Fathom Trawl MTG Card
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 5 |
| Rarity | Rare |
| Type | Sorcery |
| Released | 2007-10-12 |
| Set symbol | |
| Set name | Lorwyn |
| Set code | LRW |
| Number | 65 |
| Frame | 2003 |
| Layout | Normal |
| Border | Black |
| Illustred by | Paul Chadwick |
Key Takeaways
- Fathom Trawl offers potent card advantage, revealing seven cards and enriching your hand with blue spells.
- Strategically cast at instant speed, it adapts to game changes while keeping options open.
- Requires careful deck construction given its specific mana cost and potential strategy exposure.
Text of card
Reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal three nonland cards. Put the nonland cards revealed this way into your hand, then put the rest of the revealed cards on the bottom of your library in any order.
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Fathom Trawl represents a powerhouse for digging deep into your deck. With the ability to reveal the top seven cards and put all blue cards from among them into your hand, it provides a significant boost by potentially netting multiple cards and ensuring key components are available when you need them.
Resource Acceleration: Though not directly accelerating resources, Fathom Trawl’s capability to bring specific cards to hand can trim down the number of turns necessary to find essential mana sources or specific answers, indirectly speeding up your game plan.
Instant Speed: The flexibility of casting Fathom Trawl at the end of your opponent’s turn means you can adapt to the evolving game state, making informed decisions without compromising your ability to respond or commit resources unnecessarily early.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: Fathom Trawl obligates you to reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal three with different names, which could potentially expose valuable strategy pieces to your opponent.
Specific Mana Cost: This card demands a strict triplet of blue mana, making it a challenging fit for multicolored decks that might struggle with blue mana consistency.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a cost of six mana, including three blue, Fathom Trawl might come into play later than other card draw options, potentially slowing down your game plan in fast-paced matches.
Reasons to Include Fathom Trawl in Your Collection
Versatility: Fathom Trawl offers a unique way of digging deep into your library, which is a boon for decks that focus on library manipulation or are looking for specific combo pieces. Its ability to look at the top seven cards and grab three blue cards provides flexibility regardless of the situation on the board.
Combo Potential: With the right setup, Fathom Trawl can be a key player in assembling combo elements, especially in decks that revolve around casting multiple spells in a single turn or leveraging the use of blue cards with powerful synergistic effects.
Meta-Relevance: In environments where longer, more drawn-out games are common, Fathom Trawl shines by ensuring consistent access to high-impact blue cards, keeping your hand filled with options to outmaneuver opponents and maintain control of the game’s pace.
How to Beat
Fathom Trawl is a unique card in MTG, known for enabling players to delve deep into their libraries to find exactly what they need. With its ability to look at the top seven cards and put a selection into your hand, it can create significant card advantage. However, defeating a strategy that includes Fathom Trawl is all about disruption and timing. Denying resources with cards like Damping Sphere, which restrict unchecked mana generation, or deploying counter spells to prevent the Trawl from resolving is key.
Applying pressure with a quick and aggressive board state also forces the Fathom Trawl player to answer threats instead of comfortably setting up their library. Utilize hand disruption tactics such as Thoughtseize or Inquisition of Kozilek to preemptively remove Fathom Trawl from your opponent’s hand before they have the opportunity to cast it. Lastly, including graveyard hate like Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void can undercut strategies relying on a stocked graveyard, which some Fathom Trawl decks might do.
Taking these measures can efficiently neutralize the Fathom Trawl threat, keeping you ahead in the game. It’s a dance of anticipation and control, where the right disruptive moves ensure your opponent’s search comes up empty.
Cards like Fathom Trawl
Fathom Trawl stands out in the realm of card draw spells for its unique mechanic of revealing cards until you reveal three nonland cards and put those cards into your hand. In terms of card advantage, Concentrate is a straightforward comparison, allowing players to draw three cards for the same amount of mana, without the selection process. While Fathom Trawl provides the potential to sift through lands to get to valuable spells, Concentrate offers a guaranteed card volume increase.
Another relative in this category is Tidings, which draws four cards, albeit for one more mana than Fathom Trawl. While Tidings presents a higher raw card advantage, Fathom Trawl enables more control over what the player receives, potentially curating a hand better tailored to the situation. Then we have gifts like Blue Sun’s Zenith, which, though typically requiring a higher investment of mana, is flexible in its usage and can draw multiple cards while reshuffling itself into the library.
Each of these cards provides a different balance of cost, quantity, and quality of card draw, demonstrating the diverse strategies players can adopt in MTG to maintain their hand and influence the game.
Cards similar to Fathom Trawl by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Fathom Trawl MTG card by a specific set like Lorwyn, 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 Fathom Trawl 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 MTG Products
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Fathom Trawl has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Predh | Legal |
| Penny | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Fathom Trawl card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2007-10-01 | If there are fewer than three nonland cards in your library, you will reveal your entire library, put all nonland cards into your hand, and put the rest back in any order. |
