Pointed Discussion

I'm embarrassed to say I used to love this card. Play it turn 1-3 (kinda a waste of a Dark Ritual though). Every turn I tap for a counter...once someone tries to destroy it I gain a bunch of life. That's the theory at least. It would be much better if you had to sacrifice the bottle to remove the counters instead of tap it...as I listed its use above it hit me that people could just disenchant/shatter it in response to my adding of a counter. Still fun with cards like Gilder Bairn.

Is it bad? Sure. Has it been out classed again and again? Sure. It's an artifact that can gain you life, so it has that going for it. Being bad it might slip under the radar, as there will probably be some other artifact worth destroying over it.

Strictly better than Golden Urn in a Proliferate deck.

Overcosted and ridiculously (s)low lifegain? For any deck? DO WANT!

The fact that you have to tap it again for its actual use is just the icing on the turd :D


Imagine this powerhouse in use:

Turn 5:
"Alright, i cast Essence Bottle. Wanna respond to that?"
— "Nah, go ahead."
"Good, then I pay and tap my bottle to put an elexir counter on it."
Turn 6:
"I pay and tap my bottle to put another elexir counter on it. Too bad i can't pay and put two counters on it..."
— "Yeah, that means now you actually have to spend your mana on something useful."
Turn 7 (you still haven't died for some reason):
"Again, I pay and tap my bottle to put another elexir counter on it. Oh boy oh boy, that means next turn when i remove all counters i will gain 6(!) life!"
— "I cast Nourish. Do you want to put something else on the stack?
"...Oh. Err, uhm. Wel. No, i guess?
— "Krosan Grip on your Essence Bottle."
"FFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-"

Hey I've got an idea! Rather than paying mana and playing cards, why not just do absolutely nothing cause all your mana went to this, and then just heal about 70% of the damage you take from your opponent (who DID play cards) when you didn't do anything? Ah? Ah?
No?
You don't like that plan? Oh. And it's in such a nice, pretty bottle too...

Looks like somebody is getting some ointment for that burn.

Doubling Season and proliferate make this card better. Not by much, but they still do.

I'd use it in the theme deck. Proliferate shenanigans make it nice too :)

Interesting design: The longer you wait before cashing in, the better its life-per-turn yield. In its defense, it was a fair alternative to Fountain of Youth.
You'd be better off with Sun Droplet, Rejuvenation Chamber, or even Jeweled Torque.