An ability that triggers "whenever you gain life" triggers just once for each life gain event, no matter how much life you gain
He's expensive for what he does, and the limitation of only being able to use the mana for artifacts makes little sense in a game where we have Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, Thran's Dynamo, Worn Powerstone, Sissay's Ring, or basically any other colourless mana rock
If he would have chosen any other actions those turns, I would have lost Ties do not technically exist for 2010, but we made it work for the sake of the tournament I misplayed by not attacking Murkrow/Honchkrow, which would have likely allowed me to win since Evan ran out of Double Colorless Energy at the end of the game and would be unable to attack
It appeals to fans of Pokemon and the trading card genre
You see, the second ability of Ashaya turns all of your nontoken Creature into Forests in addition to their other types