Lifelink: A Great Take on "Give and Take"

[Lelouch32]

Lifelink: A Great Take on "Give and Take"

By: Corlando

There is a specific friend of mine who has been instrumental in training me in the ways of magic. I like to think of him as one of my many gurus and the fact that he is Asian helps to solidify that idea. One thing my adopted guru has always told me is that you must play fast, ignore cards that delay, the only way to win is to reduce your opponent to zero. Now, I know you’re thinking that this guy has no clue what he is taking about because he doesn’t mention milling or other techniques to win. This is because he is a lot like me, a man who prefers to battle to fullest, winning through actually fighting not by decking the opponent out or some other way. I believe and battle with that mentality in mind, but I can’t help but occasionally play a stalling game. This is where Lifelink comes in, one of my favorite abilities of all the Magic the Gathering universe. With the potential to not only save you in a time of crisis, but to also demoralize your opponent Lifelink has many uses that can make any duel a memorable one. This is the topic of this installment of Cards n’Flux. I am Corlando and I will your sensei as we explore the nuances of Lifelink. Bow to your Sensei!!!!!!

Lifelink is the ability of a creature that whatever damage a creature inflicts either to other creatures or to your opponents that same amount of damage is added to your life total. An example of this is when a creature with Lifelink inflicts 3 damage to your opponent, you gain 3 life. As I said before this is a great ability because not only will it save you from dying too soon, but if you gain enough life your opponent might just give up. These two benefits are great to say the least, but is there more we can gain from it?

Before we move into trying to create a deck around Lifelink, let us look at a few cards that make Lifelink not only an ability, but a terrifying threat. First of the cards we will look at is Battlegrace Angel. Battlegrace Angel is a mana flying angel with three great abilities. The first one is flying, making this 4/4 creature a pain to deal with. The second is exalted which says that, “whenever a creature you control attacks alone, it gains +1/+1.” This ability alone is great because even if you only have Battlegrace Angel on the field, if it attacks it becomes a very damaging 5/5. However, the third ability is where the power lies. “If a creature you control attacks alone, it gains lifelink until the end of the turn.” This ability turns the situation from earlier into an opportunity to create a 10 life gap between you and your opponent. Can you imagine what would happen if you had a creature on the field that was already a threat? Let’s say you have Inkwell Leviathan on the field, a creature with Islandwalk, Trample, and shroud. If you attack with Leviathan alone, you will have the potential to have an unblockable, untargetable, 8/12 creature heading straight at your opponent. That ladies and gentlemen could hurt... alot.

Another creature of note for a black and white Lifelink deck would be Divinity of Pride. This flying 4/4 not only has Lifelink, but the ability to double its stats if you have 25 or more life. This card is great because even if you play it late in the game, it can begin the process of saving you from death. Plus if you play it while you are winning, you can just wail on your opponent mercilessly. Divinity of Pride is just a flat out fun card.

Now, while we are talking about white and black cards let’s look at two others. The first of these cards is Nip Gwyllion. This small , 1/1, hag seems unimpressive even though it has Lifelink, but that quickly changes when we look at our next card. Edge of Divinity is an amazing enchantment for only mana. Edge of Divinity states, “As long as enchanted creature is white, it gets +1/+2” and, “As long as enchanted creature is black, it gets +2/+1.” Imagine what would happen if you equipped Edge of Divinity to Nip Gwyllion? First turn, play a swamp and summon Nip Gwyllion. Your opponent goes and... let's say he only plays a land. Your second turn. First you play a plains, tap either the swamp or plains and enchant Nip Gwyllion with Edge of Divinity. On the second turn you have the capacity to attack with a 4/4 creature with lifelink. This combo could really deal a blow not only to your opponent’s life total, but to their confidence as well.

The final card that I wish to discuss briefly is Felidar Sovereign. Felidar Sovereign is a , Cat Beast with Vigilance, Lifelink, and desirable 4/6 stats. As the card is right now, Felidar Sovereign is rather impressive, but that is not enough for this monster of a card. Felidar Sovereign definitely lives up to its namesake and proclaims that, “At the beginning of your upkeep, if you have 40 or more life, you win the game.” This ability is great to have in your back pocket for any Lifelink deck. Just in case you just can’t seem to get your opponent down to 0, play this guy and win the game through gaining life cards. This is one of the few ways to win a game without killing your opponent.

Alright, so we have taken a look at a number of good cards for a Lifelink deck, now it’s building time.

Give and Take

Creatures:
4 Nip Gwyllion
4 Mourning Thrull
4 Restless Apparition
4 Souls of the Faultless
2 Evershrike
2 Divinity of Pride
2 Felidar Sovereign

Lands:
12 plains
12 swamps

E.S.I
4 Pillory of the Sleepless
4 Edge of Divinity
4 Lifelink
2 Sanguine Bond

Sideboard
2 Angel of Despair
4 Stillmoon Cavalier
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Zealous Persecution

I think this deck could be very fun to play. It has a lot of capacity to gain you life and deal some horrendous damage. I have heard a few bad things about Souls of the Faultless because it is only a 0/4 defender, but if you add a Edge of Divinity on it and not only will it be able to take up to 7 damage for you, but it will keep the smaller creatures from coming at you while you prepare for something big. Not to mention the fact that whenever it blocks you will be able to gain life equal to the damage inflicted. Moving to another card, Evershrike could easily become the king of this deck instead of Divinity of Pride. Slap a Lifelink on it and an Edge of Divinity on it and you are looking at 9/9 with lifelink that can be powered up even more.

All of these life-gaining cards will combine well with two enchantments in this deck. Pillory of the Sleepless will keep the bigger problems under control as well as deal 1 damage to your opponents every turn. However, the real kicker will be Sanguine Bond. If you have this out when you swing with a powered up Evershrike, you’ll deal an impressive 18 damage in 1 turn as well as gain 9 life.

For the first time I have included a sideboard and I feel I might need to explain why. As the deck stands now it has good creatures, but it doesn’t really have a lot of removal or more versatile cards. Tidehollow Sculler will keep people from playing any nasty cards while Angle of Despair has the ability to destroy them if they do make it on the field. Zealous Persecution is there to help boost creatures if needed and could be useful in a few circumstances. Stillmoon Cavalier has a lot of great abilities that could easily make it a keystone in the deck… if you pay the mana of course. There are numerous other cards out there that could really make this deck great and as with all my decks this one needs tweaking. Make this deck your own and I’m sure anyone could be a force to reckon with.

With that I will close this installment of Cards n’Flux. Again sorry for the late update, college has started again and I find my schedule crowded and slightly difficult to mold to my whims. Hope you enjoyed this little discussion and feel free to leave a comment or two. I like it when people do that because then I get to know what you think and find out ways to improve. And as always remember, “Etherium is Limited, Innovation is not.” This is Corlando signing out.

[NightLoki]

I know it's really really really expensive, but no Baneslayer Angel? It's got lifelink! (as well as a few other ridiculous abilities for 5 mana, eesh)

[Lelouch32]

I know Baneslayer Angel has lifelink (it has ever other thing for crying out loud), but I wanted people to be able to see a reasonable deck. One that isn't horrible and one that isn't horribly expensive.

I haven't punched the numbers but I'm pretty sure that if you counted it all out, this deck is probably less than 1 Baneslayer Angel.

That and the fact of the matter is, Baneslayer Angel is a very time oriented card. It was a card that was created strictly to try to get people to play decks involving white in time of Jund and Dragon decks. I do see Baneslayer Angel as a useful card, but the problem is that once Jund and Dragon decks go out of fashion you will have spent anywhere from 50 to 200 dollars on Angels whose two dominate abilities may never be useful.

So what do you think of the deck?

[NightLoki]

1: a 5/5 flier with first strike for 5 is amazing. Add lifelink and two random protection abilities, you have the walletslayer angel. It's played in every format except vintage, it's that good. The price is justified, but it shouldn't have been printed, imho.

2: I personally am not a fan of creature enchantments, but Edge was always an exception in my book. 1 for a permanent giant growth is amazing. I don't like the cards Lifelink or Sanguine Bond. Well, it's mostly the Lifelink, the Sanguine Bond's at least nifty.

[Lelouch32]

Yeah the lifelink enchantment is kind of optional, but I also see it benefits with Evershrike. The best things about the Sangunin Bonds are when you add them with Tainted Sigil which gives you life equal to the amount your opponent's lost. Combine the 9/9 Evershrike or Divinity of Pride with Sanguin Bonds and you can end the match in one turn.
9 damage from Evershrike
9 damage for lifelink from Evershrike
9 damage from Tainted Sigil

Down and out.

[NightLoki]

also ridiculously situational. I like the big combinations like that, but as a tournament player I require consistency in my decks. Good example: I've been trying to get a BR deck to work in Alara-ZEN-M10 Type 2 since the Zendikar Spoilers were released. I haven't been able to succeed because it's not consistent. There wasn't enough burn and fast creatures for the deck. These days, it's much more likely (a work in progress for me in fact). I love BR, but I can't play something inconsistent, it just drives me insane. Interesting consistent decks are the hardest to find, but they're out there.

[Lelouch32]

True.

This deck is definitely more for just casual play though I would love to see how it does in a tournament, probably poorly.

I create decks not to be competitive, but to have fun. That is my goal to have a hobby that I find fun.