marijana is right. Life gain is okay, and I can see this card being good in limited or something, but all it does is stall for time, and stalling for time isn't going to do you any good if you were winning anyway. If you play spirit link on your own creature you run the risk most auras have (2 for 1), and if you play it on an opponent's creature, you might as well just run stuff like pacifism/oblivion ring/etc.
The only time I'd seriously think of running spirit link, as with cards that only give you life, is in limited, or playing a cheesy life gain deck (that wins by test of endurance or something) that'd never be anything good outside of casual. Other than that, there are better cards to use.
still, 3/5 for this card. It's not bad to the point where it hurts you to play this card, and it's useful in the right decks, but it's just outclassed.
Posted By:
mdakw576
(2/3/2010 2:58:04 AM)
Put four of these on a Drogskol Reaver. That way, you can draw 10 cards every time you hit an opponent. A Steel of the Godhead couldn't hurt, either.
Posted By:
Thingummy
(11/27/2012 7:19:13 PM)
Two or more of this card on "Lord of the Pit"...a healthy alternative it token creatures.
Posted By:
agamotto
(1/1/2013 9:22:34 PM)
People have already mentioned the advantages of this compared to Lifelink.
However, there's one disadvantage compared to Lifelink: You gain the life after the damage is dealt with this card, and at the same time with Lifelink. If you're at a low life total, you could lose with this card when you wouldn't with Lifelink.
However, I think this card is still slightly better.
Posted By:
azure_drake222222
(2/5/2013 1:15:02 PM)
@Salient: It's almost always better for your opponent to block in that scenario. It's fine if you gain a little life as long as you lose board control.
Posted By:
Lifegainwithbite
(2/22/2013 2:24:41 PM)
@azure: Actually, you would gain the life back before any player would gain priority, so the actual effect would be as if you lost no life.
Posted By:
Totema
(3/14/2013 9:09:44 AM)
It's interesting that they didn't errata this to simply give a creature lifelink, as this is obviously the card that inspired the ability. But doing so would have actually greatly changed the use of Spirit Link, which can nullify opponent's creatures, as well as the fact that multiple Spirit Links on the same creature stack (I personally remember dropping 2 Spirit Links and a Blessing on a Thunder Spirit back in the old days of slow Magic), while multiple occurances of Lifelink ability do not.
Posted By:
Technetium
(4/8/2013 9:17:35 AM)