Vitalize

Instant

Untap all creatures you control.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Big Apple Highlander	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (48)

DreadKhan on Meren Sacrifice Shenanigans

2 weeks ago

I see that you are taking a pretty different angle than I did here, but there might be a few cards that I can suggest from my own Meren and the Golgari Queens. Would Savra, Queen of the Golgari make sense in your list? It's a slightly different Grave Pact, but at 4 mana and easy to cast she can come out earlier, the life gain is a lot less important other than offsetting the payment for the effect.

I think they're about as fun as an untreatable toothache, but Grave Pact effects in my experience like you to run several of the Merciless Executioner type creatures that exist, Accursed Marauder is a great start, but I think Plaguecrafter and Demon's Disciple might fit. I don't know exactly how many you'd 'want', but I'd run 3-5 creatures that exist almost purely to make everyone sacrifice a creature. IMHO if you only run one or the other the Executioners are probably the better include since you can get them out sooner, they stand alone (Grave Pact does nothing if you don't have a creature), and you can recur them with your Commander, but both are INCREDIBLY nasty when combined. In the decks I have that use edicts you really want to reach 'critical mass', so that you both have access to an Edict when it's necessary, but also have enough to continuously pare back the opponent's board.

This is a personal preference more than anything, but when I play Meren my fondest hope is usually to have a creature that ramps me that also kills itself; Sakura Tribe Elder is the 'gold standard' of the effect, but I think you could benefit from Diligent Farmhand and Dawntreader Elk, and maybe Yavimaya Granger. I even run Fertilid and Burnished Hart, but I don't think I'd recommend them to anyone else at this point! Anyways, the idea is you juggle one of these to both gain XP for Meren while ramping yourself, and when you draw something better to reanimate just reanimate that. The ramp is usually very useful to cast either Protean Hulk or Razaketh.

Speaking of Razaketh, I found it VERY useful to have mass untap effect to go with Life/Death, once Life/Death makes all your lands into weenies you can untap them with something like Vitalize or Benefactor's Draught. I also threw in a Songs of the Damned and Dark Ritual to help generate mana when I'm short. Lotus Petal is also a very good Razaketh card if you don't want to spring for Lion's Eye DiamondGC.

Just a little tip I stumbled upon, most Meren decks have very high Black devotion, but they rely heavily on early Green ramp; I really wanted to shave lands for creatures in my list, but since I can find Swamps with Forests via ramp, I ended up running WAY less Black sources than Green. I used 7 Basic Swamps and 2 Swamp/Forest duals, and I find I have very few fixing issues, even with a very low land count, since I almost never need more than 2 lands early on, and I found the deck absolutely hated drawing into them (Meren is a deck where I feel like you're supposed to run all the creature ramp you can, because Meren cares so much about Creatures and so little about non-creature spells, lands are dead draws).

I guess that brings me to the last point, I feel like you should really try to get more creatures into this list; your Commander does absolutely nothing if you don't have creatures in the graveyard. I have 57 in the 99 atm, I feel like having less than 40 in a Meren deck is too few. The nice thing about creatures is that Golgari has a LOT of creature synergies, I love using Lurking Predators or Heartwood Storyteller.

If you want more specific help feel free to ask!

grimmxed on Baylen's Bnuuys (AKA Bunny Storm)

9 months ago

Vitalize I have a storm build that run X token spells and about 10 untappers. I like the any number of rabbit, I will probably update. Cards style that helps in my build is creature untappers. Might be worth running 1 or 2 for non thrumming stone lines.

Balaam__ on Snake…? Snaaaaaaaaaaake!!

1 year ago

Thanks Apollo_Paladin, I completely overlooked Vitalize! It’s one of those cards forever sitting in my periphery that I seldom remember even exists. I’m going to add it to the maybeboard right now, for a future revision. I doubt this could ever be a competitive build, but it’s played fairly well in table top matches thus far. One of those ‘Hm, would this work? Hey, it kind of does’ type decks. Thanks again for posting.

Apollo_Paladin on Snake…? Snaaaaaaaaaaake!!

1 year ago

Love the flavor here in the build and description +1

I notice a possible surprise interaction here with moss viper/tangle asp and Vitalize creating surprise blocker(s) to stop a big swinger/attack instead of just using another Fog, or using it to get multi-use out of one or more of those sakura scouts for ramping into casting Gift sooner.

Possibly more of a Sideboard consideration, but I abuse Vitalize in a number of my own decks & I feel it's often overlooked so it might be one to try here since it's a lot of potential value for a common. It's also another card in graveyard for Escape; honestly the only pick where I see no possible synergy are those Wild Growths, but combined with the sakura scout ability could certainly net another turn or two worth of speed towards your wincon.

In any case I'm not a heavy Pauper player & I missed whether this was intended for casual or competitive play (my experience is definitely more casual), so maybe I'm missing the mark on the meta. Love the deck either way there, Indy!

Apollo_Paladin on elves squared

1 year ago

Neat build, reminds me of my old elf deck +1

Here's a link to my build: Tae'rin Terror (Elf Zerg) although Elf decks have so many good options to choose from that a lot of the best picks will depend on the meta for the rest of your regular playgroup.

A couple cards that work extremely well in my deck that you might consider are Vitalize to keep that creature mana flowing even longer and Throne of the God-Pharaoh.

The throne in particular has proven to be a diamond-in-the-rough with my elf deck, since it's quite easy to end your turn(s) with everything tapped for mana and/or lifegain & damage the opponent without even needing to attack; easy free damage.

Either way good luck & I hope some of this helps!

SufferFromEDHD on Lathril’s Shadowood Elves

1 year ago

Imp's Mischief and Bind would give this deck access to counterspell-esque tricks.

Seedborn Muse = Vitalize on steroids

Apollo_Paladin on Saproling Sprout Swarm

1 year ago

Heya, neat build! +1

I'm only just starting to dabble in Pauper again but it seems to me that Vitalize could really shine here with all of your tap mechanics. I'll admit I haven't run any test games with your build using it or anything, I just know that it's a staple in a couple of my Pauper decks that run creatures with tap mechanics.

Anyway, good luck to ya either way!

Michigone on snakes, squirrels, and self-mill

2 years ago

I really want to play against this deck to test it out! This idea sounds super cool! Also, anyway to get some good untaps going in order to activate your commander multiple times per turn? I saw Patriar's Seal, I also like Thousand-Year Elixir, Saryth, the Viper's Fang, Instill Energy, Quest for Renewal, Illusionist's Bracers, Seedborn Muse, and Vitalize. There are probably other options out there