Archive Trap card art

Archive Trap

Instant — Trap MV 5

Tracked across real Commander games played through TurnZero HQ.

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What it doesRulingsIn the 99Every version

What it does

If an opponent searched their library this turn, you may pay 0 rather than pay this spell's mana cost.

Target opponent mills thirteen cards.

Rulings

8 official rulings, in the order Wizards published them.

  • 2009-10-01

    A spell or ability causes a player to search their library only if it specifically contains the word “search” in its text. For example, if a spell or ability lets a player look at the top four cards of their library and do something with one of those cards, that’s not a search.

  • 2009-10-01

    Archive Trap checks only whether an opponent searched their library. It doesn’t matter whether that player found a card during the search.

  • 2009-10-01

    You may ignore a Trap’s alternative cost condition and simply cast it for its normal mana cost. This is true even if its alternative cost condition has been met.

  • 2009-10-01

    Casting a Trap by paying its alternative cost doesn’t change its mana cost or mana value. The only difference is the cost you actually pay.

  • 2009-10-01

    Effects that increase or reduce the cost to cast a Trap will apply to whichever cost you chose to pay.

  • 2009-10-01

    If the targeted opponent has fewer than thirteen cards in their library, that player puts their entire library into their graveyard.

  • 2009-10-01

    If a search effect is affected by Aven Mindcensor’s ability (which causes a player to search the top four cards of their library instead), that still counts as searching that library.

  • 2009-10-01

    The opponent you target doesn’t have to be the opponent who searched their library.

Rulings are Wizards of the Coast's own, mirrored from Scryfall and refreshed nightly.

In the 99

Every deck whose current list includes Archive Trap, whatever its commander.

Decks running it 1
Games played 0
Win rate — Fewer than 5 completed games — not enough to publish a rate yet.
Confirmed on board 0 Games where a board photo caught it actually in play.

Most played under

Commander Decks Games Win rate
Eluge, the Shoreless Sea 1 0 —

Colors it shows up in

  • Mono-Blue 1 deck

Every version of Archive Trap

3 printings, newest first. Prices are the market figures Scryfall publishes, refreshed nightly — a printing with no figure shows a dash rather than a zero, because Scryfall genuinely publishes none for some of them.

Prices from Scryfall, which tracks the TCGplayer and Cardmarket markets. They move daily and are a guide rather than a quote. Search TCGplayer for Archive Trap — a name search across every version, for the printings TCGplayer publishes no direct link to.

Aggregated from Commander games tracked in TurnZero HQ. Every figure counts decks and games only — no individual deck list, player or playgroup is identified. Win rates are withheld below 5 completed games, where the sample is too small to mean anything.