Bart: I’d sell my soul for a formula one racing car.
[Satan Ned appears with a race car]
Ned: Heh heh heh, that can be arranged.
Bart: Changed my mind. Sorry.
[Ned vanishes] Cool!
Marge: Bart! Stop pestering Satan!

Some things in Magic–like drawing cards–are worth paying a few life points. Cards like Necropotence and Sign in Blood let you trade one resource for another. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could get those extra cards for free, though?

Cards like the Circles of Protection can prevent damage. Elderscale Wurm and Worship are worded so as to protect you from damage. Can either of these cards help?

Magic designers are a pretty savvy bunch. They know that some effects (or trade-offs) involving life points should not be avoidable. For this reason, they have a special tool: the phrase “lose life”. These effects are special, and generally quite worth the trade. This is not damage, so Elderscale Wurm and friends can’t help you–they only protect you from damage, not loss of life. As a result, Sign in Blood still causes a player to lose life, even if the target player has an Elderscale Wurm.

Also be careful if one of these effects nips away a bit of your life total once you are already at 7! Elderscale Wurm only cares about damage that would make you cross from some number equal to or greater than 7 to a number less than 7. If you are already below 7 life, no situation can match the case where it “would reduce your life total to less than 7.” You are vulnerable; exposed!

You may have to give the devil his due, but at least you get your race car…!

Today’s Rules Tip written by
David Hibbs, Level 3 judge from League City, TX