Poisonous

Poisonous
Destroy any minion damaged by this.

A Poisonous minion

Poisonous is a minion ability that causes any minion damaged by them to be destroyed. Poisonous minions on the battlefield are marked by a bubbling vial of poison at the bottom of their portraits. Poisonous is a type of triggered destroy effect.

Prior to Patch 7.1.0.17720, the Poisonous ability was represented by the text "Destroy any minion damaged by this minion".

Notes

Granting Poisonous to minions with triggered effects that deal damage to minions will cause those effects to become Poisonous themselves.

Example: A Wild Pyromancer is adapted with Poison Spit. When its triggered effect activates, all minions dealt damage by the effect are destroyed, including itself.

Example: An Abomination is adapted with Poison Spit. When its deathrattle effect triggers, all minions dealt damage by the effect are destroyed.

Example: A Knife Juggler is given Poisonous by Plague Scientist. Minions damaged by the Knife Juggler's knives will be destroyed.

Example: An Imp Master is given Poisonous by Plague Scientist. At the end of the turn, the Imp Master will be destroyed.

Betrayal can be especially effective when used on a Poisonous minion; any adjacent minion without Divine Shield will be killed by the Poisonous effect.

Minions which deal damage as a Deathrattle which are adapted to be Poisonous will destroy every minion the Deathrattle damages. (Prior to Patch 9.0.0.20457, this did not happen if the minion died, but it did happen when the minion's Deathrattle was triggered by certain effects while it is still alive, such as Feign Death, Terrorscale Stalker, or Princess Huhuran.)

Example: A Fiery Bat gets the Poison Spit adaptation from Crackling Razormaw. Its deathrattle is triggered by Feign Death, and instantly destroys the minion it damages. Later the Fiery Bat dies and the deathrattle triggers again, again instantly killing the damaged minion.

Note: Before Patch 9.0.0.20457, a bug caused this interaction to work when triggering a Deathrattle without killing the minion, but not when the minion was actually killed.

Similar to poisonous minions, a Death's Bite that has been enchanted with Envenom Weapon will destroy all minions on the board, except those protected by a Divine Shield.

Strategy

While the stats of Poisonous minions are not always especially powerful, they offer a unique tactical advantage. Poisonous minions can destroy any opponent in a single strike, and can be used to single-handedly dispose of giants such as Ysera or Deathwing.

Poisonous minions are generally disposable, intended for a single swift strike. However, abilities such as Divine Shield can allow you to make more extended use of them.

Poisonous minions only destroy minions to whom they have caused damage. Minions shielded with Divine Shield will not actually take damage, and will not therefore be destroyed. Reducing a Poisonous minion's Attack to 0 through means such as Shrinkmeister will likewise prevent the Poisonous effect from occurring.

Opponents will generally want to destroy Poisonous minions as quickly as possible, especially if they already have a powerful minion on the battlefield. The presence of a Poisonous minion, especially a Stealthed one, is a great deterrent to summoning any valuable minions, since they will likely be immediately removed from play by the Poisonous minion.

Adapt

Any card with the Adapt ability may become (or grant) the Poisonous ability with this choice:

See Adapt for full listings.

Cards with Poisonous

This section lists minions which are Poisonous or have the ability to become Poisonous when played.

Collectible

Name / Desc	Rarity	Type	Subtype	Class	Cost	Atk	HP	Description
Giant Wasp	Common	Minion	Beast	Any	3	2	2	Stealth Poisonous Float like a butterfly, sting like a giant wasp!
Stoneskin Basilisk	Common	Minion	Beast	Any	3	1	1	Divine Shield Poisonous He got that way from looking into a mirror.
Stubborn Gastropod	Common	Minion	Beast	Any	2	1	2	Taunt Poisonous Stubbornly pursuing its dream to become Azeroth's fastest animal!
Venomancer	Common	Minion	General	Any	5	2	5	Poisonous Eight times the death of regular-mancers.
Venomizer	Common	Minion	Mech	Hunter	2	2	2	Magnetic Poisonous Keeps getting banned for toxic behavior.
Vilebrood Skitterer	Common	Minion	Beast	Hunter	5	1	3	Poisonous Rush It aspires to be a Vilebrood Dancer, but it has eight left feet.
Carrion Drake	Rare	Minion	Dragon	Hunter	5	3	7	Battlecry: If a minion died this turn, gain Poisonous. Fits easily into overhead luggage bins.
Druid of the Swarm	Rare	Minion	General	Druid	2	1	2	Choose One - Transform into a 1/2 with Poisonous; or a 1/5 with Taunt. The Druid awoke from troubling dreams to find herself transformed into a giant spider.
Emperor Cobra	Rare	Minion	Beast	Any	3	2	3	Poisonous The Sholazar Basin is home to a lot of really horrible things. If you're going to visit, wear bug spray. And plate armor.
Patient Assassin	Epic	Minion	General	Rogue	2	1	1	Stealth Poisonous He’s not really that patient. It just takes a while for someone to walk by that he can actually reach.
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Wild format

 This section contains information exclusive to Wild format.

Name / Desc	Rarity	Type	Subtype	Class	Cost	Atk	HP	Description
Pit Snake	Common	Minion	Beast	Rogue	1	2	1	Poisonous It could be worse. It could be a Snake Pit.
Maexxna	Legendary	Minion	Beast	Any	6	2	8	Poisonous Maexxna gets super mad when people introduce her as "Maxina" or "Maxxy".
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Uncollectible

Name / Desc	Rarity	Type	Subtype	Class	Cost	Atk	HP	Description
Drakeslayer	None	Minion	General	Any	1	2	1	Poisonous
Radioactive Ooze	None	Minion	General	Rogue	1	1	1	Poisonous Rush
Druid of the Swarm	Rare	Minion	Beast	Druid	2	1	2	Poisonous
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Wild format

 This section contains information exclusive to Wild format.

Name / Desc	Rarity	Type	Subtype	Class	Cost	Atk	HP	Description
Druid of the Swarm	Rare	Minion	Beast	Druid	2	1	5	Taunt Poisonous
Showing the only card

Sources of Poisonous

Poisonous-generating cards

This section lists cards which generate Poisonous minions.

Name / Desc	Rarity	Type	Subtype	Class	Cost	Atk	HP	Description
Marsh Drake	Common	Minion	Dragon	Any	3	5	4	Battlecry: Summon a 2/1 Poisonous Drakeslayer for your opponent. She would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for that meddling Drakeslayer.
Webweave	Common	Spell		Druid	5			Summon two 1/2 Poisonous Spiders. O, what a tangled web we weave, hoping spiders dodge the cleave.
Blightnozzle Crawler	Rare	Minion	Mech	Rogue	4	2	4	Deathrattle: Summon a 1/1 Ooze with Poisonous and Rush. "Well we HAD it contained. Then you went and gave it legs!"
Druid of the Swarm	Rare	Minion	General	Druid	2	1	2	Choose One - Transform into a 1/2 with Poisonous; or a 1/5 with Taunt. The Druid awoke from troubling dreams to find herself transformed into a giant spider.
Venomstrike Trap	Rare	Spell		Hunter	2			Secret: When one of your minions is attacked, summon a 2/3 Poisonous Cobra. Snakes on a frozen plain.
Malfurion the Pestilent	Legendary	Hero card		Druid	7			Choose One - Summon 2 Poisonous Spiders; or 2 Scarabs with Taunt. "Cenarius once taught me about the precarious balance between life and death. I have come to understand: there IS no balance. Death always wins."
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Poisonous-granting cards

This section lists cards which grant the Poisonous ability to other minions or to itself.

Name / Desc	Rarity	Type	Subtype	Class	Cost	Atk	HP	Description
Plague Scientist	Common	Minion	General	Rogue	3	2	3	Combo: Give a friendly minion Poisonous. The excruciating pain means it's working!
Venomizer	Common	Minion	Mech	Hunter	2	2	2	Magnetic Poisonous Keeps getting banned for toxic behavior.
Carrion Drake	Rare	Minion	Dragon	Hunter	5	3	7	Battlecry: If a minion died this turn, gain Poisonous. Fits easily into overhead luggage bins.
Envenom Weapon	Rare	Spell		Rogue	3			Give your weapon Poisonous. Like Deadly Poison, but deadlier.
Toxic Arrow	Epic	Spell		Hunter	2			Deal 2 damage to a minion. If it survives, give it Poisonous. What doesn't kill you makes you toxic.
Toxmonger	Epic	Minion	General	Hunter	4	2	4	Whenever you play a minion that costs (1), give it Poisonous. Not all spiders are born poisonous. That's where he comes in.
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Trivia

Keyword

Poisonous is actually a triggered effect, but does not display the lightning-bolt icon found on all other triggered effects. However, when the Poisonous minion deals damage, the lightning bolt icon is revealed.

Before Patch 7.1, 'Poisonous' was not a keyword, but was represented by the text "Destroy any minion damaged by this minion", as well as a unique animated icon depicting a green bubbling flask. The case of the Poisonous ability was cited in 2014 by Ben Brode as an example where the developers could have added a keyword, but chose instead to simply describe the ability in full, since it was only found on 4 cards. This was changed in Patch 7.1.0.17720 during the lead up to Journey to Un'Goro, with the addition of the Poisonous keyword. The change was purely cosmetic, but appears to have been due to the introduction of a number of new Poisonous cards with Un'Goro, therefore justifying the creation of a keyword for the long-standing effect.

Poison vs Venom

At the time of its introduction, the keyword itself, Poisonous, was arguably technically incorrect for all four of the playable cards involved. This is because 'poisonous' animals such as snakes and spiders are in fact venomous, rather than poisonous; venom is injected whereas poison must be absorbed or ingested. For example, a venomous spider injects its prey with venom, while a poisonous frog is dangerous if eaten.

However, Ben Brode explains that the term "Poison" is inherited from World of Warcraft, where the term has long been used by the rogue class for a range of abilities and items used to deal additional effects when applied to their weapons. Hearthstone itself already contained a few such cards at the time, with more planned for the then-upcoming Journey to Un'Goro.

Patch changes

• Patch 9.0.0.20457 (2017-08-08): Poisonous will work with Deathrattles.
• Patch 7.1.0.17720 (2017-02-28): Poison effect is now named as Poisonous.
• Patch 1.0.0.3890 (2013-10-02): Poison icon and triggering flash added. Prior to this, cards with Poison had no icon, and did not flash when triggering their ability.

References

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