Vampire Scrivener (Foil) (SNC)

Vampire Scrivener
Casting Cost: {4}{B}
Card Type: Creature - Vampire Warlock
Power/Toughness: 2/2
Card Text:
Flying
Whenever you gain life during your turn, put a +1/+1 counter on Vampire Scrivener.
Whenever you lose life during your turn, put a +1/+1 counter on Vampire Scrivener.
Flavour Text:
No one remains on her list for long.
Artist: Bastien L. Deharme

Strengths and Weaknesses:

• Strengths:
  • The ability to grow both from life gain and life loss makes it versatile in black decks that might have both strategies.
  • Flying gives it evasion, making it more difficult to block.
• Weaknesses:
  • Its base stats (2/2 for 5 mana) are underwhelming.
  • Requires specific interactions (life gain or loss) to become a significant threat.
  • Only gains counters during your own turn.

Deck Utility:

• Life Gain Decks: Provides a growing threat in decks that have consistent life gain.

• Pain-for-Power Decks: Can benefit from cards or strategies that have you pay life for powerful effects.

• Counters Synergy Decks: The card's ability to accumulate +1/+1 counters makes it synergize well with cards or strategies that interact with or benefit from counters.

Interactions and Combos:

• Painful Costs: Cards that require you to pay life as part of the cost, such as certain activated abilities or casting costs, can help grow the Vampire Scrivener.

• Consistent Life Gain: Effects that gain you life every turn, like lifelink or triggered abilities, can ensure the Vampire Scrivener grows regularly.

Flavor and Lore:

• The flavor text hints at a sinister, methodical nature. The Vampire Scrivener seems to be someone who keeps a list of targets or debts and ensures they are addressed.
• The art would likely portray a dark, brooding figure, meticulously writing in a book with a quill, perhaps with a background of a dimly lit room full of scrolls and tomes.

Overall Impression:

Vampire Scrivener offers an intriguing dynamic, rewarding players for both gaining and losing life, which is a common theme in black's slice of the color pie. Its cost and base stats are its primary drawback, but in the right deck, it can grow into a formidable threat. The flavor, combined with the mechanics, paints a picture of a meticulous vampire who keeps careful track of both favors owed and debts to be paid.