This card's name is going to throw me off for a
long time - the comic Soulfire had a very
different premise and art style! Whenever you
cast a Soulfire Grand Master, you had better
have the sort of deck that can back it up. By
that I mean that its game text basically
telegraphs what your strategy is going to be,
and it's hard to include the Grand Master as an
incidental card or one that's "just good" in any
strategy. If your deck needs this card for its
instants and sorceries to do their thing, you
may struggle when they kill it (as they probably
will at some point). If your instants and
sorceries are good anyway (I shudder
contemplating this card with Lightning Helix or
Warleader's Helix - yes, you really do get the
life twice), this card can make them absolutely
ridiculous, and even the fear that you might do
so can be leveraged in your strategy.
Am I the only one who finds it funny that this
card grants lifelink even to instants and
sorceries that don't deal damage?
Welcome back readers todays card of the day is
incredibly unique, a lifelink creature which
gives your instant and sorcery spells lifelink,
insanity! The other ability isent too shabby
either, allowing you to fetch your instant and
sorceries for another use. With its solid base
body, amazing first ability and useful second
ability this card is poised to be a star. In
standard this is going to slot well into Jeskai
token decks that run Stoke The Flames and other
assorted instants, the ability to stabalize your
life while possibly returning a spell is just
value too insane to ignored. Outside of
constructed this card seems to be a little slow,
in modern it could provide some interesting
situations and and combined with powerful burn
spells could be a great combination. In other
eternal formats its a little slow and niche. In
casual and multiplayer this can be combined with
some powerful cards such as Blasphemous Act to
gain absurd amounts of life and to recur game
winning spells such as Time Warp over and over.
In limited its only as solid as the spells you
have making it somewhat of a dicey choice.
Overall a powerful and unique card.
Today's card of the day is Soulfire Grand
Master which is a two mana White 2/2 with
Lifelink that gives instant and sorcery spells
you control Lifelink and for four mana, two of
which being Blue or Red, puts the next instant
or sorcery you cast that turn into hand instead
of the graveyard. A two mana 2/2 with
Lifelink is already decent and playable, but in
a Red/White deck the Lifelink for burn spells
makes this an excellent addition to burn or life
gain themes. It turns Lighting Strike into
Lightning Helix and a spell like Anger of
the Gods along with this can equal a huge life
gain, particularly in Multiplayer.
Channel/Fireball with Lifelink is possible and
Overall this is a very strong creature for Boros
and the paid effect can help reuse powerful
cards for Blue or Red which means this will be a
popular choice across multiple formats.
In Limited this is a two mana 2/2 with Lifelink
and a high value rare in the set which makes for
an easy first pick in Booster. In Sealed
this should always be played when running White
and can justify splashing White into a deck
using Blue or Red for the additional effects.
The Lifelink for damaging spells is potentially
very strong, yet unlikely to be seen much.
The paid effect can be huge in later stages of
the game when excess mana is available and that
combined with removal can break the game open
entirely.
A 2/2 with lifelink for 2 mana is something
we've seen several times, and by itself would be
a solid limited card, but nothing special. The
biggest reason to play this card is the second
ability that gives all your instants and
sorceries lifelink. While lifegain on its own is
still not a great strategy, tacking it on for
free to all your burn spells or counterspells
helps those type of decks hang on in longer
games.
Speaking of longer games, that's when the Grand
Master gets REALLY dangerous. If you've got an
extra 4 mana sitting around, you can play your
favorite instant or sorcery every turn. I expect
there are some really stupid combos with this
that allow you to play a spell several times -
if not an unlimited number of times - in a
turn.
It really looks to me like a card that might
cause some problems and people will get tired of
seeing. Then again, it might be a false alarm.
