Grafdigger's Cage

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Historic Brawl Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planar Constructed Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Grafdigger's Cage

Artifact

Creature cards in graveyards or libraries can't enter the battlefield.

Players can't cast spells from graveyards or libraries.

Balaam__ on Heart of Darkness Challenge - Pt. II - Yarok

1 month ago

That should cover most of the usual graveyard hate. Tormod's Crypt, Rest in Peace, Relic of Progenitus and Grafdigger's Cage all fall under that umbrella of removal. You’re going to have to watch out for the subtle graveyard hate, the kind attached to creatures as some sort of activated ability or tertiary effect. Those can fall outside the jurisdiction of simple artifact/enchantment hate.

wallisface on Graveyard Removal Rocks Survey

3 months ago

Each option has it's own strengths and weaknesses which need to be considered - they're each meta dependent, as well as dependent on the kind of deck you yourself are running

  • Relic of Progenitus is probably the strongest card here, but can be really unideal if your own deck is wanting to use its graveyard, as Relic removes your own grave as well. Generally I'll generally only consider the other options below when Relic feels too self-damaging. It's also worth noting that Relic requires a mana to perform its mass-exile, so prefers your deck to be able to easily leave mana up.

  • Soul-Guide Lantern is imo a generally worse Relic of Progenitus, but can be a better option for protecting your own graveyard. Not requiring a mana for exile will also sometimes help with decks tighter on mana. Its ETB seems interesting but I haven't found it particularly relevant most of the time, particularly as an Urza's Saga fetch target.

  • Tormod's Crypt is the bare-bones graveyard hate, as it costs no mana but comes with no benefits. Its probably only worth considering for decks that are extremely tight on mana (aggro), or decks with high artifact-count-relevance (affinity). Generally I think it would be super hard to justify using this as an Urza's Saga fetch.

  • Nihil Spellbomb is a stronger Soul-Guide Lantern if your deck has the ability to pay the .

  • Ghost Vacuum is interesting but generally wants to only be played in a deck that has decent-odds of making a game go long (if you're unlikely to ever trigger its mana ability, you're better off just using Relic of Progenitus)

  • Grafdigger's Cage hits a very specific range of strategies, while doing nothing for other plans, so is super meta reliant.

capwner on Graveyard Removal Rocks Survey

3 months ago

TheOfficialCreator Yes I think Soul-Guide or Tormod's in Emry decks; Relic or Vacuum in other decks. Nihil Spellbomb is also unique in that you don't HAVE to hold up mana for it, but it still can cantrip+exile like Relic, so in a black deck I think Nihil is better. In the current modern meta I think Ghost Vacuum makes the most sense given the 2 most popular decks run Phlage and Oculus, making it both denial and a wincon. Grafdigger's Cage could also be promising if we start seeing a lot more Green Sun's decks.

capwner on Graveyard Removal Rocks Survey

3 months ago

Balaam__ Rest in Peace is the GOAT, sadly not quite playable for us Saga bros however :) Grafdigger's Cage with its continuous effect would be the closest, but unfortunately if cage is removed the graveyard comes right back. The combined etb exile + continuous effect is what makes RIP such amazing GY hate.

TheOfficialCreator I agree Relic is the most classic and popular choice (besides Tormod's, maybe). But it's worth remembering that the first ability is non-targeted (well, targets a player but THEY choose the exiled card), meaning you can't remove specific cards like Ghost Vacuum or Soul-Guide Lantern ETB. But the tap ability is good for attrition if you can play it early. I agree the cantrip ON USE is nice, this is the main reason I don't like Soul-Guide. Disadvantages of relic would be needing to pay to activate it, the symmetrical effect (say you are playing Emry, Lurker of the Loch for example), and also it exiles itself so it's not possible to loop it (again most likely with Emry). I think in decks that don't care about these things, Relic could be the best option though.

capwner on Graveyard Removal Rocks Survey

3 months ago

I'm curious especially for you Modern players, which is the best / your favorite or -drop piece of GRAVEYARD HATE to include in an Urza's Saga package?

To me it seems the contenders are...

Relic of Progenitus

Soul-Guide Lantern

Tormod's Crypt

Nihil Spellbomb

Ghost Vacuum

Grafdigger's Cage

Personally I have really been liking Ghost Vacuum for the repeatability, and the 2nd ability's effectiveness against cards like Phlage and Abhorrent Oculus, though it is weaker against decks such as delirium which rely more on a mass of cards in the graveyard vs. specific ones.

Are there any classic graveyard removal rocks I am missing? Which is your favorite and why?

DemonDragonJ on May I Choose to Return …

3 months ago

wallisface, thank you, very much, and I am very glad to know that, although I am not happy, about it, since I was hoping to be able to bypass effects such as Grafdigger's Cage, if my opponents use that card.

DemonDragonJ on May I Choose to Return …

4 months ago

I have an EDH deck with Meren of Clan Nel Toth as its general, and, in one game, one of my opponents controlled a Grafdigger's Cage, which would have prevented Meren's ability from returning a creature from my graveyard directly to the battlefield, so I instead returned the creature to my hand, when here ability triggered (the creature's mana value was less than or equal to the number of experience counters that I had).

Was that a legal play? I sincerely hope that it was, because I would like the assurance that I can bypass attempts at hindering my deck's strategy.

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