Precon Upgrade Guide
Corrupting Influence Upgrade Guide
What to cut, what to add, and how to play the Abzan poison and proliferate precon from Phyrexia: All Will Be One, commanded by Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa.
Phyrexia: All Will Be One
Corrupting Influence
Poison adds a second clock to track alongside life. Out of the box, before any upgrades. How we rate precons
Buy Corrupting Influence on TCGplayer →Quick verdict
Corrupting Influence is a poison deck that spreads a few counters around the table early and then grows them with proliferate. Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa gives the plan a reward partway through: once an opponent has three poison counters, you start playing the top card of their library each turn. The deck's toxic creatures and proliferate effects are a solid base, but it also carries wraths that wipe its own small creatures, a few poison cards that hurt you too, and a mana base with a lot of tapped lands for three colors.
TurnZero HQ rates Corrupting Influence a 3 out of 5 on difficulty and a 3 out of 5 on power, as it comes in the box. That is our editorial read, not an official Wizards rating. The full hundred cards are on the Corrupting Influence decklist page, and every other precon we cover is on the precon directory.
How the precon plays
Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa is a four-mana 2/5 with flying, vigilance and toxic 2, so each time it connects the player also gets two poison counters. Its corrupted ability checks at the beginning of your end step: each opponent with three or more poison counters exiles the top card of their library face down, and you may look at and play those cards for as long as they stay exiled, spending mana as though it were any color.
The deck gets opponents to three poison with cheap toxic and infect creatures like Pestilent Syphoner , Plague Stinger and Blightbelly Rat , plus spells like Infectious Inquiry and Vraska's Fall that give each opponent a counter. Proliferate from Evolution Sage , Contaminant Grafter , Grateful Apparition and Norn's Choirmaster adds one more to every poisoned player at once, which is how the deck closes out several opponents together.
Defensive cards hold the table off while the counters build. Ghostly Prison , Windborn Muse and Norn's Annex tax attacks, and Norn's Decree gives a poison counter to any opponent whose creatures deal combat damage to you.
What works out of the box
Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa ↗
A flying toxic 2 attacker that lets you play opponents' top cards each turn once they have three poison counters.
Contaminant Grafter ↗
A 5/5 trampler with toxic that proliferates whenever your creatures hit a player, and draws you a card each end step once an opponent is corrupted.
Evolution Sage ↗
Every land drop is a proliferate, which adds a poison counter to each poisoned opponent for no extra mana.
Norn's Choirmaster ↗
A 5/4 flier with first strike that proliferates whenever your commander enters or attacks. Ixhel attacking each turn means a proliferate each turn.
Vishgraz, the Doomhive ↗
Enters with three toxic Mite tokens and gets +1/+1 for each poison counter your opponents have.
Phyresis Outbreak ↗
Gives each opponent a poison counter, then shrinks their creatures by their poison count. Late in the game it is a one-sided sweeper.
What needs improvement
Two of the deck's sweepers fight its own board. Culling Ritual destroys every nonland permanent with mana value 2 or less, which hits most of your toxic creatures and your Signets, and Phyrexian Rebirth destroys every creature. A poison deck needs its small creatures to keep connecting, so it wants removal that only touches what opponents control.
The mana is slow for three colors. Krosan Verge , Sandsteppe Citadel , Path of Ancestry , Myriad Landscape and three Temples all enter tapped, which delays the two-drops that need to start attacking early. A few cards also hand out poison to you, like Ichor Rats , which gives every player a counter, including you.
Upgrade ideas
Each upgrade below starts from something the deck does poorly and says what a replacement card has to do. The cards named are examples, not the only answer: if you own something else that does the same job, or a newer printing does it better, it goes in the same slot. Make one change at a time and play a few games between them, so you can tell which change helped. The general method is in how to upgrade a Commander precon →
1. Add stronger cheap toxic threats
Ixhel only starts paying off once an opponent reaches three poison. Cheap creatures that add extra counters or proliferate on hit get you there a turn or two sooner.
What to look for Creatures costing four mana or less with toxic or infect that also proliferate, add extra poison, or get past blockers.
Cut, for example
Ichor Rats Gives every player a poison counter when it enters, including you. A 2/1 infect body is not worth helping opponents' own poison plans.
Ichorclaw Myr A 1/1 infect artifact that only grows when blocked. It does little against a board that simply ignores it.
Add, for example
Bloated Contaminator ↗
Three mana for a 4/4 trampler with toxic 1 that proliferates whenever it deals combat damage to a player.
Necrogen Rotpriest ↗
Each time a creature of yours with toxic hits a player, that player gets one more poison counter. Ixhel goes from two to three per hit.
Skrelv, Defector Mite ↗
One mana. Gives another creature toxic 1, hexproof from a color and evasion against creatures of that color for a turn.
2. Replace self-destructive wipes with targeted removal
Your board is made of small creatures that each add poison. Spot removal handles an opponent's best blocker or engine without costing you your own attackers.
What to look for Removal costing three mana or less that hits a single permanent, ideally one that also proliferates. See how much removal a Commander deck needs.
Cut, for example
Culling Ritual Destroys every nonland permanent with mana value 2 or less. In this deck, that is mostly your own toxic creatures and mana rocks.
Phyrexian Rebirth Destroys all creatures, and the Horror it leaves you has no toxic. It resets the board you spent turns building.
3. Untap the mana base
A three-color deck with this many tapped lands loses tempo on the turns when its two-drops should be attacking. Duals that usually enter untapped fix that.
What to look for Two-color lands in your colors that enter untapped most of the time. The land and mana base guide covers the main cycles.
Cut, for example
Krosan Verge Enters tapped, then costs two mana and a sacrifice to fetch two tapped lands. Too slow for an aggressive start.
Temple of Malady Always enters tapped. The scry 1 rarely makes up for the lost tempo.
Add, for example
4. Protect Ixhel and the attackers
Ixhel is a 2/5 that has to stay on the battlefield and keep attacking for its corrupted ability to matter. The deck's equipment does not help with that, while cheap protection does.
What to look for Equipment with a cheap equip cost that grants shroud or hexproof, and instants that protect the whole board.
Cut, for example
Grafted Exoskeleton Gives infect and +2/+2, but you sacrifice the creature when it becomes unattached. It is a liability against removal and bounce.
Trailblazer's Boots Nonbasic landwalk only works against opponents with nonbasic lands, and Ixhel already flies.
Win conditions
The upgraded deck wins by poison. Spread the first counters with cheap toxic creatures and spells, then let Evolution Sage , Norn's Choirmaster and Bloated Contaminator proliferate every poisoned player at once until they reach ten. Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa keeps you supplied with opponents' cards along the way, and Wurmquake or Vishgraz, the Doomhive gives the deck a big finisher once the table is corrupted.
Who should buy this precon
A moderate deck for a player comfortable with counters and timing. Poison runs on a separate track from life, so you need to keep count of every opponent's poison, choose who to proliferate, and remember Ixhel's end-step exile. It suits someone who likes a deck that feels different from normal combat damage and doesn't mind opponents ganging up once they see the poison counters.
Checked against the printed decklist on October 10, 2026.
Track how the upgrades actually perform.
TurnZero HQ keeps a win rate per deck version, so you can change a few cards, play some games, and see the difference instead of guessing.
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