Healing Salve MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 26 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost1
RarityCommon
TypeInstant

Key Takeaways

  1. The card can be a game-changer by negating an opponent’s effective attack or spell damage.
  2. Instant speed allows strategic responses to threats, offering a significant tempo advantage.
  3. Despite its utility, there are more impactful spells for the same or less mana investment.

Text of card

Gain 3 life, or prevent up to 3 damage from being dealt to a single target.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: While Healing Salve doesn’t generate card advantage in the traditional sense by drawing cards, it does provide utility that can effectively negate an opponent’s card, such as thwarting a burn spell aimed at a creature or preserving your life total. This can indirectly lead to a form of card advantage by nullifying the effects of your opponent’s cards.

Resource Acceleration: Healing Salve itself doesn’t offer resource acceleration in terms of mana or card draw. However, its low cost allows players to preserve resources by protecting valuable creatures or keeping themselves alive without having to invest heavily in mana or other cards.

Instant Speed: As an instant, Healing Salve offers flexible timing, allowing players to respond to threats or attacks during the opponent’s turn. This can disrupt an opponent’s strategy or combat math, potentially leading to favorable exchanges and allowing you to optimize your plays around your opponent’s actions.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Healing Salve does not require a discard, ensuring your hand remains full. This trait keeps you at an advantage in terms of resource retention.

Specific Mana Cost: Healing Salve necessitates a single white mana, anchoring it solidly in white-based strategies and potentially restricting its integration into more diverse or multi-colored decks.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Although costing only one white mana, when compared to other cards in the game providing similar or greater utility, Healing Salve’s cost-effectiveness can be questioned. Players may find other spells that offer more impact or versatility for the same or lower mana investment.


Reasons to Include Healing Salve in Your Collection

Versatility: Healing Salve is a card with flexible uses, able to protect life totals or save creatures during tight moments in a match. Its ability to either prevent damage or heal makes it useful in a variety of situations, fitting well into decks that prioritize defense or life gain.

Combo Potential: This card can intertwine with strategies centering around life total benchmarks or damage prevention. It’s a useful tool for setting off life-gain related triggers or padding your life to thwart an opponent’s strategy, particularly in decks that capitalize on incremental advantages.

Meta-Relevance: In an environment where fast, aggressive decks predominate, Healing Salve can provide critical breathing room. It may not be the flashiest card, but in a finely-tuned deck, it offers a counterbalance to direct damage strategies that are prevalent in many metagames.


How to beat

Healing Salve is one of the original “boons” in Magic: The Gathering, encompassing the essence of white magic’s lifesaving spells. It provides a simple choice: prevent three damage from being dealt to any target, or heal three life. At a glance, this may seem like a modest advantage to overcome.

In comparison, spells like Dispel or Negate can neutralize Healing Salve before it fulfills its purpose, by countering it directly. A strategic move would be to hold onto these counterspells until your opponent casts a pivotal spell like Healing Salve, especially when the prevention of damage could alter the course of the game. Timing is everything; by understanding when to play your spells, you can effectively diminish Healing Salve’s impact.

Taking into account the tempo and potential impact of such a spell, it becomes clear that the real power lies not in the healing, but in the strategic denial of your opponent’s expectations. In essence, by outmaneuvering your opponent and making informed decisions on when to counter their plays, you can mitigate the effects of Healing Salve and maintain control of the game’s pace and outcome.


Cards like Healing Salve

Healing Salve, part of the iconic “Boon” series in Magic: The Gathering, stands out for its simple yet versatile ability. It offers players a choice to either prevent the next 3 damage that would be dealt to any target this turn or gain 3 life. This bifurcated utility can be compared to other protective spells like Moment’s Peace. While Moment’s Peace foregoes the life-gain option, it provides comprehensive damage prevention through its fog effect, shielding from all combat damage for a full turn.

Giant Growth serves as a mirror of sorts to Healing Salve, emphasizing offense over defense. Instead of preventing damage or restoring health, it boosts a creature’s power and toughness by +3/+3 until the end of the turn. This increase can turn the tide of combat in a player’s favor, potentially removing an opponent’s threat from the board.

Gather Courage is yet another spell that shares healing salve’s proactive defense approach. It provides a creature with a +2/+2 boost at no mana cost if its casting is conjoined with the tap of a creature you control, giving it a combat advantage and potentially saving it from lethal damage.

Each spell caters to different strategic needs, but Healing Salve’s duality ensures its place as a versatile tool in any MTG player’s arsenal.

Moment's Peace - MTG Card versions
Giant Growth - MTG Card versions
Gather Courage - MTG Card versions
Moment's Peace - Odyssey (ODY)
Giant Growth - Limited Edition Alpha (LEA)
Gather Courage - Ravnica: City of Guilds (RAV)

Cards similar to Healing Salve by color, type and mana cost

Death Ward - MTG Card versions
Blaze of Glory - MTG Card versions
Purelace - MTG Card versions
Guardian Angel - MTG Card versions
Swords to Plowshares - MTG Card versions
Righteousness - MTG Card versions
Indestructible Aura - MTG Card versions
Glyph of Life - MTG Card versions
Warning - MTG Card versions
Heal - MTG Card versions
Anoint - MTG Card versions
Reaping the Rewards - MTG Card versions
Rally the Troops - MTG Card versions
Scent of Jasmine - MTG Card versions
Moment of Silence - MTG Card versions
Enlightened Tutor - MTG Card versions
Orim's Touch - MTG Card versions
Pollen Remedy - MTG Card versions
Sacred Rites - MTG Card versions
Pay No Heed - MTG Card versions
Death Ward - Collectors' Edition (CED)
Blaze of Glory - Intl. Collectors' Edition (CEI)
Purelace - 30th Anniversary Edition (30A)
Guardian Angel - Limited Edition Beta (LEB)
Swords to Plowshares - Fallout (PIP)
Righteousness - Jumpstart 2022 (J22)
Indestructible Aura - Chronicles (CHR)
Glyph of Life - Legends (LEG)
Warning - Ice Age (ICE)
Heal - Masters Edition III (ME3)
Anoint - Tempest (TMP)
Reaping the Rewards - Exodus (EXO)
Rally the Troops - Portal Second Age (P02)
Scent of Jasmine - Urza's Destiny (UDS)
Moment of Silence - Mercadian Masques (MMQ)
Enlightened Tutor - Dominaria Remastered (DMR)
Orim's Touch - Invasion (INV)
Pollen Remedy - Planeshift (PLS)
Sacred Rites - The List (PLST)
Pay No Heed - Torment (TOR)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Healing Salve MTG card by a specific set like Limited Edition Alpha and Limited Edition Beta, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Healing Salve and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Healing Salve Magic the Gathering card was released in 23 different sets between 1993-08-05 and 2022-11-28. Illustrated by 11 different artists.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
11993-08-05Limited Edition AlphaLEA 221993normalblackDan Frazier
21993-10-04Limited Edition BetaLEB 231993normalblackDan Frazier
31993-12-01Unlimited Edition2ED 231993normalwhiteDan Frazier
41993-12-10Collectors' EditionCED 231993normalblackDan Frazier
51993-12-10Intl. Collectors' EditionCEI 231993normalblackDan Frazier
61994-04-01Foreign Black BorderFBB 221993normalblackDan Frazier
71994-04-01Revised Edition3ED 221993normalwhiteDan Frazier
81994-06-21Summer Magic / EdgarSUM 221993normalwhiteDan Frazier
91995-04-01Fourth Edition4ED 281993normalwhiteDan Frazier
101995-04-01Fourth Edition Foreign Black Border4BB 281993normalblackDan Frazier
111996-07-01Rivals Quick Start SetRQS 41993normalwhiteDan Frazier
121996-10-08MirageMIR 201997normalblackHannibal King
131996-12-31Introductory Two-Player SetITP 41993normalwhiteDan Frazier
141997-03-24Fifth Edition5ED 331997normalwhiteZina Saunders
151998-10-12Urza's SagaUSG 161997normalblackHeather Hudson
161999-04-21Classic Sixth Edition6ED 221997normalwhiteDan Frazier
171999-11-12Battle Royale Box SetBRB 311997normalwhiteZina Saunders
182001-04-11Seventh Edition7ED 18★1997normalblackGreg Hildebrandt & Tim Hildebrandt
192001-04-11Seventh Edition7ED 181997normalwhiteGreg Hildebrandt & Tim Hildebrandt
202003-07-28Eighth Edition8ED 22★2003normalblackGreg Hildebrandt & Tim Hildebrandt
212003-07-28Eighth Edition8ED 222003normalwhiteGreg Hildebrandt & Tim Hildebrandt
222009-04-10Duel Decks: Divine vs. DemonicDDC 142003normalblackGreg Hildebrandt & Tim Hildebrandt
232011-01-10Masters Edition IVME4 141997normalblackDan Frazier
242014-12-05Duel Decks Anthology: Divine vs. DemonicDVD 142015normalblackGreg Hildebrandt & Tim Hildebrandt
252022-11-2830th Anniversary Edition30A 3191997normalblackDan Frazier
262022-11-2830th Anniversary Edition30A 222015normalblackDan Frazier

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Healing Salve has restrictions

FormatLegality
OldschoolLegal
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
PauperLegal
PremodernLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal
PennyLegal

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