Accomplished Alchemist

The second ability is the whole point, and it converts a resource most decks treat as a cushion into an explosive mana source: every point of life gained this turn becomes potential mana of one color. That reframes lifegain from an incidental payoff into a fuel line. The first ability is the tax that keeps the second honest: while you assemble a lifegain engine, this is still a fixer that produces one mana of any color, so on a turn with no gains yet it still contributes something. The 2/5 body is deliberate too, sturdy enough to survive the sweepers and downtime that lifegain decks tend to weather while they set up. What makes the design tick is that the life-based mana refreshes each turn but only counts gains from the current turn, so it rewards concentrated bursts rather than a slow accumulated total: you want a payoff that gains ten life at once, then dumps that mana into something oversized the same turn. That is a different shape from the incremental drain effects that had defined green-adjacent lifegain before it, and it pointed the archetype toward a single explosive turn rather than a grind. As a druid that taps for a variable amount tied to a triggered resource, it belongs to the lineage of mana creatures whose output scales with the rest of the board, but tied to life rather than creatures or lands.