How many poison counters do you need to win in MTG?
In Magic: The Gathering, the alternate win condition involving poison counters requires that you put ten poison counters on an opponent. Once an opponent accumulates ten poison counters, they automatically lose the game.
In Magic: The Gathering, you can be at 40 life, feeling safe, doing math like an adult… and still die to a 1/1 that looks like it crawled out of a science lab. Poison counters don’t care about your life total, your pillow-fort, or the fact you “would’ve stabilized next turn.”
They’re an alternate win condition, and they change the whole vibe of a game. If you’ve ever asked “wait, how does infect work again?” or “does proliferate add more poison?” or “is there any way to get rid of these things?”—good. You’re in the right place.
How many poison counters do you need to lose in MTG?
In most MTG games, a player loses the game at 10 poison counters.
It doesn’t happen as a dramatic cutscene. It’s a rules check. Once you have ten or more, you lose the next time the game checks state-based actions (which is basically “right after the current spell/ability finishes resolving, before anyone can do anything cute”).
Two-Headed Giant is different. In 2HG, poison is tracked for the team, and a team loses at 15 poison counters.
Commander note: it’s still 10 poison counters by default. Some playgroups house-rule it higher because they’re tired of dying to one hit from a giant robot, but that’s a social choice, not an official rules change.
Poison counters basics: what they are and how you get “poisoned”
Poison counters are counters on a player, not on a creature or permanent. That sounds like a technical detail, but it matters a lot. It’s why some counter-doubling cards don’t work, and why most “remove counters” cards don’t help.
A player with one or more poison counters is considered poisoned. That word shows up on newer cards and mechanics, because Wizards realized “ten or nothing” makes the first nine counters feel kind of pointless.
So how do you actually get poison counters?
Most of the time, it’s one of these:
- Infect (old-school “your life total is irrelevant” mode)
- Toxic (newer “you still take damage, and also poison” mode)
- Poisonous (older keyword that works like a triggered add-on)
- Spells/abilities that just hand out poison counters directly (no combat required)
Infect vs Toxic vs Poisonous: what’s the difference?
These three all lead to poison counters, but they don’t behave the same way. And that difference is exactly why some poison decks feel like a jump scare while others feel like a slow inevitability.
Infect
Infect changes what damage does.
- When an infect source deals damage to a player, that player doesn’t lose life from that damage. Instead, they get that many poison counters.
- When an infect source deals damage to a creature, it doesn’t mark damage normally. It puts that many -1/-1 counters on the creature.
This is why infect decks love pump spells. If your infect creature hits for 1, it’s annoying. If it hits for 6, the game suddenly has a timer on it. And if it hits for 10… well, shuffle up.
Toxic
Toxic adds poison counters on top of normal combat damage.
A toxic creature deals combat damage like normal (life total goes down), and then the player also gets poison counters equal to that creature’s toxic value.
Big difference: toxic is tied to the toxic number, not the amount of damage dealt. A creature with toxic 6 that hits for 1 still gives six poison counters. That’s not subtle.
Also: toxic cares specifically about combat damage to a player. If a toxic creature hits a planeswalker, toxic doesn’t do anything. If it deals noncombat damage, toxic doesn’t do anything.
Poisonous
Poisonous is a triggered ability.
“Poisonous N” means: whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, that player gets N poison counters.
It’s similar to toxic in practice, but it’s not the same rules text. Poisonous is an “after you got hit” trigger-style mechanic. Toxic is written as a keyword ability with a defined rules hook. Both end up at the same place: poison counters on players.
Corrupted (the “poison matters earlier” knob)
Corrupted isn’t a keyword ability you “use” like infect or toxic. It’s an ability word that shows up on cards that care if an opponent has three or more poison counters.
That number is important. Corrupted turns poison from “you either got to ten or you didn’t” into “getting them to three unlocks discounts, buffs, or extra text.”
So yes, sometimes the first three poison counters matter more than the next six.
Rules interactions people get wrong (or argue about mid-game)
This is the part where friendships go to die. Let’s save everyone some time.
“Does infect count as damage?”
Yes. Infect changes the result of damage, but it’s still damage being dealt. That’s why it interacts with things that care about damage.
Infect + lifelink
Lifelink still works. If your infect creature has lifelink (or gets it), you can still gain life when it deals damage—even though the damage doesn’t make your opponent lose life.
It’s weird the first time you see it. Then it becomes “oh right, Magic is like this.”
Infect + trample
Trample still works, but you still have to assign lethal damage to blockers before trampling over. With infect, “lethal” is still based on toughness (and anything reducing toughness, like -1/-1 counters already on it).
In practice: trample makes infect scarier because chump blocks stop being a complete solution.
Double strike
Double strike means two combat damage steps. If the creature deals combat damage in both steps, you’re getting poison twice (infect) or getting toxic twice (toxic).
This is why double strike plus poison mechanics makes people start reading every card at the table, slowly.
Damage prevention and Fog effects
If the combat damage gets prevented, you usually prevent the poison that would have come from that combat damage.
- Prevent the damage → no infect damage event → no poison counters from that hit.
- Prevent the damage → no combat damage event → toxic doesn’t apply.
Proliferate and poison
Proliferate can add poison counters only if the player already has at least one. Proliferate doesn’t “start” poison from zero. It grows what’s already there.
Also, proliferate adds one more of each kind of counter the chosen player/permanent already has. It doesn’t double anything. It’s more like “everyone gets +1.”
Can you double poison counters? Can you remove them?
Short version: you can speed them up. You can sometimes remove them. But you can’t count on “poison removal” the way you count on life gain.
Doubling poison counters: what works and what doesn’t
Here’s the common trap:
- Doubling Season only doubles counters put on permanents you control. Players are not permanents. So it does not double poison counters.
- Cards that explicitly mention counters on a player can absolutely double poison counters.
A famous example is Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider, which doubles counters you would put on a permanent or player (and halves what opponents would put on a permanent or player). If you’re trying to make poison counters happen faster, this is the kind of text you’re looking for.
Removing poison counters: yes, but it’s awkward
Poison counters are intentionally hard to clean off. Most “remove counters” cards hit permanents, not players. And most of the player-counter hate is either narrow or political.
A few notable examples that matter for real gameplay:
- Leeches can remove poison counters from a player (old card, very specific).
- Suncleanser can make a target opponent lose all counters (and stop them from getting more counters while it stays on the battlefield). That can remove poison counters… from your opponent. Not from you.
- Final Act includes a mode where each opponent loses all counters. Again: great if you’re trying to de-poison the table. Not great if you’re the one who got poisoned.
So if your plan is “I’ll just remove poison later,” you’re basically planning to win a lottery ticket. The practical answer is still: don’t get poisoned in the first place, or slow it down so you can stabilize.
Prevention and “poison hate” pieces
If your meta has a lot of poison, these are the kinds of effects that matter:
- “Players can’t get counters” (hello, Solemnity)
- “You can’t get poison counters” (hello, Melira, Sylvok Outcast)
- “If you would get poison counters, you only get one and then you can’t get more this turn” (hello, Melira, the Living Cure)
These don’t erase what already happened (usually), but they stop the bleeding. And against poison decks, that’s often enough.
How poison decks win (and how to beat them)
Poison decks don’t all play the same. “Poison” is the win condition, not the plan. The plan changes depending on whether it’s infect, toxic, proliferate, or a mix.
How poison decks win
Infect: the burst kill
Infect decks often try to land a small infect creature early, then protect it and pump it for one or two huge swings.
This is why infect feels unfair when you first see it. You weren’t really “dying over time.” You were alive until you weren’t.
Toxic: pressure plus inevitability
Toxic plays more like a normal combat deck… except every hit is also adding poison counters. It stacks two clocks at once: your life total and your poison total.
Toxic decks also tend to like corrupted payoffs. Getting you to three poison counters can be step one, not step nine.
Proliferate: the “one counter is enough” plan
A lot of poison decks don’t need to hit you ten times. They need to hit you once… and then proliferate repeatedly.
That’s why the first poison counter is a big deal. Once you’re on the board, you’re eligible for the slow squeeze.
How to beat poison decks
You don’t need a silver bullet. You need discipline.
- Respect the first threat.
Against infect, the first creature matters more than the fifth. Kill it. Block it. Trade with it. Don’t take two poison “because you’re saving removal.” - Block early, even if it feels bad.
Trading a creature for an infect attacker is often correct. Poison decks want you to treat their 1/1 like it’s harmless. It isn’t. - Don’t let proliferate turn on.
If you can avoid taking the first poison counter, do it. Once you’re at one, every proliferate effect becomes a real spell. - If your group hates poison, say it out loud before the game.
Commander is a social format. Nobody enjoys a surprise rules lecture attached to a Blightsteel Colossus. Have the “are we okay with poison today?” chat early and move on with your lives.
A quick history of poison in MTG
Poison counters have been around forever in Magic terms, but they were niche for a long time. Then infect showed up and made poison a real deck plan instead of a weird trivia mechanic.
More recently, Wizards brought poison back in a big way with toxic, corrupted, and a bunch of cards that made poison feel more like a modern, supported strategy instead of “that one deck your friend built to be annoying.”
And yes, it still annoys people. Some traditions are important.
Final thoughts
Poison counters are simple in the rules and spicy in real games. Ten counters and you’re out. But the strategy around that rule is where all the real decisions live.
If you’re playing poison, you’re managing tempo and protection and the threat of proliferate. If you’re playing against poison, you’re managing risk. You can’t just “take a hit” the way you can against normal damage. The counters don’t heal, and the clock is real.
And if you’re testing poison decks casually, proxies are honestly the easiest way to iterate without committing to a pile of niche cards you’ll either love forever or ban from your playgroup after one night. Your call.
