This card does something that no Magic card ever
should and still expect to be playable: nothing.
It does nothing on its own. Sanguine Bond has
absolutely no effect on the game until you play
some other cards in order to gain you life. That
inherent uselessness is a serious drawback that
you'll really have to work hard to overcome. If
you can do it, the potential effect is
staggering, but being that hard to set up, it
had better be.
In addition to having one of the creepiest
paintings in the history of Magic, Sanguine Bond
has gained popular acceptance much faster than
other relatively narrow combo cards of the past.
Given that black's lifegain spells tend to steal
it from the opponent, it's made it easy for
them. It even provides yet another use for
yesterday's Card of the Day!
Constructed:
Alot of cool things you could do with this card,
but it is all to expensive.
Casual & Multiplayer:
Threw one in my Breath of Malfegor, Tainted
Sigil deck. Somebody will be gone!
Limited:
Pick up alot of Tendrils of Corruption and if
lucky a Consume Spirit and just go to town with
it. Sounds simple, doesn't it. Grab some Demon's
Horns and Kraken's Eyes, some Tooths, Feathers
oh my what fun. Anyways, it is a fun idea.
Overall a good card for fun decks.
Constructed: 2
Casual: 3
Multiplayer: 4
Limited: 3
Later
Miguel
Paul
Magic The Gathering COTD: Sanguine Bond
Welcome back readers today’s card of the day is
a slightly impressive Johnny oriented card that
may find a home in a mono black deck come
rotation. The prevalence of Black with Zendikar
will become only more pronounced, mono black
decks are looking to shine in standard play. In
standard this card is slightly expensive for an
effect that does not have an immediate effect on
the board; it’s an interesting card to combo
with massive life gain which some vampires will
be capable of doing. In extended and eternal
formats it is slightly too expensive to see any
competitive play although it may inspire some
rogue combo decks. In casual and multiplayer it
can provide amazing plays as you can use massive
life gain cards to slowly pick players off one
by one. Add in effects that allow you to gain
life every turn and watch as players crumble
before you. In limited it’s a bad card unless
you can get multiple copies and enough life gain
cards to support it.
Today's card of the day is Sanguine Bond a five
mana Black enchantment that causes your opponent
to lose life equal to the life points you gain.
A fairly impressive effect, but attached to an
expensive card and a color that has somewhat
limited life gain options. Only seven cards
pre-Zendikar will still be standard legal in
Black that increase life and many of them
already cause your opponent to lose life. As a
card that does nothing by itself it isn't likely
to see much play outside of the casual formats.
In Constructed the slow speed and support only
nature make this an almost unplayable card. I
can't imagine seeing it in any higher end decks
even if combined with appropriate Green or White
life gain it would still be too slow of a theme.
To Casual this is the type of challenge that
brings deck designers to bat and leads to some
interesting designs. Infinite life gain has been
around since the early days of Magic and a card
that turns that into a win condition is
certainly useful. If it was attached to another
effect or a bit lower in cost it would be much
better, but as it stands some casual decks will
certainly give this enchantment a shot.
With Limited there are few rares that are worse
to get in your packs.
The double Black is limiting and only sixteen
cards gain life at all with only three of those
being Black. Five of those are the pay one mana
to gain one life as a spell of the color is
cast. Life Gain by itself will not win games and
you would need both this card and some
impressive life gaining effects to make any
impact. In Booster Draft this is a rare you
should definitely pass for removal or a decent
creature while in Sealed you should probably
seriously consider the other colors in your
pool.
For Multiplayer the fact that this says target
opponent reduces what could have been a really
dangerous threat to the entire board at once.
Even as just a single target effect this can
still be potentially threatening if an infinite
life combo gets rolling as you can target each
opponent in turn for an easy victory. The
potential is there, but with multiple opponents
almost any combo attempted can be easily
disrupted and will be targeted as soon as the
table knows what is coming.
