Pointed Discussion

This is a horrible card any smart opponent would mill you to death with this. Provided they have more than half the amount of cards in their library as you. This card is basically a you lose the game card.

Or if you bothered to read the card you would realize that "you draw up to four cards", includes the number zero meaning that you can STOP DRAWING CARDS ANY TIME! You cannot be milled to death with this card unless you choose to.

I think is a fine card; draw 4 for 3 mana is quite good. clever opponents won't repeat the effect if you're playing a milling deck. If Opponent's playing a combo deck, he or she will repeat till the combo card comes; easy to control with any counter (I prefer Commandeer). Very good card if knows how to use it.

This is a very good draw card with Seismic Assault in play. :D And it's still efficient draw anyway you look at it. Exploitable, but measured.

really fun card :D
even my opponent likes it when I play one of these!

hive mind lets you draw your entire library for 3. im thinking about making this deck
4 trade secrets
4 high tide
4 dreams grip
4 frantic search
4 brain freeze
4 time spiral
3palinchron
4 dream halls
4 show and tell
2 leyline of anticipation
3 temporal cascade
2 capsize
3 djinn illuminatus

15 island

lol this card is good...drawing 4 for 3 with a set of jace erasure i'm pretty sure your opponent would not like to draw again... and in a blue/black deck...using jace erasure+sorin markov+quicken/leylene of anticipation+trade secrets is a sure deck mill;)))

Trade secrets is a great card and even better when you plan an opponent who decides they want to draw a few times.

Once they stop and you've got a hand full of cards and you start dropping chrome moxes and play a bunch of spells and end with a brain freeze, oops!

I wonder if "trade" is a verb or an adjective in this case. Maybe both? What if the card was called Trade Trade Secrets?

@Geizo: I believe it's a play on words. Both the act of Trading Secrets, as well as the term Trade Secrets, or secrets of a trade....like...say....wizardry.

@Deathtamoor: No. You're wrong. Read the card with more care.

Consecrated sphinx makes this card really good.

This card is great with Wheel and Deal. You can stop drawing any time while your opponent continues to draw looking for that sweet combo. Wheel and Deal... discard everything and draw seven... then you get to draw another card.

Hmmm ... IMO this is not as good as it seems.

If you just plop this into a deck as a draw spell, your opponent will choose to fill up their hand along with you - netting little advantage to you.

For this to be effective, it has to be in a deck specifically built for it, which would be have to have one/more of the following:
- being able to dump 6-7 cards from your hand in one turn
- having extra effects when you/your opponent draws
- wanting to fill up your graveyard with discards, or use abilities which require discarding a lot (or madness)
- a combo deck which simply using the extra drawing to find its combo pieces

But remember, your opponent has the choice, so in a deck built around it you probably WON'T get the effect repeated. Which means the usual result will only be a net advantage of one card to you (4 cards drawn - 2 cards drawn by opponent - 1 card spent casting this spell).

So it has somewhat narrow uses, and even in those uses there are probably more effective choices. 3.5/5

An opponent once played this against me, and I chose to draw into the thirties until the card advantage he got no longer matters anymore. I think I ended winning that one, 'cause I ended up getting a good grip of counterspells while he played combo. (Compulsion + Basking Rootwalla + Words of Wind)

Idk about you championofsquee, but if I were the opponent I would keep drawing until whoever the jackass who played both Consecrated Sphinx and Trade Secrets milled out.

It's very risky to accept such a drawback in return for a mana cost reduction of only 2 by modern standards (see tidings). Giving your opponent more cards while you spend mana is pretty bad in today's game. I feel like this card did not age all that well. In a competitive environment any single card your opponent draws has the potential to, say, kill all your creatures, or seal that last bit of damage to take out your blue mage ass, long before even two of those 4 u got get off.

That said, pretty strong potential in UB recoil and discard type control. If u can pop their draws instantly with a cao cao or something ur good to use this

If this was an instant id say its even better than meditate! Cool card 3.5/5