Every few yearsMagic: The Gatheringbrings poison counters back to the game, and with it come all sorts of new cards to poison out your opponents. There are tons of great poison cards printed over the years, many of which skip over damaging your opponents completely.
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As an alternate win condition to loss of life or other goofy methods, winning through poison counters requires you to put ten counters on an opponent. Once they hit ten counters, they automatically lose the game. There are lots of great ways to poison your opponents, but these cards are among the best in the game if you’re looking to fill up on poison counters.
10Inkmoth Nexus
A staple in Modern and Legacy Infect decks, Inkmoth Nexus is arguably one of the best man-lands ever printed in Magic. For just one mana you can turn this land into a 1/1 creature with flying and infect. Infect is an ability that modifies damage to be -1/-1 counters when done to creatures and in poison counters when done to players. With an Inkmoth Nexus in play, you only need to connect with the opponent ten times to poison them out, even less so if you have a pump spell or equipment to power through it.
9Fynn, The Fangbearer
Fynn, the Fangbearer might have felt a little out of place when it was released, given how it is the only card released in Kaldheim that interacts with poison counters. Fynn brings something different to the game with how it grants poison counters, however. It gives all your creatures with deathtouch the ability to deal out two poison counters when a creature with deathtouch deals combat damage to a player. This ability effectively gives all your creatures with deathtouch poisonous 2, taking creatures that are already more likely to deal damage to your opponents early on and turning them into massive threats.
8Skithiryx, The Blight Dragon
Another flying creature with infect, this timein the form of a massive Dragonthat puts out poison counters through infect damage. Skithiryx is a little lower on the power scale, only being a 4/4 for five damage, but it more than compensates for the lower stat line with its abilities.
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For extra black mana, you’re able to give Skithiryx haste, letting it attack the turn it comes out and start swinging. Even if your opponent has a way to deal with Skithiryx, you can pay double black mana to regenerate it and keep it around to terrorize the battlefield.
7Grafted Exoskeleton
One of the best ways to give a creature infect is through the equipment Grafted Exoskeleton. Whilethe equipment is a little pricey, sitting at four mana to cast and an additional two mana to attach it, it is immediately worth the cost, given how easily it makes winning the game. One of the fastest ways to close the game out with Grafted Exoskeleton is with Heartless Hidetsugu.
You tap Heartless Hidetsugu to deal damage to each player equal to half their life total, rounded down. So long as their life total is above 20, they’ll gain at least ten poison counters instead from Heartless Hidetsugu, instantly making them lose the game. Sure, you need some way to protect yourself with this method, but cards like Glacial Chasm, Angel’s Grace, or Melira, Sylvok Outcast can all save you with minimal work.
6Tyrranax Rex
It is hard to deny the power behind Tyrranax Rex and how much game designers wanted you to use this card in a poison deck. Even though it costs seven mana, you’ll never have to worry about losing your late game play since Tyrranax Rex cannot be countered, letting you cast it without worrying about being blown out on your game-winning play. Once it lands, Tyrranax Rex has ward 4 and haste, meaning it is attacking as soon as it comes down, and even if your opponent wants to stop it, your opponents are going to be taxed to oblivion to resolve the spell.
5Blighted Agent
Another staple in Modern and Legacy Infect, Blighted Agent is a tiny creature compared to some of the others included on this list. Despite this, the key component is that it is completely unblockable, letting you get free hits with its infect ability, slowly ticking the poison counters up on your opponent.
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It only takes a few hits with Blighted Agent when it’s pumped up through any number of spells to increase its power, multiplying the number of poison counters it hands out as its power grows.
4Venerated Rotpriest
What if there was a card that gave your opponents poison counters while you pumped up your infect creatures? Venerated Rotpriest fills that gap, handing out poison counters to an opponent whenever a creature you control becomes the target of a spell. That spell could be coming from you to pump up your creatures or from an opponent looking to remove a creature from play. Either way, the more target spells cast in a game, the faster your opponent gains poison counters.
3Blightsteel Colossus
Unstoppable, infectious,and never going away, Blightsteel Colossus is a card that is an impossible threat whenever it is played. With trample, infect, and indestructible, Blightsteel Colossus is either always pushing poison counters through or is taking out multiple creatures a turn to stop it. Even if Blightsteel Colossus is countered or would be put into the graveyard through other means, it still gets shuffled back into your deck, making it an unstoppable force that can always come back again.
2Vraska, Betrayal’s Sting
If you’re playing Vraska, Betrayal’s Sting with the goal to poison your opponents, you’re coming in for the long game. If cast for its full mana value, Vraska enters with six loyalty counters and needs to hit nine to use her final ability. That means you must protect it for at least four turns to maximize its poison potential. But once you get there, Vraska can put upwards of nine poison counters on your opponent, bringing them to the brink of a game loss with only a little investment in time.
1Triumph Of The Hordes
Even if you’re not playing a poison-based deck, Triumph of the Hordes is one of the best ways to poison out an opponent. Triumph of the Hordes gives all your creatures +1/+1, trample, and infect for a turn. With a big enough army, you can push through all your opponents' defenses to poison out all your opponents in a single turn. Don’t hesitate to play this card even if you’re not playing an infect-based deck; you can win a game or even just knock out an opponent or two with a decently sized board.
