Yawgmoth`s Will & Brainstorm...

[undertaker229]

Will, Brainstorm & Tinker in hand. Lot of mana. Mindslaver in graveyard, along with other stuff.

can I play Will, then Brainstorm, draw 3, and then put the Mindslaver and other card on top of the library, so I can Tinker into Mindslaver?

Because Will says that I can play cards from my graveyard as if they were in my hand, and Brainstorm says put two cards "from your hand" on top of the library...

does this work?

Thanks!!

[Slack]

This doesn't work.  Wizards actually removed the "as though they were in your hand" clause to cards like Yawgmoth's Will because it was confusing people.  Now it reads:

Yawgmoth's Will  2B

Sorcery

Until end of turn, you may play cards in your graveyard.
If a card would be put into your graveyard this turn, remove that card from the game instead.

Will makes it so that you can play the cards in your graveyard, nothing more nothing less.  You cannot use them in any other way that would require them to be in your hand (discarding, put on top of library etc).  Cards that have abilities that you can play while they are in your hand (See: Elvish Spirit Guide, Ninja of the Deep Hours) cannot be used for those abilities when they are in the graveyard and you play yawgmoth's will.

[goobafish]

What about cycling? Can you cycle a rebuild in your grave after you will? Or off a desire?

[Cross]

No and no. They need to actually be in your hand to cycle.

[Matt]

YWill says "you may play cards in your graveyard as though they were in your hand." The word "play" in Magic has a specific definition: for lands it means to put that land into play as a special action, for spells it means to announce the spell, make all choices for it, and pay all costs, then put it on the stack.

YWill basically says "You may CAST cards in your graveyard as though they were in your hand, and you play play lands from your graveyard as though they were in your hand." Except Wizards decided we shouldn't use the word 'cast' anymore - now both spells and lands use the same verb, "play."

YWill does NOT read: "You may play the game as though cards in your graveyard were in your hand."

[ELD]

Matt is wrong here.  It doesn't say "as though the were in your hand" anymore.  The oracle text is

"Until end of turn, you may play cards in your graveyard.
If a card would be put into your graveyard this turn, remove that card from the game instead"

It's key to actually check the oracle before answering any questions about cards. 

[Matt]

The presence or lack thereof of the "as though they were in your hand" text doesn't change anything I said.

It's like the old Life Payment text on cards like Necropotence: "Effects that prevent or redirect damage cannot be used to counter this loss of life." It's not there any more, and it never was actually needed; there was never a time when a CoP: Black could stop a life payment. But many people might have thought otherwise; it functioned essentially as a form of reminder text.

Similar to how "Target player discards two cards from his or her hand" got shortened to "Target player discards two cards." It doesn't change anything.

[ELD]

I'm not saying it changes anything you said, I'm just saying that what you said is not accurate.  Will is worded as I said it is worded, not how you said it was worded.  It is very important to take the 3 seconds to check the actual oracle text.  If you plan on answering a rule question it's where you have to start.