Phyrexia: All Will Be One has brought us a bunch of exciting new cards and keywords. We've got oil counters! We've got a new and improved way to give players poison counters. We've got more ways to proliferate than ever before. We even have a few new Praetors, and who doesn't love playing against lots and lots of Praetors?

Whether you love or hate what ONE has introduced to your meta, it's likely you've seen more poison counters get handed out in the past month than in the previous few years. I've played with poison a bit and decided to see if I could crack the code on making infect weenies (small, low-cost creatures) viable in EDH.

I've played with this concept before. You play out lots of small creatures and find a way to get them through blockers. Now that we have creatures with Toxic and a host of new cards with Proliferate, I figured I'd take another crack at it.

My choice to lead this deck is all about getting through blockers. If I'm going to proliferate my opponents as part of my game plan, I have to give each of my tablemates at least one poison counter. That means I'll want to attack multiple opponents and I'll want to draw cards to keep the game plan moving forwards. All of that led me to a pair of legendary creatures with the partner mechanic.

Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa will keep my opponents from blocking any creature with power 2 or less with creatures that can't fly. Most creatures with infect or toxic are power 2 or less, and if I'm choosing to use both of those keywords I'll have a very easy time loading up my 99 with threats that can probably get through and do some damage.

Tymna the Weaver is less essential for this deck's game plan. I wanted a partner who would give me access to either lots of great toxic/infect creatures OR lots of great proliferate cards. Being in Blue would have been nice, but I decided Tymna's card draw was too hard to resist. I'll want to send an attacker at each of my tablemates whenever possible. I'll be rewarded with card draw by spreading out my attacks.

One important note is that these commanders are enablers for my game plan, but they are not essential. Neither of them has infect or toxic. Neither can proliferate poison counters. My hope is that the table with will sleep on how much of an impact Sidar Kondo can have on a game, and might also not worry about my card draw. This isn't like many commander decks where a single Lignify or Imprisoned in the Moon can really stop the deck in its tracks.

Abzan Hordes

Whether our hordes will triumph or not is a big question, but this deck does not actually run Triumph of the Hordes. It doesn't need to. A disturbing number of my creatures have the ability to give an opponent a poison counter.

I built this deck in an 8 by 8 pattern, meaning that I identified eight "themes" and dedicated eight cards to each theme. This approach helps a deckbuilder stay honest and not neglect key elements of good deckbuilding, like ramp, card draw and removal. That meant running an 8 card "slot" of infect creatures.

Glistener Elf can come down turn one and swing to hit someone who hasn't played a blocker by my second turn. The rest of my infect creatures are 2-drops and come in all of my commanders' colors. Plague Stinger has flying. Blight Mamba can regenerate. Flensermite has lifelink. Ichorclaw Myr gets +2/+2 when it's blocked. Plague Myr can tap for mana. Necropede can put a -1/-1 counter on a target creature when it dies. I'm even running Lost Leonin, a Cat Soldier with Infect and no other abilities.

Inkmoth Nexus can be turned into a 1/1 Blinkmoth artifact creature with flying and infect until end of turn. If I have to recover from a boardwipe it should let me sneak in an extra attack when other players haven't reestablished their boardstates. Every little bit helps, as it's not that easy to win games with poison counters.

The difference between toxic and infect is worth mentioning. A creature with infect deals damage to players IN THE FORM OF poison counters, or -1/-1 counters if damage would be done to a creature. A creature with toxic deals damage like any other creature, but will ALSO give a player poison counters if it deals damage to them. Toxic 1 means 1 poison counter, toxic 2 gives 2 poison counters, and so on. If an effect gives a creature toxic 1, that will increment the toxic number by 1 if that creature already has toxic.

I'm also running an 8-card slot of low power creatures with toxic, along with a few other creatures with toxic that I was able to fit into other categories. All in all, I've got over a dozen creatures that have toxic or cards that can create (or turn into) creatures with toxic.

Both Bilious Skulldweller and Krelv, Defector Mite are 1-mana creatures with toxic 1. The former has deathtouch and the latter can't block and has the ability to give another target creature I control toxic 1 and hexproof from a color until end of turn. It doesn't give protection, but the targeted creature, which I must control, can't be blocked by creatures of the chosen color this turn. I expect this weird pseudo Mother of Runes will help me protect Sidar Kondo when someone tries to remove him before combat.

Necrogen Rotpriest has toxic 2 and whenever a creature I control with toxic deals damage to a player, that player gets another poison counter. It can also give deathtouch to target creature with toxic that I control, but those additional poison counters are where this card really shines. I have a number of other random weenies with toxic, along with another land, Mirrex, that can turn into an artifact creature token with toxic 1.

The most exciting new toxic card in Phyrexia: All Will Be One, is probably Venerated Rotpriest. In another deck I could see building a combo engine around getting this Phyrexian Druid out and killing the table quickly, but in this deck it's just another weenie with toxic 1. Rotpriest's party trick is that whenever a creature I control becomes the target of a spell, target opponent gets a poison counter. It's a card just begging to be broken, but I'm guessing it is going to shine more in 1 v 1 formats than in a multiplayer format like EDH.

I have a few creatures that are too big to work with Sidar Kondo's evasion ability. Bloated Contaminator has four power, trample and toxic 1. That might not seem like a big deal, but when it deals combat damage to a player I get to proliferate. Contaminant Grafter has five power, trample and toxic 1. It will let me proliferate whenever one or more creatures I control deal combat to one or more players. It also has a corrupted ability that can draw me a card and put a land into play, but these extra proliferate triggers are a key to getting this deck to function. I don't expect to kill three players with this deck solely by giving them poison counters - it's going to take a mix of infect, toxic and proliferate to get the job done.

Proliferation Nation

If I were in Blue, I'd be building a similar deck but I would be running Inexorable Tide, which lets me proliferate whenever I cast a spell. That card is nuts, and a deck built around it can do a lot of damage, or pump up a lot of creatures and planeswalkers, in a short amount of time.

I'm in Abzan but I still have lots of options for adding proliferate into my deck. All in all I have nearly two dozen cards with that keyword. I ended up choosing cards with proliferate that also serve basic deckbuilding needs like removal, ramp, recursion, and so on.

Both Carnivorous Canopy and Cankerbloom can serve as removal, and may also let me proliferate. The former is a sorcery that can destroy target artifact, enchantment or creature with flying, and if that permanent's mana value was 3 or less, I proliferate. The latter is a 2-mana creature that can be sacrificed to destroy target artifact, destroy target enchantment, or proliferate. Thirsting Roots is a modal sorcery that can let me tutor up a land to put into my hand or it can let me proliferate. Unnatural Restoration is a 2-mana sorcery that can put target permanent card from my graveyard to my hand and will also let me proliferate. Vat Emergence is also in the list, and will put target permanent from my graveyard onto the battlefield in addition to proliferating.

Is it worth running a card like Grim Affliction, which for 3 mana will let me put a -1/-1 counter on target creature and then proliferate? Is it worth running a 2-drop like Pollenbright Druid that can proliferate when it enters the battlefield?

Quite possibly not, but in this first draft I decided to err on the side of making sure in the mid to late game I'd have lots of options to proliferate poison counters.

There are better cards than Grim Affliction and Pollenbright Druid, and if I can get that first Poison counter on each opponent I should have a decent chance at getting them each up to 10 so they lose the game.

Contagion Clasp will let me pay 4 mana and tap it to proliferate. It also lets me put a -1/-1 counter on target creature. I decided not to run Contagion Engine, as it costs six mana and would be near the top of my mana curve. It might be worth running, as it would let me proliferate twice, but my focus is on playing lots of small creatures, not devoting an entire turn to playing an artifact.

Evolution Sage will let me proliferate whenever a land enters the battlefield under my control. This isn't a landfall / ramp deck, but I should be able to use it to keep proliferating those poison counters. Planewide Celebration is a real finisher in this deck. If I can get everyone up to six poison counters I can play it and just proliferate four times to win the game.

Partners in Poison

I originally thought that not being in blue was going to be an issue, but as I worked on this list I ended up fairly happy with what I put together. I lost out on running Thrummingbird, but stumbled on Grateful Apparition. I'm not yet sure what the "all star" of this list will be, but I expect that it should have a few surprises and I may have to play it on Tabletop Simulator just to see how it does.

Partners in Poison | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commanders (2)
• 1 Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa
• 1 Tymna the Weaver

• Creatures (30)
• 1 Beast Whisperer
• 1 Bilious Skulldweller
• 1 Blight Mamba
• 1 Blightbelly Rat
• 1 Bloated Contaminator
• 1 Cankerbloom
• 1 Contaminant Grafter
• 1 Dune Mover
• 1 Evolution Sage
• 1 Flensermite
• 1 Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor
• 1 Glistener Elf
• 1 Grateful Apparition
• 1 Ichorclaw Myr
• 1 Ichorspit Basilisk
• 1 Keeper of Fables
• 1 Lost Leonin
• 1 Myr Convert
• 1 Necrogen Rotpriest
• 1 Necropede
• 1 Pestilent Syphoner
• 1 Plague Myr
• 1 Plague Nurse
• 1 Plague Stinger
• 1 Pollenbright Druid
• 1 Ria Ivor, Bane of Bladehold
• 1 Sheoldred's Headcleaver
• 1 Skrelv, Defector Mite
• 1 Venerated Rotpriest
• 1 Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

• Instants (7)
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Grim Affliction
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Unbounded Potential
• 1 Vraska's Fall
• 1 Whisper of the Dross

• Sorceries (15)
• 1 Carnivorous Canopy
• 1 Courage in Crisis
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Driven / Despair
• 1 Drown in Ichor
• 1 Fell the Mighty
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Nature's Lore
• 1 Nightmare Unmaking
• 1 Planewide Celebration
• 1 Rampant Growth
• 1 Smell Fear
• 1 Thirsting Roots
• 1 Unnatural Restoration
• 1 Vat Emergence

• Enchantments (3)
• 1 Guardian Project
• 1 Legion Loyalty
• 1 True Conviction

• Artifacts (6)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Contagion Clasp
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Sword of Truth and Justice

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Vraska, Betrayal's Sting

• Lands (36)
• 7 Forest
• 7 Plains
• 7 Swamp
• 1 City of Brass
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Deathcap Glade
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Inkmoth Nexus
• 1 Isolated Chapel
• 1 Karn's Bastion
• 1 Mirrex
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Shattered Sanctum
• 1 Sunpetal Grove
• 1 Temple Garden
• 1 Woodland Cemetery
• 1 Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth

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If you wanted to tune this deck up, you might lean towards more "goodstuff", throw in a Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon, Spinebiter, or more infect cards, but I don't think this concept has a very high ceiling. You could pivot to a dedicated combo deck chock full of tutors and a gameplan to win using Venerated Rotpriest. I think that game plan could have what it takes to compete at high powered tables, but I'm not sure you're going to be successful playing at cEDH tables.

I often conflate tuning a deck down with lowering a deck's cost in actual money, and while you might call that lazy thinking, power and money correlate pretty well. To tune this down you could drop out some of the pricier cards, but I don't think you can do much to drop the power level without radically changing what the deck is trying to do. You want to play small creatures that can give poison counters. You want to proliferate. You're hoping for a long enough game that you'll have enough turns to make that work and get everyone (but you) up to 10 poison counters.

It won't be easy, and you may have games where folks overreact to the fact that you're playing around with poison counters and hate you off the table. Hopefully you'll also have games where folks understand that infect and toxic aren't that strong and you probably aren't just going to win out of nowhere.

Winning Out of Nowhere

I generally feel like decks that "win out of nowhere" often don't really win out of nowhere.

There are usually indications that things are about to go badly for everyone. Someone might have an Ashnod's Altar and Impact Tremors on the field. There might be a Food Chain that hasn't been dealt with. A player might just be on a storm deck. OK - I kid... just being on a storm deck isn't a cause for alarm, but you get the idea. There are things to look for.

This deck has a grindy game plan, but there are a few ways that it might try to skip to the end.

Vraska, Betrayal's Sting is a planeswalker with a powerful final ability. For a cost of 9 loyalty counters you can put a player at 9 poison counters. This deck has enough proliferate cards that if you put someone to 9 poison counters you should be able to seal the deal. This only affects one player, but it's nice to have that shortcut - especially if you have someone who you haven't been able to get to yet. Going from 0 to 9 poison counters will be a shock, but they will likely have had a few turns to try to remove Vraska before you can use her "limit break".

True Conviction is an enchantment that will give your creatures double strike and lifelink. That might not seem like much, but that should double the rate at which your toxic and infect creatures will be handing out poison counters. If that isn't enough, Legion Loyalty, another enchantment, will give your creatures myriad. The myriad keyword lets you create a token copy of a creature when it attacks for each opponent that the original creature isn't attacking. Those token copies enter the battlefield tapped and attacking those other opponents.

Between those two enchantments you could really ramp up your attack and if your creatures are all two or less power and Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa is on the field, they're probably going to get through blockers. Again, opponents with flyers will be safe from your combat tricks, but that doesn't mean you can't deal with them - it's just a bit harder.

Early Results

I was able to get this deck into a game with my Thursday night Tabletop Simulator group. It was a three-player game and had all of the worst facets of three player EDH games. One player got out ahead. Another player had terrible luck. Lacking that fourth player made it that much less likely that someone would have an answer for a player spiraling out of control. In our first game of the night that player that ran away with it was me. In our second game, where I switched decks to play Mishra, Claimed by Gix, that player was the one who got stuck on one land and did nothing for the entirety of the first game. A 3-player game is better than no game at all, so we did our best to play and have fun, and fun was had.

Sidar Kondo and Tymna did well. I was up against an Arcades, the Strategist, a flying, vigilant Elder Dragon that plays well with walls and creatures with defender. The other deck was Kodama of the East Tree, a legendary Spirit with reach. I was expecting a bad game, as both of my opponents had creatures who could block my toxic weenies even if Sidar Kondo was on the field.

The Arcades player was the one who had terrible luck and didn't draw into lands with any regularity. I was able to start dishing out poison counters early on, but it took a while before I got any on the Kodama player, who seemed to draw into all of their dragons and continually had flying blockers in place. My opening came when they forgot to leave enough blockers for a Sheoldred's Headcleaver that I had on my battlefield. Headcleaver has Toxic 2 and Menace, so without at least two flying/reach blockers I would be able to get through and start giving them poison counters.

Once both of my opponents had poison counters I was able to start attacking and proliferating until I had them at six and seven poison counters and was ready to use the Planewide Celebration that had been in my hand since the early game.

My only problem was that the Kodama player had a Null Brooch on the field. That old artifact costs four mana and for another two can be tapped to let you discard your hand and counter target noncreature spell! The Planewide Celebration and Legion Loyalty that were stuck in my hand were never going to resolve so long as that Null Brooch was untapped and ready to be used.

I didn't draw into any artifact removal, but even if I did it likely would have been countered. I had been drawing a ton of cards, thanks to Tymna and Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor, and had an Evolution Sage in the graveyard thanks to a recent Blasphemous Act. I also had a lot of mana, so I was able to bait out the Null Brooch activation.

I attempted to cast Unnatural Restoration, targeting Evolution Sage to be returned to my hand. The Kodama player was at 7 poison counters and had to assume that they would go to 8 since Unnatural Restoration would let me proliferate, and I'd then play Evolution Sage and play a land to proliferate again and put them at 9 poison counters. It was a gamble, but it was a gamble that would only cost me two mana. They didn't want to take the risk and activated Null Brooch, discarded their hand and countered Unnatural Restoration.

The opening was there. I had eight more mana available to me and tapped seven of it to cast Planewide Celebration to proliferate four times and win the game!

Any deck playing infect is probably going to have a much easier time at a three-player table than at a four player table, but we played with what we had and it worked out pretty well for me. I think the deck could probably compete against more opponents, but it would certainly have a harder time.

While my own plane may have been the only one celebrating, nobody was salty or complaining about 10 poison counters not being "fair". As fate would have it, in our second game I was the player who did next to nothing, thanks to a lot of bad luck in how my Mishra deck played and drew into cards that didn't fit what I needed at the time. Variance is real, and if you play enough Commander you get used to the fact that in casual play you occasionally get a non-game for no good reason than bad luck.

It was nice to get a game in with this list and I'm definitely of the opinion that it's a good build that will make for some fun and exciting games. You may even win a few of them along the way if luck is on your side and tablemates don't just dogpile you for the sin of playing with poison counters.

Final Thoughts

Most of my decks are somewhat focused. They try to do something specific and they lean into their chosen strategy a lot. Any of these first drafts come with the caveat that they would likely get tuned and updated as I get a chance to play with them and see what is working and what is not working.

Most of my wins with infect have come thanks to cards like Triumph of the Hordes or Chandra's Ignition (targeting a creature with infect). This is more of a grindy deck that hopes for a long enough game to be able to slowly build up to kill everyone. I've played this kind of deck before, but have found that the combination of being weak to boardwipes and having players overreact to infect make it very hard to win games - even when playing with 10 poison counters.

That said - just last night I lost a game at a table where two of my tablemates were playing decks that used toxic, infect and proliferate. They were buds, but I don't think they were "ganging up" on the rest of the table. I came relatively close to winning with a brand new Mishra, Claimed by Gix "meld" deck, but I didn't correctly identify the right person to attack late in the game and that error probably cost me the win. I'm not terrible at threat assessment, but sometimes I "go easy" on the wrong person or try to spread out my attacks too much.

In casual games, my killer instinct sometimes fails to show up, but it was still a fun game and a good time. I certainly did not feel salty or in the least bit "cheated" by dying to 10 poison counters.

I've beaten this dead horse plenty of times, but I'll close out today's column by suggesting that if you are playing with more than 10 poison counters to kill a player, you should consider actually playing by the rules. The rules of Magic and of EDH are that it takes 10 poison counters to kill a player. No less. No more.

I can't stop you from making whatever house rules you want to play by, but if you're nerfing poison because you think it's overpowered, I think you do yourself a disservice.

Not only is it not an overpowered mechanic - adding in more interaction to try to keep from dying to poison counters will also help to keep you from dying from other threats.

You can instead just build a Melira, Sylvok Outcast deck. I once built Sigarda, Host of Herons when it looked like I was going to be dealing with a lot of forced-sacrifice effects in my local meta and not only was the deck fun - it's still together and still does well in games.

There's always an answer, short of changing the rules, flipping tables or throwing tantrums. I'd urge you to explore your options and to talk to your playgroup before changing a fundamental aspect of the game because you don't like to lose in a certain way.

That's all I've got for you today. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!