Vitality Hunter MTG Card
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 4 |
| Rarity | Rare |
| Type | Creature — Nightmare |
| Abilities | Lifelink,Monstrosity |
| Released | 2020-04-17 |
| Set symbol | |
| Set name | Commander 2020 |
| Set code | C20 |
| Power | 3 |
| Toughness | 4 |
| Number | 30 |
| Frame | 2015 |
| Layout | normal |
| Border | black |
| Illustred by | Tomasz Jedruszek |
Key Takeaways
- Provides card draw or land play through combat damage which boosts resources.
- Its flash ability allows surprising plays, interrupting opponent strategies effectively.
- Demands careful resource management due to its specific mana and discard requirements.
Text of card
Lifelink : Monstrosity X. (If this creature isn't monstrous, put X +1/+1 counters on it and it becomes monstrous.) When Vitality Hunter becomes monstrous, put a lifelink counter on each of up to X target creatures.
Card Pros
Card Advantage: The Vitality Hunter lets you explore upon dealing combat damage to a player, potentially giving you an extra card in hand or a land on the battlefield to increase your resources.
Resource Acceleration: Its explore mechanism can accelerate your mana resources by putting additional lands onto the battlefield, ensuring you’re ahead in the race for mana development.
Instant Speed: With its flash ability, Vitality Hunter can be cast at instant speed, giving you the flexibility to surprise your opponents, disrupt their strategy, or simply optimize your mana usage each turn.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: Vitality Hunter’s activated ability comes with the steep price of discarding a card. This can be particularly detrimental in the late game where each card in hand is precious, potentially leaving you at a disadvantage against opponents with fuller grips.
Specific Mana Cost: This creature requires a specific blend of mana, with two green mana in its cost. This can restrict its inclusion to primarily green decks or multicolored decks with a heavy green influence, potentially narrowing its versatility across the varied deck archetypes in MTG.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a casting cost of four mana, including two of which are color-specific, Vitality Hunter may be considered costly for its initial stats and abilities. Players may find the investment hefty, especially when there are other creatures or spells that could provide more immediate impact or value for the same or lower mana investment.
Reasons to Include in Your Collection
Versatility: Vitality Hunter offers a broad utility across different types of decks, with its life-link ability proving beneficial whether you’re on defense or offense. It’s an asset in decks that prioritize life gain or those that require stable blockers with an upside.
Combo Potential: As a creature with monstrosity, this card becomes larger, offering more life gain on attack, which feeds nicely into strategies that synergize with power increases or life total changes. Its potential to grow makes it a serious threat in combination with cards that utilize +1/+1 counters.
Meta-Relevance: Given the pace of matches in the current metagame, Vitality Hunter can be a game-changer. It fits well in an environment where stabilizing your life total while developing a commanding board presence is crucial. The ability to become monstrous at instant speed makes it versatile against opposing removals or in end-of-turn scenarios.
How to beat
Vitality Hunter is a unique card in Magic: The Gathering that offers a formidable challenge on the battlefield. Notably, its lifelink ability allows players to gain life equal to the damage it deals, which can quickly change the tide of the game in their favor. To topple this adversary, one effective strategy is to remove it before it can utilize its Monstrosity ability and become an even greater threat. Efficient removal spells that can bypass the lifelink, such as “Murderous Rider” or “Path to Exile,” are prime candidates for this task.
Countering its activation is another tactful approach. Waiting for your opponent to invest the necessary mana into activating Vitality Hunter’s Monstrosity, and then responding with a “Counterspell” or “Disallow,” can set them back significantly by wasting their resources. It’s also crucial to manage the game’s pace and prevent your opponent from establishing a board state that can protect and enhance Vitality Hunter’s abilities. Board wipes like “Wrath of God” or “Damnation” can be impactful in these scenarios, effectively clearing the way and maintaining control over the game.
Ultimately, dealing with Vitality Hunter requires careful planning and a keen sense of timing, as preemptive actions and smart resource management can ensure this potent creature doesn’t overwhelm your defenses and secure victory for your opponent.
Cards like Vitality Hunter
Vitality Hunter stands as a unique creature within Magic: The Gathering for its life-linking abilities combined with its prowess at creating unique game states. When examining cards akin to Vitality Hunter, one might observe similarities with Ajani’s Pridemate, which also thrives off life gain. However, Ajani’s Pridemate offers a more straightforward benefit, growing stronger with each instance of life gain, without the nuanced option to create Monstrosity.
Exploring this space further, Sunscorch Regent shares the life-gain theme, gaining power for your life total increases. While it doesn’t directly benefit from life-link as Vitality Hunter does, it can become a major threat in its right with a consistently climbling strength. Lone Rider is another comparable entity, beginning small but transforming into a more robust creature with first strike and lifelink after fulfilling certain life gain conditions, presenting an entirely different challenge to opponents.
Shifting focus, Warden of the First Tree is reminiscent of Vitality Hunter in its potential for growth, inviting strategic decisions about when to invest in its Monstrosity-like abilities. While Vitality Hunter’s Monstrosity directly creates a selective advantage against opponents’ creatures, this investment flexibility provides a breadth of tactical adaptations. Therefore, Vitality Hunter emerges as a versatile card, blending aggressive and defensive strategies via its life gain and creature enhancement elements.
Cards similar to Vitality Hunter by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Vitality Hunter MTG card by a specific set like Commander 2020, 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 Hunter and other MTG cards:
- eBay
- TCG Player
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
See Magic products
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Vitality Hunter has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Vitality Hunter card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2020-04-17 | Monstrous isn’t an ability that a creature has. It’s just something true about that creature. If the creature stops being a creature, loses its abilities, or loses its +1/+1 counters, it will continue to be monstrous. |
| 2020-04-17 | Once a creature becomes monstrous, it can’t become monstrous again. If the creature is already monstrous when the monstrosity ability resolves, nothing happens. |
