We should mention the cards that revitalize the artifact archetypes too. I think this is past the purpose of the thread by now but it's fun to list cards so here they are:
Sai, Master Thopterist
Whir of Invention
The Antiquities War
@Tylert: yes they are, doing well on a few occasions recently, you'll have to find the examples yourself but I think it was a recent GP (EW perhaps) and MTGO, I don't keep track of it, just notice..
Revitalize would be a maindeck hedge vs burn/aggro, and it's not significantly better in that regard than Renewed Faith.
As a SB card in a white deck you would want something like COP:R that actually says 'you can't lose' rather than 1W counter target lava spike draw a card
Fog > Reviltalize
Lone Missionary > Revitalize > Squire > Chub Toad > Fog
Edit: For real though, if someone's actually considering Revitalize as an anti-aggro sideboard, Missionary is probably better. You gain more life and get a body to trade with an attacker, which is on average better tempo than cantripping into a random card.
You're being attacked by a pair of two power creatures, you can cast fog and prevent four damage or you can gain 3 life. Your call.
Why run Fog over Moment's Peace?
Well, if we’re really gonna have this discussion, the original argument was to have a white answer to Burn. I don’t know a lot of white decks that have problems dealing with creatures, so we’re talking about dealing with the actual burning, and fog is out. Except maybe Dawn Charm, if we really, REALLY want to play a fog effect that does something against burn.
The reason why I mentioned Revitalize is that it is a maindeck 4-off in standard Jeskai control lists precisely for buying time to make land drops, essentially working as a bad pseudo time walk.
Why I think Revitalize (but also Renewed Faith) is interesting, is because life gain is historically either bad, or results in an infinite combo. Why is it bad? Because of the opportunity cost of a dedicated life gain card. Kind of similar to why Auras are often bad because if the creature is removed, you also lose the aura so you don't get ahead. However, since the Amonkhet cycle they have started experimenting with auras that have a enters the battlefield effect such as drawing a card or giving a -1/-1 counter on a target creature in order to offset that limitation of the card's inherent weakness. I believe that inherent weakness for lifegain cards is that they cost a card, and it seems that Wizards has also identified this, thus slapping a card draw on life gain cards. The power level is already creeping, going from +2 life to +3 life for 1W. It is only going to be a matter of time until this effect will be gain 4 life draw a card for 1CC at which point I would gladly run 4 of them in the sideboard and perhaps even in the maindeck to off-set bolt snap bolt or to kill a Death's Shadow (if the life gain spell can target a player).
I think you will see this card design more often in new sets and it warrants a reevaluation of what life is worth in Magic. We know 1 cc is worth more than 2 life due to the power level or Phyrexian mana cards and Ancient Tomb and that making a spell uncounterable or giving a creature haste is worth less than 3 life unless the spell or creature is part of a combo/finisher (Bosejiu and Hall of the Bandit Warlord)
Also, I think Lone Emissary isn't that bad. Timely Reinforcement is currently seen as better but I'm not sure that's true. Lone Emissary comes down a turn earlier preventing an extra from a Goblin Guide so you could essentially also gain 6 life with it. The 1 extra mana to have 3 tokens split up does not seem like the best deal although you can use 2 tokens to block a Goblin Guide and still have 1 left to chump something else. Both of them do not have a card draw attached unfortunately. (And yes, the bodies could be better than a random card)
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