Looking at this card in a post-Rise of the Eldrazi world, it's hard not to be reminded of Flame Slash. Each is very similar to an iconic spell at the same mana cost (though Healing Salve hasn't had quite the reception Lightning Bolt has), except Mending Hands and Flame Slash address one more point of damage in exchange for losing one of the modes, and, in Flame Slash's case, moving down to sorcery speed.
As tends to be the case with damage-prevention cards, Mending Hands was entirely skipped over in tournament play. There is rarely a reason to play any card that prevents the next X damage, as nearly every Standard format to date has had at least one Fog effect, and both Eighth and Ninth Editions had the vastly superior Holy Day. Fog effects aren't usually played in tournament decks, but every so often the right cards will come together for a TurboFog strategy - playing several Fog effects and Howling Mines to soft-lock an opponent out of combat damage. Mending Hands, however, is not nearly as useful in that respect, and even weak players dismissed it fairly quickly.
There's definitely an audience for this type of card, though; Kamigawa was released only a year after I began playing Magic, and I saw it in quite a few white casual decks. But even then, it wasn't a card that served to add any particular cohesion to a deck - the decision to include it was usually something along the lines of, "Hey, here's a white spell, might as well toss it in."
dberry02
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Prevention with this much power is nice, but I prefer a more flexible prevention spell such as Embolden.
TheWrathofShane
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@Insertnamehere. Hey its a good combat trick and counters burn, plus it can be used to preserve you health if your in a pinch. Then again you might want to run cards like Faith's Shield, they also counter burns on your creatures and doom blade, not to mention its a much better combat trick.
TPmanW
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
In most cases I wouldn't play this thing even if it cost 0, which makes me wonder how much damage a spell needs to prevent before it's worth a card. Even Withstand Death, and Fog are only mediocre.
Comments (7)
Looking at this card in a post-Rise of the Eldrazi world, it's hard not to be reminded of Flame Slash. Each is very similar to an iconic spell at the same mana cost (though Healing Salve hasn't had quite the reception Lightning Bolt has), except Mending Hands and Flame Slash address one more point of damage in exchange for losing one of the modes, and, in Flame Slash's case, moving down to sorcery speed.
As tends to be the case with damage-prevention cards, Mending Hands was entirely skipped over in tournament play. There is rarely a reason to play any card that prevents the next X damage, as nearly every Standard format to date has had at least one Fog effect, and both Eighth and Ninth Editions had the vastly superior Holy Day. Fog effects aren't usually played in tournament decks, but every so often the right cards will come together for a TurboFog strategy - playing several Fog effects and Howling Mines to soft-lock an opponent out of combat damage. Mending Hands, however, is not nearly as useful in that respect, and even weak players dismissed it fairly quickly.
There's definitely an audience for this type of card, though; Kamigawa was released only a year after I began playing Magic, and I saw it in quite a few white casual decks. But even then, it wasn't a card that served to add any particular cohesion to a deck - the decision to include it was usually something along the lines of, "Hey, here's a white spell, might as well toss it in."
Hey its a good combat trick and counters burn, plus it can be used to preserve you health if your in a pinch. Then again you might want to run cards like Faith's Shield, they also counter burns on your creatures and doom blade, not to mention its a much better combat trick.