Infectious Bite
Instant
Target creature you control deals damage equal to its power to target creature you don't control. Each opponent gets a poison counter.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- G
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Phyrexia: All Will Be One
- Price
- $0.55
- EDHREC rank
- #2691
Infectious Bite kills a creature and puts a poison counter on an opponent for two mana — that's removal and a clock stapled together. In dedicated infect shells like Fynn, the Fangbearer, it's a no-brainer include; outside of them, it competes with cheaper removal that doesn't require a creature on board to target, which is the only real knock against it. Storm King's Thunder can copy it for a two-for-one, but the baseline is already strong enough to justify the slot.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Fynn, the Fangbearer
Fynn, the Fangbearer needs every creature with deathtouch to connect, and Infectious Bite does double duty — it clears a blocker while adding a poison counter directly, bypassing combat entirely for one of the ten needed to win.
Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa
Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa proliferates on attack, so every poison counter from Infectious Bite gets multiplied; the removal attached means the spell is rarely a dead draw even when opponents are behind on the poison clock.
Vishgraz, the Doomhive
Vishgraz, the Doomhive cares about poison counters on opponents to scale its token production, and Infectious Bite is one of the cheapest ways to tick that number up while also clearing a problem creature.
Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres
Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres triggers off proliferate, and Infectious Bite's poison counter feeds into proliferate synergies that accelerate the infect clock while handling a blocker that would otherwise stall the board.
Agent Frank Horrigan
Agent Frank Horrigan has toxic, so getting an opponent to one or two poison counters early makes combat damage from Frank immediately threatening — Infectious Bite is a clean way to prime that count on turn two.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Infectious Bite earns its slot specifically in infect and poison-counter strategies, where the dual function of removal plus poison source is genuinely efficient at two mana. Outside those archetypes it's a narrow combat trick, and most Commander tables won't run it without a commander to justify the synergy. In Modern and Legacy the card is legal but functionally invisible — those formats have Fatal Push, Unholy Heat, and a suite of one-mana removal that makes a two-mana sorcery with a situational upside uncompetitive. Oathbreaker mirrors the Commander dynamic: strong in the right poison build, unplayed elsewhere.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.55 bulk tier
At $0.55, Infectious Bite sits firmly in bulk territory and is unlikely to move without a high-profile infect commander driving demand. It's a buy-a-playset-and-forget-it card — no reason to hesitate at this price if the archetype calls for it.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.