Phyresis
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has infect. (It deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters and to players in the form of poison counters.)
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Mirrodin Besieged
- Price
- $2.60
- EDHREC rank
- #2849
Phyresis turns any creature into a poison threat, and in the right deck that's game-ending pressure for two mana. The catch is that it's an Aura — it dies to the same removal that kills the creature — but Killian, Ink Duelist halves that cost and makes the math lopsided enough to ignore the risk. Windfall effects and infect-stacking win conditions make Phyresis the on-ramp, not the finisher.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Killian, Ink Duelist
Killian, Ink Duelist makes Phyresis cost one mana, which is the entire reason this pairing exists — slapping infect onto a lifelink, menace commander for a single white or black mana is a consistent turn-two threat that demands an answer.
Ramses, Assassin Lord
Ramses, Assassin Lord wins the moment any opponent is dealt damage by an assassin, and Phyresis turns any assassin into a potential poison clock — ten poison counters end the game just as cleanly as Ramses's triggered win condition.
Zenos yae Galvus
Zenos yae Galvus rewards connecting with opponents repeatedly, and Phyresis adds a parallel poison track to every combat step so that opponents have to race two separate losing conditions at once.
Black Waltz No. 3
Black Waltz No. 3 wants to deal noncombat damage as consistently as possible, and Phyresis converts that damage into poison counters — ten of which end the game regardless of life total — opening a second axis of attack that opponents can't simply lifegain through.
Agent Frank Horrigan
Agent Frank Horrigan is a large aggressive attacker that already demands a response, and Phyresis means any unblocked hit is also racing toward ten poison counters, forcing opponents into a lose-lose block-or-die calculus.
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 |
Commander is where Phyresis does its best work — the 40-life total is irrelevant when ten poison counters close the game, and the format's singleton rule means opponents can't reliably pack enough enchantment removal to answer it every game. In Pauper, infect strategies are a real competitive archetype and Phyresis is a cheap enabler, though the two-mana cost and Aura fragility keep it out of the most streamlined lists. Legacy and Vintage have faster, more reliable infect lines, so Phyresis sits on the fringe there — present but not pushed. It's legal in Oathbreaker, where the compressed game length makes the poison clock hit even harder.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$2.60 cheap tier
At $2.60, Phyresis sits at the high end of budget — not a bulk pickup, but cheap enough that any infect or Killian deck should own a copy without hesitation. The price reflects steady Commander demand rather than speculation, so it's unlikely to spike or crash dramatically.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.