From: Simon Connell Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy,rec.games.trading-cards.magic.misc Subject: life points (strategy article) Date: Sun, 07 Sep 1997 11:51:34 +1200 ____the Price of Life____ In Magic, your start with 20 life points. They are your strength and weakness, a resource and a liability. Note: I use the terms 'life' and 'damage' interchangably in this document, I probably shouldn't as loss of life cannot be prevented. For example, orcish artillery does 3 damage, not loses you 3 life. Life is then very important in the game. Many cards affect life. Creatures of course, as well as direct damage reduce life. Spells and effects can also gain you life. So what is the price of life? Exaclty how much is it worth? This is not an easily answerable or calculable question. Here are a few cards that gain life, to give you an idea. some once-off life gainers: Healing Salve: 3 life for W 3 life per mana Mangara's Blessing: 5 life for 2W 1.67 life per mana Fyndhorn Druid: 4 life when it dies for 2G .67 life per mana Elixir of Vitality: 4 casting cost, sac&4T: to gain 4 life, sac&8T: gain 8 life. Either 0.5 life per mana for 4 life or 0.67 life per mana for 8 life Exile: target creature, gain creature's toughness in life for 2W 0 life per mana+ NB: lpm=life per mana) Stream of Life: X life for XG from 0.5 lpm tending to 1 lpm as more mana is spent Vitalizing Cascade: X+3 life for XGW from 1.5 lpm, again approaching 1 lpm Energy Bolt: X life for XRW from 0.33 lpm approaching 1 lpm Alabaster Potion: X life for XWW from 0.33 lpm approaching 1 lpm Taste of Paradise: 3 life for 3G + 3 more for each 1G extra from 0.75 lpm approaching 1 lpm Drain Life: you must know this one! from 0.33 lpm approaching 1 lpm Gerrard's Wisdom: 2 life for each card in hand for 2WW that's from 0 lpm to heaps. With hand size seven, you get 3.5 lpm some permenant life gainers: Ivory Tower: during upkeep, gain life equal to no cards>4, 1 casting cost from 0 lpm to heaps, depending on hand size. Zuran Orb:2 life for sac a land, 0 casting cost thats 2 life per land (lpl) Fountain of Youth:2 life for 2 mana and tap, 0 casting cost that's 0.5 lpm, once per turn Royal Herbalist: 2 life for 2 mana and remove top card of library from gane, cc W: 0.5 lpm Sheltered Valley: during upkeep, gain 1 life if you have 4 or less lands, only one in play at once. For the spells that always get you the same amount of life, there is some variation in the amount of life you get, ranging from low to high. For the X-spells and similar, the starting rate is from 0.33-1.5 lpm, and the more mana you spend the closer it gets to 1 lpm. For fixed life gainers, life is a lot more expensive. Fountain of Youth gives you 0.5 lpm. Most other effects depend on something, like hand size. Cards like Ivory Tower and Gerrard's Wisdom can get you from zero lpm to, with a hand size of eight, about 4 lpm for the wisdom and again 4 lpm for the tower. As hand size increases, lpm increases with no maximum. So which of the life-gainers are actually used in a tournament environment: once-off life gainers: Drain Life(0.33-1 lpm) is used in mostly mono-black decks, was popular in old Necrodecks and is the killer in ProsBloom Gerrard's Wisdom(0+ lpm, even 4+) is becoming more used as its potential is realised. Gaea's Blessing-Infinite recursion decks often include some of these, and with Howling Mines the life gain can be incredible. Permenant Life Gainers: Zuran Orb(2 lpl) is an excellent card, restricted in Type I and banned in Type ][ Ivory Tower(0+ lpm) is also banned in Type II and restricted in Type I, and used often. Sheltered Valley, in some circumstances, such as decks using Squandered Resources, Armageddon, Fireblast or similar Spirit Link: enchant creature for W, gets you life for damage a creature does Founatin of Youth is used occasionally, Loconto used some in the first Pro Tour in his winning deck. Though in 5th Edition and with a decent 0.5 lpm rate it is rarely used. The first two were very popular when legal, and were included in almost every deck. They were staple in NecroDecks, and their removal has been integral in weakening NecroDecks. They calso So what makes these particular life-gaining cards worth it? I believe it must be one of combination of two things: I) excellent lpm(or lpl) cost OR II) decent lpm AND good other effect for a permenant, 2 lpm is good and over 2 is excellent for a once-off spell, 3 lpm if good and 1.5 is alright For an x-spell, 2 lpm is excellent and 0.6-1 lpm is decent. Most x-spells tend to 1 lpm as mana spend increases towards infinity. Gerrard's Wisdom, Ivory Tower and Zuran Orb all fall into the first category. The first two can get lpm rates of 4+ which is excellent. Drain Life fits into the second category: it gets 0.33 lpm if you're doing one damage and a decent 0.67 of you're doing four. As well as this, is can kill a large creature or do significant damage to the opponent. In ProsBloom decks, which use Drain Life to do 20+ damage at once, Drain Life can get lpm rates of around 0.9, which is excellent for a X-spell. So why is, for example, Reflect damage not a good life-gaining card? It has the exact same lpm rate as Drain Life, but is two-coloured, and the special effect is poor. Mangara's Blessing, at a decent 1.67 lpm, only has a truly good effect against a discard deck, and thus makes it a more popular sideboard card. Fountain of Youth has a lpm rate of 0.5, which is fairly poor, the same as an Ivory Tower with half a hand, or Gerrard's Wisdoming with one card in hand. However, the enduring nature of the fountain, and the fact that it can be used multiple times, means it has potential in decks which take a long time to win, such as Loconto's Millstone deck. Sheltered Valley costs no mana, but to gain life from it you need four or less lands, that's three non-valley lands. The dark side: losing life As I said in the beginning, life can be a resource, you can trade it for other things with some spells. Here are some of the things you can spend life on: getting mana: Channel(now banned and never to be reprinted): 1 mpl damage lands: 1 mpl, tap and lose 1 life for one of two colours city of brass: 1 mpl, tap and lose a life standing stones: 1 mpl, tap and spend one mana One mpl, with tapping a land, seems standard for a choice of coloured mana, a decent cost. To be able to get more than 1 lpm, such as in Channel's case, is truly excellent, thus the banning of channel. Standing stones are poor because they cast 3 to get out, need 1 mana per turn, though 1mpl is decent. power casting costs: Contagion, Force of WIll: can pay 1 life and remove a card to cast creatures: Lava Hounds: 4 life for a 4/4 no summoning sickness 2RR Juzam Djinn: 1 life per turn for a 5/5 for 2BB Fledgling Djinn: 1 life per turn for a 2/2 flying for 1B Serendib Efreet :1 life per turn for a 3/4 flying for 2U Benthic Djinn: 3 life per turn for a 5/3 Islandwalk for 3UB Emberwilde Djinn: 2 life per turn to get a 5/4 flying These are hard to compare. due to their casting costs aswell as life paying. Serendib Efreet and Juzam Djinn are excellent, Lava Hounds and Fledgling Djinn are good, and the others are poor. damage: Brothers of Fire: 1 life and 1RR for 1 damage, 1 dlp (+ mana) Orcish Artillery/Cannoners: 3 life for 2 damage, 0.67 dlp Guildmages: R and 1 life for 1 damage: 1 dlp Earthquake, Hurricane: X spells, do damage to you and others, 1 dpl, sort of... 1 dlp is excellent, but most 1 dlp effects need mana as well as life. The Orcish gunning squads get 0.67 dpl doing 3 damage to you and 2 to any target, this is a pretty good rate, and any card getting much more than this without a mana cost is also good. draw cards: Necropotence: 1 cpl, BB Enchantment Greed: 2 life and B for 1 card: 0.5 cpl Book of Rass: 2 life and 2 for 1 card: 0.5 cpl Infernal Contract: half your life for 4 cards: from 0.4 cpl to 4 cpl, BBB sorcery Unfulfilled Desires: 1 mana and 1 life to draw then discard: 1 cpl Vampiric Tutor: gets you whatever card you want on top of your library for 2 life and B Of these cards, only Necropotence, Vamp Tutor and Infernal Contract are often used. This is because of their low casting costs, coupled with high cpl rates. 1 cpl is very good without an additional mana cost, and Infernal Contract reaches this at 8 life. If you contract at 20 life you get a pretty poor 0.4 cpl but after that the benefit gets better and better. Vampiric Tutor gets you the card you want, and though it gets you no draws it is similar to that effect. deny opponent cards: Zur's Weirding: 2 life to stop a draw Wand of Denial: 2 life to put opponent's top card in library The cost is the same here: 2 life to get a card into the graveyard. Life can get you a lot of things, but how do you know which costs are too high to be worth using? Similar to life-gaining cards, life-taking cards need a few requirments to be worth using: I) good effect AND II) good life cost for the effect AND III) good other costs ie mana AND Necropotence is a good example: for BBB you get a good 1 cpl rate, this made Necrodecks the most common type for a while. When you're dealing with cards that gain or lose you life, remember to consider these main things: I) the effect AND II) what you get for your life If the casting cost is too high, or what you get for your life is too low, don't use the card. What should I use to gain life in my deck? Which life-gaining cards are appropriate to your deck depends on the speed and aim of your deck, and how much mana it has available. Here are some deck types and what kind of life-gaining cards are appropraite: Sligh: none. The speed of such decks means you should kill the other guy before you need to think about gaining life. Prosperous Bloom: none. You don't actually need to gain life in these decks, though Drain Life is the most common kill mechanism, Kaeverk's Torch works just as well. Millstone: permenant life-gainers such as Ivory Tower and Fountain of Youth can be appropriate. As the game should be long and drawn out, you can have the spare mana to power a fountain of two. Stasis: Ivory Tower and Zuran Orb are excellent life-gainers for these decks, but are no longer available in Type II. Sheltered Valley is a good life-gainer in a Squandered Stasis type deck which usually does have four or less land. Necro: Ivory Tower and Zuran Orb, more usually the former, and of course Drain Life. Drain also works well with the Dark Rituals and Lakes of the Dead often found in Necrodecks. 5CB: black decks with more than two colours shouldn't usually use Drain Life. other decks: most decks don't actually need life gaining. Unless there is an excellent life gainer eg Ivory Tower, you probably don't need it. One of the best life-gainers in Type II, Gerrard's Wisdom has no offensive value, and fits in slower decks such as Turbo-Abeyance, CounterPost or Blessing-Abeyance. So, there's all I have to say for now. I hope I can be of help! sHc Simon Connell King Minos of Crete DISCLAIMER: I don't really believe in using formulas or calculations to rate cards, the game and cards are too complicated, but I believe some valid comparasins can be made, especially on what you can get for your mana(or life). This is, of course, just my opinion, and well, you don't have to accept it.