MaRo Marvel Teaser Reveals Return of Hated Mechanic

Last updated on May 27, 2026

The Vision | Illustration by Carissa Susilo

Mark Rosewater released his highly anticipated teaser for Marvel Super Heroes, a list that contains glimpses of upcoming cards from the next set and promises the return of poison to Standard.

These teasers are far from spoilers, as they often contain a single line of text from or short description to stir up excitement and speculation. For example, we’ll get a creature with a staggering six types, a new enchantment subtype, and so on. One of the most eye-catching, however, promises the return of poison:

Source: Mark Rosewater

What Is Poison?

Blighted Agent | Illustration by Anthony Francisco

Poison is a decisive mechanic introduced in Legends with Pit Scorpion and Serpent Generator, and has made sporadic appearances since. It’s commonly aligned with New Phyrexia, as seen with the infect and toxic mechanics, plus the abilities on compleated planeswalkers like Vraska, Betrayal's Sting and Ajani, Sleeper Agent.

Poison counters are placed on players rather than cards in any zone, and they have a simple rule: A player with ten poison counters loses the game. Mechanics that interact with counters like proliferate affect poison counters and the corrupted mechanic works specifically with them.

Poison is generally a salt-inducing mechanic because it effectively halves a player’s life total—or, in Commander, quarters it. Players often find it frustrating, especially since it’s hard to remove poison counters and the poison player can theoretically win via proliferate without getting into combat again.

When Was Poison Last In Standard?

Skrelv, Defector Mite | Illustration by Brian Valeza

Poison was last in Standard in 2022 when Dominaria United printed Ajani, Sleeper Agent, which heralded the arc that saw the Gatewatch battle New Phyrexia. Phyrexia: All Will Be One introduced the toxic mechanic, which saw a surge of poisonous creatures surging into Standard; the format had enough cheap creatures that gifted poison to construct Selesnya aggro decks around it:

Source: mtgtop8.com

The last poison card of the Phyrexian arc was Etali, Primal Sickness, which came out in March of the Machine. All poison cards from these sets rotated out only last year, when Standard rotated mid-2025, so it hasn’t been that long since poison hung around Standard players.

Could Poison Break Marvel Super Heroes Standard?

Reject | Illustration by Zoltan Boros

The big question surrounding MaRo’s teaser is whether or not this will be the only poison card in Marvel Super Heroes and what impact it might have on Standard. My guesses? Yes and none, respectively.

In recent years, Wizards has been happy to “splash” mechanics in a set if it makes for good card design; seeing a mechanic appear in this teaser isn’t proof of it being central to the set. My money is that ward – five poison counters belongs to a character like Poison or Doctor Poison or some venomous character I’m unaware of where it’s a flavorful fit. Poison could be a fun villain-themed mechanic, but it’s also super specific and hard to justify on cards that haven’t historically used poison as a weapon. We’ve already seen plans, and Marvel’s Spider-Man set the stage for Marvel villains to abuse artifacts and connive, so I doubt we’ll see poison on a wide scale.

And I’m almost certain this one poison card won’t break Standard because high ward costs are typically associated with expensive, durdly cards. Say what you like about the state of Standard, I can’t see R&D slipping to the point they put this on a 2-drop. Rather, I expect it to be on a big, splashy legendary creature that needs to live a turn cycle to do anything—the kind of card that almost never sees Standard play, especially in a format as fast as this one. At most, this might be a Carnage Tyrant-esque card that gets slipped into the sideboard to handle control; I could see an uncounterable creature get this ability and some keywords. But that’s as much Standard play as I’d expect for it; instead of worrying about Standard, you should out out how you plan to deal with this ward ability in Commander.