Which Colors are Secondary and Tertiary for Gaining Life?
General forum
Posted on Oct. 10, 2020, 10:56 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
White is definitely the best color for gaining life in this game, but the question of which color, between black and green, is secondary and which is tertiary is a difficult question to answer.
This subject arose in another thread, but another user decided to be very rude about it, so I wish to discuss the subject in a polite and civilized manner.
The MTG wiki says that gaining life is secondary for green, but I must respectfully disagree with that, since green's life gain, as with its card drawing, must be related to creatures in some way, where black's lifegain is always related to players losing life, which is a much more vast domain, in addition to occurring more frequently in black and being more mana-efficient, as well.
What does everyone else say about this? Which color is secondary and which color is tertiary for gaining life? Please keep this discussion polite and respectful.
VampDemigod says... #3
It depends. Green is good at gaining lots of life. Black is good at gaining small amounts of life, but has more reusability on its lifegain, for example sacrificing a creature to get an effect plus 2 life.
October 10, 2020 11:41 p.m.
The way I see it is that black life gain comes from someone or something else, such as creatures dying or players losing life.
Green life gain is not tied to creatures dying unless its your creatures.
Given that you generally want to be doing more than simply gaining life, black seems better simply because its life gain is tied to harming your opponents, and is more efficient in terms of resources dedicated to it. Green has a smaller number of cards to gain life, and those cards aren't as flexible. With this in mind black seems better at life gain.
However, green can have cards that only gain life because green is closely aligned to life gain, odd as it may seem. So, since black life gain is tied to other things, it might be more of a tertiary effect. Tertiary doesn't have to mean weaker, just less direct.
These are just my thoughts on the matter.
October 10, 2020 11:53 p.m.
VampDemigod says... #5
Firstly, I agree.
However, counterpoint. Life Goes On
October 10, 2020 11:57 p.m.
LordBlackblade says... #6
The secondary, tertiary system doesn't really work like a true hierarchy like you seem to think it does. If a color is secondary, that just means the effect is less common, printed at higher rarity, and or more restricted in that color than in a primary color.
That said, I believe green is considered primary in life gain, and black is considered secondary.
October 11, 2020 12:01 a.m. Edited.
SynergyBuild says... #7
Well, life is a little hard, white has the most effects with it by far, and black has the second most in recent printings by far, but green has more playable ones, with lifelink as a mechanic especially favoring black.
Technically I'd say black has more cards with it, but green has better cards with it, think all the random 2/1 lifelinkers in black vs the Hydroid Krasis in green.
October 11, 2020 12:24 a.m.
Flooremoji says... #8
Also Weather the Storm which you know, gains enough life for an entire color.
October 11, 2020 12:29 a.m.
It is all here.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/mechanical-color-pie-2017-2017-06-05
Pure lifegain is primary in green and white. Lifelink is primary in white but not in green at all. Lifegain as a drain effect is primary in black and secondary as a pure gain life or lifelink effect.
October 11, 2020 3:15 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #10
VampDemigod, the name of Life Goes On does match with green's philosophy, but I feel that one mana is far too efficient for green; only black and white should have life gaining that is that efficient.
Flooremoji, I also feel that Weather the Storm should have been white, since it does not require creatures and, again, is too mana-efficient for green.
October 11, 2020 8:39 a.m.
VampDemigod says... #11
I like what lea brought up. It’s at its purest in Selesnya colors, then black has a primary that is generally smaller amounts (drain is normally 1 and 1, though not always), and is secondary in black in its pure form.
The thing I love about this is that it points out the flaw in all of our reasonings. There can be more than one color with primary lifegain. In fact, there’s technically 3 colors with it. However, black doesn’t have pure lifegain as a primary. Just a secondary.
October 11, 2020 10:17 a.m.
VampDemigod says... #12
(To be clear, I was trying to say that WBG all have their own forms of lifegain at primary, some are just purer than others.)
October 11, 2020 10:18 a.m.
VampDemigod says... #13
And DemonDragonJ, 2 things.
Firstly, I’d say that the individual colors as ordered by prevalence are W, G, B. However, out of those colors, the color pairs that are most set up to have a lifegain deck built around them are, in order of effectiveness: WB, BG, and GW.
Secondly, on the topic of Life Goes On, I would maybe agree with you...if it wasn’t for the fact that WotC has printed it at common twice in Standard sets within the past 3.5 years. (It hasn’t seen much play tho. XD)
October 11, 2020 10:24 a.m.
I agree with the wiki statements about it. It's certainly primary in both white and green.
For Black, life gain has always felt secondary to life drain or damage. Over the years, with newer cards and generally because of vampires, life gain became included with the life loss of an opponent or creature. But I feel the main goal of most of black's cards is to hurt and harm and that the gain portion has clearly felt secondary.
Many cards in black cause a loss of life without any life gain included in the card. Because of the popularity of vampires, many of their cards and related cards in a set include the life gain with the loss.
So, for me, it seems that the gain is secondary to the loss.
October 11, 2020 12:06 p.m.
TriusMalarky says... #15
I'd say green is, in 60-card, the best for huge bursts of life.
White has lifegain tacked to creatures, so it's also pretty good in 60-card.
Both of those, however, are limited to Sideboard tech as Lone Missionary and Life Goes On and Kitchen Finks and such.
If you want lots of real life gain that works MD, you want Black. In 60-card you get Sovereign's Bite, Collective Brutality and Alms of the Vein. In EDH and 60-card Aristocrats builds, you get Blood Artist effects.
But did you know that artifacts are pretty darned good at gaining life? A lot of the best lifegain engines are artifacts.
October 11, 2020 12:30 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #16
I do not have time to respond to every post in this thread, but everyone's comments here have been very useful in providing further insight into this matter, so I thank everyone very much for their feedback.
RiotRunner789 says... #2
Green, at least on older cards, is better at lifegain.
More recently, I would say black is better with drain effects and lifelink.
October 10, 2020 11 p.m.