It's been uprooted from its classic status by
Consume Spirit, which is strictly if marginally
better. It's still one of the most versatile
black kill cards there is, ranking right up
there with Fireball. Its only real requirement
is that you basically have to be running
monoblack, and in recent years monocolor decks
have become passe as color-fixing technology
improves. But then, Drain Life hasn't been
Standard-legal in a while, so this is probably
still fine in all the formats it's legal in.
In Limited? I'm not even sure which Limited
formats this is legal in, much less how they
play, but I'm ranking it highly just for its
versatility and the fact that it kills a
creature.
Constructed- 3
Casual- 4.5
Limited- 3.8
Aethereal
Wednesday -
Drain Life
The original kill card. When Mike Long won a Pro
Tour using the ProsBloom deck way, way back
when, he chose this as his kill mechanism, and
it does a very good job at doing that. Nowadays
there are better ways to kill an opponent if you
can make infinite mana, but that doesn't make
this card necessarily a bad choice for a kill
card. Outside of the combo decks, it's still
useful for getting rid of an irritating creature
or blasting your opponent, but it is very mana
intensive.
In limited, if black is a main color, you play
this, no doubt. Removal, life gain, kill
card...what more can you ask for?
Constructed - 2.5
Casual - 3
Limited - 4
David Fanany
Player since
1995
Drain Life
This is part of the reason that lifelink is a
black ability even now, and a popular finisher
in many black control and combo decks down the
years, and one of black's icons. Consume Spirit
has since replaced it for recent core sets
because of the less complicated rules text, but
Drain Life will always have nostalgic value. I
never played limited with the Fourth or Fifth
Editions, but you need an awful lot of black to
make it work. That's probably more likely in
draft than in sealed, if it's going to happen at
all.
Constructed: 4/5
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 2/5
PsychoAnime
#1
Magic Noob in Canada since 2002
Drain Life
Barring any weird scenarios, Consume Spirit is
better than this. There's really no need for 8
cards with the same effect so I'd have to say
this is obsolete in constructed.
In casual, it's always fun to pay like a billion
black mana, but Consume Spirit is still better
here.
In limited, it needs a lot of black mana.
Constructed: 1.5/5
Casual: 2/5
Limited: 2/5
Swordmaster13
Wednesday's
card is Drain Life, another oldie but goldie.
For one colorless and one black, you essentially
have a finisher if you can get the mana to cast
it. Old school decks had Dark Ritual and other
mana accelerators to get the mana to finish a
player off, and since it is loss of life, most
white cards cannot prevent the damage. It's the
old school Consume Spirit, and both are pretty
decent in black.
