Priest of Fell Rites MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 4 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost2
RarityRare
TypeCreature — Human Warlock
Abilities Unearth
Power 2
Toughness 2

Key Takeaways

  1. Priest of Fell Rites excels in reanimation, offering card advantage by returning creatures from the graveyard.
  2. It enables resource acceleration, circumventing high mana costs to cast creatures more efficiently.
  3. The card is versatile, fitting well in graveyard-centric decks, and bolsters combo potential.

Text of card

, Pay 3 life, Sacrifice Priest of Fell Rites: Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield. Activate only as a sorcery. Unearth (: Return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield. It gains haste. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step or if it would leave the battlefield. Unearth only as a sorcery.)


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Priest of Fell Rites offers a key advantage with its ability to reanimate creatures from the graveyard. This pivotal action effectively recirculates resources and enhances your hand by bringing back powerful assets from the graveyard, keeping you ahead in the attrition war.

Resource Acceleration: This card provides a unique form of acceleration by bypassing traditional mana costs associated with casting high-cost creatures. Instead of investing a significant amount of mana, you can utilize Priest of Fell Rites’ ability to bring creatures onto the battlefield, substantially saving your mana resources for other strategic plays.

Instant Speed: While Priest of Fell Rites itself doesn’t operate at instant speed, the creatures it reanimates can offer instant-speed effects. By carefully selecting which creature to bring back during your turn, you can set up defenses or strategies that harness instant-speed capabilities, preparing you to react to your opponent’s moves.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: In order to utilize Priest of Fell Rites’ Unearth ability, you must sacrifice it after using, which might not be ideal if you’re aiming to maintain board presence or if the card you’re bringing back doesn’t provide an immediate impact.

Specific Mana Cost: Priest of Fell Rites demands both white and black mana for casting, potentially restricting its inclusion to only certain two-color or multicolor decks, which can be problematic in a format dominated by mono-color or three-color synergies.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With its casting and Unearth costs being at three and five mana respectively, Priest of Fell Rites comes at a steep price. There are alternative reanimation spells in the format that offer this effect at a lower cost, giving you more leeway in terms of mana efficiency.


Reasons to Include Priest of Fell Rites in Your Collection

Versatility: Priest of Fell Rites stands out due to its ability to seamlessly integrate into various decks, primarily those that capitalize on graveyard strategies. Its utility extends to reanimator archetypes, making it a valuable addition for those who enjoy a flexible game plan.

Combo Potential: This card opens doors to multiple combo opportunities, allowing players to bring back high-cost creatures from the graveyard earlier in the game. As a result, it can become the linchpin in executing game-changing plays that can turn the tides in your favor dramatically.

Meta-Relevance: In a game where the graveyard is an extension of the hand, Priest of Fell Rites maintains its importance. It’s particularly effective in the current meta, where utilizing the graveyard can give players a significant edge against various popular strategies.


How to beat Priest of Fell Rites

Priest of Fell Rites is a unique utility creature that has found its niche in Magic: The Gathering. Its ability to unearth, allowing it to bring back a powerful creature card from your graveyard for a reunion on the battlefield, cannot be overstated. The priest provides versatility and value that could potentially tilt the game in your favor by recycling high-impact creatures.

That being said, interrupting your opponent’s strategy is key to beating this card. Graveyard hate is effective here, with cards like Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void shutting down its vital ability. Targeted removal against the Priest or the unearthed creatures can significantly hinder your opponent’s plan. Cards like Path to Exile or Assassin’s Trophy offer a swift response to the priest’s resurrection ritual.

It’s also worth considering strategies that avoid the graveyard altogether, making the Priest’s ability irrelevant. Applying pressure with an aggressive deck can sometimes prove to be a robust tactic, as it forces the Priest player to defend rather than set up their graveyard synergies. Understanding and anticipating this card’s mechanics are essential in crafting a winning strategy against it.


BurnMana Recommendations

Delving into the nuances of MTG is an ever-evolving process, with each card adding depth to your strategic repertoire. Priest of Fell Rites emerges as a key player in decks that capitalize on graveyard mechanics, spoiling you with endless possibilities to reclaim dominance during play. As you calibrate your deck, remember that every card has the potential to shift the tide in a high-stakes match. For those of you drawn to the strategic intricacies of reanimation and graveyard synergies, this is a card that shouldn’t be overlooked. Dive deeper into our content to harness the full potential of this unique card and refine your deck to perfection.


Cards like Priest of Fell Rites

Priest of Fell Rites takes its place in the pantheon of reanimation spells within the MTG realm. This rare card offers a unique blend of revival capabilities akin to that of Unburial Rites. Both allow players to return a creature card from the graveyard to the battlefield, though Priest of Fell Rites offers added utility as a creature itself, contributing to board presence.

Another peer in the reanimation category is Animate Dead, which brings creatures back for less mana but with a downsized power and toughness. This makes Priest of Fell Rites a more potent option in strategies focused on maximizing creature abilities without losing stats. Additionally, Priest of Fell Rites can be utilized multiple times thanks to its Unearth ability, outshining the single-use nature of cards like Zombify.

Gauging the specifics of revival spells unveils Priest of Fell Rites as a considerable choice for players looking to repeatedly leverage high-value creatures from their graveyard. With its dual function as both a creature and a reanimation engine, this MTG card warrants attention for its singular dynamics and strategic depth, particularly in decks that thrive on graveyard synergies.

Unburial Rites - MTG Card versions
Animate Dead - MTG Card versions
Zombify - MTG Card versions
Unburial Rites - Innistrad (ISD)
Animate Dead - Limited Edition Alpha (LEA)
Zombify - Odyssey (ODY)

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Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Priest of Fell Rites MTG card by a specific set like Modern Horizons 2 and Modern Horizons 2, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Priest of Fell Rites and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Priest of Fell Rites Magic the Gathering card was released in 3 different sets between 2021-06-18 and 2021-08-26. Illustrated by Pauline Voss.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12021-06-18Modern Horizons 2MH2 3722015normalblackPauline Voss
22021-06-18Modern Horizons 2MH2 2082015normalblackPauline Voss
32021-06-19Modern Horizons 2 PromosPMH2 208s2015normalblackPauline Voss
42021-08-26Jumpstart: Historic HorizonsJ21 7072015normalblackPauline Voss

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Priest of Fell Rites has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
CommanderLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
GladiatorLegal
PennyLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Priest of Fell Rites card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

DateText
2021-06-18 Activating a creature card's unearth ability isn't the same as casting the creature card. The unearth ability is put on the stack, but the creature card is not. Spells and abilities that interact with activated abilities (such as Stifle) will interact with unearth, but spells and abilities that interact with spells (such as Cancel) will not.
2021-06-18 If a creature returned to the battlefield by the unearth ability would leave it for any reason, it's exiled instead—unless the spell or ability that's causing the creature to leave the battlefield is actually trying to exile it. In that case, the spell or ability succeeds at exiling the creature. If the spell or ability later returns the creature card to the battlefield (as Ephemerate might, for example), the creature card will return as a new object with no relation to its previous existence. The unearth effect will no longer apply to it.
2021-06-18 You choose the target of the first ability before paying any of that ability's costs. In other words, you can't choose Priest of Fell Rites itself as the target to bring it back from the graveyard.

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