Invigorate is one of those cards players keep asking about. Here is, in plain words, what its official text says, the rulings published by Wizards of the Coast, and the combos players actually run.
Official card text
If you control a Forest, rather than pay this spell's mana cost, you may have an opponent gain 3 life. Target creature gets +4/+4 until end of turn.
Complete guide
Invigorate is a classic combat trick that allows you to boost a creature's power and toughness significantly for zero mana. By leveraging your land types, you can catch opponents off guard even when you are fully tapped out. It is a staple in aggressive decks that value tempo over the opponent's life total.
How the Alternative Cost Works
Invigorate offers an alternative cost: if you control a land with the subtype Forest, you may cast the spell without paying its mana cost of {2}{G}. Instead, you choose an opponent to gain 3 life. This choice is made as you cast the spell. Even though you aren't paying mana, the spell's mana value remains 3, which is important for effects that care about cost.
Life Gain Restrictions
To pay the alternative cost, the act of gaining life must be legal. If an effect states that an opponent cannot gain life, you cannot choose to pay the alternative cost. However, if an effect simply replaces the life gain with another result (like Sulfuric Vortex), you can still pay the alternative cost even if the opponent ends up gaining zero life.
Resolution and Timing
Once the spell is cast and targets a creature, it goes on the stack. If the target is legal upon resolution, the creature receives a +4/+4 bonus until the end of the current turn. This is an instantaneous effect and does not stick around once the turn concludes.
When to Cast Invigorate
The best time to use Invigorate is during the declare blockers step or after an opponent has used their mana. Because it can be free, it is an excellent tool to save a creature from damage-based removal or to push through the final points of lethal damage, assuming the 3 life given to the opponent doesn't prevent the win.
Interaction examples
Beast WithinYour opponent casts Beast Within targeting your favorite creature. In response, you cast Invigorate for its alternative cost by giving your opponent 3 life. Your creature grows by +4/+4, potentially surviving other damage effects or trades that happen later in the turn, though Beast Within will still destroy it unless you have another way to protect it.
Heroic InterventionIf you attack with a creature and your opponent attempts to block and destroy it, you can cast Invigorate to ensure it deals massive damage. If they respond with a removal spell, you can then cast Heroic Intervention. Because you saved mana by casting Invigorate for free, you are more likely to have the mana available to protect your board with Heroic Intervention.
Guide written with AI from the official text and rulings. Official English text prevails.
How it works : Invigorate
Original English text — Wizards of the Coast / Scryfall
- #1· Wizards of the Coast
To determine the total cost of a spell, start with the mana cost or alternative cost you're paying (such as the alternative cost of Invigorate), add any cost increases, then apply any cost reductions. The mana value of the spell remains unchanged, no matter what the total cost to cast it was.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #2· Wizards of the Coast
If an effect says that an opponent can't gain life, you can't have that player gain life to pay Invigorate's alternative cost. If an effect instead replaces life gain, such as that of Sulfuric Vortex, you may choose to pay the cost even though the cost's action is replaced with nothing.
No other card is named in this ruling.
Legal formats
Commentaires
- Sois le premier à commenter cette carte.
Read next
Meta decks with Invigorate
No archived Top 8 deck with this card yet.