Demonic Vigor MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 3 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost1
RarityCommon
TypeEnchantment — Aura
Abilities Enchant

Key Takeaways

  1. Offers protection and advancements in MTG strategy through clever recycling of creature cards.
  2. Demands discernment in its enlistment, given specific mana cost, and potential for higher mana expenditure.
  3. Embodies a formidable element within a deck’s composition, adept at outmaneuvering prevalent removal spells.

Text of card

Enchant creature Enchanted creature gets +1/+1. When enchanted creature dies, return that card to its owner's hand.

In the Cabal, death is just another mark of devotion.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Demonic Vigor offers players a unique way to protect their creatures. By bringing a creature back to the owner’s hand after it dies, it effectively negates an opponent’s removal spell, preserving your board presence while potentially depleting an opponent’s resources.

Resource Acceleration: Although Demonic Vigor doesn’t directly produce mana or treasure tokens, it accelerates your resources by allowing repeated use of a creature’s enter the battlefield effects. This recycling of resources can give players an unintended advantage, especially with creatures that have powerful on-entry effects.

Instant Speed: While Demonic Vigor is an enchantment that’s played at sorcery speed, its value spikes significantly because of its effect’s instant relevance. Once the enchanted creature dies, the reclamation ability triggers immediately, ensuring you regain the creature card without delay and are ready to redeploy it at the earliest opportunity.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Players need to carefully consider their hand before playing Demonic Vigor, as losing a valuable card from play can be a significant setback in resource management.

Specific Mana Cost: With its requirement of one black mana, Demonic Vigor may not be an ideal fit for multicolored or colorless decks, potentially limiting its versatility.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Demonic Vigor’s enchantment benefit might come at a steeper mana cost than some players expect, especially when there are alternatives that might bring creatures back to the hand or battlefield for a lower cost.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Demonic Vigor is a worthy addition to a variety of black-centered decks. Its ability to bring creatures back to your hand upon death makes it useful in those decks that focus on sacrifice strategies or recurring valued creatures for repeated use.

Combo Potential: Coupled with cards that benefit from or facilitate creature death, such as sacrifice outlets or cards that trigger upon a creature leaving the battlefield, Demonic Vigor gracefully integrates into combos that could swing the game in your favor.

Meta-Relevance: In an environment where removal spells are prevalent, Demonic Vigor can protect key creatures in your lineup. This resilience can offer a significant edge by keeping essential creatures in play across multiple turns, preserving your board state against hostile meta-game trends.


How to beat

Demonic Vigor is a unique enchantment aura that grants a recursive ability to the creature it enchants in Magic: The Gathering. When the creature with Demonic Vigor dies, this card returns that creature from the graveyard to its owner’s hand, making it challenging for opponents to permanently deal with the threat. This, in itself, sets up a strategic loop that can be quite frustrating to break if you’re unprepared.

One of the most effective strategies to counter Demonic Vigor is to utilize exile effects. Cards such as Path to Exile or Exile Into Darkness are excellent choices because they remove the creature from the game entirely, bypassing the graveyard return condition of Demonic Vigor. Another tactic is to target the aura itself with enchantment removal like Disenchant or Naturalize before the creature it’s attached to perishes. For players who favor control strategies, countering the enchantment spell on cast with cards like Negate or Cancel will also prevent the combo from ever starting.

Taking into account MTG’s dynamic gameplay, managing to disrupt the synergy offered by Demonic Vigor can level the playing field significantly. Thoughtful inclusion of removal or counter strategies in one’s deck is key in overcoming the resilience that Demonic Vigor provides to your opponent’s creatures.


Cards like Demonic Vigor

Demonic Vigor offers a unique advantage in Magic: The Gathering, giving creature cards an extra layer of resilience. This enchantment spell echoes traits found in cards like Undying Evil, which also protects creatures from the brink of destruction by returning them to the battlefield. However, Demonic Vigor allows the card to return to the owner’s hand instead, offering a strategic choice to replay the creature later and potentially re-trigger enter-the-battlefield effects.

Supernatural Stamina is another card that shares a similar concept. Like Demonic Vigor, it provides a way for creatures to evade death for a moment. While Supernatural Stamina only lasts for a turn and returns the creature to the battlefield immediately, Demonic Vigor remains on the creature until it dies, providing a more lasting effect. Then there’s Unhallowed Pact, which grants a resurrection effect as well, but in this case, the creature is given to you under your control, which changes the dynamic of the creature’s allegiance.

Assessing the strengths of these cards in gameplay, Demonic Vigor stands out for its ability to protect creatures and maintain hand advantage, demonstrating its valued place among protective enchantments in player’s decks.

Undying Evil - MTG Card versions
Supernatural Stamina - MTG Card versions
Unhallowed Pact - MTG Card versions
Undying Evil - Dark Ascension (DKA)
Supernatural Stamina - Amonkhet (AKH)
Unhallowed Pact - Avacyn Restored (AVR)

Cards similar to Demonic Vigor by color, type and mana cost

Paralyze - MTG Card versions
Unholy Strength - MTG Card versions
Evil Presence - MTG Card versions
Weakness - MTG Card versions
Imprison - MTG Card versions
Thrull Retainer - MTG Card versions
Torture - MTG Card versions
Death Watch - MTG Card versions
Leshrac's Rite - MTG Card versions
Sadistic Glee - MTG Card versions
Sarcomancy - MTG Card versions
Tortured Existence - MTG Card versions
Volrath's Motion Sensor - MTG Card versions
Sicken - MTG Card versions
Darkest Hour - MTG Card versions
Phyrexian Reclamation - MTG Card versions
Dread of Night - MTG Card versions
Withering Hex - MTG Card versions
Genju of the Fens - MTG Card versions
Vampiric Link - MTG Card versions
Paralyze - Vintage Masters (VMA)
Unholy Strength - Duel Decks Anthology: Divine vs. Demonic (DVD)
Evil Presence - Fifth Edition (5ED)
Weakness - Masters Edition IV (ME4)
Imprison - Legends (LEG)
Thrull Retainer - Masters Edition (ME1)
Torture - Shadowmoor (SHM)
Death Watch - Visions (VIS)
Leshrac's Rite - Seventh Edition (7ED)
Sadistic Glee - Tempest (TMP)
Sarcomancy - Vintage Masters (VMA)
Tortured Existence - Stronghold (STH)
Volrath's Motion Sensor - Unglued (UGL)
Sicken - Urza's Saga (USG)
Darkest Hour - Seventh Edition (7ED)
Phyrexian Reclamation - Jumpstart 2022 (J22)
Dread of Night - Classic Sixth Edition (6ED)
Withering Hex - Onslaught (ONS)
Genju of the Fens - Mystery Booster (MB1)
Vampiric Link - Planar Chaos (PLC)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Demonic Vigor MTG card by a specific set like Dominaria and Mystery Booster, 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 Demonic Vigor and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Demonic Vigor Magic the Gathering card was released in 3 different sets between 2018-04-27 and 2019-11-07. Illustrated by Zoltan Boros.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12018-04-27DominariaDOM 852015normalblackZoltan Boros
22019-11-07Mystery BoosterMB1 6212015normalblackZoltan Boros
32020-09-26The ListPLST DOM-852015normalblackZoltan Boros

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Demonic Vigor has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderLegal
OathbreakerLegal
GladiatorLegal
PioneerLegal
CommanderLegal
ModernLegal
PauperLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
PennyLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

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

DateText
2018-04-27 Demonic Vigor can enchant a token, but its last ability won’t return the token to your hand.

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