Top Cards:

First, these are some of the cards I think will help get the poison counter train rolling from a straight-up get in there and bash people point of view: [scryfall 94a1eddc-e5e6-4a4a-a950-13c4bc301c54] is a most welcome reprint in this deck. Just a really strong card, 1GG for a 2/2 body that destroys an opponent’s artifact when it ETB (enters the battlefield) and can provide some early pressure can 2 poison counters in quickly. [scryfall 9255cd01-a611-4fec-b9ec-b271687740ba], a new card from ONE and [scryfall 325a8b1b-fa0c-4140-b9e3-a93705b06aa0], another reprint, both come in for 1B and the rat provides toxic 1 and a proliferation effect when it dies, so a cheap two-for-one while the stinger has evasion through flying and has infect. Both, early on, can start the poison counter clock. Another reprint that sits beautifully in the early turns for this deck is [scryfall 387e4be7-7e3d-4623-afe6-229f8a9bacd4], which will ETB for 1BB giving each player a poison counter (including you, but no biggie there, really) and providing a 2/1 body with infect. A new card from ONE comes in at 2GG providing a 4/4 body with toxic 3 and the ability to proliferate when it ETB, [scryfall dd9df44a-a0ab-435f-914c-aa11cd88f4ec] is a solid fit in this deck. Another new card may just prove to be a house in this deck, 5G gets you a 6/6 body on the board which can’t be blocked by creatures with power 2 of less, has the corrupted ability to exile it when it dies returning up to 3 target cards (any type of cards) from your graveyard to your hand! [scryfall 81836d7f-ba8d-4c52-8b1f-c86b422e23b5] is just nuts! Oh, and it has haste and toxic 3, just by the way. What a great card. I can’t imagine your opponents will let it live for very long so play it wisely. I know this may seem like good old-fashioned nostalgia, but the reprint I am most excited to see in this deck is [scryfall 715565be-0c97-4f06-8e89-2ea44c6007c9] just ‘cos I loved this card when it was originally printed. In this deck it works beautifully, creating up to three 1/1 Phyrexian Insect tokens with infect at the beginning of your upkeep, which means that if this 4GG 4/4 infect body stays on the board for long enough your infect creature count could easily get out of hand quickly, pressuring your opponents to wipe the board as soon as they are able.

Next up the cards that help push you over the top include a great reprint from War of the Spark, [scryfall faee8f20-87e8-49f5-8559-8e6032e63965] allows you to proliferate whenever a land enters the battlefield and with the amount of ramp in this deck this could prove to be invaluable, also, though making the Sage a removal target for your opponents. [scryfall d9218955-6604-49de-9153-6301d216e3bb] is an equipment and another great reprint for this deck giving the equipped creature +2/+2 and infect, so slap it on a big bad and swing away, or a small thing with some kind of evasion (deathtouch, menace, flying etc). Make sure you have the mana for it, though, costs 4 to cast and 2 to equip and you really want to be able to play it and equip it in the same turn, while a new card from ONE that can tip the scales in a battle is [scryfall 9649de6c-a9f7-4f0a-8bf7-cacaea60ed54]. This sorcery for 3GG boosts all your attacking creatures with +2/+2 until end of turn and states that if a creature blocks this turn, that creatures controller gets a poison counter, so watch the board, make sure of the math and then swing at everyone who needs one more poison counter and can’t afford to take combat damage. In the right situation this card can close out a game quite easily.

Finally, these cards are going to help make sure you can stay in the game long enough for your poison counter train to reach its final destination starting with another great reprint: [scryfall b36755d0-0c5d-437e-ab74-9dd4acdfdee9], taxing your opponents for 2 for each creature they send to attack you, making big attacks so much more difficult. Two more reprints, [scryfall 00e7e279-c11b-4978-b75e-9912d08590d2 ] and [scryfall 98ed8e2e-5519-4872-ba5a-7e2f91d8d619] pile more attacking tax onto your opponents and the new [scryfall 76f28aa2-1c18-4d58-a3f9-6cd5b49280d8] punishes your opponents for damaging you by giving them a poison counter if they deal combat damage to you, but also providing some card draw (unfortunately this is a global effect and your opponents could benefit from this) against poisoned players. All these cards will make your opponents consider their attacks against you a lot more than if they were not on the board.

So, if we stick to the gameplan mentioned above, I think the deck has the tools to realise it objectives, but could be improved to make the deck a bit more competitive.