The Magic: The Gathering card Lifegift has not so much jumped up in price as sauntered vaguely upwards. This card was worth about $7.30 at the beginning of the year, but rose to $10 gradually over the past nine months. Then, through September and October, it climbed all the way to $23.45.
A rather old card from the 2005 MTG set Betrayers of Kamigawa, Lifegift has a very straightforward effect. It’s a three mana enchantment which states that whenever a land comes into play (under anyone’s control) you gain a single point of life.
Obviously, in two-player Constructed formats that would be incredibly anemic, but in Commander it’s a lot better – especially if anyone is ramping, popping down multiple lands a turn. It’s especially great for decks that want a lot of separate instances of lifegain, to trigger effects, but don’t actually care how much life is being gained.
Since this card has never seen a reprint and hails from the early 2000s, we can assume there aren’t loads of copies in circulation, which oftentimes means a card is ripe to blow up when just the right synergy comes along.
It seems like Kwia Vigorbloom is the key commander driving this spike. Kwia has an absurd mana ramping power that effectively makes Black Lotus tokens when you gain life, but thankfully it only activates once per turn.
That means gaining life on your opponents’ turns is absolutely essential. The soul sisters (Soul Warden, Soul’s Attendant and their ilk) are must-haves, but if you wanted a harder-to-remove version, you could do worse than Lifegift.
It’s especially great because the enchantment’s lifegain is tied to something unusual. Say you have Soul Warden and Essence Warden in play, you’ll still only get one Kwia trigger if your opponent plays a creature. But if they don’t commit a body to the board, you’re losing out on a Black Lotus. Disaster! Far better to diversify your triggers: run Lifegift instead, and increase your chances of grabbing 12 extra mana per turn cycle.
Lifegift is only included in 20% of Kwia decks logged on EDHREC, and I’m surprised that’s been enough to trigger the spike. But perhaps other lifegain commanders have run the reserves dry (topical) over the years, as this card also saw lots of play with Bilbo in the original LOTR set, and this year it was played in Blech decks.
Once upon a time, Lifegift would have sold for far less – for a long while this was a bargain bulk rare, priced at less than a dollar. That all changed though in 2021, with Strixhaven School of Mages.
Dina, which uses lifegain to whittle your opponents’ health away, was a very popular commander in this set. And since her Golgari lifegain makes all the white lifegain cards unavailable, Lifegift was a life-gaining gift that Dina players couldn’t overlook.
Source: Wargamer
