As we talk about the new and upcoming Magic: The Gathering mechanic called “toxic” and is introduced in Phyrexia: All will be one, we could not way out not to compare it with the root word in terms of deck archetype and gameplay.

A “toxic” mechanic in Magic: The Gathering refers to a game mechanic or strategy that is considered unfun or unfriendly to play against. It can be defined as a mechanic that generates repetitive or uninteractive game states or leads to one player dominating the other without giving them a chance to play. Examples of toxic mechanics in the past include:

1. “Combo” decks that can win the game with a single, unstoppable combination of cards. The best examples are Channel-Fireball and Splinter Twin Combo.
2. “Lock” decks that prevent the opponent from taking any meaningful actions. The cards like Static Orb, and Opposition exist in decks in the past that caters to this strategy. It wasn’t very pleasant to go against.
3. “Stax” decks that tax the opponent’s resources heavily and prevent them from playing the game. Example cards are Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Tangle Wire, Ensnaring Bridge, and Sphere of Resistance.
4. “Mill” decks that force the opponent to run out of cards in their library. Grindstone with Painter’s Servant is one combo that will instantly mill out an opponent’s library once it is activated.

Wizards of the Coast, the game’s publisher, tries to avoid creating these mechanics in new sets and ban them in formats where they are too strong. Restrictions such as bannings are needed to be made in order to balance the metagame of the formats.