Still wouldn't help you against the Flash/Hulk/bring out Slivers that deal poison counters combo.
blindcansee
★★☆☆☆ (2.7/5.0)(6 votes)
I would think there would be more anti poison than this. Maybe something that just makes us flat out immune.
A3Kitsune
★★★☆☆ (3.8/5.0)(5 votes)
Good only because if you are playing poison and your opponent neutralises all your poisonous creatures, you can use this spell to deal leathal damage to them.
mrredhatter
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(5 votes)
There is no better way to deal with poison counters. I just wish that Clockspinning could have been worded in a way to deal with poison counters.
Artsy_Wumpus
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
It's the best (and only) at what it does. It's going to be in your sideboard waiting to be fetched by Buring Wish. Assuming you're playing a white deck, the damage should be irrelevant.
ScissorsLizard
★★★★☆ (4.4/5.0)(8 votes)
This is a terrible hoser. If you're actually able to use this to good effect, the game should reward you, not punish you. For God's sake, you just hosed something as obscure as poison, that's like playing Ertai's Trickery or Teferi's Response!
Even so, if anyone ever saves their own life by playing Leeches, they get bragging rights forever.
Kefra
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(3 votes)
It COULD be a funny way to win if you've been hammering your opponent with poison counters to the point where he has more poison counters than life left, and this would kill him. Too bad it costs so you can't splash white to make it work (poison counters being entirely the realm of Green and Black).
Maximillini86
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(4 votes)
This is going to get a functional reprint in scars of mirrodin, mark my words!
HairlessThoctar
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(5 votes)
@Maximillini86
Nope. Mark Rosewater hates this card with a vehement pa ssion. He states that this card just makes poison 'another life total'. There will never ever again be another way to remove poison.
zarakstan
★★★★☆ (4.4/5.0)(6 votes)
Just wait leeches . . . your time will come!
When all those people that spent 200 dollars on a playset of Skithyrix, the Blight Dragon, just for a chance to rule their casual playgroup with a deadly poison counter giving monstrosity, you will be dug out of those boxes of Homelands cards that people have lying around in their basements to be used to get a fire going during blizzards. You will be the savior of many a player upon the release of Scars of Mirridon.
Perhaps this was the master plan for Homelands all along, produce cards that look like absolute crap, but eventually end up being useful in later blocks.
Guest1162619373
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(4 votes)
HairlessThoctar :: Someone should throw him a pity party as Poison has always been another life total to keep track of when someone is playing with those types of creatures regardless of the existence of Leeches. Someone must have used Leeches against his precious poison deck effectively.
storophanthus
★★☆☆☆ (2.4/5.0)(4 votes)
oh why this is not a standard legal, or at least reprint (i guess they should print a similar card but a better and modern spell in the scars of mirrodin)
as we know, with the release of many infect creatures in SOM, now in many games, we basically start playing with life=10. And there's no better way to deal with it.. people might use soul's fire to Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon, and when he attack you or do it twice, you are done dude.. or even when he/she put Tainted Strike to his/her fatty.. no doctor can help you in standard.. life gainer doesn't help either.. man, they really should print something like this on the second set or third.
Sironos
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(4 votes)
Flavour wise, this is perfect. The leeches suck out the infection, but you lose life because they also suck out your blood.
I'm an infect player myself, and I thought the whole idea behind poison counters was that they couldn't be removed, like a black plague thing.
sarroth
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(3 votes)
I'm not sure if I agree with this being a white card. It isn't life gain, though it can be argued (against MaRo's wishes) that poison is another life counter and thus is similar in a way. The use of natural medicine from leeches seems more green to me, even if modern medicine occasionally would use such approaches as well. Then the drawback doesn't seem like either color, but I guess is more white than green, so perhaps it is best to be white. It just seems so wrong to me.
DocMock
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(5 votes)
I love it. Most younger players probably don't even know this card exists. It is now one of the best cards in Magic, and the best from Homelands.
Dr.Pingas
★★★☆☆ (3.8/5.0)(6 votes)
I love how this was printed to avoid poison back when it was never really a threat. While normally I'd agree, poison's power comes from it's ability to get through lifegain decks because they're irremovable, ALL infect did WAS make poison a separate, much smaller, much more easily exploitable life total.
The fact that ALL infect damage, not just combat damage, makes poison counters INSTEAD of loss-of-life, it relies on a card's (easily-pumpable) power to add that many counters, AND that cards like Hands of the Praetor and Ichor Rats do it WITHOUT DAMAGE, just makes giving people poison WAAAAAAAAY too easy for it to irremovable.
Also, this card does nothing if they have a 10+ power infect guy swinging at your face.
Bandswithother
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.9/5.0)(5 votes)
Was skittles really going for $50 bucks before scars released?
I play a forest and put two prey's vengence on this plague stinger and giant growth my other stinger. swing for 9 counters. you can go.
Tap 3, Leeches.
I give my stingers +2+2 each from my rebounds, I giant growth this one and swing for 9.
Tap 3, Leeches
oh *** you, tap two and hit you with two hornet stings, ***.
Tiggurix
★★★★☆ (4.1/5.0)(4 votes)
@Bandswithother: ... and then he negates your Hornet Stings with a healing salve, and when his turn comes, he plays a couple of Heroes' Reunion, just to follow your ridiculous theme of doubled card use.
Anyways, it's been a long time coming. Leeches might finally become another useful card from Homelands, as any future significant use of poison counters is bound to further strenghten it, unless, of course, R&D creates a more solid way of removing poison counters.
ChaosFire
★☆☆☆☆ (1.1/5.0)(4 votes)
@Maximilliani86:
Your words were marked. Your words were wrong.
It's ok though. I wouldn't be surprised if we started seeing ways of removing poison counters.
Look, MaRo hating something doesn't mean squat. He may be the head of R&D, but if his bosses get a complaint that he's killing cards based on personal preference, he's no longer going to be the head of R&D.
TheHandyman
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
Only a matter of time before WotC comes out with something that balances the insane poison-producing power of recent blocks. Until then, Leeches rules.
infernox10
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Where it once was just "Meh", it's become quite passable against dedicated Infect decks.
tavaritz
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(4 votes)
The only card in Magic that can save you from those infectious bastards and you don't rate it higher. What gives?
ShakaUVM
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
In EDH, this card is even better. Poison counters kill you even at 40 life, but leeches converts it into real damage. With recursion and lifegain, this can make infect decks burn out quite quickly.
Or, more likely, they're just going to attack the guy that doesn't have the hoser counter to their deck.
Shadoflaam
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.8/5.0)(3 votes)
Yeah, it still sucks. Not as bad, maybe second best in Homelands after Serrated Arrows, but still bad. 1.5/5.
Bonkers455
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Pairs with
JFM2796
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(4 votes)
I like how they made this in Homelands, where I am pretty sure there were no Poison ceatures.
Mike-C
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@ Tavaritz- Tough crowd huh..
Salient
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
This card now has about thirty more votes than it did before Scars of Mirrodin block, and its rating is up about a star and a half. Infect much?
Lord_of_Tresserhorn
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
The true master plan is that the designers of Homelands bought thousands of unsold displays at throwaway prices and will reissue them when this card become's Homelands' Wasteland or Force of Will!! Selling for hundreds of dollars each...
Alsebra
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
@JFM2796 - At that point, there were 2 or 3 creatures that gave poison counters (and one artifact that created poisonous creatures). The Crypt Cobra and Sabertooth Cobra came two blocks later. Swamp Mosquito came in Alliances.
majinara
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
If your opponent is low on life, you can use that as an alternate win condition for poison decks. :)
madoli
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Sorry, Homelands designers: you accidentally made a card someone wants to use, even if it did take 15 years...
Bobth
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Doesn't hose a good infect deck at all, which can kill you in one hit with relative ease. You're either going to have 0 or 10, and have no chance to play this. Melira, Sylvok Outcast is much more useful in that situation.
Against casual infect decks, yeah it will shut them down.
raptorman333
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
run with worship + any creature and you'll be semi-immortal
Aquillion
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
This became much better with the arrival of Infect and Proliferate. Previously, anything that gave you poison counters would probably also deal at least one damage; so activating this when you were almost dead of poison would tend to kill you or drop you to almost-dead-of-damage anyway unless you had a source of lifegain on top of it.
Against infect / proliferate decks, though, which aren't dealing damage, this card is incredibly valuable and might as well reset your life total to 20 for three mana. Still overly-specific, but that's what sideboards and wish cards are for.
GordonFreechmen
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
There really should be more ways to deal with poison counters now that Infect is out. As is this will have to do, it seems perfectly made for infect actually. If they are playing an infect deck, and you aren't playing black you likely are at 20 life, and they likely aren't going to do anything to change that so losing 9 life isn't a bad price to pay.
I really think Infect should have used something other than poison counters. I know it fits the theme, but poison was balanced around cards that slowly added poison counters to you. If it used infect counters instead of poison and it had to deal 20 of them it would still get around life gain. And Since Wizard thinks 1 CMC is cheap enough to grant a creature infect for the turn, and they think 1 CMC is enough to make a Darksteel Colossus into a Blightsteel Colossus , then I think it really should have been 20 counters not 10.
Goatllama
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
The Phyrexian invasion of Ulgrotha was a complete failure.
Comments (37)
Even so, if anyone ever saves their own life by playing Leeches, they get bragging rights forever.
Nope.
Mark Rosewater hates this card with a vehement pa ssion.
He states that this card just makes poison 'another life total'.
There will never ever again be another way to remove poison.
When all those people that spent 200 dollars on a playset of Skithyrix, the Blight Dragon, just for a chance to rule their casual playgroup with a deadly poison counter giving monstrosity, you will be dug out of those boxes of Homelands cards that people have lying around in their basements to be used to get a fire going during blizzards. You will be the savior of many a player upon the release of Scars of Mirridon.
Perhaps this was the master plan for Homelands all along, produce cards that look like absolute crap, but eventually end up being useful in later blocks.
as we know, with the release of many infect creatures in SOM, now in many games, we basically start playing with life=10. And there's no better way to deal with it.. people might use soul's fire to Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon, and when he attack you or do it twice, you are done dude.. or even when he/she put Tainted Strike to his/her fatty.. no doctor can help you in standard.. life gainer doesn't help either.. man, they really should print something like this on the second set or third.
I'm an infect player myself, and I thought the whole idea behind poison counters was that they couldn't be removed, like a black plague thing.
The fact that ALL infect damage, not just combat damage, makes poison counters INSTEAD of loss-of-life, it relies on a card's (easily-pumpable) power to add that many counters, AND that cards like Hands of the Praetor and Ichor Rats do it WITHOUT DAMAGE, just makes giving people poison WAAAAAAAAY too easy for it to irremovable.
Also, this card does nothing if they have a 10+ power infect guy swinging at your face.
I play a forest and put two prey's vengence on this plague stinger and giant growth my other stinger. swing for 9 counters. you can go.
Tap 3, Leeches.
I give my stingers +2+2 each from my rebounds, I giant growth this one and swing for 9.
Tap 3, Leeches
oh *** you, tap two and hit you with two hornet stings, ***.
Anyways, it's been a long time coming. Leeches might finally become another useful card from Homelands, as any future significant use of poison counters is bound to further strenghten it, unless, of course, R&D creates a more solid way of removing poison counters.
Your words were marked. Your words were wrong.
It's ok though. I wouldn't be surprised if we started seeing ways of removing poison counters.
Look, MaRo hating something doesn't mean squat. He may be the head of R&D, but if his bosses get a complaint that he's killing cards based on personal preference, he's no longer going to be the head of R&D.
Or, more likely, they're just going to attack the guy that doesn't have the hoser counter to their deck.
Against casual infect decks, yeah it will shut them down.
Against infect / proliferate decks, though, which aren't dealing damage, this card is incredibly valuable and might as well reset your life total to 20 for three mana. Still overly-specific, but that's what sideboards and wish cards are for.
I really think Infect should have used something other than poison counters. I know it fits the theme, but poison was balanced around cards that slowly added poison counters to you. If it used infect counters instead of poison and it had to deal 20 of them it would still get around life gain. And Since Wizard thinks 1 CMC is cheap enough to grant a creature infect for the turn, and they think 1 CMC is enough to make a Darksteel Colossus into a Blightsteel Colossus , then I think it really should have been 20 counters not 10.