Magic: The Gathering has always had an interesting history. Infect is a keyword that comes from that rich history. Released in the block Scars of Mirrodin, Infect's flavor was supposed to reflect how Phyrexians would slowly take over something, either consuming them or converting them into whatever they were.

The first time Infect made its way onto a card was in 2010 and it changed the way we saw damage being dealt. The exact wording for Infect on reminder text says:

This creature deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters and to players in the form of poison counters.

For those who have played for a while, and know about the keyword Wither [https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/mechanics-of-Magic-wither], this looks a lot like that, but what are poison counters? For that, we'll have to look a little further into Magic's history.

Poisoned To Death: A Rules Reminder

Infect may have been a mechanic released in the 2010s, but it relied on something established in Magic since Legends, in 1994. Poison counters first showed up on two cards, Pit Scorpion and Serpent Generator. Those cards gave poison counters to players, and with ten counters, players would die.

Scars of Mirrodin resurrected poison counters, but changed it into a replacement effect for damage. That means, when an infect creature deals damage to a player, they don't lose life. Instead, they get that many poison counters.

An interesting side effect is that infect creatures (like wither creatures) deal damage to creatures in -1/-1 counters meaning they can potentially kill indestructible creatures. Indestructible creatures die as a state-based effect if their toughness is ever reduced to zero.

While this was brand-new design space being explored by the team, some players maintain Infect is one of the worst Magic mechanics [https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/franklepore-seo-11212024-worst-Magic-mechanics] ever developed.

Infect Was Powerful, But Balanced...

Most of the infect creatures printed in Scars of Mirrodin were small creatures, potentially coming down early and chipping in for a bit of damage. The rest of the set introduced another mechanic called Proliferate, that allowed players to add counters of any type that already existed, including poison counters. It was obvious that these mechanics were meant to play together.

The larger infect creatures like Skithiryx, The Blight Dragon and Chained Throatseeker were bigger, but costed a lot more and were meant to close out the game. However, if you could stick some early threats and swing in for damage while making those threats bigger you could close the game out much faster than expected.

The Infect mechanic truly shined when the Modern format was established [https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/mikelinnemann-121615-infect-and-my-lucky-charms]. Infect creatures could get in for small damage at the start of the game, then get pumped to dealing as much as ten damage on turn 3. For a time, Infect was a top-tier deck in Modern, before bannings and power creep crippled it.

Notable Infect Cards for Commander

Out of the 56 cards printed that reference Infect, there are some notable standouts. The heavy hitters that see play in Commander across many decks are Blightsteel Colossus, Corrupted Conscience, and Triumph of the Hordes.

Additionally, cards like Tainted Strike, Grafted Exoskeleton, Phyresis, and Inkmoth Nexus see play in some Commander builds that are trying to maximize their effectiveness with as small a profile as possible.

Likelihood Of Return

Unfortunately, Infect has a bit of a polarizing effect on players. Some love it, some hate it, but few are indifferent about it. That probably explains why Mark Rosewater decided against including it in the Phyrexia: All Will Be One expansion [https://Magic.wizards.com/en/news/making-Magic/odds-and-ends-2023-part-1]. It's not a terribly broken mechanic, but it's still unlikely to make a solid return in a Standard-format set. It was last printed in Unfinity, making me think that it'll be limited to non-Standard-legal sets in the future.

That said, there's an argument that poison may be bad for Commander [https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/jumbocommander-01302023-is-poison-bad-for-commander] as a whole. Reducing the game from 20 life to 10 isn't such a big deal as reducing it from 40 to 10. Sitting at around a seven on the Storm Scale, it's not impossible we see it return, but it's already been ousted by a "fairer" version of infect called Toxic [https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/mikelikes-02162023-getting-toxic-in-one-standard].

Infect is a fun mechanic to play, but it's not a fun mechanic to have to deal with. If you're short on removal, a tiny 1/1 weenie could spell disaster for your entire game.

Have you ever played an infect game or put on a Grafted Exoskeleton on a creature and swung in for game? If not, you don't know what you're missing!