Pointed Discussion

Make it unblockable and give it shroud (Protective Bubble) and watch your opponent stare and ask themselves "How the *** did I lose to THIS nub?!?!?!"

Put Hermetic Study or Psionic Gift on it along with Instill Energy and couple it with Seeker of Skybreak. 6 counters per round.

I haven't gotten a card that deals poison counters since 4th edition. Was this ability discontinued completely or just reduced to obscurity? To win the game when your opponent still has plenty of life left is a great feeling.

The poison gameplay should be revisited, everyone can imagine the kinds of creatures and things that would be invoved, the same way magic has lots of side stories, we need a bunch more cards directly related to the whole poison/poisonous theme. The card itself is tops, simply for what it is, back in the day if you play this theme then you play with marsh viper. 1/2 is very respectable and the artwork is hot!!

Best poison creature out there (second best: Sabertooth Cobra)! Use Fire Whip, it's better than all the other pinging enchantments (Hermetic Study, Psionic Gift, Power of Fire), other than maybe Arcane Teachings. There's also Viridian Longbow as an artifact. However, if you're going to play with artifacts, you might as well use Whispersilk Cloak to give the guy shroud... it's better than Protective Bubble too, seeing as how you can keep it in play if your Viper dies.

Hermetic study, and also Freed from the Real or Pemmin's Aura.

@Draugnor: The ability was discontinued, but it has been confirmed by Wizards that they will bring Poison back in the near future. Snake Cult Initiation and Virulent Sliver were both Future Sighted, those are the only new poison cards as yet.

I love poison counter, but they were discontinued because they weren't an effective way of winning. Even back then, for the exact same CC you got Ernham Djinn. If you're giving evasion to a creature and they both the same, would you rather give it to the creature that kills your opponent in 10 turns or the one that does it in 5.

Scars of Mirrodin!

tis blight mamba!

My brother put together a poison deck back in the day, and this guy figured largely into it. It wasn't anything too fancy - he played lots of poison creatures and swung with them; occasionally, he would use a Runed Arch to really ruin someone's day.

The most notable thing about this guy is that he gives multiple poison counters in one shot, which was not something that any of the other creatures in the deck did. It was definitely not typical to feel menaced by a 1/2, but he was certainly threatening when he did hit play.

Nowadays MaRo has brought us Infect, which is more up-to-date poison, and it costed far more aggressively, giving players who love the poison mechanic more competitive tools to work with. Still, Marsh Viper used to be among a poison deck's best weapons, and it deserves some credit for that.

PS: "Powerspawning! You'll have so many babies! 400 BABIES!"

Mmm, flavour text.

I love reading all the old comments. I mean, "the poison gameplay should be revisited". Now that Scars of Mirrodin and Mirrodin Besieged are out, infect is everywhere!! Blightsteel Colossus can take out someone in one hit! Still, for back then, this card was very good. Even with infect on other cards, this guy isn't too shabby.

During initial print, almost a broken card because of the ability to dmg AND poison. Easily turn 2 gettable(for green), and ain't worried about your dinks. Commanded much attention on the board, and almost always a damned if you do, damned if you don't scenario against it.

At first I wondered why it hadn't been errata'd to Poisonous 2 (see Virulent Sliver for an example of Poisonous). Then I realized it triggered on non-combat damage. Let's see, how do I abuse this....