Breath of Life

Breath of Life was originally printed in the Portal set, released in 1997 as a gateway product designed to introduce new players to the mechanics of Magic: The Gathering. Created by Wizards of the Coast, the Portal line stripped away some of the more complex stack interactions of the base game to provide a more straightforward, accessible gameplay experience. The artwork for this specific iteration was provided by Terese Nielsen, who utilized a soft, ethereal aesthetic to capture the restorative nature of the card's function, which allows a player to return a creature card from their graveyard to the battlefield.

The version included in The List represents the inclusion of older cards into modern set releases, a recurring feature in contemporary Magic: The Gathering products that allows cards from the game's history to reappear in current booster packs. While the card is functionally identical to its debut printing, its presence in The List serves to highlight the lasting utility of early white-aligned reanimation spells. It is regarded by the community as a foundational example of its color's ability to manipulate life and death, maintaining a consistent role in casual formats since its inception.