Drowned Secrets MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost2
RarityRare
TypeEnchantment
Abilities Mill

Key Takeaways

  1. Enables consistent milling with every cast of a blue spell, disrupting opponents and fueling graveyard strategies.
  2. Can be restrictive for multi-color decks due to its specific blue mana cost and spell-centric nature.
  3. It shines in mill strategies, adding synergy and the potential for combos within blue-focused decks.

Text of card

Whenever you cast a blue spell, target player puts the top two cards of their library into their graveyard.

Beneath Ravnica's streets runs a layer of tunnels, then caverns and waterways, then terrors and nightmares.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: When Drowned Secrets is on the battlefield, every blue spell you cast prompts you to mill the top two cards of an opponent’s library. This ability doesn’t just deplete their resources but also strategically fills their graveyard, potentially hindering their game plan while setting you up for effects that benefit from opponents having a stocked graveyard.

Resource Acceleration: Milling can surprisingly act as a form of resource acceleration in the context of decks utilizing graveyard synergies. By sending your own spells to the graveyard with Drowned Secrets, you enable graveyard recursion strategies that can effectively give you access to more spells and options over the course of the game.

Instant Speed: While Drowned Secrets itself isn’t an instant, it gives you the flexibility to play at instant speed. Casting an instant to respond to opponents’ threats can simultaneously disrupt their deck’s flow via the milling effect of Drowned Secrets, giving you more control over the game’s pace and their deck’s composition.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Drowned Secrets necessitates that you’re running a deck heavily focused on blue spells to maximize its mill effect. This can be restrictive as it doesn’t synergize well with decks that have a diverse color pie or are not spell-centric.

Specific Mana Cost: With a specific mana requirement of two blue, integrating Drowned Secrets into a multi-color deck can be challenging. This often limits its inclusion to mono-blue or decks with a heavy blue mana base.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: While two mana for an enchantment isn’t exorbitant, it’s still a non-negotiable upfront investment that doesn’t immediately impact the board. In fast-paced games, this cost can put the player at a noticeable tempo disadvantage, especially if the milling effect doesn’t align swiftly with the deck’s game plan.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Drowned Secrets is a blue enchantment that can be incorporated into a variety of decks aiming to manipulate their own or their opponent’s library. As a mill card, its ability to place cards into the graveyard from the library with each blue spell cast, can be an asset in both control and combo decks.

Combo Potential: With each spell cast, Drowned Secrets adds incremental value, synergizing well with decks that cast many spells in a single turn or strategies that revolve around casting multiple cheap blue spells. Its ability to feed graveyard-based strategies or disrupt an opponent’s library can be a combo enabler in itself.

Meta-Relevance: In formats where graveyard manipulation is powerful, Drowned Secrets fits right in. Its relevance tends to rise as graveyard-focused decks become more prevalent, making it a strong sideboard or even a main deck choice for disrupting opponents while advancing your own game plan.


How to Beat

Drowned Secrets can be a persistent threat in Magic: The Gathering, especially in matches where milling is a key strategy for victory. This enchantment shines in blue-focused decks that quickly cycle through cards, gradually depleting an opponent’s library. To efficiently counter it, one must either neutralize the enchantment itself or mitigate its mill effect. Cards that can destroy or exile enchantments, such as Disenchant or Return to Nature, are direct answers to Drowned Secrets. Additionally, employing strategies that shuffle cards back into one’s library, like the Eldrazi titans Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, or Gaea’s Blessing, can help recover from the loss of critical cards.

Playing with a higher number of cards in your deck might also reduce the impact of Drowned Secrets, though this can affect the consistency of your own strategy. In the nexus of card games where library size and composition matter, outpacing the milling process or applying pressure with an aggressive game plan could force opponents to deal with your threats instead of setting their milling engine in motion. Ultimately, understanding your deck’s vulnerabilities will guide you in preparing sideboard options and game plans to outmaneuver Drowned Secrets and claim victory.


BurnMana Recommendations

MTG enthusiasts know that a card like Drowned Secrets, with its unique mill ability, can shift the tide of a match. If you aim to control the flow of a game or disrupt your opponent’s tactics with graveyards brimming with milled cards, embracing this enchantment could be your next great strategy. We encourage you to dive deeper into the complexities and interactions that Drowned Secrets offers. Unearth its potential, craft novel decks, and disrupt the meta. For a formidable library-manipulating deck or ways to fortify your collection against mill strategies, join us. Transform your gaming experience with each cast spell and strategic insight.


Cards like Drowned Secrets

Drowned Secrets is a unique enchantment that thrives in Magic: The Gathering’s mill-focused decks. This card compares notably to cards like Hedron Crab, which also excels in mill strategies but operates differently. Drowned Secrets requires casting blue spells to mill, whereas Hedron Crab utilizes landfall, milling cards whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control.

Another comparable card is Sphinx’s Tutelage, which can trigger its mill effect on drawing cards, potentially creating a rapid milling process with a well-suited deck. While Drowned Secrets has a consistent trigger with blue spells, Sphinx’s Tutelage can vary more with the card draw frequency of a deck. A more recent similar card is Maddening Cacophony, capable of milling a larger chunk of the opponent’s library at once, even offering the potential to halve an entire library with its kicker cost.

Evaluating these cards, Drowned Secrets holds its ground in decks that frequently cast blue spells. Its synergies within a mill strategy showcase the diverse approaches within the MTG universe, giving players multiple options for crafting their ideal mill deck.

Hedron Crab - MTG Card versions
Sphinx's Tutelage - MTG Card versions
Maddening Cacophony - MTG Card versions
Hedron Crab - Zendikar (ZEN)
Sphinx's Tutelage - Magic Origins (ORI)
Maddening Cacophony - Zendikar Rising Promos (PZNR)

Cards similar to Drowned Secrets by color, type and mana cost

Invisibility - MTG Card versions
Power Leak - MTG Card versions
Phantasmal Terrain - MTG Card versions
Stasis - MTG Card versions
Creature Bond - MTG Card versions
Lifetap - MTG Card versions
Power Artifact - MTG Card versions
Venarian Gold - MTG Card versions
Psychic Venom - MTG Card versions
Soar - MTG Card versions
Dance of Many - MTG Card versions
Teferi's Veil - MTG Card versions
Legacy's Allure - MTG Card versions
Chill - MTG Card versions
Buoyancy - MTG Card versions
Mana Maze - MTG Card versions
Psionic Gift - MTG Card versions
Immobilizing Ink - MTG Card versions
Stupefying Touch - MTG Card versions
In Too Deep - MTG Card versions
Invisibility - 30th Anniversary Edition (30A)
Power Leak - Summer Magic / Edgar (SUM)
Phantasmal Terrain - Fourth Edition Foreign Black Border (4BB)
Stasis - 30th Anniversary Edition (30A)
Creature Bond - Fourth Edition (4ED)
Lifetap - Intl. Collectors' Edition (CEI)
Power Artifact - Antiquities (ATQ)
Venarian Gold - Legends (LEG)
Psychic Venom - Fourth Edition Foreign Black Border (4BB)
Soar - Mirage (MIR)
Dance of Many - Masters Edition III (ME3)
Teferi's Veil - Weatherlight (WTH)
Legacy's Allure - Tempest (TMP)
Chill - Tempest (TMP)
Buoyancy - Mercadian Masques (MMQ)
Mana Maze - World Championship Decks 2001 (WC01)
Psionic Gift - Odyssey (ODY)
Immobilizing Ink - Odyssey (ODY)
Stupefying Touch - Torment (TOR)
In Too Deep - New Capenna Commander (NCC)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Drowned Secrets MTG card by a specific set like Guilds of Ravnica and Guilds of Ravnica Promos, 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 Drowned Secrets and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Drowned Secrets Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2018-10-05 and 2018-10-05. Illustrated by Alexander Forssberg.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12018-10-05Guilds of RavnicaGRN 392015normalblackAlexander Forssberg
22018-10-05Guilds of Ravnica PromosPGRN 39p2015normalblackAlexander Forssberg

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Drowned Secrets has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
OathbreakerLegal
GladiatorLegal
PioneerLegal
CommanderLegal
ModernLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
PennyLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

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

DateText
2018-10-05 Drowned Secrets has to be on the battlefield for its ability to trigger. Casting it won’t trigger its own ability.
2018-10-05 Drowned Secrets’s triggered ability resolves before the spell that caused it to trigger. It resolves even if that spell is countered.

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