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.
Posted By:
Salient
(8/26/2011 1:57:49 PM)
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.
Posted By:
DacenOctavio
(10/6/2011 10:49:20 PM)
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.
Posted By:
j_mindfingerpainter
(3/30/2012 8:49:31 PM)
@ 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. a... (see all)
Posted By:
DrJack
(10/27/2013 11:28:04 AM)
Demonic Consultation is also extremely broken.
Posted By:
HairlessThoctar
(3/6/2010 5:16:11 PM)
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 =(
Posted By:
channelblaze
(9/22/2010 6:34:41 PM)
Easy first turn loss!
Posted By:
Sswift
(8/13/2010 4:52:30 PM)
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!
Posted By:
Pantheon
(3/18/2010 7:01:58 AM)
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.
Posted By:
SkyknightXi
(6/10/2011 8:05:05 AM)
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!
Posted By:
liir007
(8/10/2009 8:45:53 PM)