Sundering Vitae 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
Convoke (Your creatures can help cast this spell. Each creature you tap while casting this spell pays foror one mana of that creature's color.) Destroy target artifact or enchantment.
Complete guide
Sundering Vitae is a versatile removal spell that demonstrates the power of the Convoke mechanic in green decks. It allows you to utilize your creatures as mana sources to destroy troublesome noncreature permanents, ensuring you can react to threats even when your lands are tapped.
What It Does
Sundering Vitae is a three-mana instant designed to destroy a target artifact or enchantment. Its most important feature is Convoke, which allows you to tap untapped creatures you control instead of paying mana. Each creature tapped this way pays for {1} or one mana of that creature's color. This means if you control three creatures, you can potentially cast this spell for free.
How It Resolves Step by Step
First, you announce the spell and choose a legal target, which must be an artifact or enchantment. Second, you calculate the total cost, which is {2}{G}. Third, you may activate mana abilities and then tap creatures to pay the cost using Convoke. Finally, the spell is cast. Upon resolution, the target is checked for legality; if it is still a legal target, it is destroyed and put into its owner's graveyard.
Common Mistakes
A frequent error is trying to tap the same creature for both a mana ability (like a Llanowar Elf's ability) and Convoke; you can only do one or the other. Additionally, remember that Convoke is not an alternative cost, but a way of paying the total cost. Tapping a creature for Convoke does not remove it from combat if it was already attacking or blocking, though the creature must be untapped to be used for Convoke in the first place.
When to Play It
This spell is best utilized when your opponent plays a game-ending artifact or enchantment and you are low on mana but have a board presence. Since it is an instant, you can cast it during an opponent's turn to disrupt their strategy or during your own turn to clear a path for an attack.
Interaction examples
You target an opponent's powerful artifact. You tap two 1/1 white Soldier tokens to pay for {2} and one green creature to pay for {G}. The artifact is destroyed without you spending any mana from your lands.
Heroic InterventionYou cast Sundering Vitae targeting an opponent's enchantment. In response, the opponent casts Heroic Intervention. Because Heroic Intervention gives their permanents indestructible, Sundering Vitae will resolve but fail to destroy the target.
Beast WithinIf you need to destroy a creature or a land, Sundering Vitae cannot help you as it only targets artifacts or enchantments. In that case, you would need to use a spell like Beast Within, which can target any permanent but lacks the cost-reduction benefit of Convoke.
Guide written with AI from the official text and rulings. Official English text prevails.
How it works : Sundering Vitae
Original English text — Wizards of the Coast / Scryfall
- #1· Wizards of the Coast
You can tap any untapped creature you control to convoke a spell, even one you haven't controlled continuously since the beginning of your most recent turn.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #2· Wizards of the Coast
Tapping an untapped creature that's attacking or blocking to convoke a spell won't cause that creature to stop attacking or blocking.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #3· Wizards of the Coast
When calculating a spell's total cost, include any alternative costs, additional costs, or anything else that increases or reduces the cost to cast the spell. Convoke applies after the total cost is calculated. Convoke doesn't change a spell's mana cost or mana value.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #4· Wizards of the Coast
If a creature you control has a mana ability with
in the cost, activating that ability while casting a spell with convoke will result in the creature being tapped before you pay the spell's costs. You won't be able to tap it again for convoke. Similarly, if you sacrifice a creature to activate a mana ability while casting a spell with convoke, that creature won't be on the battlefield when you pay the spell's costs, so you won't be able to tap it for convoke.No other card is named in this ruling.
- #5· Wizards of the Coast
Because convoke isn't an alternative cost, it can be used in conjunction with alternative costs.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #6· Wizards of the Coast
Tapping a multicolored creature using convoke will pay for
or one mana of your choice of any of that creature's colors.No other card is named in this ruling.
Legal formats
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Meta decks with Sundering Vitae
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