Healing Salve

Instant

Choose one —

• Target player gains 3 life
• Prevent the next 3 damage that would be dealt to target creature or player this turn.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Big Apple Highlander	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Freeform	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Oldschool 93/94	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
PreDH	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

FormOverFunction on Should the Number of Mana …

1 month ago

I feel like this is sort of a “a little bit of column A, a little bit of column B” situation. I think of card strength as being on a sliding scale, with colorless things being VERY basic and utilitarian, one-pip cards being sort of a generic colored mana spell, and then multiple-mono-colored pip cards as being stronger (like what you’re saying, DemonDragonJ). They’re stronger, though, because they’re cast at the exclusion of other colored spells, because the land requirements are tighter. A multi-colored pips spell, though, is (theoretically) better because you’re getting two distinctly color-separate effects. Lightning Helix was probably the first multicolored card I saw like that, that really struck home the idea of “oh, of course. Red for damage, white for life gain. Neat.” The upside is you get both a Lightning Bolt and a Healing Salve (sort of) in just one card… and the downside is that one Counterspell stops everything. Now that I’m typing it out, I think I’m in the camp of “more colored pips generally should mean it’s stronger” but mono colored spells seem more complicated, as if you make it TOO strong then people will revert back to all-monocolored decks, like (I can’t get back to the screen to see who I’m responding after… I’m sorry) was saying. Drain Life is the best example I can think of, where you are severely limited by color. It’s a GREAT card, and I love the theme, but I can’t remember the last time I saw someone use it. WotC has worked really hard to make everything a two or three color minimum, commander and otherwise, so I don’t expect we’ll see much of a resurgence in mono color power. Except for green. Green has always been VERY proud of itself ;p This is why we need more forest walk.

DeinoStinkus on Game Changers & Brackets

8 months ago

I don't think that the Bracket system is a bad idea, but I also don't think it was built to solve Commander's problems, just put a Healing Salve on them, so to speak. It gives us some basic guidelines to work with, and while people may misrepresent themselves intentionally or "game the system" by making OP decks without any game changers, it's a good starting point to help organize the format and alleviate some of the contention and confusion there is, especially for new players.

As others have said, it helps establish that common language to make Commander more accessible for new players and I think that's a good thing, even if it needs refinition over time.

Sliverguy420 on Lifegain-how much to be worth …

8 months ago

Chaplain's Blessing may give more life than Healing Salve, but i wouldn't call it the better card overall. life gain effects, especially one-time use effects that don't do anything else, don't see play not because of the ratio of life : mana, but because life gain by itself doesn't win the game, just stalls the game. and that goal is better accomplished by just using removal. a card could be a 1-mana instant "gain 10 life" and still not see play except in one specific deck with a particular combo. even then, the player will likely just opt for an infinite lifegain combo

Bookrook on Lifegain-how much to be worth …

8 months ago

Life gain started out pretty bad with Healing Salve. WOTC has been printing better versions like Chaplain's Blessing, but none of those are playable. Is there an amount of life per mana that would be playable? I’m talking about cards that are one-time use instant/sorceries, not recurring stuff. No other effects like Revitalize, just raw life gain. What’s a suitable amount that would be playable?

proterran98 on Nykthos Paragon

2 years ago

Thank you. What if you have Chaplain's Blessing instead of Healing Salve?

I guess what I’m really asking is the “do this only once per turn” applying to putting the counters on or does this trigger once and only once on the first time a gain life effect triggers?

Rhadamanthus on Nykthos Paragon

2 years ago

Yes, you can do that. If you respond to Oloro's trigger by casting Healing Salve, then Healing Salve will resolve first and the Paragon will trigger from that life-gain event.

proterran98 on Nykthos Paragon

2 years ago

I have Nykthos Paragon in and a Oloro, Ageless Ascetic in play, and a Healing Salve in my hand.

I want to gain as many counters as possible. I start my turn, is there a way to get 3 counters from healing salve and not settling for 2 counters from oloro?

plakjekaas on Should Green's Lifegain Rely Upon …

2 years ago

The distinction you wish there to be, is not a mechanical one. It's a flavor one, as FormOverFunction touched upon.

White has lifegain because it's the color of community, of healing the sick to strengthen the group, medical cards are usually white in MtG (Apothecary Geist or Healing Salve)

Black is the color of dark magic, vampires, extracting the force of life out of your victims and sacrifices. That's why many vampires have lifelink.

Green is the color of nature, the food chain, photosynthesis, natural growth and prospering.

They can still mechanically be represented with the same kinds of cards, but the reason each color gains life is not bound by the mechanics but by the philosophy of the color pie. At least that's how I see it.