We have another reason to splash Black. This is a decent finisher. Not wild on netting creatures because our opponents may be able to keep creatures too, but the mana and card draw is nice.
Maybe this card needs it's own deck like Turbo Megrim or something.
I'd be interested in running this and cards like Anger of the Gods and Hero's Demise.
Pulp_Fiction, if your plan against Ux control is to suspend a bunch of threats and not worry about cascaders, Leyline of Lifeforce may be what you're looking for.
Anger of the Gods looks promising if RR is doable and we're worried about stuff like Finks.
Is Slaughter Games really necessary? It doesn't get all of Twin's combo pieces, Storm can side into EtW, and it can't nab Valakut against Scapeshift. Besides, Restore Balance nuking the opponent's hand should be enough to disrupt most combo decks anyway. Leyline of Sanctity seems way better.
This is a really cool angle to tackle the deck from, but it's got a ways to go before it can compete with the Modern metagame.
The primary interactions in the deck are Restore Balance + Borderpost and Pitch Spell + Borderpost. The Balance combo is well-known, and the pitch spell interaction further sweetens the deal. That core feels solid.
The rest of the deck, I think, needs some work. Once you resolve Restore Balance, you want to take advantage of your extra cards. With a Borderpost manabase, those extra cards will be lands. So we're looking to take advantage of a couple extra lands while our opponent reverts to phase 1*. We're looking for cheap, powerful threats. Sphinx's Revelation has to go, as it's antithetical to the core plan of the deck, which involves decreasing our hand size. Misthollow Griffin is a poor threat, fragile and slow.
We also need to take into account the pitch spells. Coldsnap pitches are extremely demanding. You want a lot of (22+)** pitchable spells in each color. There are 15 pitchable white and 12 pitchable blue cards in the core, so we want at least 10 more blue spells and 7 more white spells in 13 slots. You're going to need to make your filler cards more white and blue. This means GG and Culling Scales should probably go. GG I'm fine giving the boot, since it's not really synergistic with Borderposts. Scales is really cool as a redundant Balance effect, though, so maybe that could find a place in a more polished list. So:
-4 Sphinx's Revelation
-4 Misthollow Griffin
-3 Greater Gargadon
-2 Culling Scales
-----------------------------------------
* Read this if you're unfamiliar with the term 'phase' in this context.)
** This is a lowball estimate. The number you actually want may be higher.
It doesn't attack manabases as well as the Borderpost version, but it applies more pressure and attacks the opponent's hand much better. If you need to destroy lands, you can side out the Balances for Boom // Bust. I haven't gotten to test the deck much, though it felt powerful in the games I have played.
My opponent has one creature, and I have one creature. I cast Hands of Binding targeting my opponent's creature. I encode it onto my creature, then attack. The cipher copy of Hands targets my opponent's creature.
My question: How long will my opponent's creature stay tapped? Will it not untap for the next two untap steps, or are the two Hands effects redundant?
Knowledge Pool, Karn Liberated, et al. refer to a variable pool of cards. Cards can be added to the pool at different times, so we need a common modifier ("exiled with blah") to identify which ones the ability affects. Dimensional Breach is different: all of the cards are exiled at once, and cards cannot be added to the pool at any other point. Therefore, no additional common modifier is necessary.
My reading of the ability:
The primary modifier of "exiled cards" is "the," which tells us that we're talking about a specific group of exiled cards. The question is whether this group is defined through the prior phrase "those cards" or through the phrase "he or she owns." It's possible to interpret the card either way, but the latter contradicts the intended purpose of the card, which is clearly to exile a bunch of cards then return them one by one until everything's back to normal. Since you can interpret the card in two ways, we should cleave to the interpretation that fits the card's intended purpose.
That last bit of Sorin's ability isn't relevant here because (a) it's primarily there to talk about where the cards go, not what put them there, and (b) it doesn't need to refer to a previously-defined group of cards; it defines the group in the first place.
Terror of Kruin Pass's blocking restriction overrides Palace Guard's blocking permission. He can't block any of them unless he's also blocking each with another creature.
Let's take a step back from asking which decks this affects and ask which decks would want to play this. Anything running blue in Standard runs Snapcaster Mage, so it's not going in sideboards there. Ramp decks run Green Sun's Zenith, so not there either. Birthing Pod definitely doesn't want it. It doesn't hurt red aggro decks and white aggro decks, but aggro rarely wants a reactive card like this anyway. Unless the format changes drastically, none of the top decks will want to sideboard the card.
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.
You choose modes before you choose targets, so if you cast Red Elemental Blast in "destroy target blue permanent" mode, it can't be redirected to target a spell. If you're using REB to counter a spell, then there's no functional difference between it and Pyroblast when your opponent is packing Misdirection.
Spiritbinder + Aurelia, the Warleader + Radha, Heir to Keld
Spiritbinder + any creature + Breath of Fury + Burning-Tree Emissary
At 2 mana, it messes up our cascades.
Anger of the Gods looks promising if RR is doable and we're worried about stuff like Finks.
Is Slaughter Games really necessary? It doesn't get all of Twin's combo pieces, Storm can side into EtW, and it can't nab Valakut against Scapeshift. Besides, Restore Balance nuking the opponent's hand should be enough to disrupt most combo decks anyway. Leyline of Sanctity seems way better.
This is a really cool angle to tackle the deck from, but it's got a ways to go before it can compete with the Modern metagame.
The primary interactions in the deck are Restore Balance + Borderpost and Pitch Spell + Borderpost. The Balance combo is well-known, and the pitch spell interaction further sweetens the deal. That core feels solid.
The rest of the deck, I think, needs some work. Once you resolve Restore Balance, you want to take advantage of your extra cards. With a Borderpost manabase, those extra cards will be lands. So we're looking to take advantage of a couple extra lands while our opponent reverts to phase 1*. We're looking for cheap, powerful threats. Sphinx's Revelation has to go, as it's antithetical to the core plan of the deck, which involves decreasing our hand size. Misthollow Griffin is a poor threat, fragile and slow.
We also need to take into account the pitch spells. Coldsnap pitches are extremely demanding. You want a lot of (22+)** pitchable spells in each color. There are 15 pitchable white and 12 pitchable blue cards in the core, so we want at least 10 more blue spells and 7 more white spells in 13 slots. You're going to need to make your filler cards more white and blue. This means GG and Culling Scales should probably go. GG I'm fine giving the boot, since it's not really synergistic with Borderposts. Scales is really cool as a redundant Balance effect, though, so maybe that could find a place in a more polished list. So:
-4 Sphinx's Revelation
-4 Misthollow Griffin
-3 Greater Gargadon
-2 Culling Scales
Here are some cards I think you should try out in those last 13 slots:
Geist of Saint Traft
Errant Ephemeron
Ith, High Arcanist
Gideon Jura
Gideon, Champion of Justice
Detention Sphere
Supreme Verdict
and the 4th Restore Balance
-----------------------------------------
* Read this if you're unfamiliar with the term 'phase' in this context.)
** This is a lowball estimate. The number you actually want may be higher.
4 Violent Outburst
4 Ardent Plea
4 Demonic Dread
3 Restore Balance
Suspend 1-drops: 11
4 Greater Gargadon
4 Mindstab
3 Durkwood Baloth
Suspend 2-drops: 11
4 Errant Ephemeron
4 Riftwing Cloudskate
3 Ith, High Arcanist
1 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Forbidden Orchard
4 City of Brass
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Temple Garden
1 Watery Grave
1 Steam Vents
1 Breeding Pool
1 Island
1 Forest
3 Boom // Bust
4 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Beast Within
4 Dismember
It doesn't attack manabases as well as the Borderpost version, but it applies more pressure and attacks the opponent's hand much better. If you need to destroy lands, you can side out the Balances for Boom // Bust. I haven't gotten to test the deck much, though it felt powerful in the games I have played.
My question: How long will my opponent's creature stay tapped? Will it not untap for the next two untap steps, or are the two Hands effects redundant?
My reading of the ability:
The primary modifier of "exiled cards" is "the," which tells us that we're talking about a specific group of exiled cards. The question is whether this group is defined through the prior phrase "those cards" or through the phrase "he or she owns." It's possible to interpret the card either way, but the latter contradicts the intended purpose of the card, which is clearly to exile a bunch of cards then return them one by one until everything's back to normal. Since you can interpret the card in two ways, we should cleave to the interpretation that fits the card's intended purpose.
That last bit of Sorin's ability isn't relevant here because (a) it's primarily there to talk about where the cards go, not what put them there, and (b) it doesn't need to refer to a previously-defined group of cards; it defines the group in the first place.
Edit: 'nathed
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.