Hey there everyone, been a long, long time since I wrote an article, but the subject matter is just so juicy. Although Pete did a great job summoning up Billy Mays, I think that Grafdigger's Cage is so impactful that it deserves a deeper look. First up, let's just look at the card again and see exactly what it stops in the format.
Le'ts start off with the first sentence; Creature cards can't enter the battlefield from graveyards or libraries. This first ability turns off the following cards/arch-types.
So the first ability turns off two of the major players in the metagame. They simply cannot function with Cage in play. It is true that both are capable of removing the one drop and then going broken, but the fact of the matter is, this is one of the few cards in the fromat that these broken decks simply can't ignore and just go over the top of. On top of all this, it even shuts down 
's backup plan by forcing them to hard cast whatever they would have Tinkered for.
The second line on the card; Players can't cast cards in graveyards or libraries, turns off the following things.
The other half of this card shuts down the rest of the Dredge deck, and forces Storm to string together a lethal spell count without access to the three drop that makes it a busted deck. It also helps put the hurt on the new Innistrad powerhouse, Tiago Chan. Again, these decks are fully capable of removing cage, but, they still can't just go over the top of it. Making Grudge a Shatter is some nice natural defense against the anti-hate spells from the broken pilots.
When you take the card in as a whole, you see that it is a symmetrical effect that causes the game to be played under normal rules. This card is for the creature decks, you know, the ones that are bringing knives to a gun fight, except now they are wearing night vision goggles and the power is out. Because of this, decks like Affinity, Delver, and Hate Bears now have a huge leg up if they choose to use this new weapon. It's not that Cage just stone blanks the broken decks, it's that it costs one mana, and can come out in a timely enough manner as to give fair decks the extra couple of turns they may have needed to finish turning guys sideways.
Let's not kid ourselves; if you want to fight Oath, Dredge, or Storm, this is an automatic four of in the sideboard as it hits all three arch-types for the low, low cost of four sideboard slots. However here are some recent lists from the Classic metagame that could benefit from main deck inclusion.
Affinity is a natural predator of all the "fair" decks, and is capable of racing the broken decks as well. That being said, I would gladly add four Cage to this deck, to up my percentage against Storm and Dredge, and give me an actual shot at beating Oath. The easy cut here is Steel Overseer, who is too slow anyway. While Affinity can't protect its card for the most part, it doesn’t need to, as if it's on the table you will probably win when they take out a precious turn to deal with it. Next we have another very popular archetype that doesn’t hinge on the library or the graveyard.
Both of these decks have a little bit of anti-synergy with main deck Cage, but the damage can be mitigated by dropping some of the graveyard recursion in Snapcaster Mage, and possibly using Cage as a tutor target. If resolving and protecting the Cage will slow down the game, is it time for Trinket Mage to make a comeback? The inclusion of Trinket Mage into these base aggro-control decks can open up some space for things like Sensei's Divining Top, as well as Voltaic Key, and by extension, Time Vault. Fitting this super hate into the Delver based decks requires a little more work than Affinity, as there is a little anti-synergy in there. While we’re on the subject of Trinket Mage, how about this deck?
4c Fish already has a pretty decent matchup vs the broken decks. I would even go so far as to say, yet again, that this is the best fair deck in the format. At any rate, taking out Meddling Mage for Trinket Mage would give us a lot of extra oomph. Even if you went two Trinket/one Cage, that's three extra slots of hate, and it makes the sideboard even better as you would have the rest of the play set to bring in. These decks all run some amount of counter magic as well, to help protect the Cage and keep the game from being too short. How about this rather slow deck, again adding in some Trinket Mages to give a reason to play the Cage.
Like the Delver decks, it would be hard to just slip one or two cages in here and just go with it, unlike Delver there is zero anti-synergy. It's more a matter of what do you cut, and do you try to tutor up the Cages or draw them naturally? Lastly for established decks, we have a pair of Hate bear decks, that in my opinion are worse because they don't have access to blue, but prevalent because they cost at least $500.00 less to build.
So both of these decks would benefit greatly from the inclusion of Cage, however unless they are at minimum, a three of, they won't come online often enough or fast enough to make a difference either way. By just jamming a play set blindly, you could actually make your deck worse. Finding the right balance of disruption and aggression is key here. The tri color deck would also have to consider the use of Green Sun's Zenith as Cage turns it off. The payoff is huge though and well worth figuring out the right number to bring in main deck. There is one last arch-type that you could jam main deck Cages into, however it's a pretty bad choice vs. all the aggro in the format currently.
The tension here is Chalice of the Void and Cage. The Cage gives you huge game vs. one of the tougher match ups in Oath and to some extent Dredge. I think it might be worth cutting the Chalice's, or at least some number of them to bring in a play set of Cage. What if you want to be a broken deck? What if you know that Cage is prevalent, but want to play something that fly's in its face, or use it yourself to grief your opponents, while you still do crazy things? First up a list of cards that can deal with Cage.
Pick your favorite way to deal with the threat, be it counter, bounce, or destruction. There are plenty of these types of interactions at multiple casting costs. Another way to go is to play a deck that can try to mitigate the Cage anyway. Here is a rough version of Oath that goes over the top of Cage, as well as utilizes it.
The idea here is that although a touch slower and more fragile, you can win in the face of Cage. Flip your deck, reveal Maniac, then draw and play it. Win on your next draw step. There is a more established Oath deck that can still win over the top of Cage, however it does still blank the Oath plan in that deck, with the exception of allowing the Cage to tutor your fattie into your hand. Here it is.
This deck just ignores Cage by having an alternate way to drop an Emrakul into play. It is annoying that you can't just win by resolving Oath, but having that backdoor is huge. Lastly I have one more shell for bypassing the Cage and still being broken.
This shell allows you to do silly things and still have access to Cage via your planeswalker, and Trinket Mage. As an added bonus, you can Tinker away your own Cage, or Tinker first and then get a Cage into play! So, we have spent a lot of time talking about the cards and decks that Cage will interact with, but it's also important to know why Cage is not just an automatic four of in the format. Say hello to the decks that fist pump when you waste your mana playing a Cage.
Creature decks all laugh manically at this card. What do any of these archetypes care if you resolve that card? Some of the Delver decks lose a little versatility with Snapcaster, and some Bears decks lose their Zenith, but for the most part it is a non-issue. Affinity and regular Shops also both don't care about this card.
When we take a step back we see that while this card is extremely powerful, and will impact the format for better or worse, we can see that it is not the end of the world. There are so many ways to avoid or interact with the Cage that it logically doesn’t make sense to overreact or think that this is the savior of creatures in the wild, wild frontier of Classic. It is the best sideboard card to come out in quite some time, and it is an important card in every single format it is legal in. That being said I look at this card and I see Nature's Claim, obviously, it doesn’t do what Claim does, but it has about the same impact on deck choices and metagame choices that Claim has had in its two years in Magic.
I hope you enjoyed this long look at the apparent impact of this new super weapon.
I'll see you guys next time.
George Efelis
whiffy penguin
Hate
3 Comments
nice job.
I'd just remind folks that, if you want a last fling with Oath before the Cage arrives, you ahve until Friday to join the aptly named Classic League "Cage Match."
I'm always impressed to see a such amount of quality & quantity contents in classic related article... and this new one shows it again very well.
nice. thanks for the post!
is it me or it si becoming more and more complicated?
am i getting too old to get it or what? :)
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the developer of mp4 to avi