Virulent Wound

Most poison enablers ask you to deal combat damage with an infect creature; this one routes the toxin through a kill instead. The -1/-1 counter is the real work: it shrinks a blocker or finishes a chump, and the poison rider only pays out if the creature actually dies this turn. That conditional keeps the rate honest. You are not handed a free poison counter for a single black mana; you are buying one only when your removal connects on something already headed for the grave, which means the card wants a board where damage is flying or another effect is closing the deal. The result is a removal spell that double-dips: it weakens a creature now and turns its death into corrosion later. For a poison deck that cannot always force infect damage through a clogged ground, that second mode is the appeal, a way to advance the toxic clock without ever attacking. The narrow window (death must happen this turn) is the design discipline, since it forbids stockpiling the trigger on a creature you merely plan to kill eventually. It rewards timing the cast for the same turn the body falls, a tighter ask than plain shrink-and-go removal, and that tension between cheap removal and the poison upside is what the card is built around.