Wizards just destroyed Burn with printing Oketra's Last Mercy. My guess is they didn't like the PR of banning burn so they decided to just hate it out. No need to print anymore burns spells , thanks wizards. I'm done with this game, I have played from 1994-2017. Edit: I over reacted a bit.
You know burn has access to two different cards that laugh at this one, right?
In Modern, in Legacy there's only Sulfuric Vortex and neither Stoneblade nor Taxes decks care much about being tapped thanks to DRS/Vial. As if Burn wasn't already barely competitive, and these weren't already some of it's worst matches.
It's not a great or good card by any means, but it is certainly an opressive panic button if Burn ever had hopes of being Tier 1.
Despite everyone who's claiming this will be "sideboard tech vs burn" or "a commander staple", I'm having a hard time imagining how Oketra's Last Mercy sees play.
In any format where you need sideboard options against burn, Kor Firewalker and Leyline of Sanctity both seem like better options. Both cripple burn just as bad as Oketra's Last Mercy, except the Firewalker and Leyline don't make you straight up lose if your opponent responds with Skullcrack or somesuch. Every turn is precious when playing against burn, so the last thing you want is to give them a free turn by playing right into their Skullcrack.
In EDH, Oketra's Last Mercy actually seems worse. For one thing, the fact that it's a multiplayer format by default means that for every one of your turns you get, you must endure 2-5 opponents' turns. Since you're already getting such a low ratio of you-turns to enemy-turns, skipping even part of your turn is a much bigger drawback than it is in one-on-one. And the part of your turn where you untap your lands, allowing you to cast spells and advance your board position, is a pretty important part to skip.
Sure, some of the Divine Last Stand cycle might see play, but Oketra's? Consider the fact that Resolute Archangel sees absolutely zero play in the format. Sure, she costs more than twice as much, but considering the fact that you're Mana Vaporsing yourself when you cast Oketra's Last Mercy, you're effectively paying six anyway. Plus, the archangel is a blocker to help stabilize, and it's a lot easier to cheat in and/or reuse creatures than it is sorceries. If people wanted to play this effect in EDH, they would be already.
And lifegain isn't even all that good in Commander, outside of select decks, like Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim. In casual playgroups, there's enough quirky decks that use alt win-cons, like poison or mill, that resetting your life total won't save you fairly often. In cutthroat playgroups it's even worse. Combo decks don't care; they're doing infinite damage/infinite mill/infinite whatever, so they don't care what life you're at. Control decks can take all the time in the world to kill you; by the time you're low enough for it to be worth casting this, they got you on lockdown, so even if they let you resolve it, all it will do is make your loss take a little longer. And cutthroat aggro decks kill you in one turn anyway. Two, if they're getting bad draws. Either they one-shot each person at the table, one after the other, or they play some Overrun variant, and kill everyone simultaneously. Either way, you won't have a chance to cast Oketra's Last Mercy, because you're going from ~40 to dead in a single combat step.
Seriously, why do people get so excited for one-shot nothing-but-lifegain jank?
Despite everyone who's claiming this will be "sideboard tech vs burn" or "a commander staple", I'm having a hard time imagining how Oketra's Last Mercy sees play.
In any format where you need sideboard options against burn, Kor Firewalker and Leyline of Sanctity both seem like better options. Both cripple burn just as bad as Oketra's Last Mercy, except the Firewalker and Leyline don't make you straight up lose if your opponent responds with Skullcrack or somesuch. Every turn is precious when playing against burn, so the last thing you want is to give them a free turn by playing right into their Skullcrack.
In EDH, Oketra's Last Mercy actually seems worse. For one thing, the fact that it's a multiplayer format by default means that for every one of your turns you get, you must endure 2-5 opponents' turns. Since you're already getting such a low ratio of you-turns to enemy-turns, skipping even part of your turn is a much bigger drawback than it is in one-on-one. And the part of your turn where you untap your lands, allowing you to cast spells and advance your board position, is a pretty important part to skip.
Sure, some of the Divine Last Stand cycle might see play, but Oketra's? Consider the fact that Resolute Archangel sees absolutely zero play in the format. Sure, she costs more than twice as much, but considering the fact that you're Mana Vaporsing yourself when you cast Oketra's Last Mercy, you're effectively paying six anyway. Plus, the archangel is a blocker to help stabilize, and it's a lot easier to cheat in and/or reuse creatures than it is sorceries. If people wanted to play this effect in EDH, they would be already.
And lifegain isn't even all that good in Commander, outside of select decks, like Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim. In casual playgroups, there's enough quirky decks that use alt win-cons, like poison or mill, that resetting your life total won't save you fairly often. In cutthroat playgroups it's even worse. Combo decks don't care; they're doing infinite damage/infinite mill/infinite whatever, so they don't care what life you're at. Control decks can take all the time in the world to kill you; by the time you're low enough for it to be worth casting this, they got you on lockdown, so even if they let you resolve it, all it will do is make your loss take a little longer. And cutthroat aggro decks kill you in one turn anyway. Two, if they're getting bad draws. Either they one-shot each person at the table, one after the other, or they play some Overrun variant, and kill everyone simultaneously. Either way, you won't have a chance to cast Oketra's Last Mercy, because you're going from ~40 to dead in a single combat step.
Seriously, why do people get so excited for one-shot nothing-but-lifegain jank?
I wouldn't say Resolute Archangel sees no play in EDH. Stally decks make use of it, decks that try to hold against aggro decks and then use her as one of the tools to stabilize. Those exact decks might give this card a glance over as well, to see if it works for them. Not every EDH table is the same, after all.
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My Commander decks:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
This is clearly no Pulse of the Fields (the literal best life gain spell they ever designed).
You and I have 2 clearly different definitions of "best life gain spell they ever designed".
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Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
Melek, Izzet Paragon
Oona, Queen of the Fae
Bruna, Light of Alabaster
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Rhys the Redeemed
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Sen Triplets
The Mimeoplasm WUBRGSliver OverlordGRBUW WUBRGSliver Hivelord(Superfriends)GRBUW
Blue: Draw 4 (this card is going to be insane in older formats, like a better Meditate)
Red: Deal 5-6
Green: Create a 5/5?
No way do they do a CMC 3 draw 4. Not happening.
Hopefully green's isn't just a big creature. That's basically guaranteed to make it garbage. Maybe explosive vegetation at 3?
Yeah, my thinking on a big creature (or on spitting out +1/+1 counters) is that a 3mana Explosive Veggies is mediocre compared to Damnation and "gain 19 life" but if it gets three lands that is insanely OP since it moves you from 3 mana on 3 to no mana on 4 to possibly 8 mana on turn 5.
For blue you're probably right, although again "Draw 3" is basically just Concentrate with a major drawback, while "Draw 4" is a better Meditate; tough to find the balance.
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Sufferer of EDHD
Commander - Currently Playing: RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G) RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B) WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
Wizards just destroyed Burn with printing Oketra's Last Mercy. My guess is they didn't like the PR of banning burn so they decided to just hate it out. No need to print anymore burns spells , thanks wizards. I'm done with this game, I have played from 1994-2017. Edit: I over reacted a bit.
You know burn has access to two different cards that laugh at this one, right?
Yes I do, but my statement was made before I got confirmation on the ruling of Skullcrack. The wording on Oketra's Last Mercy lead me to believe it was more of a life reset not a life gaining ability.
I agree that outside of "Lifegain Combo" Orzhov decks that want a way to drop down low using Necropotence or Greed and then use this to smash the table with Exquisite Blood, Oketra's Last Mercy won't see a ton of EDH play. In my EDH group at least even if I am able to gain 30 life I'm probably in a situation/boardstate where my opponent can rock me for 40 next turn, or Voltron me out, or combo out, or deal enough damage that I'm back into the danger zone and now stuck with all my lands locked down if I do actually get another upkeep. Resolute Archangel is a fringe card and at least that can be cheated in with Kaalia of the Vast or flickered over and over with Brago. If you are looking for the white EDH staple, look at Hour of Revelation - when the chips are down nuking the table is what white wants, not gaining life (even if its a boatload of life).
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Sufferer of EDHD
Commander - Currently Playing: RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G) RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B) WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
Despite everyone who's claiming this will be "sideboard tech vs burn" or "a commander staple", I'm having a hard time imagining how Oketra's Last Mercy sees play.
In any format where you need sideboard options against burn, Kor Firewalker and Leyline of Sanctity both seem like better options. Both cripple burn just as bad as Oketra's Last Mercy, except the Firewalker and Leyline don't make you straight up lose if your opponent responds with Skullcrack or somesuch. Every turn is precious when playing against burn, so the last thing you want is to give them a free turn by playing right into their Skullcrack.
In EDH, Oketra's Last Mercy actually seems worse. For one thing, the fact that it's a multiplayer format by default means that for every one of your turns you get, you must endure 2-5 opponents' turns. Since you're already getting such a low ratio of you-turns to enemy-turns, skipping even part of your turn is a much bigger drawback than it is in one-on-one. And the part of your turn where you untap your lands, allowing you to cast spells and advance your board position, is a pretty important part to skip.
Sure, some of the Divine Last Stand cycle might see play, but Oketra's? Consider the fact that Resolute Archangel sees absolutely zero play in the format. Sure, she costs more than twice as much, but considering the fact that you're Mana Vaporsing yourself when you cast Oketra's Last Mercy, you're effectively paying six anyway. Plus, the archangel is a blocker to help stabilize, and it's a lot easier to cheat in and/or reuse creatures than it is sorceries. If people wanted to play this effect in EDH, they would be already.
And lifegain isn't even all that good in Commander, outside of select decks, like Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim. In casual playgroups, there's enough quirky decks that use alt win-cons, like poison or mill, that resetting your life total won't save you fairly often. In cutthroat playgroups it's even worse. Combo decks don't care; they're doing infinite damage/infinite mill/infinite whatever, so they don't care what life you're at. Control decks can take all the time in the world to kill you; by the time you're low enough for it to be worth casting this, they got you on lockdown, so even if they let you resolve it, all it will do is make your loss take a little longer. And cutthroat aggro decks kill you in one turn anyway. Two, if they're getting bad draws. Either they one-shot each person at the table, one after the other, or they play some Overrun variant, and kill everyone simultaneously. Either way, you won't have a chance to cast Oketra's Last Mercy, because you're going from ~40 to dead in a single combat step.
Seriously, why do people get so excited for one-shot nothing-but-lifegain jank?
I was going to write a comment about Oketra's Last Mercy but I couldn't agree more, there are better ways to hose Burn decks, and I doubt this will see play in Standard either, crippling yourself with the land-Exert spell gives the opponent too much of an opportunity, and considering this doesn't affect the board, all you're doing is buying time at a serious drawback. Right now there are no Burn decks in Standard to speak of, and Temur Tower decks won't let you resolve it. Honestly, if you need to board lifegain in vs aggro, Renewed Faith seems like a much better option.
Looks like some people haven't played against bantvalue dot edh because Resolute Archangel is an absolute beating if you don't have an alternate method of ending the game.
This isn't your average one-shot life-gain. This type of effect is rare and it definitely has never been printed for this low of a mana-cost. If this is an option for you and you have to use it, why the hell are you tapping out before casting this? I can understand having to dig for this and that's it. You can just use this as your only play in the late game and pass. You'll still have most of your mana to use on your next turn when you figure out how hard people will hit you. Stop using all of the worst-case scenarios when evaluating a card because 95% of the MTG cards ever printed will fail under those conditions.
Bontu's Last Reckoning is more trash than this in EDH because of how many other options you have to wipe a board that cost slightly more. At least with Oketra's card, it's an effect you can't get at this low of a mana cost. I'm not going out of my way to get every single copy for my deck but this card can be pretty annoying to play against.
I know. Hence my mention of both casual and cutthroat EDH. I've played in at least four different playgroups, each with different levels of competitiveness, and different deck archetype leanings. I've only ever seen one deck run Resolute Archangel, and none that want to run it.
As for Oketra's Last Mercy, I can't think of any deck that would want to devote a deck slot to it. It's difficult to even come up with a situation I've been in where drawing it instead of something else I already run would have changed the outcome of the game. Sure, it can get you out of a bind, but so can stuff like Fumigate, Sphinx's Revelation, Arbiter of Knollridge, and other cards that do more to help you stabilize. Sure, it combos with Sanguine Bond and friends, but only if you're dying; there are plenty of better combo options for Sanguine Bond, so why not just play Exquisite Blood or something?
I know. Hence my mention of both casual and cutthroat EDH. I've played in at least four different playgroups, each with different levels of competitiveness, and different deck archetype leanings. I've only ever seen one deck run Resolute Archangel, and none that want to run it.
As for Oketra's Last Mercy, I can't think of any deck that would want to devote a deck slot to it. It's difficult to even come up with a situation I've been in where drawing it instead of something else I already run would have changed the outcome of the game. Sure, it can get you out of a bind, but so can stuff like Fumigate, Sphinx's Revelation, Arbiter of Knollridge, and other cards that do more to help you stabilize. Sure, it combos with Sanguine Bond and friends, but only if you're dying; there are plenty of better combo options for Sanguine Bond, so why not just play Exquisite Blood or something?
Simple. It's three mana. At that point that's you're casting this, you will have more than 3 lands. Spending a turn and 3 mana to go from 7 life to 40 life while being able to hold up counters/kills/etc is a solid play in a great many situations. Hell, with the crazy amount of mana rocks that get run in EDH, there are many cases where this will cost you a single land (which pays for your signets).
Between Necropotence, Phyrexian Arena, and efficient mana fixing, I can see this being a good option for a lot of decks. It isn't an EDH staple, but it is a powerful tool.
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Level 1 Judge
"I hope to have such a death... lying in triumph atop the broken bodies of those who slew me..."
You don't call "dying to removal" if the removal is more expensive in resources than the creature. If you have to spend BG (Abrupt Decay), or W + basic land (PtE) to remove a 1G, that is not "dying to removal". Strictly speaking Goyf dies to removal, but actually your removal is dying to Goyf.
It looked like Gideon at first, but when you look more closely (on the larger version of the art that Magic Europe tweeted out earlier today), it's a bald man in similar looking armor and not Gideon.
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Lapsed DCI Rules Advisor - Retired from playing but still hanging around
I like this card. A lot. Definitely EDH playable at minimum. Much better Providence.
No, it isn't. Sure, it sets you back to 40, but you're semi-timewalking yourself (lands, but not other permanents). Giving your opponent plenty of time to send you right back down to where you were, or lower. Always remember, lifegain may keep you alive for a turn. That's no guarantee, and I generally assume it doesn't even give you that.
In Commander, this cycle does have an obvious use with mana rocks and (except for the black one, apparently) mana dorks (and a few other cards like Eladamri's Vineyard, or cards like Seedborn Muse that get around the downside), but that's not enough to justify a lifegain spell.
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Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
When I see Healing Salve, I'm often like "Oh girl, I wish I could turn every card into this." Thanks they removed the gain life part, otherwise this would have been broken.
I like this card. A lot. Definitely EDH playable at minimum. Much better Providence.
No, it isn't. Sure, it sets you back to 40, but you're semi-timewalking yourself (lands, but not other permanents). Giving your opponent plenty of time to send you right back down to where you were, or lower. Always remember, lifegain may keep you alive for a turn. That's no guarantee, and I generally assume it doesn't even give you that.
In Commander, this cycle does have an obvious use with mana rocks and (except for the black one, apparently) mana dorks (and a few other cards like Eladamri's Vineyard, or cards like Seedborn Muse that get around the downside), but that's not enough to justify a lifegain spell.
If you do not understand the difference between this and Alabaster Potion, I'm not sure what to say.
There are very few cards in the game that allow you to gain 25-30 life, and none of them cost 3 mana. If you have seven lands, you can use the other four for whatever you want. You don't have to tap out to use this.
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Level 1 Judge
"I hope to have such a death... lying in triumph atop the broken bodies of those who slew me..."
You don't call "dying to removal" if the removal is more expensive in resources than the creature. If you have to spend BG (Abrupt Decay), or W + basic land (PtE) to remove a 1G, that is not "dying to removal". Strictly speaking Goyf dies to removal, but actually your removal is dying to Goyf.
If you have seven lands, you can use the other four for whatever you want. You don't have to tap out to use this.
Not using your lands this turn so that you can still use them next turn is not much different from using them this turn and not being able to use them next turn. You're still only using them once over the course of two turns.
It's not a great or good card by any means, but it is certainly an opressive panic button if Burn ever had hopes of being Tier 1.
In any format where you need sideboard options against burn, Kor Firewalker and Leyline of Sanctity both seem like better options. Both cripple burn just as bad as Oketra's Last Mercy, except the Firewalker and Leyline don't make you straight up lose if your opponent responds with Skullcrack or somesuch. Every turn is precious when playing against burn, so the last thing you want is to give them a free turn by playing right into their Skullcrack.
In EDH, Oketra's Last Mercy actually seems worse. For one thing, the fact that it's a multiplayer format by default means that for every one of your turns you get, you must endure 2-5 opponents' turns. Since you're already getting such a low ratio of you-turns to enemy-turns, skipping even part of your turn is a much bigger drawback than it is in one-on-one. And the part of your turn where you untap your lands, allowing you to cast spells and advance your board position, is a pretty important part to skip.
Sure, some of the Divine Last Stand cycle might see play, but Oketra's? Consider the fact that Resolute Archangel sees absolutely zero play in the format. Sure, she costs more than twice as much, but considering the fact that you're Mana Vaporsing yourself when you cast Oketra's Last Mercy, you're effectively paying six anyway. Plus, the archangel is a blocker to help stabilize, and it's a lot easier to cheat in and/or reuse creatures than it is sorceries. If people wanted to play this effect in EDH, they would be already.
And lifegain isn't even all that good in Commander, outside of select decks, like Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim. In casual playgroups, there's enough quirky decks that use alt win-cons, like poison or mill, that resetting your life total won't save you fairly often. In cutthroat playgroups it's even worse. Combo decks don't care; they're doing infinite damage/infinite mill/infinite whatever, so they don't care what life you're at. Control decks can take all the time in the world to kill you; by the time you're low enough for it to be worth casting this, they got you on lockdown, so even if they let you resolve it, all it will do is make your loss take a little longer. And cutthroat aggro decks kill you in one turn anyway. Two, if they're getting bad draws. Either they one-shot each person at the table, one after the other, or they play some Overrun variant, and kill everyone simultaneously. Either way, you won't have a chance to cast Oketra's Last Mercy, because you're going from ~40 to dead in a single combat step.
Seriously, why do people get so excited for one-shot nothing-but-lifegain jank?
Are those the only two that have that kind of effect or are there more?
I wouldn't say Resolute Archangel sees no play in EDH. Stally decks make use of it, decks that try to hold against aggro decks and then use her as one of the tools to stabilize. Those exact decks might give this card a glance over as well, to see if it works for them. Not every EDH table is the same, after all.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
You and I have 2 clearly different definitions of "best life gain spell they ever designed".
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Also vizkopa guildmage.
If youre in a spot where you need to reset your life back to starting total, youre losing and its not going to save you
If you need to reset your life and your lands arent going to untap youre losing even harder
Eternity vessel sees minor fringe play because theres no downside and its easy to have go off.
This will always be the first card i recommend get cut from an edh deck because its so incredibly bad
Who, unlike the others, spreads the love to ALL opponents
#edhtip
Reprint Stasis!
Control needs more love.
EDH:
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
Melek, Izzet Paragon
Oona, Queen of the Fae
Bruna, Light of Alabaster
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Rhys the Redeemed
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Sen Triplets
The Mimeoplasm
WUBRGSliver OverlordGRBUW
WUBRGSliver Hivelord(Superfriends)GRBUW
Use Necropotence to get yourself down to 1 life, activate guildmage a couple times (coz they stack) and then cast Cat Mom's super lifegain.
Yeah, my thinking on a big creature (or on spitting out +1/+1 counters) is that a 3mana Explosive Veggies is mediocre compared to Damnation and "gain 19 life" but if it gets three lands that is insanely OP since it moves you from 3 mana on 3 to no mana on 4 to possibly 8 mana on turn 5.
For blue you're probably right, although again "Draw 3" is basically just Concentrate with a major drawback, while "Draw 4" is a better Meditate; tough to find the balance.
RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR
WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG
GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG
GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G)
RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW
UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B)
WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR
WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG
GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG
GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G)
RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW
UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B)
WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
This isn't your average one-shot life-gain. This type of effect is rare and it definitely has never been printed for this low of a mana-cost. If this is an option for you and you have to use it, why the hell are you tapping out before casting this? I can understand having to dig for this and that's it. You can just use this as your only play in the late game and pass. You'll still have most of your mana to use on your next turn when you figure out how hard people will hit you. Stop using all of the worst-case scenarios when evaluating a card because 95% of the MTG cards ever printed will fail under those conditions.
Bontu's Last Reckoning is more trash than this in EDH because of how many other options you have to wipe a board that cost slightly more. At least with Oketra's card, it's an effect you can't get at this low of a mana cost. I'm not going out of my way to get every single copy for my deck but this card can be pretty annoying to play against.
"Kiora is the Aquaman of planeswalkers."
"Useless and everyone pretends to like her?"
As for Oketra's Last Mercy, I can't think of any deck that would want to devote a deck slot to it. It's difficult to even come up with a situation I've been in where drawing it instead of something else I already run would have changed the outcome of the game. Sure, it can get you out of a bind, but so can stuff like Fumigate, Sphinx's Revelation, Arbiter of Knollridge, and other cards that do more to help you stabilize. Sure, it combos with Sanguine Bond and friends, but only if you're dying; there are plenty of better combo options for Sanguine Bond, so why not just play Exquisite Blood or something?
There's not that many spoilers because
It's the regular versions of those promo cards
And Nicol Bolas, God-pharaoh
Simple. It's three mana. At that point that's you're casting this, you will have more than 3 lands. Spending a turn and 3 mana to go from 7 life to 40 life while being able to hold up counters/kills/etc is a solid play in a great many situations. Hell, with the crazy amount of mana rocks that get run in EDH, there are many cases where this will cost you a single land (which pays for your signets).
Between Necropotence, Phyrexian Arena, and efficient mana fixing, I can see this being a good option for a lot of decks. It isn't an EDH staple, but it is a powerful tool.
"I hope to have such a death... lying in triumph atop the broken bodies of those who slew me..."
It looked like Gideon at first, but when you look more closely (on the larger version of the art that Magic Europe tweeted out earlier today), it's a bald man in similar looking armor and not Gideon.
No, it isn't. Sure, it sets you back to 40, but you're semi-timewalking yourself (lands, but not other permanents). Giving your opponent plenty of time to send you right back down to where you were, or lower. Always remember, lifegain may keep you alive for a turn. That's no guarantee, and I generally assume it doesn't even give you that.
It can be used with Sanguine Bond to off one player, but so can Alabaster Potion, and no one plays that either.
In Commander, this cycle does have an obvious use with mana rocks and (except for the black one, apparently) mana dorks (and a few other cards like Eladamri's Vineyard, or cards like Seedborn Muse that get around the downside), but that's not enough to justify a lifegain spell.
On phasing:
This comparison would be apt if the zen basics all had the same hedron in the same position.
If you do not understand the difference between this and Alabaster Potion, I'm not sure what to say.
There are very few cards in the game that allow you to gain 25-30 life, and none of them cost 3 mana. If you have seven lands, you can use the other four for whatever you want. You don't have to tap out to use this.
"I hope to have such a death... lying in triumph atop the broken bodies of those who slew me..."