"Casts." As in, not just plopping onto the battlefield like Oath of Druids does.
I hate this card. Every, single bit of it, and I am probably one of few to do so. I just figured Wizards had already printed a fairly ample amount of Graveyard hate. Just how much more obvious do they need to be about hating Dredge? I mean, we all know the mechanic doesn't work as intended....but does that make it necessary to put amazing Graveyard hosers in nearly every new set?
I think my biggest problem with the card is how much it does over Tormod's Crypt, and how it's hardly interactive. Sure, hosers rarely are, but....seriously? Of course Reanimator and Dredge still have numerous answers to this card, and the card isn't going to kill any archetypes, but I think Wizards is mostly just beating on a dead-horse - a dead-horse that wastes design space and nerfs block synergies, that is.
I was hoping Burning Vengeance might be more viable after rotation... Not anymore! T1 Graffdigger's against BV is as close to an auto-loss as you can get. I just don't understand why would you make a bunch of new cards with graveyard interactions, and then make a cheap and easy way to completely shut them down?
"Casts." As in, not just plopping onto the battlefield like Oath of Druids does.
I hate this card. Every, single bit of it, and I am probably one of few to do so. I just figured Wizards had already printed a fairly ample amount of Graveyard hate. Just how much more obvious do they need to be about hating Dredge? I mean, we all know the mechanic doesn't work as intended....but does that make it necessary to put amazing Graveyard hosers in nearly every new set?
I think my biggest problem with the card is how much it does over Tormod's Crypt, and how it's hardly interactive. Sure, hosers rarely are, but....seriously? Of course Reanimator and Dredge still have numerous answers to this card, and the card isn't going to kill any archetypes, but I think Wizards is mostly just beating on a dead-horse - a dead-horse that wastes design space and nerfs block synergies, that is.
No Grafdigger's Cage reads "Creature cards can't enter the battlefield from graveyards or libraries."
Thus an Oathed up creature can't enter the battlefield.
This means that you can't tinker in Blightsteel either.
Again, this isn't an 'evolve or die' card. The Cage doesn't leave any room for combo to evolve, it aborts all ideas of new decks and kills any combo deck that could have find a place with the new set. Once a standard combo deck has any competitive presence, the Cage will be in every other SB, and completely shut out those combo decks. At that point, there is no reason for the Cage to be removed from SB for the rest of the season.
If a standard combo deck is good enough to be competitive, why would any non-combo player remove this card from their SB ever?
You are over exaggerating and speaking as if combo has no chance to remove a cage. This is where the "evolve" comes into play. Combo adapts to hate, like any other deck does. Cage doesn't have hexproof, it isn't indestructible, it isn't uncounterable, it has outs and can be dealt with. Also, like I said above, cage effect is global, so it also hoses the player who is running it in some fashion.
No reason for cage to be removed from sideboard? All I have to say is, meta shift. If youve been playing the game for any amount of time, you yourself know just how meta shift can effect decks, going from one spectrum to another from week to week. If combo gets big, it will be hated on, people will adapt, some will play other decks, need for combo hate will fall and then combo will rise again.
The fact that it's symmetrical makes me a little happier, as Leyline is still better hate, but man is this card brutal.
Honestly the thing that really does it is the casting cost. 1 is just so cheap for that wide a range of hate. Maybe they figured putting it at 1 makes it more vulnerable to ratchet bomb, EE, and Chalice.
Like with all the other spoilers, everyone says new cards are broken.
Unless Solar Flare dominates the Standard format, I don't see this ever being used as sideboard, simply because Nihil Spellbomb and Surgical Extraction are much better.
However, it is extremely powerful in Legacy. It basically kills Dredge post board (well, like all GY hosers) and it's more efficient than traditional graveyard hosers like Leyline of the Void simply because every deck (excepting those that run Chalice of the Void) that doesn't care much about the graveyard can run it. The card still has a symmetric effect, so not all decks are able to abuse it, most of the control and tempo decks will stick to Tormod's Crypt and Surgical Extraction. Decks that will benefit from this card are beatdown decks like Zoo or Goblins, and not by much, the card doesn't replace itself unlike Relic of Progenitus. Testing will decide wether to play the Cage above the other hate available, but most decks will stick to a combination of 3 or 4 one-ofs.
Legacy Dredge will live, and it's power mainly stays the same. You failed to kill the deck (again), WotC, maybe next time.
In Vintage, the card will join Mental Misstep and Null Rod in the list of maindeck hate used by hatebear decks and MUD/Stax against the 80% of the entire format. It will most likely replace maindeck Leyline of the Void in aggro decks, but it's vulnerability to Mental Misstep may be a risk. Colorless Jixlid Jailer is sweet.
So, the question is, what tools do we have to beat it? It'll see a huge amount of play early on as it doesn't really hurt delver blade at all, while effectively negating most new decks that could out resource delver blade.
Hard cast Ancient Grudge for red... green artifact destruction, white artifact destruction... I see black and blue suffering the most from this card, especially black/blue control.
So, What do we do to minimize it's threat for the other colors?
All colors can counter it. Blue can bounce it. There are currently 18+ ways to DESTROY this artifact in standard, plus cards yet to be reveled and cards that remove it from the game and such.
Generally speaking we have 3 types of decks, aggro, control and midrange. Creature based decks being aggro. What are our cheap, colorless, control and midrange hosers?
If cards like this can be printed why can't we have something along the lines of...
Sweet Name (1)
Artifact
All creatures get -2/-2
I mean we have colorless cheap hosers for everything except creature based decks.
Exactly. Or compare it to the hypothetical printing of a control-hoser. The Cage is like re-printing Black Vise in Standard, unrestricted. What do you think all the spikey control players at your shop would be cursing about Friday night if THAT had happened? There would be a dang uproar. I doubt MM and Steel Sabotage would be comforting them right now. Apparently they can hose fun archetypes with a powerful card like the Cage, but they won't print effective hate for the same ol' boring U/x control decks that durdle around for 30 minutes of your life you'll never get back and then spit out a 6-drop. If you want to beat those old snoozers, you have to do it with actual deckbuilding skills.
Not to mention that lands appear to be completely sacred, giving blanket immunity to not only those silly 6-drops but to the robotically-played ramp decks that have plagued us, and now these spell lands. Where's the one-mana artifact that removes all non-mana abilities from lands, or some sort of Ankh of Mishra or Zo-Zu the Punisher effect?
No, instead of going after these boring old archetypes that get remade year after year and putting a bit of a shake-up into the environment, we get a card that demolishes the only tournament-caliber mechanic in the whole block.
Cage is in NO way comparable to a reprinting of black vice. To even say such a thing is nonsense. At a very, very basically level I can see how one would think this. "1 casting cost, artifact, hoser" but the similarities end there. The same goes for Ankh.
There are many competitive machanics in block, not just one. While cage does need to be played around in some decks that use more the one of these machanics it isn't unstoppable or the be all end all of the format.
This card just kicks black in the nuts. The lich and gravecrawler where going to make black actually playable again in standard. Black CANNOT kill an artifact. It hoses Forbidden Alchemy engines, recursion engines, Birthing Pod, Snapcaster (not so sad about this one), and everything else that was going to be innovative about this block. Hell Burning Vengance was going to be a legitimate deck. No way in hell it will be now.
WTF are they doing in the future future league?
"Hey we need to tone down the graveyard card advantage."
"Lets make this card that stops recursion."
"Sounds good."
"Make it artifact so they can never destroy it within the color black or blue."
"Good idea it will stick so it have value."
"Lets make it 1 casting cost so they can Mental Misstep it."
I feel like this is the conversation that went on in the design of this thing. I would have been just fine with this thing at 3-4 cc. At 1 that is just too much any deck that relies on recursion engines or tutors just got NULL AND VOIDED.
Guess I'll be playing white and werewolves for the next year. Outside of Mage Blade blue doesn't have anything to offer now.
If cards like this can be printed why can't we have something along the lines of...
Sweet Name (1)
Artifact
All creatures get -2/-2
Honestly? You can't tell the difference in power level between a card that hates on a rarely played strategy, provides absolutely no CA on it's own, and can be easily removed, with a permanent mini Wrath of God? Really?
Exactly. Or compare it to the hypothetical printing of a control-hoser. The Cage is like re-printing Black Vise in Standard, unrestricted.
No, it's not. Black Vise had a tendency to read: 1 - your opponent takes 6+ damage and has a maximum hand size of 4.
Vise could kill you, Cage can not.
Multiple Vises could kill you faster, multiple Cages are dead cards.
Vise was good against any deck that couldn't unload it's hand quickly and could be put in a deck that punished over-extention creating "damned if I do and damned if I don't" situations, Cage can't do any of that.
Vice directly destroys an opponent's resources - either their life or their hand (usually both), Cage destroys no resources.
A Vise that does damage, causes your opponent to over-extend, and then eats removal has done a ton of work for 1, a Cage that eats removal has 1-for-1'd your opponent for 1.
Finally, Vise was relevant against the vast majority of decks played at the time while Cage is equally irrelevant against the vast majority of decks played now.
Worst case scenario: You play a deck that plays cards from it's library and graveyard and run no artifact destruction and your opponent plays a first turn Cage. Oh no! I guess you'll have to be content with the fact that, if you're willing to just draw and play cards like everyone else, then they have 1 dead card in play and, most likely, 3 more in their deck.
redthirst is redthirst, fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse. He was the leader of the Fires of Salvation, the only clan I'm aware of to get modded off the forums so hard they made their own forums.
Degenerate? Sure. Loudmouth? You bet. Law abiding? No ****ing way.
You have the right idea redthirst. Vise wins games all on it's own and is worlds apart from cage.
Twicky: Every deck has an out for cage you just have to open your eyes, clear your head and look around. Cage is not the be all end all for any archetype.
Blue still has much to offer. Cage has very little, if not no effect on what a color has to offer a match. You must step back and look at things through clear eyes.
You have the right idea redthirst. Vise wins games all on it's own and is worlds apart from cage.
Twicky: Every deck has an out for cage you just have to open your eyes, clear your head and look around. Cage is not the be all end all for any archetype.
Blue still has much to offer. Cage has very little, if not no effect on what a color has to offer a match. You must step back and look at things through clear eyes.
Blue can bounce it losing a card and tempo. While your opponent recast for just 1 mana. That is assuming there is only 1 on the board. More than 1 and you are screwed.
Black cannot do a damn thing to it.
Ratchet Bomb is not a great answer. Unless there is other things in your opponent's deck you can hit with bomb there is no point in playing it. Often enough you're going to have to blow it to wipe out tokens or hexproof guys.
1 mana cost artifact turn you deck off card should NEVER be printed. I don't mind hate cards they are very much needed. When you hose an entire deck strategy that spans across many colors there is an issue. On top of that the colors that it hoses cannot touch it.
Color this, color that. You compain about colors not being able to answer this then come out and mention the colorless answer that all decks can use. Then you bash the universal answer, claiming it's not good enough? You even go as far as saying there is no point in playing it? You are looking for reasons to make the deck you want to play fail instead of secede.
Blue can bounce it, and while you are at a disadvantage card wise it is still a viable option. This is what blue is all about my friend. It has always had a hard time dealing with many permanents that slip passed. It can also counter it with a nameless amount of counter spells.
Any deck can counter it, reguardless of color via mental misstep, but you must pay 2 life and that may not be good enough for you.
Ratchet bomb is such a good answer to cage. You don't want to trade 1-1 for it? I'm not sure what else you want from a card. It is a versatile answer that is cheap and effective. Saying there is no point in playing it? You are playing it as a answer to the boggie man and any other monster in the closest you encounter. I'm not sure what other reason you would need to play it. Tokens? Hex proof creatures? Sounds like you have multiple reason to play a versatile card. Since when has versatility been a reason NOT to play a card? Stop trying to make your deck ideas fail when the answers are right in front of you.
Makes me glad that I'm not running Unburial Rites in my Esper control! Ohhh!
Also, this is one of those cards like Pithing Needle that's just a card meant to hate on certain EDH players (although Pithing Needle went ahead and hated on most of them)
Exactly. Or compare it to the hypothetical printing of a control-hoser. The Cage is like re-printing Black Vise in Standard, unrestricted. What do you think all the spikey control players at your shop would be cursing about Friday night if THAT had happened? There would be a dang uproar. I doubt MM and Steel Sabotage would be comforting them right now. Apparently they can hose fun archetypes with a powerful card like the Cage, but they won't print effective hate for the same ol' boring U/x control decks that durdle around for 30 minutes of your life you'll never get back and then spit out a 6-drop. If you want to beat those old snoozers, you have to do it with actual deckbuilding skills.
Not to mention that lands appear to be completely sacred, giving blanket immunity to not only those silly 6-drops but to the robotically-played ramp decks that have plagued us, and now these spell lands. Where's the one-mana artifact that removes all non-mana abilities from lands, or some sort of Ankh of Mishra or Zo-Zu the Punisher effect?
No, instead of going after these boring old archetypes that get remade year after year and putting a bit of a shake-up into the environment, we get a card that demolishes the only tournament-caliber mechanic in the whole block.
This, exactly this. If Wizards wants to print good hate, they need to do so with some type of congruence. Graveyard strategies take the shaft almost every block, at least once per block. If Wizards wants to hose things that "don't work as they intended," they need to look far beyond simply giving their chosen theme a good beating.
I don't have a problem with the card because it's "hard to play around" or because it "completely wipes out archetypes." It isn't, and it doesn't. But it comes damn close (or at least, closer than most cards have dared to), and hoses only a further a strategy with an OBSCENE amount of solutions as is.
I don't see this card making a big splash in Legacy. Even if it's more powerful than Leyline of the Void and Tormod's Crypt, it's only marginally so. Most decks that get creatures out of the library don't have enough cards that do that for Cage to be worthwhile, and against graveyard decks the card won't give you enough of a boost to completely flip a matchup.
Against Reanimator, it costs more than Leyline of the Void and Tormod's Crypt and doesn't actually take cards out of the graveyard. You can force your opponent's hand with Crypt by trying to reanimate a dude anyway, which you can't do with Grafdigger's Cage, but every Reanimator deck sides in bounce.
Against Dredge, it's worse than Leyline (in your opening hand) and very different from Crypt. Crypt actually encourages slow dredging to force an activation. Leyline requires a bounce spell anyway. If you're looking to Brainstorm into your hate cards, maybe Cage is better than Crypt, but not by much.
Against Maverick, Cage is terrible. It stops one card that sometimes isn't even a 4-of and fetchland -> Dryad Arbor, which is not at all worth a slot.
Against RUG Tempo and UW Control, this only stops Snapcaster Mage; again not worth siding in.
The fact that the card does something against almost every deck is more of a hindrance than a help. If you're playing Snapcaster Mage, is the marginal value of playing Cage over Surgical Extraction or Tormod's Crypt worth the loss of Snapcaster himself? Certainly not. It's also not worth shutting off your Zeniths if you're playing Maverick. Sure, there are a lot of decks that wouldn't like to see this on the other side of the table, but who would want to play it in the first place? Edit: Maybe Zoo.
It looks like the card is targeted primarily at Vintage: it hoses Tinker, Oath of Druids, Dredge (about as well as Pithing Needle I bet), Yawgmoth's Will, etc. Stopping Tinker in addition to hosing graveyard decks makes Cage really powerful in the format.
So basically anything that tutors creatures into play, has flashback, and reanimates creatures. With the addition of Dark Ascension we'll have more flashback cards and Undying as well that get hated by the Cage. From the spoiler so far, the affected cards are:
Increasing Devotion
Loyal Cathar // Unhallowed Cathar
Ray of Revelation
Increasing Confusion
Secrets of the Dead
Deadly Allure
Gravecrawler
Zombie Apocalypse
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
Faithless Looting
Flayer of the Hatebound
Nearheath Stalker
Pyreheart Wolf
Strangleroot Gesit
Vorapede
Havengul Lich
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad (last ability)
"Casts." As in, not just plopping onto the battlefield like Oath of Druids does.
I hate this card. Every, single bit of it, and I am probably one of few to do so. I just figured Wizards had already printed a fairly ample amount of Graveyard hate. Just how much more obvious do they need to be about hating Dredge? I mean, we all know the mechanic doesn't work as intended....but does that make it necessary to put amazing Graveyard hosers in nearly every new set?
I think my biggest problem with the card is how much it does over Tormod's Crypt, and how it's hardly interactive. Sure, hosers rarely are, but....seriously? Of course Reanimator and Dredge still have numerous answers to this card, and the card isn't going to kill any archetypes, but I think Wizards is mostly just beating on a dead-horse - a dead-horse that wastes design space and nerfs block synergies, that is.
No Grafdigger's Cage reads "Creature cards can't enter the battlefield from graveyards or libraries."
Thus an Oathed up creature can't enter the battlefield.
This means that you can't tinker in Blightsteel either.
You are over exaggerating and speaking as if combo has no chance to remove a cage. This is where the "evolve" comes into play. Combo adapts to hate, like any other deck does. Cage doesn't have hexproof, it isn't indestructible, it isn't uncounterable, it has outs and can be dealt with. Also, like I said above, cage effect is global, so it also hoses the player who is running it in some fashion.
No reason for cage to be removed from sideboard? All I have to say is, meta shift. If youve been playing the game for any amount of time, you yourself know just how meta shift can effect decks, going from one spectrum to another from week to week. If combo gets big, it will be hated on, people will adapt, some will play other decks, need for combo hate will fall and then combo will rise again.
Oh, so it does. Well would you look at that; ANOTHER reason for me to hate this card.
Honestly the thing that really does it is the casting cost. 1 is just so cheap for that wide a range of hate. Maybe they figured putting it at 1 makes it more vulnerable to ratchet bomb, EE, and Chalice.
Unless Solar Flare dominates the Standard format, I don't see this ever being used as sideboard, simply because Nihil Spellbomb and Surgical Extraction are much better.
However, it is extremely powerful in Legacy. It basically kills Dredge post board (well, like all GY hosers) and it's more efficient than traditional graveyard hosers like Leyline of the Void simply because every deck (excepting those that run Chalice of the Void) that doesn't care much about the graveyard can run it. The card still has a symmetric effect, so not all decks are able to abuse it, most of the control and tempo decks will stick to Tormod's Crypt and Surgical Extraction. Decks that will benefit from this card are beatdown decks like Zoo or Goblins, and not by much, the card doesn't replace itself unlike Relic of Progenitus. Testing will decide wether to play the Cage above the other hate available, but most decks will stick to a combination of 3 or 4 one-ofs.
Legacy Dredge will live, and it's power mainly stays the same. You failed to kill the deck (again), WotC, maybe next time.
In Vintage, the card will join Mental Misstep and Null Rod in the list of maindeck hate used by hatebear decks and MUD/Stax against the 80% of the entire format. It will most likely replace maindeck Leyline of the Void in aggro decks, but it's vulnerability to Mental Misstep may be a risk. Colorless Jixlid Jailer is sweet.
Hard cast Ancient Grudge for red... green artifact destruction, white artifact destruction... I see black and blue suffering the most from this card, especially black/blue control.
So, What do we do to minimize it's threat for the other colors?
Sweet Name (1)
Artifact
All creatures get -2/-2
I mean we have colorless cheap hosers for everything except creature based decks.
Exactly. Or compare it to the hypothetical printing of a control-hoser. The Cage is like re-printing Black Vise in Standard, unrestricted. What do you think all the spikey control players at your shop would be cursing about Friday night if THAT had happened? There would be a dang uproar. I doubt MM and Steel Sabotage would be comforting them right now. Apparently they can hose fun archetypes with a powerful card like the Cage, but they won't print effective hate for the same ol' boring U/x control decks that durdle around for 30 minutes of your life you'll never get back and then spit out a 6-drop. If you want to beat those old snoozers, you have to do it with actual deckbuilding skills.
Not to mention that lands appear to be completely sacred, giving blanket immunity to not only those silly 6-drops but to the robotically-played ramp decks that have plagued us, and now these spell lands. Where's the one-mana artifact that removes all non-mana abilities from lands, or some sort of Ankh of Mishra or Zo-Zu the Punisher effect?
No, instead of going after these boring old archetypes that get remade year after year and putting a bit of a shake-up into the environment, we get a card that demolishes the only tournament-caliber mechanic in the whole block.
There are many competitive machanics in block, not just one. While cage does need to be played around in some decks that use more the one of these machanics it isn't unstoppable or the be all end all of the format.
Proud supporter of playing to win.
Weekly Words of Wisdom 6
A card is bad in constructed when its not GOOD.
A card is bad in casual when its not FUN.
It should be referred to as the "GD Cage" from now on.
WTF are they doing in the future future league?
"Hey we need to tone down the graveyard card advantage."
"Lets make this card that stops recursion."
"Sounds good."
"Make it artifact so they can never destroy it within the color black or blue."
"Good idea it will stick so it have value."
"Lets make it 1 casting cost so they can Mental Misstep it."
I feel like this is the conversation that went on in the design of this thing. I would have been just fine with this thing at 3-4 cc. At 1 that is just too much any deck that relies on recursion engines or tutors just got NULL AND VOIDED.
Guess I'll be playing white and werewolves for the next year. Outside of Mage Blade blue doesn't have anything to offer now.
Honestly? You can't tell the difference in power level between a card that hates on a rarely played strategy, provides absolutely no CA on it's own, and can be easily removed, with a permanent mini Wrath of God? Really?
No, it's not. Black Vise had a tendency to read: 1 - your opponent takes 6+ damage and has a maximum hand size of 4.
Vise could kill you, Cage can not.
Multiple Vises could kill you faster, multiple Cages are dead cards.
Vise was good against any deck that couldn't unload it's hand quickly and could be put in a deck that punished over-extention creating "damned if I do and damned if I don't" situations, Cage can't do any of that.
Vice directly destroys an opponent's resources - either their life or their hand (usually both), Cage destroys no resources.
A Vise that does damage, causes your opponent to over-extend, and then eats removal has done a ton of work for 1, a Cage that eats removal has 1-for-1'd your opponent for 1.
Finally, Vise was relevant against the vast majority of decks played at the time while Cage is equally irrelevant against the vast majority of decks played now.
Worst case scenario: You play a deck that plays cards from it's library and graveyard and run no artifact destruction and your opponent plays a first turn Cage. Oh no! I guess you'll have to be content with the fact that, if you're willing to just draw and play cards like everyone else, then they have 1 dead card in play and, most likely, 3 more in their deck.
—Jaya Ballard, task mage
Twicky: Every deck has an out for cage you just have to open your eyes, clear your head and look around. Cage is not the be all end all for any archetype.
Blue still has much to offer. Cage has very little, if not no effect on what a color has to offer a match. You must step back and look at things through clear eyes.
Blue can bounce it losing a card and tempo. While your opponent recast for just 1 mana. That is assuming there is only 1 on the board. More than 1 and you are screwed.
Black cannot do a damn thing to it.
Ratchet Bomb is not a great answer. Unless there is other things in your opponent's deck you can hit with bomb there is no point in playing it. Often enough you're going to have to blow it to wipe out tokens or hexproof guys.
1 mana cost artifact turn you deck off card should NEVER be printed. I don't mind hate cards they are very much needed. When you hose an entire deck strategy that spans across many colors there is an issue. On top of that the colors that it hoses cannot touch it.
Blue can bounce it, and while you are at a disadvantage card wise it is still a viable option. This is what blue is all about my friend. It has always had a hard time dealing with many permanents that slip passed. It can also counter it with a nameless amount of counter spells.
Any deck can counter it, reguardless of color via mental misstep, but you must pay 2 life and that may not be good enough for you.
Ratchet bomb is such a good answer to cage. You don't want to trade 1-1 for it? I'm not sure what else you want from a card. It is a versatile answer that is cheap and effective. Saying there is no point in playing it? You are playing it as a answer to the boggie man and any other monster in the closest you encounter. I'm not sure what other reason you would need to play it. Tokens? Hex proof creatures? Sounds like you have multiple reason to play a versatile card. Since when has versatility been a reason NOT to play a card? Stop trying to make your deck ideas fail when the answers are right in front of you.
Also, this is one of those cards like Pithing Needle that's just a card meant to hate on certain EDH players (although Pithing Needle went ahead and hated on most of them)
WUBRGCommander Decklists - PaperWUBRG
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Sig Credit: Pegasus Bishop
This, exactly this. If Wizards wants to print good hate, they need to do so with some type of congruence. Graveyard strategies take the shaft almost every block, at least once per block. If Wizards wants to hose things that "don't work as they intended," they need to look far beyond simply giving their chosen theme a good beating.
I don't have a problem with the card because it's "hard to play around" or because it "completely wipes out archetypes." It isn't, and it doesn't. But it comes damn close (or at least, closer than most cards have dared to), and hoses only a further a strategy with an OBSCENE amount of solutions as is.
Against Reanimator, it costs more than Leyline of the Void and Tormod's Crypt and doesn't actually take cards out of the graveyard. You can force your opponent's hand with Crypt by trying to reanimate a dude anyway, which you can't do with Grafdigger's Cage, but every Reanimator deck sides in bounce.
Against Dredge, it's worse than Leyline (in your opening hand) and very different from Crypt. Crypt actually encourages slow dredging to force an activation. Leyline requires a bounce spell anyway. If you're looking to Brainstorm into your hate cards, maybe Cage is better than Crypt, but not by much.
Against Maverick, Cage is terrible. It stops one card that sometimes isn't even a 4-of and fetchland -> Dryad Arbor, which is not at all worth a slot.
Against RUG Tempo and UW Control, this only stops Snapcaster Mage; again not worth siding in.
Grafdigger's Cage does nothing against Life from the Loam. If Cage starts seeing a lot of play, Aggro Loam decks will likely be better off.
The fact that the card does something against almost every deck is more of a hindrance than a help. If you're playing Snapcaster Mage, is the marginal value of playing Cage over Surgical Extraction or Tormod's Crypt worth the loss of Snapcaster himself? Certainly not. It's also not worth shutting off your Zeniths if you're playing Maverick. Sure, there are a lot of decks that wouldn't like to see this on the other side of the table, but who would want to play it in the first place? Edit: Maybe Zoo.
It looks like the card is targeted primarily at Vintage: it hoses Tinker, Oath of Druids, Dredge (about as well as Pithing Needle I bet), Yawgmoth's Will, etc. Stopping Tinker in addition to hosing graveyard decks makes Cage really powerful in the format.
Divine Reckoning
Feeling of Dread
Purify the Grave
Rallly the Peasants
Sun Titan (targeting creatures)
Cackling Counterpart
Djinn of Wishes
Forbidden Alchemy
Grasp of Phantoms
Memory's journey
Mirror-Mad Phantasm
Shape Anew (for a creature)
Silent Departure
Skaab Ruinator
Snapcaster Mage
Think Twice
Army of the Damned
Bump in the Night
Geth, Lord of the Vault (targeting a creature)
Gruesome Encore
Moan of the Unhallowed
Postmortem Lunge
Reassembling Skeleton
Sever the Bloodline
Sheoldred, Whispering One
Unburial Rites
Ancient Grudge
Burning Vengeance
Desperate Ravings
Devil's Play
Geistflame
Nightbird's Clutches
Past in Flames
Rolling Temblor
Birthing Pod
Creeping Renaissance
Doubling Chant
Garruk's Horde
Genesis Wave (creatures)
Gnaw to the Bone
Green Sun's Zenith
Moldgraf Monstrosity
Primeval Titan (dryad arbor only...)
Spider Spawning
Travel Preparations
Grimoire of the dead
Kuldotha Forgemaster (for a creature)
Nim Deathmantle
So basically anything that tutors creatures into play, has flashback, and reanimates creatures. With the addition of Dark Ascension we'll have more flashback cards and Undying as well that get hated by the Cage. From the spoiler so far, the affected cards are:
Increasing Devotion
Loyal Cathar // Unhallowed Cathar
Ray of Revelation
Increasing Confusion
Secrets of the Dead
Deadly Allure
Gravecrawler
Zombie Apocalypse
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
Faithless Looting
Flayer of the Hatebound
Nearheath Stalker
Pyreheart Wolf
Strangleroot Gesit
Vorapede
Havengul Lich
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad (last ability)