Vitality Salve MTG Card

Instant speed of Vitality Salve allows for tactical plays and mana optimization during the game. The card’s discard requirement can hamper hand size, affecting overall strategy effectiveness. Vitality Salve’s specific mana cost can limit its flexibility in multi-color deck builds.

Rarity	Common
Type	Artifact
Abilities	Hero's Reward
Released	2014-03-01
Set symbol
Set name	Battle the Horde
Set code	TBTH
Number	15
Frame	2003
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Daren Bader

Text of card

At the beginning of the Horde's precombat main phase, reveal an additional card from the top of the Horde's library. The Horde casts that card. Hero's Reward — When Vitality Salve is put into a graveyard from anywhere, each player returns a creature card from their graveyard to the battlefield.

Cards like Vitality Salve

Vitality Salve presents an intriguing option for life gain strategies within Magic: The Gathering. It’s akin to cards such as Heroes’ Reunion, which offers a significant one-time life boost. However, Vitality Salve distinguishes itself with its flexibility – granting the ability to potentially gain life across multiple turns.

Rest for the Weary also correlates with Vitality Salve’s life gain theme and can provide an immediate surge of health with its landfall mechanic. But Vitality Salve edges forward due to its repeatability. Another close parallel is Renewed Faith. While this card also allows players to gain life, it provides an additional draw when cycled. Yet, it does not match the extended usability that Vitality Salve’s buyback option delivers.

Upon analyzing these life gain spells in Magic: The Gathering, Vitality Salve proves to be a competitive choice, particularly for decks looking to stabilize health over the course of a game. Its reusability due to the buyback feature allows for sustained board presence, which is valuable for longer, control-oriented matches.

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Card Pros

Card Advantage: Vitality Salve is a boon for those looking to maintain hand superiority. Not only does it offer a buffer of life points, but it also provides an option to draw a card if the conditions are met, keeping your choices wide and your strategy flexible.

Resource Acceleration: The lifegain from Vitality Salve may not directly accelerate resources, but it certainly gives you the vital sustenance to reach the later stages of the game where your more powerful, resource-intensive spells can take over.

Instant Speed: The ability to use Vitality Salve at instant speed grants players the tactical advantage of adaptability. Whether it’s responding to an aggressive move, a sudden life deficit, or simply optimizing the use of your mana each turn, the timing of this card can be as vital as the life it provides.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Vitality Salve requires parting with another card whenever you wish to activate its life-gaining feature. This can deplete your hand, placing you at a disadvantage, especially if you’re already running low on cards.

Specific Mana Cost: To cast Vitality Salve, you’re locked into a rigid mana requirement, needing both generic and white mana. This specificity can make it a less flexible choice for multi-color decks that might struggle with mana consistency.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With its mana cost on the higher side for the effect it offers, Vitality Salve faces stiff competition from other cards. Players often opt for more cost-effective solutions to gain life, leaving Vitality Salve overshadowed in terms of efficiency and impact on the game.

Reasons to Include Vitality Salve in Your Collection

Versatility: Vitality Salve is a flexible card that can slip into various deck builds, particularly those looking for life gain or artifact synergies, bolstering your defensive strategies.

Combo Potential: The artifact nature of Vitality Salve means it can be a cog in machine-like combos, interacting with cards that care about artifacts being played or sacrificing for greater effects.

Meta-Relevance: In a game environment where aggressive decks are prevalent, Vitality Salve could be an essential tool for survival, helping you stabilize by recovering life points under pressure.

How to beat

Vitality Salve brings an interesting dynamic to Life Gain strategies in Magic: The Gathering. It’s a card that seamlessly integrates into decks that hinge on boosting their life totals. The ability to potentially gain large amounts of life can turn the tide in prolonged games, making it a card that opponents must handle judiciously. An effective way to outmaneuver the resilience Vitality Salve presents is through disruption. Cards that force discards or offer instant-speed removal can be pivotal in neutralizing its benefits before they come to fruition.

Consider spells like Thoughtseize or Duress that can extract Vitality Salve from your opponent’s hand before they have a chance to cast it. If the Salve is already on the field, cards like Return to Nature or Disenchant can dispatch it efficiently, minimizing the life gained. It’s also beneficial to apply pressure with offensive strategies that eclipse the life-gain provided by Vitality Salve, or to use cards with life total setting abilities such as Sorin Markov to negate the advantage gained.

Overall, understanding and preemptively countering your opponent’s strategies can assure that Vitality Salve doesn’t become a turning point in their favor, but rather a manageable aspect of their game plan.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Vitality Salve MTG card by a specific set like Battle the Horde, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Vitality Salve and other MTG cards:

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