Just the other day, I was having a conversation
about how Shadows over Innistrad has been more
of a true Lovecraftian block - the dark secrets,
the horrifying cults, the aberrant worship -
than Battle for Zendikar. Then Wizards of the
Coast revealed a bunch of cards from Innistrad
viewed through the lens of Rise of the Eldrazi.
The effect is not uninteresting, though, and as
an example of such design, Tree of Perdition is
a curious deckbuilding puzzle to solve. It has
an obvious use against decks with lots of
life-gaining effects: one activation can undo a
lot of investment on the part of a Soul
Sisters-style deck, although 13 is a high enough
number that if you can't kill them in a turn or
two, they can easily rebuild. There is, of
course, the recent card Triskaidekaphobia,
although since triskaidekaphobia is a very real
thing, that might be getting close to too many
instances of the number in a single deck!
Back in the original Innistrad, we saw Tree of
Redemption, a 0/13 Defender that could trade
your life total with the tree's toughness. Now
we get its darker counterpart, a 0/13 Defender
that can trade your opponent's life total with
its toughness. This is coming in the same
environment as Triskaidekaphobia, which kills
your opponent (or you) if they start your turn
at exactly 13 life. Clearly, this is not
coincidental.
Cute tricks aside, the tree seems more geared
for casual play. The Triskaidekaphobia/Tree kill
combo might do some damage and win games, but
it's fairly slow as far as kill combos go, and
the tree is pretty vulnerable to non-red
removal. The real value here is keeping life
gain decks in check and leveling the playing
field; we all know the friend whose deck pushes
their life total to absurd values. Resetting it
to thirteen (and getting a massive body in the
process) is not a bad thing to have, especially
in Commander (where life totals start at 40).
One note about the Tree (as well as its greener
counterpart): the exchange is permanent. So if
you use this on an opponent with 40 life,
they're now set at 13 life, and the Tree becomes
an 0/40 body until you use its ability again.
