Life and Limb MTG Card
2007-02-02 - Number 133
2021-03-19 - Number 215
| Card sets | Released in 2 setsSee all |
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 4 |
| Rarity | Rare |
| Type | Enchantment |
Key Takeaways
- Life and Limb turns each Saproling into a Forest, offering considerable mana ramp and board presence.
- This card can make your deck vulnerable to land destruction, potentially sweeping away your creatures.
- It fits into specific MTG strategies, particularly those that benefit from land-creature synergies.
Text of card
All Forests and all Saprolings are 1/1 green Saproling creatures and Forest lands in addition to their other types.
"It was a sight of pain and awe—a twisted forest, migrating across the salt plain in search of richer soil." —Edahlis, greenseeker
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Life and Limb operates seamlessly with Saprolings, turning each creature into a potential land. This synergy not only floods your board but also subtly boosts your mana resources, ensuring that you’re flush with both creatures and land plays.
Resource Acceleration: By transforming each Saproling into a Forest, Life and Limb provides a form of mana ramp that can be unexpectedly quick. This enables faster casting of game-changing spells, giving any deck an edge through increased access to mana.
Instant Speed: While Life and Limb itself doesn’t have instant speed, it can create unforeseen interactions with other instant-speed spells and abilities. For example, creating Saprolings during your opponent’s turn suddenly becomes a way to instantly ramp, giving you the upper hand by leveraging both the creatures and land aspects of your cards at any moment.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: While Life and Limb doesn’t require a card to be discarded, it’s important to note that it can potentially lead to a critical loss of resources. Transforming all Saprolings into Forest lands can make them vulnerable to mass land destruction, which effectively acts as a forced discard of creatures.
Specific Mana Cost: Life and Limb requires a combination of green and colorless mana, potentially causing deck building constraints. Decks not focused on green mana may struggle to accommodate this specific requirement, thus reducing the flexibility in mana base construction.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a mana cost sitting at two green and two colorless mana, Life and Limb carries a relatively high cost for its effect. Players might find that using these four mana for other spells could lead to more immediate board presence or advantage, especially in fast-paced games where tempo is key.
Reasons to Include Life and Limb in Your Collection
Versatility: Life and Limb offers a dynamic blend of land and creature synergies. This card not only turns your Saprolings into Forests but also all Forests into Saprolings, allowing for interesting interactions with landfall mechanics and creature buffs alike.
Combo Potential: With this card, you’re opening up an array of combo possibilities. For example, pairing it with cards that allow you to sacrifice a creature for an effect can now directly tap into your mana base, potentially leading to endless combos under the right conditions.
Meta-Relevance: Considering the rise of creature-based strategies and land-matters decks, Life and Limb can be an asset in games where leveraging the number of creatures and lands you control allows you to outmaneuver opponents.
How to beat
Life and Limb is an intricate card that blends creature and land dynamics in MTG, transforming all Forests and Saprolings into one entity. This card holds the power to alter the game’s landscape, presenting a challenge as both player’s Saprolings and Forests become one. To dismantle this strategy, removal spells that target enchantments are crucial. Naturalize or Disenchant are prime examples, as they swiftly deal with the enchantment without affecting your own board state.
Another effective method is prioritizing the removal of Saprolings before Life and Limb can establish a foothold. Board wipes like Wrath of God can accomplish this, preventing the accumulation of creatures that would benefit from the card’s effect. Additionally, countering the spell as it’s cast with counterspells such as Counterspell or Mana Leak prevents the card from taking effect entirely.
Ultimately, understanding the synergy Life and Limb tries to create is key to disrupting it. Focusing on enchantment removal, preemptive creature control, or denying the spell from resolving are your best tactics to ensure your opponent doesn’t capitalize on the Life and Limb advantage. With precise timing and the right cards, overcoming this unique challenge is entirely within reach.
BurnMana Recommendations
Exploring the depths of MTG strategy with cards like Life and Limb can truly transform the way you play the game. Delving into the synergy between lands and creatures, this card has the power to change the tide of a match. To truly harness its potential, understanding its strengths and limitations is key. We invite you to continue your journey through MTG, unlocking new strategies, enhancing your deck, and staying ahead of your opponents. Learn more about optimizing your gameplay and discover how cards like Life and Limb can be a linchpin in your winning strategy. Dive into our collection of insights today.
Cards like Life and Limb
Life and Limb sits uniquely at the crossroads of land and creature synergies within the realm of Magic: The Gathering. It finds company with cards like Nature’s Revolt, which also turns lands into creatures, though they become 2/2 creatures instead of the 1/1 Saprolings that Life and Limb creates. Life and Limb, however, has the added benefit of binding Saproling and Forest types, creating a wide network of dynamic interactions.
Exploring further, we encounter Cryptolith Rite, which gives your creatures the ability to tap for mana much like Life and Limb does for your Saprolings. While Cryptolith Rite lacks the land transformation aspect, it compensates by enriching your mana pool through creature versatility. Rites of Flourishing is another kindred spirit, offering a boon to land play, but it favors a more communal approach rather than Life and Limb’s single-player advantage.
In essence, while there are other cards that flirt with similar mechanics, Life and Limb offers a unique fusion of land animation and tribal enhancement, carving its niche within MTG’s diverse library. It’s a testament to the game’s depth that such a specific and potent synergy can exist, influencing both land utility and creature dynamics in powerful ways.
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Life and Limb MTG card by a specific set like Planar Chaos and Time Spiral Remastered, 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 Life and Limb and other MTG cards:
- eBay
- TCG Player
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
See MTG Products
Printings
The Life and Limb Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2007-02-02 and 2021-03-19. Illustrated by Jim Nelson.
| # | Released | Name | Code | Symbol | Number | Frame | Layout | Border | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2007-02-02 | Planar Chaos | PLC | 133 | 2003 | Normal | Black | Jim Nelson | |
| 2 | 2021-03-19 | Time Spiral Remastered | TSR | 215 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Jim Nelson |
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Life and Limb has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Predh | Legal |
| Penny | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Life and Limb card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2021-03-19 | Each Forest and Saproling will have the card types creature and land, and the subtypes Forest and Saproling. Each subtype maintains its correlation to the proper type: Forest isn’t a creature type and Saproling isn’t a land type. |
| 2021-03-19 | Each Forest has the ability “: Add .” |
| 2021-03-19 | Forests enter the battlefield as land creatures, and abilities that trigger whenever a creature enters the battlefield will trigger. Because you haven’t controlled these creatures since your turn began, you can’t pay the cost of their mana ability. |
| 2021-03-19 | Saprolings enter the battlefield as land creatures, and abilities that trigger whenever a land enters the battlefield will trigger. |
