Reviving Vapors MTG Card
2000-10-02 - Number 265
2014-06-16 - Number 259
2018-12-07 - Number 205
| Card sets | Released in 3 setsSee all |
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 4 |
| Rarity | Uncommon |
| Type | Instant |
Key Takeaways
- Gains life and provides card advantage, helping you stay ahead in resource competition.
- Instant speed play allows for strategic responses and effective mana usage.
- The mixed mana cost and potential need to discard may limit deck integration.
Text of card
Reveal the top three cards of your library and put one of them into your hand. You gain life equal to that card's converted mana cost. Put the other cards revealed this way into your graveyard.
Card Pros
Card Advantage: When you cast Reviving Vapors, you not only reveal the top three cards of your library but add the one with the highest converted mana cost to your hand, enhancing your strategic options and keeping you a step ahead.
Resource Acceleration: The added benefit of gaining life equal to the card’s converted mana cost can be a game-changer, effectively increasing your staying power against aggressive decks.
Instant Speed: The ability to play Reviving Vapors at instant speed offers flexibility, allowing you to respond adeptly to your opponent’s moves and fully utilize your mana each turn.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: One of the limitations of Reviving Vapors lies in the need to discard a card under certain circumstances. This could potentially deplete your hand, leaving you at a disadvantage if you’re in need of more options.
Specific Mana Cost: Reviving Vapors requires a mix of white and blue mana to cast. This specificity can make it challenging to slot into decks that aren’t tailored to support such a color combination, thereby limiting its versatility across various builds.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: Costing three mana, one of which must be white and another blue, makes Reviving Vapors a card with a substantial investment for its effect. When considering other cards that can provide life gain or card selection, Reviving Vapors may fall short in terms of efficiency and impact on the game relative to its cost.
Reasons to Include Reviving Vapors in Your Collection
Versatility: Reviving Vapors is a card that finds a home in decks that crave life gain and card advantage. Whether you’re piloting a control deck that needs to stabilize or a combo deck seeking specific pieces, this card offers both by revealing cards from the top of your library.
Combo Potential: This card shines in decks that manipulate the library. With the ability to potentially put a high-cost card into your hand, it can set off combos with life totals or work in tandem with cards that interact with the top of the library.
Meta-Relevance: In a meta where games are drawn out, the dual ability to gain life and improve hand quality cannot be understated. Reviving Vapors is a solid addition if the field is dotted with aggressive strategies, helping you outlast opponents and find answers or threats faster.
How to beat
Reviving Vapors presents players with a unique challenge when faced across the table. It’s an intriguing inclusion in MTG decks that blend life gain with card advantage. The card shines in moments when you require both a boost to your life total and a way to draw into more options. However, savvy opponents can devise strategies to mitigate the impact of Reviving Vapors.
To counteract this card, emphasize removal or discard effects to handle the creature it potentially brings back. Hand disruption is critical as it prevents your opponent from obtaining the card advantage they seek. Cards like Thoughtseize or Duress can be particularly potent in stripping Reviving Vapors from your opponent’s grasp before they have the chance to cast it. Additionally, applying pressure with an aggressive start can punish opponents for taking a turn off to gain life and draw a card, diminishing the overall value they gain from Reviving Vapors.
In essence, overcoming Reviving Vapors requires a blend of proactive disruption and pressure. By disrupting their hand and maintaining a fast pace, you can render Reviving Vapors a less threatening prospect and maintain control of the game.
Cards like Reviving Vapors
Reviving Vapors is a unique card in MTG that combines life gain with card advantage. It offers a twist on the traditional reveal-and-draw format, inviting players to not only peek at the top three cards of their library, but also gain life equal to the converted mana cost of one of them, and add that card to their hand. Situated alongside its counterparts, it can be likened to cards like Concentrate, which is straightforward in allowing players to draw three cards at no additional benefit.
When considering other lifegain spells, Swords to Plowshares stands out, although it doesn’t provide card advantage, it offers a significant amount of life in exchange for exiling a creature. In the same realm of life gain and drawing, we might reflect on Sphinx’s Revelation, a powerhouse that scales life and card drawing with the mana invested into it, but at a higher mana cost and instant speed compared to Reviving Vapors’ sorcery speed.
Assessing these choices, Reviving Vapors holds its place as an intriguing option for those seeking to weave both sustain and card advantage into their decks, contrasting with the uni-directed approach of its companions in MTG’s vast ensemble of spells.
Cards similar to Reviving Vapors by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Reviving Vapors MTG card by a specific set like Invasion and Vintage Masters, 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 Reviving Vapors 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 MTG Products
Printings
The Reviving Vapors Magic the Gathering card was released in 3 different sets between 2000-10-02 and 2018-12-07. Illustrated by 2 different artists.
| # | Released | Name | Code | Symbol | Number | Frame | Layout | Border | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2000-10-02 | Invasion | INV | 265 | 1997 | Normal | Black | Pete Venters | |
| 2 | 2014-06-16 | Vintage Masters | VMA | 259 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Pete Venters | |
| 3 | 2018-12-07 | Ultimate Masters | UMA | 205 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Bastien L. Deharme |
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Reviving Vapors has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Premodern | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Predh | Legal |
| Penny | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Reviving Vapors card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2018-12-07 | If a card in a player’s library has in its mana cost, X is considered to be 0. |
