Venerated Rotpriest

Creature — Phyrexian Druid

Toxic 1 (Players dealt combat damage by this creature also get a poison counter.)

Whenever a creature you control becomes the target of a spell, target opponent gets a poison counter.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Brawl	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Pre-release	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Standard	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (16)

deltacobra on Green/Black toxic/proliferate need recommendations

3 months ago

Triumph of the Hordes Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons Plague Myr Venerated Rotpriest March of Swirling Mist

March of Swirling Mist with rotpriest is fun.

_Kane_ on Atraxa, Praetors' Voice

4 months ago

Cut Venerated Rotpriest

KylerStar on Save a Horse, Ride a Toad!

5 months ago

I use Vesuvan Duplimancy as the wincon in my deck, Tatsunari, Frog Boi! Used a lot of Frogify effects as my removal. Been swapping them for enchantments that permenantly tap so that they can still be used to copy Keimi, Grim Guardian, Venerated Rotpriest.

legendofa on Oh, Rotty!

6 months 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.

Mortlocke on The Song of Phyresis

6 months ago

Idraxus,

Hello and welcome to the conversation. I'm very pleased to hear that this deck inspired you to create your own! I love Poison and I'm always pleased to see more players embracing it. You do bring up a valid point about Venerated Rotpriest as my initial assessment of it was a tool purely devoted to deterring spot removal. But beyond that, I'd need a deck that has more pump spells, or a means of recurring pump spells to really get the most value out of Toxic/Rotpriest. Ultimately, I think cutting it is the way to go - but if I were to try and make room for it i'd probably cut the Sensei's Divining Top if I absolutely had to.

I love the aesthetic of Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus, and I think really do want to try and make room for it. I'm leaning more toward cutting the burst draw/proliferation of Tezzeret's Gambit - but when I do Tappedout's "competitive" algorithm for my deck rates it lower. I'm not exactly sure why, but it feels like i'm doing something wrong lol. I mean, it's a similar CMC, the only difference is that Tekuthal demands two {U} pips. If you had to cut a {4} cmc (or higher) card from this deck, what would you cut to make room for a possible Tekuthal? Should I just cut Tezzeret's Gambit anyway? Weird random algorithm be damned? lol

Mortlocke on The Song of Phyresis

6 months ago

Vlasiax,

Blightsteel Colossus as hard as it is to believe it can be regularly cast between turns 5 and 8 but no sooner. Between getting out the right mana rocks and Urza's Incubator (more on that in a bit) Blightsteel does see the board and can make a significant impact. On the otherhand, Sensei's Divining Top is a straight up pet card of mine and is in almost all of my decks. Between this and Scroll Rack I just feel reassured knowing that I can rely on this card to dig deep and ensure I can manipulate my next draws. When in a bind and am about to miss my land drop I've used this card with great efficacy to fix things. Then when I feel i'm in the clear, I just draw a fetchland or mana ramp and shuffle the top into my library. I really want to keep it in, but if I were to cut it, what would I cut it for?

Now, as for Urza's Incubator, could you please elaborate on what exactly do you mean by it only affecting a small number of my creatures? Because I don't think you're aware of this, but back when Modern Horizons 2 was released (in 2021) a list of roughly 225 creatures were all revised to have the "Phyrexian" subtype (if you want a full list go to my previous deck update titled The "New" Phyrexian Tribe). Yes, every single creature in this deck was on that list - if it doesn't already have the Phyrexian subtype officially printed on it. Every creature in this deck benefits from the Incubator, and in the case of each Myr in the list makes them cost {0}.

I decided to cut the Venerated Rotpriest from the decklist - Toxic is far inferior to Infect as it simply doesn't scale - a Glistener Elf is far more dangerous with Sword of Feast and Famine than a rotpriest. Additionally, this deck doesn't have a lot of spells that I would want to target my own creatures with. Pestilent Syphoner isn't something that pinged across my radar - but I do see what you mean about creatures with evasion. As for Viral Drake, it's a magnificent card - evasion, infect, a big butt, and repeatable proliferation - what is there not to love? It has traditionally performed very well in this deck and has always maintained a decent asking price. Currently the non-foil is around $5 - and the foil print is $11. For an uncommmon, I think the pricing and demand speaks for itself, no?

Idraxus on The Song of Phyresis

7 months ago

Hello everyone , I would like to introduce myself into the discussion , about a year ago I first saw Mortlocke's deck and inspired by its creation I decided to create my own "revised" version of it following my budget and preferences . Unfortunately due to studies I could not devote enough time to its constant updating , but now , having the time , I am restoring the project .

Personally , from my recent tests Venerated Rotpriest turned out to be a more than useful tool , generating pressure in early game , but above all (quite surprisingly ) generating fear in the later stages , acting as a deterrent for spot removal .

As for Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus , it is a card I have been eyeing since the beginning (although I must confess that I have not tested it yet due to deck restoration ) , proliferating double in this deck can practically lead to the demise of one or more players even by simply having Atraxa, Praetors' Voice on the field , the only thing that might not convince me at the moment is the fact that you need counters to activate its ability and protect it , a price that might not be so easy to pay.

Vlasiax on The Song of Phyresis

7 months 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?