Magic: The Gathering's Capricious Hellraiser offers decent value to spell-themed decks

Magic: The Gathering’s spoilers continue to roll out for Phyrexia: All Will Be One, and all of them have been incredibly interesting. Presently, one particular card stands out for spell-themed decks: Capricious Hellraiser. Depending on how many cards are in your graveyard, this can go from a 6-cost creature down to a 3-cost, suddenly making it far more deadly.

Although this card might prove to be difficult to put into decks since it has 3 red in its casting cost, it’s almost certainly going to find a home in Izzet (Blue/Red) or a variety of control-themed, superfriends decks. Despite its restrictive casting cost, Capricious Hellraiser is a fascinating Magic: The Gathering card.

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Capricious Hellraiser is an expensive, but potentially powerful Magic: The Gathering creature

While it has a mana value of 6 (3RRR), it isn’t going to stay that way. If you have 9 cards in your graveyard of any kind, you can play it for 3 colorless mana less. This particular creature is primarily built around the power of your graveyard, so he’s likely going to be included in self-mill or discard decks. That way, you can get him into play early and cheat a potentially powerful card back into play.

It could also be a fun card to use alongside a Gruul (Red/Green) deck to get an overwhelming victory against your opponent. What does the Capricious Hellraiser do in Magic: The Gathering? What makes this card so ideal?

Capricious Hellraiser rewards you for putting cards in the graveyard in Magic: The Gathering (Image via Wizards of the Coast)

Capricious Hellraiser

• Mana Value: 3RRR
• Type: Creature - Phyrexian Dragon
• Rarity: Mythic Rare
• Keyword: Flying
• Stats: 4 power, 4 toughness
• Passive Ability: This spell costs 3 colorless less to cast if you have nine or more cards in your graveyard.
• First Ability: When Capricious Hellraiser enters the battlefield, exile three cards at random from your graveyard. Choose a noncreature, nonland card from among them and copy it. You may cast the copy without paying its mana cost.

Although its ability is slightly restrictive, if you play it for its full casting cost, you don’t require nine cards in your graveyard. You could then discard/sacrifice specific cards to deal with the situation that you're currently in.

You can also bounce this creature in and out of play repeatedly, provided that you have the right cards. Considering that it has an “ETB” ability, each time it enters play, you get to use this card's ability again. As a 4/4 flyer that potentially comes in for 3, it’s already amazing.

Upon reading this Magic: The Gathering card’s primary ability, I’m certainly eager to see what it can do. Although it specifies “noncreature, nonland card,” which sounds very restrictive, that's unlikely to be the case for a spell-themed deck, control deck, or even a Superfriends deck. Clearly, the possibilities for this card are endless.

You can cast planeswalkers, enchantments, and artifacts in this manner, giving you a ton of options besides sorceries and instants. One good strategy involves you popping Nissa’s -7, casting this creature, and then hopefully pulling your Nissa from the graveyard.

At that point, you could activate the -7 again and double up on the temporary +1/+1 counters. While it might be a fairly unlikely scenario, it’s still an interesting concept. Delve decks are potentially going to love this card, so there’s a chance that this Magic: The Gathering card will show up in Modern or Legacy.

Capricious Hellraiser might be a very niche card for Magic: The Gathering, but for spell decks, it could be a potentially game-winning card. Depending on what cards you exile, there’s no telling what powerful cards you can play for free.

Phyrexia: All Will Be One will officially arrive in stores on February 10, 2023, with pre-release events kicking off on February 3, 2023.