Lifeline MTG Card

Lifeline creates persistent card advantage, ensuring creatures return to play, maintaining board strength. Provides resource acceleration by recurring creatures with beneficial abilities for continual resource gain. Lifeline can be tactically countered by employing artifact removal, timely board wipes, or graveyard nullification.

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	5
Rarity	Rare
Type	Artifact
Released	1998-10-12
Set symbol
Set name	Urza's Saga
Set code	USG
Number	299
Frame	1997
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	D. Alexander Gregory

Text of card

Whenever a creature is put into a graveyard and a creature is in play, return that creature from your graveyard to play at end of turn.

Cards like Lifeline

Lifeline from Magic: The Gathering represents an intriguing concept within the range of artifact cards. It stands shoulder-to-shoulder with other artifacts designed to manipulate the rules of creature permanence, such as Mimic Vat. While Mimic Vat also capitalizes on creatures dying by offering a way to create token copies, Lifeline makes sure that your creatures bounce back to the battlefield at the end of the turn. Both offer recurring value but through different game mechanics.

Another analogous card would be Cauldron of Souls, which grants creatures on the field persist. Like Lifeline, it ensures that creatures get another shot at life after lethal damage. However, Lifeline affects all creatures on the battlefield, making its impact universal, while Cauldron of Souls requires targeted selection and gives creatures a -1/-1 counter when they come back.

Evaluating Lifeline in the grand echelon of recycling artifact cards, its uniqueness in applying a broad reanimation effect each turn carves out a distinct strategic role. Cards like Mimic Vat and Cauldron of Souls provide similar, yet more controlled, resiliency which may sometimes be more desirable, depending on the deck strategy. Lifeline persists in offering a powerful symmetrical effect, best utilized in decks prepared to exploit it.

Cards similar to Lifeline by color, type and mana cost

The Deck of Many Things - MTG Card versions

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Lifeline offers a repeating asset that can lead to substantial card advantage. A creature-centric deck using Lifeline allows players to repeatedly bring their creatures back from the graveyard to the battlefield at the end of each turn, effectively circumventing card loss and maintaining a robust board presence.

Resource Acceleration: The consistent revival of creatures with enter the battlefield (ETB) triggers or mana-producing abilities can create a loop, providing continuous resource acceleration. Each creature that returns can be an additional source of mana or other valuable in-game resources, offering a form of acceleration that can outpace an opponent.

Instant Speed: While Lifeline itself doesn’t operate at instant speed, it impacts the game during each end step, which includes your opponent’s. This allows a strategic player to time their creature spells and removals during their turn, with the assurance that Lifeline will trigger after, offering a form of interaction and board state manipulation akin to having an effect at instant speed.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: While Lifeline can be a powerful enabler in the right deck, it requires vigilance in managing your hand. If your creatures are dying and Lifeline is on the field, you must ensure that you have a creature in your graveyard to make use of its ability, which might force you into unwanted discard decisions to retain the card’s benefits.

Specific Mana Cost: Lifeline’s activation is dependent on a specific mana commitment. The need for five mana, which includes a generic composition, means that you could be constrained in playing it on curve, especially in multicolored decks where mana flexibility is crucial for timely plays.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With its five-mana cost, Lifeline falls into a higher spectrum of mana investments. This can be particularly taxing in the early game or in faster-paced matches where tempo plays a critical role. Consequently, in scenarios where immediate board impact is required, Lifeline may not be the most mana-efficient choice compared to other artifacts or creature spells with lower mana costs that offer instant advantage.

Reasons to Include Lifeline Mtg Card in Your Collection

Versatility: Lifeline offers unique value across various deck designs due to its capability to return creatures to the battlefield at the end of each turn, which makes it a strategic asset in creature-based and control decks alike.

Combo Potential: The card creates numerous synergies, particularly in builds centered around sacrificing creatures for benefit or triggers, leading to powerful recurring effects that can quickly overwhelm opponents.

Meta-Relevance: In game environments where removal is prevalent, Lifeline ensures resilience by reanimating your creatures, making it a relevant addition to help counteract widespread sweepers and targeted removal spells.

How to beat

Lifeline, a unique artifact card in MTG, offers players an interesting mechanism to bring back creatures when they die, as long as another creature remains on the battlefield. This recursive ability often complicates your strategy to maintain control of the board by continuously dealing with opponents’ threats. To navigate around this, one of the simplest yet most effective tactics is direct artifact removal. Cards like Disenchant or Naturalize allow you to remove Lifeline from play, stopping the frustrating cycle of creature revival.

Another approach involves timing your creature removal. If you manage to clear the board, Lifeline’s ability does not trigger. Therefore, board wipes such as Wrath of God or Damnation can be crucial in timing your sweeps when Lifeline is on the field. Additionally, turning Lifeline’s ability against your opponent with graveyard hate cards, like Tormod’s Crypt or Leyline of the Void, ensures that even if creatures die with Lifeline in play, they don’t return to haunt you.

Effective use of these strategies can help you dismantle the synergy Lifeline creates and gives you a fighting chance in keeping the battlefield under control, tipping the scales to your advantage in an MTG match.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Lifeline MTG card by a specific set like Urza's Saga, 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 Lifeline and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Lifeline has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Predh	Legal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Lifeline card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date	Text
2004-10-04	If multiple creatures are coming back, they come back one at a time, not all at once. This is because Lifeline triggered once for each creature and set up a separate “at end of turn” effect for each.
2004-10-04	It fails to bring the creature back if the creature is not still in the graveyard at the end of turn.
2004-10-04	It works for all players and has errata to remove the “your graveyard” text.
2004-10-04	The creature comes back even if Lifeline leaves the battlefield after triggering, but before it resolves.
2010-03-01	If more than one creature is on the battlefield and all the creatures on the battlefield go to the graveyard at once, then none of them are returned at end of turn. This is because Lifeline’s ability has an intervening-if clause, which means that there must be at least one creature on the battlefield at the time the ability resolves.