If you’re familiar with Axie Infinity’s debuffs, then you should be familiar with poison. It’s a permanent (unless removed) debuff that slowly decays the enemy.

In this article, part of the series on meta Axies, I’ll discuss one of the rulers of the Axie MMR (Matchmaking Rating) ceiling, an Axie infused with a toxin. I introduce to you the poison Axie lineups.

What Are Poison Axies?

Dubbed as “Jumping Poisons,” poison Axies specialize in backdoor abilities and, of course, inflicting poison. They deal massive damage to the opposing midline or frontline, leaving them with little HP that the inflicted toxins will slowly chew away.

These abominations plague the top-rank arena, ranging from 2000+ MMR. Heck, even the top 1 player of Season 18 was a poison Axie user.

Poison Axies all have one thing in common: they can poison any Axie, may it be frontline, midline, or backline.

Venom Spray is the core of all poison lineups. It’s a zero-cost card that applies two stacks of poison.

This card holds a spot among the strongest of zero-cost cards. I mean, where else can you get a card with 20 shield points and apply poison?

What is Poison?

Before we delve deeper into poison Axies, you should know what poison is first and how it functions.

Check out this brief article that talks about what the poison debuff is:

Axie Infinity: Poison Debuff

Poison Axie Builds and Lineups

Dusk and Reptile Axies typically serve as poison Axie vessels. Their tanky nature can receive damage, leaving room for excess turns to deal poison damage.

Dusks and Reptiles also do well against Aquas and Birds, familiar competitors in all MMR ranges.

Dusk or Reptile Class?

For the backline and midline Axies, Dusks will always be the stronger class. Both Reptiles and Dusks have high HP, but Dusks outspeed Reptiles.

In a game where speed dictates turn orders, grabbing the fastest Axie possible for any build will always pay off.

Dusks poison Axies, however, are way pricier than Rpetiles ones.

Poison Axie builds depend on the lineup, and we can split these into two common types:

• The Garish Worm poison lineup
• The Bone Sail / Furball poison lineup

I’ll go through each lineup thoroughly, as well as the specific build for each Axie.

Standard Poison Frontline

This is what we call the Yam Plant. It’s a standard tank for any poison Axie lineup.

You can read more about Yam Plants in this article, found within the common meta Axies:

Meta Axies: What You Need to Know

This is a standardized Yam Plant. It has all the necessities of a frontline Axie, such as shields (October Treat), energy gain (Vegetal Bite and Disguise), and the most important one, applying poison (Gas Unleash)

Gas Unleash is a simple card, but with proper use can leave the whole enemy team poisoned with just one card.

Mechanics and Uses

When A Yam Plant plays Gas Unleash, every Axie that attacks the Yam Plant will get poisoned. So if I played Gas Unleash while my opponent’s backline played four Aquatic cards, then the backline would get four stacks of poison.

Bizzare, right? It’s the perfect card for a poison build.

Another mechanic that most players miss is that you can double the stacks they receive when you play two Gas Unleash cards. Using the same example as earlier, if I played two Gas Unleash cards on that round, the opposing backline would get eight poison stacks.

Alternate Build/s

Yam Plants in a Garish Worm lineup only have one alternate build. Well, they only differ in one body part.

As you can see, the Serious mouth body part was changed to Pincer while the Pumpkin and Yam remained. The Yam Plant now has two Bug zero cost cards.

Remember that the Garish Worm’s poison ability only procs when it’s chained with another Bug card. Therefore, the Yam Plant having two zero-cost Bug cards makes it easier to trigger that ability.

Another alternative to a Yam Plant is a Yam Dusk. This is a more optimal pick when you choose to have Pincer as the mouth part.

You benefit from the Speed stat points from a Dusk and HP equivalent to a Plant.

Note: Don’t use a Dusk Axie for a Yam build when it has the Serious body part! The Vegetal Bite ability best works if the Axie is the slowest in the match, and Dusk Axies are speedy, so it’s a lousy mash-up!

The downside of this build is that it’s super expensive because of its scarcity, as it exists only in the game’s top ranks.

The floor price of these Axies starts at 0.2 ETH. Judging from its use in the top meta, it’s a reasonable price for an Axie like this.

Note: This Yam Plant build applies to ALL poison Axie lineups. I highly recommend it to any poison lineup.

Garish Worm Poison Lineup

Evident through the name, these poison comps showcase the popular poison-inflicting Bug part, Garish Worm or Barb Strike.

It’s a sound all-rounder card, having decent shields and at least a hundred damage. It fits in a poison lineup because of its ability, which inflicts two stacks of poison when chained with another Bug card.

In a Garish Worm lineup, all of the Axies need to have at least one-Bug part. It’s a convenient team-building strategy because it easily procs Barb Strike’s ability to apply poison.

Midline

The midline poison Axie targets the opposing backline Axie. A Garish Worm comp should have one high damage card and Toothless Bite (Sneaky Raid).

This Axie sports the Venom Spray and Barb Strike, the core cards of the lineup.

Mechanics and Uses

Cerastes (Surprise Invasion) is a standard damage card for an Axie attacking a faster Axie. It’s a common thing for backline Axies to be the fastest in their comp.

When Sneaky Raid is played, Surprise Invasion takes advantage of the opening to attack the backline Axie. If it’s a Bird or an Aqua (usual backline Axies), then they’ll take approximately 150 damage.

Not only that, but the poison Axie user may also play Garish Worm. Instead of dealing massive damage, they may opt for minor damage but more poison stacks.

This is an optimal play against Reptile or Plant backlines because of class advantages. Garish Worm is a Bug card that deals lots of damage against these classes.

Alternate Build/s

In this kind of midline poison Axie, the player can change only the horn body part. The mouth, back, and tail body parts all play irreplaceable roles (backdoor attack and inflicting poison).

Usually, a player can choose any horn, as long as it deals tons of damage. Prime examples of these are Kestrel (Headshot), Oranda (Hero’s Bane), and Scaly Spear (Scaly Lunge).

It’s all dependent on the player’s feel and the anticipated synergy of the team.

Dusk Axies can also make for a pricier alternative.

Backline

Garish Worm poison lineups don’t rely on endgame rounds to win. Instead, they let loose while all of the Axies are still alive.

To compensate for this, we need a backline Axie that can attack the midline and duel.

Mechanics and Uses

Wing Horn (Smart Shot) is a Bird horn body part that allows the Axie to skip the closest target. Commonly enough, skipping the nearest target means attacking the opposing midline.

This card enables our poison Axie to intoxicate the enemy midline. Adding Tiny Turtle (Chomp) to the equation, we can also leave them stunned.

Among the three Axies, this one duels best. Primarily because of Chomp and Venom Spray. Having a zero-cost card and a stun inflicting ability can change the tide of 1v1 scenarios.

Alternate Build/s

There aren’t any alternate builds for this poison Axie.

Chomp is a great utility tool for causing stuns. Not only does it work great in duels, but also in initiating backdoor attacks.

A Dusk version of this poison Axie is a pricier alternative.

Furball / Bonesail Poison Axie Lineup

This is another familiar poison lineup but without Garish Worm. Instead, it exploits the unique mechanics of Furball with the poison debuff.

This lineup is slightly beefier and more team and outplays reliant rather than Barb Strike-ing the flip out of the enemy. In addition, you’ll get to know how these cards work well for poison comps.

Midline

A midline poison Axie serves as a secondary tank for a poison lineup. It sports the Wing Horn and Grass Snake body parts to intoxicate the opposing midline.

Combining the shield points of Ivory Chop and Chomp, you have one big tanky poison Axie.

Mechanics and Uses

Ivory Chop is one tanky card, pretty handy if your tank dies early. Balancing the shields among the team allows your frontline to have a high damage card.

Another mechanic of Ivory Chop is to draw cards. This is a pretty helpful card, especially for poison comps that heavily rely on combos.

Alongside the massive shields of Ivory Chop and Chomp, tanking out damage mid-game will be easy.

Alternate Build/s

The player can change the mouth body part of this midline poison Axie. Users can pick other high damage cards depending on the lineup.

Some may go for Cute Bunny (Terror Chomp) or Piranha (Crimson Water) as substitutes because these cards deal decent damage.

Bone Sail itself can be changed to other high shield back body parts like Bulwark or Red Ear.

Players can get creative with their poison Axie builds.

Dusk versions of these builds are pricier alternatives.

Pro Tip: This midline Axie should be faster than the backline. If the backline is a Furball poison Axie, having this midline poison Axie go first in the turn order maximizes the poison damage.

Backline

The Furball poison Axie utilizes the unique mechanic of Furball. This is the poison Axie that has to last, exactly why it’s a backline for this build.

It targets the opposing backline.

This is the most expensive poison Axie build. Primarily because of the breed and scarcity of this build, its floor price starts at a whopping 0.1 WETH (which is pretty expensive already).

Mechanics and Uses

Furball will be this backline Axie’s primary damage source. It strangely interacts with poison stacks.

As we all know, the poison takes damage for every turn in a round (e.g., one card played is a turn). And the Furball card strikes the target at least three times.

Each Furball strike counts as one turn, so the intoxicated Axies will receive damage for every strike Furball does.

For example, if an Axie has two poison stacks (4 HP damage per tick) and a user plays a Juggling Ball card, the poisoned Axie will receive 12 HP from just one Juggling Ball card.

You can check out this video compiled by Project Lexie to see how Furball works with poison:

All of the enemy Axies must be poisoned to make the most of Furball. Thus, the more stacks there are, the more damage they take.

In addition, you have the Surprise Invasion card for extra damage against Birds and Aquas. It’s a good pair for Furball, which has Beast damage.

Alternate Build/s

A player can alter the horn body part of this poison Axie. There are lots of variations, as long as it’s a high damage card.

Some users prefer Kestrel (Headshot) or Dual Blade (Sinister Strike), etc. But, always feel free to be creative and strategic in building an Axie.

Dusk versions of this poison Axie are pricier alternatives.

Conclusion

Now you have an idea of how poison Axies look like and how they work. If you’re a new player, don’t fret because you won’t be facing them early on.

These creatures lurk around 2000+ MMR and became common plagues. So even other users built Axies meant to counter poison comps (Bidens Plant).

But you know what they say, “if you can’t beat them, then join them.”

And that should be all for this article’s entry into our adventure throughout meta Axies. There are a lot of them and ways to handle them.

It’s best to know your opponents before jumping into war, which is what we’re doing here. Good luck with your arena matches!

What do YOU think about poison Axies? Did I miss anything? Comment it down below!