[Deck] U/G Infect

Back in DTB!

Trying to lock in my list for Louisville. I've only been playing the deck since about August, so I'm still pretty stock. I think I'm going to play 4 Force and 3 Daze maindeck since I don't have any byes and I want to minimize my chances of getting Belcher'd out early. I really like the white splash because I expect to run into Delver at least once or twice, but I hate maindecking the white land. I'd like to find room for a Pithing Needle or two for Miracles and Lands, but I'm not sure where to make room while still respecting Chalice decks and B/R Reanimator.

4 Noble Hierarch
4 Glistener Elf
4 Blighted Agent

4 Invigorate
3 Vines of Vastwood
2 Berserk
1 Become Immense
4 Force of Will
3 Daze
2 Spell Pierce
4 Brainstorm
3 Gitaxian Probe
2 Crop Rotation
1 Sylvan Library

4 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Pendelhaven
1 Wasteland
4 Tropical Island
1 Forest
8 Green Fetchlands

2 Flusterstorm
3 Krosan Grip
3 Swords to Plowshares
2 Absolute Law
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Karakas
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Savannah

I know this runs counter to what you said about maindecking the splash, but my first instinct would be to move Savannah to the main, cut a drop, and one Swords for 2 needles. Failing that, cutting either a Pierce or a Flusterstorm (I think I'm in the minority on running 1-2 Flusters though)

I agree. Having the white splash works the best for me with savannah main, as the downside of drawing savannah rather than tropical is less than having an extra tech sideboard card that is not a (non-utility) land.
I think you will be fine, seeing as you run no ponders also.

Im not sold on 3 krosan grips. I run 2 and currently a seal or naturalize.
Absolute law has never done anything for me, and drawing multiples sucks, but I can see how it would be good in the right situations. Will try them out also.
3 swords seem a bit too much IMO tho. We should have our opponents play OUR game, and I dont want to commit my board to remove their threats as generally I shouldn't care. Having 2 gives you answers against specific problem creatures, without spending too much spots on them (turn 1 delver, strix, thalia, reanimator dudes..)

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Originally Posted by Neffy

I agree. Having the white splash works the best for me with savannah main, as the downside of drawing savannah rather than tropical is less than having an extra tech sideboard card that is not a (non-utility) land.
I think you will be fine, seeing as you run no ponders also.

Im not sold on 3 krosan grips. I run 2 and currently a seal or naturalize.
Absolute law has never done anything for me, and drawing multiples sucks, but I can see how it would be good in the right situations. Will try them out also.
3 swords seem a bit too much IMO tho. We should have our opponents play OUR game, and I dont want to commit my board to remove their threats as generally I shouldn't care. Having 2 gives you answers against specific problem creatures, without spending too much spots on them (turn 1 delver, strix, thalia, reanimator dudes..)

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Law is the main reason i want the splash. I find it to be huge vs grixis delver, which is otherwise unfavorable.

I hate being stuck with a savannah in game ones instead of a blue land, but i definitely see the appeal of a needle or two over the third plow. I bring the savannah in without cutting a land in the matchups it is good in, which are also matchups where i would usually board the second wasteland if i was running it. That's how i see the slot.

Would running a life from the loam in the side board be a good idea for any non-swords removal grindy decks?

Maybe the engine would be too slow but I feel like there could be some synergies against say delver decks. Just keep bringing back Inkmoths for infinite blockers and eventually win condition and if you run crop rotate, can hit that bullet wasteland for a waste lock?
Only problem I think though is if its not a white swords deck it probably is a deathrite deck that will destroy our graveyard since we don't run much removal if any.

Thoughts? Just kind of wanted to bounce some idea about it. Thanks.

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Originally Posted by fired88

Would running a life from the loam in the side board be a good idea for any non-swords removal grindy decks?

Maybe the engine would be too slow but I feel like there could be some synergies against say delver decks. Just keep bringing back Inkmoths for infinite blockers and eventually win condition and if you run crop rotate, can hit that bullet wasteland for a waste lock?
Only problem I think though is if its not a white swords deck it probably is a deathrite deck that will destroy our graveyard since we don't run much removal if any.

Thoughts? Just kind of wanted to bounce some idea about it. Thanks.

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I don't think speed is really the issue--if it's grindy match ups that you're thinking about, we're probably sculpting a hand anyhow. But we just don't have the density of lands to get value. Yeah, you can recur Inkmoth or Wasteland, but every time you dredge, you're also potentially flipping Agent or Invigorate or something else into the yard with no way to get it back. Lands get to pair it with Exploration and Manabond as well, which is what makes the engine so insane in that deck.

Every once in a while someone mentions loam but is not willing to try it themselves. That already tells something.
If you really think you want to grind games with a deck that has so low resources, Sylvan library is better as it gives you actual cards, not just lands. You also only have to tap out once.

Cobbled together a quick sideboard spreadsheet of ten decks I'm expecting to see at Louisville here. Sideboarding is always a pretty controversial point in this threat, so I thought I'd share some quick thoughts on the topic.

For the most part, there's a couple of cards here (Flusterstorm, Force of Will, Krosan Grip, Hydroblast, Surgical Extraction, etc.) that I wouldn't leave home without. These cards are good against a number of top decks, and have potential utility that might warrant siding them in against other decks.

Then there's a slew of cards that can fit into any version of infect, but typically come in against fewer decks or are generally not as strong (Viridian Corrupter, Pithing Needle, Sylvan Library). These range anywhere from pet cards to silver bullets, in either case I have no qualms with including them in my sideboard.

Below those we've got cards like Grafdigger's Cage and Dismember, cards I'm playing simply as concessions to the meta. I'm pretty eager to cut these cards, as I feel they're very limited in their uses (come in only against Reanimator and Eldrazi respectively) or aren't as strong as silver bullet type cards we could be playing in their stead.

The two packages, Crop Rotation package or white splash, I generally consider to be mutually exclusive with the exception of a few cards. White splash seems slightly better, as Rest in Peace and Absolute Law are both power houses in the matchups where we want them. Crop Rotation and friends are strong against a number of decks as well, but are notably absent from the Grixis Delver matchup, one that we typically need a lot of help with.

Spice is at the bottom. These are cards I've been playing in my local meta, but will most likely not be bringing to a larger event.

Hey guys, I have played Infect in Legacy casually for a few months, and I never put together a sideboard, now for the first time I'm going a tournament and I need some advice on what to put in my sideboard, I have no idea how big these weekly events are or what decks people play there except for the fact that you can play with 10 proxies and there is atleast one Miracles Deck. I can play UG or UGw, Im just not 100% what the best sideboard is to cover a wide metagame

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Originally Posted by Xerkam

Hey guys, I have played Infect in Legacy casually for a few months, and I never put together a sideboard, now for the first time I'm going a tournament and I need some advice on what to put in my sideboard, I have no idea how big these weekly events are or what decks people play there except for the fact that you can play with 10 proxies and there is atleast one Miracles Deck. I can play UG or UGw, Im just not 100% what the best sideboard is to cover a wide metagame

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Welcome brother. Great to see more infectors!
For the unknown meta here is the cards i would definately pack (and do myself):
2 krosan grip
1 cheaper artifact/enchantment hate (i call them destructers, since they destroy..) eg. nature's claim, naturalize, seal of primordium (claim is probably not good if you expect a lot of chalice)
1 fow (typically you have only 3 main)
2-4 lands to find with croprot (karakas, bojuga bog, wasteland, and savannah to fetch if you run the white splash and dont include it in the main
2 kill spells (STP if splash, otherwise submerge or dismember - i dislike dismember in delver fields and piracy charm is just too cute)
1 needle - very flexible
1 hydroblast (if not running aboslute law)
1-2 GY hate (either 2 surgical, or 1 surgical+1 bog.. i think RIP is very poor for our strategy)
1 viridian corrupter - always good against the occasional strix, chalice, jitte, needle or against heavy-removal.dec like grixis delver

Some thoughts :) Good Luck!

http://mythicspoiler.com/aer/cards/fatalpush.html

So this new removal was just spoiled. I think we should be worried ;D
Seems like BUG delver might finally get a decent 1-drop that ignores all our pump except vines, which kinda sucks.

Perhaps blossoming defense will get more popular as Fatal Push does.
What do you think?

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Originally Posted by Neffy

http://mythicspoiler.com/aer/cards/fatalpush.html

So this new removal was just spoiled. I think we should be worried ;D
Seems like BUG delver might finally get a decent 1-drop that ignores all our pump except vines, which kinda sucks.

Perhaps blossoming defense will get more popular as Fatal Push does.
What do you think?

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It's possible that Blossoming Defense becomes more popular, but I'm not particularly worried about "Fatal Pushed" pushing us out of the meta. In metas with more Abrupt Decays we would play 4x Vines and find ourselves favored against all manner of B/G decks. Of course, at the time we had no Blossoming Defense so there's some testing to be done if we're looking for an optimal configuration of Vines/Defense. Regardless, I doubt it'll be enough to make things unfavorable.

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Originally Posted by Jesture

It's possible that Blossoming Defense becomes more popular, but I'm not particularly worried about "Fatal Pushed" pushing us out of the meta. In metas with more Abrupt Decays we would play 4x Vines and find ourselves favored against all manner of B/G decks. Of course, at the time we had no Blossoming Defense so there's some testing to be done if we're looking for an optimal configuration of Vines/Defense. Regardless, I doubt it'll be enough to make things unfavorable.

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The biggest issue with the comparison to Abrupt Decay metas is that Fatal Push can kill Inkmoths.

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Originally Posted by meat

The biggest issue with the comparison to Abrupt Decay metas is that Fatal Push can kill Inkmoths.

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This shouldn't be overlooked, but I think the extra vines plus extra Flusters or Pierces also go a long way. Push hits Inkmoth, but it's also counterable. And then we've got Defense on top of that, even.

That said, I'm not super worried about BUG decks getting it or the card in general, but Grixis Delver seems like it gets even worse with this, which sucks.

http://media.wizards.com/2016/c1lRLi...vzY2OUzC7I.png

Been wanting to include Cavern in the 75 somewhere, this might be that reason.

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Originally Posted by Jesture

http://media.wizards.com/2016/c1lRLi...vzY2OUzC7I.png

Been wanting to include Cavern in the 75 somewhere, this might be that reason.

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This guy caught my eye too! Very interesting, it comes from a different angle. Just not sure if we want that angle or not.

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Originally Posted by Whitefaces

This guy caught my eye too! Very interesting, it comes from a different angle. Just not sure if we want that angle or not.

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It looks funny. especially if you have them at 8 when you cast it. Then they cant really do anything without exile effects.

Might just be cute tho.

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Originally Posted by Neffy

It looks funny. especially if you have them at 8 when you cast it. Then they cant really do anything without exile effects.

Might just be cute tho.

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Would've been so much better for us if it came down as a 1/1 for 1G or something... but I've tried every other niche card, so I'm willing to give it a spin too. :laugh:

Nevermind, this is garbage. Thought this doubled the number of counters, not just +1 counter. Excitement levels went from unseen highs to the lowest of lows.

Just about to lock in my list for Louisville

3 Trop
1 Savannah
4 Inkmoth
8 Green Fetches
1 Forest
1 Wasteland
1 Pendelhaven

12 Creatures

4 Brainstorm
4 Invigorate
3 FoW
3 Daze
3 Vines
3 Probe
2 Berserk
2 Spell Pierce
2 Crop Rotation
1 Ponder
1 Become Immense
1 Sylvan Library

SB:

2 Swords to Plowshares
2 Absolute Law
2 Krosan Grip
1 Karakas
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Force of Will
1 Flusterstorm
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Viridian Corrupter
1 Pithing needle

I still need 2 more cards for the SB thoughts?