Welcome to The Mana Drain, where we call each other stupid...
@wappla said in [HOD] Oketra's Last Mercy:
The stupidity of the Vintage player base never ceases to amaze.
...and yell at those who call people stupid!
@Topical_Island said in [HOD] Oketra's Last Mercy:
@wappla I know right!? No matter how many times you politely suggest that they don't pollute an otherwise wonderful website with totally unnecessary, adolescent name-calling, they just never seem to learn.
C'mon guys. This set is turning out to have precious few things to talk about so far. We've got a Crucible with legs, a modular Lighting Bolt / Shatter card, and a generally worse Toxic Deluge. We gotta take what we can get, or just have no conversation and thus no community at all.
Anyway, I agree that this card is bad. Life gain without more is typically a really bad effect. It can be good if it advances what you're trying to do anyway while setting back your opponent. So, for example, Sphinx' Revelation draws you cards as a control deck while also negating one or two of your opponent's turns attacking you.
This card is bad - I suspect unplayably bad - because it can never give you that advantage. It negates several attacks by your opponent, but in so doing, it:
(1) Does nothing to advance your state in the meantime; and
(2) Negates a good chunk of your turn as well, minimizing your benefit from setting the opponent back.
On top of that, this card does literal nothing unless you are losing the game. We did not see Fateful Hour make it in Vintage as a mechanic, for good reason. We need our cards to work at all points in the game.
Even the narrow use case in an Ad Nasuem or Griselbrand style deck in Modern that wants to go all-in on burning life for card draw seems bad. For that application, we have cheaper alternatives in Phyrexian Unlife, that Angelic spell for W, and Martyrs of Korlis. (As OP pointed out.)
So, my verdict? NOPE.