The best answer to mill decks and can be played very early. If you do play it early, try to always leave up the 2 so you can activate it in response to an Oblivion Ring or what not.
An absolute savior in casual multiplayer in recursion decks, control decks, mill decks, or decks that tend to stall out for a long time or draw too many cards but are too ineffective to use them. (I had a Pulse of the Tangle + Greater Good deck like that..)
clippedin
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This card has given me many a life.
Ataraxiom
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
Ironically, this thing is a star player in my mill/control deck o_o
Although it might seem counter-intuitive, running four of these suckers practically guarantees that you're going to have enough answers to your opponent's threats as the game runs long. The 5 life helps recover from that awkward early game period that aggro decks typically create, and as you refresh your deck again and again, you gradually weed all of the lands out of it, leaving yourself with nothing but helpful draws.
Meanwhile, your opponent struggles to keep up, as you counter or kill each of his plays, and mill away those that he can't reach fast enough. Throw in a couple Crypt Incursion to keep those creatures from coming back, and you've got more than enough life and mana to win the game.
Brings value even without playing it against mill.
Say you are 13 turns into a game with 10 cards in the graveyard, 10 in play, and 1 in your hand. If your deck runs 23 lands and 8 are out, your library has a 15 in 40 chance of pulling a (probably) increasingly useless land, or 37.5%.
Shuffle this and the other 10 cards in your graveyard into your library and the chance of pulling a land drops to about 29%. When one good pull can swing a close game that's huge, especially when you're hand is low on cards and you can't afford dead draws. Plus 5 life gain late in games is never unwelcome.
4/5 stars, nifty core card.
wern212
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(3 votes)
Why is this rated so high? I mean, it's good against mill decks, but for the rest this card is bad even in limited. 2.5/5, decent card but wouldn't draft.
SirDrak909
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@wern212 Elixir helps out a lot against graveyard-hate decks, especially in EDH. With cards like Rest in Peace, Tormod's Crypt, Bojuka Bog, and Relic of Progenitus, saving your graveyard plus the 5 life seems like a very good out to include. Also helps out late game when you're running out of answers in your deck. It's high rating now, however, is probably due to Scavenging Ooze's reprint in Standard. Though the card itself is more likely kept in sideboards.
Cloak_of_Mists
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Wonderful art and flavor. Got this at the M14 prerelease, in my first ever tournament. Managed to win 2-1 in the first round, and then lost the rest.
Top-decked this twice with an Angelic Accord out, in the last match. People gathered at the table were laughing, whilst my opponent could only squirm. I almost apologized :)
My personal favorite win condition... too bad i dont have any friends.
CaptainNV
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
It mixes really nicely with Sanguine Bond. Leave it to a vampire to weaponize immortality,
mikeejimbo
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
I like this card. I think it has a lot of uses, which have been mentioned by now.
But what I like most about it? Five life isn't really much, so at I thought it wasn't really powerful enough to be considered "immortality". But then I remembered that in legends and stories about the Elixir of Life, one needs to keep drinking it in order to sustain their life. So it's perfectly in flavor, too.
Technetium
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
It's kind of amazing how back in the day, Feldon's Cane was considered an automatic 1-of in most decks (it was even restricted) and now we have something better and nobody even uses it. Probably the reason it doesn't see use is that there aren't really any mill decks commonly used in Standard right now. Jace, Memory Adept does see occasional use out of sideboard but blue almost universally prefers the Jace, Architect of Thought version for card advantage. I think that if Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver milled for 3 instead of exiled 3, this card might see some use.
EGarrett01
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
A lot of times when I look at this, I see "Elixir of Immorality." Then I'm left wondering what devious thing the Elixir of Immorality would do...
SirLibraryEater
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I personally think this should be 4 spaces in every sideboard simply because of the trollfaces that occur when this is used against a mill deck. And the 5 life certainly helps. I love how this card uses lifelink and graveyard recursion, generally not exceptionally playable things on their own, and combines them in a flavorful and mechanical perfection.
konokono
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
A key component of my mono-green mill deck :)
Casimir_the_Great
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Pretty picky, strategy-wise, but definite sideboard material nonetheless. Interesting to see how it'd go with Jace's Erasure.
Continue
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
A one-of in my Esper control deck. Since I'm only running one Ætherling and one Elspeth, Sun's Champion, this helps me if I somehow lose both of them. Plus, the lifegain has saved my bacon on multiple occasions. Not a 5/5 card, but at least a solid 4/5.
DoctorGii
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
An emerald flask, from the Keeper's soul. She lives to protect the flame, And dies to protect it further.
Comments (21)
Although it might seem counter-intuitive, running four of these suckers practically guarantees that you're going to have enough answers to your opponent's threats as the game runs long. The 5 life helps recover from that awkward early game period that aggro decks typically create, and as you refresh your deck again and again, you gradually weed all of the lands out of it, leaving yourself with nothing but helpful draws.
Meanwhile, your opponent struggles to keep up, as you counter or kill each of his plays, and mill away those that he can't reach fast enough. Throw in a couple Crypt Incursion to keep those creatures from coming back, and you've got more than enough life and mana to win the game.
Fantastic core set material.
Say you are 13 turns into a game with 10 cards in the graveyard, 10 in play, and 1 in your hand. If your deck runs 23 lands and 8 are out, your library has a 15 in 40 chance of pulling a (probably) increasingly useless land, or 37.5%.
Shuffle this and the other 10 cards in your graveyard into your library and the chance of pulling a land drops to about 29%. When one good pull can swing a close game that's huge, especially when you're hand is low on cards and you can't afford dead draws. Plus 5 life gain late in games is never unwelcome.
4/5 stars, nifty core card.
I mean, it's good against mill decks, but for the rest this card is bad even in limited.
2.5/5, decent card but wouldn't draft.
Wonderful art and flavor.
Got this at the M14 prerelease, in my first ever tournament.
Managed to win 2-1 in the first round, and then lost the rest.
Top-decked this twice with an Angelic Accord out,
in the last match. People gathered at the table were laughing,
whilst my opponent could only squirm. I almost apologized :)
But what I like most about it? Five life isn't really much, so at I thought it wasn't really powerful enough to be considered "immortality". But then I remembered that in legends and stories about the Elixir of Life, one needs to keep drinking it in order to sustain their life. So it's perfectly in flavor, too.
And the 5 life certainly helps.
I love how this card uses lifelink and graveyard recursion, generally not exceptionally playable things on their own, and combines them in a flavorful and mechanical perfection.
She lives to protect the flame,
And dies to protect it further.