by Can Tran

Created on: November 05, 2009   Last Updated: May 14, 2012

"Vigor" is a 6/6 green elemental incarnation printed as a rare for the Magic the Gathering expansion set known as "Lorwyn." This is one of the five elemental incarnations printed for the Lorwyn expansion set. While you can use this in an elemental deck, you can use Vigor in a pure green deck. In this respect, Vigor seems to be useful as a support creature in aggressive green decks. Its abilities can help out your creatures.

The converted mana cost for Vigor is six. You will need three green mana and three colorless mana to play Vigor on the battlefield. For what Vigor can do, the converted mana cost seems to be worth it. While the casting cost can be pretty expensive, green has the best mana acceleration out of all the five colors in Magic the Gathering. In a pure green deck, you should be able to bring out Vigor onto the battlefield fast enough. There are plenty of green creatures capable of producing mana.

What does Vigor do in the first place?

The first ability of Vigor is that it has Trample. Should you attack with Vigor and your opponent ends up blocking, then s/he is still probably going to take combat damage afterwards. For aggressive decks, creatures with Trample are always valuable to have.

The second ability allows you to prevent damage if it is dealt to a creature other than Vigor. It does not have to be just combat damage. According to the printed text, it can be damage in general. If a creature is blocked, the combat damage is prevented. The same thing goes if the creature is blocking as well. You can even play a shock or burn spell against one of your own creatures other than Vigor. As long as it is some form of damage, you can prevent it.

Doing so allows you to put a +1/+1 counter on the creature for each point of damage prevented. If a creature was hit for five points of damage, the damage would be prevented as long as Vigor is on the battlefield. As the damage is prevented, the affected creature would receive five +1/+1 counters. This can come in handy if you have a creature with Shroud. Creatures with Shroud cannot be the target of spells or abilities. In this respect, Vigor does not target creatures. If a creature with Shroud is blocking or is blocked, the combat damage it suffers is prevented. It still gets the +1/+1 counters on it.

You can block and defend with your creatures. As a result, they do not suffer damage. Make sure you have Vigor well protected for the most part. However, Vigor does not protect against spells and abilities that destroy creatures, remove creatures, or give creatures -X/-X.

Should Vigor be sent to the graveyard, it gets shuffled back into the library. In this respect, Vigor does not truly die. The only way to get rid of Vigor would be to Exile it from the game. Overall, Vigor is a great creature to have provided that you are playing aggressively.

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