Poison counter

Poison counter

 

List of cards

 

Poison counter
[[File:{{#setmainimage:P.svg}}|70x70px]]
Counter
Introduced	Legends
Last used	Murders at Karlov Manor
Reminder Text	A player with ten or more poison counters loses the game.
Storm Scale	5
Statistics	130 cards 16.9% 4.6% 27.7% 2.3% 26.2% 1.5% 0.8% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 2.3% 11.5% 1.5% (includes Poisonous, Infect, and Toxic)
Other Symbols
[[File:{{#setmainimage:MTGA PoisonCounters.png}}|70x70px]]
Scryfall Search
fulloracle:"Poison counter"

A poison counter is a counter that, unlike most other counters, is placed on players rather than objects. When a player has ten or more poison counters, that player loses the game. A player with at least one poison counter is considered poisoned. Interacting with poison counters is seen mostly in black and green.

Cardboard versions of poison counters, similar to tokens, were printed as part of the marketing cards in Scars of Mirrodin block.

History

The poison mechanic was introduced on the Legends cards Pit Scorpion and Serpent Generator. The mechanic appeared in sets up until Visions, and was planned as the main theme of Tempest, before it was retired from the game. It was next considered for Unglued 2 prior to that set's cancellation.

Poison appeared in a limited capacity in Future Sight, on a pair of futureshifted "preprint" cards with the keyword poisonous. It finally saw print as a major mechanic in Scars of Mirrodin block, which supported the poison counter-granting infect keyword with proliferate. The second set of that block, Mirrodin Besieged, expanded the concept by defining players as "poisoned" if they had one or more poison counters, and including cards that referenced that term.

Poison counters reappeared twice as one-offs in Kaldheim (Fynn, the Fangbearer) and Dominaria United (Ajani, Sleeper Agent), the latter using poison to represent the planeswalker's compleation. These one-offs act like independant Alternate-win or -loss cards, where if something is completed five times the player wins. Phyrexia: All Will Be One followed that up with heavy use of poison counters, including a successor to the poisonous keyword ability, toxic, which grants a set amount of poison to the opponent like its predecessor. Proliferate was also used in the set to synergize with poison, as was a new corrupted ability word similar to the earlier "poisoned" terminology. Etali, Primal Sickness would be the last poison card for this arc, being a call-back to Blightsteel Colossus.

Another one-off poison card appeared in Murders at Karlov Manor, Persuasive Interrogators.

Removing poison

Poison is intended to be a fundamentally different win condition from life totals because poison counters cannot be removed, contrasting to life gain. Leeches, from Homelands, is the only exception to this rule. That exception is seen as a severe mistake, by Mark Rosewater, and the card would never be reprinted, even if it were not on the Reserved List. This is something the Mystery Booster test card Puresteel Angel teases.

Two other cards, Price of Betrayal and Suncleanser, can remove poison counters, albeit only for your opponents, making them impractical. Otherwise, the only way for a player to functionally remove their own poison counters is to restart the game with Karn Liberated's ultimate.

Both forms of Melira slow the rate of poison counters, but specifically do not remove any that were already present: Melira, Sylvok Outcast stops the placement, and Melira, the Living Cure restricts it to one poison a turn.

Rules

Players with at least ten poison counters, and Two-Headed Giant teams with at least fifteen poison counters, immediately lose the game.

In the Comprehensive Rules

From the glossary of the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

Poison Counter

A counter that may be given to a player. See rule 122, “Counters,” and rule 704.5c.

104.3d defines the how poison counter works:

From the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

• 104.3d If a player has ten or more poison counters, that player loses the game the next time a player would receive priority. (This is a state-based action. See rule 704.)

122.1f defines the term "poisoned":

From the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

• 122.1f If a player has ten or more poison counters, that player loses the game as a state-based action. See rule 704. A player is “poisoned” if they have one or more poison counters. (See rule 810 for additional rules for Two-Headed Giant games.)

704.5 and 704.6 define the various state-based actions, of which two relate to poison:

From the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

• 704.5c If a player has ten or more poison counters, that player loses the game. Ignore this rule in Two-Headed Giant games; see rule 704.6b instead.

From the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

• 704.6b In a Two-Headed Giant game, if a team has fifteen or more poison counters, that team loses the game. See rule 810, “Two-Headed Giant Variant.”

810.10 and 810.11 specify how poison works in Two-Headed Giant and with "further heads":

From the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

• 810.10. Effects that cause players to get poison counters happen to each player individually. The poison counters are shared by the team.
  • 810.10a If an effect needs to know how many poison counters an individual player has, that effect uses the number of poison counters that player’s team has. If an effect needs to know how many poison counters a player’s opponents have, that effect uses the number of poison counters opposing teams have.
  • 810.10b If an effect says that a player loses poison counters, that player’s team loses that many poison counters.
  • 810.10c If an effect says that a player can’t get poison counters, no player on that player’s team can get poison counters.
  • 810.10d If a rule or effect needs to know what kinds of counters an individual player has, that effect uses the kinds of counters that player has and the kinds of counters that player’s team has. A player is “poisoned” if that player’s team has one or more poison counters.

From the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

• 810.11. The Two-Headed Giant variant can also be played with equally sized teams of more than two players. For each player a team has beyond the second, that team’s starting life total is increased by 15 and the number of poison counters required for the team to lose is increased by five. (These variants are called Three-Headed Giant, Four-Headed Giant, and so on.)

Mechanics

Poison counters are granted by three keyword abilities.

• Infect
• Poisonous
• Toxic

Many other cards referencing poison counters use wording very similar to the poisonous keyword. Most trigger on any damage, rather than just combat damage. To avoid changing functionality, no errata were made for these cards when the poisonous keyword was introduced. Several Mirage block cards trigger when attacking and not blocked, and Scars of Mirrodin block used a variety of trigger conditions. Fynn, the Fangbearer (Kaldheim) grants an ability that is functionally equivalent to the poisonous keyword, but did not use it in the card text.

Gallery

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  Poison Counter markers as printed in the Scars of Mirrodin block

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  Poison counter marker as printed in Phyrexia: All Will Be One

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  D10 Phyrexia: All Will Be One spin-down poison counter