Miren, the
Moaning Well
While this card's ability has been around
before, Miren, the Moaning Well is certainly
useful enough for limited play. The ability to
gain life from a creature being sacrificed would
not be good enough, even in the Kamigawa block
with its many goes-to-the-graveyard effects, if
the ability were part of a card that replaced a
creature or removal card slot in your draft or
sealed deck. Miren is much more passive, and
therefore more useful, because it is a land and
because it is capable of producing colorless
mana with no drawbacks. In other words, this
card does not have to replace a generally more
powerful card in your deck because you can
simply play this legendary land in your limited
decks in place of one basic land. This is a
better idea in two color decks that would have
run 9 land of one color and 8 of another.
You should really never focus too much energy on
making a card like this useful. The best
situation is that you simply have this ability
available to you when a creature would ALREADY
be about to go to the graveyard anyway. Of
course, in Kamigawa block, it can be quite
useful to have a way to sacrifice a creature
whenever you want to. I don't like this card for
constructed at all, because this card works at
cross purposes with the kinds of decks in which
it would be the most useful. Decks that have
LOTS of creatures, potential targets for this
card's effect, are too aggressive to care about
this land. Control decks that might want to gain
life and slow down the game don't have enough
creatures in them to make this legendary land
worth its inclusion. In short, limited YES,
constructed NO.
CONSTRUCTED: 2.0
CASUAL: 3.0
LIMITED: 3.0
Cards like this often end up in life gain combo
decks. That's OK though. I do see a few other
interesting things for this card in constructed
play. You can steal creatures and sacrifice them
for life. You can even use it to sacrifice your
guys just to stay ahead in the life race.
The main issue this card will be fighting is
space. Is there room in most decks for a card
like this? If you were building a deck, would
you be likely to include this card if it wasn't
the centerpiece? I'm not so sure. So, even
though hit has a neat ability, it just may not
be main deck material.
I'm going to summarize yesterday's point I was
trying to make: Life-gain doesn't win games. All
Miren is doing is helping delay losing, which
means it already has a strike against it. The
fact that it costs three to activate Miren is a
second strike. I won't count it out of appearing
in some decks, but they will likely be utilizing
a lot of big creatures that will help them gain
a significant amount of life whenever they
inevitably go to the graveyard at some point
during the game. Overall, I'm not impressed, but
don't ignore it completely -- at least it
produces mana.
For limited play, I would usually recommend
keeping your copy of Miren in your deck -- the
difference in life could potentially make a
difference, and it is just eating a land slot.
Geez...it
apparently is "Ridiculously Long Name" week.
Who the heck comes up with these names,
anyhow? =/
Life gain
isn't the darling of constructed decks...in
fact, it tends to be the red-headed step
child. Very few life gain strategies have
been employed, and those that have were part
of a bigger picture to buy time to wreck an
opponent after a lengthy or complicated set
up, or were employed as a side note while
beating the crap outta your opponent (see
Exalted Angel).
Miren's
problem is that it's ability will usually
only be used if BAD things are happening to
you...and you are losing. It just means you
will lose a little slower. =/ In limited,
it's a little more useful, as it gives you a
bit of time to stabilize.
