What happens if your opponent chooses to replace damage with removing echo counters until your next upkeep and then you bounce Soul Echo with Rescue or a similar effect? Is damage replaced by some sort of null event? Of course, once your opponent knows you can bounce Soul Echo, he/she will just choose to deal damage to you until you're below 1 life, but it would save you for two turns if you did manage to trick your opponent.
Wait, on second thought, why would your opponent ever choose to remove echo counters while you're above 0 life? He/she will have to get rid of Soul Echo and reduce you to 0 or less either way, and reducing your life first means that you can't delay your demise with bounce-induced shenanigans. The only case where getting rid of Soul Echo would be the priority would be if your opponent expects you to play Delaying Shield and has no way to get rid of either.
@Nil_Athelion: I like the way you think. Just hope your opponent has no way to destroy enchantments. Double Greater Auramancy/Sterling Grove, perhaps? Also, infinite activations of Lethal Vapors is a little...inflexible. How about just ending each of your turns before the trigger resolves with Sundial of the Infinite? That way you can stop the process if your opponent blows up your Soul Echo.
FatalEagle
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Don't be decieved.
Basically,
You gain X life.
Corey_bayoudragonfly
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
It's also {W}{W} : being at 0 or less life won't kill you until your next upkeep, as that is the only time when it is sacrificed for having no counters. That may seem pointless, but it can be useful for mass damage or life-loss spells, e.g. Earthquake effects, Pestilence effects, Death Cloud, &c.; essentially you get a free turn to inflict as much damage as you can to all parties, not worrying about yourself losing. Also importantly (stemming from the previous), even if you do pay some nonzero X, you have a first turn of not removing counters, as the upkeep has already happened for the turn you've played it, and then on each subsequent turn that begins with counters still on Soul Echo at the upkeep, you're still set for that turn cycle, as the enchantment will continue to replace the damage with removing counters (even though there are none), not checking for sac-purposes until your subsequent upkeep. This is particularly cool with loss-of-life cards like Death Cloud, as mere loss of life does not cause the counters to be removed.
FurnaceOfRath
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Potentially the cheapest of "you don't lose the game for having zero or less life" cards. If your plan is to abuse it (through the likes of the already mentioned Eon Hub or perhaps something else), then it essentially costs . Maybe, if your opponent isn't running any artifact or enchantment removal, you could use Sundial of the infinite and this in a "skip all my turns until you mill yourself out" deck. The combo can be up and running as early as turn two.
LordRandomness
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@FatalEagle - It's a bit better than that. - First off you can cast it for {W}{W} to prevent yourself from dying for one turn. If you can spend all your life on a kill effect, then hey. - Secondly, Eon Hub has been mentioned like a billion times. - Thirdly, even without shenanigans your opponent has to select which thing takes damage in TURNS. If you have 1 life and you play this for 1, IT NOW TAKES YOUR OPPONENT TWO TURNS TO KILL YOU. It acts like an Angel's Grace in a lot of ways, but with more combo potential and the ability to act as pseudo-lifegain trading off the increased mana cost of 3 (at minimum for the Grace effect) - Fourthly, life loss can never be redirected to remove the counters. This card means you have to be dealt damage equal to the number of counters on it, which means if your opponent is hurting you through life loss (or you have something like Delaying Shield) they can't kill you.
Comments (12)
Wait, on second thought, why would your opponent ever choose to remove echo counters while you're above 0 life? He/she will have to get rid of Soul Echo and reduce you to 0 or less either way, and reducing your life first means that you can't delay your demise with bounce-induced shenanigans. The only case where getting rid of Soul Echo would be the priority would be if your opponent expects you to play Delaying Shield and has no way to get rid of either.
@Nil_Athelion:
I like the way you think. Just hope your opponent has no way to destroy enchantments. Double Greater Auramancy/Sterling Grove, perhaps? Also, infinite activations of Lethal Vapors is a little...inflexible. How about just ending each of your turns before the trigger resolves with Sundial of the Infinite? That way you can stop the process if your opponent blows up your Soul Echo.
Basically,
You gain X life.
Also importantly (stemming from the previous), even if you do pay some nonzero X, you have a first turn of not removing counters, as the upkeep has already happened for the turn you've played it, and then on each subsequent turn that begins with counters still on Soul Echo at the upkeep, you're still set for that turn cycle, as the enchantment will continue to replace the damage with removing counters (even though there are none), not checking for sac-purposes until your subsequent upkeep.
This is particularly cool with loss-of-life cards like Death Cloud, as mere loss of life does not cause the counters to be removed.
- First off you can cast it for {W}{W} to prevent yourself from dying for one turn. If you can spend all your life on a kill effect, then hey.
- Secondly, Eon Hub has been mentioned like a billion times.
- Thirdly, even without shenanigans your opponent has to select which thing takes damage in TURNS. If you have 1 life and you play this for 1, IT NOW TAKES YOUR OPPONENT TWO TURNS TO KILL YOU. It acts like an Angel's Grace in a lot of ways, but with more combo potential and the ability to act as pseudo-lifegain trading off the increased mana cost of 3 (at minimum for the Grace effect)
- Fourthly, life loss can never be redirected to remove the counters. This card means you have to be dealt damage equal to the number of counters on it, which means if your opponent is hurting you through life loss (or you have something like Delaying Shield) they can't kill you.