Once you internalize that, the card evaluations below become obvious: ask of every card, is this a source or a payoff, and does the rest of my deck cover the other side? Best lifegain sources (the engines) You want repeatable, incremental gain lots of small triggers beat one big lifegain spell, because payoffs like Vito or Archangel of Thune care about the number of times you gain, not just the total
Brawl Legal Vintage Legal Timeless Legal Commander Legal Pauper Not Legal Oathbreaker Legal Penny Not Legal Cavern of Souls Land As this land enters, choose a creature type
Fabled Passage Fabled Passage bridges the gap between Evolving Wilds and Prismatic Vista for a basic land fetch thats untapped most of the time
Otherwise, be prepared to face Thoughtseize every time you play against a black deck, be it against midrange decks like Jund, Deaths Shadow, Rakdos, Dredge, or combo decks like Yawgmoth or Esper Reanimate
Mass Board Destruction (except Upheaval) Cards like Worldfire and Sway of the Stars don't deserve to be on the banned list
As for booster draft, some enemy decks are too fast and aggressive for cards like this, so the player must be prepared to side out Virtue of Persistence if need be
