A Closer Look At Graveyard Hate In Legacy

[Jonathan Alexander]

Check out my article for this week here.

I'm discussing the recently spoiled Grafdigger's Cage, what it does in and against some of the current top decks and talk about alternatives to consider. There's also some decks I've been working on that you should try out for yourself. Enjoy!

[I am the brainwasher]

Regarding the added Bant-deck:
Gut shot is a pure disappointment. I see no reason to run that at all and as much as I hate people saying "You cant play that, this isnt T2 you know" this might be the appropiate term in that case.
When trying to play a more aggro-ish variant I would recommend to play Cliques and Jaces which are pretty strong backed up by Daze, obviously. Theres nothing more harsh than 1st turn Hierarch, turn 2 Clique into turn 3 Jace, TMS. I am aware that this wont be the case most of the time because the opponent might have a word with you too, but this doesnt make that curve less threatening.
I do understand the thought behind Gut Shot, 2 out of the most played decks are Canadian Threshold and Maverick (plus hitting randomly Clique's and Bob's), but in the end Gut Shot will be a way too situational card to be as much of a thread you wish it would be, especially because RUG-Tempo (Why are WUG-decks called Bant and RUG decks aren't called Ceta btw?) directly includes Mongeese in Europe (on most part at least, haven't seen decent results with Snapcaster lists outside the US).
I do understand that it might be appealing to screw Maverick consequental with Gut-Caster though.

[Octopusman]

Thank you for this. I really enjoyed it.

I'm looking for a juicy discussion surrounding all of the graveyard hate (bog, crytps, bombs, relics, cage, leyline, etc) and their pros and cons. Fun to talk about Crypt vs. Cage.

Best wishes,

[Mr. Safety]

I'm still scratching my head over Crucible of Worlds and Grafdigger's Cage. Can you really still play land cards from your graveyard with Grafdigger's Cage on the battlefield?

[Dreg]

As long as they are not Dryad Arbors, you still can. Lands (except the previously mentioned example) are not creatures. So the first clause of the Cage does not affect them. And land cards do not use the stack and therefore, they are not castable. And for this, the second clause of the cage does not affect lands either.