Walk-In Closet // Forgotten Cellar
– Duskmourn
Date Reviewed: October 2, 2024
Ratings:
Constructed:
Casual:
Limited:
Multiplayer:
Commander [EDH]:
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
You’d probably play a three-mana enchantment that let you play lands from your graveyard. That’s the same cost as Crucible of Worlds, which has been a casual all-star for twenty years at this point, and green has basically all the best ways to abuse that ability. When it comes with a one-turn upgrade for one of the most powerful abilities in Magic – it’s even proscribed in Australian Highlander – you have the makings of a real power card. It requires a lot of investment in mana, and often in a way that telegraphs what you’re going to do: your opponent/s can’t interact well with Gaea’s Will, but if you activate the rooms in the order of their cost, they’ll have at least a turn or two to try and get rid of the card. When you do set it off, though, you should pretty much always win the game (cf. Underworld Breach), and people will accordingly know when they have to stop you, so be prepared!
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 4
Limited: 3
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 3.5
Here to sell the idea of “haunted house”, Room enchantments are a sort of take on split cards, albeit with a twist. Yoou get one half on casting and can basically “cast” the other half later, though the unlocking of the second half is not a spell (but an activated ability). Most Rooms tend to have one more value-oriented side and one flashier one, and that’s definitely the case here.
Walk-In Closet is an enchantment version of the likes of Crucible of Worlds and Ramunap Excavator, which is…a decent, though not particularly special effect. The effect plays well with fetch lands, which the format does have with the likes of Fabled Passage, and the self-mill of the set can be good fuel for this. But the main attraction here, Forgotten Cellar, is effectively Yawgmoth’s Will at a higher price point. Five mana is a lot, and while green is good at ramp, it’ll still take a while to ready a turn to really make this go off. Still, Yawgmoth’s Will is dangerous for a reason, and there are plenty of ways to use and abuse such an effect.
I feel like the abilities of this split card feel better suited for deeper formats, like Modern and Legacy. While you can get a bit of value from this normally, abusing it is where its true potential lies, and I feel like there are plenty of ways to abuse it. It’s not the card for every deck, but the decks able to abuse this can abuse it like there’s no tomorrow.
Constructed: 3.75
Casual: 4
Limited: 3.25
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 4
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