This is pretty much a "turtling" card through
and through-- it encourages you to block, and
gain life, and pretty much never make any actual
progress toward winning. It could be disgusting
alongside True Conviction!
The problem here is that this card really needs
to have a deck built around it, to take
advantage of its ability. And I can tell that
the deck you would inevitably build around it is
a terrible deck that has no win condition,
unless making your opponent give up out of
boredom counts as a win condition. Some people
like that strategy I suppose. I think everybody
goes through that phase where they think they're
winning if their life total is going up faster
than their opponent can knock it down. If you
want to build the Rhox Faithmender deck, then I
won't stop you. I also won't play against you.
Otherwise, you're playing a card that's only
really good at blocking.
We hear a lot about the blatant countermeasures
in recent (and upcoming) sets targeted against
cards like Unburial Rites and Snapcaster Mage,
but I don't hear much about the things keeping
red burn decks out of the format. Yes, this is
far from the most powerful anti-direct-damage
card of all time, probably not at the level of
Kor Firewalker (much less Sphere of Law), but
how does your average speed red deck beat a deck
built around this card in a setting that doesn't
have something like Flame Slash? Yeah, it's a
good choice if you like white decks and
law-aligned creature types and such, but
apparently R&D went "Eh, the red players can
just be Rakdos if it's too much trouble." We'll
see how that works out, I guess.
Welcome back readers todays card of the day is
Rhox Faithmender an interesting life gain card
with a nice defensive body. In standard this
could see some minimal play it provides a decent
body against aggressive decks and can help gain
life basically shutting down aggressive decks
and slowing them down tremendously. In modern
there exists a few life gain decks that could
possibly use this creature as a deterrent for
aggressive decks and a sort of combo with life
gain it could see fringe play. In legacy and
vintage this card is pretty mediocre and
shouldn’t see play. In casual and multiplayer is
where this card shines combined with cards such
as Test of Endurance, Felidar Sovereign and
other powerful life gain and you have a deck.
This creature also makes a decent early wall
which is effective in multiplayer and this card
combined with Congregate seems solid. In limited
it’s a decent body against aggressive decks
(getting tired of hearing that?) so if your deck
is going a more slow and controlling route I
would recommend picking up this creature.
Overall this creature is tailor made for casual
and multiplayer life gain decks and is also a
solid defensive creature.
Today's card of the day is Rhox Faithmender
which is a four mana White
1/5 with Lifelink and whenever you would gain
life that gain is doubled. Lifegain has
been gaining momentum with several high end
threats added to their arsenal and this is a
card that is reasonably costed and will improve
the speed plus stability of those builds.
As a blocker it can stall while gaining a little
life, can be difficult to destroy on the attack
or with burn, and makes any level of life gain
twice as effective. Overall this will
probably be a staple in the increasingly popular
lifegain themes and will be a solid addition to
them with no serious drawback.
For Limited this is a surprisingly effective
card that can be played in multicolor decks
thanks to the single White in the cost and is a
serious defensive threat to any opponent.
Being able to block four power attackers while
gaining two life should be a noticeable concern
outside of larger swarms, though this is
balanced out by the noticeably weaker three
point life total swing when it is on the
offensive. A viable first pick in Booster
that is best supported by other creatures with
Lifelink or creatures with lifegain effects that
are playable on their own. For Sealed
nearly any deck running White should include
this barring a total lack of other lifegain and
a high end selection of four mana creatures with
flexible mana costs.
Welcome to
the Pojo.com card of the day section. We are
closing out this week by looking at Rhox
Faithmender from M13. Rhox Faithmender is a rare
white creature rhino monk that costs three
generic and one white mana and is a 1/5. Rhox
Faithmender has lifelink and says that whenever
you would gain life, you gain twice that much
life instead.
What an amazing card the Rhox Faithmender
is! And so totally abusable! A white exalted
deck running Ajani’s Sunstriker with this out
would gain a bunch of life. Something as simple
as gaining seven life from Angel’s Grace just
became amazing, gaining you fourteen instead,
and for just four mana. There are so many
wonderful ways to take advantage of gaining
doubled amounts of life, the only true question
is what to do with it all?
