There is a certain amount of life that makes a card playable. This is a burning wish target that basically resets the game for you.

I could see this as a sideboard card agaisnt some creature matchups.

But this card really provides a huge oppertunity cost for playing it. Yes, the life can save you a game, but how many cards do you effecively need to draw off the extra life to make this card worth it?

The card does have interesting interactions with Necropotence and Yawgmoth's Bargain, and is white to play Academy Rector.

Assume that this thing is in your sideboard.What matchup do you adopt it in?

@Saya

Eldrazi and MUD decks. if timed right, it should buy you 2 turns.

As an instant, this card would be super sweet.

As a sorcery, it's likely best against "aggro" matchups. In those cases, I think I'd rather pay one more for a sweeper.

The stupidity of the Vintage player base never ceases to amaze.

@wappla

What amount of life would you need to gain for 3 mana to have a playable magic card in vintage?

If it cost W and didn't have that untap clause it might have seen some play, but as is it's really bad.

@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.

@gkraigher None of your posts show awareness of this card's "exert your lands" drawback. How do you expect to cast this card to minimize your lost turns?

@Topical_Island Glad you sympathize. It's genuinely troubling how bad some people are at card evaluation, but then we knew that when Gitaxian Probe was restricted.

@wappla said in [HOD] Oketra's Last Mercy:

The stupidity of the Vintage player base never ceases to amaze.

@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.

I'm not the one name calling.

I see a unique card. One that probably isn't good enough to be played, but a card that merits a discussion because of its obvious interactions with Burning Wish, Necropotence, and Yawgmoth's Bargain.

@Topical_Island I'm not sure sympathy was one of the many emotions I experienced during my reading of the single sentence you posted... Even I know how ignore threads I'm not interested in. If I can do it...

Does this really buy any turns against a vintage aggro deck? For instance, if you are going up against a mentor army aren't they attack for something like 5-7, then 15-20, then 17-25? Even if you go back to 20 life they might still have enough power on board to one shot.

Similar for something like eldrazi, who swings out with reality smashers and tks for 9-14 a turn, and since you pseudo time walk yourself by hampering your land based mana (and them presumably attacking your artifact mana) they get to do it twice before you reap any real benefits.

On the other hand, this has potential of being a combo enabler with yawgmoth's bargain/griselbrand/necropotence. But for that the only thing going for it is as a burning wish target, since we have had children of korlis for years.

This card does not seem good enough. Even if you go from 5-->20, are you really winning that game if your opponent's board remains unchanged and you mini-Tangle Wire yourself? My guess is generally not.

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.

This card was made specifically for Esper EDH decks so they can refuel Necropotence. That will be its only use in about any format.

A Grisel Oath shell seems about as good as it gets for this card: Children of Korlis is unplayable for obvious reasons and the untap clause is pretty irrelevant if you're about to play 21 cards worth of artifact mana.