[Deck] U/G Infect

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tiberius42

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?

---

My 15 for reference, had reasonable success in GPT's today:

2x Swords to Plowshares
1x Rest in Peace
1x Pithing Needle
1x Null Rod
1x Dismember
2x Surgical Extraction
1x Nature's Claim
1x Krosan Grip
1x Viridian Corrupter
1x Sylvan Library
1x Flusterstorm
1x Force of Will
1x Hydroblast


Big fan of Hydroblast for all of the prevalent combo decks and Bolt decks. I removed the Absolute Law as it was best against Grixis Delver and Punishing Fire, though the 2 Surgicals for BR Reanimator also do a great job against Fire which made Absolute Law only good for one matchup. 1x Nature's Claim comes up big in shooting random Strixes/Vials/Alurens. Null Rod is probably my weakest link, considering moving to 2 needles to deal with the inevitable Aluren presence.

How do you feel about moving a crop rotate into the board?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tiberius42

How do you feel about moving a crop rotate into the board?

---

Not a fan. Your sideboard seems tight on spots, and you might as well run two main if you're on 2x Become Immense

Quote:

---

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.

---

I've considered it too, but I think if i decided to go the grindy route, crucible of worlds would actually be better. Recurring fetches, inky and wasteland for a one time investment of 3 seems good. Even if just for infinite chump blockers!

Hi, long time lurker, rare poster here, I'm close to building my paper list (only the expensive cards left lol,) and I want to see about adding an additional Absolute Law to my sideboard to help with lands, loam, delver, etc. The issue with this is that I am on the UG Crop Rotation sideboard and I would rather not buy any more duals for the deck than is needed.

For reference, here is the list I have so far:
4 Glistener Elf
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Blighted Agent
4 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Crop Rotation
3 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Brainstorm
3 Gitaxian Probe
4 Invigorate
1 Become Immense
2 Berserk
2 Vines of Vastwood
1 Pendelhaven
3 Tropical Island
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Wasteland
1 Forest
1 Sylvan Library
1 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Spell Pierce
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Blossoming Defense

SB:

1 Force of Will
2 Flusterstorm
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Krosan Grip
1 Nature's Claim
1 Viridian Corrupter
1 Spellskite
1 Wasteland
2 Submerge
1 Karakas
1 Crop Rotation
1 Pithing Needle
1 Absolute Law

What do you suggest? Should I just bite the bullet and go get a savannah? My thought process was that I would be able to splash the law with noble hierarchs, is that poor thinking for those matchups? Let me know! :smile:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dr. No Face

Hi, long time lurker, rare poster here, I'm close to building my paper list (only the expensive cards left lol,) and I want to see about adding an additional Absolute Law to my sideboard to help with lands, loam, delver, etc. The issue with this is that I am on the UG Crop Rotation sideboard and I would rather not buy any more duals for the deck than is needed.

What do you suggest? Should I just bite the bullet and go get a savannah? My thought process was that I would be able to splash the law with noble hierarchs, is that poor thinking for those matchups? Let me know! :smile:

---

If you really want to splash white spells, get the Savannah. Hierarch's aren't reliable enough. That said, you can always just run UG for awhile and get in good reps and both builds have their own advantages. I tend to run the splash, but have swapped back to straight UG depending on what I think the meta will be like and it's not a big adjustment for the most part.

Also, welcome aboard!

Anybody check out Seth Manfield's list (http://magic.wizards.com/en/events/c...sts-2017-01-08). He placed 19th in Louisville. Nothing that odd, except a single Invasive Surgery in the board. I don't see it being that good in enough match ups (seems good against Lands, maybe against some Cabal Therapy decks?), but would love to hear what others think.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by qomori

Anybody check out Seth Manfield's list (http://magic.wizards.com/en/events/c...sts-2017-01-08). He placed 19th in Louisville. Nothing that odd, except a single Invasive Surgery in the board. I don't see it being that good in enough match ups (seems good against Lands, maybe against some Cabal Therapy decks?), but would love to hear what others think.

---

It is also good against Miracles, but Flusterstorm is IMO just WAY more flexible and useful. It sucks to sit with that and the opponent bolts your dude where Fluster would have been nice.
If the meta was flooding with elves, i might consider the IS but otherwise not.

Another note: I will be trying out 1-2 spellskites in the main soon, just to gather intel on it.

Hey, I just wanted to say hello ;)

I play infect for like half a year now. The UGw variant with savannah main and 2 swords and the croprotation + utilitylands in the SB.

Recently I started playing it on MtGo as well, streaming the leauges most of the times.

So if you want to watch them and maybe help me at getting better at playing the deck, you might want to check out my twitch-channel inresponse_ch.

I'm sorry for the shameless selfadvertisement :tongue:

Hello All,

Hope everyone is doing ok.

Just back from GP Louisville 2017. I don't get to play much at all but I do lurk so I thought I'd pass on my experience there. I haven't played sanctioned Magic since GP Nashville Limited from a while ago. I haven't played Standard since Nether Spirit was legal.

I went 11-4 to miss cash. Finished 101. Hard for me to remember exactly but I think the following is accurate.

Everyone was great to play against. The cast of the Brainstorm show and Hymnyou from Tusk were awesome to meet. I talked to Wescoe who is from my hometown and Adrian Sullivan who taught me to play mental magic at Nationals in Columbus in 1998. Met some cool people.

Lost to Enchantress, Death and Taxes, Miracles, and Grixis.

Beat Elves x 2, Belcher, Sneak and Show, Grixis x 2, BUG x 2, BR Reanimator, Mono Red Sneak, and Goblins.

Dan Musser was the best player I faced and I lost convincingly to him.

Sideboard :

Necropede
Pithing Needle
Karakas
Surgical Extraction x 2
Virdian Corruptor
Krosan Grip x 2
Reverent Silence
Tormod's Crypt
Simic Charm
Spellskite
Submerge
Piracy Charm
Meekstone

Decklist:

4 Blighted Agent
4 Glistener Elf
4 Inkmoth Nexus

4 Invigorate
3 Vines of Vastwood
2 Berserk
1 Become Immense

4 Brainstorm
1 Ponder

2 Gitaxian Probe

4 Noble Hierarch

1 Crop Rotation

2 Spell Pierce
1 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Daze

1 Forest
2 x Pendelhaven
1 Wasteland
4 Tropical Island
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Windswept Heath

Pendelhaven was house. Necropede, Pithing Needle, Surgical, Simic charm all won me games.

Didn't use submerge, piracy charm or meekstone.

Would probably put in Hydroblast, plus 1 pithing needle, plus 1 flusterstorm.

Not sure if I would swap the Crypt out for a bog. I know I'm supposed to.

Spellskite felt like a necessary evil but I didn't like siding it in.

Looking at my list makes want Sylvan, but my life margins were SO small in almost every game I don't know when I would have had time/ life to cast and use it.

Thoughts?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 700718

Sideboard :

Necropede
Pithing Needle
Karakas
Surgical Extraction x 2
Virdian Corruptor
Krosan Grip x 2
Reverent Silence
Tormod's Crypt
Simic Charm
Spellskite
Submerge
Piracy Charm
Meekstone

Decklist:

4 Blighted Agent
4 Glistener Elf
4 Inkmoth Nexus

4 Invigorate
3 Vines of Vastwood
2 Berserk
1 Become Immense

4 Brainstorm
1 Ponder

2 Gitaxian Probe

4 Noble Hierarch

1 Crop Rotation

2 Spell Pierce
1 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Daze

1 Forest
2 x Pendelhaven
1 Wasteland
4 Tropical Island
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Windswept Heath

Pendelhaven was house. Necropede, Pithing Needle, Surgical, Simic charm all won me games.

Didn't use submerge, piracy charm or meekstone.

Would probably put in Hydroblast, plus 1 pithing needle, plus 1 flusterstorm.

Not sure if I would swap the Crypt out for a bog. I know I'm supposed to.

Spellskite felt like a necessary evil but I didn't like siding it in.

Looking at my list makes want Sylvan, but my life margins were SO small in almost every game I don't know when I would have had time/ life to cast and use it.

Thoughts?

---

Sad to see you lose to Enchantress (and with R.silence in the board!) . Thats a pretty good MU. Mostly their elephant grass that taxes us.
Anyway I like your list mostly, tho i would shave Silence and charm as they are just not enough (i know that Charm has sweet modes), but better and more flexible things should be in the board. It is hard to argue against good results tho :)
Skite is interesting in legacy, however slow and grows tarmogoyf and dies to most things. I will try one out again soon.
For a UG version submerge is good as a 2 off. I tried 2 dismember and it was not very good.
Piracy charm and meekstone can be good, but might not be.
If not going for the white splash I would add a hydroblast and extra wasteland for croprotation. Hydroblast is very usefull as it takes care of bolt, moon and staticaster. Necropede is mostly only good vs DT and in the Mirror or elves. Perhaps cutting that for some flusterstorms.
I would not run more than 2 GY hate (2x surgical) and would cut crypt completely. Bog is great, but if you want a solid land pack to croprot for, then you should also run 2 croprot IMO.


I agree on Sylvan Lib. That is a must. At least one in the main. Consider a second in the board if the meta isnt too fast.
I think probe is a 3 off at least as hand information is so important for us :) Though I like that you got room for all the FOW and daze. If the blue count can support it (22?).
Im not a fan of 2 pendlehaven either, especially if playing ponder that demands blue. Probe can be cast from a hand with only inkmoth and pendle as lands, ponder cannot. If running 2 pendle, i would go for more probes so you dont get mana screwed that much.

Some of my thoughts :)

Hey everyone,

Long time lurker, first time poster. I wanted to ask everyone's opinion on what they think about Meekstone. Does it warrant a spot in our sideboard? The card comes in against any deck with Tarmogoyf and against Eldrazi right? It seems pretty medium against Eldrazi since they are on the Chalice on one plan, and this just plays right into it. Or is the effect so powerful that its worth it? I first noticed the card when Tom Ross was running it, in this list: http://mtgpulse.com/event/25320#338055

Thanks!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Terrene

Hey everyone,

Long time lurker, first time poster. I wanted to ask everyone's opinion on what they think about Meekstone. Does it warrant a spot in our sideboard? The card comes in against any deck with Tarmogoyf and against Eldrazi right? It seems pretty medium against Eldrazi since they are on the Chalice on one plan, and this just plays right into it. Or is the effect so powerful that its worth it? I first noticed the card when Tom Ross was running it, in this list: http://mtgpulse.com/event/25320#338055

Thanks!

---

Meekstone seems bad, 1cmc cards are weak to Eldrazi/Chalice and we're not really all that concerned about Goyf/True Name/Angler or whatever other big vanilla beaters people are using as win cons.

None of our difficult matchups are made more difficult by the presence of creatures with power 3 or greater. As an example, Grixis Delver could play Carnophage over Gurmag Angler and it'd still be a difficult matchup for us. Same goes for Shardless. Sure the Tarmogoyfs can hit fast and hard, but I'm generally happy seeing those over literally any other card in the deck.

Anyone tried mini-jace as a one-off? Saw it in that decklist of Tom Ross that Terrene posted.

Found a lot of mixed opinions about it on the web. Anybody got some testing done with this fellow? Going to test it on a FNM tonight.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Terrene

Hey everyone,

Long time lurker, first time poster. I wanted to ask everyone's opinion on what they think about Meekstone. Does it warrant a spot in our sideboard? The card comes in against any deck with Tarmogoyf and against Eldrazi right? It seems pretty medium against Eldrazi since they are on the Chalice on one plan, and this just plays right into it. Or is the effect so powerful that its worth it? I first noticed the card when Tom Ross was running it, in this list: http://mtgpulse.com/event/25320#338055

Thanks!

---

I played around this for a while because Meekstone is one of those cards that's abstractly powerful (and one-sided for us!) but it never played out as powerful as I hoped. They always get to attack at least once, and almost every deck has something <3 power they can just keep swinging with (eldrazi mimic, DRS, pyro, Shardless Agent, etc) or they only need the one attack (reanimator, lands). Chalice on 1 is a big problem, but even past that, it can be played around (choosing not to flip delvers, copy mimics, etc.) or destroyed (since they'll have artifact hate for nexus post-board).

It's good, but for me, a card that narrow has to be "win the game" good, and Meekstone isn't quite there. Post-board, I either want to be gearing up for a fast-as-possible kill (combo) or preparing for the kill-every-infector strategy (fair) and Meekstone doesn't help do either of those things. If you're really trying to grind out as many draw steps as possible by limiting your opponent's attacks, I think Ensnaring Bridge might be worth experimenting with (tho you'd need a plan based on upping the number of threats and reducing the number of pump spells and it has an even worse "blown out by artifact hate" problem).

So I tried mini-Jace as a one off.

Went 4-0 during the FNM, played against Esper Stoneblade, Noble BUG, Soldier Stompy and the mirror. Won all 2-0 except the Soldier one. (Thalia 2.0 on turn one, had a STP in hand, but with a fetch, couldn't get it online quick enough)

Had a good portion of luck and 'easy' matchups. (or they couldn't find their removal).

Saw Jace in 3 games, once pitched him to Force on the kill turn (which is ok :-)) and the other 2 times, he literally won me the game. One game, had cantrips but no threat to begin with, after 2 probes and a brainstorm, played mini-jace, with the loot the turn after I could flip him and recast my brainstorm, finding my threat and putting everything ready for the kill.

The other was against soldier stompy, the +1 stopped his clock long enough to again flashback brainstorm for the kill, or finding everything I needed.

I'll add that I tried a maindeck copy of Jace, Vryn's Prodigy at my legacy weekly last night. Only found him once in a match against burn, where he saved me about 10 points of damage from a Goblin Guide before reccuring an Invigorate for lethal. Still not convinced this card belongs in the maindeck, but he's definitely stronger than I initially gave him credit for.

How are everyone's experiences with Fatal Push and BUG? I've found the shift from Grixis Delver to Push BUG to be favorable for us overall, though this might be because players were more experienced with Grixis while they're still trying to find their footing with this deck.

I have been having issues with Maverick. To solve the issue, I tried putting 1 Dismember in the Main in place of a Spell Pierce. It seems to help, but I am still losing pretty consistently. I was thinking of upping the Main deck Sylvan Library to 2. In theory, it should also help against decks like D&T and BUG. What are you guys doing to combat these strategies?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KingOfThePanda

I have been having issues with Maverick. To solve the issue, I tried putting 1 Dismember in the Main in place of a Spell Pierce. It seems to help, but I am still losing pretty consistently. I was thinking of upping the Main deck Sylvan Library to 2. In theory, it should also help against decks like D&T and BUG. What are you guys doing to combat these strategies?

---

What's worked for me in the past is boarding against them as if we were fast combo. We're probably going to lose most games that go long, so I'd try just streamlining the quick kill aspect of the deck and just foregoing stuff like Swords to Plowshares or Dismember. Maybe even cut a Spell Pierce or two postboard, but just save your Force of Wills for stuff that stops the combo, such as Swords, Dismember, Zealous Persecution, Thalia, Canonist, etc. Many of the key cards in Maverick pose problems for other decks (Knight, Mother of Runes, Deathrite, GSZ) but are just too slow to matter against us. As usual, place a lot of emphasis on Blighted Agent. Elf almost never gets to connect, and Inkmoth can have a hard time attacking between Pridemage and Wasteland.

Hey all, haven't stopped by in a while, but i always try to keep up with what's going on with infect. I still love the deck, but i have noticed a real lack of innovation lately. Infect has basically had the same list for years now, with a few one-of variations. Clearly the deck is still good, but since cartesian went and jumped on the bug train, i have not seen anyone try to deviate from the standard list. I know legacy is slow to change, but it seems like everyone else has new toys to play with, while over here we pretty much know there will never be another spell like invigorate or another creature that has the infect keyword, much less one that is playable. Standstill is probably the coolest tech i have seen. Not criticizing, as i have been unable to come up with anything new either. I am considering 2 lotus petal and a berserk or two in the side as a way to race better ( ala ANT's 2 chrome mox), rather than removing pump for answers. Any one else been thinking of something spicy? The deck just feels stagnant.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Witch_king_of_angmar

Hey all, haven't stopped by in a while, but i always try to keep up with what's going on with infect. I still love the deck, but i have noticed a real lack of innovation lately. Infect has basically had the same list for years now, with a few one-of variations. Clearly the deck is still good, but since cartesian went and jumped on the bug train, i have not seen anyone try to deviate from the standard list. I know legacy is slow to change, but it seems like everyone else has new toys to play with, while over here we pretty much know there will never be another spell like invigorate or another creature that has the infect keyword, much less one that is playable. Standstill is probably the coolest tech i have seen. Not criticizing, as i have been unable to come up with anything new either. I am considering 2 lotus petal and a berserk or two in the side as a way to race better ( ala ANT's 2 chrome mox), rather than removing pump for answers. Any one else been thinking of something spicy? The deck just feels stagnant.

---

We got Become Immense a couple of years ago and Blossoming Defense might become useful if the format becomes more removal heavy. And while there haven't been any big additions since BI, I find the one-of variations interesting--it lets us adapt well to the field.

I wouldn't rule out a broken pump spell coming out of a Conspiracy set in future either. They reprinted Berserk in one and they've show they're clearly not afraid to release some really pushed cards that why.