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Phyresis Outbreak

Sorcery

Each opponent gets a poison counter. Then each creature your opponents control gets -1/-1 until end of turn for each poison counter its controller has.

CMC
3
Mana cost
{2}{B}
Color identity
B
Rarity
rare
Set
Phyrexia: All Will Be One Commander
Price
$11.08
EDHREC rank
#3587
Buy on TCGplayer
Phyresis Outbreak card art
Phyresis Outbreak puts a -1/-1 counter on every creature an opponent controls for each poison counter that opponent has, then proliferates — it's a board wipe, a clock accelerator, and a removal spell stapled together for three mana. It's one of the most efficient poison-payoff cards ever printed, and commanders like Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa run it at nearly 79% inclusion for good reason. Storm King's Thunder gets more press for big-spell value, but nothing in black cleans up an infect board state as efficiently as this.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa

Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa

78.8% of decks · synergy 0.75

Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa is handing out poison counters every combat, so Phyresis Outbreak enters as both sweeper and finisher — one casting can clear a board and push multiple opponents into lethal range simultaneously.

02
Vishgraz, the Doomhive

Vishgraz, the Doomhive

68.1% of decks · synergy 0.64

Vishgraz, the Doomhive builds a wide board of poisonous tokens, and Phyresis Outbreak rewards that strategy by scaling its -1/-1 output to however many poison counters have already landed, clearing blockers while the clock ticks.

03
Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon

Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon

51.0% of decks · synergy 0.49

Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon deals poison in large chunks, so a single hit sets up Phyresis Outbreak to demolish a target player's board — often wiping it entirely — while proliferating the remainder toward ten.

04
Karumonix, the Rat King

Karumonix, the Rat King

40.3% of decks · synergy 0.39

Karumonix, the Rat King gives every Rat toxic 1, meaning even a modest swarm poisons multiple opponents, and Phyresis Outbreak converts those early poison counters into a mass -1/-1 wrath that clears the path for the next attack.

05
Agent Frank Horrigan

Agent Frank Horrigan

29.7% of decks · synergy 0.29

Agent Frank Horrigan applies poison through combat damage and keyword abilities, and Phyresis Outbreak slots in as the cleanup step — proliferating those counters while removing whatever survived the initial hits.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern not legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Phyresis Outbreak is a Commander card through and through — the poison-counter ecosystem it feeds off barely exists elsewhere, and a three-player pod means opponents are almost always in different stages of poison accumulation, which maximizes the asymmetry of its -1/-1 distribution. In Vintage and Legacy it's technically legal but sees no meaningful play; neither format runs the poison-counter density that makes the Outbreak's scaling relevant, and three mana is too slow relative to what those formats demand. Oathbreaker can support it in a dedicated infect build, where the faster clock makes the proliferate rider matter even more. Anywhere outside the Commander poison ecosystem, Phyresis Outbreak is a worse Toxic Deluge.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

Spread the Sickness does the same proliferate-plus-removal work for one more mana and hits a single target rather than a whole board — it's a strict downgrade but costs under $0.25 and fills the role in budget infect lists that can't absorb the Outbreak's price. Contagion Clasp offers repeatable proliferate on a permanent for two mana, but trades the board-affecting impact entirely; it's a fine supplement to Phyresis Outbreak rather than a true replacement.

Price Context

Current price

$11.08 mid tier

At $11.08, Phyresis Outbreak sits in the mid tier — expensive enough to feel in a budget build, cheap enough that any serious poison or proliferate commander deck should just run it. It's a near-auto-include in its archetypes at 79% inclusion in Ixhel alone, which keeps demand steady and makes this one of the harder mid-range staples to find a real substitute for.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.