Tainted Observer
Tracked across real Commander games played through TurnZero HQ.
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What it does
Flying
Toxic 1 (Players dealt combat damage by this creature also get a poison counter.)
Whenever another creature you control enters, you may pay 2. If you do, proliferate. (Choose any number of permanents and/or players, then give each another counter of each kind already there.)
Combos with Tainted Observer
The lines this card is part of, what it needs alongside it, and what the cards do together. An infinite result is the one that moves a deck's bracket.
- Ashnod's Altar Herd Baloth Infinite
- Infinite +1/+1 counters on a creature
- Infinite death triggers
- Infinite creature ETB
- Infinite creature LTB
- Infinite proliferate
- Infinite creature sacrifice triggers
- Ashnod's Altar Scurry Oak Infinite
- Infinite +1/+1 counters on a creature
- Infinite death triggers
- Infinite creature ETB
- Infinite creature LTB
- Infinite proliferate
- Infinite creature sacrifice triggers
- Venser, Corpse Puppet Ashnod's Altar Infinite
- Infinite death triggers
- Infinite creature ETB
- Infinite creature LTB
- Infinite proliferate
- Infinite creature sacrifice triggers
- Ashnod's Altar Saproling Burst Infinite
- Infinite death triggers
- Infinite creature ETB
- Infinite creature LTB
- Infinite proliferate
- Infinite creature sacrifice triggers
- Mana Echoes Basking Broodscale Infinite
- Infinite colorless mana
- Infinite creature ETB
- Infinite creature LTB
- Infinite creature sacrifice triggers
- Infinite creature tokens
- Infinite death triggers
- Infinite proliferate
- Infinite +1/+1 counters on a creature
- Venser, Corpse Puppet Krark-Clan Ironworks Infinite
- Infinite death triggers
- Infinite creature ETB
- Infinite creature LTB
- Infinite proliferate
- Infinite creature sacrifice triggers
- Sporoloth Ancient Ashnod's Altar Parallel Lives Infinite
- Infinite death triggers
- Infinite creature ETB
- Infinite creature LTB
- Infinite proliferate
- Infinite creature sacrifice triggers
- Pir, Imaginative Rascal Sporoloth Ancient Ashnod's Altar Infinite
- Infinite death triggers
- Infinite creature ETB
- Infinite creature LTB
- Infinite proliferate
- Infinite creature sacrifice triggers
Showing the 8 shortest and most explosive. This card appears in more than these. Follow any of them through to Commander Spellbook to browse the rest.
Combo data from Commander Spellbook, the community-maintained database of Magic combos. Mirrored nightly.
Rulings
13 official rulings, in the order Wizards published them.
- 2023-02-04
An ability that triggers "Whenever you proliferate" triggers even if you chose no permanents or players while doing so.
- 2023-02-04
To proliferate, you can choose any permanent that has a counter, including ones controlled by opponents. You can choose any player who has a counter, including opponents. You can't choose cards in any zone other than the battlefield, even if they have counters on them.
- 2023-02-04
Toxic doesn't change the amount of combat damage a creature deals. For example, if a 2/2 creature with toxic 1 deals combat damage to a player, that creature will deal 2 damage. The results of that damage are the player loses 2 life and gets a poison counter.
- 2023-02-04
Players can respond to a spell or ability whose effect includes proliferating. Once that spell or ability starts to resolve, however, and its controller chooses which permanents and players will get new counters, it's too late for anyone to respond.
- 2023-02-04
Conversely, replacement effects that apply to the number of counters put on a player can modify the counters placed this way. For example, Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider's last two abilities can apply to counters placed this way.
- 2023-02-04
A player with ten or more poison counters loses the game. This is a state-based action and doesn't use the stack. In other words, it happens immediately and players can't respond to it, just like a player losing the game due to having 0 or less life.
- 2023-02-04
If a creature with toxic deals combat damage to a creature or planeswalker, or if it deals noncombat damage, toxic has no effect and no player gets poison counters.
- 2023-02-04
Multiple instances of toxic are cumulative. For example, if a creature has toxic 2 and gains toxic 1 due to another effect, combat damage that creature deals to a player will cause that player to get 3 poison counters.
- 2023-02-04
Any other effects of that damage, such as life gain from lifelink, still apply.
- 2023-02-04
Damage dealt by a creature with toxic grants the same number of counters regardless of how much damage is dealt. Notably, if a replacement effect modifies the damage in some way (such as that of Gratuitous Violence), the number of counters given remains unchanged.
- 2023-02-04
If a permanent ever has both +1/+1 counters and -1/-1 counters on it at the same time, they're removed in pairs as a state-based action so that the permanent has only one of those kinds of counters on it.
- 2023-02-04
If a player or permanent has more than one kind of counter on it, and you choose for it to get additional counters, it must get one of each kind of counter it already has. You can't have it get just one kind of counter it already has and not the others.
- 2023-02-04
You don't have to choose every permanent or player that has a counter, only the ones you want to add another counter to. Since "any number" includes zero, you don't have to choose any permanents at all, and you don't have to choose any players at all.
Rulings are Wizards of the Coast's own, mirrored from Scryfall and refreshed nightly.
In the 99
Every deck whose current list includes Tainted Observer, whatever its commander.
Most played under
| Commander | Decks | Games | Win rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arwen Undómiel | 1 | 0 | — |
Colors it shows up in
- Simic 1 deck
Tainted Observer price history
The Phyrexia: All Will Be One #217 printing, as Scryfall reports the TCGplayer market. Updated nightly. Click any version below to chart its price.
Every recorded price change
| Date | Non-foil | Foil |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 26, 2026 | $0.27 | $0.30 |
| Oct 23, 2026 | $0.27 | $0.30 |
| Oct 22, 2026 | $0.28 | $0.30 |
| Oct 21, 2026 | $0.28 | $0.31 |
| Oct 20, 2026 | $0.27 | $0.31 |
| Oct 18, 2026 | $0.28 | $0.31 |
| Oct 15, 2026 | $0.29 | $0.31 |
| Oct 14, 2026 | $0.29 | $0.32 |
| Oct 13, 2026 | $0.28 | $0.32 |
| Oct 12, 2026 | $0.28 | $0.31 |
| Oct 11, 2026 | $0.29 | $0.31 |
| Oct 10, 2026 | $0.29 | $0.30 |
| Oct 9, 2026 | $0.29 | $0.32 |
| Oct 7, 2026 | $0.31 | $0.32 |
| Oct 4, 2026 | $0.30 | $0.32 |
| Oct 3, 2026 | $0.31 | $0.32 |
| Oct 2, 2026 | $0.31 | $0.30 |
| Sep 30, 2026 | $0.30 | $0.30 |
| Sep 28, 2026 | $0.31 | $0.30 |
A row is recorded only on nights the price moved, so each price held until the row above it.
Every version of Tainted Observer
1 printing, newest first. Prices are the market figures Scryfall publishes, refreshed nightly. A printing with no figure shows a dash rather than a zero, because Scryfall publishes none for some of them.
- Normal
- $0.27
- Foil
- $0.30
Prices from Scryfall, which tracks the TCGplayer and Cardmarket markets. They move daily and are a guide rather than a quote. Search TCGplayer for Tainted Observer. It runs a name search across every version, which covers the printings TCGplayer publishes no direct link to.
Aggregated from Commander games tracked in TurnZero HQ. Every figure counts decks and games only. No individual deck list, player or playgroup is identified. Win rates are withheld below 5 completed games, where the sample is too small to mean anything.
