Infect: A New Perspective

Hey everyone. So, here is the thing about deck building, for every great deck you make you almost always make 5 or 6 or maybe even more that are well, not so great and others that are just down right terrible. The other important aspect of deck building is card choice. It seems pretty obvious that part of building the best deck is choosing the right cards (how hard can it really be? right?). However, this is the part that's especially difficult. Also, once you have established that a card is important for the deck you also have to decide how many copies you want in the deck.

To exemplify this concept here is a totally different take on Mono Black Infect that is much more aggressive.

Creatures:

4 Plague Myr

4 Plague Stinger

4 Phyrexian Crusader

4 Hand of the Preators

4 Phyrexian Vatmother

2 Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon

Spells:

3 Vampire's Bite

3 Adventuring Gear

3 Sign in Blood

3 Go for the Throat

2 Doom Blade

Lands:

4 Inkmoth Nexus

4 Tectonic Edge

4 Verdant Catacombs

4 Marsh Flats

8 Swamp

Compared to the previous list this version should have a much better early game. I played several game 1s against it. My friend Ryan, author of Casual MTG creations and I tested it against Blue Black Control, Valakut Ramp, and Green White Quest. More testing has to be done against other decks like RUG, BUG, Blue White, Black Red Vampires, and Boros. But, GW Quest, UB, and Valakut were what I had made at the moment and didn't feel like building any of the other decks. I was being a little lazy, I will admit it. But, I was at the Beseiged Prerelease from 8pm to 10:30am. So, being a little lazy was okay with me.

Short Aside:

If you were wondering I came in 15th out of 57 people, which was a little disappointing but considering I didn't have a single removal spell except for 1 Go for the Throat and no other playable cards in black I will take a top 16 finish.

End Aside.

Well, after testing we determined that Infect has a virtual bye vs Valakut. Valakut usually just does not have enough disruption to deal with all the creatures and Adventuring Gear with fetch lands plus Vampire's Bite usually spells disaster for Valakut. Ryan had me tilting and raging hard core. He was to kill me on turn 4 when I was on the play and and even had played a Primeval Titan on my turn. I never even got to play the second one sitting in my hand as a Phyrexian Crusader attacked for 10 poison and my Titan was removed before blockers were declared.

Blue Black has a much better match up. In this match up it is all about having the right answers at the right time. You need a combination of Go for the Throat and some other removal spells either Disfigure or Doom Blade or Black Sun Zenith because there are just enough artifact creatures (8) that can sometimes blank Go for the Throat. Mana Leak was decent but not amazing in this match up. It dealt with Phyrexian Crusader, Hand of the Praetors, and Skittles very well but if you were on the draw it became a lot worse. If your opponent opens on turn 2 plague myr you really are going to wish that the Mana Leak in your hand was a Disfigure because that guy gives Infect a much faster clock. Grave Titan was a champ putting in extra blockers. Even though he dies to Go for the Throat I was able to win one game between Jace, Tarpit and two Grave Titan tokens. Hitting with a Creeping Tarpit in the early game when you can safely do so if very important because you really want to be able to kill them with one Grave Titan attack even when they have a blocker for him (thanks zombie tokens for stealing wins).

Overall, I really like this deck. You are fast and because there is no way to remove poison counters you don't care if your opponent gains life. This has been the downfall of many Red Deck Wins and Boros Decks. Look to see Infect in style at your next FNM, PTQ, or GP.

Thanks for reading.

Mark Meuse

The Strategist

A Return to the Pinnacle of Success:

Once Scars of Mirrodin was release Valakut decks became very popular and highly competitive. They were posting good numbers as there just wasn't a well defined strategy to beat them yet. Well, as we know, because of the success of the deck that is exactly what happened. The birth of Blue Black put Valakut on its heels. With cards like Memoricide, Spreading Seas, Tectonic Edge, Flash Freeze, and discard options Blue Black was able to oust Valakut as the top deck.

Now that Blue Black is top dawg can Valakut do anything to reclaim its title? I feel a Rocky Balboa movie coming along cause this going to be the story of a top fighter who is now the under dog coming to bash some face. Thrun, the Last Troll and Green Sun Zenith might just offer the resiliency that Valakut needs to reclaim its title.

Here is my proposed list:

Valakut Post Beseiged

Creatures:

4 Overgrown Battlement

4 Primeval Titan

1 Inferno Titan

1 Avenger of Zendikar

1 Gaea’s Revenge

Total: 13

Spells:

3 Lightning Bolt

4 Explore

2 Slagstorm

4 Growth Spasm

3 Cultivate

3 Green Sun Zenith

2 Summoning Trap

Total: 20

Lands:

3 Terramorphic Expanse

3 Evolving Wilds

11 Mountains

6 Forests

4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

Total: 27

Sideboard:

3 Acidic Slime

1 Slagstorm

1 Summoning Trap

1 Avenger of Zendikar

1 Gaea’s Revenge

3 Ricochet Trap

2 Thrun, the Last Troll

Card Choices:

4 Battlement: great early accelerants, offer stall, can't be removed via Lightning Bolt or Slagstorm.

4 Primeval Titan: Come on, really. I'm not explaining this one.

1 Inferno Titan: Great against aggro decks as it can decimate their board. especially if it makes it to the attack phase.

1 Avenger of Zendikar: Not bad verses control or aggro, if you can't answer him he wins the game byself. I like to keep the threats varied so that's why he's a one of with another in the board.

1 Gaea’s Revenge: The variation rule applies here too as he is great against control but not as spectacular against aggro.

2 Slagstorm: This is the replacement for pyroclasm. The extra mana is worth the extra damage it deals. Plus is can hit players and creatures unlike pyroclasm. Also, planeswalkers.

3 Green Sun Zenith: This slot was originally held only by summoning trap. But because of the extra consistancy of the Zenith it gets a slightly bigger nod as opposed to summoning trap.

2 Summoning Trap: This card is still too good not to play it. It is instant speed and can be cast for 0, neither the Zenith can do. It will be better in control match ups than aggro because of its aforementioned abilities.

The rest of the cards in the main deck are fairly simple and necessary. In the board we have:

3 Acidic Slime: Used to take out which of the 3 things it can target is most detrimental depending on the match up. Drawing multiples usually isn't bad.

1 Summoning Trap: This is here to increase of match win percentage against control.

2 Thrun, the Last Troll: I wanted to give control as hard a time as possible. Having to stare down this guy while fighting the Valakut strategy will be difficult.

1 Gaea's Revenge: Here for the same reasons as the Troll.

3 Ricochet Trap: This card is a must have!!! I don't know how I have seen so many player not have this card somewhere in their 75 card list. It makes no sense. This card can let you counter their counter spells and redirect those pesky Memoricides and Inquisition of Kozilek back on your opponent.

Everything else is pretty self explanatory. Look for my version of GW Beats in the up coming days.

How to really make Mono Black Infect:

Hey everyone!!! Sorry I never update this. Life is pretty busy with school and all. I never seem to have the time to really dedicate myself to this blog. However, with Mirrodin Beseiged coming out some of my friends were discussing how they would make a Mono Black Infect deck. This is what they had come up with:

(Note: Some of the cards listed here are from Mirrodin Besieged which will be released on February 4th with the prerelease on January 29th. All Besieged cards can be found at MTG Salvation)

14x Swamp

4x Inkmoth Nexus

4x Fetch lands ie Verdant Catacombs/ Marsh Flats

4x Hand of the Praetors

4x Phyrexian Crusader

4x Plague Stinger

3x Ichor Rats

2x Phyrexian Vatmother

2x Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon

4x Grasp of Darkness

4x Go for the Throat

1x Black Sun's Zenith

This list still has 10 open slots which they weren't sure what to do with. Well I took this as an invitation to take a crack at what I think the deck should look like and here is what I came up with:

Creatures:

3x Plague Stinger

4x Phyrexian Crusader

4x Ichor Rats

3x Hand of the Praetors

4x Phyrexian Vatmother

2x Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon

Instants / Sorceries

3x Inquisition of Kozilek

4x Sign in Blood

3x Grasp of Darkness

4x Go for the Throat

2x Black Sun's Zenith

Lands:

12x Swamp

4x Tectonic Edge

4x Inkmoth Nexus

4x Verdant Catacombs

Sideboard:

2x Disfigure

3x Duress

2x Doomblade

1x Black Sun's Zenith

3x Corpse Cur

3x Memoricide

1x Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon

I have to say that I while I think my friends made a solid attempt at the deck and that I agree with a lot of their choices, their deck left a lot to be desired. I mean it didn't even have 60 cards, what's up with that? :) I chose the list because you have access to early disruption via Inquisition of Kozilek which can hit most cards and you have access to Duress in the board for contol. Corpse Cur is in the board for removal heavy decks or decks with sweepers like Day of Judgment. There will come a time when trading 1 for 1, removal for creature, or creature for creature, will not be advantageous and Corpse Cur gives you the ability to get back one of your critical guys. The one card I did not fit into the 75 that should probably be there is Mind Sludge. I think 1-2 in the side board would be good. Instead I added Memoricide because most top heavy decks are only running one main threat. This may change after Beseiged and I will update the list accordingly. The sideboard also gives you access to other removal options and the ability to overload on removal if you feel it is necessary. The extra Skittles in the board is for those matches you expect to go longer and where you might have to play to conservatively then drop Skittles, give him haste, and win out of no where. With Hand of the Praetors on Board that's a potential 6 poison counters. I only have 3 Hand of the Praetors in the main deck because he can be killed pretty easily but if he resolves and sticks he's really good.

I also want to draw your attention to one of the removal spells, Go for the Throat.

This card is easily one of the best cards spoiled so far. It offers almost no draw backs. Go for the Throat only misses Wurmcoil Engine and Myr Battlesphere. Neither of these cards are being played heavily right now, at least not in standard anyways. But, this spell might change that. (Sorry Grave Titan) Which is why I included Doomblade in the sideboard. Also, think that black is probably going to get played more once Beseiged gets release, as if it wasn't played enough already. So, that's why Grasp is main decked. But, back to Go for the Throat. This card is going to be format defining a removal staple for years to come. It also serious implications for the Extended format.

Faeries has been one of the most dominant decks in Extended right now. Because of that it has been receiving a lot of hate and the varied number of threats it faces has made it very difficult to have the right removal at the right time. This has prompted Faeries to have to rely on discard options like Thoughtseize, Duress, and Inquisition of Kozilek. But, Go for the Throat solves all of Faeries' problems. Many players had been changing their mana base to support Grasp of Darkness but still found the double black requirement hard to get, especially in the early game. Again, Go for the Throat also solves that problem. This might give Faeries the slight edge it needs to stay on top of the meta, at least for right now.

Now that I have gone completely off topic let's return to the Mono Black Infect deck. The cards that really put it in contention are Phyrexian Vatmother and Phyrexian Crusader. These creatures are powerful and well costed. The Vatmother's drawback as of right now is essientially nothing as Infect is not yet a deck and might still be under the radar for the first week or two. But as infect gets more popular it is very possible that the Vatmother might have to played conservatively or not at all in the mirror match. Otherwise, THIS GUY IS NUTS! The only removal spell he dies to is Go for the Throat, which I believe is one of the reasons it was printed. And when he deal combat damage to a player his power is doubled due to the fact that you only need 10 poison counters to kill your opponent. Phyrexian Crusader is just a really solid threat. First Strike and Infect is a great combination and the protection from Red and White make it well positioned in this meta game because he only dies the black removal spells (disfigure, go for the throat, and grasp of darkness). Overall, I think think if a solid two drop or one drop gets printed (which is what I think this deck is really lacking) it will play much like Jund did in Standard in the last season. It would end up being a mid-range beatdown deck with good removal. The only difference is that Mono Black Infect lacks the number and quality of two for one's that Jund had, Blightning and Bloodbraid Elf. But the raw power of Mono Black Infect's creatures might just be enough.

That's all for now. Peace Out.

The Strategist: Mark