Consuming Vapors MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 3 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost4
RarityRare
TypeSorcery
Abilities Rebound

Key Takeaways

  1. Generates card advantage by forcing two creature sacrifices across consecutive turns using Rebound.
  2. Indirectly accelerates resources by requiring opponent sacrifices, slowing down their gameplay.
  3. Allows strategic planning with a delayed impact, providing a rebounded cast at no extra cost.

Text of card

Target player sacrifices a creature. You gain life equal to that creature's toughness. Rebound (If you cast this spell from your hand, exile it as it resolves. At the beginning of your next upkeep, you may cast this card from exile without paying its mana cost.)


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Consuming Vapors excels in creating an advantageous state by compelling your opponent to sacrifice a creature. This not only diminishes their board presence but also triggers the Rebound mechanic, allowing you to cast the spell again during your next turn without paying its mana cost. This double effect ensures you’re likely to remove two of your opponent’s creatures, overtaking them in terms of card efficiency.

Resource Acceleration: While Consuming Vapors doesn’t directly accelerate resources in the form of mana or tokens, it efficiently uses resource denial as a form of acceleration. By forcing sacrifices, it can potentially slow down your opponent’s gameplay. This indirect resource acceleration allows you to maintain or catch up in terms of tempo and board control, giving you a better position in the game’s progression.

Instant Speed: Although Consuming Vapors operates at sorcery speed, its Rebound effect offers a form of delayed instant advantage. After the initial cast, you gain the benefit of casting it again in your next upkeep, much like having an extra card to play at no additional cost. This rebound can be tactically significant, applying pressure at a crucial moment during your following turn and potentially disrupting your opponent’s plans.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Consuming Vapors’ edict effect imposes a discard requirement on the opposing player, which can sometimes backfire if it helps them get rid of an unwanted card or fuel their graveyard strategies.

Specific Mana Cost: Consuming Vapors features a specific mana cost that includes two black mana symbols, potentially restricting its integration into multi-colored decks that might not have a sufficient number of sources to consistently cast it on curve.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Priced at four mana, Consuming Vapors may come off as having a comparatively high mana cost, especially when you weigh its one-time use against other recurring or immediate impact life gain and creature control options available in the game.


Reasons to Include Consuming Vapors in Your Collection

Versatility: Consuming Vapors offers flexibility as it serves both as lifegain and creature removal, making it a versatile choice for decks that need to stabilize against aggressive strategies while maintaining card advantage.

Combo Potential: This card can work well in tandem with effects that capitalize on sacrificing creatures, such as those found in aristocrat-style decks, enhancing both its utility and impact on the game.

Meta-Relevance: In environments dominated by creature-based strategies, Consuming Vapors shines by disrupting opponent’s plays and offering significant lifegain, making it a relevant choice in such metas.


How to beat

Consuming Vapors is a unique challenge on the battlefield, often turning the tides for the player who casts it in Magic: The Gathering. As a card that requires its controller’s opponent to sacrifice a creature, it can swiftly deplete an opponent’s army while simultaneously offering a substantial life boost. But there are strategies to mitigate its impact and keep your forces in play.

Indestructible creatures are key assets against Consuming Vapors, as they simply cannot be sacrificed. Utilizing cards like Darksteel Myr can prove decisive. Similarly, tokens can be an efficient cushion; generating a stream of expendable creatures can nullify the effect. Spells like Raise the Alarm can be particularly handy in these scenarios.

Additionally, cards that counter sorceries provide a more direct solution. Counterspells or Negate can prevent Consuming Vapors from ever resolving, while instant speed removal such as Path to Exile can reduce the number of potential targets to zero before the card takes effect. By thoughtfully including such strategies in your deck, the threat posed by Consuming Vapors diminishes, allowing you to maintain control and march towards victory.


BurnMana Recommendations

As you delve deeper into MTG and refine your deck-building strategies, Consuming Vapors stands out as a card worthy of attention. It’s clear that its ability to disrupt your opponent’s forces while bolstering your own life total can swing the momentum of a game in your favor. Whether you’re combating creature-heavy decks or looking to spice up your control strategies, consider giving Consuming Vapors a place in your library. Discover how this powerful card and others can enhance your gaming prowess. Join our community of MTG enthusiasts and experts to expand your knowledge and mastery of the game.


Cards like Consuming Vapors

Consuming Vapors stands out in the realm of life gain and creature removal synergies within Magic: The Gathering. It shares traits with cards like Exsanguinate, another powerful spell that drains life from opponents while bolstering your own life total. What distinguishes Consuming Vapors is its targeted removal of a creature, combined with the life gain which is dependent on the creature’s strength. Unlike Exsanguinate, which affects all opponents and scales with mana invested into it.

Cards like Devour Flesh also offer a way to force opponents to sacrifice creatures, but Consuming Vapors adds the life gain component, enhancing its value in matches. Essence Extraction is more direct, dealing damage and offering life gain simultaneously, but without the sacrifice effect, it doesn’t disrupt enemy board presence as effectively. Lastly, Blood Tribute is another vampiric option, tapping a vampire to potentially halve an opponent’s life total, whereas Consuming Vapors focuses solely on its sacrificial element to establish board control and gain life.

Assessing Consuming Vapors against its counterparts shows its utility in MTG decks that thrive on weakening foes while bolstering their caster’s health, making it a nuanced and strategic choice for players.

Exsanguinate - MTG Card versions
Devour Flesh - MTG Card versions
Essence Extraction - MTG Card versions
Blood Tribute - MTG Card versions
Exsanguinate - Scars of Mirrodin (SOM)
Devour Flesh - Gatecrash (GTC)
Essence Extraction - Kaladesh (KLD)
Blood Tribute - Zendikar (ZEN)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Consuming Vapors MTG card by a specific set like Rise of the Eldrazi and Commander 2017, 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 Consuming Vapors and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Consuming Vapors Magic the Gathering card was released in 3 different sets between 2010-04-23 and 2021-07-23. Illustrated by Trevor Claxton.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12010-04-23Rise of the EldraziROE 1012003normalblackTrevor Claxton
22017-08-25Commander 2017C17 1052015normalblackTrevor Claxton
32021-07-23Forgotten Realms CommanderAFC 962015normalblackTrevor Claxton

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Consuming Vapors has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal
PennyLegal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Consuming Vapors card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

DateText
2010-06-15 At the beginning of your upkeep, all delayed triggered abilities created by rebound effects trigger. You may handle them in any order. If you want to cast a card this way, you do so as part of the resolution of its delayed triggered ability. Timing restrictions based on the card's type (if it's a sorcery) are ignored. Other restrictions are not (such as the one from Rule of Law).
2010-06-15 If a replacement effect would cause a spell with rebound that you cast from your hand to be put somewhere else instead of your graveyard (such as Leyline of the Void might), you choose whether to apply the rebound effect or the other effect as the spell resolves.
2010-06-15 If a spell with rebound that you cast from your hand doesn't resolve for any reason (due being countered by a spell like Cancel, or because all of its targets are illegal), rebound has no effect. The spell is simply put into your graveyard. You won't get to cast it again next turn.
2010-06-15 If the targeted player doesn't sacrifice a creature (because the player didn't control any creatures or due to Tajuru Preserver, perhaps), you gain no life.
2010-06-15 If you are unable to cast a card from exile this way, or you choose not to, nothing happens when the delayed triggered ability resolves. The card remains exiled for the rest of the game, and you won't get another chance to cast the card. The same is true if the ability is countered (due to Stifle, perhaps).
2010-06-15 If you cast a card from exile this way, it will go to your graveyard when it resolves, fails to resolve, or is countered. It won't go back to exile.
2010-06-15 If you cast a spell with rebound from anywhere other than your hand (such as from your graveyard due to Sins of the Past, from your library due to cascade, or from your opponent's hand due to Sen Triplets), rebound won't have any effect. If you do cast it from your hand, rebound will work regardless of whether you paid its mana cost (for example, if you cast it from your hand due to Maelstrom Archangel).
2010-06-15 If you cast a spell with rebound from your hand and it resolves, it isn't put into your graveyard. Rather, it's exiled directly from the stack. Effects that care about cards being put into your graveyard won't do anything.
2010-06-15 Rebound will have no effect on copies of spells because you don't cast them from your hand.
2010-06-15 The sacrificed creature's last known existence on the battlefield is checked to determine its toughness.

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