Hello everyone!  Welcome to standard weekly!

A large chunk of the cards from Phyrexia: All Will Be one have been spoiled.  Based on the previews so far, at least a couple of new decks should enter standard once the set is legal.  There are also new cards that should find homes in already existing decks.

One of the new decks will be Toxic.  Already previewed are a group of cards that should become the core of the deck.  This is what I will look at today.  I am not going to theory craft the deck at this point.  Rather I will go through the card that fit in the deck, but all of them will not make the final cut.  The most likely color combination for the deck will either be Selesnya or Jund.

In white, Annex Sentry, Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines, Mondrak, Glory Dominus, Skrelv, Defector Mite, Skrelv’s Hive, and White Sun’s Twilight all have a chance to become part of the deck.

Annex Sentry’s ability to exile a target artifact or creature an opponent controls with mana value 3 or less until Annex Sentry leaves the battlefield gives the deck a removal option that serves as an effective blocker. 

Elesh Norn can cause a triggered ability of a permanent you control to activate an additional time.  This goes well with triggered abilities of many of the cards that fit in the Toxic deck. 

Mondrak, Glory Dominus doubles the number of tokens created under your control.

Skrelv, Defector Mite has toxic 1 and can tap to give another creature you control with toxic 1, hexproof from a color, and it can’t be blocked by creatures of the chosen color.  This should allow that creature to damage your opponent and give him/her a toxic counter. 

Skrelv’s Hive is an enchantment that creates a 1/1 colorless Phyrexian Mite artifact creature token with toxic 1 and “This creature can’t block” each turn.  This will create a Mite army over the course of the game. 

Finally, White Sun’s Twilight can create Phyrexian Mite Artifact tokens and if X is 5 or more, the spell destroys all other creatures.  White offers a good core for the Toxic deck.

Black adds additional cards for toxic. 

Bilious Skulldweller, Blightbelly Rat, Karumonix, the Rat King, and Nimraiser Paladin are options for the deck.

Bilious Skulldweller has deathtouch and toxic 1. 

This makes it an effect one drop for the deck.  Blightbelly Rat has toxic 1 and when it dies, proliferate.  The proliferate ability should add an additional counter when it dies pushing forward the decks game plan. 

Karumonix, the Rat King has toxic 1, gives other rats toxic 1, and allows you to look at the top 5 cards of your library when Karumonix enters the battlefield. 

You may reveal any number of Rat cards from among them and put the revealed cards into your hand.  This helps push your game plan by giving more creatures toxic and should allow you to get an extra card or two when it enters play.

The final black card is Nimraiser Paladin. 

It has a high cost of 5 mana but has a 4/4 body with toxic 2 and can return a creature card with mana value 3 or less from your graveyard to your hand.  At 5 mana, Nimraiser Paladin is probably too expensive for the deck, but its ability to get a creature out of your graveyard is a solid ability that should advance the decks game plan.  Right now, black does not have a slam dunk card to include in the deck, but the cards it offers are solid supporting pieces.

The final color for toxic is green.  Green offers a group of powerful cards with toxic to add to the deck.  The cards include Bloated Contaminator, Nissa, Ascended Animist, Paladin of Predation, Tyrranax Rex, Venerated Rotpriest, and Viral Spawning.

Bloated Contaminator is a 3 mana 4/4 Phyrexian beast with trample and toxic 1. 

These stats on there own are outstanding, but that is not all that Bloated Contaminator does.  When it deals combat damage to an opponent it allows you to proliferate.  This means that your opponent would get an additional poison counter each turn it does damage to an opponent.

While Nissa, Ascended Animist does not offer a toxic ability, her -7 ability gives creatures you control +1/+1 for each forest you control and trample. 

When you activate this ability either your opponent should die from life loss or from the accumulation of poison counters. 

Paladin of Predation has toxic 6 and it cannot be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less. 

Paladin of Predation’s high mana cost will probably make it difficult to play, but as a one of in a deck it might be what a Toxic deck needs to finish off an opponent.

Tyrranax Rex might be the best card in the set. 

This 7 mana Phyrexian dinosaur is a true monster.  First, it cannot be countered when you cast it.  Second, its abilities, trample, ward 4, and haste, mean that it should do damage the turn it enters play and get an opponent close to dying from poison counters.  The high cost of Tyrranax Rex is a limiting factor, but the power level of the card makes it a must-include in the deck.

Venerated Rotpriest offers a good one-mana spell and is a card that an opponent will want off the battlefield quickly because when a creature you control becomes the target of a spell, target opponent gets a poison counter. 

This means that spells that you control that target Venerated Rotpriest or another creature you control have toxic 1 and your opponent’s spells that target a creature have toxic 1.

Finally, Viral Spawning creates a 3/3 green Phyrexian Beast creature token with toxic 1. 

It also has corrupted.  This means that if your opponent has three or more poison counters and Viral Spawning is in your graveyard, it has flashback.

Overall, green offers quality creatures and spells that help advance the Toxic decks game plan.  The creatures with trample are the most important in the color because they should consistently be able to deal damage to your opponent and make him/her accumulate poison counters.

Multi-colored cards might have a place in the deck with either Necrogen Rotpriest or Slaughter Singer.  

Necrogen Rotpriest has toxic 2 and when a creature you control with toxic deals damage to a player, that player gets an additional poison counter.

Despite its high mana cost of 4, it might have a place in the deck because of its ability to add an additional poison counter.

Slaughter Singer has toxic 2 and whenever another creature you control with toxic attacks, it gets +1/+1 until the end of the turn. 

This ability makes Slaughter Singer a must include card in the deck. When you combine Slaughter Singer’s ability with all the tokens the deck can create, this makes it the perfect card for the deck.

We also got an artifact creature with toxic: Myr Convert.

Myr Convert has toxic 2 and can add to your mana base one mana of any color for 2 life.  Which it does not look like much on the surface, having access to a creature with a mana ability could help the deck make sure that its higher mana cost spell get cast.

The overall power level of Toxic has yet to be determined.  The deck as good cards that should put the deck in a good place to see play in standard.  My hope for the deck is that a couple of more two and three mana cards will be a part of the set.  Otherwise, it might take until we have March of the Machines to have a truly competitive Toxic deck.

That’s it for this week!  Remember to watch our daily preview videos on the official Caffeinated Gamers youtube channel.  And I will be back next week with another issue of Standard Weekly!