Pointed Discussion

Why doesn't this card say "Enchanted creature has lifelink"?

It can't say "Enchanted creature has lifelink" because it doesn't give the enchanted creature lifelink. That's the best part--see, you can play it on the opponent's creature, and you'll still gain the life even though it's their guy. So you'll just gain back whatever damage it deals you. If it just gave lifelink, that wouldn't work. As is, it's underrated, but definitely not bad.

Best thing ever: playing this on the opponent's Plague Spitter.

honestly, this card would be bad if it said "Enchanted Creature has Lifelink"... or at least it would be bad once the new 2010 rules come into effect.

Now, once 2010 hits, this card still gives your Rhox War Monk and other lifelinkers double lifelink, even though lifelink can no longer stack. I love the way the wording on this card is, and Im glad it doesnt say "Enchanted Creature has Lifelink"

Top 10 Enchantment-Aura (enchant creature) cards:
1. Rancor 2. Pacifism 3. Treachery 4. Blanchwood Armor 5.Armadillo Cloak 6. Faith's Fetters 7. Spirit Link 8. Control Magic 9. Pillory of the Sleepless 10. Soul Link
These are in no particular order. Also, they have garnered at least 4 star ratings.

this and vamperic Link on any creature with a pyroclasm ability results in massive life gain. Cards like Oros, the Avenger, Infected Vermin, and Skirk Fire Marshal make the most out of this because they take small increments of damage, and turn it into a massive gain.

This card is better this way that saying "Enchanted creature has lifelink" cause you can play two of those to a creature and you will gain twice that life unlike if this enchantment sayd that gives lifelink

also workes on pokers like prodigal sorcerer... but finally it makes orcish artillery half decent.

Lifegain is the most overrated thing by new players, and spirit link is even one of the bad ones. Reasons why spirit link sucks:
- your opponent plays a wrath of god, and you got no other creatures on hand. it's your turn, you draw a card, it's spirit link. And you can't do anything with it because you have no creature, it's a completly dead card
- even if you have a creature in play, it must be a creature where spirit link makes sense on
- even IF you have a creature in play spirit link makes sense on, any reasonable opponent will either kill it or ignore it. and if they kill it they spend one card (removal spell) to kill two of yours (spirit link + creature)
- lifegain does not win you games. if your opponent is on low life you don't want to draw lifegain, because it gives your opponent time to stabilize. if you are on low life, you don't want to draw lifegain, because it doesn't kill the stuff that brought you down to the low life
- the only good lifegain cards are cards, where the lifegain is a side effect of something more powerful. where it's an added bonus. cards that do nothing but gain life are garbage 99% of the time
- lifegain does nothing to interfere with your opponents plans. it does not remove threats, counter spells, block creatures, cause lifeloss or anything at all that brings you closer to winning or weakens your opponent. lifegain delays your defeat but does nothing to bring you closer to a win
- even IF your opponent lets you gain a hundred million life, you can still lose. either by cards that simply say "you lose", or by some loop-combo your opponent creates, by getting decks by your opponent.

In short: 99% of the time, playing lifegain is a bad idea. There very few good lifegain cards and very few situations where they are great. I'd never ever play this card.

Spirit Loop is much, much better.

I have an inkling that most people don't realize you can enchant ANY creature with this, including your enemy's. Shut down an 8/8 for , and gain 8 life whenever it blocks? It's a great card, especially when combined with some good "whenever you gain life, X" abilities. Come now.

This is either a 1 point shut-down on an opposing creature or an awesome way to gain life. Brilliant because it works with both abilities and combat damage. Combo with X-casting effects to gain huge life totals: Howl from beyond comes to mind.

marijana is right. Life gain is okay, and I can see this card being good in limited or something, but all it does is stall for time, and stalling for time isn't going to do you any good if you were winning anyway. If you play spirit link on your own creature you run the risk most auras have (2 for 1), and if you play it on an opponent's creature, you might as well just run stuff like pacifism/oblivion ring/etc.

The only time I'd seriously think of running spirit link, as with cards that only give you life, is in limited, or playing a cheesy life gain deck (that wins by test of endurance or something) that'd never be anything good outside of casual. Other than that, there are better cards to use.

still, 3/5 for this card. It's not bad to the point where it hurts you to play this card, and it's useful in the right decks, but it's just outclassed.

Here's another reason (some might say a much better reason) why it doesn't say "Enchanted creature has lifelink": Because lifelink gives the creature's controller life equally to the damage it does... This card gives the enchantment's controller life equally to the damage the enchanted creature does. Soooo... play this on your opponent's Baneslayer Angel, it will but unable to reduce your life (but it will still increase your oppenent's life). Or you can play it on some creature of these that you just don't want attacking or blocking with... let's say Woolly Thoctar.

EDIT: Sorry folks... didn't read the prior comments.

@donjohnson:

Spitit Loop isn't much, much better. Those two cards don't do the same thing at all.

Majinara is dead wrong. Lifelinkers have won me more games than I can count, along with Luminous Wake (maybe on a Guard Gomazoa) and other lifegain. To top it all off, my win condition is usually Transcendent Master, getting me back all the life I lost waiting for/defending him.
It may not completely win you the game, but at the same time it can let you recover from more aggressive decks. Getting this onto your opponent's 7/7 trampler, even if you only have 8 life, will save you. Luminous Wake will disable your opponent's attackers, or let you get a beneficial chump block on a one-turn pumped swinger. In GW, put this on a regenerating creature and watch the life flow in. Using Cradle of Vitality can give you the massive creatures to outclass and eventually destroy your opponent's creatures. There is even one card (that I know of) that causes you to win by having enough life.
Overall, I have to say that while you can't run a pure lifegain deck, it's an amazing supplement to a win condition, or can be the buffer you need to get bigger threats out. Honestly, I never hate drawing lifegain.

Wait, why is this rated so much higher than lifelink? haha

Way better than lifelink, for two reasons: 1. put it on an opponent's creature 2. stacks with lifelink

It's not great, to be honest, for the reason all creature auras are, and even if it sticks, it won't do a whole lot, but it does beat lifelink

Essentially a flexable version of lifelink. Got a heavy first strike hitter on your team? Throw this on it for great effect. Your opponent gets a Juggernaut out? Throw this on it for AWESOME effect.

Heh, apparently Majinara lost to a life gain deck and is trying to dissuade the rest of the world from making one. He is right on one critical point and that's that life gain will not win you a game by itself.

I ran a slow mill deck (multiple Howling Mines) that relied on life gain to stay ahead of the damage. It was completely without creatures and Spirit LInk was a regular in the deck. Obviously I didn't play it on my creatures since I didn't have any. In a group game playing it on an opponents creature is just fun. It's also possible in a tribal/group game to stick it on Crypt Rats or Skirk Fire Marshal to gain massive life.

Felidar Sovereign, Sanguine Bond, Test of Endurance are all cards that make life gain fun.

@majinara: Refer to Discoduck's comment to get some tips on how to use Spirit Link more wisely.

Spirit Link, apart from being useful if you want to strengthen your lead in the game, can also be used to render one of your opponents' fatties practically harmless. It will still be able to damage your creatures in combat, but it won't be able to deal damage to you unless that damage is lethal, and even if it damages your creatures, you'll still end up gaining a lot of life because of it.

So basically, at the bargain price of , this card can both prevent opposing creatures from dealing damage to you, and it can help you solidify your lead, for instance by using it on one of your own creatures, say, a Serra Angel (not to mention Bankslayer Angel), at a time where your opponent has no real threat on the board and you'd like to gain more life to strengthen your defenses.

I think this is significantly better than Lifelink, mainly because its second use is a pacifier.

This card got a lot worse when Sixth Edition came out. Before then it could save your life. Now you're dead before it kicks in on your opponent's creature.

HOWEVER! It's still one of my favorite cards of all time.

LOL Looks Like The Albino Bat Jim Carey Was After In When Nature Calls. Cool Card Though At Least Stra8 Up Nullifies An Opposing Creatures Damage And In Draft Thats Preety Crafty.

Its just always useful. should be rated higher.

You also have to remember that in multiplayer games, especially FFA this 1 CMC aura is hilarious for the politics alone. If you enchant your opponent's big 10/10 they will most likely not waste an attack hitting you if you'll just regain the life, instead they will go after someone else while you still gain 10 life. At the very least, even if you're not using lifegain combo cards to defeat opponents with, this will at least buy you more time to draw into that finisher you need.

At 1 CMC and the fact that this ability stacks, unlike lifelink (but it will still stack on top of lifelink too, yay), 4.5/5. Some could argue it is 5/5 simply because no other card functions the same as this at that mana cost.

This card is 5/5 for me

Many people don't understand Spirit Link does not grant Lifelink, as the caster of Spirit Link can gain life if it enchants an opponents creature and it attacks you (aka no damage, nerfed with new rules though). It also works off any damage which includes Plague Spitter type of abilities

The fact is that this is 1 mana, can neutralise creatures early game or make one of yours net you early life gain for use later (black colour tutors, slow green fatties and red burn etc)

Armadillo Cloak sweetens this card adding trample and a +2/+2, but its 2 colours, so its your pick which to play

Yet another use for this card is on things that do damage to you as a drawback. One of these on, say, a Force of Nature completely nullifies the upkeep cost, in addition to gaining you a bunch whenever it attacks or blocks. And of course anywhere that one is good, two is even better.

This card was also the key to the most satisfying beat-down I've ever witnessed. One player had obviously spent way too much money on his deck: His entire mana base was Mox and original dual-lands, that sort of thing, while the other guy had some decent cards, but was clearly still on a reasonable budget. The rich guy played a Mana Vault on the first turn and used it to cast a Juzám Djinn on turn 2. The budget player put a Spirit Link on it, and proceeded to ignore it for the rest of the game. Net result, the rich guy took 2 damage a turn from his own cards (he never untapped his vault, even once he had the mana to), while the budget guy had completely neutralized his threat and was gaining an extra life each turn on top of it.

Combo with Heartless Hidetsugu and lifelink. Deal damage equal to half their life total, gain 1.5x what they started off with.

This is not lifelink
ITS BETTER
enchant it to a creature you dont control
OR
enchant it to a creature you control that already has lifelink and that way you gain double life
also if you have multiples of this then unlike lifelink this stacks! :D

Put four of these on a Drogskol Reaver. That way, you can draw 10 cards every time you hit an opponent. A Steel of the Godhead couldn't hurt, either.

Two or more of this card on "Lord of the Pit"...a healthy alternative it token creatures.

All these comments about putting this on an opponent's creature, and nobody, not even TheWrathOfShane, mentions that you do this in order to get attackers through.

"I swing with my 3/2 and my 1/2. Care to block with that 6/6?"

// "yeah, mayb--"

"Remember, if you do, I'll gain six life off Spirit Link."

// "....*sigh* ok, I'll take the 4."

It's more interesting than Pacifism because it plays headgames with your opponent. Pacify their 5/5 and they treat it as gone, and play accordingly. Spirit Link their 5/5 and they agonize over every combat decision--their neutralized creature actually becomes more present in their mind, rather than less, resulting in more bad decisions or play mistakes.

Also, Alpha Brawl. For the lulz.

People have already mentioned the advantages of this compared to Lifelink.

However, there's one disadvantage compared to Lifelink: You gain the life after the damage is dealt with this card, and at the same time with Lifelink. If you're at a low life total, you could lose with this card when you wouldn't with Lifelink.

However, I think this card is still slightly better.

@Salient: It's almost always better for your opponent to block in that scenario. It's fine if you gain a little life as long as you lose board control.

@azure: Actually, you would gain the life back before any player would gain priority, so the actual effect would be as if you lost no life.

Who cares if this is better then Lifelink.. I like lifelink. It looks better on the card, and its fresh.

Probably going to catch a low rating for this... But I don't want to see "old lifelink" printed in future sets, next to the keyword variation.

It's interesting that they didn't errata this to simply give a creature lifelink, as this is obviously the card that inspired the ability. But doing so would have actually greatly changed the use of Spirit Link, which can nullify opponent's creatures, as well as the fact that multiple Spirit Links on the same creature stack (I personally remember dropping 2 Spirit Links and a Blessing on a Thunder Spirit back in the old days of slow Magic), while multiple occurances of Lifelink ability do not.