Spoils of the Vault – Mirrodin rare. This week's Cards of the Day have been a diabolical five-card combo: Start by casting Barren Glory and then immediately exile it with Oblivion Ring. Then, with Lich's Mirror on the battlefield, cast One With Nothing during the previous player's end step and respond with Spoils of the Vault for a card not in your library. When the smoke clears, you'll have Barren Glory on the battlefield, a life total of 20, and no cards in your hand or library!
I had an epic loss using this card. I forgot that I only had 2 copies something in my deck. I cast Spoils of the Vault on the 3rd turn and milled myself to death because the copies I was looking for were 40th and 47th in the deck!
Hilarious loss and something I have learned from!
Sswift
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(6 votes)
Easy first turn loss!
GrimjawxRULES
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Wait a second; when you copy a spell, you copy all choices made with that spell right?? Does that mean that you can kill people with Spoils of the Vault + Hive Mind when naming a card that your opponents doesn't have?? If so, all you have to do is to have more life than your opponents and then kill everybody with this.
Someone please respond to this :)
channelblaze
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(3 votes)
grimjawxRULES: Sorry, there are no choices made in the spell before this one resolves. You name a card on resolution. This means your opponent will have to name a card, but they can pick what to name. So if they're idiots and pick a card not in their deck, then yes, you win. Otherwise, sorry =(
SkyknightXi
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Basically Demonic Consultation with a different poison. As Pantheon pointed out, the risk with Spoils is that the card is so deep in that you'll suffer fatal damage. With Consultation, the risk is that all your copies got removed from the library with the initial six (so again, this isn't something you want to try if you only have one or two copies of the target still in your library), and thus you'll mill yourself out of the game with nothing to show for it.
Salient
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Greatly improved upon with Ad Nauseam, but for a card of your choice *might* be worth quite a bit of life.
If you cast a weak Tendrils of Agony and have mana to spare, you can Spoils for another Tendrils, and you'll probably survive the life loss.
DacenOctavio
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
This is a situationally good digging spell. It's obviously much more powerful in a format where you start with more than 20 life. It's only real use is in combo decks. But the risk of burning/milling yourself to death to find the named card is often not one a player is willling to take. It's everything a black card should be; the Preordain from Hell.
j_mindfingerpainter
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
I didn't know it, but I've been looking for this card for a while now. Consider Death's Shadow. Now you know why. In the right deck, this is auto 5/5.
SadSushi
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
In a multi-colored deck or in a bad draw situation, I see this as a great way to find that land you're looking for. You run a substantially lower risk of milling yourself to death being that you usually run more of hose cards than others.
blurrymadness
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Not a bad way to fetch a finisher; especially if that's a life leech effect. Nab that devouring greed, hit the opponent for 12, gain 12 of your life back (or whatever) and finish out the game.
Cyberium
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Great power at great risk, black cards in the old days have more dare than today's new ones.
Mode
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Masochists can name a card that isn't in their library.
DrJack: Your conclusion "At some point, life does matter" is correct, but your proof is terrible. Life matters in a few situations:
1. You are playing against an Aggressive Red player (it matters even more if you are running Fetches and Pain lands)
2. You are playing Felidar Sovereign, or Soul Sisters or any variant thereof (like Wellwisher) and Life makes your cards better (Serra Asendant)
3. You are playing "Midrange Meats 'n' Beats" (Baneslayer Angel, Thragtusk, and/or Huntmaster of the Fells) where your win-condition is to gain Life faster than a Burn deck can take it away, while dealing average points of damage a turn. Nearly always have to use Lifelink keyword cards, although two of those cards happen to gain life differently.
4. You are playing Multiplayer Magic, in which case it matters as much as a New Player would *expect* It to matter, because it behaves more like an HP bar: more players become like a whole dungeon full of monsters, and paying and gaining life has to be timed well, since the monsters are SMART and can SEE your life total and use that information to make decisions.
BUT
1. Sorrow's Path is the worst card in the game. The advantages of Paying Life are that you can win FAST. The conditions under which Paying Life is unacceptable are when you can NOT pay enough life to win the game, and if you have, say, 100 Life in a 200 card deck, you have no business NOT Spirit Bombing yourself into a Channel or a Necropotence. Sorrow's Path is just way too slow to pull off the life payment plan.
2. Greed is Good. it's like a mini balanced (read: nerfed) Necropotence. They put it on Erebos, God of the Dead because any more powerful a conversion of life to cards would be too good, but this is still balanced AND strong. Essentially, Sign in Blood is the most that Standard should ever be allowed to have anyway.
3. I'm very surprised Griselbrand isn't banned in more formats. Apparently Black Creatures are a lot more killable than they were back in the day.
4. Spoils of the Vault is not nearly as good as Demonic Consultation in my opinion, because people have just plain figured out Sligh and Tempo in general, so if the two cards are nearly equal, I'm picking the one that costs me less life, and I would run Demonic Tutor or Vampiric Tutor instead of either of them, BUT, these cards were heavily used in Tournaments partly exactly because Demonic Tutor rotated.
5. "Risking my life to WIN, and doing something I KNOW will lead to my death, are two very different things." - L
Sorrow's Path isn't worth the trade, the rest of them all are.
"Choose two target blocking creatures an opponent controls." The answer is to just Not Block.
Know how many Creatureless or nearly Creatureless decks do well in Legacy/Vintage? Blue says a Lot. Know how many Green and Red based Creature decks will Never Block because they'll be too busy giving you damage?
@ DarthParallax... my use of Sorrow's Path as a case example was tongue-in-cheeck. ;-)
Nevertheless, my opinion on Spoils of the Vault stands. The substantial risk of instant game loss just to pull out one combo piece makes it a fairly dubious venture. Demonic Consultation was a powerful card with just the right amount of risk.
As for my philosophy on life totals: Since the entire object of Magic: the Gathering is to bring your opponent below 1 life, while preventing your opponent from doing the same to you... I would say life matters one hell of a lot. I suppose life totals are not so relevant in Cutthroat Vintage, where the object is to tutor up your cheesy 2-card instant death combo while using Force of Will to stop your opponent's cheesy 2-card instant death combo.
About the Worst Card Ever..., I'd say Tahngarth's Glare and Icatian Moneychanger both have Sorrow's Path beat in that department. Break Open and Cocoon also come very close. Hey, at least Sorrow's Path has some nifty combos if you can give it to your opponent (can even be devastating against many decks!)
Anyway, here is original comment...
Across this website, life gain cards are all rated with a strongly negative bias, and cards that make you pay life are slanted the other way. The mentality around here is that no amount of life is too much if it helps you win the game a tiny bit faster. Of course, Sorrow's Path should be a rockin' card then, because you'd play with creatures that have toughness > 2 anyway, and who cares if you get dinged for 2 damage now and then? You guys should rename Sorrow's Path to the Happy Hunting Grounds.
Hey, if you want to pay an exhorbinant amount of life in exchange for cards, use Greed. For 5 mana, you get 5 whole cards in your hand, in exchange for just 10 life. Spoils of the Vault is likely to take away *at least* 10 just for one card. At some point, life does matter, even in Magic: the Gathering.
Comments (17)
Hilarious loss and something I have learned from!
Someone please respond to this :)
If you cast a weak Tendrils of Agony and have mana to spare, you can Spoils for another Tendrils, and you'll probably survive the life loss.
"PAIN! SUFFERING!!"
1. You are playing against an Aggressive Red player (it matters even more if you are running Fetches and Pain lands)
2. You are playing Felidar Sovereign, or Soul Sisters or any variant thereof (like Wellwisher) and Life makes your cards better (Serra Asendant)
3. You are playing "Midrange Meats 'n' Beats" (Baneslayer Angel, Thragtusk, and/or Huntmaster of the Fells) where your win-condition is to gain Life faster than a Burn deck can take it away, while dealing average points of damage a turn. Nearly always have to use Lifelink keyword cards, although two of those cards happen to gain life differently.
4. You are playing Multiplayer Magic, in which case it matters as much as a New Player would *expect* It to matter, because it behaves more like an HP bar: more players become like a whole dungeon full of monsters, and paying and gaining life has to be timed well, since the monsters are SMART and can SEE your life total and use that information to make decisions.
BUT
1. Sorrow's Path is the worst card in the game. The advantages of Paying Life are that you can win FAST. The conditions under which Paying Life is unacceptable are when you can NOT pay enough life to win the game, and if you have, say, 100 Life in a 200 card deck, you have no business NOT Spirit Bombing yourself into a Channel or a Necropotence. Sorrow's Path is just way too slow to pull off the life payment plan.
2. Greed is Good. it's like a mini balanced (read: nerfed) Necropotence. They put it on Erebos, God of the Dead because any more powerful a conversion of life to cards would be too good, but this is still balanced AND strong. Essentially, Sign in Blood is the most that Standard should ever be allowed to have anyway.
3. I'm very surprised Griselbrand isn't banned in more formats. Apparently Black Creatures are a lot more killable than they were back in the day.
4. Spoils of the Vault is not nearly as good as Demonic Consultation in my opinion, because people have just plain figured out Sligh and Tempo in general, so if the two cards are nearly equal, I'm picking the one that costs me less life, and I would run Demonic Tutor or Vampiric Tutor instead of either of them, BUT, these cards were heavily used in Tournaments partly exactly because Demonic Tutor rotated.
5. "Risking my life to WIN, and doing something I KNOW will lead to my death, are two very different things." - L
Sorrow's Path isn't worth the trade, the rest of them all are.
"Choose two target blocking creatures an opponent controls."
The answer is to just Not Block.
Know how many Creatureless or nearly Creatureless decks do well in Legacy/Vintage? Blue says a Lot.
Know how many Green and Red based Creature decks will Never Block because they'll be too busy giving you damage?
The situation where Sorrow's Path can even be activated at all is not one you'll find where things like Survival of the Fittest and Land Tax and Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Blood Moon and all those good stuff roam free.
Nevertheless, my opinion on Spoils of the Vault stands. The substantial risk of instant game loss just to pull out one combo piece makes it a fairly dubious venture. Demonic Consultation was a powerful card with just the right amount of risk.
As for my philosophy on life totals: Since the entire object of Magic: the Gathering is to bring your opponent below 1 life, while preventing your opponent from doing the same to you... I would say life matters one hell of a lot. I suppose life totals are not so relevant in Cutthroat Vintage, where the object is to tutor up your cheesy 2-card instant death combo while using Force of Will to stop your opponent's cheesy 2-card instant death combo.
About the Worst Card Ever..., I'd say Tahngarth's Glare and Icatian Moneychanger both have Sorrow's Path beat in that department. Break Open and Cocoon also come very close. Hey, at least Sorrow's Path has some nifty combos if you can give it to your opponent (can even be devastating against many decks!)
Anyway, here is original comment...
Across this website, life gain cards are all rated with a strongly negative bias, and cards that make you pay life are slanted the other way. The mentality around here is that no amount of life is too much if it helps you win the game a tiny bit faster. Of course, Sorrow's Path should be a rockin' card then, because you'd play with creatures that have toughness > 2 anyway, and who cares if you get dinged for 2 damage now and then? You guys should rename Sorrow's Path to the Happy Hunting Grounds.
Hey, if you want to pay an exhorbinant amount of life in exchange for cards, use Greed. For 5 mana, you get 5 whole cards in your hand, in exchange for just 10 life. Spoils of the Vault is likely to take away *at least* 10 just for one card. At some point, life does matter, even in Magic: the Gathering.