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Venerated Rotpriest

Creature — Phyrexian Druid

Toxic 1 (Players dealt combat damage by this creature also get a poison counter.)
Whenever a creature you control becomes the target of a spell, target opponent gets a poison counter.

CMC
1
Mana cost
{G}
Color identity
G
Rarity
rare
Set
Phyrexia: All Will Be One
Price
$1.71
EDHREC rank
#2783
Buy on TCGplayer
Venerated Rotpriest card art
Venerated Rotpriest turns every spell that targets your creatures into a poison clock for your opponents — one trigger per spell, and in a token or proliferate shell you're stacking those fast. The cost is that it does nothing without a supporting gameplan: Gatherer of Graces can keep it alive, and Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa gives it the proliferate backup to close games where combat poison falls short.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa

Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa

72.0% of decks · synergy 0.68

Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa is the natural home — her proliferate trigger compounds every poison counter Venerated Rotpriest generates, so even a handful of targeting spells can snowball a table into lethal range without needing ten separate combats.

02
Vishgraz, the Doomhive

Vishgraz, the Doomhive

67.8% of decks · synergy 0.64

Vishgraz, the Doomhive enters with three poisonous Mite tokens and triggers poison just by attacking, which means Venerated Rotpriest starts its clock the turn it lands while the Mites absorb blockers.

03
Fynn, the Fangbearer

Fynn, the Fangbearer

62.2% of decks · synergy 0.58

Fynn, the Fangbearer wins through deathtouch creatures dealing combat poison, and Venerated Rotpriest adds a parallel track — stack enough pump or protection spells on your attackers and Rotpriest alone threatens lethal independent of combat.

04
Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief

Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief

46.9% of decks · synergy 0.45

Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief copies every non-creature spell that targets a single creature, which means each cantrip or pump spell aimed at any creature fires two triggers off Venerated Rotpriest instead of one.

05
Agent Frank Horrigan

Agent Frank Horrigan

35.7% of decks · synergy 0.35

Agent Frank Horrigan runs a high density of combat tricks and buff spells to push damage through, and each one also ticks Venerated Rotpriest's poison counter for a second win condition opponents have to respect.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

In Commander, Venerated Rotpriest is a role-player rather than an automatic include — it belongs in dedicated poison or proliferate lists where spell density is high enough to threaten multiple triggers per turn cycle. In Modern, it anchored a tier-one Simic Infect shell that used cheap targeting spells like Vines of Vastwood and Mutagenic Growth to kill on turn two or three, and that application is still real on a smaller budget. Pioneer is a softer landing: the infect support is thinner, but the card still functions as a fast clock in creature-spell-heavy builds. Legacy and Vintage have the raw speed to assemble lethal poison counts quickly, though both formats have more relevant interaction that answers a one-toughness creature before it fires.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$1.71 cheap tier

At $1.71, Venerated Rotpriest sits at the cheap end of the rare spectrum despite being a genuine tournament piece and a Commander staple in poison strategies. That price is unlikely to climb unless a new infect or proliferate archetype enters a high-profile format, but at this floor it's an easy pickup for any deck that can use it.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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