Caress of Phyrexia
Sorcery
Target player draws three cards, loses 3 life, and gets three poison counters.
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Phyrexia: All Will Be One Commander
- Price
- $0.35
- EDHREC rank
- #10537
Caress of Phyrexia draws three cards, adds three poison counters to a target player, and puts three -1/-1 counters on a creature — all on one five-mana sorcery. In infect and proliferate decks, particularly anything helmed by Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon, that poison rider is a free clock tick alongside a full hand refuel.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon wins by stacking poison counters, and Caress of Phyrexia advances that clock while replacing itself — the three poison counters land on whichever opponent is closest to ten.
Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa
Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa runs a proliferate-every-combat engine, so Caress of Phyrexia functions as both a card refuel and a poison accelerant that compounds every subsequent trigger.
Vishgraz, the Doomhive
Vishgraz, the Doomhive builds toward a poison-counter threshold to pump its Mite tokens, and Caress of Phyrexia drops three counters on an opponent in a single cast while keeping your hand stocked for follow-up plays.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Caress of Phyrexia is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but its competitive presence outside of Commander is essentially zero — five mana at sorcery speed is a non-starter in Legacy or Vintage, where games are decided far earlier. In Modern it's technically castable but poison-counter strategies don't have the infrastructure to make it worth the investment over faster threats. Commander is the format where Caress of Phyrexia lives: multiplayer life totals are high, games go long, and the card's three-mode payoff scales with the inherently slower pace of the format. Infect and proliferate commanders in particular get full value from every clause on the card.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.35 bulk tier
At $0.35, Caress of Phyrexia sits firmly in bulk territory — you'll find it in bulk boxes or pick it up as a throw-in without thinking twice. Bulk rares at this price floor don't tend to move unless a new Commander precon or breakout strategy pushes demand, and nothing on the horizon suggests that's imminent.
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Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.