Hidden Strings MTG Card

Dragon's Maze (DGM)
2013-05-03 - Number 12

Hidden Strings - Pioneer Challenger Decks 2021 (Q06)

Pioneer Challenger Decks 2021 (Q06)
2021-10-15 - Number 5

Card sets	Released in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost	2
Rarity	Common
Type	Sorcery
Abilities	Cipher

Key Takeaways

Provides ongoing card manipulation when ciphered onto elusive creatures, enhancing strategic play.
Untap ability accelerates resource access, leading to dynamic and unpredictable plays.
Can become a key component in combo decks, making it a valued collectible.

Text of card

You may tap or untap target permanent, then you may tap or untap another target permanent. Cipher (Then you may exile this spell card encoded on a creature you control. Whenever that creature deals combat damage to a player, its controller may cast a copy of the encoded card without paying its mana cost.)

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Hidden Strings has the potential to help you dig deeper into your deck. Casting it and successfully ciphering onto an evasive creature can enable repeated card manipulation, subtly tipping the scales in your favor during the course of a match.

Resource Acceleration: The ability to untap up to two permanents not only offers a chance to accelerate your resources by reusing mana-producing permanents, but it can also lead to unexpectedly dynamic plays, giving your strategy a swift kick forward when your opponent least expects it.

Instant Speed: While Hidden Strings itself is a sorcery, its cipher ability can be triggered during combat, essentially taking advantage of the benefits of instant speed actions. This allows for shrewd interactions during the critical combat phase, offering a layer of complexity and surprise to your game plan.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: The use of Hidden Strings might sometimes compel you to discard other valuable cards from hand, which can be particularly painful when you’re playing a light deck and every card counts.

Specific Mana Cost: Hidden Strings requires precise mana colors to cast—two blue mana. This specificity can be problematic, restricting it primarily to decks heavily skewed towards blue mana sources.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a cost of two blue mana, Hidden Strings may seem inexpensive, but the opportunity cost is high when considering its limited impact on the board state compared to other spells or creatures you could play at a similar cost.

Reasons to Include Hidden Strings in Your Collection

Versatility: Hidden Strings is a card that may seem unassuming at first glance but can be a powerhouse in the right deck. It can be used to untap your own permanents, possibly enabling additional mana for spell casting or to activate abilities more than once.

Combo Potential: This card shines when combined with permanents that have tap effects or with cards that have cipher, allowing you to cast Hidden Strings multiple times in a game, giving it a repeatable function that can lead to game-changing combos.

Meta-Relevance: In a meta where tempo plays a significant role, Hidden Strings can be an excellent tool for maintaining board presence and disrupting your opponent’s plans by unexpectedly freeing up your resources or hindering theirs.

How to beat

Hidden Strings is an intriguing cipher card that can create a loop of untapping and tapping permanents in MTG. To effectively counter this card, it’s crucial to disrupt the cipher chain. This can be done by removing the creature the cipher is encoded on, which can be achieved through spot removal spells or by blocking effectively to force it off the battlefield.

Countering the card when it’s cast is another solid approach, using counterspells to prevent it from hitting the field and starting its potential combo actions. Enchantment removal can also be useful, targeting other pieces of the combo that might be enhancing the effect of Hidden Strings.

Board control and keeping a watchful eye on the battlefield are key when facing such a card. By maintaining situational awareness and having answers ready for when the card is played, the looping advantage that Hidden Strings offers can be mitigated, allowing you to maintain the upper hand in the match.

BurnMana Recommendations

The versatility of Hidden Strings is clear, offering both strategic benefits and subtle board control. It’s tailored for the tactician who relishes in manipulating the game’s flow, adeptly navigating mana and permanents alike. Incremental advantages this card provides could elevate your MTG gameplay, weaving intricate combos or simply accelerating resources. As you refine your blue-centered deck or scout for cards with high synergy, consider the potential that Hidden Strings brings to the table. Unearth the nuances of this clever sorcery and others like it. Dive deeper into MTG’s strategic depths with us, crafting a deck that’s both formidable and fun.

Cards like Hidden Strings

Hidden Strings holds a unique position in the vast realm of Magic: The Gathering’s sorceries. It is often benchmarked against cards like Twiddle, which shares the ability to manipulate the state of a single permanent. Yet, Hidden Strings elevates this concept by potentially targeting two permanents and featuring the cipher mechanic, allowing you to cast the spell again whenever your creatures deal combat damage to a player.

Peel from Reality also interacts with permanents, but contrasts with Hidden Strings by focusing on creature bounce rather than tapping or untapping. While Hidden Strings can repeatedly untap your own permanents for incremental advantage, Peel from Reality requires a creature of your own to be returned to your hand, alongside an opponent’s creature, offering a one-time tempo shift.

Another card in this comparative landscape is Dramatic Reversal. Although it shares the untapping potential, Dramatic Reversal’s scope is broader, untapping all nonland permanents you control at instant speed. While it lacks the repeatable nature of cipher from Hidden Strings, the immediacy and scale of untapping can be pivotal during a crucial turn.

Delving into the mechanics and strategic applications, Hidden Strings stands out for its combo potential and versatility, securing its standing within MTG’s arrayed tactics for controlling the flow of battle.

Cards similar to Hidden Strings by color, type and mana cost

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Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Hidden Strings MTG card by a specific set like Dragon's Maze and Pioneer Challenger Decks 2021, 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 Hidden Strings and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Hidden Strings Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2013-05-03 and 2021-10-15. Illustrated by Daarken.

#	Released	Name	Code	Symbol	Number	Frame	Layout	Border	Artist
1	2013-05-03	Dragon's Maze	DGM		12	2003	Normal	Black	Daarken
2	2021-10-15	Pioneer Challenger Decks 2021	Q06		5	2015	Normal	Black	Daarken

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Hidden Strings has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Paupercommander	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Pioneer	Legal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Hidden Strings card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date	Text
2013-04-15	If a creature with an encoded card deals combat damage to more than one player simultaneously (perhaps because some of the combat damage was redirected), the triggered ability will trigger once for each player it deals combat damage to. Each ability will create a copy of the exiled card and allow you to cast it.
2013-04-15	If another player gains control of the creature, that player will control the triggered ability. That player will create a copy of the encoded card and may cast it.
2013-04-15	If the creature leaves the battlefield, the exiled card will no longer be encoded on any creature. It will stay exiled.
2013-04-15	If the spell with cipher doesn’t resolve, none of its effects will happen, including cipher. The card will go to its owner’s graveyard and won’t be encoded on a creature.
2013-04-15	If you choose not to cast the copy, or you can’t cast it (perhaps because there are no legal targets available), the copy will cease to exist the next time state-based actions are performed. You won’t get a chance to cast the copy at a later time.
2013-04-15	If you want to encode the card with cipher onto a noncreature permanent such as a Keyrune that can turn into a creature, that permanent has to be a creature before the spell with cipher starts resolving. You can choose only a creature to encode the card onto.
2013-04-15	The copy of the card with cipher is created in and cast from exile.
2013-04-15	The exiled card with cipher grants a triggered ability to the creature it’s encoded on. If that creature loses that ability and subsequently deals combat damage to a player, the triggered ability won’t trigger. However, the exiled card will continue to be encoded on that creature.
2013-04-15	The spell with cipher is encoded on the creature as part of that spell’s resolution, just after the spell’s other effects. That card goes directly from the stack to exile. It never goes to the graveyard.
2013-04-15	You cast the copy of the card with cipher during the resolution of the triggered ability. Ignore timing restrictions based on the card’s type.
2013-04-15	You choose the creature as the spell resolves. The cipher ability doesn’t target that creature, although the spell with cipher may target that creature (or a different creature) because of its other abilities.