Caress of Phyrexia

Sorcery

Target players draws three cards, loses 3 life, and gets three 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
Freeform	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
PreDH	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (26)

austintayshus on The Plague Befalls You Deck

3 months ago

All Hail Atraxa +1

Blighted Agent is a fun way to infect opponents

Caress of Phyrexia is kinda mana-costly. It's also a modal card that either draws you three cards or gives an opponent 3 poison counters.

Corrupted Conscience is also fun.

Grafted Exoskeleton is another infect enabler

Phyresis is another infect enabler.

amarthaler on EDH Skithiryx, the Blighted Dragon

10 months ago

Update!

Out: Defiler of Flesh... Glaring Spotlight... Expedition Map

In: Caress of Phyrexia... Virulent Wound... Flesh-Eater Imp

Coward_Token on Phyrexia: All Will Be One …

2 years ago

Going back to content that's actally confirmed:

Norn's Choirmaster feels like it's just going to be an expensive Grateful Apparition most of the time. The main exceptions are partner decks with a counter theme, e.g. Reyhan, Last of the Abzan + Tymna the Weaver or Yannik, Scavenging Sentinel + Nikara, Lair Scavenger. Maybe you could also use it in a flicker + counters theme deck?

(Speaking of which, when is black getting a Thrummingbird?)

Even though it's pretty weird that the mirran faction mechanic is a tweak on living weapon, I like the implied flavor of the token probably dying and then someone else taking up the sword, so to speak.

Without the haste, Goldwardens' Gambit could have easily been a white instant.

A little awkward that Otharri, Suns' Glory synergizes with proliferate

Hexgold Slash could have also dealt extra damage to creatures with oil counters on them

With corrupted around, Caress of Phyrexia got a little more interesting

ManfredManhunter on Marchesa, the Poisonous Rose

5 years ago

Marchesa really is a good commander, but my version of an infect deck with her didn't work for me in my meta.
Infect allied the whole table against me the moment my first creature hit the board.
The idea was that my opponents would either try to leave me on the throne so I couldn't recur my board of infecting creatures, or "protect" themselves by making sure another opponent was a better target. What happened was I got smacked pretty good and then often had to attack the same person over and over because they stayed at the highest life and my ability to recover without the counters was almost zero. Having a bunch of threats that dont die is a really really cool idea, but I never really got to live the dream. ;(

One of the issues I ran into outside of politics was that infect creatures aren't very cost effective and not having very good ramp made the deck feel pretty slow getting off the ground. In the handful of games I played I also found myself out of cards fairly quickly, so card draw could be improved as well.
I didn't iterate on the deck at all before shelving it, so there is definitely room for improvement. Outside of improving the speed and card draw I never figured out the optimal number of infect cards the deck wants. For example I never asked myself something like "is Caress of Phyrexia a good way to finish out the game or is a 5 mana do-almost-nothing sorcery not good enough?". I think most of the one-shot proliferate effects are also a bit bad. Cheap cantrips and rocks would likely serve the deck better than most of them looking back at it.

Even with the issues I had, I would encourage you to build an infect deck! The archenemy nature of it is pretty fun and taking one or two people out fairly quickly leads to more games in a session :P I definitely would like to give infect an honest try again someday, but I think Saskia the Unyielding will be at the helm instead.

Mortlocke on The Song of Phyresis

5 years ago

Wicker, I appreciate the compliment. This deck is a constant work in progress, and I've yet to implement all these changes. I've considered Exotic Orchard, but none of the battlebond lands. If I do go ahead with your changes then Farseek would definitely be the recommended change. My only hesitation regarding Farseek is that the tutored land always comes in tapped. Reanimate is simply some graveyard recursion. I'd imagine an opponent would get some form of removal to target an important creature on my board such as a Praetor. Reanimate was just something I had on hand. I haven't come up with a more elegant solution, or anything different to address removal. Caress of Phyrexia did come across my radar at some point, but the CMC is far too high for my taste. just to give a player 3 poison counters just isn't impactful enough. Honeslty, I have my breath held for some more infect support in the upcoming Commander Legends set being released later this year.

TortillaConfetti on

6 years ago

Hand of the Praetors Could be a nice add if you go Infect all the way with creatures, and Caress of Phyrexia as a finisher for someone on 7 poison hahaha

FenIsABasicSwamp on Yawgmoth

6 years ago

Cut Tortured Existence , Faith of the Devoted , Relic Putrescence , Caress of Phyrexia , Liliana, Death Wielder , Contagion Clasp , Delirium Skeins , Livewire Lash , Liliana's Influence , Gilded Lotus

Add Waste Not and maybe Horobi, Death's Wail

Mental_Floss on Wait...Proliferate???

6 years ago

No Caress of Phyrexia ? The "Hey, you wanna draw some cards?" joke is so fun to have pulled on you and probably to do as well.