Lifelink
Lifelink is a keyword ability introduced in Future Sight. Damage dealt by a source with lifelink causes that source’s controller to gain that much life.
From the Comprehensive Rules (November 8, 2024—Edge of Eternities)
- 702.15. Lifelink
- 702.15a Lifelink is a static ability.
- 702.15b Damage dealt by a source with lifelink causes that source’s controller, or its owner if it has no controller, to gain that much life (in addition to any other results that damage causes). See rule 120.3.
- 702.15c If an object changes zones before an effect causes it to deal damage, its last known information is used to determine whether it had lifelink.
- 702.15d The lifelink rules function no matter what zone an object with lifelink deals damage from.
- 702.15e If multiple sources with lifelink deal damage at the same time, they cause separate life gain events (see rules 119.9–10).
Example: A player controls Ajani’s Pridemate, which reads “Whenever you gain life, put a +1/+1 counter on Ajani’s Pridemate,” and two creatures with lifelink. The creatures with lifelink deal combat damage simultaneously. Ajani’s Pridemate’s ability triggers twice.
- 702.15f Multiple instances of lifelink on the same object are redundant.
History
Before it was keyworded in Future Sight, R&D used to call this ability spirit link, after the card of the same name.[1][2] Note, however, that that card doesn’t actually have the exact lifelink ability.[3]
Future Sight hinted at a lot of things from Magic’s potential future on its futureshifted cards. For lifelink, that future was the very next set released, Tenth Edition. This ability can be traced back to the card El-Hajjâj in Arabian Nights.[4]
Before the rules changes in Magic 2010, lifelink was a triggered ability, and it used the stack along with combat damage. This meant that its life gain if caused by combat, would arrive too late to prevent the player from losing the game due to combat damage from the same combat. It is now a static ability that causes life gain at the same time as the damage that causes it. The ability is primary in both white and black. White and black have very different flavor rationales for the abilities, but both use it almost every set.[5][6]
Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths introduced lifelink counters.
Lifelink in practice
Lifelink is a great way to create a gap between you and your opponent life total, granted you attack with Lifelink you end healing and mitigating the posterior damage your opponent could do later on.
Either way if your attack or block Lifelink will trigger and bring the life points up, so strategically is an excellent option to have in combat.
