Infect creatures with the most useful abilities... Control Infect

[Clark Kant]

There's plenty of people trying for a hyper-aggressive infect deck composed entirely of 2cc 1/1s, pump, and acceleration that tries to win by turn 4 every game.

I instead wanted to slower, more controllish infect deck, something akin to Eva Green but with a faster clock and without the reliant on the graveyard, and thus wanted to make a list of the infect creatures with the most useful abilities. I also wanted to keep adding to the OP, each time a new set comes out with new infect creatures.

Here's my list of the best ones worth playing. I arbitrarily ignored anything with a casting cost higher than four, as I personally feel that running the number of lands required to support 5cc or 6cc creatures would ultimately be detrimental to the deck

Let me know if any cards below don't belong on the list, or if I left off any cards that you feel do belong...

Blight Mamba
Rot Wolf
Viridian Corrupter

Inkmoth Nexus
Plague Myr
Ichorclaw Myr
Necropede
Corpse Cur

Plague Stinger
Flensermite
Septic Rats
Phyrexian Crusader
Hand of the Praetors
Phyrexian Vatmother

So what doesn't belong, and what did I leave off?

Here are what I like about each card on the list currently...

Blight Mamba - Regeneration and infect go great together in a slower controllish deck. You can repeatedly use this creature to chump block a big attacker like Tarmogoyf, while slowly chipping away at it's attack/block with each chump.

Rot Wolf - Combined with pump, this is a great way to generate card advantage. You attack, they block with a bigger dude, you pump, the Rot Wolf lives, the blocker dies, and you draw a card. And let's face it, pump is an automatic inclusion in EVERY infect deck. There is no justification for not playing Invigorate, Pendelhaven and Vines of Vastwood (also Might of Old Krosa and Berserk in aggressive builds and Rancor and Groundswell in controllish builds) at the very least.

Viridian Corrupter - Assuming your maindeck plays no artifacts, this card is incredible. It can randomly blow up equipment, vials, chalices, tops and all sorts of annoying artifacts while causing no disadvantage to you. Yes, this means that you have to forego playing with any artifact creatures, but I think the reward is well worth that.

Inkmoth Nexus - Being able to turn your lands into evasive 1/1 infect flyers is incredibly useful.

Plague Myr - An infect creature that taps for mana in a pinch, four please!

Necropede - Seems pretty meh, but the occasional Lackey or Priest it can take out may make it worthwhile.

Ichorclaw Myr - This creature has a fantastic built in deterent to your opponent blocking it with anything. That comes in really handy.

Corpse Cur - Given how often your infect guys get killed or countered, being able to get one back seems strong.

Plague Stinger - Evasion and infect go too incredibly well together to pass up.

Flensermite - Pumping this to both take out some beefy blocker, and gain yourself life in the process is too good to pass up.

Septic Rats - A 3/3 infector for three mana is fairly efficient.

Phyrexian Crusader- First Strike goes so insanely well with infect. Tack on pro red and pro white and this is easily the strongest infect creature ever printed thus far.

Hand of the Praetors - An infect lord that pumps all your other infects, nothing to sneezing at.

Phyrexian Vatmother - A 4/5 infector for 4 mana is an incredibly good price.

[DownSyndromeKarl]

idk, Infect in Legacy doesnt seem viable. It's barely viable in a more restrictive format like Standard. Good luck to you though.

You forgot Corpse Cur and probably the best Infector; Putrefax. You could use them together and maybe Fauna Shaman to fetch the Putrefaxes.

[Clark Kant]

Thanks, I added Corpse Cur to the list.

I think 4cc is the limit though. The number of lands that are required to support higher ccs would take away from the deck imo.

[Madak17]

idk, Infect in Legacy doesnt seem viable. It's barely viable in a more restrictive format like Standard. Good luck to you though.

You forgot Corpse Cur and probably the best Infector; Putrefax. You could use them together and maybe Fauna Shaman to fetch the Putrefaxes.

I had a friend go 4-0 at a Legacy Tournament recently with Bg Infect. Dark Ritual combined with pump spells like Rancor, Predator's Strike, etc make it pretty easy to turn 2 someone. Legacy Infect is definitely worth taking a look at imo.

[DownSyndromeKarl]

I really find that hard to believe. You need to turn one an infect creature, then somehow make Dark Ritual produce green to "Turn 2" someone in the way you described. I'm not saying that with God Hand you couldn't Turn 2 someone, but in no way would it ever be "easy".

[Clark Kant]

I really find that hard to believe. You need to turn one an infect creature, then somehow make Dark Ritual produce green to "Turn 2" someone in the way you described. I'm not saying that with God Hand you couldn't Turn 2 someone, but in no way would it ever be "easy".

It's not "hard"

First turn bayou and you need to play any evasive infect creature, examples include Plague Stinger, Inkmoth Nexus, Phyrexian Crusader or whatever (some need dark ritual or an ESG to cast turn one, but Inkmoth doesn't need that even. If your opponent doesn't play an early creature, the evasion is unneccesary as well.

Second turn, you play a forest and need either an Invigorate or a Might of Old Krosa or Groundswell + a Berserk and it's game.

[DownSyndromeKarl]

Your opening had must include Berserk, one black source, dark ritual, one green source, an infect creature and either Invigorate, Might of Old Krosa or Groundswell to win on turn 2. That's not exactly a compact combo and it is by no means a common occurrence.

[TsumiBand]

Your opening had must include Berserk, one black source, dark ritual, one green source, an infect creature and either Invigorate, Might of Old Krosa or Groundswell to win on turn 2. That's not exactly a compact combo and it is by no means a common occurrence.

Yeah this. Aggressive decks are good for their redundancy, not their random 5-card combo tricks.

I think it's probably best to try the slow-roll approach, since really you're not slow-rolling at all; as long as your guys are all reasonably costed Infect guys your clock is that much faster by default. I think this allows you to play a Rock-like aggressive strategy, using stuff like Engineered Explosives and maybe even Pernicious Deed to keep the board weenie free. The issue is that the good Infect guys all cost 3+, so you'd want to have a reasonable means of keeping the board clear early.

Septic Rats and Phyrexian Crusader stand out to me as being auto-includes; Crusader's protection from common removal is awesome and the Rat's basically swinging for 6. Hand of the Preators looks like a solid guy too. Unless you're crazy about Putrefax I don't think you should even bother with most of the Green dudes.

I do think that pump spells would actually be reasonable in this deck, since they all have 'functional Berserk' on them already. Giant Growthing a Septic Rats is pretty cool yeah? No reason not to play Invigorate either, don't care about life totals. Shit, even a Bad Moon would be sort of techish. I guess.

[Clark Kant]

Your opening had must include Berserk, one black source, dark ritual, one green source, an infect creature and either Invigorate, Might of Old Krosa or Groundswell to win on turn 2. That's not exactly a compact combo and it is by no means a common occurrence.

Nope.

You don't need both a black source and a green source, one bayou, or any fetchland that can grab a bayou will do.

You don't need a dark ritual, an ESG or Lotus Petal will do.

You don't even need an infect creature, one Inkmoth Nexus will do.

And as you said, the pump spell itself can be any of these Invigorate, Might of Old Krosa or Groundswell.

Pretty much the only card that you do need is a Berserk. But even that's not essential, multiple pump spells serve the same role as would a first turn ritualed Phyrexian Crusader/Septic Rats or something else.

And if you don't have any of these, all that means is that you have to wait till turn 3 to win rather than turn 2.

[DownSyndromeKarl]

a bayou is a black source and a green source.
so instead of dark ritual, you need some other mana excel
inkmoth nexus is effectively an infect creature
and a pump spell.

You're banking on every opening hand having these four elements to win on turn 3.

Conley woods just won Rd1 with an infect deck, and it has almost none of the elements mentioned in this thread. I suggest a new strategy.

[Gheizen64]

a bayou is a black source and a green source.
so instead of dark ritual, you need some other mana excel
inkmoth nexus is effectively an infect creature
and a pump spell.

You're banking on every opening hand having these four elements to win on turn 3.

Conley woods just won Rd1 with an infect deck, and it has almost none of the elements mentioned in this thread. I suggest a new strategy.

Conley Wood list look fantastic. Simply lovely synergy there. I'm just afraid you can't really go anywhere with only 1/1 in the deck... and why no sword of the meek there? It sacrifice for free with that many 1/1 in the deck.

[Clark Kant]

Conley woods just won Rd1 with an infect deck,

Can you post a link to the decklist in question? Thanks.

[dahcmai]

He wasn't top 16, but he did do quite decent and was in top 32 at least. I had to laugh since it's quite original and looks fun as hell. I doubt it will ever be a serious deck, but you have to love the amazing synergy in the cards and sheer thrill of killing people with infect. I'm sure he got past a few people on the sheer "WTF" reactions.


Artifacts
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Cranial Plating
3 Crucible Of Worlds
2 Mox Diamond
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
4 Tangle Wire
1 Throne of Geth


Artifact Creatures
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Ichorclaw Myr
4 Necropede
4 Plague Myr

Legendary Artifacts
3 Mox Opal
2 Umezawa's Jitte

Lands
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 City of Traitors
4 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Wasteland

Sideboard:
4 Contagion Clasp
2 Pithing Needle
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
4 Thorn of Amethyst
3 Tormod's Crypt

[Rune]

Let's be honest, he basically took Metalwalker's Steel Stompy list and shat all over it with bad cards :|

(sorry about the rage - just hate the way this guy always seems to steal the decks of others and claim he came up with them, like with Nightmare's Aeon Bridge.)

@topic: I'd wait until the next set comes out. The Crusader and the Inkmoth are strong, but they don't really have any friends to play with at the moment.

[tsabo_tavoc]

He wasn't top 16, but he did do quite decent and was in top 32 at least. I had to laugh since it's quite original and looks fun as hell. I doubt it will ever be a serious deck, but you have to love the amazing synergy in the cards and sheer thrill of killing people with infect. I'm sure he got past a few people on the sheer "WTF" reactions.

[list]

Many thanks for posting this, it took me a long time searching with no success. Props to the list (much different from Steel Stompy IMHO), Tangle Wire finally finds a home in Legacy MD. I am soo tempted to fit in a pair of Corpse Cur.

[DownSyndromeKarl]

just hate the way this guy always seems to steal the decks of others and claim he came up with them, like with Nightmare's Aeon Bridge.)


after winning round one in the feature match, he went and sat in the booth and named the two or three guys that made the deck. last i checked, strictly saying "This person made this deck that i am playing with" is not claiming he came up with it...

Also @dahcmai; where's you find that list? I swear he was running Corpse Cur...

[dahcmai]

I used psychic powers. or maybe this.



http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/legacy/21489_Deck_Tech_MUD_Bugs_with_Conley_Woods.html

[DownSyndromeKarl]

haha. fair enough. I looked for a deck tech until i had to go to work(which was only during rd2 PT) and it wasnt up yet.

[Bignasty197]

I played against a guy today that Ritualed into Phyrexian Crusader turn 1 off of a Bayou then played another land turn 2 into Might of old Krosa followed by Berserk. I died.

[tsabo_tavoc]

I played against a guy today that Ritualed into Phyrexian Crusader turn 1 off of a Bayou then played another land turn 2 into Might of old Krosa followed by Berserk. I died.

Yep, this is like ANT winning turn2: the only way to prevent that is playing blue or playing black + going first. If there is no creature before Phyrexian Crusader, a Berserk can be a Invigorate or Vines of Vastwood FTW. I auto keep any hand with a B-land, a Ritual and a Crusader. Another such creature could push Infect to Tier 1.5, something like

Phyrexian Intruder 1B (Uncommen)
Pro White, Pro Red, Infect
1/1

Slippery Venom 1G (Commen)
Trollshroud, Infect
1/1