I can't remember a time before Lifelink existed as a mechanic, which is weird because I started collecting Magic: The Gathering cards during Onslaught, four sets before Lifelink was added, mechanically, in Mirrodin.

It wasn't until three years and 13 sets later that Lifelink was given the keyword treatment, but since then it's become a staple in both Black and White, appearing on over five hundred cards since.

Originally, Lifelink was based on Spirit Link, which gave creatures a similar ability with a few key differences. So what exactly does Lifelink do, how is it different than earlier life-gain abilities, and how can you use it most effectively? That's what we're covering in today's Mechanics Overview.

What Is Lifelink?

Lifelink is an ability that causes you to gain life whenever the creature (or spell!) with Lifelink deals damage to a creature, player, planeswalker, or battle. This damage can dealt in any way: Combat damage counts, but so does direct damage from abilities. If you give Prodigal Sorcerer Lifelink, you'll gain life every time you tap it to deal damage.

There are a few special rules you may need to be aware of:

• Lifegain occurs at the same time as damage. So if your own creature has Lifelink and deals lethal damage to you, you lose and gain life at the same time and do not lose the game.
• Lifelink functions regardless of zone. If a creature with Lifelink manages to deal damage from your hand, graveyard, or exile, you still gain life.
• Lifelink does not stack with other instances of Lifelink. Giving your Ocelot Pride a Basilisk Collar will not give you double lifegain.
• If more than one Lifelink instance causes you to gain life, each instance is counted as a separate lifegain event.

The first ability is the most important in some scenarios, because it can allow you the freedom to make big, self-damaging plays without killing yourself. For example, if you only have three life, you can still play Flamebreak with Firesong and Sunspeaker in play. You'll take enough damage to lose, but gain much more life at the same time.

Lifelink-Like Effects

Lifelink is one of those abilities that's good on almost any creature that you want to attack or block with, since it gives you incidental lifegain. As long as your creatures can survive to hit something again, you can keep on gaining life every turn.

Since additional instances of Lifelink are redundant, you can't give a creature multiple copies of the ability to gain a ton of life. However, there are some similar effects that you can stack with Lifelink.

Spirit Link

Lifelink is primarily based on Spirit Link, an Aura that allows you to gain life whenever the enchanted creature deals damage. Despite almost identical wording to Loxodon Warhammer, which was later reprinted with Lifelink, Spirit Link's rules text hasn't been updated since Sixth Edition, and there are several other cards with similar effects.

Retaining the old text means that Spirit Link has two major differences from Lifelink. First, Spirit Link's controller gains life when the enchanted creature deals damage, so you can enchant your opponent's creature and largely ignore that creature's attacks. Second, it's a triggered ability, which means it goes on the stack and your opponent has a chance to respond.

Since Spirit Link's effect is a triggered ability, multiple instances of similar abilities can stack, allowing you to gain a lot of life from small amounts of damage. However, since this ability goes on the stack after dealing damage, it is possible to take enough damage to reduce your life to zero and lose before gaining anything from the effect.

Syphon Soul

While it is actually possible for Instants and Sorceries to have Lifelink (see Firesong and Sunspeaker), none have been printed with the keyword. However, a few spells like Syphon Soul have Lifelink effectively built in.

This is very different from cards like Sacred Fire, which specify the amount of lifegain you'll get from each card, because effects that modify damage will also modify the life you gain from cards that say "You gain life equal to the damage dealt this way." An effect like Furnace of Rath will double the damage on both effects, but won't increase the lifegain from Sacred Fire.

It's also important to realize that since no Instants or Sorceries has Lifelink, you can add those effects with cards like Heartflame Duelist and gain twice as much life as the damage they caused!

The Future of Lifelink

Lifelink is an evergreen keyword, so you can expect to see it on a couple of cards in most sets or the foreseeable future.

While the rules of Magic: The Gathering allow for noncreature spells to have Lifelink, and while several can grant Lifelink to your Creatures, no spells aside from Creatures and Vehicles currently have the ability.

Since there are several abilities to turn Artifacts and Lands into Creatures, it would be interesting to see some noncreature, nonvehicle permanents with Lifelink. The most likely candidate would be something like Desert, which can already do a tiny bit of damage on its own. And wouldn't it be fun to turn it into a creature with Nissa of Shadowed Boughs and swing with it?