Hexhaven InvigoratorHexhaven Invigorator | Art by Olivier Bernard

Oh, this card is mouthwatering.

Lands, any lands, equal to the damage dealt? That's actually nuts, and it's a four-drop! At its worst, this is a four-mana 6/6 that's either a very intimidating blocker or attacker. But c'mon. We can abuse the heck out of this thing. Players aren't gonna settle for anything less than every single land in their deck, and it won't even be hard to achieve. So let's find out if the best way to do that is with jank or a combo, if this card can be evil or competitive, and if there's any deck that it's actively bad in.

The Most Jank Deck For Hexhaven Invigorator

There's a lot of fun stuff we can do with Hexhaven InvigoratorHexhaven Invigorator. Any commander that cares about dealing damage at all, whether it's through fighting, burn, or just plain old combat is gonna go crazy with it, so it can fit almost anywhere and do almost anything. But there's one old commander it seems perfectly made for: Grothama, All-DevouringGrothama, All-Devouring.

Grothama is such a great pick for a commander, this massive Wurm who creates a hunt to kill it. Any creature can fight it during combat, and whoever kills it draws a ton of cards. Ideally, that's us, and it's even better if we fight it with Hexhaven InvigoratorHexhaven Invigorator, netting us six lands to recast Grothama with.

I really just want to highlight Grothama here, because tell me this isn't the most fun, most jank commander you've ever seen! It's the kind of card that has opponents using protection spells on it, just to get a chance at all those juicy cards. I would love to see more people running this guy, just for the ridiculous interactions.

The Most Evil Deck For Hexhaven Invigorator

Hexhaven InvigoratorHexhaven Invigorator is obviously really good, and our opponents are gonna know it. For as long as that thing is alive, no one is swinging, and no one is blocking it. The reward for us is just too good! Most of the time, triggering Hexhaven InvigoratorHexhaven Invigorator is gonna be up to us.

Buuuttt, what if we forced our opponents to trigger it? What if our only means of dealing damage with the Invigorator was to give our opponents no choice but to block it?

The worst version of this is swinging at an opponent who has six life left, and making them choose between giving us five lands or just losing the game. Ever seen a player who can't pay for Rhystic StudyRhystic Study, and the rest of the table is begging them to, but they're so mana screwed that they have to give the card? It's the same thing here, but even more evil.

Of course, that's a hard scenario to set up. Alternatively, we can force our opponents to block with LureLure, getting us the same reward, with slightly less cruel satisfaction.

The Best Combo With Hexhaven Invigorator

Hexhaven InvigoratorHexhaven Invigorator goes infinite with literally any way to convert a land into a point of damage. Rampaging BalothsRampaging Baloths + Goblin BombardmentGoblin Bombardment, boom, infinite lands. Lotus CobraLotus Cobra and PyrohemiaPyrohemia, shabam, infinite lands, and uh, everyone and everything dies. Oh right, and we need to give Hexhaven InvigoratorHexhaven Invigorator indestructible. There are indeed a lot of ways to go infinite, but the best combo is gonna be the simplest, the one with Akoum HellkiteAkoum Hellkite. If we give the Invigorator indestructible and play a land, then those two monsters will start to loop until we have every land in our deck on the board.

This combo is especially great because Akoum HellkiteAkoum Hellkite is already amazing in land decks. It's probably best with Mountains and Valakut, the Molten PinnacleValakut, the Molten Pinnacle, but in a green-red deck it can still do great work, and the infinite is just a bonus. Tamiyo's SafekeepingTamiyo's Safekeeping and Tyvar's StandTyvar's Stand are easy inclusions too! This is the best kind of combo, the kind that just sits in our deck until it appears in a random game and totally changes things.

The Most Competitive Deck For Hexhaven Invigorator

At first I was extremely focused on finding a Gruul deck for Hexhaven InvigoratorHexhaven Invigorator, because I was convinced that although it has four green pips, it needs red cards to deal damage to it. I mean, Blasphemous ActBlasphemous Act is a one mana boardwipe that ramps for 13! How can we pass that up? So I was searching left and right for a green-red commander that cares about lands and dealing damage. But I realized, while mono-green decks don't deal a lot of direct damage, they do have a fantastic way to trigger the Invigorator. Tail SwipeTail Swipe is a one-mana way to deal a ton of damage to a creature we control, and it only needs our opponents to have a body. So what commanders love to fight?

Well, Hexhaven Invigorator's current #1 deck is Wayta, Trainer ProdigyWayta, Trainer Prodigy, the fight commander. Obviously she's amazing with the Chimera Horror, doubling the damage triggers, but she's three colors, making it almost impossible to cast our Invigorator. Even the ideal mana base will struggle to cast this creature on turn four, leaving it as a dead card in hand. I'd much rather play Hexhaven InvigoratorHexhaven Invigorator in a mono-green version of Neyith of the Dire HuntNeyith of the Dire Hunt, which we can easily build thanks to the hybrid mana in her activated ability. We lose a few staples like Xenagos, God of RevelsXenagos, God of Revels and Goblin AnarchomancerGoblin Anarchomancer, but 90% of the cards in Neyith decks are green anyway. We have all the fight spells we need, plus a ton of big creatures to cast with the lands we fetch. This is the most comfortable home for Hexhaven InvigoratorHexhaven Invigorator.

The Worst Deck For Hexhaven Invigorator

Group Slug — the inverse of, and a pun on, Group Hug — is one of my favorite themes. The idea is for each player to take as much damage as possible. Similar to Group Hug, it's not about winning, it's about changing up the game as much as possible. I personally love playing with and against these decks because they speed up the game dramatically, and some commander games really need that. They'll run cards like Avatar of SlaughterAvatar of Slaughter that make everything hurt more, Fumiko the LowbloodFumiko the Lowblood, who forces every creature to attack, and Zo-Zu the PunisherZo-Zu the Punisher, who makes it really painful to play lands. Oh, see where I'm going with this? With a Furnace of RathFurnace of Rath and a Zo-Zu on the table, Hexhaven InvigoratorHexhaven Invigorator is just going to kill us. Straight up! Someone will Lightning BoltLightning Bolt it, Hexhaven InvigoratorHexhaven Invigorator will take six, and if we're brave enough to fetch six lands, Zo-Zu will deal 24 damage!

Side note, Wizards should really stop making everything a may ability, just because it makes finding the "Worst Deck" category impossible. Like, how am I supposed to make Hexhaven InvigoratorHexhaven Invigorator punish me when its ability is completely optional?

I'm not sure if I want to call this card fair yet, but I really appreciate how its insanely powerful trigger is restricted to mono-green thanks to the green pips. It's a great use of existing Magic mechanics to balance a card, and it gives a boon to some underappreciated decks like mono-green devotion! Anyways, I wanna hear your high score for lands pulled from the deck with this card. Theoretically, what's the maximum number? Is 98 lands possible?