Chalice of Life

Artifact

{T}: You gain 1 life. Then if you have at least 10 life more than your starting life total, transform this.

Combos

• Chalice of Life + Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (51)

kamarupa on Tripwire

4 months ago

it's looking a lot better! Keep at it!

I suggest swapping out Marble Chalice for Chalice of Life  ^Flip.

As a rule of thumb, I usually aim for a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 8 removal spells. Including Royal Assassin, you're at 11 right now. I'd suggest moving Feed the Serpent and Make Your Move to the sideboard. That will reduce your deck from 65 to 62. I'd cut Murder completely, as it's a less good version of Breathe Your Last, and I'd increase Breathe Your Last from 2 copies to 4. I believe that will bring you total to 60 spells, and bring your removal spells to 6 I think, which is 2 more than most decks. Remember that even at the casual, budget level, Modern is a very fast and powerful format. There are plenty of very cheap infinite combo decks out there that can win by Turn 3, so while it can be vital to disrupt your opponent with removal spells (etc), you will likely only get the chance to cast 1-3 removal spells in game. You'll still want to cast creature spells and in the early turns (1-4) you'll often have to choose which one spell you should cast.

You've still got the troublesome issue of quite a few spells that require 2 black mana to cast. As a rule of thumb, it's always harder to cast spells that require two the same color mana to cast in deck running more than one color. It's not impossible, but can definitely become a bothersome roadblock, especially without any dual lands.

Finally, I'm only about half sold on Dazzling Reflection. I can see how powerful it could be, but I also think it's a bit hyper specific in it's utility. I wonder if you might get more mileage out of a good old Holy Day or the worse MV of Riot Control that has a broader effect.

wallisface on Budget midrange anti-burn lifegain

2 years ago

Some thoughts:

• you have a super-low threat-density… only Speaker of the Heavens poses any real threat. I think you need far more ways to pressure the opponent.

• cards that only gain life are pretty universally bad, as they don’t further your own boardstate at all, and so are generally just costing you a card. I would recommend ditching all of Light of Hope, Chaplain's Blessing, Light of Hope, and Chalice of Life  ^Flip in this vein, as they’re all pretty-universally useless.

• I don’t see a game ever going long enough to cast Felidar Sovereign… and even if you can cast it, i don’t see you managing to be on 40+ life so late in the game.

• you have no creatures with decent etb effects, so there’s not a lot of reason to bounce anything - Cloudshift seems bad here.

• you currently have no way to interact with your opponent (i.e. for killing their stuff). Just letting your opponent do what they want is never a good idea - it gives them free reign to build a bigger boardstate and beat you down with it.

27hp on Landfall Champions

2 years ago

Search for Tomorrow seems like a good fit. I've been pretty lucky pulling Arboreal Grazer most first turns so that always gives me immediate ramp but having more 1 mana options can't hurt.

Jaddi Offshoot is insane! I think I'm definitely adding that in asap. I feel like Courser of Kruphix is definitely a tighter strategy option than Gladeheart but I'm hesitant! In a couple of my games with this deck I've been doubling up life gain/damage with Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose + Sanguine Bond and gladehearts landfall effect have really been lifesavers. However ... I have top-carded with this deck a few times already and that sucks. Might toss out the 2 Chalice of Life  ^Flip for 2 of them and see how it goes!

The_Fallen_Duke on No Pain No Lifegain

3 years ago

If I may make another couple of observations, I think those cards you should cut instead:

• Chalice of Life  ^Flip is not worth the mana investment for such minimal effects.
• Kabira Crossroads is deceitfully bad, as you will realise that being a turn behind in terms of available mana (especially in mono white) is not worth the 2 extra life, not even in a lifegain deck.
• Anointed Procession is a powerhouse in a token deck, but in my opinion you do not have that many token-producing effect to make the most out of it, so I feel like often it will end up being a 4CMC do nothing permanent. Unless you experienced otherwise.

seshiro_of_the_orochi on Does Providence make your STARTING …

3 years ago

I'm not perfectly sure, but I would argue that your starting total would still be 20. The reasoning is that you reveal Providence before the first turn, which then gives you a trigger on your first upkeep of the game which then gains you 6 life to set it to 26 (setting a life total loses or gains you the appropriate amount of life).

So for Chalice of Life  ^Flip, I'm very sure that your starting total still is 20, resulting it to flig once you're at 30 life.

CaseyHubbard25 on Does Providence make your STARTING …

3 years ago

I'm trying to pair Chalice of Life  ^Flip with Providence

Chalice of life says it has to be 10 more than your starting life total to transform it. If I reveal providence from my hand at the beginning of the first upkeep is that technically the beginning of the game, making my 'starting life total' 26 or is my starting life total still going to be 20 since providence specifies at the beginning of the first 'upkeep'?

Salt_Goodman on Linden, the Steadfast Queen

4 years ago

Just kept a list of some good cards while looking at mtg stuff.

Helpful Artifacts

Cosmos Elixir

Dolmen Gate

Chalice of Life  ^Flip

Useful Creatures

Sun Titan

Resplendent Angel

Heliod, Sun-Crowned

Keeper of the Accord for catch-up scenarios

Mangara, the Diplomat for some card draw

Alternate Win-Cons

Angel of Destiny

Ajani, Strength of the Pride

Good One-sided board wipe

Ravnica at War

ellie-is on Ellie's Soul Sisters

4 years ago

@Peoni: Thank you very much for the comment!

Emeria, The Sky Ruin sees a lot of play in Martyr Proc, which stalls out games by looping Martyr of Sands as its main strategy, but since this deck has a bigger focus on fast aggro, it's very unlikely a game will last enough for me to play 8 lands. So the fact it comes into play tapped is too big a drawback to run it.

Path to Exile is definitely good and I'm trying to figure out how to make room for it currently. Chalice of Life  ^Flip is fun and I used to run it in an older lifegain deck, but by the time I have enough life to trigger it, I could be triggering Serra Ascendant instead, which costs just one less mana and synergizes better with the rest of the deck.

Heliod, Sun-Crowned on the other hand is super strong! A lot of recent Soul Sister decks are using it because it goes infinite with Walking Ballista, and turns your other creatures into Pridemates too. My only issues with that combo is that I'd need to afford playsets of both cards and they are both very expensive, and also that Walking Ballista doesn't really do much in this deck without Heliod being around. But mostly this combo is out of my price range, haha.