Live and Breathe is a card that looks to be promising but has not been well-received by the Duel Master’s community as of yet.  At first glance it appears conceptually sound.  Nevertheless we need to ensure that we can stay competitive.

Live and Breathe

Cost: 3

Civilization: Light/Nature

Type: Spell

Rules Text:

·         (This spell is put into your mana zone tapped.)

·         Whenever you summon a creature this turn, search your deck. You may take a creature from your deck that has the same name as that creature and put it into the battle zone. Then shuffle your deck.

Let’s first discuss a few rules regarding this card.  For starters the words “summon” and “put” are both being used in this effect, which means that there is a distinguishing factor.  Summoning means that you pay a certain cost in order to bring out the creature, while putting a creature means that it’s placed in the battle zone without paying a cost.  So what we’re basically reading is that after casting this spell when you pay mana to summon a creature you get to place a creature with the same name for free into the battle zone.  Placing this creature does not mean that it was “summoned” because you didn’t pay for its cost.  Therefore it doesn’t mean that you can bring out all creatures with the same name.  This also means that effects like Soulswap cannot be combined with Live and Breathe because Soulswap requires that you “put” a creature into the battle zone.

So is this card good?  I’d say it is but it’s not game-breaking.  When you cast this spell you’re using 3 mana (which isn’t bad) and then you have to pay an additional amount of mana to bring a creature out.  It would be great if you could play two big creatures like Bodacious Giant on the same turn but in order to do so you need 11 mana.  Of course nature is terrific for building mana quickly but 11 mana might be stretching it for some nature decks.

The average amount of mana that I typically see people winning with ranges from 6 to 8.  Let’s go for the middle and say that we want to pay 7 total mana.  In other words we can only summon a 4 mana creature.  4 mana isn’t great but I guess you can bring out two Elf X’s and try Live and Breathe again next turn.  Anyway Light and Nature aren’t too well renowned for their 4 mana creatures.  If anything I would recommend going for a Five mana creature.  Just imagine playing two Skyswords for only 8 mana and netting out 2 extra mana and 2 extra shields.  In this instance Live and Breathe can seem broken.  Unfortunately it still seems rather slow and it might be thrown into casual decks until a better use can be found.

The Good:  Double up on Skysword to get back some free goodies.

The Bad:  This is typically being used to bring out mediocre creatures.  In my opinion, if you’re going to pay 7 mana to bring something out then you might as well make it a good creature.

The Ugly:  The card is too slow and not yet ready for competitive play.

Constructed Rating: 2.5/5 –  I know that this rating is harsh but the card is a little too slow and cannot bring out the right creatures at the right time.

Limited Rating: 2/5 – It’s not always easy to get two identical creatures in limited.

Please feel free to post your comments, questions, and/or objections on the Message Board and I’ll be more than happy to respond.  Happy dueling!