Pitiless Pontiff
Creature — Vampire Cleric
, Sacrifice another creature: This creature gains deathtouch and indestructible until end of turn. (Damage and effects that say "destroy" don't destroy it.)
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- BW
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Ravnica Allegiance
- Price
- $0.19
- EDHREC rank
- #17845
Pitiless Pontiff turns any sacrifice outlet into a repeatable indestructible blocker — pay one mana and sacrifice a creature, and it shrugs off whatever is pointed at it until end of turn. The cost is real but trivially met in any aristocrats shell, making this a reliable roadblock and sacrifice sink in one.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Pitiless Pontiff lives — aristocrats and sacrifice decks are endemic to the format, and the Pontiff slots cleanly into any list that already wants fodder on the board. In Modern and Pioneer it competes against a more efficient field of two-drops and rarely earns a slot outside niche sacrifice builds. Legacy and Vintage have no use for it; the power ceiling in those formats makes a conditional indestructible two-drop irrelevant. Stick to Commander, where the density of token generators and recursive creatures means the activation cost is almost never a real tax.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.19 bulk tier
At $0.19, Pitiless Pontiff is pure bulk — you're picking it up as an afterthought in a package order, not hunting it down. Bulk rares with narrow applications rarely move off the floor, so don't expect the price to shift in either direction.
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Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.