Well, majinara, while you are of course correct that vanilla lifegain makes for extremely weak cards, your inability to see why many people like it is why you're not designing the cards.
Posted By:
metalevolence
(1/23/2011 11:19:56 PM)
Dear Majinara,
You need to CALM DOWN on what you call a "Horrible card". what i was thinking as i read your comment was that, perhaps, you have never been hit in the face with plural Lightning Bolts . for GG, what i'm reading is "target player discards 2 Bolts, or 3 Shocks". this is a generaly GOOD card, in almost any situation that your low on life. 2 self-targeted Healing Leaves in 1 card equals a sense of card advantage, and especialy so if you just countered 2-3 of your opponents burn spells. very nice card to me.
4/5
Posted By:
JoshMagic
(5/29/2011 10:12:31 AM)
Everyone always says that lifegain doesn't win games, it just prevents you from losing. But unless the game is a draw (and really, how often does that happen?), preventing you from losing is exactly the same thing as causing you to win. If I can postpone you killing me for a turn or two, that's another turn or two I have in which to kill you.
The problem with lifegain isn't that it doesn't help you win; it's just that most lifegain is just plain too weak. There are a lot of ways to deal damage, and a lot of ways to deal it efficiently (and a lot of ways to deal it inefficiently, too, but you never see those cards), but since there are fewer lifegain cards, there are also fewer that are efficient enough. This card just might be on the edge of being efficient enough.
Oh, and it's also CMC 2, which opens up a lot of options for copying it.
Posted By:
sonorhC
(6/27/2011 6:36:55 PM)
Hmmm... Some people see vanilla life gain...
I see pain. Lots of it. There are plenty of cards that turn lifegain into horrible death for your opponent, some of which have been mentioned.
Also, has no one stopped to think how insane a W/G lifegain deck could be?
Turn one: Plains, Serra Ascendant.
Turn 2: Forest, Hero's Reunion (i think that's what's it called)
Turn 3: Forest, this. enjoy your 6/6 Flying Lifelink.
Posted By:
WateryMind
(6/16/2011 6:34:00 PM)
An example of straight lifegain being good? Martyr of Sands saw lots of serious play.
But then again, consistently gaining 9-15 life + chump blocker for 1W is just plain unfair, stack damage or otherwise.
Posted By:
Gabriel422
(7/9/2011 11:15:55 PM)
While lifegain cards alone rarely win outside of Limited, I will give them credit for aggressively costing this one to at least make it decent.
Posted By:
Radagast
(10/1/2012 4:04:54 PM)
While vanilla lifegain isn't quite versatile, a cheap lifegain card that gives 6 or more life in a format that's heavy on burn or straight-up creature combat can really swing a close game.
Then there's Timely Reinforcements. That card just wrecks burn decks.
Posted By:
DacenOctavio
(10/18/2012 8:42:32 PM)
Edit:
I don't know why people have to get so personal when I don't share their opinion. First, I'm calm. That's why I made an organized list of reasons when I consider lifegain to be useful and why I consider this card to be near useless, instead of saying "OMG I HATEZ IT!!!", or start to attack people on a personal level, such as some others do.
Second: I rate the card according to art, flavor, nostalgia bonus and how likely I am to play it. This is my personal rating. You do not have to agree with it. And for me, this card fails in all those areas. Newbies love lifegain. If it makes them happy: let them play it, who cares. Still, there is a reason why cards like these are never found in tournament worthy decks.
And third: yes, against super aggressive burn decks, lifegain can stall the game for a while. If you draw enough of it and have it efficient enough. But against all other decks, it sucks. Combo, control, mill and whatnot all cheer when they find an opponent that plays pure l... (see all)
Posted By:
majinara
(10/24/2012 3:19:22 PM)
I'm all on the <3 lifegain bandwagon. I think its a wonderful addition to the game, and I would like to see WoTC explore new avenues other than direct lifegain win conditions (not a feel-good thing for me), life-to-damage conversions or ultra-fast creature pumping.
Threshold mechanics are an exciting alternative. You could have a keyword ability with a name like Embolden that is active while your life total is above a certain threshold, such as 15 or 20.
"Embolden - As long as you have 15 or more life, CARDNAME gets +X+X"
This mechanic attempts to encourage (embolden?) the player to maintain their life total at a high level, incentivising the use of lifegain cards to augment a traditional creature-based strategy. Imagine using instant lifegain as a combat trick in draft! That's an exciting prospect for me.
The problem is that something like this could seem invulnerable, especially to a newer player. How do you beat a deck that's designed not to lose... (see all)
Posted By:
Stray_Dog
(2/26/2012 1:50:25 AM)