Secret Council

Keywords · intermediate

Secret council is an ability word. It has no rules meaning of its own; it marks cards where each player votes secretly, and the votes are all revealed together afterward.

How it works

• Each player secretly votes, then those votes are revealed at once. What players vote for varies by card: a creature you don't control, a player, or one of two named outcomes.
• Several secret council cards scale their effect by vote count rather than just by which option won: Trap the Trespassers puts that many stun counters on each creature with one or more votes, Círdan the Shipwright has each player draw a card for each vote they received, Truth or Consequences draws cards equal to the truth votes and deals 3 damage per consequences vote to a randomly chosen opponent, and Mob Verdict deals 2 damage (and lets you draw) based on the votes each player received.
• Elrond of the White Council instead resolves per-voter effects: for each fellowship vote, that voter chooses a creature they control for you to gain control of; then for each aid vote, you put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.

Rules notes

• Secrecy is specific to this ability word's pattern ("secretly votes... then those votes are revealed"). Will of the council and will of the planeswalkers are printed as public, ordered votes instead, not secret ones -- these are three distinct ability words.
• Because votes are revealed simultaneously, no player sees any other vote before casting their own, unlike a public around-the-table vote.
• See the wiki's vote entry for the general rules on how a vote works; this ability word just marks cards that use it in this specific secret, simultaneous-reveal pattern.

Rule reference

[207.2c]