Great multikicker ability, but it's difficult to kick with its high initial cost. a 4-kick with Archon of Redemption for 10 life is no joke, however. And late game, it can damn well save you from an impossible situation and gives you a way to survive and make a comeback.
majinara
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.9/5.0)(14 votes)
God this card is bad... I mean in limited it might make sense, but in any constructed deck? A 2/4 flyer for 4 is unplayable. And the lifegain doesn't help either. Compare it to other options in standard. For 5 I could get this 2/4 dork and 2 life, or a 5/5 with Flying, first strike, lifelink, protection from Demons and from Dragons. Or for 6 I could get this dude and 4 life, or a 6/6 flyer that exiles permanents.
@sarroth Of course I'm comparing an uncommon with mythics. How common or valuable a card is doesn't change how useful or useless it is in a deck. Would it make sense to say "I rate it 0.5 because it's crap. Oh wait it's common, I rate it 5 instead"? Not to mention many incredible cards are common or uncommon, and many crap cards are rare or even mythic. And I stick to my opinion that this card is junk. You say in a close late game it's good. I disagree. When the game is close I want to finish off my opponent and not play cards that stall the game for a turn or two at max.
Layton
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(6 votes)
yes,but this guy cost less than a dollar and baneslayer cost,well,a lot for a thing it can be killed with anything...
man,spikes never change....
SleetFox
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(6 votes)
This still isn't a great card, but when this guy dies you still have the life, unlike Baneslayer Angel, so it's not a completely worthless card. Plus, not everyone can afford Baneslayer Angels, and they might go out of standard anyway if Wizards doesn't reprint it.
And competitive players and wanna-be competitive players seem to have the mantra "life gain is worthless." Life gain is not worthless, it's just a bad strategy to focus a deck on (in most cases). Life gain added to a card with other functions, like Faith's Fetters, or Absorb makes for a very solid card that helps buy you a little time without having to let your position suffer, assuming the card is costed well. That's what this card is supposed to do, even though it's slightly overcosted, but the lifegain multikicker is not a nonfactor at all.
Personally I'd rather play Serra Angel or one of the many other non-50 dollar 5 CMC angels, but this card is still solid. I wouldn't look down on someone for using one, especially if they aren't made of money.
Cheza
★☆☆☆☆ (1.5/5.0)(4 votes)
Tihs is a crap card. If you combine 2 cards, the result will be stupidly weak. Like printing a fireball on a 5cmc card or a brainstorm effect on a cmc 4 card. The list is endless. I would nearly always stay to two seperated versions. However there is no Drain Life like card with pure lifegain...
Nuclear_Pony
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
I wouldn't go comparing commons with mythics either, that's just ludicrous. Just compare it with something more in it's league like say Serra Angel (or something else, I'm sure people can come up with more realistic comparisons for something like this). There are legions of angels out there. Angel of Mercy, Angel of Light, Starlit Angel, Tormented Angel just to name a few.
The card is not too bad, but in my angel deck there isn't really room left for her (and I have 2 mono-white angel decks). I already have a bad time trying to fit in the new ones. Or I might as well just collect them for fun, just for the heck of it.
Cheerio ! :D
count_dorku
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
Here's a thought, give it a good multikicking and combine with Felidar Sovereign.
Diachronos
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Not as bad as people make it out to be. Yes, it's kind of expensive. No, it's not a goddamned Baneslayer! But how many times have you been in a situation where you could've won if you'd had just a few more life to take whatever your opponent(s) hit you with?
sarroth
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(4 votes)
@majinara: You are comparing an uncommon with two mythics. Yes, rares and mythics sometimes suck, but rarely if ever to the level that an uncommon would be better than one. This card should at least get a 3/5 because it's middle of the road - it's a decently costed creature for it's abilities. At worse you could say it would be nice for it to be a 3/3 instead.
Not all cards can be Baneslayer Angel. Yes, if I had copies of BA and this I would run BA instead, but not everyone is lucky enough to pull one or ready to spend more than $20 on a single card. Not to mention that aside from the rarity and price difference between Admonition Angel or Baneslayer, they have completely different CMCs. This could be played for 4 or 6 or 10 depending on how much life you need to survive until the finish. I myself have played plenty of games where my opponent and I were rushing each other and a little life gain would have changed the outcome of the game.
Fanaticmogg
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
This card is good for limited. It's not meant for constructed.
land_comment
★☆☆☆☆ (1.5/5.0)(2 votes)
One of the few marginal cards in Worldwake... Someone won't want to play this until later in the game (beyond 4th turn) and by then it might be too late to do much.
dragonking987
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(2 votes)
this was one in the first deck I ever made it got pulled out rather quickly but I did like it at the time.
Tommy9898
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
I'd think it is more fair to compare this to azure drake and the like. Pretty reasonable card then.
jamoz42
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
What i was wondering (and this may be blindingly obvious to everyone else) but what happens if this card is exiled and then returned to the battle field say with Venser +2 ability would the multikicker cost life gain trigger again or not? because if yes then this card is so much better.
The_Jabberwocky
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Too many people judge a card based on biased absolutes. This card is not junk. It is an upgraded Azure Drake for white. Will you put it in a competitive tournament deck? No. Is competitive tournament play the only way to play Magic? No. Personally I play most of my casual games with my wife who doesn't mind playing but isn't an avid Magic fan like myself. If I build a deck with a bunch of Baneslayer Angels and whatnot and proceed to pound my wife into the ground, she is going to lose interest in the game real fast. But I also don't want to soft play her or throw the game on purpose. So I like to build decks with less built in power cards to play against her and try to use skill to win. This card does a great job accomplishing that purpose.
TheWrathofShane
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Yeah not meant for constructed. Still you could run it in EDH if you can ramp up some mana. There are probably better things to spend it on, but infinite life will make you friends where as infinite mill will probably lose some friends lol.
Comments (16)
@sarroth
Of course I'm comparing an uncommon with mythics. How common or valuable a card is doesn't change how useful or useless it is in a deck. Would it make sense to say "I rate it 0.5 because it's crap. Oh wait it's common, I rate it 5 instead"? Not to mention many incredible cards are common or uncommon, and many crap cards are rare or even mythic. And I stick to my opinion that this card is junk. You say in a close late game it's good. I disagree. When the game is close I want to finish off my opponent and not play cards that stall the game for a turn or two at max.
man,spikes never change....
And competitive players and wanna-be competitive players seem to have the mantra "life gain is worthless." Life gain is not worthless, it's just a bad strategy to focus a deck on (in most cases). Life gain added to a card with other functions, like Faith's Fetters, or Absorb makes for a very solid card that helps buy you a little time without having to let your position suffer, assuming the card is costed well. That's what this card is supposed to do, even though it's slightly overcosted, but the lifegain multikicker is not a nonfactor at all.
Personally I'd rather play Serra Angel or one of the many other non-50 dollar 5 CMC angels, but this card is still solid. I wouldn't look down on someone for using one, especially if they aren't made of money.
Just compare it with something more in it's league like say Serra Angel (or something else, I'm sure people can come up with more realistic comparisons for something like this).
There are legions of angels out there. Angel of Mercy, Angel of Light, Starlit Angel, Tormented Angel just to name a few.
The card is not too bad, but in my angel deck there isn't really room left for her (and I have 2 mono-white angel decks). I already have a bad time trying to fit in the new ones. Or I might as well just collect them for fun, just for the heck of it.
Cheerio ! :D
You are comparing an uncommon with two mythics. Yes, rares and mythics sometimes suck, but rarely if ever to the level that an uncommon would be better than one. This card should at least get a 3/5 because it's middle of the road - it's a decently costed creature for it's abilities. At worse you could say it would be nice for it to be a 3/3 instead.
Not all cards can be Baneslayer Angel. Yes, if I had copies of BA and this I would run BA instead, but not everyone is lucky enough to pull one or ready to spend more than $20 on a single card. Not to mention that aside from the rarity and price difference between Admonition Angel or Baneslayer, they have completely different CMCs. This could be played for 4 or 6 or 10 depending on how much life you need to survive until the finish. I myself have played plenty of games where my opponent and I were rushing each other and a little life gain would have changed the outcome of the game.