Pointed Discussion

Not uncommon anymore.

Does anyone know why they shortened the "whenever this creature deals damage, you gain that much life" into lifelink? Now it's ability no longer stacks, and I can't use any Magnetic Theft type shenanigans to render one of my opponent's attacking creatures useless!

Actually, they kept lifelink only because it was printed saying "lifelink" in Tenth Edition, and they (most of the time) follow the text on the last printed version.

It didn't stack before, and you couldn't use it to make one of your opponent's creatures give you life, because it gives the life gaining ability, meaning who gains life is the creature's controller.

brunsbur you are thinking of spirit link.

@brunsbr103 - They changed it to Lifelink because (as stated below) they were just updating the text into a keyword. They're doing the same for Trollshroud right now (I hate the name Hexproof). Also, you were never able to do those things, you gained life once the damage step is resolved, no extra resolution is was ever required for it. You also couldn't use it with Magnetic Thief "shenanigans" because the card itself doesn't have the ability. Rather the Warhammer gives the Lifelink to the equipped creature. So they would be the one gaining life from dealing damage to you.

My friend had a deck with this, skullclamp, and cranial plating. It has lead me to hate this card a lot

lol it was uncommon?!

brunsb: Magnetic Theft never worked anyway, since it gave the creature an ability. So the creature had the ability and since the creature is controlled by your opponent...it's the difference between "enchanted creature has 'whenever this creature deals damage, you gain that much life'" and "whenever enchanted creature deals damage, you gain that much life"

As far as equipment goes, this is one of the best you can get. As soon as you equip it and attack, it destroys your opponent. At least 3 damage is gonna go somewhere, usually more, and it's trample damage, and you're gonna gain at least 3 life, unless the damage is prevented. Still, the trample will get through more times than not, and your opponent is gonna take some damage. The net difference in life this thing makes is astounding. In 3 turns, sometimes you and your opponent can have a 30 life difference. Equip on something like Kazandu Blademaster or the new Elite Inquisitor and you have a 5/2 vigilant-first-striking-trampling-lifelink-annihilator causing devastation each turn, and then defending for even more life. Equip on a fatty and you can outright win the game. This also goes great with regenerating creatures since they can suicide attack or block and survive. Drudge Skeletons equipped with a Loxodon Warhammer might be the deadliest thing in the game ;) The lifelink means that opponents will be discouraged from attacking if you don't attack or the equipped creature has vigilance, making this defensive in some conditions. Attacking and then equipping this on another untapped creature for defense is another effective strategy, especially if you switch off the attacker and defender as to only use each turn. Even equipping this to a wall is not a bad idea in some circumstances.

This makes a removal magnet out of a 0/1 token, and suicide attacks with cheap tokens just wreaks havoc. Even if the creature dies, you will be gaining life regardless. The advantage is that since it's equipment, it can be reused if the creature dies. Giving the creature a toughness bonus or making it cheaper to cast or equip would make it broken.

The to cast and equip slows down your tempo a lot, often taking up your 3rd and 4th turn moves, but getting it on a 2 drop like the blademaster is well worth it. Drawing it later in the game when you have the for the cast and equip can flip the game.

This thing was a staple card back in my early days of magic. Pretty much every constructed deck my play group made had at least 2 of these bad boys in it and we were never unhappy to draw one, unless, of course, my opponent drew one, then i'd be pretty upset ;) We used to always run artifact removal JUST for this. Now we've moved on to more combo and synergy style play with too fast of a tempo for stuff like this. However, you can certainly build a very powerful deck centered around this.

I'm not a fan of equipment, but this one can flip the game in a single turn. This is an easy 5/5 for usefulness.

brunsbr103 is right about one thing - it does remove the ability to gain double life with two warhammers, say, whereas multiple instances of a keyword (lifelink) are redundant.

I suspect they changed it in 10th Ed because they thought it would be a staple for quite a while, with good reason. It's a great card that is resonant for casual players and powerful enough for tournament play every now and then. They must have altered their reasoning since, but they've reprinted in almost as many products as they can, testifying to how much they like the card I guess.

Compare with Vulshok Battlegear. Same set, same rarity, same equip/cast cost.

Serra Avatar... Nuff said...