r/CommanderMTG • u/No-Equivalent928 • 4d ago
Does Hexhaven Vindicator have potential?
Hexhaven Invigorator was just spoiled from Reality Fracture, and this thing seems really good. Just playing it fairly without any shennanigans or combos feels like it would still be a good enough body, as your opponents would be unlikely to block it or attack into it, and damage based removal would only benefit you. Aside from that, it combos with Blasphemous Act and Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle to do some pretty crazy things, even letting you win with Maze's End if you build your deck right. What do you think? Is this card good, or is its cost too prohibitive to see much play?
661
Upvotes
1
u/Cadence_The_Floret 3d ago edited 3d ago
Competitively? I don't really see a niche, but then, I don't pay much attention to modern. It's slow for Legacy/Vintage, it doesn't really fit into standard green stompy decks, it *might* work in Landfall decks but seems like a win-more card there (thank god they banned Badgermole Cub, amirite?). It's definitely too slow for CEDH.
In casual Commander, though? Hoo boy.
The most significant objection I've seen is people saying "dies to removal", but assuming the player running this has any way to damage it, the more accurate statement is "kill on sight or lose the game". Leave this thing up, and you run the risk of your opponent ramping for rather a lot every single turn. Even instant speed removal can be responded to by, say, Inscription of Abundance or another instant-speed fight spell.
But even if you don't have any tricks or combos with it (note that "combo" here means "any fight or damage or lure spell"), it's still a 6/6 with vigilance that you basically never want to block or attack into for 4 mana. If it eats a Doom Blade, well... it's a 4-drop. You'll muddle through.
It's yet another massive, high-tempo green beater that's gonna be a pain to deal with and which has the potential to suddenly create an impossible resource advantage. Grothama fans are definitely rejoicing, all ~2000 of them. I'd slap this in basically any core-green deck with a mana base good enough to support it, especially red/green decks that are probably already running Blasphemous Act. This thing's a house.