Overview:

This Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa deck focuses on poison counters through toxic/infect creatures and proliferate synergies. While it has a clear gameplan, it lacks fast combos, sufficient protection, and high-tier interaction, positioning it as a focused casual build with moderate poison acceleration and midrange value.

Primer:

Core Strategy: The deck aims to apply early poison counters via toxic/infect creatures like Bilious Skulldweller and Ichor Rats, then proliferate them to lethal levels using Evolution Sage and Contagion Clasp. Key phases:

• Poison Setup: Deploy 1-2 toxic creatures by T3-4 (e.g., Plague Stinger, Blight Mamba) to establish initial counters
• Proliferation Engine: Use Grateful Apparition attacks and proliferate triggers to escalate poison while maintaining board presence
• Corrupted Payoffs: Activate Ixhel's card theft ability and Phyresis Outbreak damage scaling once opponents reach 3+ poison

Mulligan Priorities:

• Keep hands with 3 lands (including color fixing) and 1-2 toxic creatures
• Prioritize T2 proliferate enablers (Blightbelly Rat, Cankerbloom) over slow value pieces
• Reject hands without early poison vectors or excessive taplands

Key Tips:

• Protect critical proliferators like Contaminant Grafter with Ghostly Prison tax effects
• Time Phyrexian Swarmlord to create lethal insect tokens post-proliferation
• Use Grafted Exoskeleton as a surprise infect finisher on evasive creatures
• Leverage Ixhel's stolen cards for unexpected interaction/ramp

Avoid Traps:

• Overextending before establishing tax effects (Windborn Muse)
• Holding proliferate triggers for maximum poison stack rather than incremental gains
• Casting high-cost sorceries like Wurmquake without sufficient poison setup

Weaknesses:

Critical:

• No protection for key creatures (0 hexproof sources)
• Slow poison application (requires 10+ proliferate triggers) Moderate:
• Weak to board wipes (limited recursion beyond Vat Emergence)
• Relies on combat damage for poison (evasion limited to 4 flying creatures) Minor:
• Mana base has 11 taplands slowing early plays

Most Important Cards:

• Ichor Rats (Global poison starter)
• Phyrexian Swarmlord (Token snowball)
• Grafted Exoskeleton (Infect enabler)
• Evolution Sage (Landfall proliferate)
• Contagion Clasp (Repeatable proliferate)
• Grateful Apparition (Combat proliferate)
• Phyresis Outbreak (Poison-based board clear)
• Contaminant Grafter (Proliferate + card advantage)
• Vishgraz, the Doomhive (Token generator + scaling threat)
• Norn's Choirmaster (Commander-triggered proliferate)

Attribute Ratings:

Speed: 5/10

• Theoretical goldfish T7-8 win via ideal proliferate chains
• Requires multiple combat steps to spread poison Resilience: 4/10
• Limited recursion/protection beyond Swords to Plowshares
• Commander tax hurts Ixhel's 5CMC recast Consistency: 5/10
• 8 proliferate engines but only 3 tutors (Geth's Summons, Unnatural Restoration, Blightbelly Rat)
• Moderate card draw in Moldervine Reclamation Interaction: 4/10
• 10 targeted removal spells (mostly sorcery-speed)
• No free counterspells or stack interaction

Rating Justification:

This deck operates at the upper end of Focused Casual (4.5) but lacks the speed and redundancy for Optimized Casual (5.0). It compares to:

• 4.0 (Precon): Faster than stock poison precons with better proliferate density
• 5.0 (Optimized): Lacks Triumph of the Hordes/Tainted Strike finishers and free protection The reliance on combat damage for poison and moderate interaction ceiling keep it below true optimized builds.

Power level: 4.5 - 5.0