Pointed Discussion

The more poison counters they have the more infect creatures you get... Once again proving that when your winning there's no such thing as overkill.

A bit slow for how green infect tends to work. Especially with the new Glistener Elf.

I love this card! It is going to be a nasty finisher. Also if you haven't killed them by turn six with an infect deck this card will make sure of it.

oh win-moar. you make me smile.

Notice how it has the classic Timmy favorite, the Verdant Force ability. Speaking of which, Infect in EDH just got a hell of a lot more fun.

seems badass. but i have to agree with @Names_Suck. i foresee green infect becoming very fast and aggressive.

but if u do get this out and your opponents not dead, they will sure wish they were.

I can't lie:
People are right when they say this is moreso a "win more" than anything else.
However, one of green's major problems is lockdown,
And I know how problematic infect decks get when their board is consistantly killed off.
If this guy sticks, even for at least a turn, you should win very soon after for the board presence.
Also, this guy is one of the few creatures in infect that aren't hit hard by Melira, Sylvok Outcast.
If your opponent has at least one poison counter, you'll still be getting a creature each of your upkeeps.
However, to end this rant of approval,
He's an honest-to-goodness bomb in multiplayer, and nobody can deny that.
4/5, 'cause he's board presence, he's in green that can ramp very easily, and he's Lightning Bolt and Slagstorm resistant.

@ANTzero

Better than that--he creates his own overkill, so you can press the advantage without having to actually commit more resources. He eliminates the risk when you choose to either charge towards your win or not risk getting slaughtered by Day of Judgement (although Fresh Meat works in that particular scenario).

I don't like it that much.
First, infect is supposed to be aggressive, in my opinion. A 4/4 for six mana is everything but aggressive. It's slow. Next: the reason why Verdant Force was so good in it's time was, that it created stuff before your opponent could respond with sorcery speed. This one doesn't. You play it, and give your opponent a full turn to react. Even if your opponent doesn't react, you still don't have more than this 4/4 guy to attack during your next turn.
What is more: what will the tokens be good for? If you can keep attacking with this 4/4 guy, then your opponent will be dead before any token will hit him. If you can't attack with this guy because of your opponents defense, then the 1/1 tokens won't do anything either.

It's not horrible, but it's bad.

I think, much of the time, it will be quite awesome for playing infect in grueling multiplayer games, rather than quick duels. The poison counters can really stack up when you're poisoning lots of opponents (though you may be a rather glaring target yourself).

Getting a couple of early poison counters on an opponent a few turns before this guy comes out is all you need. Just having him out doesn't have to mean you're hitting your opponent every turn, but if he's producing three 1/1s with infect every upkeep, that WILL turn the tide from a lockdown to a win.

This has Precon rare written all over it.

EDIT: Hey, I was right!

I like it, but I also agree that green infect is meant to be fast and deadly.. and with phyrexian hydra at 5 there really isn't a great place for this card. It's also too obvious. I'd rather play spine biter, than play this, and hope my opponent doesn't remove it. By comparison end of opponents turn spam out a carrion crawl can catch someone by surprise.

Still complete casual fun, but don't expect more from it than that.

I really can't understand all those people who complain that this is too slow and infect decks are meant to be fast. No rule says Infect is "supposed" to be fast, that playstyle was just forced on it because that's the only thing infect supported in the first set.

Now we have new cards, and half of you are so short-sighted that you can't see their worth because they don't fit in what you think infect "should" be? seriously?

This actually complements Glistener Elf because it means there are counters there early there to fuel this guy when he comes out. Let's not forget, Green can ramp, make it bigger, give it troll shroud a number of ways. This on Turn 4, then Turn 5 + ...endless board advantage? Got killed? get another! Fauna Shaman get over here, you got a new friend!

Not quite an Infect Titan, but close.

Oh, my God...
The Tyranids have invaded New Phyrexia!
Everyone run for your lives! Call the Emperor!
Where the hell is Karn!?

This guy's pretty cool. By the time you get this guy out your opponent is probably going to have 5+ poison counters already and they won't likely be able to block all of your tokens, especially if you get a second batch. Give the one that gets through a pump spell and it's game. Of course people are right. By turn seven when you would get the tokens a Putrefax or Spinebiter would have already finished the job. Perhaps if you had trouble keeping a board presence this guy would work. An army of withering 1/1s also makes for a pretty good defense. As with all 1/1 generators my mind drifts to Sigil Captain.

Awesome card! Used in combination with Eldrazi Monument and Phyrexian Crusader to get some early counters and I've only EVER lost once!

...Doesn't really fit with the flavour of my insect deck... poo...

What a horrible insect.

I LOVE INSECTS! INSECTS RULE! I can't put it in my insect deck cuz of the infect but I sure will put it in my new infect deck.

This card is what you use when your deck has run out of steam and can't seem to get through any more damage. Play swarmlord and then just wait on the defensive. the tokens will build up until you have more attackers then they have blockers to sneak in the last few points. This card isn't meant for aggro, it is meant to stop stalemates.

Aside from that, spinebiter is better in most cases. Super-trample for the win!

This thing can be Arrest'd and still kill you. That's power right there.

Erik's Random card 6/29/2011

This set came from design and it didn't change much in development. Ken Nagle was the lead designer of this set, and I am guessing he made this card. Why? Ken Nagle always likes the fatties! :)

It used to be
4GG
Infect
Other Snake creatures you control get +1/+1
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a 1/1 green Snake creature token with infect onto the battlefield for each poison counter your opponents have.
4/3

However a member of the creative team explained this should be making Insects, not Snakes. We played with it some, and Ken was not as happy with the Insect deck this was making. It was a lot less about the fatties, and a lot more about the Necropede. So it lost that line of text and the creature became a 4/4. The editor of the set was happy about this, because the card is very cramped for text.

The lesson? The creative team generally picks the creature types (and that is proper), which sometimes leads to development tweaking the cards.

This card finishes on its own, but when M12 comes out, Infect Insect tribal will be playable, mark my words.

imo this should be a sideboard in inefect decks in case the game is lasting too long.

The Phyrexians have taken over the machine cult ... not that it made any difference.

I forsee this guy becoming a staple of EDH Infect. Reason? It's way too slow in Duels, and reads as 'Win WAAYY MOOOARRR!!!' ....which is exacty where EDH cards love to live, because that's the format where you get to actually cast them :)

He'll be making flying blockers for you, he'll be making flying death for you, and in order to make Infect remotely viable in multiplayer, you have to be able to build a deck that won't call for immediate STOMP from the board, and yet you still have to be good enough to win. I think this guy can do that. Skithyrix is so good, that the only choice for a General would pretty much have to be Green AND Black, to fit both Skittles and Swarmlord in the 99.

Before you just say 'ok...Glissa!' nope. nah. too fast and aggressive. If she turns out to be 'good enough', then that just means you're asking to be Hateraded all over by everyone else. Maybe you can pull races in 1v1, but setting yourself up as The Archenemy Who Forgot To Bring His Scheme Deck....is a bad place to be.

And if she's not good enough, why play her? Be clever, like a sneaky Slytherin. Creep up on them and just ping a bit of poison here and there, maybe no more than 2-3 counters in the first 5 or 6 turns..and nobody will see you as a threat- and therefore they won't bother you.

Or shouldn't. Then you cant start throwing haymakers like this, Skittles, and Contagion Engine and start blasting them.

I haven't done the full research yet, but I'm sure that the Golgari Guild from Ravnica will contribute at least 20% of the deck....Dredge + Poison is just EVIL enough to work :D

If you want an EDH general for black+green infect, might I suggest Vhati il-Dal?

Obviously a bit of a "win-more" card, I still like the Swarmlord if only for his Ultralisk/Tyranid look and the fact that in multiplayer he would actually be really fun.

6 CMC is slow? Have you guys even played green before? I've seen 6 mana out by turn 3 in mono green, and on numerous occasions.

COME AT ME BRO

Glad I'm not the ONLY one who noticed the Warhammer 40K connection.
(for those of you who don't understand: http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110726011903/warhammer40k/images/2/21/Swarmlord_%28Artwork%29.jpg)

If it just was a 2/4 or 1/4 for it would have been played so much, it would have been up there with the likes of Hand and Skittles.
I was so sad I can´t play it in my / aggro infect that I have made him his own mono deck full of mana acceleration and Mortarpods

I love this card, but I never get to use it. The moment I bring it out, my friends murder it. I got to use it once against a friend, he forfeit during my next upkeep. Why can I never use this guy to his full capacity?!

Oops, I always thought this was a comes into play effect. That's... really really powerful. You can still nab him with Birthing Pod off of a Putrefax. The problem with each of these creatures is that infect is super-aggro. Even control variants can easily win T4 if you run *any* pump spells.

I like this card quite a bit, if you pair this with a hand of the praetors you can get a few poison counters early just by bring out a few infect cards, and then when you bring this card in the insects are 2/2.

Phyrexian Swarmlord is NOT a win-more card! Just because your opponent has a few poison counters doesn't mean that you are winning! Keep in mind that your opponent does not have to have 9 poison counters for the ability to be useful; even if they only have 3, this will give you THREE CREATURES FOR FREE ON EACH OF YOUR TURNS! I'm sorry if I sound a little condescending, it's just that I'm tired of people calling cards win-more when they are not win-more.

The main issue with Phyrexian Swarmlord is its mana cost. Yes, you can easily get it out by turn three in a ramp deck, but a ramp deck is not going to be getting to many poison counters onto the opponent by the time this card comes out.

3.5/5