What it does
Toxic is a keyword found on creatures, written as "Toxic N." When a creature with toxic deals combat damage to a player, that player also gets N poison counters—in addition to the normal damage. A player loses the game once they accumulate 10 poison counters. Toxic stacks with infect-style effects and with multiple toxic creatures, so the counters add up across a turn.
The big nuance: toxic does NOT replace the damage like infect does. The player takes regular combat damage to their life total AND receives poison counters. Also, toxic only triggers on combat damage to players—not from abilities, noncombat damage, or damage to planeswalkers/creatures.
In Commander, poison is a sneaky alternate win condition that ignores big life totals. With four opponents, toxic creatures plus proliferate (which adds counters) can close out games surprisingly fast, sidestepping lifegain decks entirely.
Iconic cards with Toxic
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