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Dire Undercurrents

Enchantment

Whenever a blue creature you control enters, you may have target player draw a card.
Whenever a black creature you control enters, you may have target player discard a card.

CMC
5
Mana cost
{3}{U/B}{U/B}
Color identity
BU
Rarity
rare
Set
Secret Lair Drop
Price
—
EDHREC rank
#13745
Buy on TCGplayer
Dire Undercurrents card art
Dire Undercurrents turns every Merfolk or blue/black creature you play into a draw trigger and every one your opponents play into a discard trigger — that's a card-advantage engine and a hand-disruption tool stapled together for five mana. The Watcher in the Water synergizes here as a payoff, but the enchantment earns its slot before you even get to combo territory.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Dire Undercurrents is a Commander card through and through — the longer the game, the more creatures cross the battlefield, and a five-mana enchantment that does nothing the turn it lands needs that runway to pay off. In Legacy and Vintage, where games end before the enchantment generates meaningful value and Merfolk tribal runs leaner, faster interaction, it sees essentially no competitive play. Oathbreaker is the one non-Commander singleton format where it could show up in a Merfolk shell, though the 20-life clock makes the discard angle slightly more threatening. Everywhere else, treat it as a Commander-only piece.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

10 decks
Nadir KrakenDire UndercurrentsAshnod's Altar

Nadir KrakenDire UndercurrentsAshnod's Altar

Infinite card draw; Infinite draw triggers; Near-infinite +1/+1 counters on a creature; Near-infinite colorless mana; Near-infinite death triggers; Near-infinite ETB; Near-infinite LTB; Near-infinite sacrifice triggers

View on Commander Spellbook ↗
0 decks
Nadir KrakenDire UndercurrentsThermopod

Nadir KrakenDire UndercurrentsThermopod

Infinite card draw; Infinite draw triggers; Near-infinite +1/+1 counters on a creature; Near-infinite death triggers; Near-infinite ETB; Near-infinite LTB; Near-infinite sacrifice triggers

View on Commander Spellbook ↗

Price Context

Current price

unknown tier

Pricing data for Dire Undercurrents isn't confirmed at time of writing, so check current listings on TCGPlayer or Scryfall before buying. It's a narrow tribal enchantment with a small target audience, which historically keeps supply-and-demand prices modest — pick it up whenever you're building the deck rather than speculating.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.