I guess it could be a mana sink in the late game? But gaining you 1 life a turn is one of the most useless things a mana sink can do. Fail.
majinara
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(6 votes)
I love the flavor of this card, enchanting a land in constructing a farm on it. IMHO they should create a new version of this card, which should be something this without the upkeep cost, and reading:
"at the beginning of each players upkeep put a crop counter on Farmstead. Remove a crop counter from farmstead: gain 1 life. Remove two crop counters from farmstead: add W to your manapool".
Ace8792
★☆☆☆☆ (1.9/5.0)(5 votes)
$.01 dollars for first person to name a worse card than this.
Eppek_the_Goblin
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(6 votes)
Repeating life gain wasn't something Magic offered back in the early days. Life gain was usually either a one time effect (Stream of Life or Healing Salve), triggered (via Throne of Bone or Soul Net), or difficult to get due to mana cost or upkeep (El-Hajjaj, Farmstead, Living Artifact.) Farmstead, though terrible by today's standards, fit the mold back then.
nammertime
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(4 votes)
Why use this in the early days when you could use Fountain of Youth in any deck?
I'll have to admit that I like the flavor of the card, though.
I'm not going to claim this was ever good, but Eppek has a point. It was basically the first cautious experiment with unconditional repeated life gain. Turns out it was way too cautious so we quickly got things like Fountain of Youth, etc. Still, it was a nice concept.
Would be nice to see a new enchantment something like "Tap a Plains you control: Gain 1 life. Play as a sorcery."
leedo83
★★★☆☆ (3.7/5.0)(6 votes)
I played back in the revised days and even back then this card was the king of suck. 5 mana for your first point of life, and you don't get it until your next upkeep. And restricted to 1 point per turn...shameful.
Never heard during a game of Magic, "Tap Tap Tap. I play Farmstead on one of my plains"
"Ha! Tap Tap, Counterspell!"
Never Happened. Not even once.
Pigglebee
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(4 votes)
This was one if not the last card I saw in my early days when there wasn't any internet list available. We knew there had to be another card in the set, but we had never seen it. Until we found Farmstead in someone's collection.
Unplayable by todays standards and almost unplayable back then hehe. But it now holds a special place in my heart just for being the last card of the beta set I ever laid eyes on.
ToAsTy42o
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Ill put this in my blue/white deck! A playset of these, Storm Crow, Razor Boomerang, and Rod of Ruin, what do you guys think?
@countvonterrorrr: Erosion is way better than this. If played along side Psychic Venom and other cards in blue mana denial, it locks a land down rather effectively.
wolftree
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Even the guy running the farm seems to have left because this card is so bad.
ChumleyX
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Hooray for Theros block and the introduction of devotion! Of course, Jihad is probably a better choice if you can afford it.
Really should have been a Fortification, not an Aura.
Aquillion
★☆☆☆☆ (1.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Hmm. The oracle wording actually changes its function.
By the original text, if you play this on someone else's land, you can give them as much life as you have mana for, since it only says that you (this card's controller) are limited to one life per turn.
Ephera, God of the Polis: Farms aren't really my thing. I'd rate it 3/7.
Karametra, God of Harvests: Hey, I'm all about farming up the countryside, but how incompetent are these farmers? I can't really go above a rating of 3/7.
Iroas, God of Victory: I hate people who turn their swords into plowshares more than anything else, but, I guess my warriors need to eat. I'll go 3/7.
Heliod: Whoa. Did you realize we've rated this as one of our favorite white permanents?
Karametra: Huh. Guess I put more value into small independent farmers than I thought.
Iroas: Guess I put more value into food than I thought.
Ephara: Well, whatever else we say about them, they're pretty devoted.
Heliod: True enough. Alright, next permanent up for analysis: Dawn Elemental...
DeviousPie
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This card deserves higher than the rating its receiving because its art can be confused for a Moat. Farmsteads are worth $0.15. Moats are worth $300.00. This card is profit in card form.
Comments (25)
"at the beginning of each players upkeep put a crop counter on Farmstead.
Remove a crop counter from farmstead: gain 1 life.
Remove two crop counters from farmstead: add W to your manapool".
I'll have to admit that I like the flavor of the card, though.
Would be nice to see a new enchantment something like "Tap a Plains you control: Gain 1 life. Play as a sorcery."
Never heard during a game of Magic, "Tap Tap Tap. I play Farmstead on one of my plains"
"Ha! Tap Tap, Counterspell!"
Never Happened. Not even once.
Unplayable by todays standards and almost unplayable back then hehe. But it now holds a special place in my heart just for being the last card of the beta set I ever laid eyes on.
By the original text, if you play this on someone else's land, you can give them as much life as you have mana for, since it only says that you (this card's controller) are limited to one life per turn.
Ephera, God of the Polis: Farms aren't really my thing. I'd rate it 3/7.
Karametra, God of Harvests: Hey, I'm all about farming up the countryside, but how incompetent are these farmers? I can't really go above a rating of 3/7.
Iroas, God of Victory: I hate people who turn their swords into plowshares more than anything else, but, I guess my warriors need to eat. I'll go 3/7.
Heliod: Whoa. Did you realize we've rated this as one of our favorite white permanents?
Karametra: Huh. Guess I put more value into small independent farmers than I thought.
Iroas: Guess I put more value into food than I thought.
Ephara: Well, whatever else we say about them, they're pretty devoted.
Heliod: True enough. Alright, next permanent up for analysis: Dawn Elemental...
Farmsteads are worth $0.15.
Moats are worth $300.00.
This card is profit in card form.