Oversoul
The Tentacled One
I've had my eye on this card for a while, but with Psarketos bringing it up in the Necropotence "Magic Memories" thread and posting a link to this Mike Flores article I think this one deserves a single card discussion thread. So here we are...
Well, I really like this card. A lot. And while I'm probably more fond of the original Lich than most people, I never cared for that one as much as, say, Necropotence. This thing, though...
It's more similar to Lich than to Necropotence. Or to anything else, really. It's very obviously inspired by the original, with Nefarious Lich thrown in there too...
I don't think that I really need to say this, but the overall effect, the sum total of all lines of rules text, is far more powerful than either of those two older enchantments. On the other hand, it does cost six mana. So where does that leave us?
At six mana, my first reaction is to compare it to Yawgmoth's Bargain. But that's not really fair and might not really be helpful. I mean, in practical terms I don't think that Lich's Mastery will unseat Yawgmoth's Bargain as the greatest six-mana black enchantment. But in trying to assess the new card, it'd be a misleading comparison. That's not just because Bargain is so infamously strong and a card can totally find a useful niche without being quite at that level. It's also because Bargain has always been in the position of the six-mana pricetag being an obstacle. If you're playing Bargain, you're playing combo. And what you'd like more than anything would be to have Bargain out on the first turn of the game and try to find enough mana ramp that you just win right there, before opponents get a chance to hurt you. Later in the game, when you've taken a beating, Yawgmoth's Bargain is useless because you don't have life to spend to activate it. Not so with Lich's Mastery! They can beat you almost to death and once this thing hits the board, you don't even care how much they damage they'd done in the course of the game. Your life total and everything that happened to it? Obsolete. So that's the distinction. Bargain is a six-mana black spell that you want to ramp into or cheat out right away, while your life total is still high enough for it to dig up a combo win. Lich's Mastery is a six-mana black spell that can wait as long as it takes before needing to enter the battlefield.
So, comparing Lich's Mastery to Lich/Nefarious Lich...
-It only requires triple-black instead of quadruple-black.
-It costs six mana instead of four mana.
-It has hexproof.
-It is legendary.
-Your life total doesn't change from the card and you can both gain and lose life under it.
-You can't lose the game, even to things that would kill you under older Lich cards, such as poison counters and decking.
-You can mix and match cards in your graveyard and permanents on the battlefield to satisfy the requirement.
-Unlike the original Lich, tokens can be used as payment.
This is huge. I want to use this card somewhere. I will use this card somewhere. This is basically the "fixed" version of Lich we've been waiting for all these years. So yeah, I'll be trying out Lich's Mastery, but when, where and how I haven't quite figured out yet...
Well, I really like this card. A lot. And while I'm probably more fond of the original Lich than most people, I never cared for that one as much as, say, Necropotence. This thing, though...
It's more similar to Lich than to Necropotence. Or to anything else, really. It's very obviously inspired by the original, with Nefarious Lich thrown in there too...
I don't think that I really need to say this, but the overall effect, the sum total of all lines of rules text, is far more powerful than either of those two older enchantments. On the other hand, it does cost six mana. So where does that leave us?
At six mana, my first reaction is to compare it to Yawgmoth's Bargain. But that's not really fair and might not really be helpful. I mean, in practical terms I don't think that Lich's Mastery will unseat Yawgmoth's Bargain as the greatest six-mana black enchantment. But in trying to assess the new card, it'd be a misleading comparison. That's not just because Bargain is so infamously strong and a card can totally find a useful niche without being quite at that level. It's also because Bargain has always been in the position of the six-mana pricetag being an obstacle. If you're playing Bargain, you're playing combo. And what you'd like more than anything would be to have Bargain out on the first turn of the game and try to find enough mana ramp that you just win right there, before opponents get a chance to hurt you. Later in the game, when you've taken a beating, Yawgmoth's Bargain is useless because you don't have life to spend to activate it. Not so with Lich's Mastery! They can beat you almost to death and once this thing hits the board, you don't even care how much they damage they'd done in the course of the game. Your life total and everything that happened to it? Obsolete. So that's the distinction. Bargain is a six-mana black spell that you want to ramp into or cheat out right away, while your life total is still high enough for it to dig up a combo win. Lich's Mastery is a six-mana black spell that can wait as long as it takes before needing to enter the battlefield.
So, comparing Lich's Mastery to Lich/Nefarious Lich...
-It only requires triple-black instead of quadruple-black.
-It costs six mana instead of four mana.
-It has hexproof.
-It is legendary.
-Your life total doesn't change from the card and you can both gain and lose life under it.
-You can't lose the game, even to things that would kill you under older Lich cards, such as poison counters and decking.
-You can mix and match cards in your graveyard and permanents on the battlefield to satisfy the requirement.
-Unlike the original Lich, tokens can be used as payment.
This is huge. I want to use this card somewhere. I will use this card somewhere. This is basically the "fixed" version of Lich we've been waiting for all these years. So yeah, I'll be trying out Lich's Mastery, but when, where and how I haven't quite figured out yet...