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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day

Daily Since November 2001!


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Forbidden Crypt
Mirage

Reviewed November 15, 2011

Constructed: 4
Casual: 4
Limited: 3.5
Multiplayer: 4

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst.  3 ... average.  
5 is the highest rating

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Card of the Day Reviews 

BMoor

Forbidden Crypt

The card that turns your graveyard into your library. On the one hand, your graveyard is a publicly viewable zone and the Crypt says nothing about "at random", so you get to cherry pick what card you "draw" each turn. Mill yourself a bit before playing this, or simply wait until late in the game when your best cards have already been spent, and you can pretty much guarantee victory through always drawing the exact card you need. But unlike most cards that replace your draw, this card still allows you to lose by running out of cards in your new grave-library. The exile part means that you can't restock your graveyard when you start running out, and that you can't "draw" and cast the same instant or sorcery every turn. You definitely want to save this card for late in the game, when your graveyard is full of enough meat to get you through (or you have a way of removing the Crypt from play) or you could end up hurting yourself, but Black has always been willing to take that kind of risk.

Constructed- 4
Casual-4
Limited- 3.5
Multiplayer- 4

Maikeruu

Today's bonus card of the day is Forbidden Crypt which is a card meant to be played after filling up your graveyard to allow you to choose cards at will instead of relying on the luck of the draw.  While the concept is impressive the execution of exiling any additional cards being sent to the graveyard and the potential loss of game if anything interferes with your graveyard makes it too risky to play.  A great deal of support can make it less vulnerable, though other cards exist that can fulfill the role without the extra measures being needed.  As this is from Sixth Edition and Mirage an older format deck can try to work with these limitations, but opponents will likely have something to disrupt it and the advantage just doesn't merit the drawbacks.
 
For Limited formats where this would be legal the chances of having a reliable method to fill the graveyard before this is in your hand are slim.  An opponent can even just stall long enough for you to exhaust the graveyard which is a distinct possibility in the format.  Even gambling with it to play a few key cards isn't a reasonable bet as the best cards have to already be in the graveyard instead of your library which gives this the very narrow focus of a five mana Regrowth.
 
Constructed: 2.0
Casual: 2.0
Limited: 1.0
Multiplayer: 2.0


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