The conventional wisdom is that lifegain is
bad, full stop. There's a way in which this is
true, but it's also true that decks based around
gaining life can cause absolute havoc in certain
metagames and settings. Many casual groups have
basically all creature-based decks which can
never defeat a couple of Loxodon Hierarchs or
Tendrils of Corruption, much less a full-blown
Soul Sisters build or a Loxodon Warhammer. This
card is a solution for such settings - and
though it absolutely destroys such decks if
unanswered, it's still a permanent type that the
colors that usually form the basis of such decks
can interact with, making it a lot less unfair
than it looks at first.
Welcome back readers today's card of the day is
a throwback to older card False Cure, making
your opponents lose life instead of gaining it
can be very powerful for casual games but may be
a bit too niche for comparative formats. In
standard and modern outside of Soul Sisters
decks lifegain is incidental, a little bit here
and there off certain cards not a strategy you
necessarily want to use this card against some
exceptions apply. I don't foresee this card
making much of a constructed impact there are
other cards to handle decks that would use this
card making it quite niche. In casual and
multiplayer this cards usefulness increases as
life gain can be popular in casual and shutting
down your opponents opportunities to gain life
is great and combined with cards to force your
opponents to gain life can be a powerful combo.
In limited its basically unplayable a niche
enchantment that does nothing when it comes into
play. Overall a fun casual card with some niche
applications elsewhere.
Today's card of the day is Tainted Remedy which
has an opponent lose life instead of gaining
life and can be combined with many cards that
normally would have an opponent gaining life as
a balancing factor. Most of these cards like
Wall of Shards are in White, so a Black/White
build using this is a strong Casual concept with
cards like Congregate, Devour Flesh, Rest for
the Weary, Condemn, Swords to Plowshares, Last
Breath, and Oust can be viciously efficient at
removal while at the same time burning a player
down for less mana than Red spells would cost.
While extremely reliant on Tainted Remedy to
work there is minimal enchantment removal to
worry about and it is an offbeat enough strategy
to be a legitimate surprise. Overall a very fun
Casual card that can also have value in a
sidedeck against life gain builds.
In Limited this probably shouldn't be put in any
main deck in Sealed as the odds of having it in
play when an opponent gains enough life to be
worth the three mana are slim at best. In
Booster this is an easily passed card that is
likely to circle the table until someone rare
drafts it. While there are cards in the set that
gain life and this can counter them extremely
well it should only be placed into the deck in
games two or three after an opponent
demonstrates multiple or high life gain effects.
