Invigorate

Instant

If you control a Forest, you may have an opponent gain 3 life rather than pay Invigorate's mana cost.

Target creature gets +4/+4 until end of turn.

Discussion (51)

TheVectornaut on Searing Infection

5 days ago

Most of my experience with infect comes from playing simic, but I have played the mechanic in all 5 colors. In terms of power, green is the most effective color to play by a very VERY large margin. You get access to the best infect creature in Glistener Elf (along with the slower and safer option of Blight Mamba), you get trample sources to push through damage with Ichorclaw Myr such as Rancor, Predator's Strike, and Larger Than Life, you get protection bundled with buffs in the form of Vines of Vastwood, Ranger's Guile, and Blossoming Defense, and you get the largest pool of very strong power boosts in the form of Mutagenic Growth, Invigorate, Scale Up, Might of Old Krosa, Berserk, Become Immense, Groundswell, Phytoburst, Noble Hierarch, and Pendelhaven. Since infect is an all-or-nothing sort of archetype, even when running the less aggressive versions, the most important characteristics that you need are speed, protection, and evasion. Green offers two of those things in spades but can struggle with evasion. This is why blue is generally considered the next best color to run. You get the insane threat of Blighted Agent, unblockable buffs with Distortion Strike and Aqueous Form, and protection from spells via Spell Pierce, Dispel, Turn Aside, and the odd Spellskite. Black is the next best. Plague Stinger's flying isn't as good as the unblockable on a Blighted Agent but it's still very powerful evasion as illustrated by the ubiquity of Inkmoth Nexus in every non-budget infect list ever made. Black also nets useful control tools like Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek, Fatal Push, Dismember, and Assassin's Trophy. White was considered the worst infect color for a very long time since its best option (Apostle's Blessing) can be used in any deck, but the recent introduction of Giver of Runes has breathed some life back into the color. Additionally, I've seen a lot of equipment lists popping up that use Colossus Hammer, Kor Duelist, Sigarda's Aid, and Kor Outfitter to see some success. Unfortunately, that leaves red as the current worst color to run in infect. It has some decent buffs but they pale in comparison to green's offerings. The result is that most red infect decks rely on gimmicks like using Razor Swine's first strike to wither enemy creatures, generating infinite mana to pump into an unblocked Ogre Menial, or putting Phyresis on something like a Spikeshot Elder to bypass combat altogether. Your instant tricks definitely fall in this category. That's not necessarily a bad thing though. If your meta is casual enough, red should still work and it will be much more interesting to play with / fun to play against than a more traditional deck. How competitive you want to be is always up to you.

To answer your specific questions, I would probably start by cutting a few creatures. Most lists run about 12 infect sources (and that's including a playset of Inkmoth Nexus). With Hand of the Praetors on your top end, running 16-20 isn't that unreasonable, at least as long as all of them are good. Infect creatures usually become "bad" when they cost more than 2. That's why I wouldn't usually recommend running Ichor Rats or Septic Rats. Both Necropede and Plague Myr are perfectly acceptable inclusions with very similar power levels. They'll rarely be better than Plague Stinger or Ichorclaw Myr but that's okay if you just want more guys to play. As for Vector Asp, it's honestly a pretty bad choice in most circumstances. While you usually won't need to activate it more than 2 or 3 times to win the game, that mana would be better spent elsewhere, and it doesn't even trigger the Hand. However, given the choice of it and a 3-drop, I'd probably take the snake, especially since it would be your only proactive play on turn 1 (barring the inclusion of Glistener Elf or Inkmoths). Better though would just be to run neither and invest in more buff spells to assist in combat and trigger Livewire Lash. I do like the idea of those spells having cycling in theory, but in practice, the mana needed to cycle can short you of the resources needed to close out the game. Plus, cycling spells tend to cost more to account for the added ability. Cycling lands on the other hand should be fine as long as they come in untapped, although it looks like that only describes Ash Barrens and Blasted Landscape. Just like with creatures, I wouldn't run any spells that cost more than 2 unless they can win you the game like Soul's Fire can. This will also allow you to run 20 lands or fewer, opening up even more slots for gas. I apologize if I'm repeating myself about the low-cost-high-speed thing but that is basically the reason the infect mechanic exists. If you prefer a slow and more controlling style, Rakdos wither built around Necroskitter is a fun option that has some overlap with infect.

Phroggy1 on Thrun

1 week ago

couple of quick suggestions Invigorate is a free pump spell in this deck. Ancient Animus and Nature's Way are probably very effective removal creature removal for the deck.

king-saproling on Xenagos and his Pain-Train

4 weeks ago

Looks good so far! You might like these: Berserkers' Onslaught, Gratuitous Violence, Inquisitor's Flail, Fiendish Duo, Angrath's Marauders, Helm of the Host, Wild Beastmaster, Overwhelming Stampede, Syr Faren, the Hengehammer, Gruul Beastmaster, Life's Legacy, Hunter's Prowess, Mark of Sakiko, Invigorate, Fury of the Horde, Blazing Shoal

DemMeowsephs on Thriss your ass goodbye

4 weeks ago

Groundswell, Berserk,]maybe card draw spells like Hunter's Insight and Hunter's Prowess, maybe some free mana ones like Invigorate or Mutagenic Growth, Phytoburst is good but its a sorcery.

Selvala, Heart of the Wilds would work wonders in your deck. Pump, the for one mana add like a billion mana, it's super helpful in my decks.

And have you considered cards that will untap your commander? Unatp him, then use his pump ability again and again, which is super helpful. Seeker of Skybreak, etc.

Nice deck! +1

minisnow on Marwyn

4 weeks ago

Hydra's Growth, Beast Whisperer, Lifecrafter's Bestiary, Invigorate, Leyline of Abundance, Helix Pinnacle, Wirewood Lodge

king-saproling on Neyith of the Dire Hunt EDH: Beastmaster

2 months ago

Cool deck! Nothing beats smashing face. You might like these: Wild Beastmaster, Overwhelming Stampede, Syr Faren, the Hengehammer, Knollspine Dragon, Unleash Fury, Rabble-Rouser, Cultivator of Blades, Berserkers' Onslaught, Gratuitous Violence, Angrath's Marauders, Ilysian Caryatid, Viridian Joiner, Invigorate, Strionic Resonator, Polyraptor, Druid's Call

SeanmanX on Space Aids

3 months ago

Digging the first pass of the deck I would try to go all-in on the infect theme and ditch some of the +1/+1 counter focused cards. Would make the deck feel a lot more consistent in games played.

I also see some cards that give brokkos some form of evasion, its worth noting that brokkos already has a pseudo-evasion like effect by naturally having trample, which deters people from blocking anyways, I feel that the additional evasion effects via creatures to mutate onto seems a bit extra.

I reccomend removing these:

• Merfolk Skydiver - +1/+1 theme, its nice for a 5 mana proliferation sink but I feel its too clunky
• Pollenbright Druid - A one time proliferate is likely too cute for this deck
• Polukranos, Unchained - +1/+1 counter themed, I see the argument for mutating onto a huge creature with +1/+1 counters, but polukranos also shrinks really quickly
• Elusive Tormentor  ^Flip is a nice unblockable threat, but we're winning by going to bash town with infect damage, rather than an unblockable 6/7
• Silhana Ledgewalker Another pseudo-unblockable threat.
• Toothy, Imaginary Friend I likely would only play this card with Pir, Imaginative Rascal, seems very off theme from what you're trying to do aside from giving itself counters.
• Yeva, Nature's Herald This card only gives your green creatures flash, I dont think its really worth it... otherwise I would be super on board
• Blighted Agent is a human and you cannot mutate onto it. I'm not sure if you want to keep it in the deck as an extra infect threat, or go all in on the mutate plan.
• Relic Putrescence feels way too narrow just for giving its controller a single poison counter
• Simic Ascendancy Is a +1/+1 card that I dont see as a viable backup plan
• Leyline of Anticipation It's nice casting things at instant speed but that isnt really the theme of the deck, if folks have instant speed removal they will likely use it anyways and this wont get you many bonus points
• Golgari Charm What is this for? Removing 1/1s? Brokkos has trample and your infect creatures might have 1 toughness... regenerating brokkos? Just mutate again..

Cards I would consider adding:

• Rot Wolf
• Whispering Specter
• Plague Myr
• Necropede
• Blackcleave Goblin
• Thrummingbird
• Triumph of the Hordes
• Blackblade Reforged

Since you're looking for more Destroy effects, Card draw effects, and counter effects, consider the following:

• Beast Within
• Vines of Vastwood
• Deadly Rollick
• Invigorate
• Phyrexian Arena
• Painful Truths
• Arcane Denial
• Curtains' Call

There are a few different land ramp spells I may play, but those are likely out of budget. For the remainder of the cuts I reccomend taking out the worst infect creatures, and possibly some of your land ramp spells

Radical_Ace on List of Bugs and Feature …

4 months ago

I ran into a bug with the alternate CMC function. It will not allow a value of 0 for cards like Mutagenic Growth and Invigorate. It fails to save the value. I see an axis label for 0 on the mana curve graph so I'm assuming it is supposed to be possible. Oddly enough it lets me input a negative number which removes those cards from the graph entirely, but then the calculated percentages are off because those cards aren't counted.