The card that turns your graveyard into your
library. On the one hand, your graveyard is a
publicly viewable zone and the Crypt says
nothing about "at random", so you get to cherry
pick what card you "draw" each turn. Mill
yourself a bit before playing this, or simply
wait until late in the game when your best cards
have already been spent, and you can pretty much
guarantee victory through always drawing the
exact card you need. But unlike most cards that
replace your draw, this card still allows you to
lose by running out of cards in your new
grave-library. The exile part means that you
can't restock your graveyard when you start
running out, and that you can't "draw" and cast
the same instant or sorcery every turn. You
definitely want to save this card for late in
the game, when your graveyard is full of enough
meat to get you through (or you have a way of
removing the Crypt from play) or you could end
up hurting yourself, but Black has always been
willing to take that kind of risk.
Today's bonus card of the day is Forbidden
Crypt which is a card meant to be played after
filling up your graveyard to allow you to choose
cards at will instead of relying on the luck of
the draw. While the concept is impressive
the execution of exiling any additional cards
being sent to the graveyard and the potential
loss of game if anything interferes with your
graveyard makes it too risky to play. A
great deal of support can make it less
vulnerable, though other cards exist that can
fulfill the role without the extra measures
being needed. As this is from Sixth
Edition and Mirage an older format deck can try
to work with these limitations, but opponents
will likely have something to disrupt it and the
advantage just doesn't merit the drawbacks.
For Limited formats where this would be legal
the chances of having a reliable method to fill
the graveyard before this is in your hand are
slim. An opponent can even just stall long
enough for you to exhaust the graveyard which is
a distinct possibility in the format. Even
gambling with it to play a few key cards isn't a
reasonable bet as the best cards have to already
be in the graveyard instead of your library
which gives this the very narrow focus of a five
mana Regrowth.
