Precipitous Drop MTG Card
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 3 |
| Rarity | Common |
| Type | Enchantment — Aura |
| Abilities | Enchant,Venture into the dungeon |
| Released | 2021-07-23 |
| Set symbol | |
| Set name | Adventures in the Forgotten Realms |
| Set code | AFR |
| Number | 115 |
| Frame | 2015 |
| Layout | normal |
| Border | black |
| Illustred by | Gabor Szikszai |
Key Takeaways
- Provides card advantage by combining creature debuff with dungeon progression benefits.
- Indirect resource acceleration through dungeon completion enhancing overall strategy.
- While a sorcery, dungeon effects from Precipitous Drop simulate instant speed advantages.
Text of card
Enchant creature When Precipitous Drop enters the battlefield, venture into the dungeon. (Enter the first room or advance to the next room.) Enchanted creature gets -2/-2. It gets -5/-5 instead as long as you've completed a dungeon.
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Precipitous Drop delivers more than just a single effect. In addition to neutralizing a threat by giving a creature -3/-3, it also works in concert with the set’s theme of ventures into the dungeon. This means that every time you play Precipitous Drop, you’re advancing through a dungeon, potentially unlocking additional benefits that can lead to significant card advantage over the course of a game. Progressing through dungeons can draw you extra cards, create creature tokens, and more, all contributing to an overarching strategy that puts you ahead of your opponent.
Resource Acceleration: While this card itself does not offer direct resource acceleration, its compatibility with dungeon-mechanics can result in accelerating your resources. As you complete dungeon cards and encounter rooms that possibly allow you to add mana or play additional lands, Precipitous Drop indirectly contributes to your mana development and resource acceleration, ensuring that you keep pace with or even surpass your opponents’ available resources.
Instant Speed: The ability to cast spells at instant speed guarantees flexibility, and while Precipitous Drop is a sorcery, the ongoing effects from venturing into dungeons can occur on your opponent’s turns. This transformative dynamic ensures that even during your opponent’s plays, the advantages you’ve gained from Precipitous Drop continually influence the game, akin to instant speed effects that keep your opponent guessing and your options open.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: While Precipitous Drop offers a strong interaction with the venture into the dungeon mechanic, it can prove to be a setback in situations where you have a scarcity of cards in your hand. If you’re already struggling to maintain card advantage, employing this removal spell could exacerbate that issue.
Specific Mana Cost: Precipitous Drop requires black mana to cast, which commits the player to either a black-centered or a multicolor mana base. This could potentially restrict its inclusion to only certain archetypes, limiting the card’s versatility in a broad range of decks.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: When evaluating removal options, mana efficiency is key. The three-mana investment needed for Precipitous Drop puts it on the higher end of the spectrum compared to other removal spells in the game that also deal with smaller creatures efficiently. This makes it less appealing in environments where speed and low-cost solutions are crucial for maintaining board control.
Reasons to Include in Your Collection
Versatility: Precipitous Drop finds its place in various deck builds, especially those leveraging the ‘venture into the dungeon’ mechanics. It’s a functional removal spell that offers added benefits the more you delve into dungeon exploration.
Combo Potential: This card shines when combined with other dungeon-related cards, amplifying both its power and utility. As you progress through a dungeon, Precipitous Drop becomes not just a tool for creature control but also a stepping stone to achieving your deck’s broader strategy.
Meta-Relevance: In a meta with creature-heavy decks or those that rely on key creatures, Precipitous Drop serves as a cost-effective solution to swing the board in your favor while simultaneously advancing your dungeon-centric game plan.
How to beat
Precipitous Drop is a nuanced removal spell in Magic: The Gathering that can shift the tides of a game by weakening a creature and potentially dealing with it for good if you’ve ventured into the dungeon. To effectively handle this card, it is essential to understand its mechanics. It’s most impactful in decks that focus on the dungeon mechanic, where its second ability can eliminate creatures outright. Outside of this context, it simply reduces a creature’s power and toughness.
Flexibility in card choice is key to outmaneuvering Precipitous Drop. Inclusion of instant-speed removal or hexproof abilities in your deck makes your creatures less vulnerable to being targeted. Counterspell options or hand disruption strategies can prevent Precipitous Drop from ever hitting the table. Additionally, consider cards that bounce your own creatures to your hand in response, which can nullify the effect and save them from destruction. By adapting your play style and deck composition, Precipitous Drop becomes much less of a threat, allowing you to maintain control over the board and secure your path to victory.
Cards like Precipitous Drop
Precipitous Drop is a versatile removal option in MTG, offering an efficient means to reduce an opponent’s board presence. Its nearest counterpart might well be cards such as Dead Weight, which similarly grants a negative modification to an opponent’s creature stats. However, Precipitous Drop edges out slightly with its additional ability to delve into your library’s top few cards if you have a full party, potentially disrupting your opponent’s next draw.
Analyzing further, we can draw parallels with Throttle, an alternative that also debuffs and can potentially eliminate a target creature. Despite Throttle’s higher mana cost and lack of the deck manipulation perk, it does provide a larger impact to a creature’s power and toughness. Last Gasp is another related card; although it doesn’t allow you to look at your library, it’s more affordable regarding mana expenditure, making it a solid early-game choice for disrupting smaller threats swiftly.
When it comes down to it, within MTG’s realm of creature control spells, Precipitous Drop proves its worth by not just neutralizing threats but also offering strategic insights into what your opponent plans next, assuming you meet its party requirement.
Cards similar to Precipitous Drop by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Precipitous Drop MTG card by a specific set like Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.
For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.
Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.
Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Precipitous Drop and other MTG cards:
- eBay
- TCG Player
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
See Magic products
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Precipitous Drop has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Paupercommander | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Pauper | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Explorer | Legal |
| Gladiator | Legal |
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Timeless | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Precipitous Drop card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2021-07-23 | A player may only have one dungeon in the command zone at a time. |
| 2021-07-23 | Choosing the dungeon or room to venture into is part of resolving the venture into the dungeon keyword action. Once that choice is made, players may not respond until after the appropriate room ability has triggered. |
| 2021-07-23 | Dungeon cards are not part of a player's deck or sideboard. In both constructed and limited formats, players can use any dungeon card when they venture into the dungeon. |
| 2021-07-23 | Dungeons are removed from the game as a state-based action. |
| 2021-07-23 | If you somehow venture into the dungeon while a room's ability is on the stack, you will continue on in the dungeon. If you're already in the last room, complete that dungeon and start a new one. |
| 2021-07-23 | Moving into a dungeon room will cause its room ability to trigger. |
| 2021-07-23 | Once you resolve the last room ability of a dungeon, that dungeon is now completed and is removed from the game. |
| 2021-07-23 | Precipitous Drop does not need to be on the battlefield when you complete the dungeon in order for the enchanted creature to get -5/-5. |
| 2021-07-23 | The controller of Precipitous Drop ventures into the dungeon, not the controller of the enchanted creature. Similarly, Precipitous Drop cares whether its controller has completed a dungeon, not whether the creature's controller has completed a dungeon. |
| 2021-07-23 | The player venturing into the dungeon chooses which dungeon they will venture into. They may choose a dungeon that they have already completed this game. |
| 2021-07-23 | To venture into the dungeon, a player moves their venture marker into the next room of the dungeon they are currently in. If they aren't currently in a dungeon, that player instead chooses a dungeon card from outside the game, puts it into the command zone, and moves their venture marker onto the first room. |
| 2021-07-23 | You can only move forward (well, downward) in a dungeon, never backwards or sideways. |
