Magic just brought back its deadliest mechanic and put it in the command zone

Magic: The Gathering’s Marvel Super Heroes set certainly feels more ambitious than we’d expected — especially compared to the Spider-Man one from last year — and one new card in particular is getting a lot of attention for those who really want to upset the table. In May, Magic head designer Mark Rosewater teased a new card that would bring poison counters back to the game. Now, we finally know what card he was referring to, and it’s even worse than we imagined.

The Serpent Society is a legendary creature that costs three mana to play (one green, one black, and one colorless). It has 3/4 power and toughness, deathtouch, and a Ward cost of “Get five poison counters.” Its final line of text is a triggered ability that reads: “Whenever another creature you control with deathtouch dies, each opponent sacrifices a nontoken creature of their choice.”

Poison counters, which debuted in 1994’s Legends set, are a mechanic that accumulates on a player rather than anything on the battlefield. Once a player has 10 poison counters, they lose the game. Notably, this was a powerful mechanic in Magic at the time, but it’s even scarier in Commander where you start with 40 life instead of 20. If you choose Serpent Society as your commander, that means each opponent only gets to target it once before they automatically lose the game. Yikes!

With that in mind, it’s impressive that the card’s other ability might be even more worrisome. Green and black (aka, Golgari) has plenty of creatures with deathtouch, along with ways to give creatures deathtouch. Basilisk Collar is a cheap piece of equipment that gives a creature deathtouch and lifelink, while Bow of Nylea can give all of your attacking creatures deathtouch. Ohran Frostfang has the same ability as the latter, except it also triggers card draw when you hit a foe. Vorpal Sword not only gives a creature +2/+0 and deathtouch, but with some extra mana, it can literally take another player out of the game. Through Fynn, the Fangbearer in there to really crank up the pain.

Alternatively, if you’ve got an Atraxa, Praetor’s Voice Commander deck already, Serpent Society is an auto-include. Not only does Atraxa let you proliferate your opponent’s poison counters each turn, but if they try to kill your commander while Serpent Society is out, they’ll have to sacrifice a creature of their own.

Proliferate is a deadly mechanic in general with this new commander, so any cards that do it should go in your Serpent Society deck — not that you’d ever make one, right?

Image: Wizards of the Coast, Victor Adame Minguez

Whatever your poison, there’s an awful lot of potential in The Serpent Society, and as someone who just finished building an Atraxa, Praetor’s Voice deck, I think I may have to sneak it in at the cost of something else.