Exile your etb creatures, then use Worldslayer to wipe the board.
TDL
★★★★☆ (4.4/5.0)(10 votes)
Considering how important this particular artifact is to the story, it's interesting that it has absolutely no abilities that prevent its destruction. Of course, having any would screw with its in-game functionality, but I find it funny that an artifact that is capable of sealing demons away can be destroyed by any schmuck with a club (Manic Vandal).
SgtSwaggr
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Interseting. I can sense that this card will be immensely powerful soon. Only time will tell!
Play in a demon and angel deck for maximum flavor.
tahunuva
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Awesome in Commander. I could see this maybe getting play as a one-of in slower control sideboards for the mirror match, too; left untouched, it can dominate the board pretty quickly past turn seven.
Lord_of_Tresserhorn
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(2 votes)
I initially read it as all creatures coming back into play under your control. and thought: Not bad...
Now I'm not so happy anymore... :(
Nucleon
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Who wants to bet that Avacyn Restored will feature some sort of Cast From Exile mechanic?
Hayw00d0909
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(7 votes)
Dark Ascension: Mythics you DON'T want, and probably won't get!
win?
Enchantment_Removal
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
@Hayw00d0909:
Yes. I hope that this will have a positive effect on booster sales so that Wizards won't be compelled to go back to their old ways.
@DarthParallax:
Even if the Church of Avacyn was corrupt, to simple-minded people, yes, it would reflect badly on institutions in real life. However, this is yet another example of how every persons' deepest hope is that we- mankind- don't really live in the Magic Multiverse. That would suck.
(Insert card name here) Sorcery:
Put 13 7/7 Black Demon tokens with Flying and Trample onto the battlefield. For the rest of the game, at the beginning of each of your upkeeps, you lose half of your life rounded up.
Ok, maybe the drawback is not severe enough...
001010011100101110
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Reminds me of Tower of Undoing... Hmm, yummy questionable benefits...
ignaeon
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@Nucleon I REALLY hope not. do you know how game breaking that would be? the idea of exile is that it's gone forever unless stated otherwise(this, karn, suspend, etc.). imagine hitting your opponent's bs collosus with an into the core and then they use some card to bring it back. no, that would be bad.
Wizpal
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@htgtmd That doesn't work that way, when Unearthing, if the creature leaves the battlefield, it goes exiled instead.
Great card, if your creatures are going to die, just exile them with . Wait some turns and then POW! flashbacked Ancient Grudge before your turn.
sonorhC
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I can see that it's got great potential, but you're going to need some way to be able to destroy it yourself to make use of the first ability, the second ability doesn't become relevant until the far late game, and it's counterproductive to try to use both.
TPmanW
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Looses something in a set where it's so hard to destroy it. You could conceivably open an entire sealed pool with a Helvault and no way to set it off.
After exiling some of your opponent's good stuff, cast Animate Artifact on it, have it exile itself and seal them away forever.
StoicChampion
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(9 votes)
"Try to imagine, this a high voltage laser containment system. Simply turning them off will be like dropping a bomb on the city. "
-Dr. Egon Spengler
Kwazii
★★★★☆ (4.1/5.0)(7 votes)
Sweet Avacyn and Hella Vault.
StarOutlaw
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Only fun in limited since it only benefits you. Permanent removal late game. Though outside only Wrath/Slaying abilities shenanigans are its home.
As for the story I also would of though it wouldn't be something so wide open and fragile. There should be more demons and devil with the stand alone next set but with it being proabably Sorin to free his angel the weak stuff should be no problem for him.
SERIOUSLY, this is one of the best mythics in this expansion!
I would say the second ability is shit because it costs 7. That's way too much. I LOVE THE FIRST ABILITY.
With 3CMC, you can cast this card at the very beginning of the game. Whenever your creatures are going to die, you just use first ability and exile it before it goes to the graveyard. In other word, you can save a creature from death every turn!!! How isn't this card awesome?
Ways to destroy Helvault are many. One of them is just cast another Helvault and they will destroy themselves cause they are legendary.
I think this card is super fun to play!
pedrodyl
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This makes me think there will be an awesome reanimation spell or two in Avacyn Restored...
Pigfish99
★★★☆☆ (3.7/5.0)(7 votes)
@Kwazii:
F*** I'M FALLING DOWN ALL THESE CARDS I TOLD YOU ABOUT CARDS TIMMY, I TOLD YOU AVACYN!
IT KEEPS HAPPENING!
I TOLD YOU AVACYN, I TOLD YOU ABOUT CARDS
TherealphatMatt
★★★★☆ (4.1/5.0)(5 votes)
I think what people are forgetting is that it's REPEATABLE exile. Sure, if someone pops it, they get their stuff back, but man, how many times have you bumped into a BU control deck sporting artifact removal? I'd happily pay to exile a Grave Titan any day.
That, and this card is just really neat, and it screams combobait. Red decks get a huge kick out of this, turning their cards like Traitorous Blood into a much more deadly threat (and they're pretty darn significant threads already). Green can ramp up to the card's more expensive ability pretty easily, and can otherwise use it as a hideaway to dump a ton of creatures in the late game for an Overrun or something similar.
i'm thinking arcdemon of greed and Thraben Doomsayer and this just to seal him away to finish it off.
poprockmonster
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I got 2 packs to celebrate starting my new job, I got this and a Beguiler of Wills, which work quite well together in the same vein as using a Traitorous Blood or something of the sort. Quite pleased with that serendipity, but overall I think I may find room for this in my Glissa EDH, as being able to repeatedly trigger my ETB abilities or just having a handy way to deal with my opponent's removal or fatties is quite appealing to me.
Phyrexian_Boss
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Really nice, even if you plop your own creatures in it: pop a naturalize when they attack you and profit
Arkh36
★★★★☆ (4.1/5.0)(5 votes)
I've locked down a few games using this; it's very underrated. Most opponents won't waste their artifact removal on it, so you are saving your own creatures from death if you decide to bring them back by destroying the vault yourself later on; or if it's late-game, you're locking down your opponents by exiling each new creach they throw out. I have this and my Karn Liberated for late game win-more conditioning.
Its nice, when they try to spot removal your creatures if you have extra mana you can simply exile them. Later on you get an unmake on a stick at mana. They will be hesitant to pop this thing when its holding your treasures as well.
And if you happen to have a way to sac this thing yourself, then that gives you options.
Crackmore
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
my EDH deck's safety bunker, i stock everything up in my helvault exept for my Animar, Soul of Elements becuse his counter will not be put in the vault, and Omnath, Locus of Mana to keep a stock of mana and then cast Razia's Purification ,saving only the 2 creatures i just named (being not in my helvault) and a Asceticism or something, destroying my helvault releasing whole stock of creatures
ToAsTy42o
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
if there is a use for this card, I am not seeing it. I pulled it from a booster and was all "Holy crap, legendary... artifact..."
and the more i read it, the less useful it seems. 7 mana to exile ONE CREATURE? and if it gets destroyed, they get their stuff back? Why not use the 7 mana for ANYTHING else? Drop an angel/demon/tokens/zombies/ etc. Paramount to the story, yes. Playability? Not really. Use O-Rings.
Lash_of_Dragonbreath
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I might be taking a wild guess, but I think after this blows up in Avacyn Restored we'll have a Rupture Spire reprint that depicts the smoking remnants of this big shiny rock. You know, because Innistrad and Dark Ascension both had a common mana-fixing land reprint, and it would fit very well flavor-wise.
Mirran_Savior
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
For maximum flavor in your store's Avacyn Restored pre-release, take your copy of Helvault & break it with everyone looking at you.
Shadoflaam
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
@TDL
Flavorfully, it isn't inherently protected, Thalia has to muster forces to defend it.
DarthParallax
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(4 votes)
TDL-- this is protected by something far more powerful than Indestructibility or Shroud: Faith.
physically, yes. 'any schmuck with a club' could destroy it. But none would DARE to do so, nor even want to try. Innistrad was a very different world than the one we live in now. Before the Dark Ascension at least, the Helvault was the safest place on Innistrad, because the faith in Avacyn alone was strong enough to command reverance from most of society. And I'm sure the priests kept a careful (though probably simple) watch over the Holy Moonstone to prevent Skirsdag cultists and other beings with evil in their hearts from tampering with the Helvault. When Avacyn was strong, probably two robed clerics bearing living wooden and silver holy symbols would be able to defend it against any possible threat.
I think a lot of people were imagining that Mikaeus, the Lunarch must be evil because we as a modern society today seem to be inherently suspicious of most forms of religion and government, and especially theocracies that bring the two together. As it turned out, I am VERY HAPPY that the Church of Avacyn's 'deep dark secret' wasn't 'turns out all the priests are evil and controlling society but they're really devil worshipers and Avacyn never existed in the first place'. You can't imagine how ***ed the Christian Magic community would have been over that.
10 bucks says 100 demons get freed in Avacyn Restored because you can't let her out without them too....
EDIT! Avacyn, Angel of Hope somewhat predictably wants to combo with this pretty badly. Getting her into the Helvault is going to be tricky, but not undoable. Definitely will be interesting to see how viable this card becomes in EDH. Avacyn can do the job of a PLANESWALKER, Elspeth Knight-Errant, in Kaalia. Actually, she can do the job of Elspeth AND Lightning Greaves, since in Kaalia costing no mana puts it on-par with Lightning Greaves' speed, starting turn 4 in avg. decks, turn 3 in great decks. If you can reliably cast Kaalia on turn 2 in Commander, I don't want to play with you. (I suppose a Sol Ring, a Dual Land, and a Signet on Turn 1 might do it.)
There is no doubt that, even before Avacyn, there were plenty of ETB Super Bombs you'd love to tuck away into this thing. However, there is a fairly good chance that Avacyn Restored will gives us at least one, maybe even a pretty handful, of 'support' cards for Helvault. 'Support' cards could loosely be interpreted as 'anything good with exile', OR 'Something that actually helps us make easier to pay'. We're only likely to get 1 card of that second kind, if any. But we might get one, and if we do, Helvault is going to go up a lot in play value, maybe as much as 1.8 more stars on Gatherer?
Lyriq
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(7 votes)
Is it silly that one of the most reliable ways to deal with the newly revealed Avacyn in the Innistrad Block is to throw her back in the Helvault?
destroytargetplayer
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Huzzah, my army will rejoice for with the power of this ancient stone we can cheat death itself!
I just hope it's not too crowded in there.
Grislebrand? Never heard of him.
Viltris
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(3 votes)
This card is a Limited bomb. Sure it takes a while to come online, but once it does, you can keep your opponent off the board. And if they play a critter that's not threatening enough to remove, you have some breathing room to play your own guys. Sure, it's vulnerable to artifact destruction, but outside of Mirrodin, artifact destruction doesn't happen very often.
Everyone's so hyper-focused on building crazy combos with the first and third abilities that they forget that the second ability is straight-forward, easy to use, and just wrecks your opponent.
This thing wins me games. Early game, shoot stuff down. Midgame, steal their creatures and exile them or Fling them. Late game, exile every creature they play and shoot them with Lava Axes and Brimstone Volleys.
Now that the Helvault has been opened, we finally know what was in it. Commander-sized versions of Avacyn Restored's legendary angels and Griselbrand, lots of Angel and Demon tokens, dice (who here reads 5-Color Control?), Foils, and a kitten named Arrow.
The_Somnambulist
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
I think it could be very nice to combo with Worldslayer. Especially for my mono white where after I'm done casting spells and drawing cards with Mentor of the Meek, I usually have at least 1 mana left over that could be easily devoted to using the Helvault, and helps me get a land drop almost every turn. So just exile your own creatures, pull a ninja move with Worldslayer (especially in multiplayer), and watch everyone stare at your army in horror. :) Practically insta-win as long as you can hit someone with the Slayer, particularly after casting something like Divine Reckoning or maybe better Day of Judgement after having some Angelic Overseers survive the nuke.
Edit: With the new Avacyn, Angel of Hope You can just use her with Worldslayer and use the Helvault as a means to make an opponent vulnerable to attack or maybe just blow up everyone's creatures with Day of Judgement after Avacyn hits the table and forget the Helvault altogether.
Tokosan
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
for that much mana, it should be able to exile any permanant
Bogmire
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Five stars for flavor alone. Never mind that it's pretty amazing regardless.
EmptyPockets
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I think people might be underestimating this card. Saving Grasp See the similarity? But wait, there's more! Not only does this card not go to your graveyard, but it also allows you to "respawn" all your monsters in to combat at once with a simple Naturalize, or similar spell, without having to pay for anything but the spell used to destroy it.
If you've been using its , then it can make a great blocker with something like March of the Machines
mirosith
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
My favorite game of MTG game involved a suicidal Helvault. I was playing my friends's UB Artifacts and he played Helvault. His Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas turned it into a 5/5. I Followed Footsteps it for the revenge of getting all my creatures exiled. Then my friend just decided to kill the Helvault with it's own exile ability before I got any tokens. The other part of the game included my Baneslayer being locked into an Oblivion Ring, and two different Helvauts over the same game before finally dying to a Helvault that was exiled with Oblivion Ring.
If you have any Problems with any Eldrazi Titans (i.e. Emrakul, the Aeons Torn ,Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre , Kozilek, Butcher of Truth), have Leyline of Anticipation ready with 10 lands (3 for entry and 7 seven for targeted creauture) and Helvualt yourself to safety (concerning Emrakul, the Aeons Torn Ulamog it has "protection from COLORED spells" (emphasised added) and last Iast I checked, Helvault is COLORLESS, y'all understand what I'm implying?). And in the event your opponent has promblems with you special vualt and tries to close it down, Gather Specimens, the Cloud Cover with Leyline of Anticipation combo, or Captain of the Mists should cause you to get some good Ideas.
So does this work with unearth creatures? If so this is great.
I mean I like it anyway because it means I can chump block with non-token weenies without losing them forever (ideally with ETB effects). Or exiling targets of removal before it resolves. And you can use it to save your favorite creature when you are about to play a wrath of God effect. Also, when you get enough mana this this is repeatable exile for your opponents creatures as well, and, since your opponent is interested in getting his fatties out again, he'll probably want to destroy the vault, unleashing your horde again as a nice consolation.
I think it's great. Good in white weenie in general and great for combo players. I think it's awesome with green mana-ramp too. Green doesn't often get unqualified removal. This will be a boon to the color just like steel hellkite was.
JimmyNoobPlayer
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
In the Avacyn Restored storyline, Liliana attacked the Helvault, and Thalia gathered her soldiers to defend it. Liliana paralyzed her army and would have killed them if Thalia didn't allow her to destroy the Helvault. Thalia grudgingly allowed it, and as a result we have Avacyn, Angel of Hope and Griselbrand in the world.
Am I the only one who sees the plot hole? Liliana had the power to kill an army, and she didn't. She had the power to destroy the Helvault, and she waited for Thalia to allow her. Why only one or the other? It seems there is something missing... maybe the scrapped Forbidden mechanic? I bet in early versions of the story Liliana used an enchantment like this on the Vault:
Cruel Choice Enchantment - Aura Enchant Permanent Forbidden- If the controller of enchanted permanent declares any creatures as blockers, sacrifice enchanted permanent. Although that seems pretty weak. I'm not a good card designer.
@Axelle: Whoops, I missed that. I was hoping I had guessed the nature of Forbidden, but it was just a regular old black planeswalker spell like Do or Die.
Thorwizard
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Pair this with worldslayer exile your own creatures then swing with tormented soul (equipped with worldslayer)
Dragonshoredreamz
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Whoever thought up the idea for this card is a genius!
To think you have the option of repeatable exile PLUS the option of loading in your own creatures PLUS the option of saving your own creatures if an opponent tries to get rid of them or take control, etc or if you are going to cast some form of mass removal. This card is great. So much potential.
Awesome artwork as well.
NARFNra
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
What if you played an ally deck, and scooped up some of your allies on turns you didn't need them? Then, a few turns later, you Reprocess it or something, all your allies come in and activate their abilities at once, and then swing for the win?
O0oze
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
a3kitsune: "My store's Helvault didn't have any foils in it! what a ripoff!" salient: wispmare destroys enchantments. helvault's an artifast.
canbe useful in certain combos, i suppose. ain't lovin' it.
Grakling
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
The best part, in my opinion, is that its third ability triggers on going to the graveyard, not leaving the battlefield. Want to ensure the stuff you exile never comes back? Slap down a March of the Machines and have it exile itself.
IDEAL
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I use this as some solid removal in my Karn, Silver Golem EDH and I noticed a fun interaction: Exile your opponents' stuff with Helvault, and then make Helvault a creature with Karn and Exile Helvault with Helvault. It doesn't go to the graveyard, their stuff doesn't come back. Also the flavour of putting the Helvault inside itself is hilarious.
Comments (72)
Now I'm not so happy anymore... :(
win?
Yes. I hope that this will have a positive effect on booster sales so that Wizards won't be compelled to go back to their old ways.
@DarthParallax:
Even if the Church of Avacyn was corrupt, to simple-minded people, yes, it would reflect badly on institutions in real life. However, this is yet another example of how every persons' deepest hope is that we- mankind- don't really live in the Magic Multiverse. That would suck.
(Insert card name here)
Sorcery:
Put 13 7/7 Black Demon tokens with Flying and Trample onto the battlefield. For the rest of the game, at the beginning of each of your upkeeps, you lose half of your life rounded up.
Ok, maybe the drawback is not severe enough...
That doesn't work that way, when Unearthing, if the creature leaves the battlefield, it goes exiled instead.
Great card, if your creatures are going to die, just exile them with
After exiling some of your opponent's good stuff, cast Animate Artifact on it, have it exile itself and seal them away forever.
-Dr. Egon Spengler
As for the story I also would of though it wouldn't be something so wide open and fragile. There should be more demons and devil with the stand alone next set but with it being proabably Sorin to free his angel the weak stuff should be no problem for him.
Not only does my opponent permanently lose a creature to Fiend Hunter because of stack manipulation, Helvault brings it back for an encore.
Reminds me of Safe Haven... too bad you can't sacrifice Helvault whenever you want.
I would say the second ability is shit because it costs 7. That's way too much. I LOVE THE FIRST ABILITY.
With 3CMC, you can cast this card at the very beginning of the game. Whenever your creatures are going to die, you just use first ability and exile it before it goes to the graveyard. In other word, you can save a creature from death every turn!!! How isn't this card awesome?
Ways to destroy Helvault are many. One of them is just cast another Helvault and they will destroy themselves cause they are legendary.
I think this card is super fun to play!
F*** I'M FALLING DOWN ALL THESE CARDS
I TOLD YOU ABOUT CARDS TIMMY, I TOLD YOU AVACYN!
IT KEEPS HAPPENING!
I TOLD YOU AVACYN, I TOLD YOU ABOUT CARDS
That, and this card is just really neat, and it screams combobait. Red decks get a huge kick out of this, turning their cards like Traitorous Blood into a much more deadly threat (and they're pretty darn significant threads already). Green can ramp up to the card's more expensive ability pretty easily, and can otherwise use it as a hideaway to dump a ton of creatures in the late game for an Overrun or something similar.
-Winston Zeddmore
"INTO THE HELLLLLLLLLLLLVAULT, FOUL BEAST!!!!!"
And if you happen to have a way to sac this thing yourself, then that gives you options.
and the more i read it, the less useful it seems. 7 mana to exile ONE CREATURE? and if it gets destroyed, they get their stuff back? Why not use the 7 mana for ANYTHING else? Drop an angel/demon/tokens/zombies/ etc. Paramount to the story, yes. Playability? Not really. Use O-Rings.
You know, because Innistrad and Dark Ascension both had a common mana-fixing land reprint, and it would fit very well flavor-wise.
Flavorfully, it isn't inherently protected, Thalia has to muster forces to defend it.
physically, yes. 'any schmuck with a club' could destroy it. But none would DARE to do so, nor even want to try. Innistrad was a very different world than the one we live in now. Before the Dark Ascension at least, the Helvault was the safest place on Innistrad, because the faith in Avacyn alone was strong enough to command reverance from most of society. And I'm sure the priests kept a careful (though probably simple) watch over the Holy Moonstone to prevent Skirsdag cultists and other beings with evil in their hearts from tampering with the Helvault. When Avacyn was strong, probably two robed clerics bearing living wooden and silver holy symbols would be able to defend it against any possible threat.
I think a lot of people were imagining that Mikaeus, the Lunarch must be evil because we as a modern society today seem to be inherently suspicious of most forms of religion and government, and especially theocracies that bring the two together. As it turned out, I am VERY HAPPY that the Church of Avacyn's 'deep dark secret' wasn't 'turns out all the priests are evil and controlling society but they're really devil worshipers and Avacyn never existed in the first place'. You can't imagine how ***ed the Christian Magic community would have been over that.
10 bucks says 100 demons get freed in Avacyn Restored because you can't let her out without them too....
EDIT! Avacyn, Angel of Hope somewhat predictably wants to combo with this pretty badly. Getting her into the Helvault is going to be tricky, but not undoable. Definitely will be interesting to see how viable this card becomes in EDH. Avacyn can do the job of a PLANESWALKER, Elspeth Knight-Errant, in Kaalia. Actually, she can do the job of Elspeth AND Lightning Greaves, since in Kaalia costing no mana puts it on-par with Lightning Greaves' speed, starting turn 4 in avg. decks, turn 3 in great decks. If you can reliably cast Kaalia on turn 2 in Commander, I don't want to play with you. (I suppose a Sol Ring, a Dual Land, and a Signet on Turn 1 might do it.)
There is no doubt that, even before Avacyn, there were plenty of ETB Super Bombs you'd love to tuck away into this thing. However, there is a fairly good chance that Avacyn Restored will gives us at least one, maybe even a pretty handful, of 'support' cards for Helvault. 'Support' cards could loosely be interpreted as 'anything good with exile', OR 'Something that actually helps us make
We're only likely to get 1 card of that second kind, if any. But we might get one, and if we do, Helvault is going to go up a lot in play value, maybe as much as 1.8 more stars on Gatherer?
I just hope it's not too crowded in there.
Grislebrand? Never heard of him.
Everyone's so hyper-focused on building crazy combos with the first and third abilities that they forget that the second ability is straight-forward, easy to use, and just wrecks your opponent.
And I can't wait to seal Avacyn, Angel of Hope back into the Helvault.
Edit: With the new Avacyn, Angel of Hope You can just use her with Worldslayer and use the Helvault as a means to make an opponent vulnerable to attack or maybe just blow up everyone's creatures with Day of Judgement after Avacyn hits the table and forget the Helvault altogether.
Never mind that it's pretty amazing regardless.
Saving Grasp
See the similarity? But wait, there's more! Not only does this card not go to your graveyard, but it also allows you to "respawn" all your monsters in to combat at once with a simple Naturalize, or similar spell, without having to pay for anything but the spell used to destroy it.
You want to exile my Avacyn, Angel of Hope since you can't get rid of it any other way? Lolnope, Helvault, Naturalize.
If you've been using its
The other part of the game included my Baneslayer being locked into an Oblivion Ring, and two different Helvauts over the same game before finally dying to a Helvault that was exiled with Oblivion Ring.
Adam: "Okay, the double enters-the-battlefield thing is right, but that's not how Archon of Justice works, Helvault doesn't make it die."
Julie: "I know!" (she's grinning)
Adam: o_O "Why are you exiling all your creatures?"
Julie: "Setting up for Akroma's Vengeance."
Adam: *counting Julie's lands* ... "****ing god. Go."
Julie: Armageddon XD
Best. Bluff. Ever. A Wispmare rescued the Archon and friends a couple turns later.
I mean I like it anyway because it means I can chump block with non-token weenies without losing them forever (ideally with ETB effects). Or exiling targets of removal before it resolves. And you can use it to save your favorite creature when you are about to play a wrath of God effect. Also, when you get enough mana this this is repeatable exile for your opponents creatures as well, and, since your opponent is interested in getting his fatties out again, he'll probably want to destroy the vault, unleashing your horde again as a nice consolation.
I think it's great. Good in white weenie in general and great for combo players. I think it's awesome with green mana-ramp too. Green doesn't often get unqualified removal. This will be a boon to the color just like steel hellkite was.
Am I the only one who sees the plot hole? Liliana had the power to kill an army, and she didn't. She had the power to destroy the Helvault, and she waited for Thalia to allow her. Why only one or the other? It seems there is something missing... maybe the scrapped Forbidden mechanic? I bet in early versions of the story Liliana used an enchantment like this on the Vault:
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Permanent
Forbidden- If the controller of enchanted permanent declares any creatures as blockers, sacrifice enchanted permanent.
Although that seems pretty weak. I'm not a good card designer.
@Axelle: Whoops, I missed that. I was hoping I had guessed the nature of Forbidden, but it was just a regular old black planeswalker spell like Do or Die.
To think you have the option of repeatable exile PLUS the option of loading in your own creatures PLUS the option of saving your own creatures if an opponent tries to get rid of them or take control, etc or if you are going to cast some form of mass removal. This card is great. So much potential.
Awesome artwork as well.
salient: wispmare destroys enchantments. helvault's an artifast.
canbe useful in certain combos, i suppose. ain't lovin' it.
Exile your opponents' stuff with Helvault, and then make Helvault a creature with Karn and Exile Helvault with Helvault. It doesn't go to the graveyard, their stuff doesn't come back. Also the flavour of putting the Helvault inside itself is hilarious.