How does double strike work with infect?

Asked by scionmastery 8 years ago

I'm most curious because of my sliver commander deck which, while not actually having infect, has poisonous through Virulent Sliver which is a infect type effect.

If I have Virulent Sliver and Fury Sliver out at the same time, do my slivers give two poison counters with each hit or just one?

(honestly, I'm pretty sure I know the answer, but I want to confirm before I try it)

alecm says... #1

If you have 1/1 creature with double strike and Infect, and it attacks and isn't blocked, then it'd deal 1 damage (poison counter), then another 1 damage (another poison counter). I won't go into the way double strike works, because I don't think that's what you're asking, but the end result is that the defending player received 2 poison counters.

August 18, 2015 3:09 p.m.

Rhadamanthus says... Accepted answer #2

Poisonous is a triggered ability (starts with "when/whenever/at") and it triggers whenever the creature deals damage to a player. An unblocked creature with double strike will deal damage to the defending player twice: once in the "first strike" combat damage step and again in the regular combat damage step. In your example this means poisonous will trigger twice.

August 18, 2015 3:16 p.m.

BlueScope says... #3

On a side note - Poisonous works very different than Infect, really: Infect modifies how damage is dealt, and deals combat damage in form of Poison counters, meaning 4 damage will result in 4 Poison counters. Poisonous will deal regular damage, then have a triggered ability dealing a number of Poison counters based on the ability, not the damage, to the defending player. It also triggers only on combat damage, unlike Infect, which you get to apply even for fight or Goblin Sharpshooter-like effects.

August 19, 2015 3:03 a.m.

scionmastery says... #4

I was pretty sure that's how it worked (with double strike counting as dealing two separate combat strikes and the poisonous trigger activating twice), but I wanted to confirm

August 25, 2015 3:21 p.m.

Epochalyptik says... #5

Just a nitpick: triggers don't activate; they trigger. With more cards referencing activating or triggering (e.g., Stony Silence), it's becoming more important to understand the difference.

August 25, 2015 3:39 p.m.

This discussion has been closed