Yawgmoth's Will is one of the most powerful cards for constructed Magic that was ever printed. How does it stack up in cube though? Is it a real bomb or is it a bit underwhelming? Well, it depends...
Let's look at what the card does, first. It allows you to play cards from your graveyard (again). There are a few other cards that do that, too. Regrowth, for example. Regrowth is a staple in cube, while Recollect is not. Will costs as much as Recollect: Two colorless and a colored mana. The big advantage is that Will allows you to recur multiple cards at once. However, this advantage comes at two costs, both stemming from the fact that you have to play the cards that you want to reuse right away:
1. You cannot use Will on reactive cards like counter spells or cards that might come in handy in future turns.
2. Most of the time, the nonland cards that you recur will be cheap (which often means small) cards.
To get the most out of Will, you must either have a lot of mana or some cheap cards which have a great cost to effect ratio. The first can be achieved by slower decks: Control decks or even dedicated ramp decks. Aggro decks usually want to win the game before reaching six mana, so they don't really work with the “lots of mana” plan. And the slower decks have a problem with that plan, too: Their best spells are very expensive, so that your Will either becomes nothing but a Recollect for those or only gets a few auxiliary cards. But what about the other plan? How well that one works depends on your cube:
Will is better in smaller cubes
- The concentration of cheap and powerful spells is higher. This means that it is more likely to get a Lightning Bolt instead of a Lightning Bolt knock-off like Searing Spear back – saving 1 in the process, which is very relevant with Will.
- The concentration of fetchlands, Strip Mine and Wasteland is higher, making it more likely to get an easy land recursion from Will.
Will is better in powered cubes
- Moxen, Sol Ring and Black Lotus accelerate your mana, so that you can get a powerful Will turn earlier.
- Moxen, Sol Ring and Black Lotus are also great cards to recur with Will: Not only are they free cards – they actually increase your mana, allowing you to cast more or more powerful spells right away.
- There are some cheap and super powerful cards that you would love to cast twice. Namely Ancestral Recall and Time Walk.
Will is not that great in larger unpowered cubes
In an unpowered cube on the medium to large end of the spectrum (like mine), Will was a bit lackluster. It got two or sometimes three cards back, making it a lot better than the similar costed Recollect. However, those where almost always cheap cards (one or two mana) and when three cards where replayed, one of them was a land most of the time. So while Will undeniably provided card advantage, it only worked on a restricted set of cards. This led the will among my drafters to put Will into their deck fade away to the point where it was no longer played.
In conclusion: If Will is good enough to include depends on your cube. It certainly isn't a bad card in larger unpowered ones, but you will only get the most out of it if your cube is small and powered.
I agree, it's best in a powered 360 where you have access to the cheapest and best spells available, and starts to drop in powerlevel from there. I keep it in my cube still because it's a cool card and can have some nasty plays. I've seen success with it in the modo cube as well. Though I was never the one playing it.
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"And the slower decks have a problem with that plan, too: Their best spells are very expensive, so that your Will either becomes nothing but a Recollect for those or only gets a few auxiliary cards."
The best spells in my control deck can be pretty cheap, e.g. Balance, Ancestral Recall, Time Walk. But I agree with your main point: Yawg Will is best in a small, powered cube. It is fine in my powered 450, and occasionally broken.
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Will was actually better for us at 450 powered than 360 powered, and we're not sure why. The theory points to it being better at 360, but it was the 24th or 25th card more often than not when we trimmed down.
We played it at 540 and 720 powered and it was worse there than at 450 or 360.
I've actually seen it played with some success in aggro decks, using it as a curve topper that let's you rebuy your burn spells can be pretty crazy. Five mana will, bolt, chain lightning is usually enough to get there.
Also Will loves cheap hand disruption cards, getting Thoughtsieze'd, into Inquisition'd, and then it happening again is downright brutal.
I agree with Star slayer's analysis. I run it still in 600 - I certainly have the space, no storm tho. If built the deck is drafted/built with will in mind, it can certainly be good value or insane.
I adore this card. Even when it's at it's minimum, it's usually used for 5 or 6 mana to replay a few efficient cheap spells/creatures in the mid-game. Extra points for snagging an extra fetchland or strip/waste with it.
And in a big mana deck with a lot of cards that "break" it (ritual, lotus, ancestral, walk ...stuff like that) it can just be insane.
I never was interested in this card when I had an unpower cube. Now, I'm pretty interested in it. It just looks like there could be so much potential. I already plan to spend $600 on some other card games this october, though. So it'll have to wait until after new year.
I don't see this card crop up often (at 630, when you only draft with about 6 people on average, you don't see a lot of cards often) but when I do it works a lot like the way Grapefruit and wtwlf said. I'm happy to see it when I do and no one has ever come to me and said "this card sucks", which is my barometer for when I should consider dropping a card.
New drafters identify this as a storm support card when drafting, and I don't want to add in too many signposts that can lead drafters down the wrong path during the draft if it's an archetype I don't support. It's a great card though (even on its own merits outside of storm) and it's always on my watch list to bring back in.
Yawgmoth's Will is still a top pick in my cube. I do run Storm though, but like wtwlf said, the card is serviceable outside of it as well. Agree that it can mislead people into Storm if you don't support it and still run the card.
I cut it because it simply fell out of favor with my group. It was a constant under performer in the average black deck that gets played around here and began to sit in a lot of sideboards. It was included in a lot of decks after we initially added it, though. I think that was out of nostalgia more than anything else because we all played when Saga was released.
So far it has not lead to great plays. It has returned one or two cards (removal spell or an animate spell)
It is definitely not combo broken, but it is a good utility card like Regrowth.
I am maintaining it in my unpowered 450 because it gives black ways to recur non creature spells.
I think on average it's gonna have you play at least 2 cards to get some sort of value. However, if it's something like playing 2 creatures off of Yawgwill, it might put people off for its turns-costs ratio. I guess it works better in big mana environments like EDH/EDH Cube.
Time has come and gone, and this card was largely forgotten in cube.
However, with the mana curve getting ever leaner, and with more discard, burn, efficient removal, and broken bombs like Oko, I think this card might be interesting to look upon again, especially for black decks that discard things.
Black is very powerful early game but loses the card advantage fight mid and late. Only recently we've gotten some decent 5 drops for black, and even then they are nowhere near the power that green or red 5s offer. But if you untap with 5 mana and Will, you have probably played a minimum of two cards, and maybe a fetch. So that's an average case of 2.5 for 1, which ain't half bad.
This card also slots well into draw 7 decks as a backup plan for the cards you dumped for Wheel of Fortune, if you don't draw your Hullbreacher.
Time has come and gone, and this card was largely forgotten in cube.
However, with the mana curve getting ever leaner, and with more discard, burn, efficient removal, and broken bombs like Oko, I think this card might be interesting to look upon again, especially for black decks that discard things.
Black is very powerful early game but loses the card advantage fight mid and late. Only recently we've gotten some decent 5 drops for black, and even then they are nowhere near the power that green or red 5s offer. But if you untap with 5 mana and Will, you have probably played a minimum of two cards, and maybe a fetch. So that's an average case of 2.5 for 1, which ain't half bad.
This card also slots well into draw 7 decks as a backup plan for the cards you dumped for Wheel of Fortune, if you don't draw your Hullbreacher.
My experience if storm is possible, people will draft storm. The reason I have Mirroed Lotus and Grapeshot in my cube is to reduce the number of failed storm decks because people love drafting this so much.
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Yawgmoth's Will is one of the most powerful cards for constructed Magic that was ever printed. How does it stack up in cube though? Is it a real bomb or is it a bit underwhelming? Well, it depends...
Let's look at what the card does, first. It allows you to play cards from your graveyard (again). There are a few other cards that do that, too. Regrowth, for example. Regrowth is a staple in cube, while Recollect is not. Will costs as much as Recollect: Two colorless and a colored mana. The big advantage is that Will allows you to recur multiple cards at once. However, this advantage comes at two costs, both stemming from the fact that you have to play the cards that you want to reuse right away:
1. You cannot use Will on reactive cards like counter spells or cards that might come in handy in future turns.
2. Most of the time, the nonland cards that you recur will be cheap (which often means small) cards.
To get the most out of Will, you must either have a lot of mana or some cheap cards which have a great cost to effect ratio. The first can be achieved by slower decks: Control decks or even dedicated ramp decks. Aggro decks usually want to win the game before reaching six mana, so they don't really work with the “lots of mana” plan. And the slower decks have a problem with that plan, too: Their best spells are very expensive, so that your Will either becomes nothing but a Recollect for those or only gets a few auxiliary cards. But what about the other plan? How well that one works depends on your cube:
Will is better in smaller cubes
- The concentration of cheap and powerful spells is higher. This means that it is more likely to get a Lightning Bolt instead of a Lightning Bolt knock-off like Searing Spear back – saving 1 in the process, which is very relevant with Will.
- The concentration of fetchlands, Strip Mine and Wasteland is higher, making it more likely to get an easy land recursion from Will.
Will is better in powered cubes
- Moxen, Sol Ring and Black Lotus accelerate your mana, so that you can get a powerful Will turn earlier.
- Moxen, Sol Ring and Black Lotus are also great cards to recur with Will: Not only are they free cards – they actually increase your mana, allowing you to cast more or more powerful spells right away.
- There are some cheap and super powerful cards that you would love to cast twice. Namely Ancestral Recall and Time Walk.
Will is not that great in larger unpowered cubes
In an unpowered cube on the medium to large end of the spectrum (like mine), Will was a bit lackluster. It got two or sometimes three cards back, making it a lot better than the similar costed Recollect. However, those where almost always cheap cards (one or two mana) and when three cards where replayed, one of them was a land most of the time. So while Will undeniably provided card advantage, it only worked on a restricted set of cards. This led the will among my drafters to put Will into their deck fade away to the point where it was no longer played.
In conclusion: If Will is good enough to include depends on your cube. It certainly isn't a bad card in larger unpowered ones, but you will only get the most out of it if your cube is small and powered.
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The best spells in my control deck can be pretty cheap, e.g. Balance, Ancestral Recall, Time Walk. But I agree with your main point: Yawg Will is best in a small, powered cube. It is fine in my powered 450, and occasionally broken.
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We played it at 540 and 720 powered and it was worse there than at 450 or 360.
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Also Will loves cheap hand disruption cards, getting Thoughtsieze'd, into Inquisition'd, and then it happening again is downright brutal.
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And in a big mana deck with a lot of cards that "break" it (ritual, lotus, ancestral, walk ...stuff like that) it can just be insane.
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It is definitely not combo broken, but it is a good utility card like Regrowth.
I am maintaining it in my unpowered 450 because it gives black ways to recur non creature spells.
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However, with the mana curve getting ever leaner, and with more discard, burn, efficient removal, and broken bombs like Oko, I think this card might be interesting to look upon again, especially for black decks that discard things.
Black is very powerful early game but loses the card advantage fight mid and late. Only recently we've gotten some decent 5 drops for black, and even then they are nowhere near the power that green or red 5s offer. But if you untap with 5 mana and Will, you have probably played a minimum of two cards, and maybe a fetch. So that's an average case of 2.5 for 1, which ain't half bad.
This card also slots well into draw 7 decks as a backup plan for the cards you dumped for Wheel of Fortune, if you don't draw your Hullbreacher.
What do you guys think?
The consensus with cards such as Yawgmoth's Will/ Mind's Desire and to a lesser extent Dark Ritual/Seething Song/Frantic Search/Time Spiral is you can make an argument they are all playable in a non-storm environment, but they sign post storm and can lead drafters down incorrect lanes.
My experience if storm is possible, people will draft storm. The reason I have Mirroed Lotus and Grapeshot in my cube is to reduce the number of failed storm decks because people love drafting this so much.
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Here are some other articles I've written about fine tuning your cube:
1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
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