In an interesting move, Enduring Tenacity was one of the very first cards we saw spoiled for Duskmourn. As a Glimmer creature that defies the overall tone of the set, it was a tactical pick to show us the plane wouldn’t just be non-stop horror. It was also the first card in a powerful, and adorable, new cycle. Today, that cycle comes to an end with the reveal of Enduring Vitality: an immensely powerful MTG card for multiple formats. If you like ramp, fixing, and cute Elks, then this is the card for you.
Enduring Vitality MTG
- Mana Value: 1GG
- Rarity: Rare
- Stats: 3/3
- Card Text: Vigilance. Creatures you control have “Tap: Add one mana of any color.” When Enduring Vitality dies, if it was a creature, return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control. It’s an enchantment. (It’s not a creature.)
Looking at this card, it’s clear why WotC chose to reveal it last out of the five rare Glimmers. While the whole cycle seems playable, Enduring Vitality is the one with the most obvious MTG potential. By itself, it’s a three mana dork that taps for any color. With any other creatures in play, it becomes a way to turbocharge your mana and ramp into some truly diabolical threats.
We’ve seen Vitality’s passive effect before, on Cryptolith Rite from Shadows Over Innistrad. Players undervalued this effect at first, but it quickly proved itself in both Standard and Commander. Today, it’s a solid $10 card with plenty of homes in Commander. How does Enduring Vitality compare? Well, it’s one more mana, which is unfortunate. On the other hand, it comes with a Vigilant 3/3 body, which is a serious upside. Notably, Vigilance allows Vitality to attack and tap for mana in the same turn, since its ability also counts itself. A trick I wish Enduring Courage had mastered too.
Of course Vitality is vulnerable to removal, but your opponent is unlikely to target it since it can just bounce right back in as an enchantment. This makes it tricky for your opponent to turn off your extra mana tap once it’s on. Sure, Sunfall and co. can do the job, but that’s true of every good creature. Basically the ceiling on Enduring Vitality is very high, provided you can find a shell that plays plenty of creatures and plenty of mana sinks.
Elk On The Shelf
In Standard, finding such a shell shouldn’t be a problem at all. Not only are grindy green decks in vogue right now, but so are creatures that care about being tapped. Attacking is the traditional way to trigger said effects, but Enduring Vitality provides an alternate, much safer, path. Simply tap down your Survivors for mana and you can get those juicy effects without worrying about combat. It’s worth noting that this card curves directly into Kona, Rescue Beastie, which can allow you to cheat out whatever you want on turn four. Top choices here include Valgavoth, Atraxa, and, once Foundations hits, Omniscience. Any one of those on turn four will likely lock up the game for you.
If you prefer to play fair games of Magic, then Enduring Vitality has you covered too. Turning all of your creatures into mana dorks is likely good enough in decks like Golgari Midrange, where you always have a board presence and always have more spells to cast. Cards like Deep-Cavern Bat can find themselves without profitable attack windows often, so tapping for mana instead is a great deal. As we’ll get into more later, having lots of extra mana available allows Golgari Midrange to play on different axes, too.
Outside of Golgari Midrange, there aren’t many green decks in current Standard that would benefit from Vitality’s effect. Gruul Prowess is too fast, and Domain Ramp doesn’t play enough creatures. For that reason, outside of Midrange, I think the card’s best shot in Standard is in a new brew. Something that makes use of Survivors alongside cards like Wylie Duke, Attin Hero, for example. Throw in a few Vehicles like Hedge Shredder, and Tap Typal could be a very real deck. Depending on the speed of the format, of course.
Combo Corner
The other thing Enduring Vitality can do is enable some pretty ridiculous combos. Letting all your creatures tap for mana opens a lot of doors, especially when you find a way to give said creatures Haste. Early on in Bloomburrow Standard we saw an ‘Otter Storm’ deck tried out. This list relied on the interaction between Stormsplitter and Insidious Roots to win the game. You packed your deck with cantrips, then used your hasty Otter tokens as mana dorks to cast them. This let you dig through your deck and eventually build up a critical mass of Otters for a lethal swing.
Enduring Vitality serves the same role as Insidious Roots does in this combo. It serves it better, in fact, since it allows the original Stormsplitter to tap for mana too, not just the tokens. It can also tap itself, which gives you two extra mana for your combo turn. In a deck with such narrow margins as this one, that’s a massive deal. As is the fact that this is essentially copies 5-8 of Insidious Roots for the deck. Combo decks live and die on their consistency, and adding Vitality massively boosts the consistency of this one. Granted it wasn’t exactly a meta player before, but it could well be now.
Its not just Otters this card combos off with, but moles too. The Innkeeper’s Talent/Vraska, Betrayal’s Sting combo has been well-publicized by now, and it’s become a core part of Golgari Midrange as a deck. With the addition of Vitality, popping off with this combo early becomes much more feasible. Expect many more turn 5-6 finishes once this helpful Elk hits Standard.
Read More: MTG Duskmourn Uncommon Lets You Entomb Cards Turn After Turn
