General Life Gain as a Thing

Jason Waddell

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
Okay duders, let's make this happen. So, here is the deal. Most of the life gain incentive cards blow chunks. A couple don't.


Double Pridemate probably? Archangel is good enough on its own and doesn't really need thematic support. If anybody can make an argument for any of the others, I'd love to hear it (ugh, Blood Baron is such bad design). To get the deck to work, we need to dedicate minimal space to it and maximal incidental support.



Soldier of the Pantheon, Kitchen Finks and Ooze would likely need to be two-ofs. Bye-bye Isamaru and Dryad Militant. Peace out Tarmogoyf. Goodby second Noble Hierarch. Are there other life gainers we can bring in? How does this package sound to you guys?
 
Alfonzo Bonzo

Alfonzo Bonzo

It looks really interesting and am looking forward to how it pans out, particularly how it affects aggro generally.

Would be interested in others thoughts on vault skirge too. Big fan of Gerard's verdict.blood artist should have some nice synergy across archetypes. Not a super fan of zuran orb, a bit too much do nothing for my liking. You already have lightning helix don't you?

Would it be interesting to increase the number of cards that you pay life for, particularly black cards?

Are you not just making grove of the burnwillows worse as there are more opponents who care about gaining life?
 
FlowerSunRain

FlowerSunRain

Contributor
When I was first messing around with this, I tried Divinity of Pride and it "just" a nerfed baneslayer that was impossible for most decks to cast. I swapped it out for Obzedat and was nothing but impressed and also ashamed that it took me the better part of a year to understand that this card is sexy. Its also in the right colors.
 
Jason Waddell

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
Alfonzo Bonzo said:
Would it be interesting to increase the number of cards that you pay life for, particularly black cards?

Are you not just making grove of the burnwillows worse as there are more opponents who care about gaining life?
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Could be interesting. I don't have anything in mind though.

The point is less about making Grove worse and more about making Pridemate better.
 
Jason Waddell

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
Planned changes so far:

Isamaru, Hound of Konda [SoldierPantheon]
Dryad Militant [Soldier Pantheon]
Accorder Paladin [Ajani's Pridemate]
Leonin Relic-Warder [Ajani's Pridemate]
Aven Mindcensor [Aven Riftwatcher]
Baneslayer Angel [Archangel of Thune]
Disenchant [Solemn Offering]
Unexpectedly Absent [Swift Justice]
Ajani, Caller of the Pride [Ajani Goldmane]
Spear of Heliod [Path of Bravery]
Skirsdag High Priest [Blood Artist]
Noble Hierarch [Deathrite Shaman]
Tarmogoyf [ScavengingOoze]
Call of the Herd [KitchenFinks]
Sensei's Divining Top [Vault Skirge]
Sword of Feast and Famine [Sword of Light and Shadow]
Lingering Souls [Sorin, LOA]
Vindicate [Obzedat, Ghost Council]
Tidehollow Sculler [Gerrard's Verdict]
Boros Charm [Searing Meditation]

More suggestions are super helpful!
 
Jonas

Jonas

What I run that happens to support lifegain:



Things I am either considering to add or sure I am adding:



Path of bravery was one of the few cards that actually did work the last time I tried out a lifegain package, so that one is surely going in. None of the extorters was in the draft last time, so I didn't get to see them in play. I can see myself running two of either Soul Warden or Essence Warden, since that 3/3 for two is pretty good, or just having Path of bravery turned on when it hits the board. So yeah, these are my suggestions really.
 
Jonas

Jonas

Jason Waddell said:
Are the Wardens actually any good?
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They should be useful in control as a first turn drop against aggro, so at least they aren't poison. I hope. I will get back to you on this after I have drafted them some more. It's an incentive to go into more colors if you have them in green over white though, which I enjoy.

Jason Waddell said:
Is Path of Bravery multiple-able?
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Good question. It would be with some kind of token producer, so you can throw away your attackers against a wall if needed. Hm.
 
Jason Waddell

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
Jonas said:
They should be useful in control as a first turn drop against aggro, so at least they aren't poison. I hope. I will get back to you on this after I have drafted them some more. It's an incentive to go into more colors if you have them in green over white though, which I enjoy.
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Do you then make an effort to populate the cube with x/1's? I don't know if I'd actually play a Warden in a control deck to be honest.
 
ahadabans

ahadabans

Blood Artist is great. I've been running that for awhile.

I had Long Missionary in and I liked him, but he's coming out in my next update to make room for something else.

Path of Bravery seems like it will either be amaze-balls or absolute rubbish. That card is going to be super useless against most aggro decks unfortunately. In a slower dragonish cube though, it's probably pretty sweet. As my cube qualifies as more dragon than aggro, I might actually consider that card. Thanks for posting.
 
Jonas

Jonas

Jason Waddell said:
Do you then make an effort to populate the cube with x/1's? I don't know if I'd actually play a Warden in a control deck to be honest.
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It would depend on the meta in the cube, I might be thinking more constructed though, where with your aggro decks, you are able to do 20 damage in four turns and then you run out of gas. Screw Sphinx Rev. Anyways, what the wardens would have to do in a control deck would be just to keep you alive that one extra turn to find a wrath, etc. I might very well be totally wrong about this though.

ahadabans said:
Blood Artist is great. I've been running that for awhile.

I had Long Missionary in and I liked him, but he's coming out in my next update to make room for something else.

Path of Bravery seems like it will either be amaze-balls or absolute rubbish. That card is going to be super useless against most aggro decks unfortunately. In a slower dragonish cube though, it's probably pretty sweet. As my cube qualifies as more dragon than aggro, I might actually consider that card. Thanks for posting.
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I was thinking along the same lines with Path of Bravery in Jasons cube, seeing how fast it is, it would probably never be an anthem, unless you have archangel out, or just pump the pridemates?
 
Eric Chan

Eric Chan

Hyalopterous Lemure
Staff member
ahadabans said:
Path of Bravery seems like it will either be amaze-balls or absolute rubbish. That card is going to be super useless against most aggro decks unfortunately. In a slower dragonish cube though, it's probably pretty sweet. As my cube qualifies as more dragon than aggro, I might actually consider that card. Thanks for posting.
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Yeah, in my 20 fetch 20 shock 10 painland cube, Path of Bravery would be pretty comical. The three colour decks here typically start the game at ~15ish life, and sometimes drop down further if they've grabbed a handful of Karplusan Forest and friends in the utility land draft.
 
Jason Waddell

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
Path of Bravery can be a real thing in the aggro mirror, if nothing else but for changing race math. Also, I think it can challenge you to sequence you lands differently. Maybe fetch a basic? Wait and play it on T4 after a tapped shockland?

I think we're almost there folks, but I would love to see one weird, decision-based repeatable source of life gain. Does such a card exist?
 
Jonas

Jonas

Throw Gideon away, I don't like that stupid look on his face. Either that or the Chandra maybe? How has she been, is she good in your cube?

Are you sure you want to throw bad Ajani out, he seems like he has some synergy with the theme, double striking life linkers are useful?
 
Jonas

Jonas

That looks interesting.

Could this be a playable card in a slower cube? I want to be able to play more auras damnit.

 
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