it could be played independently of other Magic products
It draws a given number, in this case four for five mana, one more mana and card than Harmonize, Concentrate or Ambition's Cost
Once you internalize that, the card evaluations below become obvious: ask of every card, is this a source or a payoff, and does the rest of my deck cover the other side? Best lifegain sources (the engines) You want repeatable, incremental gain lots of small triggers beat one big lifegain spell, because payoffs like Vito or Archangel of Thune care about the number of times you gain, not just the total
If Meilin Lee (Enchanted) shows up in top competitive decks, it's because the card's abilities are strong -- the standard-art version would perform identically
I was inches away from winning the four-player game, but I actually ran out of cards