When do you choose the card name for a Hidden Agenda conspiracy?

You name the card when you put the conspiracy into the command zone at the start of the game — not when you flip it face up. Once you've written down your choice, that name is locked in for the rest of that game. In a multi-game match after a Conspiracy draft, you can pick a different name at the start of each new game.

Can you respond to a player turning their hidden agenda conspiracy face up?

No. Turning a face-down conspiracy face up is a special action — it doesn't use the stack and can't be responded to. Your opponents will see the conspiracy flip and the chosen name revealed, but they don't get a window to respond to the flip itself. You can respond to any abilities or triggers that happen after the flip.

What formats are Hidden Agenda and Conspiracy cards legal in?

Hidden Agenda is exclusive to cards from the Conspiracy (2016) and Conspiracy: Take the Crown (2016) draft sets. These are multiplayer draft products, not Standard-legal sets, so the mechanic doesn't appear in Standard, Pioneer, Modern, or other constructed formats. Conspiracy cards are generally not legal in most constructed formats.

What is double agenda and how is it different from hidden agenda?

Double agenda is a variant of hidden agenda where you secretly name two different cards instead of one when you put the conspiracy into the command zone. You don't reveal that two names were chosen until you flip the card face up. The only card with double agenda is Summoner's Bond.

Can you name a token with Hidden Agenda?

Generally no — you must name a real Magic card. Tokens aren't valid choices, with one narrow exception: if a token's name happens to match the name of an actual Magic card (like Illusion), you can name that. In almost all practical cases, you're naming a card from your drafted deck.

What happens to face-down conspiracy cards if a player leaves the game?

If a player leaves the game, all face-down conspiracy cards they control must immediately be revealed to all remaining players. Similarly, at the end of every game, all face-down conspiracies must be revealed — your secrets don't stay secret forever.

Hidden Agenda: The MTG Mechanic Explained

There's something uniquely tense about keeping a secret at a multiplayer table. Hidden Agenda is the mechanic that puts that tension on the card - it asks you to commit to a choice before the game even begins, then decide when - or whether - to let everyone else in on it.

What is Hidden Agenda?

Hidden Agenda is a keyword ability found exclusively on Conspiracy cards from the Conspiracy multiplayer draft sets. When you put a conspiracy with hidden agenda into the command zone at the start of a game, you turn it face down and secretly choose a card name - typically by writing it on a slip of paper kept with the card. The conspiracy sits there, hidden, until you decide to flip it face up.

When you reveal it, you announce the chosen name, and the conspiracy's ability - whatever bonus it grants to cards with that name - immediately comes into effect.

The core loop is simple: you've drafted a deck, you've decided which creature or spell you're building around, and hidden agenda lets you quietly supercharge cards with that name while your opponents wonder what you're hiding under that face-down card in your command zone.

How Hidden Agenda works: the rules

The key rules text on every hidden agenda conspiracy reads:

"Start the game with this conspiracy face down in the command zone and secretly choose a card name. You may turn this conspiracy face up any time and reveal that name."

The comprehensive rules elaborate on this in CR 702.106. Here's what matters in practice:

You name the card when the game begins - specifically as you put the conspiracy into the command zone, not when you flip it face up later. You can't change your mind mid-game.
Turning it face up is a special action. It doesn't use the stack and can't be responded to. Any time you have priority, you can flip it.
You must name a real Magic card. Tokens aren't valid unless their name happens to match an actual card (like Illusion).
If you leave the game, your face-down conspiracies are revealed to everyone. Likewise, at the end of any game, all face-down conspiracies must be revealed.
In a multi-game match (common after a Conspiracy draft), you can choose a different card name at the start of each new game.

Rules note: The hidden agenda ability and the conspiracy's named-card ability are linked (CR 607.2d). That means the bonus only applies to the specific name you chose for that conspiracy - relevant if you have multiple hidden agenda conspiracies in play at once, each with a different chosen name.

Double agenda: naming two cards

Double agenda is a variant introduced in Conspiracy: Take the Crown. Instead of naming one card, you secretly name two different cards. The only card with this variant is Summoner's Bond.

With double agenda, you still don't reveal how many names you've chosen until you flip it face up - so your opponents can't even be sure whether you're hiding one name or two.

Strategy

What to name

The ideal hidden agenda target is a creature or spell you plan to play multiple copies of, since the conspiracies reward redundancy. If Brago's Favor reduces the cost of spells with the chosen name by {1}, naming a card you have four copies of in your draft deck is dramatically better than naming a one-of.

The hidden element adds a real decision point: when do you flip? Some conspiracies are worth revealing immediately - the benefit is so strong that you want it online as soon as possible. Others are worth sitting on, especially if flipping would let opponents play around your named card before you can cast it.

Playing around hidden agenda

From the other side of the table, face-down conspiracies are a source of genuine uncertainty. You don't know which card was named, and you don't know when the flip is coming. In a Conspiracy draft game, it's worth keeping mental notes on what cards your opponent has played and what conspiracies they have face down - not to read their mind exactly, but to narrow the space of what you might need to play around.

Remember that turning a conspiracy face up can't be responded to. If a conspiracy flip would change the board state in a meaningful way - say, suddenly giving a creature haste - that happens the moment the card flips, with no window for instant-speed responses to the flip itself (though you can respond to whatever triggers or actions come after).

Deckbuilding in Conspiracy draft

Hidden agenda conspiracies push you toward linear, creature-focused strategies where you can reliably put the named card into play. Immediate Action (grants haste to creatures with the chosen name) and Secret Summoning (lets you tutor for more copies whenever one enters) both reward building around a specific creature.

Format check: Hidden agenda is a Conspiracy-only mechanic. It exists in Conspiracy (2016) and Conspiracy: Take the Crown (2016). These are draft-only products; the mechanic doesn't appear in Standard, Modern, Pioneer, or any other constructed format.

Notable cards

Immediate Action

The cleanest hidden agenda conspiracy. Creatures with the chosen name get haste - no conditions, no timing windows, just speed. In a draft format where combat is the primary win condition, haste is one of the best keywords you can staple onto your best creature. Name your most powerful attacker and every copy you draw becomes an immediate threat.

Brago's Favor

A {1} discount on every spell with the chosen name is remarkably strong when you've drafted multiples. In a set like Conspiracy, where the draft format is slower and grindier than typical Limited, mana efficiency compounds over a long game. Name a creature you plan to cast three or four times and the savings add up fast.

Secret Summoning

This one rewards naming a creature you have several copies of even more directly - every time one enters the battlefield, you can search your library for any number of other copies and put them in hand. That kind of recursive card advantage can snowball quickly. It's also the most telegraphed of the bunch once revealed, which makes the timing of the flip especially important.

Unexpected Potential

The odd one out: instead of a power bonus, this lets you spend mana of any color to cast spells with the chosen name. That kind of mana fixing is quietly excellent in a format where your mana base is three or four colors of draft picks stitched together. Name an off-color bomb you managed to rare-draft and suddenly the colour requirement stops mattering.

Summoner's Bond (double agenda)

The only double agenda card. Whenever you cast a creature with one of your chosen names, you can search your library for a creature with the other chosen name and put it in hand. The setup requires naming two different creatures that form a natural pair - ideally ones with complementary abilities, so fetching one sets up the other. The double agenda variant means opponents don't know how many names are hidden until the reveal, which adds an extra layer of bluffing potential.

History

Hidden agenda debuted in Conspiracy (2016), Magic's first dedicated multiplayer draft set. The set was built entirely around the Conspiracy card type - cards that live in the command zone and affect the game from outside your deck. Hidden agenda was one of the primary mechanics tying those conspiracies to the cards in your library.

The mechanic returned and expanded in Conspiracy: Take the Crown (also 2016), which introduced the double agenda variant on Summoner's Bond. Take the Crown also added more hidden agenda conspiracies and deepened the design space of the command zone as a place for secret, persistent effects.

Both sets are standalone draft products, so hidden agenda has never appeared in a Standard-legal set. It remains one of Magic's few mechanics purpose-built for a specific play experience - the slow burn of a secret sitting face-down on the table while you wait for exactly the right moment to reveal it.