Glistener Elf

Creature — Phyrexian Elf Warrior

Infect (This creature deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters and to players in the form of poison counters.)

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (43)

Andramalech on Enamored Rotpriest

1 month ago

wallisface you make some good points about this deck, but maybe you haven't seen Infect/Toxic shells enough to note their significant weakness; they're flimsy. In fact a lot of the community who don't play/don't like infect/Toxic decks, do actually have the commentary that the construction seems weak and unreliable. I detailed some follow up commentary to try and respond to each of your individual criticisms.

• if we want to improve consistency in terms of "What's the back up plan" then maybe we include the well-known Glistener Elf. Or as I have detailed through other comments, Bloated Contaminator, Thrummingbird, etc.

• this shell is a combo shell, and that being said I fully admit that yeah. The deck is kind of.. enamored by the Rotpriest. That was.. well, that was the point of the list. To have a deck that (inb4 glass cannon) focused on the Rotpriest because I really like the creature.

• you said Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief wouldn't care about any of my spells being copied but do you know who does care when I target my own creatures? Rotpriest cares.

• another comment was about Phantasmal Image being useless, but the utility exists in copying any of our own bodies on entry, or better yet, copying whatever big beefy dude your opponents have cast. Is it a strong choice? I mean, no? We could pick something better here but we're getting into the nuance of what/how/why to use something else, and that's more a reflection of one's own playstyle.

I'd recommend you check the commentary with BotaNickill because they were very helpful with deck construction, discussion, and direction, and we discussed how the shell could be built differently for different circumstances.

If you have any further questions about how this deck functions, please check the deck description, updates, and other comments detailed above before posting.

Tl;dr: the deck isn't meta, and honestly is not that good. If you feel it could be built better based on your own thoughts, I agree; it probably can. And would encourage you to build your own. Best of luck, wallisface.

Rhadamanthus on Dovin’s Veto and the Stack

10 months ago

I feel like I don't understand the follow-up question. A cast Teferi, Hero of Dominaria on the stack is a noncreature spell, so it's a legal target for Dovin's Veto.

To be more specific about the original question: When Force of Will resolves, Glistener Elf is countered and removed from the stack. Next Dovin's Veto will resolve and counter the Counterspell, removing it from the stack. After that there's nothing left to do.

K4nkato on Dovin’s Veto and the Stack

10 months ago

I’m confused about Dovin's Veto and targeting things on the stack.

Let’s say Player A casts Glistener Elf.

Player B casts Counterspell targeting Glistener Elf.

Player A casts Dovin's Veto targeting Counterspell.

Can’t Player B cast Force of Will targeting Glistener Elf and counter the Elf anyway?

legendofa on Oh, Rotty!

1 year ago

How hard is it to reach delirium? There's a bunch of instants, a few sorceries and fetch lands, and let's say a creature dies once in a while. If you're not hitting delirium regularly, I would switch DRC for another Season of Growth and just draw past the cards you might not need.

My next thought is to either cut the Bloated Contaminator for another Dreadhorde Arcanist, or add more cards that grant counters of one kind or another. Dromoka's Command is solid, and you come up with any Snakeskin Veils, those would help a lot.

The typical play pattern I see is T1 Venerated Rotpriest, T2 pump and attack for damage and poison, T3 either Arcanist or Feather, the Redeemed, then just keep casting spells after that, attacking where you can. If that sounds right, then maybe look for some more hexproof-y protection-y spells like Apostle's Blessing, instead of just making your creatures bigger with Scale Up and Mutagenic Growth. I know those mostly from infect decks, where the goal is to get 1-2 creatures as big as possible, to deal as much infect damage as possible.

A T1 Glistener Elf, T2 Scale Up into Vines of Vastwood into Mutagenic Growth is very different from the same thing with a Rotpriest. With the Elf, you might have just won. With the Rotpriest, you just dealt 12 damage and gave three poison counters. Serious damage, but you're probably not going to do it twice in a row.

So I guess my suggestion (probably biased by my preference for control over aggro) is to focus mostly on keeping your creatures alive so they can be targeted by spells, choose the right time to attack, and let your poison counters do their work. Now that I think about it, some spells that grant vigilance might help, too.

HatchMichael18 on The Xenagos Stomp

1 year ago

i'd try infect Creeperhulk + Glistener Elf instant 10/10 infect

Vlasiax on The Song of Phyresis

1 year ago

Mortlocke,

I'd personally cut Blightsteel Colossus due to it's high cost or Sensei's Divining Top as I don't see much usage for it (aside from filtering top 3 for Ajani, Sleeper Agent's +1, but he's more for his Ultimate to spread counters).

Also I don't like Urza's Incubator in this deck: 13 creatures benefit from it fully (I count Atraxa after 1st commander tax), 6 benefit only partially and 2 are not affected at all.

From my experience Venerated Rotpriest is alright: he can pressure early 1/1s into either not blocking or blocking unfavorably. And later his main usage is to chump block or deter removal (mainly from Atraxa, as we are speaking of established board). I wonder if he could work as a 2nd copy to Glistener Elf because I find that low amount of creatures quite astounding: it could often lead to mulligans because of lack of early pressure.

I've also noticed that in my games it's quite important to have high count of creatures with Flying, so Pestilent Syphoner proved to be quite useful either for early posion counters or blocking Flying creatures later. Btw, could you tell me your experience with Viral Drake? How is it performing?

Mortlocke on The Song of Phyresis

1 year ago

Vlasiax,

What're your thoughts on Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus? Seems like it would be a good inclusion in this build, but I have no idea what to cut to make room for it? I'm leaning toward wither Prologue to Phyresis or Tezzeret's Gambit. Both spells are great for setting up a boardstate, and are important for different reasons. Maybe I should cut something else? Also, I don't think Venerated Rotpriest would be a good inclusion - I only have 2 spells in the deck that I could target my own creatures with - i'm going to slot back in Glistener Elf.

White Sun's Twilight is an interesting spell, but when I saw that I had an extra Smothering Tithe I knew what I had to do.

Delphen7 on Venerated Rotpriest Combo Discussion

1 year ago

Having been competitively playing the list since its spoiling, I'll share some thoughts.

Discard

As nbarry223 noted discard is absurdly good against the deck. My LGS has a couple of 8Rack floating around, and I've discovered its a horrendous matchup. Smallpox is also awful.

Chalice

I run Cavern of Souls so I can cast Rotpriest through Chalice and Rotpriest doesn't care if the spells are countered. Most decks don't have Caverns though, so Chalice would be good, unless more people pick up on the tech.

Leyline of Sanctity

Leyline is good against it as plakjekaas mentioned, but no one really plays it. I'm personally running Glistener Elf which doesn't care about it, but most versions, especially the Breach variants, will probably just fold to it.

Speaking of Breach, it's the most popular iteration right now, and it's fairly weak to graveyard hate, as Breach is how it tries to build up storm. Some lists aren't on it though, so antigraveyard is not a catchall.

Removal

Bolt and Heat often can't kill Rotpriest (Gather Courage and Mutagenic Growth), but Fury usually does enough damage and Solitude just eats it. Prismatic Ending/Leyline Binding work as well, but it seems to not be as heavily played right now.

Countermagic

Eh. The only things I actually care if they resolve are Rotpriests, and most decks aren't countering that t1 (Unless Minor Misstep picks up play).

Combo

Combo has been one the better matchups thus far. Fire / Ice is usually not enough to kill the Rotpriest, and the deck tends to move faster than Rhinos, Creativity, Prime Time, and Hammertime. TBH I don't know if there's any deck that can win as fast as it can on a good hand, especially since stock Hammertime no longer plays Ornithopter.

Melira

I don't think the deck could function through either Melira, but I doubt it's worth the sideboard slots right now. I'd say if your local meta has a fair share of Rotpriest, the slots could be worth it, but just entering a tournament blind I wouldn't run them.

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TL;DR The MH2 elementals are the best ways to remove Rotpriest once its on the field. Preventive measures work best though. Chalice, Leyline, Discard etc.