Cradle of Vitality

Enchantment

Whenever you gain life, you may pay {1}{W}. If you do, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature for each 1 life you gained.

CMC
4
Mana cost
{3}{W}
Color identity
W
Rarity
rare
Set
Shards of Alara
Price
$0.60
EDHREC rank
#11998
Buy on TCGplayer
Cradle of Vitality card art
Cradle of Vitality turns every life gain event into a permanent +1/+1 counter, and one activation of Beacon of Immortality can stack an absurd number of counters on a single creature in a single turn. The cost — four mana to cast, one white mana per trigger to activate — is real, but in any deck built around life gain, you're trading mana you already want to spend for game-ending board presence.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander
legacy
modern
pioneer
standard
vintage
pauper
oathbreaker

Commander is the natural home for Cradle of Vitality: 40 life means more gain events, games run long enough to recoup the setup cost, and white life gain commanders generate the repeated triggers the card needs to pull ahead. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal but completely unplayed — the formats are too fast and too hostile to a four-mana enchantment that does nothing the turn it enters. Oathbreaker gives it a narrower shot if the planeswalker and signature spell generate life gain, but the 20-life starting total reduces how dramatically the counters scale.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.60 bulk tier

At $0.60, Cradle of Vitality is firmly bulk — easy to pick up as a throw-in or from a bargain bin. Price is unlikely to move meaningfully without a reprint in a high-profile life gain precon that spikes demand.

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Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.