Poisonous

Poisonous is a keyword ability that allows the use of multiple poison counters. It was introduced in Future Sight, though the concept of poison counters is as old as Legends (e.g. Pit Scorpion, Serpent Generator).

Description
Poisonous has only been printed on two cards so far, the timeshifted Snake Cult Initiation and Virulent Sliver.

This was Mark Rosewater planting a flag in the ground that poison was going to return one day. He basically just keyworded how poison had always been used in the past. Poison would later return with Infect in Scars of Mirrodin. As Infect has its own issues, maybe one day poisonous will get another chance.

During design, poisonous was known as venom.

Rulings

 * If all damage that a poisonous creature would deal to a player is prevented, the poisonous ability won't trigger (see rule 119.8).
 * The player will get the stated number of poison counters each time the poisonous creature deals combat damage to him or her, regardless of how much damage that creature dealt.
 * If a player has ten poison counters, that player loses the game.
 * Although several older cards give players poison counters, none of those cards have abilities that trigger on combat damage.

Older cards
Many older cards referencing poison counters use a wording very similar to the poisonous keyword, but trigger on any damage, rather than just combat damage. To avoid changing functionality, no errata were made for these cards when the poisonous keyword was introduced.


 * Crypt Cobra
 * Marsh Viper
 * Pit Scorpion
 * Sabertooth Cobra
 * Serpent Generator</c>
 * Suq'Ata Assassin</c>
 * Swamp Mosquito</c>
 * Leeches</c>