Pointed Discussion

Finally, life gain that doesn't suck (martyr of sands excluded). Not too little life gained that it's useless, and not too much that it's broken. 4.5/5

8 life on turn 2? Uhh, YEAH.

its ok, i don't think its as good as people are saying it is here.

Bought my opponent a lot of time and eventually the game at prerelease.

Got two at the prerelease... it was very frustrating for my opponents.

Yay! It's great if you're just looking for a straight-up cheap lifegain card to go with a strategy built around the mechanism ("Whenever you gain life, X"). Sanguine Bond is probably the best example, and the art is just so fitting for a deck.
(Perhaps I only feel so protective of it because I've been needing a card like this for my B/W Sanguine Bond deck, but I had to try and balance out majinara's bombardment :p. Casual players exist too)

majinara has never heard of felidar sovereign or sanguine bond I presume...

It's not that bad and it's not that good. I see applications for it in limited, not just casual. It does something very important: when you're playing a more controlling deck against a more aggresive one, it gives you more time to get out your higher cost, more powerful cards out, rather than losing turn 5. Just because life gain and walls and such aren't generally good in constructed doesn't mean they're bad cards. A slow deck in Zendikar block had better have some early game stalls or it's going to be blown away. This fits that niche perfectly, so I see it as a good card.
2.5/5

To say that this card does nothing is crazy. 8 Life for only 2CC is nothing to scoff at, and basically neutralizes the first couple of turns worth of damage you may or may not have received.

In limited format, this card is amazing. It keeps you alive for an extra turn or two, which can make all the diference when you're up against a Vampire Deck that is hammering you with the likes of the Vampire Lacerator or the Guul Draz Vampire.

The card also has a ton of synergy with landfall decks, and its instant speed allows it to take advantage of sacrifice cards like Terramorphic Expanse.

As a final bonus, it can obviously be used to save damage leveled at a Planeswalker.

4/5

For Majinara, you aren't thinking right. If you think aobut it it as red burn decks, they count cards for how much damage they do, spark elementas, ball lightning, and their ilk. This just "countered" 2 plus spells.
If you are going up against a slow control deck, they normaly get only one 2-3/X evation beat stick out, in wich case you just bought your self 3-4 fogs with one card.
If they tend to have a giant attacker, it's a 1 turn fog. The extra mana is for it being a "seal". (invest now, use later)
While I don't see this being a 4 of in any standard deck, I can see a few finding homes in some control decks.

If you can get over the preconceived notion that most players seem to have these days (lifegain = garbage), this is a good card. This card will, at the least, buy you one turn on the clock for 2 mana, which is quite good. If your playing a deck that requires even a small amount of time to get going, this will be a huge asset. I'll admit, its not the best card in the game, its still a solid card.

This card is an answer to red deck wins cards like Hellspark Elemental, Ball Lightning, and Hell's Thunder. Put a few in your side board and board them in against RDW or burn. That's what is is good for.

>>> bsolute garbage.

Does it neutralize a threat (counter a spell, kill a permanent etc)? No.
Is it a threat itself (deal damage)? No.
Does it weaken my opponents board position or hand in any way? No.
Does it strengthen my board position, make me draw cards or anything? No.
Protect my permanents? No.

It doesn't do anything useful. It has no impact whatsoever on the board position in any way, nor does it help me kill my opponent in any way. And if my opponent is killing me then I might want to play something to kill my opponent first, or something that stops whatever my opponent is killing me with. This does absolutely nothing helpful. <<<

Good point, but a Ponder doesn't give you card advantage (it's a 1 for 1 trade), doesn't kill your enemy and doesn't prevent your death. And the sorting bonus isn't a calculable one. This card does give you a bonus... a time bonus. A counterspell that returns the spell to that player's hand even results in a card-disadvantage but still it's useful. It bought you 1 turn.

This card can buy you 1-2 turns until you finally draw your winning card (f.e. a combo card).

However I'n not a fan of landfall instants... Say hello to fetchland stupidness.

You can't say that all life-gaining effects are bad just because you don't like the mechanic. This is a decent amount of health for the mana you're paying. Compare it to Angel's Mercy for example, which is 7 life for 4CMC. Getting 8 life for 2CC seems much better when you compare it to some other life-gaining spells.

so marjinara you think that gaining a potential 16 life on turn four is bad!?!?!?

Casting three of these through the course a game basically means your opponent has to kill another player before killing you. It's a very good lifegain card.

I once was getting my butt kicked. These bought me time, for a while. :)

Angel's Mercy can eat its heart out.

One of the better health gain cards made in a long time.

Imprint it on a stick :P with a voltaic key in play... every turn u play a land and have 5 untapped land you gain gain 16 life ...lol!

strictly better than sacred nectar

Whether or not you like lifegain, this is the most powerful one printed in its class at common. Very useful in Pauper, limited, and casual where it buys you a turn. Helped turn UW skies into a viable archetype in Zen block limited. Good card.

I hate when they play it on turn two. It basically enables you to start the game with 28 life. But it's good only in early game, later you may be disappointed, because you drawn Rest for the Weary instead of an useful creature or removal. Overall, this card isn't bad. I'd give it 3,5/5.

Does it neutralize a threat (counter a spell, kill a permanent etc)? No.
Is it a threat itself (deal damage)? No.
Does it weaken my opponents board position or hand in any way? No.
Does it strengthen my board position, make me draw cards or anything? No.
Protect my permanents? No.

It doesn't do anything useful. It has no impact whatsoever on the board position in any way, nor does it help me kill my opponent in any way. And if my opponent is killing me then I might want to play something to kill my opponent first, or something that stops whatever my opponent is killing me with. This does absolutely nothing helpful.

If there was an instant that gave you 100000 life for 1 mana would it be bad?

8 life for 2 mana isn't too bad. This is a decent sideboard card against RDW which can buy you a turn.

This seems like quite decent life gain. I'm not quite sure why you would need to play this at instant speed, so it's basically 8 life for 2 mana. It's better than Sunspring Expedition in most cases.

That said, life gain is normally not a very potent effect since it only increases your turn clock without actually altering board position.

majinara, you're an idiot. By your criteria, Black Lotus is absolute garbage, and for that matter, so are lands.

They do none of the things that YOU require for a card to be useful. What do they do? They provide a resource. Mana is a resource, so is life. What can you use life for? How about surviving your own Earthquake, while it finishes your opponent. How about surviving a few more turns until you can afford your Cruel Ultimatum, or your Overrun? How about surviving your opponent's finisher, which he spent all his resources on, because he thought you were done for?

put this on an isochron scepter and then use it with cradle of vitality. golden

Is this actually the most efficient pure lifegain card in the game? I'm having a hard time thinking of any - Heroes' Reunion seems to be the only one that comes close.

This card is sick with Serra Ascendant. It's just a harmless 1/1 on turn 1, but watch the look on their face when you jump to 28 life the next turn, then play survival cache or kabira crossroads and you have a 6/6 flying lifelink on turn 3 with 36 life. How's that for an opening?

One of the most efficient life-gain spells in Magic's history. It seems that Wizards has now realized that these kind of lame effects are moderately useful when properly costed.

This card is great for Felidar Soveriegn decks. Also, the foil art is amazing!

why do people not like life gain decks I made one and it works fine this is a decent card I kind of wan to put it in my life gain deck but I am not really sure what I can take out.

the format is full of lightning bolts in the face 8>3 dammit.

This and the other life gaining spells seem to be an attempt to make Felidar Sovereign and Serra Ascendant into a playable deck type. There may be a point where it becomes playable, and this seems one of the better options so far, but I don't think we're quite there yet.

With Ascendants, 10 life for 2 mana would be overpowered against most decks. It would allow:
First turn ascendant...
Second turn, if no attack by hasted critters or 1-mana direct damage, cast +10 life spell and attack with 6/6 lifelink flyer.
As is, this leaves 2 life that you still need to pick up elsewhere.

Infect is actually uniquely bad against that sort of a lifegain deck since it does nothing to prevent the opponent's ascendants becoming 6/6 lifelink flyers for 1 mana at 30 life or him winning when his life hits 40 and he finds a Felidar.

Great card. Two mana for 8 life, I will take it. And I thought congregate was good...this takes the cake. Though it is debatable depending on the deck and format. Sure, life gain can be futile in certain situations, but 8 life is 8 extra life. And it is a common card to boot. Very good deal.

People often say lifegain isn't worth it, but certain cards like kitchen finks and wellwisher have been staples at times. The real issue is that a point of life was overvalued by wizards for a long time and resulted in craptastic cards like sacred nectar. 8 life for the same cost, however, is pretty good and worth running in certain decks or at least in the board against burn decks, etc that aren't prepared to dish out more than the 20 dmg they need.

Also, sacland + this as an instant in response to a 10-storm tendrils of agony would be priceless.

As Discoduck pointed out, this card isn't limited to just lifegain. I'm going to show you two cards, that cost 4cmc. It will fulfil one of marijana's....... "criteria" for a card. Feel free to come up with a comparison of a 4cmc two card combo that can do more than this.

False Cure + This. That's 8 dmg. 4 lightning bolts is 4cmc, and it takes 4 cards, and only does 12 dmg. Isochron Scepter this turn 3, and Isochron Scepter False Cure turn 2. Every turn, for 4 mana, you can do 8 dmg. You also have at your disposal the ability to gain 8 life. Or rather, to have any player gain 8 life. Playing a multiplayer deck with a black suicide ally? He'll last that much longer. Being focus fired by the enemies? You'll outlast their burn. This card is a ridiculous lifegain. Oh yeah, also, since it's not a replace effect, you can have multiple False Cure's stack, turning 8 dmg into 24. +8 life, whenever they gain life, lose 2 life for each 1 life gained, x2. +8, -16x2. 6cmc, 3 cards, win.

Moving on to what else can be amazing with this, Lich. Cool, you just drew 16 cards. That's almost a third of your deck. Omg, Spellbook, lololol.
As already mentioned, Sanguine Bond. Deepening the range of life between you and your opponent by 16 life. Half gain, half enemy lost.
Honestly, if you think these small, 2 or 3 card combos are bad, then you can just go make a RWU deck filled entirely with lightning bolts, counterspells, and swords to plowshares.

Oh, yeah, and I hate to say this, but if you're getting killed by an opponent, that opponent is using a resource. It could be cards in hand resource, creatures on the battlefield resource, their own life as a resource, lots of different things. Point is, he's using a method that takes up resources. He does NOT have infinite resources, as you seem to believe, marijana, because if you don't drop those resources, nothing will. Mindlessly attacking, raging forward, having the opponent doing the same, you'll just crash heads again and again. I'd like to believe Magic is more than just brutes smashing their heads, and is an actual game of intelligence, where crashing your head is one of the MANY things at your disposal. But fine, restrain it to that, restrain it to a simple game of tug-o-war between board positions.

Let me tell you something though, there are cards that are bad, like Viashino Skeleton, and then there's the deck. You look at cards in relation to a board position, I look at cards and disect that board position, but I don't really care about what my enemy is doing. I'm a casual, I play games for fun. When I see Viashino Skeleton, I see Basking Rootwalla and Ruby Medallion, in conjunction with Training Grounds. And then I keep imagining what else I can do, maybe even replacing Viashino, or doing something else. Who cares about what my enemy does, I'm a casual, I don't play to win, I play to awesome. Besides, if anyone ever used a lightning bolt on a Viashino Skeleton..... well, what would you think about that person?

I certainly have more fun than a guy who looks at a card and says ABSOLUTELY GARBAGE. "Oooh, this card looks good, I wonder what I could do with it. Quick! To the batfax!"

This card is good for life-gain deck and only for life-gain deck.
I agree w/ cheza except for life-gain deck.

sooooooo fast bond and this? does that work....boom five lands gain net life of 35?

MY FAVORITE CARD IN WORLDWAKE

And considering I have the complete set, that's saying something.

Fetchlands and this card doesn't work together, because If you had a land enter is binary. No matter how many lands that entered on your turn you will still get 8 life.

Playing a disruption spell (Terror, Duress, Counterspell, ect.) can save you eight life for the same amount of mana. Playing a disruption spell could also help you force your own creatures through, and thus help you win the game. Playing a disruption spell would help deal with creatures that have a non-damage-related ability (Leonin Arbiter, as one example), whereas Rest for the Weary won't.

Why not play a card that interacts with the opponet, rather than passively padding your life total? Barring interactions with cards such as False Cure or Test of Endurance, there is no advantage to playing a disruption spell over a card that only gains more life, as the former cards are much more versatile and reliable.

This is still not too great a card, but 8 life for 2 mana is approaching a respectful amount. 8 life is a lot. Is it worth a card and the mana? Not particularly, but it's getting there. 3/5.

Absolute garbage.

Does it neutralize a threat (counter a spell, kill a permanent etc)? No.
Is it a threat itself (deal damage)? No.
Does it weaken my opponents board position or hand in any way? No.
Does it strengthen my board position, make me draw cards or anything? No.
Protect my permanents? No.

It doesn't do anything useful. It has no impact whatsoever on the board position in any way, nor does it help me kill my opponent in any way. And if my opponent is killing me then I might want to play something to kill my opponent first, or something that stops whatever my opponent is killing me with. This does absolutely nothing helpful.

Yes there is sanguine bonds, test of endurance and felidar sovereign, which are fun casual cards. That doesn't change that "rest for the weary" is a horrible card.

@ greenandblack: gaining 16 life on turn 4 is bad, if you had to play cards for it. If you have 20 life on turn four or 36 is totally irrelevant, unless you have a way to utilize the amount of life you got.

@ blindley: why do you insult me for having a different opinion? I don't insult you either. You are right, life and mana are both resources. That's why I say: resources are great IF you use them. If you gain lots of life without having cards to spend it, then it makes no sense. It's accumulating a resource you don't use.
Mana on the other hand you normally always need. Having more mana enabled you to play stuff to kill your opponent or his cards, or get your combo going or whatever. Having more life does nothing in this matter.
Neutralizing an alpha strike or combo with this card is extremely unlikely. First, you have to play it in response to the combo or after your opponent attacked, so your opponent can't adapt. That means you must have had this card on your hand, probably for a while. If you'd have had a counterspell or removal on your hand, you might have prevented your opponent from comboing out by killing or countering his stuff. Or if you might have added burn or a creature, you might have killed your opponent before he alpha strikes. It's all more versatile and helpful then lifegain. But let's say you have this card and your opponent attacks or earthquakes, then you can gain 4 life at instant speed. Which means if your opponent deals 4 or more excess damage, this card does nothing at all. Like if you have 10 life and your opponent deals 14, you're dead anyway. But let's say you got 10 life, and your opponent deals 12 to you, and then are at 2 life... even if your opponent cant deal another 2 damage this turn, are you sure you can kill your opponent next turn? It's all just too narrow and unlikely to happen.

I don't say ALL lifegain is bad. It's good if it's either attached to a card that would be strong even without it, or if it's extremely powerful or flexible. Ivory Tower for example was an awesome lifegain card, because it evened out necropotence, and later phyrexian arena. It costs just one colorless mana, and gives control decks an edge over aggro decks, in gaining constantly life. Not once a bit of life.
But seriously: this card sucks. It will never be played in any tournament ever. I don't say that because I want to annoy those who like this card. I say it, because it's my honest opinion on this card, and I play magic since 94. Yes, on a casual kitchen table with more or less random or weak decks, why not. You can add what you want. But if you want to tune your deck in a way that it can reliably win, then this deck does not fit in.

Majinara makes sense. His argment says nothing about Lands or Moxen, those are viable resources used to gain board position and advantage. Life gain gets you essentially nowhere, on an effect like this. Sure, lifelink is a great effect. Actually, let us compare. This card versus Vampire Nighthawk. You play this card, you get nothing but 8 life. Next turn, they swing, and you lose alot of life in the process. You play Nighthawk, you get a 2/2 body that gains you at least two life and can block and can attack. So you get something that gives you board advantage and therefore leverage and freedom, but it also helps produce that life swing. If you are staring down three goblin guides, Nighthawk will help, This card's effect will be useless in a number of turns. Majinara is right. If it cantripped? perhaps. But it don't.

the way i see this long argument all i can say is that Majinara is a spike and is telling his opinion in a competitive perspective and those who oppose him are johnnies who believe they can turn this card into something better.

Majinara has a point (and certainly doesn't deserve to be insulted), but I don't quite take it as far as he does. Card slot for single-digit lifegain is not normally a trade I like to make, but this could be viable in a deck where lifegain is the overall strategy (add Survival Cache and--I'll get voted down for this--Angel's Feather to the mix as well). Phyrexian mana makes the deal even better. 3/5 in a deck where it's part of the overall strategy.

I love countering this.

"I play Rest For The Weary."

"I'm sorry. There's No Rest For The Weary."

Yes, in fact, this does neutralize a threat. If your opponent spends, say, five mana on a Lava Axe, and you spend two mana on this, you're as well off as if you had countered the Axe plus gained three life more than that. If there were a burn spell that did 8 damage for 2 mana, everyone would be all over that. Well, this would completely neutralize that.

Plus, unlike a true counter, you don't need to wait to cast this. You can just cast this whenever you have the mana free and have dropped a land this turn, and be ready for that burn spell in advance.

Life gain can and does win games.

This is one of those commons you use because you don't have anything better and you need some lifegain in your RW EDH deck.
@majinara I completely understand your point and yeah this card is 10x less useful than Divine Offering or cards of this type but consider something for me would you? Any deck with Ajani Goldmane needs life for his avatar to be of any use. In this case ALL life is useful. Another thing to consider is that Storm herd is a 1/1 for each point of life. 8 more 1/1s that are buffed by my Balefire Liege among other things? Hell yes. Not that any person in their right mind should use a card like this over a card that affects the field but lifegain is lifegain and if you have a deck that likes lifegain this is hella useful.

@BorosGeneral
I don't think I see the point of using this in EDH. You have plenty more cards to choose from, and you start at 40 life.
More often than not I find my opponent trying to combo off, so the old adage "your life total doesn't matter" is actually true in EDH.
If you see a lot of aggro EDH in your area, Prismatic Strands and Angelsong both have more applications. More versatility means better card in Commander!

A friend of mine uses this with Ajani's Pridemate. It would work well if my red deck didn't sideboard Leyline of Punishment.

For all the people who *** about lifegain, you've clearly never run into someone strictly running a lifegain deck that ends up hitting about 5000 life and makes them effectively unkillable because they keep cycling Beacons of Immortality.

Run Essence Sliver instead.

So disgustingly broken with Rhox Faithmender.

This card, like life gain in general, is kind of interesting because of how differently it plays against different types of decks. If you are playing a mono red lava spike deck, this is incredibly powerful, effectively using one card and 2 mana to counter almost 3 cards and 3 mana. However, if you are playing most decks now, like naya pod, you will be glad your opponent wasted a turn doing this, as they will be able to follow up later in the game for a lot more than 8. Could be good in a lifegain deck, but they are always casual anyway. Overall, not competitive except maybe in sideboard, but not terrible either.

Gaining 8 life isn't completely reliable, but it's still a good card, getting you 1/3 to 1/2 of the game back for only 2 mana if you played a land.

Great card. Somehow I manage to pull the two I have in my BW reanimator deck at just the right time and 8 life is amazing for the cost. Even 4 life for 2 is decent.

Why do people hate on lifegain? People keep saying "use a counter or a vampire nighthawk they are more efficient" well unless you are running 5 colors that is not always an option. If you are not running blue, white lifegain can be one of the best ways to keep you alive for a couple of turns. Also has anyone considered the card Ageless Entity ? That means you could bump it up to a 12/12 inj one go. That being said even if you do not combo it with something, surviving a turn or two can make all the difference. I can give you a chance to attack again, draw another card, play another card, tap another creature or wait out a suspend effect. Surviving more turns in magic is always good. So please people start realizing that lifegain is extremely useful. Now do you want 4x copies of this card plus a bunch more lifegain? Probably not unless you are doing a lifegain deck. However 2-3 might be good for your deck, even without a combo.

@Roytaichou: Because lifegain alone does nothing to help your board position. If you're losing and you gain a little life, that won't help you win. It'll only delay loss for a turn or two. Cards that have a function and lifegain are generally prized (like Thragtusk which sees a lot of play) but cards that just give you life are often dead draws. Ageless Entity isn't that great because it doesn't really do anything. It's just big and it can just be chump blocked. Plus it needs lots of other cards to make it big and to give it functions like trample. It's just not worth the effort, considering how many good 5 drops there are (Thragtusk included). Lifegain is often just a dead draw. Plus another weakness of lifegain is that infect can go right through it.

This might seem strange, given my name but I liked lifegain when I first started out until I really understood why it wasn't that great. Still, some lifegain can be very helpful in cards that do other things (that's why Thragtusk and Vampire Nighthawk see so much play). If I wanted to make a lifegain deck(I used to have one), I'd do it with lots of efficient creatures with lifelink or that gained life some other way, not with dead cards like this one. I'd only use cards like this if I used Felidar Sovereign as my win condition.

@Virusvescichetta: I would just keep attacking with my massive creatures until you eventually died while you were unable to do anything because you wasted so many cards upping your life total and not maintaining a board presence. Even if you could gain life faster than I could kill you, you would eventually lose as I got more and more creatures and found more and more ways to attack you.

The thing about delaying your loss for a turn is that it gives you an extra turn. I agree that it should probably not be maindecked since it does nothing in many matchups where the game is basically decided once one deck gains control of the match and life totals are merely a formality, but in the sort of match where damage racing is going to happen this is invaluable. It'll end up acting much like Final Fortune, but with more versatility.

@LifegainWhite.

Against burn this counters nearly 3 lightning bolt's....
Very strong sideboard card at least.

This didn't see much Standard action, but I've tested it and it's very close to competitively playable. 1 more life would probably have been enough.

@Lifegainwithbite

I think it's safe to assume that this was meant to accompany Felidar Sovereign since they were both printed in the same block.

That being said, you're right about lifegain. Typically it only delays the inevitable unless you

A) Have Felidar Sovereign as your win con or

B) Use it as a stalling method to draw out the game and have your deck be in a favorable position (and have your deck be designed to do this) or

C) Use it with some weird combo to kill your opponent (Sanguine Bond comes to mind)

Of course, option B is pointless if you're against Infect or Mill or if your opponent is running any sort of alternate win con.

Lifegain on its own is rarely playable. Even 8 life for 2 mana - against RDW, this might negate 1-2 combat phases. In the mean time, you lose a card, and your opponent is drawing a card too for those 1-2 extra turns.

You can argue corner cases where this buys you a turn, you draw well and your opponent draws poorly, but at the end of the day one of the key points of competitive deck building is using reliable cards. A card like Wall of Reverence is significantly superior to this, because it will *always* impact the board state, in addition to gaining you life. A card like Vampire Nighthawk is superior because it will *always* be able to act as either a beater or pseudo-removal, in addition to gaining you life. A card like Sphinx's Revelation will *always* provide card advantage, in addition to giving you life.

The only time I might consider running this would be to power up a turn 1 Serra Ascendent. Even then, given that we're no longer talking about standard, I'd almost certainly run Martyr of Sands + Proclamation of Rebirth instead. Martyr gets the distinction of being one of the few lifegain-only cards which is worth it, given that gaining ~12+ life off of it isn't uncommon, and the fact that it synergises with Proclamation to eventually neutralise the card disadvantage.

I will give a concession - it is theoretically possible that they could print a standard format with an archetype so aggressive that other decks need a single turn in order to hit another land drop and play whatever card would win that matchup (for example, how Baneslayer Angel could pretty much stop RDW in its tracks) - but I'd be surprised if there was ever a standard format that both had such an aggressive deck, and no cards you'd prefer to be playing instead. Like right now, you'd generally much prefer to play something like Centaur Healer or Precinct Captain against said aggressive deck.

Life gain is not as good as new players think it is, but it's also much better than veteran players think it is. Well-constructed life gain decks are really, really hard to kill by damage. This has been discovered again most recently, in the Soul Sisters archetype in Modern, which Dan at Magicgatheringstrat has used to win his last 15 matches in a row...and probably more.