The Question: Does Revitalize have any value in Modern?
Positives:
-cheap
-not conditional
-retains material and tempo
-basically never a dead draw
-excellent side option against bleeding effects/burn/etc.
Negatives:
-gives no control advantage or interaction at all, which in general is bad
-white already has good options in this spot in the sideboard (kor firewalker, timely reinforcements, etc) as well as the colorless burn killer- dragon's claw
Discussion:
I couldn't help but do a double take at this one, as it directly answers a question ive been asking for a while now- how can you max out the turn 2 empty mana during opponent's endphase when they don't hit on turn 2?
In any passive control deck, you want the 2 mana open to counter whatever opponent does turn 2/3 (depending on the play or draw), but if opponent doesn't hit you with anything its nice to be able to use that tempo to do something, i.e. draw a card and counter a burnspell to the face or a quick critter smash.
By itself, this wouldn't be especially helpful, but, at least in my mind, its all the added bits of synergy that bring this card into retention.
Tactical advantage- this card helps thin the deck cheaply and quickly as well as basically buy you another piece of material against anything that does 1-shot damage. Running 4 copies in a deck means you are only running a 56 card deck as long as its structured to max out the instant tempo. And, because it's white, you can use it in place of the normal blue tactical cards if you aren't running a deck that uses blue.
Grave Material- as it provides tactical control, it also fills the grave with material for all the wonderful grave effects which are so prevalent these days. It's a marvelous snap target (tempo, material, life, all for 4 mana), fills spots for delve, goyf, grim lavamancer, etc.
Sideboard toolbox- yes, burn is already handled nicely by white in the side, and the ever-present dragon's claw, the colorless bane of the burn gods, is always a nice option, but it at least my thought that Revitalize is a sideboard option that has diverse enough effects that it works against more than just burn.
Specifically, it could be sided in against fast critter decks as it will basically buy you a turn against death by damage, and as it replaces itself this will help you outpace the critter decks that need to finish you off before they run out of gas. Decks like Zoo, for example, would not like seeing a +3 life and retain card advantage, which to them means they essentially need to burn a bolt for nothing and are now at -2 for the exchange.
Also, since the modern lands tend to burn you a decent amount (crack land into a shock land is 3 life off), and this can be a problem for 3 color decks in modern against stuff like burn that positively eat that damage with a smile, sided in Revitalize helps assuage that damage and keep your tempo up (yes, I will eat 3 damage turn 1 to cast something because that 3 damage is going away turn 2), etc.
Just my thoughts, perhaps I'm being too optimistic about this one's potential.
As always, feel free to discuss or disagree with me, the point of these posts is to hash out new ideas.