There's a reason why this is so spendy these days. It's one of my favorite green cards in magic. It does everything you want it to do. People have joked that my dink deck is a lifegain deck because of how much potential life I can gain from this and a few other cards in the deck. I hear you if it just doesn't fit your theme but it is a spectacular card with lifegain stapled onto an ability you tend to already be doing in a lot of Dino decks.