Infect Zoo

[ironclad8690]

With the recent prevalence of Infect Stompy in the American SCG circuit taken into consideration, I felt an urge to try and bring non-tempo aggro back in a new way.

I present Infect Zoo/Naya Infect:

4 Glistener Elf
4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Ichorclaw Myr
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Invigorate
4 Vines of Vastwood
3 Boros Charm
3 Reckless Charge
3 Rancor
4 Inkmoth Nexus
2 Savannah
2 Taiga
1 Plateau
1 Karakas
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Arid Mesa
4 Windswept Heath
1 Pendelhaven
2 Crop Rotation
1 Forest
SB: 1 Crop Rotation
SB: 2 Rest in Peace
SB: 2 Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 1 Enlightened Tutor
SB: 1 Meekstone
SB: 1 Celestial Flare
SB: 2 Pyroblast
SB: 1 Choke
SB: 2 Vexing Shusher
SB: 1 Ensnaring Bridge
SB: 1 Pithing Needle

Initially I did not think this deck would be very competitive. After trying it out against some popular decks on cockatrice, I was actually quite surprised at the resiliency & consistency of the deck.

Here were the records of the first 4 matches:

RUG Delver 1-2
Shardless BUG 2-0
Death and Taxes 2-1
MUD Post 2-0

The Cards:

4 Noble Hierarch - Mana ramp/fixing and exalted. One of the cards that makes this deck work and flow smoothly through things like Daze and Thalia. Exalted and Infect are insanely good together obviously.

4 Qasali Pridemage - Provides necessary utility as well as Exalted. Helps especially vs equipment which can wreck your board as well as powerful artifacts and enchantments such as Chalice of the Void, Counterbalance, and Solitary Confinement.

4 Glistener Elf - Doesn't get much better than this in these colors. 1/1 infect for 1.

4 Ichorclaw Myr - Another good infect creature. Occupies the slot that Blighted Agent would normally take. His "blocked" ability is quite good with trample effects.

4 Inkmoth Nexus - Best card vs Miracles and sorcery speed removal (Looking at you Liliana and Toxic Deluge). Abrupt Decay can't hit it, so Burn STP and Wasteland are your only real concerns in game 1, with the possibility of Ancient Grudge, Submerge, Golgari Charm etc post board.



4 Swords to Plowshares - 1 mana removal with effectively no downside.

4 Invigorate - Free pump spell with basically no downside. Very good when facing soft countermagic and when cards like Thalia are in play. Best to use defensively until you have a window of opportunity where you know that your opponent cannot cannot 2-for-1 you.

4 Vines of Vastwood - With a deck like this you need ways to protect your creatures, and this has the significant upside of being able to pump your power. Similarly to invigorate, use defensively until you have your chance.

3 Rancor - One of the slots I am not too sure about. Trample is necessary in this deck, and Rancor comes back to your hand more often than you might think. Another option for this slot is berserk.

3 Boros Charm - Added protection for your creatures with added utility of randomly dealing twice as many infect counters. Combined with an exalted trigger/pendelhaven and invigorate or vines, this can 1 shot your opponent. This has mostly been used in my testing to protect from combat damage and Burn/Abrupt Decay.

3 Reckless Charge - Another slot that I am not completely confident about. The flashback adds to the long game pretty well, and the aggressive cost and granting haste can catch your opponents off guard when they tap out on their turn and you have 0 infect creatures on board. Could alternatively be berserk.

2 Crop Rotation - Used to reduce your weakness to wasteland as well as finding Inkmoth Nexus and toolbox pieces such as Pendelhaven or Inkmoth Nexus. When used defensively, can protect you from wasteland. This is good to board out in postboard games vs tempo and control decks.




1 Pendelhaven - Serves same function as forest while having the upside of boosting your infect creatures.

1 Karakas - In color protection from Reanimator, Sneak and Show, Marit Lage, Thalia etc.

Fetchlands/Forest/Taiga/Savannah/Plateau - Necessary to cast your spells.



The sideboard was borrowed somewhat from Death and Taxes and Maverick.


1 Ensnaring Bridge - You will always be able to control this in such a way that you can attack with your infect creatures. Even if you have 0 in hand, Noble Hierarch can get through (Plan B). Great vs Tarmogoyf, Batterskull, Reanimator, Sneak and Show, Marit Lage, Merfolk, and basically any fair deck with creatures larger than 1/1.

1 Meekstone - Mainly for True-Name Nemesis, Delver, and Tarmogoyf.

1 Pithing Needle - A catch all that pulls quite a bit of weight in man matchups.

2 Ethersworn Canonist - Storm and Elves are the main decks that this comes in again, with notable mentions to burn and enchantress. Basically any non artifact deck that seeks to play more than 1 spell per turn.

2 Vexing Shusher - Anti-countermagic for Tempo and Counterbalance lock. Mainly there for Tempo and Miracles.

1 Choke - Another silver bullet which can end the game against Miracles/Deathblade/Tempo on the spot.

2 Rest in Peace - We are not negatively impacted in any way aside from losing value on Reckless Charge. Need grave hate for Dredge, Reanimator, Loam Decks, Punishing Fire, Tarmogoyf, Deathrite Shaman, and to a lesser extent Knight of the Reliquary.

1 Celestial Flare - Mostly there for True-Name, not really sure about this slot.

1 Crop Rotation - Added hate for Sneak and Show, Reanimator, and Possibly even against decks with no counter magic as added protection against wasteland.

1 Enlightened Tutor - Helps to find any of the artifacts and enchantments that you need in bad matchups like elves or storm.

2 Pyroblast - Added insurance against blue decks. Could be Red Elemental Blast to get around misdirect-type effects.


Other cards in consideration for sideboard:

Blood Moon - Out to lands, which is a troublesome matchup.

Null Rod - Great against equipment and Tezz/Affinity decks.

[FTW]

Can you consistently generate enough mana to make Vines of Vastwood better than say Ranger's Guile? The main advantage is the +4 makes it a lot easier to reach lethal infect. But the main drawback is you need to decide when you cast it if you can afford to pump another G into the P/T bonus or if you need to hold open more mana for other tricks. If you can pay the GG about 50% of the time you use it, it's clearly better than Guile. But I can't tell if that is necessarily the case. If you cast it for 1 mana more often then Guile might be better? For example, if you need to hold a second Vines or a Boros Charm open in case the opponent reacts to your trick, you might be compromised by being tempted to kick Vines and then not having the backup (or overthinking it, not kicking it and not needing the backup, losing the extra poison counters). Similar, it gets really tight on mana if you flashback Reckless Charge and want to hold protection open. Basically, Legacy is a format tight on mana and seems like there are a lot of situations where you could choose wrong.

Also, how good are the 4 Pridemage? It's basically a 0/2 chumpblocker with exalted (and disenchant). i.e. you'd almost never attack with it. If you need consistent ways to get exalted or kill artifacts/enchantments, what about running 4 Green Sun's Zenith and then 1-2 Pridemage. Zenith adds a ton of consistency to your infect plan (finding Glistener) and can find the Pridemage if you need it without getting you stuck with awkward 3 Pridemate hands where you are tempted to attack for non-infect damage.

[ironclad8690]

Can you consistently generate enough mana to make Vines of Vastwood better than say Ranger's Guile? The main advantage is the +4 makes it a lot easier to reach lethal infect. But the main drawback is you need to decide when you cast it if you can afford to pump another G into the P/T bonus or if you need to hold open more mana for other tricks. If you can pay the GG about 50% of the time you use it, it's clearly better than Guile. But I can't tell if that is necessarily the case. If you cast it for 1 mana more often then Guile might be better? For example, if you need to hold a second Vines or a Boros Charm open in case the opponent reacts to your trick, you might be compromised by being tempted to kick Vines and then not having the backup (or overthinking it, not kicking it and not needing the backup, losing the extra poison counters). Similar, it gets really tight on mana if you flashback Reckless Charge and want to hold protection open. Basically, Legacy is a format tight on mana and seems like there are a lot of situations where you could choose wrong.

Also, how good are the 4 Pridemage? It's basically a 0/2 chumpblocker with exalted (and disenchant). i.e. you'd almost never attack with it. If you need consistent ways to get exalted or kill artifacts/enchantments, what about running 4 Green Sun's Zenith and then 1-2 Pridemage. Zenith adds a ton of consistency to your infect plan (finding Glistener) and can find the Pridemage if you need it without getting you stuck with awkward 3 Pridemate hands where you are tempted to attack for non-infect damage.

Ranger's guile is definitely worth considering. From my testing I have found that vines greatly increases the speed of the deck, but guile may be worth it just for the speed of the card.

A gsz package would be nice as well. Perhaps then a dryad arbor might be able to make its way in for additional turn 1 accelerant, as well as scavenging ooze just for the utility.