Invigorate
Instant
If you control a Forest, rather than pay this spell's mana cost, you may have an opponent gain 3 life.
Target creature gets +4/+4 until end of turn.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- G
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Eternal Masters
- Price
- $0.28
- EDHREC rank
- #3433
Invigorate puts +4/+4 on a creature for free — the opponent loses 3 life instead of you paying mana, which means it costs nothing on your turn and leaves every mana open for interaction. Sergeant John Benton runs it in 80% of decks for exactly that reason: a zero-mana pump that keeps combat math permanently broken in your favor.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | banned |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Invigorate is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but banned in Pauper — where its free pump made it oppressive in aggressive common-creature shells with no realistic downside at that power level. In Commander, the "opponent loses 3 life" rider barely registers: 40 life totals make 3 life trivial, and the free mana cost means you can leave up counterspell mana while still winning combat. Legacy keeps it legal because the format has enough answers to punish the glass-cannon shells that abuse it most.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Sergeant John Benton
Sergeant John Benton cares about creatures with power 4 or greater, and Invigorate is the most efficient way to punch a creature over that threshold at instant speed for zero mana — often mid-combat to trigger Benton's draw or pump effects the opponent never saw coming.
The Howling Abomination
The Howling Abomination rewards going wide and hitting hard, and Invigorate's free +4/+4 lets it push a key attacker past blockers without tapping out, keeping the combo or synergy mana fully available.
Redshift, Rocketeer Chief
Redshift, Rocketeer Chief builds around modified creatures, and Invigorate is one of the cheapest ways to modify a creature at instant speed — zero mana means it slots into any turn without disrupting the engine.
Kotis, the Fangkeeper
Kotis, the Fangkeeper runs a go-wide Wolf and Dog tribal plan where pushing one creature's power suddenly matters for combat math, and Invigorate handles that job for free while the life payment is irrelevant at 40.
Tifa Lockhart
Tifa Lockhart rewards attacking with high-power creatures, and Invigorate's free +4/+4 mid-combat turns a blocked creature into a two-for-one or clears the path for Tifa's own triggers — all without spending a mana.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.28 bulk tier
At $0.28, Invigorate is firmly bulk — easy to pick up in any common/uncommon bin or as a throw-in. Given its age and narrow legality, don't expect the price to move much in either direction; buy it for the effect, not the foil.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.