, made it a readily accessible inclusion for many blue-based strategies. The 0/3 body, while vulnerable to many common removal spells, provides a surprising level of resilience against aggressive strategies, particularly when bolstered by the +1/+1 counter from its Connive ability. It often serves as a tempo play, allowing a player to disrupt an opponent's plan while simultaneously developing their own board.

Its relatively low rarity ensured wide availability, making it a staple in many casual and competitive constructed decks. The impact of Psionic Snoop is most evident in its continued relevance in various formats. While it didn't become a dominant force warping the metagame in the way Collected Company or Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath did, it consistently maintained a strong presence within its intended environment. Subsequent sets haven't produced a direct analog in terms of its specific combination of abilities at its cost, highlighting its effective design. The fact that it appeared in later sets such as Commander Masters demonstrates its continued appeal as a versatile and effective card for constructed formats, and its potential in casual settings, even years after its initial release.

Reprint considerations for Psionic Snoop will likely hinge on the overall design goals of any future sets. Its common rarity makes it a good candidate for inclusion in sets focused on providing access to strong commons for Limited formats and inexpensive options for Constructed. As a result, it's likely that it will continue to be reprinted in future sets, albeit perhaps less frequently than other widely impactful cards. Further, its relatively simple design and straightforward functionality may contribute to its continued inclusion in Commander products, where players readily value its tempo and card draw potential.

Psionic Snoop's flavor text perfectly captures the sneaky, opportunistic nature of a rogue utilizing psionic abilities. The art depicts a figure subtly gleaning information, reinforcing the "snoop" aspect of the name. The 0/3 body, coupled with flash, suggests a creature designed to disrupt the opponent's plans rather than directly engage in combat. The connive mechanic further enhances this, representing the rogue's ability to cleverly gather and utilize information—discarding what's useless and bolstering their strength with useful intel. This fits the Streets of New Capenna set's theme of organized crime and cunning perfectly, aligning with other cards like Cut of the Profits which similarly reward discarding cards for advantage. The low mana cost and common rarity make it accessible, reflecting the prevalence of opportunistic street-level operatives within the set's setting. The flash ability also adds another layer of tactical flexibility, allowing for reactive plays that disrupt an opponent's end-of-turn plans, mimicking the subtle, quick strikes of a skilled rogue.

The Psionic Snoop, costing only {2}{U}, is generally considered budget-friendly. Its common rarity further contributes to its low price point. Many players can easily include it in their decks without significant financial strain.

Cheaper alternatives depend heavily on the desired effect. If the primary goal is a cheap creature with flash, options like Essence Warden or Skywatcher Adept offer similar functionalities at a comparable or lower mana cost, though without the connive mechanic. If the connive mechanic is crucial, alternatives are less readily available at a lower cost. Cards offering similar card advantage at a lower cost are more likely to be found among instants and sorceries rather than creatures. Consider cards like Opt or Preordain (though the latter is not always readily available at a low price, depending on the set). However, these cards lack the creature body and flash ability of the Psionic Snoop. The choice ultimately hinges on the specific needs of the deck and the player's priorities.

Psionic Snoop's deceptively low mana cost and Flash ability make it surprisingly versatile in advanced strategies. Its Connive ability allows for powerful card advantage engine manipulation, especially when combined with specific deck archetypes. For instance, discarding a creature card with a negative drawback, like Dreadfeast Demon, to trigger Connive becomes beneficial, leveraging the +1/+1 counter while removing the downside of the discarded card.

The 0/3 body, while seemingly frail, becomes a resilient blocker, trading favorably against many aggressive one and two-power creatures. This defensive strength is amplified by its Flash ability, allowing you to counter a surprise attack or protect other key creatures already on the battlefield. Its ability to generate card advantage late in the game also helps maintain momentum, allowing you to maintain pressure even if the initial aggressive pushes from your opponent are successful. This makes it a strong choice in control-style strategies.

A less obvious interaction involves using Psionic Snoop's ability in response to an opponent's spell or ability. For example, if your opponent plays a powerful sorcery that would eliminate one of your critical creatures, you could Flash in Psionic Snoop, discarding a less critical card to survive the immediate threat. The added card draw, even if you are forced to discard a land, buys you an extra turn to recover. The key is to carefully consider what card to discard to optimize the Snoop's impact on the game state.

Common Mistakes with Psionic Snoop often revolve around its fragility and the inherent randomness of its connive ability. Players sometimes forget its Flash ability, leading to missed opportunities to disrupt an opponent's end step plays, particularly if they intend to use a removal spell like Doom Blade or Lightning Bolt. Failing to maximize the value of the connive trigger is another frequent error. Discarding a crucial card (a land when short, a key spell, or a combo piece) while not gaining the +1/+1 counter can significantly impact the game. Conversely, some players may overestimate Psionic Snoop's resilience. Its 0 power makes it vulnerable to almost any creature or even a well-timed Shock. This vulnerability is exacerbated by the fact that its ability to grow relies on discarding a nonland card—a gamble that might fail. Finally, over-reliance on Psionic Snoop as a primary win condition is unwise given its inherent limitations. While the connive ability can help fuel a strong late game, it is not a consistent threat on its own.