Overview:
A poison counter-focused deck led by Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa, utilizing toxic and infect creatures to spread poison counters while leveraging card advantage through the commander's corrupted ability.
Primer:
The deck aims to establish early poison pressure through low-cost toxic/infect creatures like Plague Stinger and Bilious Skulldweller. Once opponents have three or more poison counters, Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa enables card advantage by letting you play exiled cards from opponents' libraries. The deck includes proliferate effects to accelerate poison counter accumulation and various protection pieces to maintain board presence. The strategy involves balancing aggressive poison distribution with resource generation through the commander's ability.
Weaknesses:
The deck is vulnerable to creature removal and board wipes, which can severely hamper the poison counter strategy. The reliance on combat damage for poison counters makes it susceptible to pillow fort strategies and defensive builds. The deck also struggles against faster combo decks that can win before the poison strategy becomes effective.
Top 10 Most Impactful Cards:
- Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa
- Evolution Sage
- Phyrexian Swarmlord
- Contagion Clasp
- Ichor Rats
- Grafted Exoskeleton
- Norn's Decree
- Contaminant Grafter
- Glistening Sphere
- Karn's Bastion
Attribute Ratings:
- Speed: 4/10
- Resilience: 5/10
- Consistency: 5/10
- Interaction: 6/10
Rating Justification:
This deck operates at a focused casual level, with a clear gameplan but requiring multiple turns to establish meaningful pressure. While it includes some strong interaction pieces and has a coherent strategy, it lacks the explosive speed and consistency of higher-powered decks. The combination of poison counters and card advantage through the commander provides a unique angle of attack, but the reliance on combat damage and slower setup time keeps it from competing with more optimized builds.
Final power level rating: 4.5 - 5.0
Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa