Infect/Toxic

Infect and toxic decks win with poison instead of damage: a player with ten or more poison counters loses the game. Creatures with give players poison counters instead of normal damage, and creatures with give poison counters on top of their combat damage.

KindArchetype
Cards167

An archetype is a whole game plan: the way a deck tries to win.

Find these cards in the app Commanders with this archetype

How it plays

Your creatures give poison instead of, or on top of, normal damage. creatures deal their damage as poison counters to players and as -1/-1 counters to creatures; creatures give poison counters whenever they hit a player. Cards that pump a creature or counters speed everything up.

How it wins

A player with ten poison loses the game, whatever their life total. Ten is a lot less than forty, so one unblocked creature pumped a few times ends a game.

What beats it

Blockers. creatures are small, so any blocker trades with them, and a clears the lot. Cards that remove from players are rare but exist.

If this is your first deck

A second deck. It is quick to play, but poison catches people off guard and some tables dislike it. Say what the deck does before the game starts.

Commanders to Start With

The most played commanders where Infect/Toxic is one of their two main plans, in order from EDHREC, a site that counts the Commander decks players post online.

Example Cards

InfectDamage from a source with infect gives players poison counters instead of making them lose life, and gives creatures -1/-1 counters instead of normal damage. A player with ten or more poison counters loses the game. Glistener Elf

Open the full glossaryToxicToxic comes with a number, like toxic 1. When a creature with toxic deals combat damage to a player, that player also gets that many poison counters on top of the damage. A player with ten or more poison counters loses the game. Bloated Contaminator

Open the full glossaryCounterTwo different things share this word. A counter is a small marker placed on a card, such as a +1/+1 counter. To counter a spell is to stop it resolving while it is still on the stack.Open the full glossaryProliferateChoose any number of players and permanents that already have a counter on them, and give each one more of a counter it already has. It adds to what is there; it cannot start something new.Open the full glossaryBoard WipeA spell that destroys or removes most or all creatures at once, resetting the battlefield for everyone. Also called a sweeper or a wrath.Open the full glossary