With Phyrexia:: All will be One leaks already coming out on thing has been made clear. The Phyrexians are coming to bring the pain. A new key word, Toxic, is already been seen on cards and been mention in other rumors and we will be getting into what this could mean for the next standard set and how we think it will work.
Let’s start with where it was seen. The card below is the first full shot we got of a card with the key word on it. There is one other that has been “spoiled” but it was only half the card. Seeing the mechanic like this I do not believe that it will give poison counters. If that was the case why not just use the poisonous key word. It won’t be -1/-1 counters instead of damage, that is the wither key word. So why make a brand new mechanic for the new Phyrexians?
A Theory I have seen tossed around, and I tend to lead this way as well, is that toxic would give defending player a poison counter if the creature were to become blocked. This adds a new layer to poison counters and makes it much more interesting to see what your opponent will do. This to me is the leading theory.
Many others seem to think its just a remaking of the poisonous mechanic that gave poison counters when the creature did damage equal it the number. This would be a par for the course lately but I think WoTC would still have just have went with bringing the old mechanic back instead of making a brand new one.
The only other theory we have been tossing around here at AoE is that possible this would be a type of counter that you got for attacking and/or doing damage with creatures. This could tie into other creatures or cards that did different things based on the amount of Toxic counters you had. This would also be very interesting to me and make your opponent make hard choices to stop you from getting the amount of toxic counters you needed.
There was also this post that came up with the Toxic keyword on the MTGRumor subreddit (credit to very cool card games where I saw this)
I just imagined a Blightsteel Colossus rework for All in ONE :
WarSteel Colossus 13 Artifact Creature – Golem Trampling, Toxic 10, Indestructible
If Warsteel colossus is placed in grevayard from anywhere, reveal Warsteel colossus and shuffle it into its owner’s library instead.
https://www.vintageccg.com/ccg-news/phyrexia-all-will-be-one-leaks-rumors-and-spoilers/?fbclid=IwAR2z6VnwMcLSkLr4MHmryUUlTF6IlHil0zajqKnPuj2BEeMU2Em6g7vZZng
This card would be insane and whether or not is was poison counters on damage or on the creature being blocked… this thing will get through for massive damage and it has trample on top of that. I wouldn’t hold your breath for this one.
What do you guys think? Will there be a new Phyrexian Colossus walking battlefields soon? What will Toxic do as a mechanic? Let me know your thoughts and if you are excited to see poison counters back in standard or if you wish they would have been left in the past.
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