Pointed Discussion

Invigorate is such a strong combat trick, not just with Kavu Predator. Thumbs up!

I agree, but the Kavu Predator combo is just sick. If you manage to cast, say, two of these early and take an opposing creature down in the process, most opponents are pretty much dead.

That is of course why people run Terrors and Swords to Plowshares.

Then just throw on a Berserk and call it a day :)
Oh. And infect. Cool story, huh?

This card's alternate cost is great. Despite being tapped out, your creature can flatten a once-threatening blocker. The life gain is negligable, especially considering your still-living creature will be likely to make up the difference in short order.

Worst case scenario, it can also give that one extra point of damage to an unblocked attacker for free.

Aaron’s Random Card Comment of the Day #43, 12/1/10

“Now I am finally strong enough to lift a wumpus!”
--Mercadian dryad

Of the six Dryads in Mercadian Masques, the highest power is 2. Even with +4/+4, they’d only be 6/6 themselves, the same size as a Hunted Wumpus. Can you lift something over your head that’s the same size as you?

Anyway…

Many of the “free spells” in Mercadian Masques are well made. Gush is write-a-book-about-it powerful in Vintage, but that’s cool. Unmask has seen tons of play across many formats. And this card, Invigorate, does a bunch of neat stuff:

* It acts as a free combat trick or counter to toughness-based removal.
* It combines cleverly with anti-life gain cards like False Cure, Kavu Predator, and Sulfuric Vortex.
* It can be used politically in multiplayer games.
* It works really amazingly with infect.

All that upside is a reasonable trade for the one extra mana you have to pay for the card normally. Of course, the alternate cost (a) doesn’t work well as a finisher and (b) reads poorly to less experienced players who overvalue life and undervalue mana efficiency. For that reason alone I doubt we’d print this card at common today.

I ran this in my "Fastest Stompy Deck Ever" that I would use to turn 3 kill people in Multiplayer that were mean to me last game. Invigorate did lots of that heavy-lifting. However, I discovered that Skyshroud Cutter is the worst 0-drop ever in multiplayer. Invigorate and Skyshroud Cutter have different mechanics! Invigorate gives ONE opponent life, Skyshroud Cutter gives EACH OTHER PLAYER life.

I played that deck for over a year before noticing that. It made me so angry. The slight change in the mechanic punished me, the player that had already compartmentalized "giving an opponent life as an alternate cost." I make sure that we don't have a "Skyshroud Cutter incident" in Magic sets I work on.

@Aaron: If new players overvalue life and undervalue mana efficiency, they shouldn't mind paying an extra over Giant Growth for another point of damage!

I think what you're really saying is that the APC somehow makes this less appealing than a "vanilla" +4/+4.

Quite good with infect.

I liked the Dryads as a tribe, I wish they'd come back.

I used to love this card, but it totally screwed over our Peasant metagame. It's interaction with infect is absurd and shouldn't, in any way, be described as fun. The life-gain is completely irrelevant, which means you just get smacked to death before you can blink your eyes, courtesy of a turn 1 infect creature and a flurry of turn 2 pump spells.

Nagle isnt gonna look at this but ive died in many multiplayer games from skyshroud cutter being dropped with flash while under attack from kavu predator.

Skyshroud Cutter belongs in formats where the ratio of teammates to opponents is 1:1 or better. Whereas Invigorate's alternate cost can only hit an oppo, the Cutter (who just wants some attention) gives to each other player.

ps everytime I look at the art for cut-thing, I feel like searching for Ah-nuld in the background.

GET TO ZEH CHOPPAH!!!

Invigorate: Lifting Wumpus' since 1999.

Invigorate and Skyshroud Cutter go well with Punishing fire.

Banned as of 1st February in Online Pauper.

Hmm... I bet this would be a great card in a legacy legal infect deck.

Masques Block green made everybody a little paranoid in combat, and this little (COMMON!) beauty is the main reason why. One of the few comforting things about facing down an opponent's Blastoderm was the knowledge that it couldn't be Invigorated. (That, and, of course, that it wouldn't stay on the battlefield to beat your face in for too many more turns.)

But Invigorate was a monstrous card then and too destabilizing to be allowed in Pauper today.

Responsible for possible turn one wins with infect