Infect - new keyword ability?? (possible spoilers)

[jrsthethird]

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/519

Scroll to the bottom, click the d10 a few times, and eventually a skull-and-crossbones comes up and reveals an excerpt from a text box:

Infect (This creature deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters and to players in the form of poison counters.)

This is interesting, to say the least. No context in the Arcana as to where it comes from. Anyone hear anything else from the rumor mills? Will we be digging out our Leeches for sideboard tech against the new Legacy poison decks?

[heroicraptor]

http://twitter.com/maro254/status/21549491699
http://twitter.com/maro254/status/21551149785
http://twitter.com/maro254/status/21551261311

[Vacrix]

What a horrible horrible keyword. I hope its a rumor and WotC didn't waste their time on poison counters again..

[Aggro_zombies]

What a horrible horrible keyword. I hope its a rumor and WotC didn't waste their time on poison counters again..
Considering it's from www.magicthegathering.com, I'd say it's pretty legit.

EDIT: Hate poison, but I really liked wither in Shadowmoor, so we'll see.

[kicks_422]

I could see the flavor of it, as the environment of Mirrodin has become corrosive/toxic. However, when I look at it, the first thing I think of is "Wow, they're running out of ideas."

[Jak]

I like it. Poison was always a cool thing for me and this seems like a perfect "upgrade" or whatever. It only makes sense that you could "poison" creatures if you can "poison" players. It is a nice way of bringing Wither and Poison together.

[Vacrix]

I'm sure that at least one good card will come out of it for Legacy... but still. They are just recycling old mechanics that sucked. I'm sure we all remember how horrible Mistform was. Now its Changling. Personally, I'd rather see some new mechanics.

The fact that it only takes 10 counters might become relevant since its now dealing damage in the form of poison counters. Before creatures were only adding 1 counter at a time. Now 3 swings could be GG.


Its going to be interesting though to see how it works out, given that Mirrodin Block was known for +1/+1 counters we might see Phyrexians giving -1/-1s while Myr's are getting +1/+1.

[Infinitium]

Well, it's something. Not really a surprise given that it's been idly speculated that this is the new poison block, but didn't see the Wither effect coming (albeit it makes sense in hindsight). Hmm. Don't really expect to see this printed on anything with a cmc < 3 since it's risky business with eternal pump spells and equipment, but we'll see.

[Nihil Credo]

Let's use the thread (http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?18586-[Mechanic-discussion]-Infect) in F&AD, which is a better forum for this subject.