Pointed Discussion

how come they didnt make kirin unicorns... thats what they are

My favorite Kirin in terms of art, and second-favorite to play with (behind Cloudhoof).

Also, just because Power Rangers called the Kirin a unicorn doesn't mean that they're the same. Please try to be a bit more open-minded to these kinds of things.

Since Spirit decks (especially green ones) can be insane with summoning, this is a lifegain card worth using. The cost is a little steep, but whatever. You get a 4/4 flier out of it, too.

7 for a 4/4 flying body isnt terrible, in green, that is decent for a flyer
plus 7 isnt that high in green for a cost

plus, as was said, dropping lots of spirits is easy, just gotta keep the draw speed up to match

Kirins are spirits.

This guy is great. My deck is very slow, so i usually take a lot of damage before i get him out. After that, he will usually give me life equal to the number of lands i control every turn because of all the high cmc creatures and spells. My opponents have trouble keeping up because im gaining 6+ life a turn. With my constant revival combo using death denied and hana kami, I can usually just sit there and swing with creatures that will die, bring them back and gain life for it, without ever losing creatures for more than two turns.

This guy is so awesome... and yet that mana cost makes him not all that playable... thats very sad to me...

@Omenchild: Kirin are divine horse-like beings, but that doesn't mean that they have to resemble unicorns any more than horses do.

I really like this card, but I kinda feel like it should have been 5/5 to justify the high manacost compared to the other Kirin spirits.

White Kirin - cmc 4
Black Kirin - cmc 4
Red Kirin - cmc 4
Blue Kirin - cmc 5
Green Kirin - cmc SEVEN

What the crap Wizards?

Definitely died to this one a couple of times. That lifegain is not to be underestimated.

This is waaaaay out of color

The art is amazing. I love all the kirins. I assume that they made it so expensive because of the green/flying... but c'mon, it didn't seem to matter with Jugan, the Rising Star...

infect says "i dont care how much life you will gain"

He costs seven because green has quick mana acceleration, and also because flyers in green are very, very rare.

I think the high manacost isn't just to do with the Flying, but also that Lifegain. Seriously, in at least a part-green spirit deck you could be looking at between 1-7 life per creature. And that's if you're not running arcane.

When I had this guy out on the field I was pretty much exploding with life with my mono-green spirit/arcane deck. He's extremely powerful.

And now to make good use of how overcosted everything in Kamigawa is.

Kamigawa design team logic (assumed scenario how the mana cost came to be):

"Alright, this Kirin cycle is looking pretty good so far. Flying Hill Giants with an interesting Spiritcraft mechanic."
"Was it the green or the white one that makes you gain life again? It makes for potentially decent lifegain from midgame onwards. Dangerous stuff right there, especially considering Spirits are such a competitive thing right now. We better bump that mana cost."
"Like the blue one? I'm glad we changed it from the rest into an Air Elemental instead. The milling mechanic was clearly too good on a four-drop with powerhouses like Dampen Thought around. Or just imagine someone using it on himself to make use of Soulshift. We can't have that tech as early as turn five!"
"Right, we all know how powerful Spiritcraft decks these days are already. Just think of all those crazy broken Soulshift cards we made... Just think of Harbinger of Spring, that's just utterly broken against non-Spirit decks.
"Dude, they're all above the curve. I could list visually all of them: Hundred-Talon Kami, Pus Kami, Deathknell Kami, Burr Crafter, Kami of Lunacy, Torii Watchward, Kami of the Honored Dead, Vine Kami, Body of Jukai..."
"STOP! Please, it's painful to remember. One more broken than the next! They must be dominating the format now."
"Well, I wouldn't be surprised about that with bombs like Crawling Filth around! What were we thinking?"
"Oh man, these are so blatantly above the curve. I'm still ebarrased about that."
"That's why we have to be so careful about these Spirits in Saviors now! It's our last chance to redeem ourselves, and we don't want to break Spirit decks even more than they already are!"
"True! But I think we've done a good job so far. Let's give us a pet on the back for the Onna cycle we've done so far. Their increased cost really keeps the self-bounce under control."
"Yeah, your suggestion of increasing their cost like we did with the Eidolon cycle in Betrayers really helped."
"And we're almost done adjusting the Kirin cycle now. Blue one aside, I like how the red one started with a Threaten mechanic, but then removed the haste part for balancing reasons. Almost made a competitive card there, haha."
"I know right? Inciting kitchen table misplays instead seems far more hilarious."
"Can we get back to that lifegain Kirin please? I'm still really concerned about that."
"Yeah you're right. Let's adapt it to the blue one."
"And potentially gain life as early as turn six? Are you crazy?!"
"Oh yeah, right. Better go from to then."
"You mean to . We made the white one a 'holy wrath'-flavored Engineered Explosives for some reason.
"Uhm. You guys, I know we had Jugan in this block, but flying isn't really green's thing..."
"Good point! it is!"
"Shouldn't we at least adjust the P/T or something?"
"Just seconds ago we talked about the format-warping Spirit decks. Do I really have to recite the list of broken Soulshift creatures to you? Never mind the boost they'll get from other new Spirits like Fiddlehead Kami."
"No, please! I'm sorry for asking. You're right. It's fine."

Kamigawa: Electric Mercadian Masques Boogaloo

Where Urza's Block = Original Mirrodin Block

First: great art.

Secondly, while this card is not very good, its not that bad either. Seven is a lot of mana, but green doesn't have fliers, especially now that the color pie is more set in stone. Also important is that only the green and blue kirin have non-conditional abilities. You always get a bonus burst of life with each spell. New players seem to overestimate life-gain while older players underestimate it. Gaining life every turn is not insignificant, nor is a 4/4 flier.

This card isn't great, but its good by Kamigawa standards.