For a player, I could see someone playing this. Especially to avoid a mill victory by an opponent. A narrow but thinkable use.
It gets: *
Mr_Hendry
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(3 votes)
I love the idea of avoiding a mill victory by your opponent. It would be only if you had already been milled to shame (down to one card for example) and you knew your opponent had probably used up most of their mill spells and you had a fighting chance if you could only buy yourself four or five more turn. Of course, this card would have already been in your hand and already been dead weight for quite a while but yah it could come in handy.
Man this card sucks so bad... so bad. I love it though. I plane on building a deck around it.
Lord_Ascapelion
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(9 votes)
It's like a reverse Necropotence... In case you're wondering, that's most definitely not a good thing.
kitsunewarlock
★★★★☆ (5.0/5.0)(16 votes)
Gets 1 whole star for using "Hunger" counters. You can use physical food (like Jelly Beans) for counters on this card and eat them when you break your "fast"! Pretty funny.
Kryptnyt
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(2 votes)
I guess if you're already using Necro, using this with it will get you even more cards, right? Necro doesn't cause actual drawing.
supershawn
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(3 votes)
wow with necropotence and library of leng you could put your whole deck in your hand! this card made me hungry...
hid@n
★★★☆☆ (3.6/5.0)(5 votes)
This card isn't that bad. Its one mana, and gains you up to 10 life. Someone said "It's like a reverse Necropotence". I agree, but that isn't always a bad thing (Felidar Sovereign). Also, if you have both this and Necropotence, then you gain life and draw cards.
GainsBanding
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Wow this is bad. And I don't think the Necropotence trick would work. This says "if you would begin your draw step..." But Necropotence makes you skip your draw step, so you'd never get to make that choice. This is so bad you can't even Donate it.
blindthrall
★☆☆☆☆ (1.6/5.0)(4 votes)
The one overtly Christian card (even though fasting is a big part of every religion), and it's terrible. Meanwhile, Unholy Strength is awesome. Hmmm...nope, religious fanatics are still idiots.
Arachobia
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(5 votes)
I don't quite understand the flavor of this card. So you starve by not drawing cards? What, is that how planeswalkers gain spells: eating them? And you get healthier by starving? This is just weird.
I love the utter illogic behind this card. People fast to gain insight or understanding, so technically this card should work more like Necropotence - you take damage (from starving) to gain cards (insight.) Instead, we get a card that is totally useless and doesn't make any sense.
Mode
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I think the most sucky part is that it can't even get useful with combos since it can only replace the card from your draw step for extra life.
I think a remake of this with another name that won't get destroyed when you decide to draw a card would be interesting (for 1cc without activation cost i mean, i know Words of Worship could already be regarded as a replacement.)
aznxknightz
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Wait, this card makes no sense.
Fasting is simply the act of not eating foods for a purpose. If you aren't eating food you are suppose to LOSE life because you get more hungry. The hunger counters on the card are fine but gaining life isn't. In fact, since you aren't eating it is implied that you are instead concentrating on something else, like reading/studying a book. In that case, this card is SUPPOSE to make you draw(thus gaining more knowledge to be able to play spells), not prevent you from drawing.
Gets 0/5 for absolutely no sense.
This card is rated lower than Sorrow's Path. That's quite an impressive feat.
ultratog1028
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Combos with necro, but that is it.
Kirbster
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Sad fact: moving the hunger counters to a creature with devour will not cancel them out with its +1/+1 counters. Really, Wizards, keep up!
JasonPaul601
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Note that you get the life on your draw step, after upkeep, meaning you get at most eight life, not ten. So we're looking at gaining eight life over four turns at the cost of very likely losing the game. If you're losing then skipping your draw step is the absolute last thing you want to do, and if you're in a situation where you can cast this without a major drawback (say, the board is stabilized), then there's no need to use this in the first place.
Although I suppose it does combo with Elkin Bottle, but that just seems clunky.
This is a card that hinders you far more than it would ever benefit you. You can't even Donate it because it doesn't require you to skip your draw step. This is a card that makes you wonder what the testing department was smoking when they let it pass. See also: Sorrow's Path.
orisiti
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I was thinking it might work well with Enduring Ideal... But hopefully if you're epic'ing out with the Ideal, you have better things to pull out of your deck than this.
SnickaPlease
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Omg it's so good!
Aquillion
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Run with Doubling Season so it accumulates hunger counters faster, letting you destroy it quickly.
Haywood
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I have thought long and hard about ways to make this card useful, in any way, shape or form.
I haven't come up with anything. ANYTHING. I think this actually no longer combos with Necropotence, despite old rulings to the contrary, because the current Oracle text reads "if you would begin your draw step". Because Necro skips the draw step entirely, it never begins and you can't choose to skip it. Fun fact: the only other card that has an "if you would begin" clause is Time Vault. Ponder on that one for a while.
If it does still combo, you could use Hex Parasite to keep it around, but really, that's insulting to your deck.
@Ragamander: Well of Lost Dreams + Parallel Thoughts works, but of course any other way of gaining life combined with that works better because those don't force you to skip your normal draw. Hell, Angel's Feather would be better than this.
@orisiti: Throw in Felidar Sovereign for good measure so you can actually win! Provided your opponent is utterly inept, of course.
I'm going to go ahead and call this card absolutely worse than Sorrow's Path. At least that has inspired people to come up with crazy combos to give your opponent the disadvantage. This doesn't even get that.
Cyberium
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
So it's wrong to have demonic symbol on a card... but it's ok to have a cross?
TPmanW
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Antimill tech I guess? In any case, what may have once been a niche card is now junk.
MichaelJHuman
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Not saying it's a great idea, but this card sort of works with Well of Lost Dreams. But there's better cards for Well
Claytoon
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
So let me get this straight...I gain health (life gain) by not eating (skipping draw)? Clearly R&D was still in their "weed for ideas" phase back in the early 90's.
Comments (30)
It gets: *
Man this card sucks so bad... so bad. I love it though. I plane on building a deck around it.
this card made me hungry...
To make it weirder, combo with Fat Ass
I think a remake of this with another name that won't get destroyed when you decide to draw a card would be interesting (for 1cc without activation cost i mean, i know Words of Worship could already be regarded as a replacement.)
Fasting is simply the act of not eating foods for a purpose. If you aren't eating food you are suppose to LOSE life because you get more hungry. The hunger counters on the card are fine but gaining life isn't. In fact, since you aren't eating it is implied that you are instead concentrating on something else, like reading/studying a book. In that case, this card is SUPPOSE to make you draw(thus gaining more knowledge to be able to play spells), not prevent you from drawing.
Gets 0/5 for absolutely no sense.
...
Wait, I remember now! "Combos with Well of Lost Dreams and Parallel Thoughts!"
@blindthrall
What about Preacher?
Although I suppose it does combo with Elkin Bottle, but that just seems clunky.
This is a card that hinders you far more than it would ever benefit you. You can't even Donate it because it doesn't require you to skip your draw step. This is a card that makes you wonder what the testing department was smoking when they let it pass. See also: Sorrow's Path.
But hopefully if you're epic'ing out with the Ideal, you have better things to pull out of your deck than this.
I haven't come up with anything. ANYTHING. I think this actually no longer combos with Necropotence, despite old rulings to the contrary, because the current Oracle text reads "if you would begin your draw step". Because Necro skips the draw step entirely, it never begins and you can't choose to skip it. Fun fact: the only other card that has an "if you would begin" clause is Time Vault. Ponder on that one for a while.
If it does still combo, you could use Hex Parasite to keep it around, but really, that's insulting to your deck.
@Ragamander: Well of Lost Dreams + Parallel Thoughts works, but of course any other way of gaining life combined with that works better because those don't force you to skip your normal draw. Hell, Angel's Feather would be better than this.
@orisiti: Throw in Felidar Sovereign for good measure so you can actually win! Provided your opponent is utterly inept, of course.
I'm going to go ahead and call this card absolutely worse than Sorrow's Path. At least that has inspired people to come up with crazy combos to give your opponent the disadvantage. This doesn't even get that.