Graverobber's Will

[rozetta]

After discussing the interactions of Shaman's Trance and Yawgmoth's Will, I thought it might be interesting to propose a card which did a "targetted" Will on an opponent's yard:

Graverobber's Will
2RB
Sorcery
Until the end of the turn, you may play cards from target opponent's graveyard as though they were in your hand. If one of those cards would go to the graveyard, remove it from the game. [All cards removed from the game this way are placed in their owner's graveyard at the end of the turn.]

Basically, this is a Yawgwill on the opponent's graveyard only, which would be contingent on your opponent's graveyard containing quality cards. I can't see it being that powerful except against certain decks, in which case it could be relegated to a sideboard card.

The phrase in square brackets could be added to prevent the card from being overpowered in terms of being used as an overpowered graveyard removal spell. However, I'm not sure about this, since a player could reuse those cards over multiple turns if this phrase were to be present.


Current wording:

Graverobbery
2RB
Sorcery
Until the end of the turn, you may play cards from target opponent's graveyard as though they were in your hand. If one of those cards would go to the graveyard, remove it from the game.

[Ephraim]

There's a card very similar to this in the master list already:

Yawgmoth's Whim

Instant
Until end of turn, you may play target card in an opponent's graveyard as though it were in your hand. If that card would be put into a graveyard this turn, remove that card from the game instead.

[Matt]

If you put the bracketed phrase in, this card is badly overpowered. In my experience, there's no such thing as an overpowered graveyard removal spell.

This card may well be broken. I'm not sure. It's VERY powerful. The fact that your opponent has to be running black or red or you have to have some multiland kind of limits it though.

The name is horrible, though.

[Ephraim]

If you put the bracketed phrase in, this card is badly overpowered. In my experience, there's no such thing as an overpowered graveyard removal spell.

I believe you misspoke there. Perhaps you meant to say that in your experience, there's no such thing as an underpowered graveyard removal spell? I'm not sure why you think the bracketed phrase makes this card stronger, though. It would be necessary to cast multiple copies of this to abuse the fact that the opponent's graveyard comes back at the end of turn. In the meanwhile, none of your opponent's cards are permanently removed, so this can't screw them over that badly.

As far as the name goes, I agree that Graverobber's Will is sort of weak. (Although, Hogkeeper's anything isn't all that great either and there's a bunch of those in the master list. I know it's an anagram of something, but still...) Just something like "Graverobbery" wouldn't be bad, although it doesn't well explain why the cards would come back. Perhaps something like "Necromantic Dreams" would work.

[goober]

i think this is really strong, i would love it in 4cc.  long match, then will your opponent's yard and win.  i would probably md at least 1 along with ywill.  this is probably undercostsed, and should go to 6 or so.  yawgmoth's will, the best card in magic except for balance, is nothing to be trifled with.

this is not graveyard removal, it is drawing tons of cards, getting tons of creatures out, or doing both.

[Matt]

No, I meant what I said. No graveyard removal has ever been so bad that it becomes a bad idea to even try running a graveyard-based deck. Not Withered Wretch, no Coffin Purge, not that {B} sorcery from Judgement, not Phyrexian Furnace, not even Tormod's Crypt, which is the scariest of all.

The phrase makes it stronger because I can abuse you for a turn, then untap and do it again. Four times! Maybe more with Witness and/or Regrowth! That's a HELL of a lot stronger than removing your graveyard, which might have no effect whatsoever on many decks. Imagine doing this against Sligh, playing a goblin and bolting two of his guys, then doing it again next turn (replaying one of the guys you just killed!).

[rozetta]

Wow, yeah, that would be pretty nasty. I think that's a good enough reason to keep the removed cards removed and get rid of the additional clause.

As far as the name goes, yeah, I spent all of about 1 minute thinking about it. I was thinking about "graverobbery", but thought, for some reason, I'd seen a card with that name before. It would be a lot better, or something completely different for that matter.

As far as the cost goes, I was originally trying to decide between 1BR, 2BR and 3BR. I figured 1BR was a little cheap, but spells that cost 3BR (like void) are pretty much never played, so that's why I settled on 2BR. In non-vintage magic, this wouldn't probably be too abuseable due to the lack of moxen, rituals, etc. But in Vintage, it's got potential. I personally like the idea of being able to turn someone's graveyard against them, especially if it were versus, for instance, sui

[Jacob Orlove]

Where is the current wording? I'm not sure what's going on with this card now.

[rozetta]

Sorry about that, I hadn't checked in for a couple of days. It's now in the first post.