All Dark Ascension Spoilers for January 17th

wingman2011 · 4 months

Grafdigger's Cage?! Holy shit.

ubernostrum · 4 months

To anyone who's surprised by Grafdigger's Cage: historical context is important.

Over the history of the game, there are two broad classes of mechanics that WotC has tried repeatedly, and which have led to drastically overpowered shenanigans.

One of those is free or severely-reduced-cost spells. The Urza block "free" spells (the ones which untapped lands as part of their effect) were the first huge offender here, but see also Dream Halls, the waffling banned status of Gush, the massive bans in the wake of Affinity, the endless grumbling over cascade and the Mental Misstep debacle.

The other... is mechanics which let you abuse your graveyard. Again we can turn to the Urza block -- with Yawgmoth's Will -- for the classic example. But dredge is up there too, Entomb has been off-and-on banned, etc., etc.

So it stands to reason that they're going to be worried about that when doing a block that centers heavily around the graveyard. We're getting lots of good flashback spells, and we're getting new graveyard-oriented mechanics. This naturally leads to some concern, and to a desire to be careful and have some sort of "safety valve" around immediately, rather than waiting a year or more to print one (as in the case of Kataki being too little, too late to stop Affinity).

We already know that cards like Oblivion Ring are sitting in Standard because of concern over the power level of planeswalkers. Is it any surprise that since it's a known-dangerous area of the game, a strong graveyard hoser would appear in this block?

Smoofer · 4 months

I'm really sad to see Grafdigger's Cage as such easy hate to burning vengeance and Gravecrawler, altough BV will have Ancient Grudge to deal with it.

Edit: Now I'm even more sad... this cancels undying... I understand that you have to prevent some strategies from becoming dominant but you don't have to give every deck a 1 mana answer that some colors can't even really deal with...

Contrilios · 4 months

Well, can't wait to see EVERYONE sideboarding grafdigger's cage.

GinNMiskatonics · 4 months

Hellrider seems very much playable in RDW. It's different than oxid because it doesn't stop Weenies from blocking but some damage is going through regardless. Fuck battlecry.

superstitious_pigeon · 4 months

deadly allure + phyrexian obliterator?

elbenji · 4 months

Grafdigger is definitely going to be sideboard...in all the metagame!

Archonium · 4 months

Chant of the Skifsang 2U

Enchantment - Aura (U)

Enchant creature

Enchanted creature gets -13/-0.

Mysteryman64 · 4 months

I just gotta say I love some of these green creatures.

I am very seriously thinking about coming back and running mono green, my first true love.

Harrierish · 4 months

Grafdigger's Cage is amazing. But the Blue Spoilers... where are they?

nonvivant · 4 months

Hey Grixis players? Here's a ton of stuff you'd love to play with.

Disclaimer: you can't actually use them. Ever.

Jesus, Wizards. Are you sure you don't wanna give the Cage flash and cost it at Phyrexian Colorless just to make it a little more omnipresent?

Malicoire · 4 months

Hellrider will see play.

Athene_Wins · 4 months

Is Hellrider's ability "combat damage"? Or is that only when they swing to attack. If it is Swords of ___ would be game over on that guy.

tankintheair315 · 4 months

Where is my mythic GW human. If he isn't here again, I will be very sad.

elbenji · 4 months

Wait, just realized this cage basically also freezes GSZ. Jesus o.o

GinNMiskatonics · 4 months

Grafdiggers cage really only costs 1?

xNonsense · 4 months

There's gonna be a couple Grafdigger's Cages in every sideboard if zombies gets viable.

therealsylvos · 4 months

Wow a lot of cards spoiled today...and all I can think is MOAR! When is the whole set due to be spoiled?

therocketlawnchair · 4 months

grafdigger's Cage, buying a play set on day one. need this soo much for my local meta. adding this to my sideboard with some metamorphs just to make it harder to remove. down vote me all you want, but im tired of opponents fanning out their graveyard and treating that as their second hand.

grappler12 · 4 months

But, now I can't cast my panglacial wurms...

grensley · 4 months

Oblivion Ring just keeps looking better and better as we go through spoiler season.

wyrmlord · 4 months

funny enough, deadly allure works fantastically with the ooze. I can also see it being very good in draft red/black, as it turns ashenmouth hound into a free doom blade. Okay, so the cage is one of the better graveyard hosers, certainly no leyline of the void, but can lock down some decks just as hard, and for cheaper. Easily goes into some legacy sides, and some standard.

nylonbandoleers · 4 months

I'm gonna most definitely try to construct a Deadly Allure+Phyrexian Obliterator deck. That card just might be what turns Obliterator into a threat instead of a moat. Birthing Pod, Mikaeus the unhallowed and the B/G lands might make mono black with a green splash really fun. I wonder what the BG rare land in DKA is gonna bring the to the table. A titan is gonna be a huge liability with Mik+Oblit on the board. I'd love to prey upon a titan, make them sac six, and get the oblit back as a 6/6 trampler.

Eander · 4 months

Deadly Allure seems interesting but man I was expecting that art to belong to a much more impressive card. Ah well.

EdgarAllenBroe · 4 months

Interesting. They spoiled two cards that seemingly work well together in Limited and perhaps even Standard. I really like the Ooze as O-ring and Vapor Snag are the only things that can deal with it.

*Dismember... bob loblaw. (Before a fourth reply is added)

Malicoire · 4 months

In a RW build, Hellrider and Hero of Bladehold attack together for 15. Could be fun.

Archonium · 4 months

Good night, sweet prince;

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

shazzam6999 · 4 months

What the fuck. I didn't even get to try to make Zombie Apocalypse work.

neerajman · 4 months

I know it's been said, but HOLY SHIT GRAFDIGGER's CAGE

This card fits into ANY deck and you only need one in play to shut down a bunch of cards in standard. A SHIT TON of cards in standard. It's tutorable with Treasure Mage too, and Tezz can dig for it with his +1 ability before he animates to smash your face in as well.

I just realized that my Heartless Summoning deck with Tezz as a backup engine will really like this card. But there goes my use for Havengul Lich.

RageBoner · 4 months

Just a couple more oozes and my Ooze EDH deck dream will finally come to fruition MUHAHAHAHAHAHA

Sdwmaster21 · 4 months

Everyone that is getting all WTF were they thinking about Grafdigger's Cage Its going to ruin the game!! need to just retool there decks a bit to account for this being in most peoples decks in the new Meta-game. Naturalize, Ancient Grudge, Revoke Existance, and COUNTLESS more removal or other cards that can put this away long enough for you to get something going. Sideboarding is part of the game for a reason, and this is going to be a big part of that now.

Sephiroth912 · 4 months

I like the Predator Ooze, defintely seems like there could be some interesting things with that card. Might have to try it in my RG deck for fun and see how it turns out. I'm not sure about Deadly Alure, though. Maybe with ~~Ashenmouth Beast~~ Ashmouth Hound, I guess it could be pretty solid.

EDIT: Not sure how I got Ashenmouth Beast, but ah well, close enough I suppose.

EDIT2: Also, Hellrider is really, really good. Seems like it could get out of hand pretty quick in the right sort of deck. 4 mana for a 3/3 body with haste that basically turns every one of your creatures into a small pinger. I like it a lot, definitely going to have to try him out a bit.

imNTR · 4 months

Am I the only one that is underwhelmed by dka? I think its a great flavorful set with nice cards but except for Sorin nothing to powerful and or special.

drodeznop · 4 months

Predator ooze is going to be a beating against decks without much useful removal.

gammon9 · 4 months

Hellrider... better than Hero of Oxid Ridge? I think maybe.

Jesusforall · 4 months

Hellrider or Hero of Oxid Ridge? With Hellrider, your creatures can ping but Hero gives your creature killing power. Hmm...

roguediamond · 4 months

Hellrider seems like an auto-include in RDW, grafdigger is going to be the bane of my dredge deck's existence, and Ooze and Allure... Well, holy shit!

elbenji · 4 months

Also, can we get a better link for Hellrider? It's a little difficult to find >>

mysticrudnin · 4 months

I doubt that anyone else noticed, but for those interested: this (or maybe second or so) is the first article written in Korean, with Korean cards.

I've been clicking the spoiler links each day and my mothership has been set to Korean, but the articles have been English (with things like times and dates still in Korean)

Some of the things are still English though, so they aren't writing everything completely in Korean yet.

Yay. :)

Peripheryy · 4 months

Just thought I'd ask ITT, is scars of mirrodin going out of standard decks when this comes out?

Apnea808 · 4 months

Fuck yeah, spoilers!

Stillson · 4 months

Any control decks worth their salt are running Ratchet Bomb in the SB for Moorland Haunt and Midnight Haunting tokens. Just another utility for the bomb.

darkshaddow42 · 4 months

Red/blue with Hellrider and curiosity? It's worth a shot in casual, at least.

thedoh · 4 months

The more and more I think about Grafdigger's Cage the more sad I become.

It really does hose the tightness of a mostly mono-green deck. GSZ is pretty important to get these heavy hitters out on time but, argh. Oh well. I guess there's more naturalizes and grudges going into the board.

Darktidemage · 4 months

deadly allure will be sick on things like the 1/4 mill 4 cards skabb.

Kayjin · 4 months

Predator ooze + Deadly Allure sounds fun. :)

FlamingBagOfPoop · 4 months

Well Grafdiggers cage puts a cramp in my dredge deck. At least it's easier to deal with than a Leyline of The Void.

paperwarrior · 4 months

Graveyard hate that's bad against Life from the Loam!

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