Necrogen Censer
Artifact
This artifact enters with two charge counters on it.
, Remove a charge counter from this artifact: Target player loses 2 life.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Scars of Mirrodin
- Price
- $0.06
- EDHREC rank
- #28971
Necrogen Censer drains each opponent for 1 on your upkeep — but only after you've spent three mana to deploy it and three more to charge it, for a total of six mana invested before a single point of damage lands. That payoff is too slow and too small; better poison-counter payoffs and cheaper drain effects exist at every point on the curve.
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 | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Necrogen Censer is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, Pauper, and Oathbreaker, but it's only worth a conversation in Pauper and poison-focused Commander builds. In Pauper, where card quality is constrained by rarity, the repeatable drain is at least contextualized — though six mana spread across two activations is still a steep ask for one damage per turn. In Commander, the only home is a dedicated infect or proliferate deck where charging the Censer becomes incidental to counters you're already distributing; outside that shell, the effect is too marginal to justify the slot. In Legacy, Modern, and Vintage, Necrogen Censer doesn't register.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.06 bulk tier
At $0.06, Necrogen Censer is deep bulk — the kind of card you pull from a box rather than order. There's no price floor to worry about losing; if it fits your poison build, the acquisition cost is essentially zero.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.