Infect Meets Toxic: A Deep Dive into Magic’s Poisonous Pair
When a creature in Magic: The Gathering possesses both the infect and toxic abilities, something particularly nasty happens. Instead of being mutually exclusive, the effects stack additively, creating a potent threat for your opponent. The creature deals damage normally to planeswalkers, and it delivers poison counters to players based on the combined effects of both abilities during combat. This combination can lead to faster and more dangerous poison-based victories. Let’s explore the intricate details of how these abilities interact and how they can impact gameplay.
Understanding Infect and Toxic Individually
Before diving into their interaction, let’s recap each ability’s mechanics:
- Infect: Damage dealt by a source with infect to a player doesn’t cause life loss; instead, that player receives the same number of poison counters. Damage to creatures is dealt in the form of -1/-1 counters instead of regular damage. Importantly, damage from a source with infect affects planeswalkers normally.
- Toxic: Whenever a creature with toxic deals combat damage to a player, that player receives a number of poison counters equal to the toxic value of that creature.
The Synergistic Horror: When Infect and Toxic Collide
The interaction becomes interesting when a creature has both abilities. Imagine a creature with infect and toxic 2.
Here’s the breakdown:
- Combat Damage: The creature deals combat damage to a player.
- Poison Counter Application: The player receives poison counters equal to the toxic value (in this case, 2) plus an additional number of poison counters equal to the combat damage inflicted.
- Planeswalker Damage: If the damage is directed at a planeswalker, it takes damage as normal, not in the form of poison counters or -1/-1 counters.
Example:
- A 3/3 creature with infect and toxic 2 attacks a player and is unblocked.
- The player receives 5 poison counters: 2 from the toxic ability + 3 from the infect ability.
- If that same creature attacks a planeswalker, the planeswalker simply loses 3 loyalty counters.
This synergistic effect makes creatures with both abilities potentially game-ending threats. The cumulative nature of poison counters can quickly overwhelm an opponent, leading to a victory through poison rather than life loss.
Strategic Implications
The combination of infect and toxic offers several strategic advantages:
- Faster Poisoning: The added poison counters from both abilities accelerate the opponent’s demise.
- Versatility: These creatures can threaten both players (through poison) and planeswalkers (through normal damage), making them adaptable to various game states.
- Synergy with Proliferate: Both poison counters from infect and toxic can be amplified using proliferate effects, further accelerating the win condition.
- Deathtouch becomes even better: Add Deathtouch to an infect creature with toxic and an opponent is in severe trouble!
FAQs: Deeper Dive into Infect and Toxic
Here are some frequently asked questions to clarify further how infect and toxic work, especially when combined:
1. Are infect and toxic considered combat damage?
Yes, both infect and toxic are triggered by combat damage. If the damage is prevented, neither ability’s effect (applying poison counters) occurs.
2. Can a creature have multiple instances of toxic?
Yes, a creature can have multiple instances of toxic. These instances are cumulative. For example, a creature with toxic 1 that gains another toxic 1 ability now has a total toxic value of 2.
3. Does trample interact differently with infect and toxic?
Trample works as expected. If a creature with infect, toxic, and trample is blocked, it must assign lethal damage (which would be -1/-1 counters) to the blocking creature(s) before assigning any remaining damage to the defending player, who then gets poison counters based on the creature’s toxic value and the remaining damage from infect.
4. What happens if a creature with infect and toxic is blocked by a creature with deathtouch?
Deathtouch means any amount of damage a creature deals is considered lethal. If a creature with deathtouch blocks a creature with infect and toxic, it only needs to assign 1 damage to the attacking creature to kill it.
5. Can you proliferate poison counters from infect and toxic?
Absolutely! Proliferate adds a counter of each kind already on a permanent or player. This includes poison counters from both infect and toxic, making proliferate a powerful tool in poison-based strategies.
6. Is toxic a counter in MTG?
No, toxic itself is not a counter. It’s a keyword ability that causes a player to receive poison counters when the creature deals combat damage.
7. Does hexproof stop infect or toxic?
Hexproof only prevents spells or abilities your opponents control from targeting the permanent or player with hexproof. Infect and toxic do not target, so hexproof does not prevent them.
8. How does protection interact with infect and toxic?
Protection prevents damage from sources with the specified quality. For example, a creature with protection from green would prevent damage (and therefore poison counters) from a green creature with infect or toxic.
9. What happens if a creature has infect, toxic, and lifelink?
If a creature with infect, toxic, and lifelink deals combat damage, the controller of the creature gains life equal to the damage dealt to planeswalkers. Lifelink does not interact with poison counters.
10. Does indestructible protect against infect?
Indestructible means a permanent can’t be destroyed by damage or “destroy” effects. However, it doesn’t prevent damage from being dealt. Therefore, an indestructible creature will still get -1/-1 counters from a creature with infect, but it won’t be destroyed by lethal damage from an infect source.
11. How does infect/toxic damage affect planeswalkers?
Damage from a source with infect affects planeswalkers normally. It causes them to lose loyalty counters equal to the damage dealt.
12. Is infect better than toxic?
Neither infect nor toxic is inherently “better.” Their effectiveness depends on the context and strategy. Infect scales with the creature’s power, potentially leading to rapid poisoning. Toxic provides a fixed number of poison counters, which can be useful in specific scenarios and combos.
13. If a creature has toxic 1 twice, how many poison counters are applied?
A creature with toxic 1 twice applies 2 poison counters when it deals combat damage to a player.
14. Can a creature with protection from creatures block a creature with infect and toxic?
Yes, but protection from creatures would prevent all damage dealt by the attacking creature with infect and toxic to the protecting creature. It would not prevent the protecting creature from being sacrificed from things such as exploit.
15. What are some good strategies for building a deck around infect and toxic?
Key strategies include:
- Proliferate: Use cards that proliferate to rapidly increase poison counters.
- Evasion: Ensure your creatures can bypass blockers with abilities like flying, trample, or unblockable.
- Protection: Protect your creatures with spells or abilities that grant hexproof, indestructible, or protection from colors.
- Pump Spells: Use pump spells to increase the power of your infect creatures, maximizing the number of poison counters applied.
Final Thoughts
The interaction between infect and toxic adds depth to deck-building and gameplay, offering players new avenues for victory. Understanding these mechanics, their synergies, and their counters is crucial for mastering Magic: The Gathering.
To further your understanding of game mechanics and their impact on learning and engagement, consider exploring resources like the Games Learning Society, found at GamesLearningSociety.org. This community fosters research and discussion on how games can enhance educational outcomes.