Shrouded Lore MTG Card

Shrouded Lore amasses card advantage by reclaiming critical graveyard cards at instant speed. Demands careful hand and graveyard management due to the discard requirement and specific mana cost. Harnessing Shrouded Lore in your collection adds versatility to decks with graveyard synergy.
Card setsReleased in 3 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost1
RarityUncommon
TypeSorcery

Text of card

Target opponent chooses a card in your graveyard. You may pay . If you do, repeat this process except that opponent can't choose a card already chosen for Shrouded Lore. Then put the last chosen card into your hand.

Cards like Shrouded Lore

Shrouded Lore holds its own niche within the sphere of knowledge and tactics in Magic: The Gathering. This black spell recalls past plays by allowing you to potentially reclaim a card that an opponent thought was safely out of your reach. When contemplating comparable cards, it exhibits echoes of Denying Wind’s selective graveyard disruption, yet Shrouded Lore’s cost is significantly lower and it provides a chance to bring a card back to your hand, rather than exiling cards from an opponent’s library.

Regrowth stands as a worthy peer, a classic that straightforwardly returns a card from your graveyard to your hand, without the unpredictability of an opponent’s choice. However, Shrouded Lore has a strategic edge in being able to play psychological games with an opponent during its resolution. Pilfered Plans also explores graveyard interaction, offering card draw while milling, but does not have the same targeted retrieval capability that Shrouded Lore may provide.

Assessing these options underlines the unique space Shrouded Lore occupies. It might not always guarantee your desired card’s return, but the potential for reclaiming a pivotal spell coupled with the relatively low mana cost and opponent involvement makes the card an intriguing choice for decks that enjoy a bit of a gamble.

Denying Wind - MTG Card versions
Regrowth - MTG Card versions
Pilfered Plans - MTG Card versions
Denying Wind - MTG Card versions
Regrowth - MTG Card versions
Pilfered Plans - MTG Card versions

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Shrouded Lore provides a strategic edge, allowing players to potentially retrieve key cards from their graveyard. This can be pivotal in regaining resources that enhance your plays and disrupt your opponent’s strategy.

Resource Acceleration: By selectively targeting cards in your graveyard, Shrouded Lore acts as an accelerator, speeding up your game plan. It can return essential combo pieces or ramp spells to your hand, effectively reducing the time it takes to deploy your win conditions.

Instant Speed: The flexibility of casting Shrouded Lore at instant speed grants you the ability to react during your opponent’s turn. This opens up opportunities for surprise plays and ensures you can make the most informed decision based on the state of the game.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: When playing Shrouded Lore, you must discard a card, which might not be ideal when you’re trying to maintain a healthy hand size. This can potentially set you back, especially in game states where every card in your hand counts.

Specific Mana Cost: This card has a color-specific mana cost, which requires green mana. This aspect can be restrictive, as it necessitates the inclusion of green sources in your deck, possibly compromising the deck’s flexibility or requiring a more carefully constructed mana base.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Shrouded Lore has a relatively high mana cost for its effect when compared to other options available in the format. This steep cost for a one-time effect can hinder tempo and may not always represent the best use of mana resources within a turn.

Reasons to Include Shrouded Lore in Your Collection

Versatility: Shrouded Lore has proven to be a versatile tool in decks that seek to leverage their graveyard. With its ability to potentially retrieve any card from the graveyard, it offers players flexibility throughout the game by opening up strategic plays.

Combo Potential: This card excels in the realm of combos. Within the right deck, Shrouded Lore can be the key to unlocking powerful sequences by returning pivotal combo pieces back to your hand just when you need them.

Meta-Relevance: Given the shifting landscape of MTG’s competitive environment, cards like Shrouded Lore can become incredibly relevant in metas where graveyard strategies are prevalent. It offers a potent response to opponent’s plays, while enhancing your own strategic depth.

How to Beat Shrouded Lore

Shrouded Lore is a unique piece of Magic the Gathering’s pantheon of cards, presenting an intriguing challenge to puzzle out. This particular card allows a player to select a card from an opponent’s graveyard. The opponent may then pay the mana cost of that card. If the opponent doesn’t, the player who cast Shrouded Lore may cast that card without paying its mana cost. Deceptively, the card embodies potential as it tempts you with options from your adversary’s spent spells.

To effectively navigate around this strategical pitfall, players should be mindful of their graveyard management. A strategy that works well against Shrouded Lore hinges on utilizing cards that exile or shuffle your graveyard back into your library, preventing opponents from benefiting from your past plays. Cards like Rest in Peace or Elixir of Immortality can play a pivotal role. Additionally, avoid casting high-impact instants or sorceries if Shrouded Lore is looming, as these cards become prime targets for your opponent’s gain.

Overall, outmaneuvering Shrouded Lore demands a conscious effort to limit its potential, making judicious choices about what goes into the graveyard and rendering their choices less impactful. By mastering graveyard manipulation and playing around your opponent’s tactics, you claim dominance over Shrouded Lore’s deceptive allure.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Shrouded Lore MTG card by a specific set like Planar Chaos and Mystery Booster, 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 Shrouded Lore and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Shrouded Lore Magic the Gathering card was released in 3 different sets between 2007-02-02 and 2019-11-07. Illustrated by Kev Walker.

#ReleasedNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12007-02-02Planar ChaosPLC 912003NormalBlackKev Walker
22019-11-07Mystery BoosterMB1 7722003NormalBlackKev Walker
32020-09-26The ListPLST PLC-912003NormalBlackKev Walker

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Shrouded Lore has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal
PennyLegal

Rules and information

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

Date Text
2007-02-01 The spell has no knowledge of cards chosen for other spells named Shrouded Lore.
2007-02-01 You target an opponent when you cast Shrouded Lore. The opponent chooses a card in your graveyard as Shrouded Lore resolves. After that choice is made, you’re given the option to pay . If you do, the targeted opponent must choose a different card, if there is one. (If there isn’t one, this part is skipped.) Then you’re given the option to pay again. As long as you keep paying , the process continues. As soon as you decline to pay , the last card that was chosen by the opponent is put into your hand.