Repeating life gain wasn't something Magic offered back in the early days. Life gain was usually either a one time effect (Stream of Life or Healing Salve), triggered (via Throne of Bone or Soul Net), or difficult to get due to mana cost or upkeep (El-Hajjaj, Farmstead, Living Artifact.) Farmstead, though terrible by today's standards, fit the mold back then.
Posted By:
Eppek_the_Goblin
(3/14/2010 5:34:49 PM)
Why use this in the early days when you could use Fountain of Youth in any deck?
I'll have to admit that I like the flavor of the card, though.
Posted By:
nammertime
(4/30/2010 2:02:32 AM)
I'm not going to claim this was ever good, but Eppek has a point. It was basically the first cautious experiment with unconditional repeated life gain. Turns out it was way too cautious so we quickly got things like Fountain of Youth, etc. Still, it was a nice concept.
Would be nice to see a new enchantment something like "Tap a Plains you control: Gain 1 life. Play as a sorcery."
Posted By:
nibelheim_valesti
(6/27/2010 6:21:50 AM)
This was one if not the last card I saw in my early days when there wasn't any internet list available. We knew there had to be another card in the set, but we had never seen it. Until we found Farmstead in someone's collection.
Unplayable by todays standards and almost unplayable back then hehe. But it now holds a special place in my heart just for being the last card of the beta set I ever laid eyes on.
Posted By:
Pigglebee
(2/12/2011 6:51:41 AM)
Even the guy running the farm seems to have left because this card is so bad.
Posted By:
wolftree
(1/18/2013 6:21:27 AM)
Hooray for Theros block and the introduction of devotion! Of course, Jihad is probably a better choice if you can afford it.
Posted By:
ChumleyX
(9/22/2013 11:16:21 AM)
I love the flavor of this card, enchanting a land in constructing a farm on it. IMHO they should create a new version of this card, which should be something this without the upkeep cost, and reading:
"at the beginning of each players upkeep put a crop counter on Farmstead.
Remove a crop counter from farmstead: gain 1 life.
Remove two crop counters from farmstead: add W to your manapool".
Posted By:
majinara
(2/21/2010 8:10:25 AM)
I played back in the revised days and even back then this card was the king of suck. 5 mana for your first point of life, and you don't get it until your next upkeep. And restricted to 1 point per turn...shameful.
Never heard during a game of Magic, "Tap Tap Tap. I play Farmstead on one of my plains"
"Ha! Tap Tap, Counterspell!"
Never Happened. Not even once.
Posted By:
leedo83
(9/30/2010 9:20:33 AM)
I guess it could be a mana sink in the late game? But gaining you 1 life a turn is one of the most useless things a mana sink can do. Fail.
Posted By:
ClockworkSwordfish
(2/19/2010 7:05:40 AM)
Who rated this above 1?
Posted By:
Locohead
(10/9/2009 3:04:08 AM)