Drain Life
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Quick Facts:
- Drain Life will deal a minimum of 2 damage.
- All damage done by Drain Life returns to the user as health.
- Drain Life can deal a maximum of 16 damage.
Use This Card Together With:
Decks Using This Card:
Drain Life serves as a great representative of the Darkness element. As the elemental identifies with its ability to "absorb energies," Drain Life does just that: draining a creature or opponent's lifebar and returning all damage dealt to your own HP. Though its higher quanta cost (unupgraded, compared with Ice Bolt) and its lower damage output (compared with Fire Bolt) may seem like a downside contrasted to its relative cards, the spell's vampiric power more than makes up for that.
Drain Life will deal a minimum of 2 damage no matter what. However, an extra 2 points of damage can be dealt for each 10 
quanta you possess. This is calculated before subtracting the spell cost. For example:
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* 3-9 quanta -> 2 damage
* 10-19 -> 4 damage
* 20-29 -> 6 damage, and so on.
It is important to note that Drain Life will not heal for more than the amount of damage dealt. For example, if the spell is used with 22 quanta on a creature that has 4 HP, the amount of health returned to your lifebar will be 4, even though the damage potential is 6 (naturally, the creature still dies).
Because Drain Life becomes stronger with the more quanta you have, Devourers are the perfect compliment to the spell. The creature's special ability of the same-name enables for mass build-up, while simultaneously quanta-denying and slowing down the opponent. Using Fractal or Mitosis to swarm the field with Devourers/Pests can quickly make Drain/Siphon Life all the more potent. Because there is a quanta cap of 75 of any single type of quanta, Drain Life and Siphon Life can only do a maximum of 88 and 96 damage respectively in one turn, and some extra damage is needed to finish off the opponent.
As with all direct-damage spells, Drain Life will be reflected by Emerald/Jade Shield and Reflective/Mirror Shield when targeting the opponent’s lifebar. Things can get tricky if the opponent equips one of these, as the immaterial shield will prevent you from directly hitting the opponent’s HP (lest you want the spell to boomerang back). Since the shields cannot be targeted by permanent control (e.g., Steal, Deflagration), you can use a reflective shield of your own to work around the opposition’s defense; if you are equipped with a reflective shield and target yourself (your own lifebar), the damage will bounce off of you and hit the opponent instead.
However, Drain Life-stacking for an OHKO on a full-health opponent is a rarely used strategy when compared with Fire Bolt or even Ice Bolt. Instead, Drain Life is often used as a finisher spell after a good amount of damage has been dealt from your own creatures. In darkness decks, damage from Pests, Vampires, Gargoyles, and Obsidian Dragons under an Eclipse all help to get an opponent within KO range for the health-stealing spell (but don't be afraid to use it as powerful creature control if needed).
The “drain life effect” can be randomly summoned by Chaos Seed or Pandemonium. If either form of CC produces a Drain Life, the amount of damage dealt to the creature is based off the amount of quanta the user possesses at the time.
A model example of the stealthy nature of the Darkness element, Drain Life can spell trouble for any unprepared deck. If you see your opponent amassing heaps of quanta, beware, as a single Drain Life can easily turn the tides of the battle.
Note: If you're having trouble figuring out drain damage or want to crunch the numbers quickly (especially in a PvP match), there is an online calculator made by Elements Forum user jumpoffduck for all pump spells, including Drain Life: <a href="http://jumpoffduck.co.cc/elements/bolt.htm">Bolt/Fahrenheit Calculator</a>. There is also a spreadsheet made by user kevkev60614 that can be found <a href="https://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,20296.msg289895.html#msg289895">here</a>, and saved to your desktop as an excel file. For a look at a small range of Drain Life damage as it is stacked, you can check out the table below.
Damage table for multiple Drain Lives, from 3-75 quanta
| Quanta | Drain Life | |||||
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | |
| 3-5 | 2 | |||||
| 6-8 | 2 | 4 | ||||
| 9 | 2 | 4 | 6 | |||
| 10-11 | 4 | 6 | 8 | |||
| 12 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 | ||
| 13-14 | 4 | 8 | 10 | 12 | ||
| 15 | 4 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 14 | |
| 16-17 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 14 | 16 | |
| 18 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 18 |
| 19 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 18 | 20 |
| 20-21 | 6 | 10 | 14 | 18 | 20 | 22 |
| 22 | 6 | 10 | 14 | 18 | 22 | 24 |
| 23-24 | 6 | 12 | 16 | 20 | 24 | 26 |
| 25 | 6 | 12 | 16 | 20 | 24 | 28 |
| 26-28 | 6 | 12 | 18 | 22 | 26 | 30 |
| 29 | 6 | 12 | 18 | 24 | 28 | 32 |
| 30-31 | 8 | 14 | 20 | 26 | 30 | 34 |
| 32 | 8 | 14 | 20 | 26 | 32 | 36 |
| 33-34 | 8 | 16 | 22 | 28 | 34 | 38 |
| 35 | 8 | 16 | 22 | 28 | 34 | 40 |
| 36-38 | 8 | 16 | 24 | 30 | 36 | 42 |
| 39 | 8 | 16 | 24 | 32 | 38 | 44 |
| 40-41 | 10 | 18 | 26 | 34 | 40 | 46 |
| 42 | 10 | 18 | 26 | 34 | 42 | 48 |
| 43-44 | 10 | 20 | 28 | 36 | 44 | 50 |
| 45 | 10 | 20 | 28 | 36 | 44 | 52 |
| 46-48 | 10 | 20 | 30 | 38 | 46 | 54 |
| 49 | 10 | 20 | 30 | 40 | 48 | 56 |
| 50-51 | 12 | 22 | 32 | 42 | 50 | 58 |
| 52 | 12 | 22 | 32 | 42 | 52 | 60 |
| 53-54 | 12 | 24 | 34 | 44 | 54 | 62 |
| 55 | 12 | 24 | 34 | 44 | 54 | 64 |
| 56-58 | 12 | 24 | 36 | 46 | 56 | 66 |
| 59 | 12 | 24 | 36 | 48 | 58 | 68 |
| 60-61 | 14 | 26 | 38 | 50 | 60 | 70 |
| 62 | 14 | 26 | 38 | 50 | 62 | 72 |
| 63-64 | 14 | 28 | 40 | 52 | 64 | 74 |
| 65 | 14 | 28 | 40 | 52 | 64 | 76 |
| 66-68 | 14 | 28 | 42 | 54 | 66 | 78 |
| 69 | 14 | 28 | 42 | 56 | 68 | 80 |
| 70-71 | 16 | 30 | 44 | 58 | 70 | 82 |
| 72 | 16 | 30 | 44 | 58 | 72 | 84 |
| 73-74 | 16 | 32 | 46 | 60 | 74 | 86 |
| 75 | 16 | 32 | 46 | 60 | 74 | 88 |
