Dom Harvey
Contributor
Unspeakable Symbol + Kitchen Finks is cool
General Life Gain as a Thing
- Thread starter FlowerSunRain
- Start date
Go Infinite Twice:
I'm having trouble getting anybody to go all-in on the lifegain deck, but the cards that support it are still getting played. Last night somebody even just jammed Ajani's Pridemate into their 
midrange deck and it ended up being a huge threat. On a couple occasions it grew to a 4/4 or 5/5 off just random things like Obstinate Baloth, Gerrard's Verdict and Deathrite Shaman.
Archangel of Thune is making me not miss Baneslayer at all, and aside from Soul Warden and the likely to be cut Searing Meditation, all the cards slot into random decks with reasonable efficiency.
midrange deck and it ended up being a huge threat. On a couple occasions it grew to a 4/4 or 5/5 off just random things like Obstinate Baloth, Gerrard's Verdict and Deathrite Shaman.Archangel of Thune is making me not miss Baneslayer at all, and aside from Soul Warden and the likely to be cut Searing Meditation, all the cards slot into random decks with reasonable efficiency.
Dom Harvey
Contributor
Is Firemane Angel a consideration if you have a lot of graveyard stockers?
That's actually a really good idea, especially if you are of the Entomb-as-value persuasion.
I think I'd have to shave two mana off its cost to consider it for my cube.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Well:
Also I'm kinda always a little of wary of walls
Also I'm kinda always a little of wary of walls
Too expensive?
The problem is that the lifegain deck is an attacking deck. This card is just... bleh.
This is an infinite combo right?
CML
Contributor
Good article, though (as I've said before) I disagree with much of the development. In particular the card evaluations seem off to me, and I can imagine a bunch of the cards you mentioned in the latter half of the article tabling time after time due to intense disinterest in a Path of Bravery. Soul Warden is just a good card IMO (so is Suture Priest, which is exactly where you want to be), and what about the flagship lifegain incentive of constructed MTG, Serra Ascendant?
I follow this thought, Serra Ascendant suggests Martyr of Sands, which would be a really poisony inclusion, but next to Solemn Offering and Swift Justice it's not too absurd. My general criticism is of the thought process behind the line "when you're pushing a theme, you have to take what you can," which might be used to justify the above-skewered Modo Storm and contrasts with your usual sound arguments (vs. "loose butthole")
I follow this thought, Serra Ascendant suggests Martyr of Sands, which would be a really poisony inclusion, but next to Solemn Offering and Swift Justice it's not too absurd. My general criticism is of the thought process behind the line "when you're pushing a theme, you have to take what you can," which might be used to justify the above-skewered Modo Storm and contrasts with your usual sound arguments (vs. "loose butthole")
Serra Ascendant is super super poisonous and cannot work outside a dedicated Lifegain shell, versus Pridemate, who is very effective with high densities of incidental lifegain. Problem with Suture Priest is an already high saturation of 2-drops in the archetype.
I also find paralleling Solemn Offering and Swift Justice with MODO Storm to be fairly outrageous. Both of these cards are fully playable in a wide variety of decks, while additionally providing synergy withing the lifegain strategies. I think it's perfectly valid to run slightly suboptimal (power-wise) cards in the name of synergy, versus cards that have 0 vaule outside of a very given niche build.
I run swift justice because it's a pretty neat trick, without any lifegain shenanigans.
I ran Swift Justice because I had so many amazing blowouts with it in RTR limited. I cut it because there was a thread on here about combat tricks and one of the points was having lots of random combat tricks is unfun. It could always go back in.
I don't think it's unfun, so much as there's potential to Level 2 play (and beyond) if people are aware of the possibility, and if the possibility is actually worth considering. If the combat tricks are so rare that your best line is to pretend they don't exist, then you might not be presenting the most sophisticated gameplay options.
CML
Contributor
Eh, you could make a similar case for something like Empty the Warrens (good with Mad Auntie in MMA!) or Manamorphose (fixes colors)! I just don't see what's so exciting about throwing in a handful of bad cards to make a big bear bigger, we have a 2/2 and up in an environment heavy on the White 2's as you say.
Uh, well, aside from it being a pissing match: I don't think they're bad cards, they just aren't the strictly power-maximized cards for that slot. I really don't think you could make the same case.
All I can say is that, when testing, it's been really fun to play with Pridemate, and his presence on the board offers up interesting decision trees while still staying in the realm of "normal Magic". And the cards that turn him on can, have, and will be used effectively in all sorts of normal non-lifegain decks.
I feel like you're appealing to some sort of false parallel here for lack of an actual argument. I don't know what to tell you other than the fact that I've had a lot of fun playing with Pridemate, and my experience has been that it's not that narrow, by virtue of players being able to run it (and have it be great) without building an exclusively lifegain deck.
