Life Insurance MTG Card


Card advantage with Life Insurance elevates strategy by expanding hand options and potential game maneuvers. Accelerating resources with this card can significantly hasten spell casting and creature summoning. Its instant speed application ensures strategic flexibility, allowing spontaneous and tactical plays.
Card setsReleased in 4 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost5
RarityRare
TypeEnchantment
Abilities Extort,Treasure

Text of card

Extort (Whenever you cast a spell, you may pay {W/B}. If you do, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain that much life.) Whenever a nontoken creature dies, you lose 1 life and create a Treasure token.


Cards like Life Insurance

The Life Insurance card offers a unique twist in the realm of Magic: The Gathering protection strategies. Comparable to cards like Angelic Accord, which provides a consistent creature advantage by creating angel tokens, Life Insurance diversifies your defensive options. While Angelic Accord hinges on gaining life, Life Insurance triggers upon a creature’s death, offering potential economic benefits through card draw or other effects, thus shifting the reward mechanic from life gain to card advantage when losing creatures.

Altruistic to Life Insurance’s design is Gift of Immortality. It similarly focuses on getting value from creatures you control dying, though it reanimates the creature instead of providing a different form of compensation. The enchantment aspect of Gift of Immortality allows repeated use, while Life Insurance might offer a one-time financial payout in terms of in-game mechanics like life points or card draw options. Finally, there is Indomitable Will, another enchantment that can protect and strengthen your creatures, albeit without the damage mitigation or the compensatory benefits provided by Life Insurance.

Through strategic play and careful timing, Life Insurance can therefore become an integral part of your game strategy, especially when blended effectively with other protection or creature benefit cards in Magic: The Gathering.

Angelic Accord - MTG Card versions
Gift of Immortality - MTG Card versions
Indomitable Will - MTG Card versions
Angelic Accord - MTG Card versions
Gift of Immortality - MTG Card versions
Indomitable Will - MTG Card versions

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Card Pros

When analyzing the benefits of the Life Insurance card in MTG, players should consider various aspects that can turn the tide in their favor during gameplay. The following are key advantages to playing Life Insurance.

Card Advantage: Life Insurance shines when it comes to providing card advantage. By implementing Life Insurance into your deck, you create opportunities to replace cards in your hand, essentially equipping you with more choices and strategies as the game progresses. A robust hand can make maneuvering through the game’s phases more manageable, ultimately setting you up for victory.

Resource Acceleration: Having Life Insurance in play can significantly accelerate your resource availability. This card adds to your mana pool, allowing you to cast more spells or summon creatures ahead of the usual pace. This acceleration can be crucial, especially when striving to outpace opponents in the race to establish board presence and apply pressure.

Instant Speed: The ability to use Life Insurance at instant speed provides a strategic edge. With the flexibility to respond to the unfolding game without committing resources prematurely, you hold the reins tightly on your approach, dictating the pace and reacting deftly to your opponent’s moves. This advantage can be a game-changer, often leading to surprising turnarounds and clutch plays.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: One of the drawbacks of the Life Insurance card is the necessity to discard another card when you play it. This can be particularly challenging during the later stages of a game, when your hand might already be depleted, leaving you with fewer options to respond to your opponent’s moves.

Specific Mana Cost: Life Insurance comes with a mana cost that includes specific colors, which might not always align with your deck’s mana base. This can make it difficult to cast without the right mana-fixing elements, thus restricting its inclusion in decks that can’t consistently provide the specific colors required.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Bearing a higher mana cost than some alternative cards offering similar benefits can make it less appealing in fast-paced games. When efficiency and speed are vital, utilizing a card like Life Insurance that demands more mana might put you at a disadvantage against more streamlined decks that capitalize on lower-costing spells.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: The Life Insurance card opens up diverse strategic avenues for any deck emphasizing life gain or looking to leverage life points as a resource. Its ability to interact with various game mechanics makes it a staple for many life-centric builds.

Combo Potential: This card can synergize with strategies focused on sacrificing creatures for value or gaining life, setting off powerful chain reactions that can quickly turn the tide of a game. It pairs exceptionally well with cards that trigger upon life gain or death of a creature.

Meta-Relevance: In an environment where attrition and control decks prevail, Life Insurance can offer sustained advantages by providing life buffer and card advantages through its mechanics, making it a relevant addition against numerous popular deck archetypes.


How to beat

Life Insurance as a card in Magic: The Gathering delivers a unique blend of strategy and challenge. It’s an enchantment that may seem daunting at first with its ability to provide a player with continuous life points and potential for card advantage. Overcoming such an obstacle requires a solid understanding of removal spells and timing.

Considering this, effective strategies include using enchantment removal such as Disenchant or Naturalize, which can dismantle Life Insurance before its effects become overwhelming. Additionally, playing cards that restrict life gain or punish the opponent for gaining life, like Tainted Remedy or Erebos, God of the Dead, can turn the tables against Life Insurance. It’s also wise to apply pressure with an aggressive deck build, compelling your opponent to respond to immediate threats, leaving their Life Insurance underutilized and less impactful.

Ultimately, being proactive and flexible in your game plan allows you to marginalize the advantages Life Insurance can offer. It’s about anticipating the play, deploying swift countermeasures, and maintaining the pace of the game on your terms. This approach can shift the balance, enabling you to overpower and outmaneuver your opponent’s reliance on Life Insurance for sustained board presence.


BurnMana Recommendations

Mastering the art of MTG gameplay includes skillfully integrating impactful cards like Life Insurance into your deck. Taking advantage of its resource acceleration and instant speed can dramatically alter the course of the match in your favor. While mindful of its mana demands and discard requirements, strategizing with Life Insurance can be rewarding, facilitating card advantages and synergies with life-centric strategies. For those seeking to enhance their deck’s dynamics and prepare for the evolving meta, keeping abreast of how to effectively employ and counter this card is key. Join us for more insights and tips to refine your deck and gameplay.


Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Life Insurance MTG card by a specific set like Magic Online Promos and New Capenna Commander, 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 Insurance and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Life Insurance Magic the Gathering card was released in 3 different sets between 2022-04-29 and 2024-04-19. Illustrated by Brian Valeza.

#ReleasedNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12002-06-24Magic Online PromosPRM 999252015NormalBlackBrian Valeza
22022-04-29New Capenna CommanderNCC 1742015NormalBlackBrian Valeza
32022-04-29New Capenna CommanderNCC 742015NormalBlackBrian Valeza
42024-04-19Outlaws of Thunder Junction CommanderOTC 2332015NormalBlackBrian Valeza

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Life Insurance has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Life Insurance card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date Text
2022-04-29 The amount of life you gain from extort is based on the total amount of life lost, not necessarily the number of opponents you have. For example, if your opponent's life total can't change (perhaps because that player controls Platinum Emperion), you won't gain any life.
2022-04-29 The extort ability doesn't target any player.
2022-04-29 You may pay {W/B} a maximum of one time for each extort triggered ability. You decide whether to pay when the ability resolves.