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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day

Daily Since November 2001!

Parallel Lives
Image from Wizards.com

Parallel Lives
Innistrad

Reviewed October 11, 2011

Constructed: 3.50
Casual: 4.87
Limited: 3.33
Multiplayer: 4.00

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst.  3 ... average.  
5 is the highest rating

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Card of the Day Reviews 


David Fanany

Player since 1995

Parallel Lives

I'm guessing this is some sort of assistance for players who missed Ravnica and the now very rare Doubling Season? It seems like it's perhaps less effective as such assistance than just repeating Doubling Season. I suppose you get a slightly decreased cost, and it doesn't do crazy ridiculous thing with planeswalkers. Plus, Doubling Season spends a lot of time in Commander now, where those who are inclined can use this as a "second" copy of it. Tournament decks, even ones involving tokens, don't usually make space for this type of card, but the audience is definitely there, and there are situations where the effect is almost unbeatable. Approach with caution.

Constructed: 2/5
Casual: 5/5
Limited: 3/5
Multiplayer: 4/5
Michael "Maikeruu" Pierno

Today's card of the day is Parallel Lives which is a four mana Green enchantment that doubles the number of tokens under your control produced by effects. The number of cards this can combine with are far too many to list and many of them will be played alongside this in Casual formats in attempts to fill the field with as many tokens as possible. In the other Constructed formats a dedicated token build can work, though at this time it doesn't seem likely to make a big impact.

For Limited it would be unlikely to have both this and a token producing card in your pool even though Innistrad has a fairly decent number. The issue here is that most of them are at the rare or mythic level which reduces this card to a rare draft at best. In Sealed if both this and one of the higher end token producing cards are in your pool it can be worthwhile playing this in hopes of getting the combo. The odds may be a bit slim, but achieving it will likely win the game for you. With Booster there is no guarantee of drafting a complimentary rare, which leaves the commons and uncommons and running two colors to get any use out of Parallel Lives. In general it is going to be dead weight on the field or in hand, so drafting something else is probably the best move.

In Multiplayer the pacing should allow playing this and a number of tokens if you aren't targeted by every opponent immediately. A large enough swarm can power through most defenses and provide blockers as needed, though mass removal or responses to large attacks are more likely with the increased number of players.

Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 2.0
Multiplayer: 4.0

John
Shultis
Phoenix
Gaming

Welcome back to card of the day here at Pojo.com. Today we are looking at Parallel Lives from Innistrad. Parallel Lives is a rare green enchantment that costs three generic and one green mana. Parallel Lives says if an effect would put one or more tokens onto the battlefield under your control, put twice that number onto the battlefield instead.

Seldom in Magic does a card come along that so sincerely causes me to say it is ridiculously overpowered, but Parallel Lives is just that card. This card is simply amazing in everyway shape and form. I have myself an old-school Saproling deck, and it runs Doubling Season. Now they come along and print a card that is just shy of being Doubling Season. I don’t even care about the fact it does nothing for counters, with multiples of these out, any creature token you drop is doubled, and since it stacks, two Parallel Lives means quadrupling your tokens! And we all know how wolf decks can be, or at least people at my store know (Ihave a wolf token dec, too). And let me tell you something, one Howlpack Alpha with a Parallel Lives out can so quickly get out of control. Then factor in Master of the Wild Hunt, Howl of the Nightpack, and even Kessig Cagebreakers! These cards all can produce an army on their own right, but with Parallel Lives, they produce the entire military! And it is so easy in standard due to the Howlpack Alpha and Kessig Cagebreakers to drop tokens in an instant.

Now this goes far beyond simple wolves as well. For example, running a green/black zombie deck, add this, then play Army of the Damned. You’d get 26 2/2 black zombies! For some real fun, run a “Jund” deck, and toss out Warstorm Surge. Because it is even more fun to send damage downrange while creating your army! Imagine, 26 2/2’s with Warstorm Surge out. That would be 52 damage! Who cares that they entered tapped at that point, I’m pretty sure there’s just a crater where your opponent once stood! And that is a standard combo, made easier using green mana acceleration!

For vintage, take that combo one step further and imagine it with Doubling Season out as well. It’d be 52 tokens, and 104 damage. That is a multiplayer game, set, match.

Easily exploitable, though can be easily destroyed as well. A simple Naturalize ends the reign of terror. Still, devastating if not prepared for it.

Limited: 5/5
Casual: 5/5
Constructed: 5/5
Multiplayer: 4/5


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