Pointed Discussion

8 is a lot for drain 3.

8 needs to be a lot for a strictly better (life loss>damage), repeatable Essence Drain.

To all the naysayers, nuts to you!
This cycle is hella cool!

A nice way to smooth out early drops in limited, while still being VERY applicable in the late game.

In limited it's good. But in limited a hill giant is also good, so that doesn't say that much imho.

Everywhere else, 8 mana is just far too much for that effect.

I was force to win a sealed match with this card... not sure if I like this set.

I like this new Invoker cycle.

Again they're just rather mediocre commons, but at least this one is more useful than his pitious Zombie ancestor.

It'd probably be a bit better if you run multiple Training Grounds. And in Rise of the Eldrazi it's probably a good idea to run a few anyway.

Man, the other invokers are so much better, black got screwed in that cycle.

This card is so awesome with Sanguine Bond... bueno.

Very good in limited formats, obviously very vulnerable in constructed. Still, with a Vampire Nocturnus this guy gets to a ridiculous 5/2 flyer for 1.... which is real good.

2.5/5

actually, it sucks compared to essence drain, since essence drain can hit creatures, and essence drain is horrible anyway. Compare it to something like wildheart invoker, and i just don't like it.

8 for 3? Meh...

I would be "meh" about this anyways, but in comparison to its cousin Dawnglare Invoker, I'm more like "MEH".

I think this card's awesome in a deck that wants to produce infinite mana. Think about it:

-He's a creature, so he can attack and block. Drain Life and Consume Spirit are one-offs, so if they fizzle, you have no fallback option. His CMC is equal to his power, so what he does in combat actually matters.

-His activation cost only requires colorless mana, so whichever infinite combo you care to use can set him off. Since you only need one to use him, you can splash him in a lot of multicolored decks. You can get him out with Ancient Ziggurat, no problem.

-Once he and the combo come out, it's an immediate game-over. He doesn't need haste. If your opponent tries to remove him, you just pump the ability as many times as is relevant, and the ability resolves before he's destroyed.

-He is the only invoker that can kill on the turn he comes out and the only one that gets around damage prevention. And he's definitely the only Invoker that can kill EVERYONE ELSE in a multiplayer game.

4/5 in the right deck.

This can easily kill everybody with unlimited combo if ABUSED correctly, which can be done in 3 turns or less. There is a legacy turn1 kill that kills any number of players, requires this to be at the starting hand. The 6 cards are Swamp, Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual, Buried Alive, Bloodrite Invoker, and the last one is either Reanimate, Exhume, Shallow Grave or Animate Dead

Search up Devoted Druid, Morselhoarder, Necrotic Ooze into graveyard and dig up Ooze, you got unlimited mana of any colors. Now play Bloodrite Invoker and hear the curses. Add some Pact of Negation to deal with force of will for extra favour.

And no, for 6 is still a decent effect.

This + 4 Training Grounds! Drain 3 life for . :O

A good mana dump for infinite combos.

Well if you have like 59 lands you can kill an enemy turn three!

Oh, wait.

This+Training Groundsx4=Win

Buried Alive -> Worldgorger Dragon and Bloodrite Invoker.
Then reanimate the dragon with Animate dead = The dragon enters infinitely (same with lands so infinite mana)
Redirect Animate dead to Bloodrite Invoker for stop the infinite loop.
Pay infinite, win.

@twiddleman12 training ground doesn't reduce activated abilities to zero. No less than 1 though that would be a really cheap ping.

3/1 and color-light makes it pretty usable in vampires I think with Stromkirk captain.

Makes for a safe late-game option and an aggro midgame.

Couldn't they have made this a 3/2 for 4 instead and bumped up the activation cost a little bit? It's ok, especially in Zendikar block where there were a lot of really big things running around and lots of ramp to match, but it's not going to be very good in anything except maybe limited.

This might seem like a bad card on paper and it isn't the best but in limited, it's a very useful effect. Often in the late game, opponents are on fairly low life and you can just kill them over two or three turns with this.