I am not a fan of this at all. It's way too expensive, and white is not really a mill-yourself color. There are much better things to play turn 8 than this
busdude
★★☆☆☆ (2.4/5.0)(4 votes)
Probably the worst mythic ever, only other ones I can think of that are this bad are Lich's Mirror and Cast Through Time.
Kryptnyt
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(5 votes)
Seems expensive. But gaining 40-80 life? Is it worth trying out?
Dolorosa
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(3 votes)
I'm glad this is Mythic, now I wont have to see it as much. Like White even gets that many *** creatures in the graveyard, IT'S ALL TOKENS! Maybe this was made specifically for EDH like that Binding Blade thing.
Chimaera2357
★☆☆☆☆ (1.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Really not a very good Mythic. I guess it would be pretty good in EDH.
Lash_of_Dragonbreath
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(4 votes)
And this is a Mythic because...? It could have been misprinted as a rare and no one would've noticed. And I don't like it very much. At 8 mana I'd expect to be casting a spell that tore my opponents' limbs off, not restored my life and library to their original sizes. But, then again, I'm not much of a control player.
robits_for_the_win
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
not sure it should be mythic, but here people is why it cost 8 mana. Chalice of Life Chalice of Death then after getting four of them out plus a lot of tokens to block Infernal Plunge a few tokens to get the mana early to play this and if that doesnt win you the game make more tokens and attack attack!
JaFaR_Ironclad
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Mark my words: this is Dark Ascension's Eye of Ugin. Something in Avacyn Restored will break this card.
Aorpheat
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(7 votes)
Terrible life gain, in no way deserves the mana cost or to take up a Mythic slot.
Opaque
★★★★☆ (4.1/5.0)(11 votes)
Gnaw to the bone stapled to elixir of immortality? I love when two marginally good cards get combined, upped to mythic, and get a fair 8 mana cost. This card seems like a bad dream.
majinara
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(4 votes)
Commander review: it's not that great. If you already add cards to your deck that can shuffle graveyards into your library, then at least it should work on any players graveyard, so you can also disrupt other peoples recursion combos. The lifegain can be ok but is highly conditional. Combine both of those into one card doesn't make it any better. Rather add one good lifegain card (such as lifegift) to your Commander deck, and one good graveyard hater, instead of a card that fails at both. 1/5
lorendorky
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(3 votes)
Hell, I've won games on the back of Invincible Hymn before. This could prove useful. I would consider a singleton in a Koth deck that has enough artifact mana sources.
Ace8792
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(4 votes)
Wotc shouldn't make mythics that make you regret buying a pack.
Lohran
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(2 votes)
Eight mana for a very expensive conditional lifegain card? This crap should be at best common or uncommon... but MYTHIC?
drpvfx
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(15 votes)
Archangel's Light: Worst Mythic, or The Worstest Mythic?
I could see this turning the tides in some EDH games, but man would I ever hate to pull this in a draft.
pedrodyl
★☆☆☆☆ (1.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Disregarding the fact that it is a mythic rare, I'll give this a 2/5.
Nikeyeia
★★★★☆ (4.4/5.0)(5 votes)
This card is so horribad, it's laughable. It is almost unplayable in any format (Limited: 8-drop with no board impact), when playing commander, it removes your graveyard, which is a do not want, and it's way too boring for a late game play in casual. The only way it could virtually work is with a card like Sanguine Bond, and even then, Sorin's Vengeance would almost always be a better choice. On the other hand, I'm happy they made it a mythic, so I won't get a billion of them, even if I know I will be opening this in at least half of my boosters. *Shrug* Tl;dr: This card is worse than Gnaw to the Bone, which is a common.
EDIT: As to quote BlackAlbino from Wood Elemental: "i can seriously see some guy pulling this guy from a booster and committing suicide on the spot"
.Blaze.
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(12 votes)
I don't even like this in EDH since normally you want things in your grave. Especially if your white since it has several cards to get things back.
Totema
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(10 votes)
For once I would like to see a genuinely good lifegain card. This is...too expensive for one thing. Effect might also be underwhelming; White doesn't exactly always get a ton of things in the graveyard. Graveyard recovery is okay, but Elixir of Immortality looks much better for that purpose.
zinliah
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(6 votes)
For the many players that seem to be missing this - you gain 2 life for each CARD in your graveyard, not just creature cards. Still a bad mythic. Heck, it'd be bad at common.
This is meant for that angel/demon-deckmaking Timmy to poop himself upon opening. "aRChanGel!?!" "miFFik?!!"
Pulling cards like this can make you rethink how you spend your money. Wizards, we understand not every card can be great, or even good, or even mildly awful, but when those purposely awful cards are at mythic rarity it's infuriating.
MindAblaze
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(1 vote)
at least it has mythic flavor? and anti mill? seriously? I enjoy finding the right balance between control and milling in a mill deck but seriously? who wins a competitive game with mill? there are too many mill hosers out there, if you see it coming you shouldn't lose to mill. there's a reason control is played in every meta...8 mana anti-mill is a stupid idea, there better be something coming that makes this card worth it for white. Let the fans of plains be outraged! Luckily I like me some Havengul Lich...so I can't complain...too much. / for the win.
This might have been of interest if it did this for all graveyards, which would mess with many of the graveyard effects of this block and of course strongly up the life gain...
Also, I made a check. Out of 224 Mythics so far (this includes reprints in FtV etc.) at this moment, DKA sports the two highest-ranked Mythics (Huntsmaster of the Fells followed by Havengul Lich)...
... and by far the worst. This one, at 1.3 at the moment. The next worst is the M12 version of Time Reversal, rated 3.15 (M11 has almost 4), almost identical to Conflux.
Also, like 90% of all Mythics have a rating of ~> 4 - so how in the hell could this happen??
NoobOfLore
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(6 votes)
This really does not warrant a mythic rare slot. On the other hand, they should be cheap!
htgtmd
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(4 votes)
Why is this ranked so low? Gaining 50+ life is never a bad thing... even if it's missing flashback (see Ancestral Tribute)
sarroth
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(6 votes)
I like gaining life, but I like having stuff in my graveyard. This would have to be an instant to be worth it for me, to respond to someone trying to exile my graveyard; otherwise I want my stuff to sit there and wait for my upkeep and Emeria, the Sky Ruin. Of course, it'd still have to be a lot cheaper.
To anyone complaining that lifegain sucks, why don't you try Basilisk Collar, Baneslayer Angel, True Conviction, or even Battlegrace Angel provided exalted isn't a drawback to your deck. Lifegain by itse;f (e.g., Angel's Mercy) is never good, but with a good ability it can be. Unfortunately, at this mana cost and as a sorcery, getting your graveyard back just isn't good enough.
Bandswithother
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(14 votes)
The reason I hate this card the most? There's no real way to break it.
The one way I can imagine: U/W combo control. Donate a Transcendence, then Hive Mind this. BUT even then there are probably more efficient ways of making life gain kill an opponent.
I probably wouldn´t pay 8 mana for a lifegain spell if it said "Gain 100 life." This will often be worse.
WarioMan
★★★☆☆ (3.4/5.0)(4 votes)
THIS is the light of Avacyn? I think we're being set up for something REEEEEALLY awful come May if this is what they call hope.
Dreznin
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Everyone thought this sucked 10 years ago when it was called Ancestral Tribute and even had Flashback. White can create a ton of tiny creature tokens in so many ways, yet Congregate is half the mana cost... Considering that there are things like that and also Elixer of Immortality, this would only be worthwhile if it were half the mana cost and an instant... as a CMC 8, hurricanes blow less than this does.
A3Kitsune
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
MaRo has stated that this card was a last-minute swap for a card that was pulled, and that given more time and less restrictions, it most likely would have been a rare.
Gabriel422
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Oh come on, you guys are rating it low out of spite. It isn't easy being mythic.
StarOutlaw
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(1 vote)
I usually love to see how a card can be used for fun but this card is just horrible in every way especially for a mythic. This should be at most rare just because the amount of life and the amount of stall. Though this is not as bad as Blood Feud being a useless Prey Upon.
THOUGH I pulled this in the pre-release sealed and ended up playing W with G/B support. It is easy to get your grave full in this set. I love riding Spider Spawning for win or stall. I let this card take a spot just for the fun of it and was able to gain over 16 easy and start reusing all my control from G/B and all the undying/aggro from green. Not efficient but the ONLY time this card will be fun to use. (didn't win which shows how bad my pulls were that day except for getting a Snap to pay for the draft after)
somesortoflegend
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(7 votes)
This card really annoys me, I tried to use it at the prerelease and even cast it a few times when I was about to die, but it didn't really help then either because when you're that late in the game and about to die, odds are you aren't going to get much more advantage from the 14 or so life you gain. Not to mention you lose all anything you could flashback. This is an abysmal mythic and I am disappointed that Wizards prints these junk mythics, it ruins the whole point of the rarity.
Norrinthewary
★★★★☆ (4.4/5.0)(14 votes)
Every time i open one of these i will murder a puppy, that's on your conscience now wizards R&D.
Scry_Kane
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(6 votes)
At the Dark Ascension prerelease event, I played against an opponent who made a W/U control deck and had this. The game ran incredibly long and we were pretty much at a standstill for six or seven turns; neither of us was willing to attack because it would leave us defenceless. He had six life and I had ten, and then, with 23 cards in his graveyard, he played this for a 46 point lifegain and rushed all in!
I let it through and retaliated in kind on the next turn. When it was his turn again, when his inflated points prompted him to recklessly attack once more, I used Clinging Mists and prevented damage and, thanks to fateful hour, tapped everything he had for an extra turn. He eventually lost because I was able to plow right through time and time again, but it was by far the most memorable game I played that day.
I suppose the point is that, even with more than three times his starting life total, he was still unable to win, which should be a lesson to anyone considering using this card.
blindthrall
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This right here is why I'm not buying any boosters of DW. I would violently evacuate my bowels if I pulled this.
dberry02
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
It should have been: you may shuffle your library.
I mean, even if you cheat cast this early game, it still doesn't do much by itself. I believe this card has potential, but it requires jumping through too many hoops to even come close to breaking it.
tantallum99
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(10 votes)
knowing my luck, this is the mythic I will get lots of copies of. I suppose I could use it as a bookmark.
am802g
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(6 votes)
This either needed to be 3 or 4 mana and be a rare, or it would have to give you something more like 7 life per card. Life-gain doesn't win matches (with the exception of Felidar Sovereign) and 2 life per card isn't going to be enough to keep you alive long enough to make a comeback if you're already getting destroyed, which you most likely will be if you have this in your deck. Shuffling cards back into your library isn't practical either, unless you're almost out of cards in your deck. The graveyard is SO much more accessible than the library, that I think this would be closer to being something other than common worthy if it just didn't shuffle your graveyard back, so you could at least use two in the same match. This is one of the most disappointing mythics ever made. However, white will probably have some awesome mythic(s) in Avacyn Restored.
Pinto331
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(11 votes)
The sad thing is that this probably is appropriately costed considering you can get up to and beyond 40 lifegain from a single card. It's just not a well thought-out card. All it does is delay the game, it doesn't give any kind of board advantage the way Alpha Brawl or Army of the Damned does for the same price. That's the kind of thing you expect from an 8 CMC card, it should demand an immediate answer and wrap things up if your opponent can't respond. This doesn't even constitute a threat really.
If your deck isn't winning, this card is not likely to make it win. If is winning, this card is unnecessary.
Quibbleflux
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Tonight at FNM Draft I saw this thing get pulled. And tabled. Repeatedly. It was a last pick. People were taking crappy commons before they would take this. This same draft saw the majority of people doing white and some other color decks.
Philip-BANG
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(4 votes)
I am not of the oppinion that Mythic Rares were a horrible change to the game's lineup, but the cards carrying the orange mark need to live up to their rarity. Opening one of these in a booster (which I have tried) is a very disappointing feeling. That orange marked card could have been Sorin, or Havengul, or Huntsmaster but no, I get this instead.
Of course not all mythics are designed to be important for good constructed decks, but they should at least compare favorably to the powerful mythics in terms of fun and flavor and make you want to build around the card. Something like Platinum Emperion is a neat example of a mythic rare with an impressive flavor and usability for laughs in more casual decks or niche combo decks.
With Archangel's Light none of my Magic buttons are being pushed. It's just a boring card if you ask me and it's made me a tad more sceptical of the whole mythic rare thing.
I don't want more Wallet-Sculptor mythics, but more of these kinds of mythics seems almost worse.
Crotchkicker
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
I gave this card 5/5 because it does not deserve 1.38/5.
Also because I'm a troll.
Ange-Gardien
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(6 votes)
If there was a table with ten of these cards on it and a sign that said "Free," at the end of the day there'd be fifteen. This card makes a joke of the 'mythic' designation.
VirusVescichetta
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(1 vote)
If the CMC on this card was closer to 5 or 6, I get the feeling nowhere near as many people would be hating on it. Being a rare instead of a mythic would probably help, too. As is I got it out of a booster pack so I don't much care about the mythic status and it goes well in my sacrifice deck since it just lets me recycle all the cards I've already slaughtered in a three or four player game to keep boosting my big creatures with the added bonus of giving a bunch of life, something that's pretty hard to do in a B/W deck.
Crimson-Arcanum
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Pulled one of these in the prerelease and didn't even think about using it. Now that its over and I still have the card (was hoping some random collector would want it) I'm trying to find a use for it. The only thing I've got so far is a hilarious interaction with Eye of the Storm.
Seems kind of a long way of doing it, but hey, who knows.
Edit:Actually let me explain the Drogskol Reaver a bit better. Lets say you have 5 cards in your graveyard when you use this card. You will not be gaining 10 life. You will be gaining 2+2+2+2+2 life. This is important because of how it interacts with cards that benefit from life gain. So cards like Drogskol Reaver or Ajani's Pridemate will trigger for each 2 life gained. Does this mean that this card is good? No. This card is still rather terrible. If I'm going to abuse Drogskol Reaver I'm going to do it with Venser's Journal.
If I am wrong about this please tell me. I believe this is correct though because of cards that say you gain X life where X is double as apposed to cards that say 2 life for each.
Zaroganos
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(4 votes)
Absolutely horrible card. Compare to Green's Gnaw to the Bone {7}W for 2 life for each card in your graveyard VS {2}G for 2 life for each creature in your graveyard + {2}G flashback oh, and its a common. from innistrad. wtf wizards, wtf
Radagast
★★★★☆ (4.9/5.0)(4 votes)
Cards like this crop up every few sets, proving to all that no matter how much life you gain, if you don't actually have a way to win the game, it probably doesn't matter. The huge casting cost to get a huge amount of life doesn't help since you'll probably be dead by the time it is castable.
Pigfish99
★★★★☆ (4.1/5.0)(5 votes)
I've never seen so much rage for a mythic rare card.
O_o;
Duriele
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@Norrinthewary
Believe it or not I got two of these in a signe pack a foil and a reg.
lets just say many-a-puppy died that day...
but in a all seriousnes it is the first time i ever get 2 mythics in a single pack and it happned to be the same.. same pile of shi*
Phyrexian_Boss
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
WORST MYTHIC EVER! even if it were less mana... I pulled one of these and killed the guy next to me :(
Chamale
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(1 vote)
The second-lowest rated Mythic Rare on Gatherer is for Time Reversal. Ever since Alpha, Magic players have known that "draw seven cards" is a powerful piece of text. Time reversal is a "fixed" Power Nine card - it costs more mana than Timetwister and exiles itself, so you can't get an infinite loop going as you could with Timetwister.
This card's rating is half the rating for Time Reversal. Magic players are becoming more and more aware that lifegain is not worth the card, and paying 8 mana for just about anything is not worth the effort.
garganeraboy
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
I bought a pack and was praying not to get this, I got something just as lousy ---> Lost in the woods
total fail.
but in all reality, im not going to buy a single DKA pack again (except this saturday Feb-25, we have a company sealed event for MTG players).
ugh. damn card. might as well shred it in its place. When pulling a white card, im always hoping for a Thalia
The_Stray
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(3 votes)
Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy was THIS a mythic rare!? Crap rares I can deal with, but why the @#$% was I stuck with this POS when I could have been getting a Huntmaster of the Fells?
Sutebe
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(2 votes)
I pulled one of these accursed cards tonight. I don't care if this was a last minute decision by Wizards, it should have never seen the light of day.
shotoku64
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Reduce it to and this card would be rated at least one star higher, maybe even two. It would still never see play
Alex343
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Currently an unknown archetype. maybe there are even more graveyard shenanigans in Avacyn Restored. Maybe this is some sort of weird answer to mill?
Areps
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
weakest mythic rare ever!!!! Jace Beleren is glad for this print.
Ragamander
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
At some point, I will play against someone who casts this, and I will respond with False Cure. ... Then maybe Hive Mind and Morality Shift. That oughta teach whoever it is not to ever, EVER play this card.
Caarle..
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(1 vote)
So much hate going on. Yes, its not worth a mythic rare status but its pretty damn useful card still. I think this can be a lifesaver in Commander.
Shadoflaam
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
FUCKING EW. This is the exact reason Dark Ascension is the worst set to draft since Conf(l)ux. Garrus deserves better for his namesake...
kapewpew
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Dear gawd why is it that a card with such awesome flavor gets such a poop effect?
Scormio
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
For Wizards R&D future reference: We're in a graveyard set, I WANT cards in my graveyard, not in my library. I logged into my account JUST so I could rate this card down.
Here's a hint: Make this EXILE the OPPONENT'S graveyard and keep the lifegain effect. And make it 1 life per card and reduce the cost to 5.
Now we have a flavorful, playable card that isn't the worst draft pull of all time.
Even then, shouldn't be MYTHIC RARE ffs. How is this anywhere comparable to stuff like Huntmaster, Haveghul Lich, or even Helvault? As is (or my suggested version) should be at uncommon.
dingophone
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Why is this a mythic?! I seriously don't get this. In the same set as Havengul Lich, Huntmaster of the Fells, and Drogskul Reaver, we got this crap? .5/5 for being so worthless.
stikfigure16
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
it's definitely a good card to use against a discard deck.
NeoKoda
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
I'm not a giant fan of Mythic Rarity, especially making it more powerful than Rares, so this pleases me.
CaptainNinJoe
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Wizards admitted to screwing up when creating this card: "Oh, we don't have a white mythic." "But we send the set to print soon!" "QUICK! MAKE SOMETHING! Just don't make something broken!" "Really bad is better than crazy good, right?" "Sure, whatever." "On second thought, this would be bad even at rare..." "Can you think of something better? No? Then it's mythic."
Remember the last time Wizards made a last-minute decision that they almost immediately regretted? Last time that happened, Jace, the Mind Sculptor got Fateseal.
I guess I'd rather see a terrible mythic than an outright broken mythic that defines an era of Standard. But I've dodged the Archangel's bullet (so far), so I'm not one to complain about the card.
Enemy_Tricolor
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This looks like something that should have been in Redemption.
bfellow
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@CaptainNinJoe
Yeah they also made a quick change on Skullclamp. They change it to +1/-1 and equip 1 in last-minute from +1/+2 and equip 2.
Love they mention a Top 16 Nationals had 58 Skullclamps in decklist.
AvatarofBro
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(6 votes)
I can only wonder what this card's original ability was. MaRo admitted that it was so absolutely broken that they had to pull it last minute. Was it really so broken that we deserved this disgrace to Magic players instead? I can only imagine the look of disgust on the face of anyone unfortunate enough to pull one of these. Luckily when I pulled mine, it was in the context of another 35 packs, which helped soften the blow. I hope R&D is happy with the decision they made. .5/5
LordofLiege
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(3 votes)
So I have a friend who loves lifelink and I was helping him make decks after he bought a booster box and some fat packs. he pulled a Garruk Relentless and a Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. he gave me Garruk for my help and I offered him an Snapcaster mage for Sorin to put in his blue deck. he said he wanted this card instead. Best day ever.
phyrexiantrygon
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(3 votes)
The only thing I find funny is the amount of rage this card has received... somehow, I think the people raging are the same people who support Baneslayer... just saying... :P
SteinsGate
★★★☆☆ (3.2/5.0)(3 votes)
I was at the pre release for Dark Ascension and I opened one of these. The person across from me pulled a foil Huntmaster of the Fells I cried myself to sleep that night
Tackman
★★★★☆ (4.1/5.0)(5 votes)
My first foil mythic...
At first I laughed, then I realized my chances of getting this were as good as getting a foil Sorin, then I laughed some more!
Drewsel
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Not exiling all cards from each other graveyard and returning yours to your library.
Not gaining 3 life for each card exiled this way.
Not being instant speed.
Not having a reduced mythic status cost.
laughinghyenas.jpg
Even the guys in the art look incredibly bored and unenthused to be on this trash card.
JackP
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(13 votes)
Worst Mythic ever.
Smooch
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
A breif explanation to why this mythic is so horrid:
Archangel's Fire: Because I think most people who open this in a booster pack would sooner throw this card in a fire than into one of their decks.
swords_to_exile
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(8 votes)
Strictly a rare, and a mediocre one.
I'm sure I'll get down voted for this, but let's try and fix this card. 1) Lower the CMC 2) gain more life. 3) Ressurection 4) DON't shuffle the graveyard back, or make it a "you may" effect
Archangel's Light Mythic You gain 3 life for each card in your graveyard, then return up to one target creature with CMC 4 or less from your graveyard to play. You may shuffle your graveyard into your library.
RikerBlake
★★★★☆ (4.9/5.0)(8 votes)
Should have flashback just to insult us more.
Olivier1o1
★★★☆☆ (3.7/5.0)(7 votes)
Please remember: They had another card slotted for this, artwork was commisioned, name was made, etc - and they couldn't make it work. They needed something new at the last second, and, given the history of last second changes (See: batterskull, Umezawa's jitte as examples of last minute change mistakes), they decided to make it weak, as to not break the game.
Bogmire
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
A mythic? I think wizards did this as a joke...
MechaKraken
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
For white, this can be a last ditch effort to recover all of your creatures, while gaining life in the process. Timely Reinforcements will almost always be better when you are losing though.
I hate to admit it, but like junk rares, there can be junk mythics too. =/
atemu1234
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Hey, I liked this card. My opponent was milling my deck, I dropped this, and voila I won three turns later.
Guest1490290544
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Mythic rare to reduce the chances of players getting it.
HowardTreesong
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I would have rated this card lower, but I've just thought that it could combo very well with Tunnel Vision in Commander. But I wouldn't touch it in any normal games.
when a rare card from more than 10 years ago has about the same power level as a mythical rare now....
Admiral_Ferret
★☆☆☆☆ (1.8/5.0)(2 votes)
I don't get it, in white (especially fused with any color), but turn 8 (assuming it takes you that long), this card can be played with at least 8 (easily 12+ depending on the color)
8 mana: Gain.. 24 life, shuffle your library?.. I'd have to disagree with the majority here, it's a good card. With White doubling the life gain (5 CMC enchantment), ~48 life for 8 mana?.. even if it was 8 cards in the graveyard.. 24 life gain for 8 mana is pretty awesome. I'd probably use it.
Fictionarious
★★★☆☆ (3.2/5.0)(5 votes)
Without changing any of the effects besides their power or cost, how could you make this both playable in a certain sort of deck, and mythic? That's what I asked myself, and had the answer in a couple of seconds.
I think one part of the reason they thought this card "might" be safe to print as a mythic (at the last minute) is that it is one of the few "shuffle your graveyard into your library" cards that doesn't self-exile. Wizards must be very paranoid about not accidentally printing another Timetwister. However, Timetwister simultaneously replaced other copies of itself and allowed you to draw into them, while screwing up your opponent's planning ability, all for three mana. Without the card-draw, I don't really believe we have to be that paranoid about letting players achieve perpetual looping in the graveyard-to-library department. After all, Gaea's Blessing can replace copies of itself for just two mana, but it only draws you one card, and doesn't screw up the opponent's mojo in the process. Gaea's Blessing being one of the most classically named, illustrated, and balanced cards in the game, imo.
So HOW, really, did anyone let THIS happen, even at the last minute? I have trouble believing the developers know so little of their own game to let this happen, at the mythic rarity level of all places. So, like I said before, how could we fix it without actually changing or adding anything?
It serves two purposes - as a stall card, and a reset button for winning wars of attrition. Being a stall card, it should be an instant. What is the point of hard-casting this on your turn and gaining X life, when your opponent knows how much your new life total is prior to full-swinging for the win? There are two cases, either it wasn't enough and they still can, or you've bought yourself a few turns while they continue to build up, you having done nothing towards stopping them or their momentum. Making it instant speed would enable more mind-games and even enhance the flavor a bit imo.
Second, by the time you get access to 8 mana, gaining even another 20 or 40 life is usually pointless because in modern magic, someone is usually dominating the game in terms of board position at that point, so this cmc is WAY to restrictive. Let's reduce it to {W}. Seriously. One white mana. You're only gaining two life per card in your graveyard, after all. It's good, but conditionally, in a way that makes it better than it's cost to power would suggest - because the longer the game goes on, the more cards you will have in your graveyard, which is the more life you will gain when you flash it in, and you are most likely to need it most late-game. That would make it a good card. Rare-worthy, at least. Now let's make it mythic.
Let's give it Multikicker {W}. So that the wording could be something like this:
"You gain 2 plus two times X life for each card in your graveyard, where X is the number of times Archangel's Light was kicked, then shuffle your graveyard into your library".
Life-gain has to be this good to be playable anymore. Most players understand that life is just a cushion, it has no relevant effect on the game until it hits zero (or if someone is playing vampires that care if you have 10 or less, or some weird thing like that - I think they should print more cards that make specific life totals matter more).
Note that this card, while good, has a relevant drawback where Timetwister had a relevant bonus. Timetwister set itself up to be played again right afterward (because you could draw right into it again). This has reverse synergy with playing further copies of itself, and doesn't give you the card advantage to do it again regardless. It's a card that would require timing and thinking to utilize correctly, but when utilized correctly, could still be quite powerful if someone wasn't siding in answers to stop it (and there would be plenty of answers in any meta to stop it).
Why wasn't this the card that happened?
Adunar
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Holy ... I just saw this card the very first time. At first I thought it was just not good. Then I realized it was MYTHIC. I think something in my brain snapped.
Gcrudaplaneswalker
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(1 vote)
To be honest, I don't think many people (including myself) would play this if it was a common.
itsbov
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Now I almost never comment on cards but when I was opening a booster box of D.A, I was praying I didn't get one of these bad boys. And what do ya know! I pulled one! and not just one, a foil one. even beetteerrr. Now I am currently using this card in a penny sleeve as a bookmark. But I would like to give an opinion on how this card should have been made a real "mythic"
one white mana five colourless gain three life for each card in your graveyard return three creature cards from your graveyard to play return three cards from your graveyard to your hand draw three cards
I think if the card (or any card ever made this way) I wouldn't be using as a bookmark...
~Abdx
DacenOctavio
★★★★☆ (4.4/5.0)(8 votes)
My friend played this for full cost. Thanks to Reverberate, I saved 6 mana on my car insurance by switching to Geico.
R_if
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
can somebody tell me WTF WERE WIZARDS SMOKING when they printed this shit?!!
zeibura
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Rarity is stupid, but I would sideboard this in against a mill deck in an instant.
Lord_of_Gelectrodes
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Of all sets in this block, why on Earth is a card called "Archangel's Light" in Dark Ascension!!? Dark Ascension is supposed to be the set where there was no Avacyn! Was R&D trying to fill Dark Ascension with horrid rares and mythics?
BongRipper420
★☆☆☆☆ (1.5/5.0)(1 vote)
@Fictionarious I agree completely with everything you just said. I think they should've handled the cost that way instead.
If this card costed less, scored you more life per card, and didn't force you to shuffle your library (Thus obsoleting using multiples) it would've been playable. Look at Phosphorescent Feast, that's a 5 drop that can easily score you much more life that this card with much quicker and with very little effort with the likes of Khalni Hydra or Primalcrux.
As it is, it's just a shame that such wondrous art was placed on such a trash card. This had the chance to be the gem that life gain needed too. But most of the time I'd rather suspend (or even hardcast) Heroes Remembered.
As a side note, I'd bet this card be pretty dope in EDH, depending on the deck. So it's definitely not all bad.
alzabo
★★★★☆ (4.1/5.0)(4 votes)
This is a huge fail at mythic. With only like 1 out of every 10 packs even having a mythic, can you imagine the overwhelming disgust you would feel when you finally pulled a mythic and it ended up being this load of $#@!.
Horrible design. First, it's not enough life gain to warrant the cost unless you build around it. However, virtually every other card that wants lots of cards in the graveyard wants them to stay there so that you can recur all your permanents, or gain bonuses off the number of creatures in your graveyard. But this, this... load of..... it puts all your cards back in your library! Good job, wizards, making the little children cry.
EKraj
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I've Played for a year or so now, and I consider myself a good player. I understand whats good about necropotence an dark confidant and all that, but I love this piece. I'm not sure what's bad about it: i run four of these in a lifegain aggro deck, and I win all the time. I usually get into the hundreds and that gives me enough life to be able to survive forever. I also keep on shufflig my archangels lights back into my library thanks to other archangels lights. Could someone explain why it's bad?
Axelle
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Apparently the original effect of Archangel's Light was pulled and they had to replace it with another effect. Since they had little time to playtest, they had to come up with a low-powered card so that they wouldn't risk another Skullclamp.
It doesn't make this card any better, but it's very understandable.
Sironos
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(5 votes)
Boss: "Hi guys, remember I asked you to make an 8CMC mythic rare sorcery, so show me what you've got." Rob: "Well boss, I made this spell that summons 13 zombies to finish off your opponent." Boss: "Good, good, now, what do you have for me Gabriel?" Gabriel: "...huh? Sorry boss, I was drunk last night, and I think I fell asleep on my keyboard." Boss: "Oh what the hell, I'm sure it's fine, let's print it without looking at it and hope everything works out."
This is the only way I can imagine how this card was made. It should be named "How to make people stop buying boosters."
Ferlord
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
I was wishing for a spiritual reprint of Heroes Remembered I.E. gain X life, where X is greater than 20.
I was hoping it could've just gained 40 life. Why isn't there any card like that? Sure, it's not that playable, but it's hell more playable than this!
TheManakinTransfer
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Now why doesn't this say 'every'. If it was 2 life for each card in every graveyard and then shuffle every graveyard into their owners libraries then it may be playable. Cmc would still be 1-2 too high though. As it is, it isn't even playble in EDH.
monkeymonk42
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This is the lowest rated mythic of all time. The next lowest is rated 2.8 right now...
j_mindfingerpainter
★★★★☆ (4.1/5.0)(5 votes)
I don't want to even buy a Dark Ascension booster pack because of the likelihood that I could get this...
Kura-san
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(4 votes)
When you pull two of these, you can't help but frown and imagine there might've been a Sorin in there instead.
Continue
★★★☆☆ (3.2/5.0)(4 votes)
The first time I saw this card, I thought "hmm, that's interesting". Then I looked at it again and thought "this is actually pretty bad..." Then I kept looking at it. And I realized something: This card is almost completely useless. 8 mana for a card that's most likely counterproductive (as alzabo has already said, you want those cards to stay in your graveyard 99 times out of 100), and worse than most other life-gain cards besides... and my final revelation was what broke me.
This card is a mythic rare.
Let me repeat that. This card, one of the worst life-gain cards in existence... is a MYTHIC RARE.
I think I'm going to be sick. -1000/5. Wizards, the next time you print this — and I hope you never do — make it a common. Mythics are supposed to be amazing cards. Not amazingly terrible.
Wulfsten
★★★☆☆ (3.7/5.0)(3 votes)
I wouldn't use this card in any deck if it costed one White. I genuinely wouldn't.
When designing cards' casting costs, I always like to imagine R&D going through a process where they start by costing the card at 1 mana, then increase the cost by one mana each time (or by phasing into multicolor), stopping when it's no longer broken.
I don't understand what R&D team could have looked at a 4W version of this card and said "no, that's way too strong. It's gotta cost at least 3 more mana."
This thing is terrible. Why would you use this when you gain 7 life for just a white and a green in RtR?
RDorothy
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(2 votes)
garbage.
EGarrett01
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(5 votes)
Your dumb ass will be in the graveyard too by the time you can cast this.
Jojabi
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(3 votes)
I'd rather have a 1/1 3cmc than this... I could actually use that...
playyourcardsright
★☆☆☆☆ (1.5/5.0)(2 votes)
I want to believe that this card has potential. Yeah, lifegain's weak... and 8 mana is alot.... and depending on cards in the graveyard means having to play/mill/discard more than 1 card per turn for this to be worth it... but.... gee this is a tough one to stand up for.
But hey, it's a fun and flavourful card. A white deck that plays this is literally clinging to it's last threads of hope. Plus, it could be abused in casual decks, maybe with necropotence
blurrymadness
★☆☆☆☆ (1.3/5.0)(3 votes)
I think people are being a little harsh. Put two of these into a {W}{U} control deck and you'll probably find you gain 30-40 life on turn 8 with reasonable cantrips or similar. Don't run 3 or 4 of or you'll be running into it when you can't cast it.
Also notice that this instantly meets the win conditions in a Felidar Sovereign style deck.
To those bashing it on its rarity; limited would suffer from this being at common, and if it was rare you'd pull it even more often! If you hate the card, it's better to get less of it yeah? This didn't take the place of your Jace, think of it as not pulling 20 in place of *good* commons/uncommons
jedtothemax
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(3 votes)
Good enough for my hippo edh group hug deck.
azure_drake222222
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(2 votes)
This is the worst mythic ever, going by the rating.
Vividice
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This card is an insult for us Magic Players. Tiny upgraded Elixir of Immortality effect and double upgraded rarity. Imagine opening this in a Booster pack...
What annoys me most about this card: The other mythics would be 10% cheaper/more frequent opened if Archangel's Light wouldn't exist.
@Yozuk: That's not true. Cards like Elspeth Tirelnever yielded single increments of lifegain. Thus Ajani's Pridemate just gains a Single +1/+1 Counter for 8 Mana ;)
negativeview
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I just excitedly showed this card to a buddy, who needed exactly this.
Like everyone else I'd be sad if this took up my rare slot when drafting, but let's look at the card for what it's actually good for: sideboard anti-mill.
You're hitting them and reducing their life total. They're milling you. It takes some amount of turns for them to get you dangerously close to milled out. Then you cast this. You already have the mana because it's late game. You're okay playing only this for the turn because they aren't an aggressive deck. Their clock is set back to 59 - whatever is in your hand. Your clock is unaffected.
Nosrac
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Why is this card getting so much hate? I don't think it's great myself, but it has uses. For instance: I was in a multiplier game with two people. Late in game they decided to turn on me. I was milled out save four or so cards and had this in my hand. I dropped it and gained 146 life as well as undone all milling that had happened. I will very easily admit, however, that it is very overpriced as a mythic.
3 / 5
aznxknightz
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
My opponent played this. Later at another turn, he snapcaster'd this and played it, only to realize he gained 0 life. What a fail play from a fail card.
GrayWizard
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(4 votes)
They need to invent a 0/5 rating, just for this card.
Osar
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
The worst thing about this card is that Elixir of Immortality as an uncommon is better than this in anyway.
It's almost three times cheaper It's cost can be paid in to rounds It puts itself into the deck. It can be activated at instant speed.
The only negative side is that it "only" gives 5 life, and can be victim of removal.
... Seriously WotC making a mythic rare, which could easily have been a uncommon. Hell they could even have halved the CMC and it could maybe be squeeze into a rare slot.
eddned
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I actually board this against esper control, they'll just die
naxxcr
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@negativeview
The problem being that Psychic Spiral is a better anti-mill sideboard option in nearly every way. It costs less, it refills your library, it's instant speed, it potentially swings the game in your favor by threatening to mill out your opponent, and, perhaps best of all, it's uncommon instead of mythic.
kazenpaus
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Now you can play a Mythic in the "Gatherer-terrible"-format!
Claytoon
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Pssst...maybe someone should tell Wizards this crappy common got mistakenly labeled as a mythic during printing
Haplo81
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Complete waste of a mythic slot.
JaxsonBateman
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I just found this card while reading a forum post. I wish I hadn't. This card is just abysmal. The fact it's a mythic is almost a crime. If I pulled this as a mythic I'd probably burn it in disgust, and I'm disgusted that I can't give it a 0 rating.
Not only is it one of the worst noob traps around (card disadvantage for lifegain - one of the first lessons we learn is that in 90-95% of cases, it's a bad idea), and not only does it not shuffle itself like the occasionally-useful Elixir of Immortality - but it's sorcery speed, and costs 8 mana. So it costs a ridiculous amount of mana for a bad effect.
To put things into perspective, in white alone:
Elesh Norn = 7 mana Avacyn = 8 mana Iona = 9 mana
Should make a good coaster though.
psychichobo
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
So, apparently it was a last minute change due to borkenness? I can imagine it being useful if it were ALL graveyards, but not broken. I wonder what it could've been like...
Maese_Leo
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
You know how to improve this card? if you could return to the battlefield any amount of cards with a total CMC equal to the total life gained with it, shuffle the rest into your library. So if you gained 14 or 16 life, you could return 3 to 5 permanents average, that should do for a rare status.... maybe even return half the life gained rounded up of permanents..THAT could be a Mythic.
DoragonShinzui
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
@DacenOctavio: You paid just to double the life he gains from this? You sure are a nice fellow.
Notice how it doesn't say "target player", it says YOU. As in the caster of the spell. As in copying it will get you nowhere.
Lifegainwithbite
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
If it costed W, I still wouldn't play it except as maybe a one-off sideboard against mill decks. Pure lifegain without any board presence sucks.
Winhert
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
If it would cost like 3 to 5 mana it would be actually good/acceptable. Now it's just the worst mythic ever printed.
GeneralShroom
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@DoragonShinzui: Not quite. When you copy this with Reverberate, you put a copy of it onto the stack. You control the copy, so when the copy says 'you' it is referring to you.
That did indeed gain him life, and not double his opponent's lifegain.
111.2. A spell’s owner is the same as the owner of the card that represents it, unless it’s a copy. In that case, the owner of the spell is the player under whose control it was put on the stack. A spell’s controller is, by default, the player who put it on the stack. Every spell has a controller.
Incidentally, the rulings for Reverberate address this very question: "If the copy says that it affects "you," it affects the controller of the copy, not the controller of the original spell."
Arachibutyrophobia
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
lifegain doesn't have to suck if wizards stops printing cards like this
konokono
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Worst mythic right now, and I wouldn't be surprised if it retains that title for all eternity
LordRandomness
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Well...at least it's an okay limited card. (Seriously it is, there was a lot of mill in this block and if you build a stall deck it lets you mill your opponent passively pretty reliably).
DarthParallax
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
EDIT #2: (the rest of this post doesn't really matter, feel free to skip the OP and Edit 1) SOOO...this card.....lawlz. It sucks. It sucks BAD. Commander is not a place it can be good enough. BUT! I POSIT that ANY card deserves a Two-Star rating in the context of 'the Deck it belongs In', IF such a Deck can indeed be found.
So. Is there any deck where this card is worth a 2-star Rating? Actually. there is. It's a really, really obnoxious deck, and it makes this card THE MOST OBNOXIOUS CARD EVER. not like, 'broken obnoxious'. See, broken obnoxious can sometimes be funny or sometimes be so overpowered it's cool. No, I mean ACTUALLY obnoxious where you really want to punch your opponent, because this card is GOOD in this little CORNER case scenario....and the effect it causes is a PAINFUL, OBNOXIOUS GAME to be LONGER, AND PAINFULLER, AND OBNOXIOUSER. LAWL! It's Blue-White-Control Combo alright,
@BandswithOther, but NOTHING as clean and Spikey as Hive Mind or Donate. It might be 'combo' -only- because of the Sheer number of Tutors you'll run. Yep.
The Derpiest Deck gets the Derpiest Card for the Derpiest Use.
Ladies and Gentleman: Archangel's Light is the Wellwisher of Battle of Wits. Kinda the Time Reversal too. It gives you the part of that card you want most. Drawing 7 out of 200 is like drawing 2 out of 60, so...a bit less impressive. XP Like I said.......OB-NOX-IOUS XD Proof that cards that are this Bad in General can only be good in GROANER decks XD The kinds that make you raise your eyebrow and go "seriously? really?" :P
Dolorsa's guess is spot on. This is going straight to Commander. Jafar- no, the Helvault is Dark Ascension's Eye of Ugin, flavorfully, mechanically, powerfully- all of it. HELVAULT = EYE OF UGIN. HELVAULT = EYE OF UGIN. bet you $50 that Avacyn is going to be freed....along with 100,000 Demons that she's been hunting. With the Archangels back, Innistrad will be as fine as it ever is, but we are not looking at 'yay! everything is turning white and sparkly like in Beauty and the Beast!' we are looking at-- 'hmm...so now we have monsters that are hundreds of times more horrible even than the Dark Ascension...but we also get a holy champion with an army that can put up a fair fight...so...I guess we aren't going extinct...just in a lot of pain. that's kind of good news?' EDIT: Durielle, I wanted to tell you about how a similar thing happened to me today. :) So I'm going to relay this completely TRUE story of how I just got a pack with a Huntmaster of the Fells and a FOIL Huntmaster of the Fells in the same pack. I tell you this because I feel like provoking you to depopulate the world of puppies. 3:)
Soratami
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(5 votes)
At first I thought "it's not *that* bad.
Then I noticed the cost.
Then I noticed it's a mythic...
Enelysios
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Because I am bored: Archfiend's Delight For each creature card in your graveyard you may pay 2 life; if you do, return that card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
About the actual card in question though, it is annoyingly bad. I got 2 of these actually in packs. I should have stopped buying any after I got the first one. The annoyance factor here is key. Just as "One with Nothing" may not be the worst card ever, it was still a painful rare to draw. Archangel's light is a painfully useless mythic.
This card is not good in EDH, it is not good for life-gain, it is not good in limited, I will tell you why. Firstly lifegain is not a good primary effect for a card. Look at lifegain that people play: Lightning Helix, Baneslayer Angel, Vampire Nighthawk or exsanguinate make good examples. For each of these cards, there is a primary effect (Damage or an efficient creature) and lifegain acts as a nice addition. A few exceptions exist like Martyr of Sands Which is in fact played for lifegain, but also gets noted for being incredibly mana efficient. The problem is lifegain doesn't help you much if you are already losing. Early game it can buy you time for late game plays, late game you need a card that can turn the tides. If you have a bad board position, even an extra 40 life will vanish pretty quickly. Especially since you wasted an entire turn late game paying for this card, the more you pay for it the weaker lifegain tends to be. Most people are okay with paying a lot of mana for a lot of burn, a big creature or a lot of mill, but is a crazy cost for any card that won't bring you closer to victory over your opponent. Which brings me to my second point.
Archangel's light is too damn expensive. By a lot. The shuffle effect is astoundingly small. Elixir of Immortality will do it and gain you five life for . (Which can be spread out as and ) Feldon's Cane will do it for . Both will do it in any color, and both are still considered mediocre. Basically what you are paying for with archangel's light is lifegain. Lifegain wants to be supplemental to your winning strategy to be effective, but here we have a card that will require a serious expenditure of mana, brings you no closer to winning and doesn't effect your opponent's board at all. In block could buy you Alpha Brawl and wipe your opponent's field, Army of the Damned for 13 creature tokens, Avacyn, Angel of Hope herself for a fatty and indestructible for your whole field, Craterhoof Behemoth for a fatty and huge power boost for your killing blow or even the Griselbrand, a fatty with lifelink and a huge draw engine. Or... it could get you 40 or so life (in a good instance). This is literally the only or higher costed card that will not put you in a position to win the game, notably all the others will also save you from the brink of doom as well.
Other bad mythics are at least interesting or unique effects. You can forgive some of them because wizards was trying new things and didn't want to err on the side of power. Here we basically have a bunch of Elixir of Immortality duct taped together.
This is a very long rant in the end but the point is this: This card does not feel 'mythic' because it doesn't affect the board in a major way and is not unique, this card is not good because it costs a ton, this card is bad and Wizards R&D should feel bad.
Okuu-chan
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Poor mythic, getting hate-rated and all.
Here, let me hate-rate you some more. This card is the reason I stopped buying Dark Ascension.
Villainous1
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Guys, you're looking at this all wrong. This card is not as bad as you all seem to think!
No, it's worse! You see, this card is the key that unlocks a deck idea I hereby name "UW Eventual Mill", or "Why are we even fighting again?". The goal of this deck is to make your opponent run out of cards... the long way. Using blue cards such as Unsummon and Boomerang as well as a gratuitous number of counterspells, and white removal (Oblivion Rings, Path of Exile, Journey to Nowhere, Smite) and stalling (Guard Duty, Pacifism, Arrest, Heart of Light, Curse of Exhaustion) the opponent will be prevented from actually doing anything at all. You may not even need to run any creatures, though if you do I suggest those that combo with things like Smite in the most annoying fashion, e.g. Zealous Guardian or Goldenglow Moth. Add in Honden of Cleansing Fire and Honden of Seeing Winds for the extra lifegain and card throughput (which will have a huge effect over this very long game), and presto! You can stall for turn after turn!
Then, as the game drags on, you eventually hit Archangel's Light which tops up your life and gives you back all your counterspells, paths, journeys and boomerangs! OH WHAT FUN! Watch as all the people around you finish their matches and have to wait half an hour for yours to conclude in a horribly anticlimactic fashion with your opponent eventually drawing his entire library dry, the MTG analogue of succumbing to dementia. WOOO!
Considering all of this, I'd say that this card's rating needs to be raised from its current, paltry 1.2 to at least 1.4!
WindMasterArceus
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
This card can easily save you from decking. You people have to remember that some decks hate this card being used because it gives an even bigger life gain. When your opponent gains 80 life and shuffles away all your progress of trying to kill them, it sucks.
Gishra
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
If you're looking for the lowest rated Mythic Rare in the game, you've just found it. In fact, it's the only one rated less than two stars... and it's rated FAR less. Jank truly knows no bounds.
ultratog1028
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Probably could have cost 5W and still not have been OP.
ilikemarbles
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Mill your deck - > Djinn of Wishes -> Felidar Sovereign?
Ruaranicus
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
I think this is possibly the most flavourful mythic White could've had in Dark Ascension. After all, the whole point of the set is that the good guys are losing, right? Makes sense that they get absolutely s**te cards.
TheWrathofShane
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
~Instant speed + shuffled itself I would play this card as a 1 of.
Or
~Did all graveyards Would be huge lifegain in multiplayer, and reset everyones graveyard they have been filling up. Would be a strong card and perfectly balance.
Or
~Created 1/1 tokens for each card shuffled I would build decks around it.
But..
~Currently as is Combos with WTF and Wastebasket.
Seriously wizards, took me 5 minutes to write this. "Last minute change" is the most God-awful excuse on the planet. Mythic should not be painfully bad cards, someone should get fired over this...
Hercynian
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
If they gave it flashback and possibly nixed the graveyard thing I would've played with this.
Or just make the graveyard thing effect both players.
David.O
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
5/5 on the art! -1/5 on the cost and ability.
Swag_Crow
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(5 votes)
Why is this card so low rated? I mean, it's late game, and your health is down, and you've used a lot of spells. BOOM! Take a whiff of this bomb, and all that life comes rushing back, and then some! Even better, you get library advantage, so you can use those SAME SPELLS YOU CAST ALL OVER AGAIN! It's like a sleeping Reverberate! And would you look at that mana cost. 7W? It's even splashable! So please. Why all the hate for such an amazing card?
-Swag_Crow
Mistralis
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
The main comments in defense of this card are that you get to reuse your spells, gain a lot of life, and save from decking yourself.
First, reusing spells isn't necessarily a good thing. You know what's in your GY, but not your draw. You do know what's not your draw though- it's in your GY. Shuffling that back makes it harder to get what you want. You could've used Snapcaster Mage or even a simple return-cards to hand spell. In that same vein, this was printed in DKA/Innistrad standard- flashback made a return.
Next, the lifegain isn't actually that impressive, especially in EDH. Beacon of Immortality exists, and it's pretty good. This isn't nearly as good. There's lots of faster solutions that are better.
Finally, the anti-mill. Gaea's Embrace does that. Any creature with a shuffle effect like Worldspine Wurm also does that, or even better, ones of Emrakul quality.
Some people have speculated about building a deck around this. That deck is called dredge. That deck also doesn't concern itself with spells past 2 mana. That deck also wants its GY intact. That deck also actually tries to kill people instead of just being annoying.
In lifegain, there's a lot better, not-8-mana options.
And at the end of the day, all applications of it are pretty much fulfilled by 1-drop Elixir of Immortality.
gut.gemacht
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
This was the last card I needed to complete the set and I felt dirty as I bought the single. The set was probably more complete without this card in it.
the_unthinkable
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
It's this *** card and Emmara Tandris that make me think Wizards needs to kick some people of their design teams, because these last minute changes are bad design, and I feel it's the same person/people that caused the bs shift in design for Zenidar->Rise of the Eldrazi and Innistrad->Avacyn Restored, and shows their flaws with their rules for mythcs. The forced hard "15 mythics for large sets, 10 for small" rule is garbage for designing cycles, and when you need to complete them and some of them are too good or aren't finished, they get rehashed or create rushed *** that people open these damn things and feel cheated. If you can't complete the cycle, then don't, or in Emmara's case, increase the number of mythics for the set so the entire cycle can be mythic, which would have had one extra, or not because Maze's End couldn't be pulled in the Rare slot anyway, so their excuse holds no water as the numbers would have still been fine. It's one thing for designing cards for limited, it's another for *** on your consumers with garbage like this. Wizards needs to get off this design cycle and team because I'm sick of this crap.
Nucleon
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
The spiritual successor to One With Nothing.
From a retrospective meta standpoint, I think the first two sets of Innistrad block was probably a "dark hours" period for MtG fans as a whole, though no freaking way was that intentional. Certainly didn't threaten the game, but it was not a happy time.
We'd just had the atrocity that was Caw-Blade, and the first Standard bans since freaking RAVAGER AFFINITY. Other things still burning in player's minds were Lotus Cobra, the Infect mechanic, and a lot of very unpleasant "Mythic Rares are the Center of any Competitive Deck" cards from the core sets (Titans) and SOM block (Swords, Wurmcoil Engine, Batterskull, Tezz2, etc., mostly Wurmcoil though). People were in arms over how ridiculous Phyrexian Obliterator felt (unwarranted), but the bigger problem was Dismember (which everyone played out of fear of Obliterator, though stuck around with because -5/-5 for 4 life and 1 colorless and all) and the banned-in-record-time Mental Misstep. Blightsteel was a posterboy for Infect being stupidly broken, though it was really things like Inkmoth Nexus and Glistener Elf that were problems. (And once Modern was created, got Blazing Shoal banned almost immediately.) Sentiments of "MaRo's pet mechanic" ran high. Plus, we lost Mirrodin. Not a functional thing, but it was kind of depressing to see a nostalgic setting (the non-affinity stuff in Mirrodin was pretty cool, you got stuff like Mycosynth Lattice and all kinds of off-the-wall weirdies everywhere) get "killed off", though Melira and Karn hinted at a return.
Then we had Geist of Saint Traft, with it's ludicrously aggressive power in the CONTROL colors, and Snapcaster Mage released in the same set, making an already WU-heavy meta (Caw-Blade's coattails) go berserk. Transform cards were highly divisive because many of them were ridiculous in an inconsistent format, Limited, while being nigh-useless in constructed until Huntsmaster came along.
Oh, and Delver of Secrets and Runchanter's Pike, for crissakes. A lot of people, myself included, were left saying "Um, what? Why is U getting the most aggressive creatures?" Leaves a nasty taste in my mouth to this day, honestly.
Then came this piece of absolute garbage. I pulled one. Tore it in half and threw it in the store's recycling bin. Nobody even blinked at me doing so.
And after those dark times, Avacyn was freed. Plus, three little words had been announced right around the same time...
"Return to Ravnica".
leomistico
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Well, Nucleon, I liked Innistrad block, mostly because I love Flashback. Yes, there was Geist of Saint Traft and Invisible Stalker, but I hate them only for hexproof, an ability that, with indestructible, really are some of the most uninteresting and broken abilities. Note: both abilities are from the original Mirrodin block, from where we had only broken or stupid things, and some people still call it "the best block"... I really hope that we won't return to Mirrodin, it just is good as it is, as the new home of Phyrexia, a really worth villan, unlike Nicol Bolas that was almost everywhere without doing anything revelant...
Actually, if there is a block to blame that one is Mirrodin, both actually but the original overall.
Oh, and this card is a 0.5/5, not because is an almost useless mythic, but because is useless regardless its rarity... Luckly not every mythic is a super-powerful tournament card, but please at least not something like this!
GoOrmot2Go
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
I think this and Lingering Souls traded rarities. This was misprinted AS mythic and Lingering Souls was going to BE a mythic. That or Thalia, Guardian of Thraben.
Cleo_Kaerf
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(2 votes)
I actually really enjoy this card. But I tend to use it when I have sixty something cards in my graveyard, so that eight mana is worth it. Especially after the games been going on for hours and eight mana is nothing.
GrimjawxRULES
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(2 votes)
I could think of a few decks that would want this in EDH. Especially milling yourself with Traumatize and then casting this to gain ~ 60+ hp seems like a pretty decent play in a life-gain deck. Follow up with Storm Herd and laugh as you proceed to trample your opponents to death with what they considered to be crap rares.
EDIT: Whoever rated my comment 0.5/5 must really hate EDH >.>
troll_berserker
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Compare to Elixir of Immortality. The people who said this is good against mill because it gains you 80+ life forget that mill decks don't care about your life total. Chances are, mill will a) kill you before you reach 8 mana, or b) mill your archangel's light, which is much more likely than drawing it. Put a singleton Eldrazi in your deck and you will never get milled out, and you never have to pay mana for that effect.
CFLuke
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
My goodness, people, it's not that bad. I think you're all reacting to the "mythic" status more than anything. Judged on its own merits, it's fine. It's also combo-able with cards like turn lifegain into something else, and there are plenty of examples like that around. Cradle of Vitality, Griselbrand, Storm Herd, Sanguine Bond, etc. There are PLENTY of decks that place a lot of cards in your graveyard, and gaining what could be 60 life or may well buy you enough time to actually draw a card that helps you regain board position. It could exhaust decks that rely on cards that sacrifice themselves (e.g. Ball Lightning, decks that rely on mill, decks that rely on cheap, fast creatures without staying power, etc.
Comments (164)
And I don't like it very much. At 8 mana I'd expect to be casting a spell that tore my opponents' limbs off, not restored my life and library to their original sizes. But, then again, I'm not much of a control player.
Infernal Plunge a few tokens to get the mana early to play this and if that doesnt win you the game make more tokens and attack attack!
1/5
I could see this turning the tides in some EDH games, but man would I ever hate to pull this in a draft.
On the other hand, I'm happy they made it a mythic, so I won't get a billion of them, even if I know I will be opening this in at least half of my boosters. *Shrug*
Tl;dr: This card is worse than Gnaw to the Bone, which is a common.
EDIT: As to quote BlackAlbino from Wood Elemental:
"i can seriously see some guy pulling this guy from a booster and committing suicide on the spot"
This is meant for that angel/demon-deckmaking Timmy to poop himself upon opening. "aRChanGel!?!" "miFFik?!!"
Pulling cards like this can make you rethink how you spend your money. Wizards, we understand not every card can be great, or even good, or even mildly awful, but when those purposely awful cards are at mythic rarity it's infuriating.
This might have been of interest if it did this for all graveyards, which would mess with many of the graveyard effects of this block and of course strongly up the life gain...
Also, I made a check. Out of 224 Mythics so far (this includes reprints in FtV etc.) at this moment, DKA sports the two highest-ranked Mythics (Huntsmaster of the Fells followed by Havengul Lich)...
... and by far the worst. This one, at 1.3 at the moment. The next worst is the M12 version of Time Reversal, rated 3.15 (M11 has almost 4), almost identical to Conflux.
Also, like 90% of all Mythics have a rating of ~> 4 - so how in the hell could this happen??
On the other hand, they should be cheap!
To anyone complaining that lifegain sucks, why don't you try Basilisk Collar, Baneslayer Angel, True Conviction, or even Battlegrace Angel provided exalted isn't a drawback to your deck. Lifegain by itse;f (e.g., Angel's Mercy) is never good, but with a good ability it can be. Unfortunately, at this mana cost and as a sorcery, getting your graveyard back just isn't good enough.
The one way I can imagine: U/W combo control. Donate a Transcendence, then Hive Mind this. BUT even then there are probably more efficient ways of making life gain kill an opponent.
Hell even Razor Boomerang has an infinite damage combo.
THOUGH I pulled this in the pre-release sealed and ended up playing W with G/B support. It is easy to get your grave full in this set. I love riding Spider Spawning for win or stall. I let this card take a spot just for the fun of it and was able to gain over 16 easy and start reusing all my control from G/B and all the undying/aggro from green. Not efficient but the ONLY time this card will be fun to use. (didn't win which shows how bad my pulls were that day except for getting a Snap to pay for the draft after)
I let it through and retaliated in kind on the next turn. When it was his turn again, when his inflated points prompted him to recklessly attack once more, I used Clinging Mists and prevented damage and, thanks to fateful hour, tapped everything he had for an extra turn. He eventually lost because I was able to plow right through time and time again, but it was by far the most memorable game I played that day.
I suppose the point is that, even with more than three times his starting life total, he was still unable to win, which should be a lesson to anyone considering using this card.
I mean, even if you cheat cast this early game, it still doesn't do much by itself. I believe this card has potential, but it requires jumping through too many hoops to even come close to breaking it.
If your deck isn't winning, this card is not likely to make it win. If is winning, this card is unnecessary.
Of course not all mythics are designed to be important for good constructed decks, but they should at least compare favorably to the powerful mythics in terms of fun and flavor and make you want to build around the card. Something like Platinum Emperion is a neat example of a mythic rare with an impressive flavor and usability for laughs in more casual decks or niche combo decks.
With Archangel's Light none of my Magic buttons are being pushed. It's just a boring card if you ask me and it's made me a tad more sceptical of the whole mythic rare thing.
I don't want more Wallet-Sculptor mythics, but more of these kinds of mythics seems almost worse.
Also because I'm a troll.
Seems kind of a long way of doing it, but hey, who knows.
Edit:Actually let me explain the Drogskol Reaver a bit better. Lets say you have 5 cards in your graveyard when you use this card. You will not be gaining 10 life. You will be gaining 2+2+2+2+2 life. This is important because of how it interacts with cards that benefit from life gain. So cards like Drogskol Reaver or Ajani's Pridemate will trigger for each 2 life gained. Does this mean that this card is good? No. This card is still rather terrible. If I'm going to abuse Drogskol Reaver I'm going to do it with Venser's Journal.
If I am wrong about this please tell me. I believe this is correct though because of cards that say you gain X life where X is double as apposed to cards that say 2 life for each.
{7}W for 2 life for each card in your graveyard
VS
{2}G for 2 life for each creature in your graveyard + {2}G flashback
oh, and its a common. from innistrad. wtf wizards, wtf
O_o;
Believe it or not I got two of these in a signe pack a foil and a reg.
lets just say many-a-puppy died that day...
but in a all seriousnes it is the first time i ever get 2 mythics in a single pack and it happned to be the same.. same pile of shi*
even if it were less mana...
I pulled one of these and killed the guy next to me :(
This card's rating is half the rating for Time Reversal. Magic players are becoming more and more aware that lifegain is not worth the card, and paying 8 mana for just about anything is not worth the effort.
total fail.
but in all reality, im not going to buy a single DKA pack again (except this saturday Feb-25, we have a company sealed event for MTG players).
ugh. damn card. might as well shred it in its place. When pulling a white card, im always hoping for a Thalia
It would still never see play
...
Then maybe Hive Mind and Morality Shift. That oughta teach whoever it is not to ever, EVER play this card.
Garrus deserves better for his namesake...
Here's a hint: Make this EXILE the OPPONENT'S graveyard and keep the lifegain effect. And make it 1 life per card and reduce the cost to 5.
Now we have a flavorful, playable card that isn't the worst draft pull of all time.
Even then, shouldn't be MYTHIC RARE ffs. How is this anywhere comparable to stuff like Huntmaster, Haveghul Lich, or even Helvault? As is (or my suggested version) should be at uncommon.
"Oh, we don't have a white mythic."
"But we send the set to print soon!"
"QUICK! MAKE SOMETHING! Just don't make something broken!"
"Really bad is better than crazy good, right?"
"Sure, whatever."
"On second thought, this would be bad even at rare..."
"Can you think of something better? No? Then it's mythic."
Remember the last time Wizards made a last-minute decision that they almost immediately regretted? Last time that happened, Jace, the Mind Sculptor got Fateseal.
I guess I'd rather see a terrible mythic than an outright broken mythic that defines an era of Standard. But I've dodged the Archangel's bullet (so far), so I'm not one to complain about the card.
Yeah they also made a quick change on Skullclamp. They change it to +1/-1 and equip 1 in last-minute from +1/+2 and equip 2.
Love they mention a Top 16 Nationals had 58 Skullclamps in decklist.
I hope R&D is happy with the decision they made.
.5/5
The person across from me pulled a foil Huntmaster of the Fells
I cried myself to sleep that night
At first I laughed, then I realized my chances of getting this were as good as getting a foil Sorin, then I laughed some more!
Not gaining 3 life for each card exiled this way.
Not being instant speed.
Not having a reduced mythic status cost.
laughinghyenas.jpg
Even the guys in the art look incredibly bored and unenthused to be on this trash card.
http://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/s6iw9/ama_with_mark_rosewater_head_designer_of_magic/c4byy1z
I'm sure I'll get down voted for this, but let's try and fix this card.
1) Lower the CMC
2) gain more life.
3) Ressurection
4) DON't shuffle the graveyard back, or make it a "you may" effect
Archangel's Light
Mythic
You gain 3 life for each card in your graveyard, then return up to one target creature with CMC 4 or less from your graveyard to play. You may shuffle your graveyard into your library.
I think wizards did this as a joke...
I hate to admit it, but like junk rares, there can be junk mythics too. =/
when a rare card from more than 10 years ago has about the same power level as a mythical rare now....
8 mana: Gain.. 24 life, shuffle your library?.. I'd have to disagree with the majority here, it's a good card. With White doubling the life gain (5 CMC enchantment), ~48 life for 8 mana?.. even if it was 8 cards in the graveyard.. 24 life gain for 8 mana is pretty awesome. I'd probably use it.
I think one part of the reason they thought this card "might" be safe to print as a mythic (at the last minute) is that it is one of the few "shuffle your graveyard into your library" cards that doesn't self-exile. Wizards must be very paranoid about not accidentally printing another Timetwister. However, Timetwister simultaneously replaced other copies of itself and allowed you to draw into them, while screwing up your opponent's planning ability, all for three mana. Without the card-draw, I don't really believe we have to be that paranoid about letting players achieve perpetual looping in the graveyard-to-library department. After all, Gaea's Blessing can replace copies of itself for just two mana, but it only draws you one card, and doesn't screw up the opponent's mojo in the process. Gaea's Blessing being one of the most classically named, illustrated, and balanced cards in the game, imo.
So HOW, really, did anyone let THIS happen, even at the last minute? I have trouble believing the developers know so little of their own game to let this happen, at the mythic rarity level of all places.
So, like I said before, how could we fix it without actually changing or adding anything?
It serves two purposes - as a stall card, and a reset button for winning wars of attrition. Being a stall card, it should be an instant. What is the point of hard-casting this on your turn and gaining X life, when your opponent knows how much your new life total is prior to full-swinging for the win? There are two cases, either it wasn't enough and they still can, or you've bought yourself a few turns while they continue to build up, you having done nothing towards stopping them or their momentum. Making it instant speed would enable more mind-games and even enhance the flavor a bit imo.
Second, by the time you get access to 8 mana, gaining even another 20 or 40 life is usually pointless because in modern magic, someone is usually dominating the game in terms of board position at that point, so this cmc is WAY to restrictive. Let's reduce it to {W}. Seriously. One white mana. You're only gaining two life per card in your graveyard, after all. It's good, but conditionally, in a way that makes it better than it's cost to power would suggest - because the longer the game goes on, the more cards you will have in your graveyard, which is the more life you will gain when you flash it in, and you are most likely to need it most late-game. That would make it a good card. Rare-worthy, at least. Now let's make it mythic.
Let's give it Multikicker {W}. So that the wording could be something like this:
"You gain 2 plus two times X life for each card in your graveyard, where X is the number of times Archangel's Light was kicked, then shuffle your graveyard into your library".
Life-gain has to be this good to be playable anymore. Most players understand that life is just a cushion, it has no relevant effect on the game until it hits zero (or if someone is playing vampires that care if you have 10 or less, or some weird thing like that - I think they should print more cards that make specific life totals matter more).
Note that this card, while good, has a relevant drawback where Timetwister had a relevant bonus. Timetwister set itself up to be played again right afterward (because you could draw right into it again). This has reverse synergy with playing further copies of itself, and doesn't give you the card advantage to do it again regardless. It's a card that would require timing and thinking to utilize correctly, but when utilized correctly, could still be quite powerful if someone wasn't siding in answers to stop it (and there would be plenty of answers in any meta to stop it).
Why wasn't this the card that happened?
one white mana five colourless
gain three life for each card in your graveyard
return three creature cards from your graveyard to play
return three cards from your graveyard to your hand
draw three cards
I think if the card (or any card ever made this way) I wouldn't be using as a bookmark...
~Abdx
I agree completely with everything you just said. I think they should've handled the cost that way instead.
If this card costed less, scored you more life per card, and didn't force you to shuffle your library (Thus obsoleting using multiples) it would've been playable. Look at Phosphorescent Feast, that's a 5 drop that can easily score you much more life that this card with much quicker and with very little effort with the likes of Khalni Hydra or Primalcrux.
As it is, it's just a shame that such wondrous art was placed on such a trash card. This had the chance to be the gem that life gain needed too. But most of the time I'd rather suspend (or even hardcast) Heroes Remembered.
As a side note, I'd bet this card be pretty dope in EDH, depending on the deck. So it's definitely not all bad.
Horrible design. First, it's not enough life gain to warrant the cost unless you build around it. However, virtually every other card that wants lots of cards in the graveyard wants them to stay there so that you can recur all your permanents, or gain bonuses off the number of creatures in your graveyard. But this, this... load of..... it puts all your cards back in your library! Good job, wizards, making the little children cry.
It doesn't make this card any better, but it's very understandable.
Rob: "Well boss, I made this spell that summons 13 zombies to finish off your opponent."
Boss: "Good, good, now, what do you have for me Gabriel?"
Gabriel: "...huh? Sorry boss, I was drunk last night, and I think I fell asleep on my keyboard."
Boss: "Oh what the hell, I'm sure it's fine, let's print it without looking at it and hope everything works out."
This is the only way I can imagine how this card was made. It should be named "How to make people stop buying boosters."
I was hoping it could've just gained 40 life. Why isn't there any card like that? Sure, it's not that playable, but it's hell more playable than this!
This card is a mythic rare.
Let me repeat that. This card, one of the worst life-gain cards in existence... is a MYTHIC RARE.
I think I'm going to be sick. -1000/5. Wizards, the next time you print this — and I hope you never do — make it a common. Mythics are supposed to be amazing cards. Not amazingly terrible.
When designing cards' casting costs, I always like to imagine R&D going through a process where they start by costing the card at 1 mana, then increase the cost by one mana each time (or by phasing into multicolor), stopping when it's no longer broken.
I don't understand what R&D team could have looked at a 4W version of this card and said "no, that's way too strong. It's gotta cost at least 3 more mana."
But hey, it's a fun and flavourful card. A white deck that plays this is literally clinging to it's last threads of hope. Plus, it could be abused in casual decks, maybe with necropotence
Also notice that this instantly meets the win conditions in a Felidar Sovereign style deck.
To those bashing it on its rarity; limited would suffer from this being at common, and if it was rare you'd pull it even more often! If you hate the card, it's better to get less of it yeah? This didn't take the place of your Jace, think of it as not pulling 20 in place of *good* commons/uncommons
Tiny upgraded Elixir of Immortality effect and double upgraded rarity.
Imagine opening this in a Booster pack...
What annoys me most about this card: The other mythics would be 10% cheaper/more frequent opened if Archangel's Light wouldn't exist.
@Yozuk: That's not true. Cards like Elspeth Tirel never yielded single increments of lifegain. Thus Ajani's Pridemate just gains a Single +1/+1 Counter for 8 Mana ;)
Like everyone else I'd be sad if this took up my rare slot when drafting, but let's look at the card for what it's actually good for: sideboard anti-mill.
You're hitting them and reducing their life total. They're milling you. It takes some amount of turns for them to get you dangerously close to milled out. Then you cast this. You already have the mana because it's late game. You're okay playing only this for the turn because they aren't an aggressive deck. Their clock is set back to 59 - whatever is in your hand. Your clock is unaffected.
3 / 5
It's almost three times cheaper
It's cost can be paid in to rounds
It puts itself into the deck.
It can be activated at instant speed.
The only negative side is that it "only" gives 5 life, and can be victim of removal.
... Seriously WotC making a mythic rare, which could easily have been a uncommon.
Hell they could even have halved the CMC and it could maybe be squeeze into a rare slot.
The problem being that Psychic Spiral is a better anti-mill sideboard option in nearly every way. It costs less, it refills your library, it's instant speed, it potentially swings the game in your favor by threatening to mill out your opponent, and, perhaps best of all, it's uncommon instead of mythic.
Not only is it one of the worst noob traps around (card disadvantage for lifegain - one of the first lessons we learn is that in 90-95% of cases, it's a bad idea), and not only does it not shuffle itself like the occasionally-useful Elixir of Immortality - but it's sorcery speed, and costs 8 mana. So it costs a ridiculous amount of mana for a bad effect.
To put things into perspective, in white alone:
Elesh Norn = 7 mana
Avacyn = 8 mana
Iona = 9 mana
Should make a good coaster though.
Notice how it doesn't say "target player", it says YOU. As in the caster of the spell. As in copying it will get you nowhere.
Now it's just the worst mythic ever printed.
That
111.2. A spell’s owner is the same as the owner of the card that represents it, unless it’s a copy. In that case, the owner of the spell is the player under whose control it was put on the stack. A spell’s controller is, by default, the player who put it on the stack. Every spell has a controller.
Incidentally, the rulings for Reverberate address this very question:
"If the copy says that it affects "you," it affects the controller of the copy, not the controller of the original spell."
So. Is there any deck where this card is worth a 2-star Rating? Actually. there is. It's a really, really obnoxious deck, and it makes this card THE MOST OBNOXIOUS CARD EVER. not like, 'broken obnoxious'. See, broken obnoxious can sometimes be funny or sometimes be so overpowered it's cool. No, I mean ACTUALLY obnoxious where you really want to punch your opponent, because this card is GOOD in this little CORNER case scenario....and the effect it causes is a PAINFUL, OBNOXIOUS GAME to be LONGER, AND PAINFULLER, AND OBNOXIOUSER. LAWL! It's Blue-White-Control Combo alright,
@BandswithOther, but NOTHING as clean and Spikey as Hive Mind or Donate. It might be 'combo' -only- because of the Sheer number of Tutors you'll run. Yep.
The Derpiest Deck gets the Derpiest Card for the Derpiest Use.
Ladies and Gentleman: Archangel's Light is the Wellwisher of Battle of Wits. Kinda the Time Reversal too. It gives you the part of that card you want most. Drawing 7 out of 200 is like drawing 2 out of 60, so...a bit less impressive. XP Like I said.......OB-NOX-IOUS XD Proof that cards that are this Bad in General can only be good in GROANER decks XD The kinds that make you raise your eyebrow and go "seriously? really?" :P
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Dolorsa's guess is spot on. This is going straight to Commander.
Jafar- no, the Helvault is Dark Ascension's Eye of Ugin, flavorfully, mechanically, powerfully- all of it.
HELVAULT = EYE OF UGIN. HELVAULT = EYE OF UGIN.
bet you $50 that Avacyn is going to be freed....along with 100,000 Demons that she's been hunting. With the Archangels back, Innistrad will be as fine as it ever is, but we are not looking at 'yay! everything is turning white and sparkly like in Beauty and the Beast!' we are looking at-- 'hmm...so now we have monsters that are hundreds of times more horrible even than the Dark Ascension...but we also get a holy champion with an army that can put up a fair fight...so...I guess we aren't going extinct...just in a lot of pain. that's kind of good news?'
EDIT: Durielle, I wanted to tell you about how a similar thing happened to me today. :) So I'm going to relay this completely TRUE story of how I just got a pack with a Huntmaster of the Fells and a FOIL Huntmaster of the Fells in the same pack. I tell you this because I feel like provoking you to depopulate the world of puppies. 3:)
Then I noticed the cost.
Then I noticed it's a mythic...
Archfiend's Delight
For each creature card in your graveyard you may pay 2 life; if you do, return that card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
About the actual card in question though, it is annoyingly bad. I got 2 of these actually in packs. I should have stopped buying any after I got the first one. The annoyance factor here is key. Just as "One with Nothing" may not be the worst card ever, it was still a painful rare to draw. Archangel's light is a painfully useless mythic.
This card is not good in EDH, it is not good for life-gain, it is not good in limited, I will tell you why. Firstly lifegain is not a good primary effect for a card. Look at lifegain that people play: Lightning Helix, Baneslayer Angel, Vampire Nighthawk or exsanguinate make good examples. For each of these cards, there is a primary effect (Damage or an efficient creature) and lifegain acts as a nice addition. A few exceptions exist like Martyr of Sands Which is in fact played for lifegain, but also gets noted for being incredibly mana efficient. The problem is lifegain doesn't help you much if you are already losing. Early game it can buy you time for late game plays, late game you need a card that can turn the tides. If you have a bad board position, even an extra 40 life will vanish pretty quickly. Especially since you wasted an entire turn late game paying for this card, the more you pay for it the weaker lifegain tends to be. Most people are okay with paying a lot of mana for a lot of burn, a big creature or a lot of mill, but
Archangel's light is too damn expensive. By a lot. The shuffle effect is astoundingly small. Elixir of Immortality will do it and gain you five life for
Other bad mythics are at least interesting or unique effects. You can forgive some of them because wizards was trying new things and didn't want to err on the side of power. Here we basically have a bunch of Elixir of Immortality duct taped together.
This is a very long rant in the end but the point is this: This card does not feel 'mythic' because it doesn't affect the board in a major way and is not unique, this card is not good because it costs a ton, this card is bad and Wizards R&D should feel bad.
Here, let me hate-rate you some more. This card is the reason I stopped buying Dark Ascension.
No, it's worse! You see, this card is the key that unlocks a deck idea I hereby name "UW Eventual Mill", or "Why are we even fighting again?". The goal of this deck is to make your opponent run out of cards... the long way. Using blue cards such as Unsummon and Boomerang as well as a gratuitous number of counterspells, and white removal (Oblivion Rings, Path of Exile, Journey to Nowhere, Smite) and stalling (Guard Duty, Pacifism, Arrest, Heart of Light, Curse of Exhaustion) the opponent will be prevented from actually doing anything at all. You may not even need to run any creatures, though if you do I suggest those that combo with things like Smite in the most annoying fashion, e.g. Zealous Guardian or Goldenglow Moth. Add in Honden of Cleansing Fire and Honden of Seeing Winds for the extra lifegain and card throughput (which will have a huge effect over this very long game), and presto! You can stall for turn after turn!
Then, as the game drags on, you eventually hit Archangel's Light which tops up your life and gives you back all your counterspells, paths, journeys and boomerangs! OH WHAT FUN! Watch as all the people around you finish their matches and have to wait half an hour for yours to conclude in a horribly anticlimactic fashion with your opponent eventually drawing his entire library dry, the MTG analogue of succumbing to dementia. WOOO!
Considering all of this, I'd say that this card's rating needs to be raised from its current, paltry 1.2 to at least 1.4!
I would play this card as a 1 of.
Or
~Did all graveyards
Would be huge lifegain in multiplayer, and reset everyones graveyard they have been filling up. Would be a strong card and perfectly balance.
Or
~Created 1/1 tokens for each card shuffled
I would build decks around it.
But..
~Currently as is
Combos with WTF and Wastebasket.
Seriously wizards, took me 5 minutes to write this. "Last minute change" is the most God-awful excuse on the planet. Mythic should not be painfully bad cards, someone should get fired over this...
Or just make the graveyard thing effect both players.
-Swag_Crow
First, reusing spells isn't necessarily a good thing. You know what's in your GY, but not your draw. You do know what's not your draw though- it's in your GY. Shuffling that back makes it harder to get what you want. You could've used Snapcaster Mage or even a simple return-cards to hand spell. In that same vein, this was printed in DKA/Innistrad standard- flashback made a return.
Next, the lifegain isn't actually that impressive, especially in EDH. Beacon of Immortality exists, and it's pretty good. This isn't nearly as good. There's lots of faster solutions that are better.
Finally, the anti-mill. Gaea's Embrace does that. Any creature with a shuffle effect like Worldspine Wurm also does that, or even better, ones of Emrakul quality.
Some people have speculated about building a deck around this. That deck is called dredge. That deck also doesn't concern itself with spells past 2 mana. That deck also wants its GY intact. That deck also actually tries to kill people instead of just being annoying.
In lifegain, there's a lot better, not-8-mana options.
And at the end of the day, all applications of it are pretty much fulfilled by 1-drop Elixir of Immortality.
If you can't complete the cycle, then don't, or in Emmara's case, increase the number of mythics for the set so the entire cycle can be mythic, which would have had one extra, or not because Maze's End couldn't be pulled in the Rare slot anyway, so their excuse holds no water as the numbers would have still been fine.
It's one thing for designing cards for limited, it's another for *** on your consumers with garbage like this. Wizards needs to get off this design cycle and team because I'm sick of this crap.
From a retrospective meta standpoint, I think the first two sets of Innistrad block was probably a "dark hours" period for MtG fans as a whole, though no freaking way was that intentional. Certainly didn't threaten the game, but it was not a happy time.
We'd just had the atrocity that was Caw-Blade, and the first Standard bans since freaking RAVAGER AFFINITY. Other things still burning in player's minds were Lotus Cobra, the Infect mechanic, and a lot of very unpleasant "Mythic Rares are the Center of any Competitive Deck" cards from the core sets (Titans) and SOM block (Swords, Wurmcoil Engine, Batterskull, Tezz2, etc., mostly Wurmcoil though). People were in arms over how ridiculous Phyrexian Obliterator felt (unwarranted), but the bigger problem was Dismember (which everyone played out of fear of Obliterator, though stuck around with because -5/-5 for 4 life and 1 colorless and all) and the banned-in-record-time Mental Misstep. Blightsteel was a posterboy for Infect being stupidly broken, though it was really things like Inkmoth Nexus and Glistener Elf that were problems. (And once Modern was created, got Blazing Shoal banned almost immediately.) Sentiments of "MaRo's pet mechanic" ran high. Plus, we lost Mirrodin. Not a functional thing, but it was kind of depressing to see a nostalgic setting (the non-affinity stuff in Mirrodin was pretty cool, you got stuff like Mycosynth Lattice and all kinds of off-the-wall weirdies everywhere) get "killed off", though Melira and Karn hinted at a return.
Then we had Geist of Saint Traft, with it's ludicrously aggressive power in the CONTROL colors, and Snapcaster Mage released in the same set, making an already WU-heavy meta (Caw-Blade's coattails) go berserk. Transform cards were highly divisive because many of them were ridiculous in an inconsistent format, Limited, while being nigh-useless in constructed until Huntsmaster came along.
Oh, and Delver of Secrets and Runchanter's Pike, for crissakes. A lot of people, myself included, were left saying "Um, what? Why is U getting the most aggressive creatures?" Leaves a nasty taste in my mouth to this day, honestly.
Then came this piece of absolute garbage. I pulled one. Tore it in half and threw it in the store's recycling bin. Nobody even blinked at me doing so.
And after those dark times, Avacyn was freed. Plus, three little words had been announced right around the same time...
"Return to Ravnica".
Actually, if there is a block to blame that one is Mirrodin, both actually but the original overall.
Oh, and this card is a 0.5/5, not because is an almost useless mythic, but because is useless regardless its rarity... Luckly not every mythic is a super-powerful tournament card, but please at least not something like this!
EDIT: Whoever rated my comment 0.5/5 must really hate EDH >.>