Life gain is one of those strategies that has become deceptive
While is pretty steep for a 5/3 creature, when it enters, its first chapter destroys target creature a foe controls, its second chapter is the your foe loses the game one, which is obviously awesome, and the third chapter draws you two cards and forces all players to lose two life
Vanguard is a card that changes the way you play the game
I like this very much in decks with the Spellslinger with instants/sorceries cast and then triggering Guttersnipe or Young Pyromancer...right
Ratchet Bomb and Magistrates Scepter both have super powerful effects, provided you can get enough charge counters on them
Howard Lyon, the original illustrator of Cathartic Reunion, knows full well the power of the parable