MTG Salvation

I'm trying to word this correctly, any tips on the most elegant wording possible? The best reminder text?

Guardian of Desperation :1mana::symb::symb::symb:
Creature- Spirit Guardian
Your life total is 1.(As ~ comes into play your life total becomes 1. Spells, Abilities, and Effects that would lower your life total to less than 1 life have no effect.)
When all is lost, the most can be gained.
7/4

• As ~ comes into play, your life total becomes 1.
Your life total can't be changed.

Edit: Fixed the stupid mistake. The 2nd ability should prevent any event that would change your life total, including life payments (you can't pay life).

"If you would gain or lose life, your life total becomes 1 instead." also functions. (Or, "You can't gain life" + Ali from Cairo.) You might want to consider how this interacts with abilities with a life payment as a cost, however.

How is it broken? What do you have that breaks it? Necropotence and Bargain are silly answers as their the real culprits. It ends up being a Black Worship. Creatures aren't that hard to deal with, and neither are players at 1 life.

I'm thinking.....

As ~ comes into play, you lose all but 1 life.
Your life total can't be changed. (You can't gain or lose life. You can't pay more life than you have for any cost.)

Anyone think of anything else to toss in the reminder text? I know you guys don't like it, but Time Stop and Mindslaver are really elegant and easy to understand but still need a full card to explain it all.

while it is a rare occurance, your life total could be less than 1 already (if you have a Platinum Angel in play for instance) and losing all but 1 life then wouldnt do what you want it to do. Instead of wording it like Soulgorger Orgg, word it like Form of the Dragon. (It is odd that the two examples of life setting I can think of are in red, but i digress...)

I think that if your life cant change, you shouldnt be able to pay life at all.

As ~ comes into play, your life total becomes 1.
Your life total can't be changed. (If you would gain or lose life, instead you don't. You can't pay life to pay for costs.)


note: I think that oddly enough, you would still be dealt damage, similar to Worship; you just don't lose life because of damage. This means that things like Okiba-Gang Shinobi would still trigger. Just thought i should point that out.

Quote from DevouringZombie »

As ~ comes into play, you lose all but 1 life.
Your life total can't be changed. (You can't gain or lose life. You can't pay more life than you have for any cost.)

Then you could pay one life over and over for something. Necropotence,Yawgmoth's Bargain

You could even pay the upkeep on Dystopia

Necropotence and Bargain are already evil on their own, no combo needed. In fact, they themselves can power entire combo decks. Other free life payment effects in Magic are rarely as good, and most life payment effects beside those include a mana cost as a limiter. "Your life total becomes 1" is good enough for starter. Any other clauses to prevent life total from changing from 1 is fine, and as long as it is 1, you can't pay more than 1 for any cost (and you can't pay life anyway since it can't be changed).

When --- comes into play, your life total becomes one.

If a source would cause you to gain life, you gain no life instead.

If a source would cause you to lose life, you lose no life instead.

Quote from moogie

When --- comes into play, your life total becomes one.

If a spell or ability would cause you to gain life, you gain no life instead.

If a spell or ability would cause you to lose life, you lose no life instead.

The creatures would still deal combat damage.

Quote from SnowCrow

The creatures would still deal combat damage.

wow, you're right, I'll fix that.

Damage causes loss of life though - Lich's Tomb

Quote from MajoraX

Damage causes loss of life though - Lich's Tomb

the problem with mny first wording is that combat damage wasn't covered under spells or abilities. its fixed now