I like it a lot in my 540 thus far, have seen it in about three drafts thus far. Turns out that Reanimate that is restricted to your graveyard is still good at two mana.
I run it is a black card because even though the Life side has more applications than it might seem at first glance. I'm pretty certain that many nongreen decks will run it.
Life has a lot of uses I originally overlooked. Play it with your 6th land to add 5 damage to your alpha strike. Combine it with any pump/anthem effect for a 1-mana Rude Awakening. Draw tons of cards with Tamiyo. Do embarrassingly good things with Ajani. Don't mention overrun effects, of which I went ultimate with a Garruk on T4 and killed with Life once already. Very cool spell that has more uses than I thought.
Oh ya, and it's also another 2cc reanimation spell.
Life has a reasonable number of uses, but unlike Fire//Ice, where both sides will often be relevant in the same deck, I find it uncommon that the reanimator deck wants the life side or the tokens/whatever deck that wants life also wants a bad reanimate that can't target opponents creatures. I just don't like split cards when its hard to see both sides functioning well in the same deck.
Life has a reasonable number of uses, but unlike Fire//Ice, where both sides will often be relevant in the same deck, I find it uncommon that the reanimator deck wants the life side or the tokens/whatever deck that wants life also wants a bad reanimate that can't target opponents creatures. I just don't like split cards when its hard to see both sides functioning well in the same deck.
This is a fair criticism, but I think you're understimating how often being able to reanimate one of your dead creatures is valuable, or how often making a quick army can tip the scales in your favor. You definitely want it in a token/anthem theme build or a reanimator deck, but both sides have been surprisingly playable in both archetypes.
This is a fair criticism, but I think you're understimating how often being able to reanimate one of your dead creatures is valuable, or how often making a quick army can tip the scales in your favor. You definitely want it in a token/anthem theme build or a reanimator deck, but both sides have been surprisingly playable in both archetypes.
Does it really see consistent play in nonblack decks? I can see running it in really hardcore gw tokens / anthems, but that doesn't happen all that often and other than that, I can't see it.
For me, it's a black card where you just have to accept the very slight draw towards green. I bet this will end up going in way more UB decks than GB ones.
For me, it's a black card where you just have to accept the very slight draw towards green. I bet this will end up going in way more UB decks than GB ones.
This is what I think, too. However, classification of a spell like Life/Death is a matter of philosophy: you and me, we say it is black because it will be played as a black spell, wtwlf123 says it is better in a deck that has also access to green, so it is GB. I think both points of view are legitimate.
After seeing how good both sides can be, I'd want to have access to both colors of mana in every deck that can play it. It doesn't see consistent play in decks that don't have access to both modes.
After seeing how good both sides can be, I'd want to have access to both colors of mana in every deck that can play it. It doesn't see consistent play in decks that don't have access to both modes.
So you wouldn't play this in your UB reanimator deck? Or would splash green just for it? Even if you had no nonbasics to support the splash?
@ Konfusius: I am somewhere in between. There is no perfect way to categorize this card, but I knew for certain that I want it in my cube. Losing a black card for it felt more fair than losing a Golgari one and was easier, too, so that's what I did.
Life is really good. I think you're underrating it BK. In a deck with a decent token/anthem backbone, you could absolutely play this card without needing the Death half. With a single anthem/pump effect, it's like a 1-mana Rude Awakening.
I'd run Death as value in a deck that wants to run Life, and vice versa.
You asked what kind of deck that runs Tamiyo might want Life // Death, and my answer was a BUG deck. It plays like a tricky rock style midrange deck typically, and you could find uses for both of halves of the split card in a deck like that.
Added this card to my Cube last week mostly to be used as another reanimate spell. I then proceeded to win two games with it in my RGb deck by casting Life for exactsies. Yeah.
Golgari is so crowded but I'm making an exception & running this as my 6th B/G card at 540 because it's so sweet (I normally run 4-5/guild). I'm mainly thinking of it as a reanimate spell but I won a match because of Life.
I did the same. I see this card as a black card with a random green ability that shows up once in a while.
I also have Dryad Militant in white in a similar way, as it's rare in my experience that it's cast for G.
I had it in green/black for a long time. My playgroup got to see a couple life blowouts and were convinced. But everything there was a black not green deck even remotely interested in reanimation it took the card. The green non back decks didn't. So it now sits in the black section. But then again I am not that strict, and green and black decks are always looking to splash for amazing golgari cards anyway.
I'm seeing more and more people move to this card in cubes bigger than 360, what are your experiences?
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I run it is a black card because even though the Life side has more applications than it might seem at first glance. I'm pretty certain that many nongreen decks will run it.
Oh ya, and it's also another 2cc reanimation spell.
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This is a fair criticism, but I think you're understimating how often being able to reanimate one of your dead creatures is valuable, or how often making a quick army can tip the scales in your favor. You definitely want it in a token/anthem theme build or a reanimator deck, but both sides have been surprisingly playable in both archetypes.
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Does it really see consistent play in nonblack decks? I can see running it in really hardcore gw tokens / anthems, but that doesn't happen all that often and other than that, I can't see it.
For me, it's a black card where you just have to accept the very slight draw towards green. I bet this will end up going in way more UB decks than GB ones.
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So you wouldn't play this in your UB reanimator deck? Or would splash green just for it? Even if you had no nonbasics to support the splash?
@ Konfusius: I am somewhere in between. There is no perfect way to categorize this card, but I knew for certain that I want it in my cube. Losing a black card for it felt more fair than losing a Golgari one and was easier, too, so that's what I did.
Only if I had to, or couldn't possibly support the Splash. Life is probably 40% of the value of this card.
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Every BUG deck.
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You asked what kind of deck that runs Tamiyo might want Life // Death, and my answer was a BUG deck. It plays like a tricky rock style midrange deck typically, and you could find uses for both of halves of the split card in a deck like that.
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I can see how splashing the black side makes sense though.
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It says "all lands you control..", and not "all forests..".
I think I will run this in my guild section as the BG "hybrid"
What?
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He misread it and thought it only turned your forests into creatures.
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Golgari is so crowded but I'm making an exception & running this as my 6th B/G card at 540 because it's so sweet (I normally run 4-5/guild). I'm mainly thinking of it as a reanimate spell but I won a match because of Life.
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I did the same. I see this card as a black card with a random green ability that shows up once in a while.
I also have Dryad Militant in white in a similar way, as it's rare in my experience that it's cast for G.
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I had it in green/black for a long time. My playgroup got to see a couple life blowouts and were convinced. But everything there was a black not green deck even remotely interested in reanimation it took the card. The green non back decks didn't. So it now sits in the black section. But then again I am not that strict, and green and black decks are always looking to splash for amazing golgari cards anyway.
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