[Deck] U/G Infect

Sleeved up Infect for the first time last night and went 3-1, beating MUD, losing a tight one to Dredge, then pasting Burn and squeaking past Elves after mulling to 6, 5, and 6. I have lots of questions about how to build this deck in the new meta and some sideboard strategy. The list I played:

4 Misty Rainforest
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Wooded Foothills
3 Tropical Island
1 Forest
4 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Wasteland
1 Pendelhaven

4 Noble Hierarch
4 Glistener Elf
4 Blighted Agent

1 Sylvan Library

4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
1 Crop Rotation
3 Vines of Vastwood
2 Berserk
4 Invigorate
1 Become Immense
2 Spell Pierce
1 Flusterstorm
3 Daze
3 Force of Will

// sideboard //

1 Karakas
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Crop Rotation
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Pithing Needle
1 Flusterstorm
1 Hydroblast
1 Force of Will
1 Spellskite
1 Dissenter's Deliverance
1 Krosan Grip
1 Viridian Corrupter
1 Submerge

Some initial thoughts from someone who's registered four lifetime matches with this deck, so take these with a grain of salt (and correct me if I'm way off!):

- Paying :g::g: for Vines hurts, especially when you have to win with Inkmoth. +4/+4 makes your Berserks lethal, of course, so I get why this is the first one-drop pump spell to register over something like Blossoming Defense. But I wonder if a singleton Might of Old Krosa deserves a slot for those games where you just need to kill your opponent. Conversely, Become Immense was super, but if I were to register a MoOK, I don't think I can afford to play more than one BI. No idea what the right pump spell configuration is. Anyone like Blossoming Defense or can speak for MoOK?
- How do those running the GSZ like it? Having one more threat seems appealing. Not sure how much I'd love Dryad Arbor in this deck on paper, especially if it comes at the expense of higher impact cards, but maybe it's good. Can those who play the GSZ package speak to it a little more and talk about what they're giving up for it? Along the same lines, Sean Brown just proposed a Traverse the Ulvenwald build to tutor for any threat in your deck. Too janky?
- I played Spellskite over something like Shaper's Sanctuary because there were two other Infect players in the room that I knew about. I also like that Spellskite can block Mongoose and invalidate Bolt. Is Sanctuary better against the field, though? How much of this "targeting my dude sucks for you" effect do you want in the sideboard?
- My countermagic suite is probably wrong; not sure if playing three 1-drop soft counters maindeck is right at the expense of either the fourth Daze or FoW. Thoughts?
- I've seen some sideboard plans that involve stuff like TNNs + Jitte and even Standstills. Thoughts on this? What do you cut for these cards?

Also, is there an Infect Discord? If so, any love for a brother mourning the loss of Deathrite and stoked on the prospects of Infect?

Thanks!

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Originally Posted by theMonster

- Paying :g::g: for Vines hurts, especially when you have to win with Inkmoth. +4/+4 makes your Berserks lethal, of course, so I get why this is the first one-drop pump spell to register over something like Blossoming Defense. But I wonder if a singleton Might of Old Krosa deserves a slot for those games where you just need to kill your opponent. Conversely, Become Immense was super, but if I were to register a MoOK, I don't think I can afford to play more than one BI. No idea what the right pump spell configuration is. Anyone like Blossoming Defense or can speak for MoOK?

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Most builds play 6-7 pump spells (in addition to 4 Invigorate), and the configuration depends on how aggressive you want to be. 3 Vines, 2 Berserk, 1 BI is the most common (and what I play). I feel like if your opponent can't kill your creature you're very likely to win, so I prefer minimizing the amount of pump spells that don't also protect. That said, an extra BI or MoOK (I agree you shouldn't do both) can speed up the kill, and MoOK is def great against other combo. I don't like Blossoming Defense - the +2/+2 is rarely relevant (since good opponents use removal outside of combat) and the extra ability to stop a Jitte equip makes Vines superior IMO, but it's reasonable to play 1 or 2 if only to diversify.

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Originally Posted by theMonster

- How do those running the GSZ like it? Having one more threat seems appealing. Not sure how much I'd love Dryad Arbor in this deck on paper, especially if it comes at the expense of higher impact cards, but maybe it's good. Can those who play the GSZ package speak to it a little more and talk about what they're giving up for it? Along the same lines, Sean Brown just proposed a Traverse the Ulvenwald build to tutor for any threat in your deck. Too janky?

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I tried GSZ a while ago and wasn't a huge fan - I think Corrupter, Safekeeper, Arbor is the usual package (2 MD, 1 side). Arbor is good if there's a lot of Liliana/Edicts around, but drawing it naturally feels soooooo bad I never felt like it was worth it. I feel like Traverse is like Living Wish -- it's just better to rely on Ponder+BS b/c so many times what you really want to find is Invigorate, not a creature or land.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by theMonster

- I played Spellskite over something like Shaper's Sanctuary because there were two other Infect players in the room that I knew about. I also like that Spellskite can block Mongoose and invalidate Bolt. Is Sanctuary better against the field, though? How much of this "targeting my dude sucks for you" effect do you want in the sideboard?

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With all the Grixis Control lists at the Pro Tour, I definitely want a slot or two to address that matchup. I'm not a huge fan of Spellskite b/c of Kcommand and other SB artifact hate - it's best against the Bolt decks, but those are likely to have stuff like Ancient Grudge, etc. I'm also not sold on Sanctuary, which only seems to do enough if it's in your opening hand. I'm actually thinking of either a 2nd Sylvan Library or Life from the Loam for the Grixis matchup specifically. Extra Library would come in vs. Miracles as well, but LftL seems like it'd be better against a wider range of decks (Delver, D&T, Lands, etc.)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by theMonster

- My countermagic suite is probably wrong; not sure if playing three 1-drop soft counters maindeck is right at the expense of either the fourth Daze or FoW. Thoughts?

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I play the same suite as your list. I think 3 Daze, 3 FoW, 1 Fluster, 1 Pierce is standard, then whatever you want for the 9th slot, depending on your meta (FoW or Fluster for combo, SP for prison/Chalice, Daze for Delver)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by theMonster

- I've seen some sideboard plans that involve stuff like TNNs + Jitte and even Standstills. Thoughts on this? What do you cut for these cards?

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These fill the role of Spellskite/Shaper's/Library for grindy, removal-packed matchups. I tried a 2-of Standstill maindeck over the 9th counter and 4th Ponder and think that's totally reasonable in a grindy meta. I didn't stick with it b/c I feel like Infect has too many "situational" cards anyway and Standstill felt like just another card that could sometimes be useless.

For TNN+Jitte, I just don't see the appeal. If you're boarding into a Plan B, it has to be something that beats your opponent's sideboard for your Plan A, and TNN+Jitte instead plays into cards they are already bringing in. Artifact removal is coming in for Nexus, so they can just blow up your Jitte, and any deck with Edicts, -1/-1 effects, and red blasts can handle TNN. Maybe someone who likes the plan can talk about its benefits, but to me it seems like a dead end.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by theMonster

Also, is there an Infect Discord? If so, any love for a brother mourning the loss of Deathrite and stoked on the prospects of Infect?

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No idea, but welcome to the fold!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by theMonster

Some initial thoughts from someone who's registered four lifetime matches with this deck, so take these with a grain of salt (and correct me if I'm way off!):

- Paying :g::g: for Vines hurts, especially when you have to win with Inkmoth. +4/+4 makes your Berserks lethal, of course, so I get why this is the first one-drop pump spell to register over something like Blossoming Defense. But I wonder if a singleton Might of Old Krosa deserves a slot for those games where you just need to kill your opponent. Conversely, Become Immense was super, but if I were to register a MoOK, I don't think I can afford to play more than one BI. No idea what the right pump spell configuration is. Anyone like Blossoming Defense or can speak for MoOK?
- How do those running the GSZ like it? Having one more threat seems appealing. Not sure how much I'd love Dryad Arbor in this deck on paper, especially if it comes at the expense of higher impact cards, but maybe it's good. Can those who play the GSZ package speak to it a little more and talk about what they're giving up for it? Along the same lines, Sean Brown just proposed a Traverse the Ulvenwald build to tutor for any threat in your deck. Too janky?
- I played Spellskite over something like Shaper's Sanctuary because there were two other Infect players in the room that I knew about. I also like that Spellskite can block Mongoose and invalidate Bolt. Is Sanctuary better against the field, though? How much of this "targeting my dude sucks for you" effect do you want in the sideboard?
- My countermagic suite is probably wrong; not sure if playing three 1-drop soft counters maindeck is right at the expense of either the fourth Daze or FoW. Thoughts?
- I've seen some sideboard plans that involve stuff like TNNs + Jitte and even Standstills. Thoughts on this? What do you cut for these cards?

Thanks!

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The GG on Vines can be tough, it is one of the big reasons that Noble Hierarch is so good. The deck is deceptively mana hungry, and nearly all of it is colored mana while we have to play at least 4 colorless lands. I have played Blossoming Defense before and I do think it is good, but it has pluses and minuses. The +4 from Vines can make a difference when you just need speed, but on the other hand it can be hard to cobble together GGG in the early turns. The +2/+2 from Defense can definitely be enough, as while it is less effective for one-shot kills, Infect does pretty often kill over two turns and the +2 in combination with exalted, etc. can get you to 10.

I have been a fan of Might of Old Krosa for a while. You are correct that it the best option after Invigorate for pure speed, or - as I like to put it - murderous intent. Sometimes, in some matchups and in some metagames, you just need to be focused on murdering people as quickly and efficiently as possible. Groundswell is worth a mention, but at the end of the day Might is more reliable. I have been playing 1 in the main for a while and I like it. Without Probe, I personally don't like the second Become Immense. People have been bumping up to 9 fetches and 4 Ponders so that might push it up enough that you can support two (extra Ponders add more selection that before so its easy to avoid drawing a second if you don't need it), but in my experience I like having the one copy as a huge haymaker and one Might for the extra turn two kills.

I've played GSZ before, and at this point I think its just worse than playing more Ponders. If you really, really need Sylvan Safekeeper and Viridian Corrupter, then I can see it, but I think Dryad Arbor is so bad when naturally drawn as to be almost unplayable in Infect, and there are other cards that can mimic the effects of the others. People have been very successful with 4 Ponders recently, if you want an option for a non-Ponder, marginally expensive durdly selection card then I have liked playing a single Jace, Vryn's Prodigy sometimes.

Shaper's Sanctuary can do a lot of heavy lifting in the right matchups. Infect doesn't really have card advantage, so it can get buried against piles of 1-for-1 removal. This helps mitigate that, but there is a limit to how much you can play. Another point to be careful of is that this costs a card, and you need to have two things targeted before it nets you a card. Sometimes that is fine, but there is also a strong argument for having these slots be Flusterstorm, Vines of Vastwood, Hydroblast, and friends and just counter the removal and kill them with plan A before their card advantage matters. It is a very tricky balance.

Your counter suite isn't necessarily bad or wrong, but three 1-mana counters is more than normal. One Piece and one Fluster is the most common, but two of either isn't crazy by any means. Daze and Force are of course great, but the card disadvantage of Force can often hurt, and against things like Chalice, Jace, Terminus, Blood Moon, Aether Vial, and plenty of other cards Pierce and Fluster have distinct advantages over Daze. My one reservation against playing more 1-mana counters is the 4 Ponders, because unlike Probe your blue mana can become quite taxed.

I have never been a fan of the TNN plan, but I do understand it. My criticisms are that it is expensive, bad against the red blasts that people will bring in, still vulnerable against things like Golgari Charm and Orzhov Pontiff, and that Invigorate is somewhat counter-productive as opposed to being the best possible pump spell. That being said, t1 Noble t2 TNN can do a number on a lot of decks. I have played Standstill on and off (if you dig around on Hareruya and find an Infect list with Standstills in it, there is a good chance it is me), I think it is a very interesting option that a lot of people aren't prepared for and that can just totally overwhelm a lot of decks. Playing it on turn two with a threat in play basically forces them to let you draw, and when Infect starts getting to play Ancestral Recall it is all kinds of scary. It can definitely be slow and awkward, though, and even with a Hierarch and and Pendelhaven its a ~4 turn clock. Turning off your own pump spells is a major negative, as in a lot of situations your best course of action against hate or bad matchups is to just kill them as soon as possible.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. The deck is a blast, and I hope you keep winning and having fun!

I've been screwing around with different decks over the last month or so, but I finally sleeved up Infect again last night at one of the local Legacy weeklies and went 3-1, losing to Maverick and then beating BW Blade, D&T, and UB Shadow.

I think I got a little unlucky in the Maverick match up. Shadow was a 2-1 win in close games, but also playing the white splash and having access to Swords makes it feel slightly favoured.

I don't need to explain why Probe was good to y'all, but I am really loving playing 4 Ponder instead. Those freebies with Probe were nice, but overall having more card selection feels great, especially in matchups where we're not pressured into going for the super fast kill. On that note, Sylvan was one of my strongest cards yesterday.

How's everyone feeling in the current meta?

Hi, first time poster here on infect thread. Just finished reading the infect thread from the primer post till the latest. Decided to rock Poxy14's build 3 hierarch build. Just minor tweek MB: 2 pierce, SB: -1 StP, +1 Spellskite. Went for a local tournament blindly after a year haitus from playing MTG with zero playtesting. 3-1'd that night lossing to Eldrazi Aggro g1 t1 eye->mimic->mimic->mimic t2 TKS t3 Smasher via cavern. :eek: g2 was mostly land draw and no pump/protection spells. won against Burn, DnT and ANT an easy match-up for infect (read it on the thread.lol). Dodged Lands, Grixis Control, Big Eldrazi, Turbo Depths

[deck]
MB
4 Blighted Agent
4 Glistener Elf
3 Noble Hierarch

4 Force of Will
3 Daze
4 Brainstorm
3 Ponder
2 Spell Pierce

4 Invigorate
2 Vines of Vastwood
1 Blossoming Defense
2 Become Immense
2 Berserk
2 Crop Rotation
1 Sylvan Library

2 Windswept Heath
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Wooded Foothills
4 Inkmoth Nexus
3 Tropical Island
1 Forest
1 Wasteland
1 Savannah
1 Pendelhaven

SB
1 Viridian Corrupter
2 Naturalize
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Spellskite
3 Flusterstorm
1 Hydroblast
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Pithing Needle
1 Blossoming Defense
[/deck]

I just play tight as I can, chipping in 1-2 infect per turn holding onto pump/protection spells for removals (Thanks Poxy14 for the write-up/advice). and bad at 2nd guessing if I should go all in or not (sad with the lost of probe). I was surprise that the deck can grind. Pithing is MVP vs DNT While Spellskite is MVP vs Burn. Just on the top of my mind, is Peek a viable option for the Probe slot? and I'm also curious how do you sideboard against Lands with white splash? Is it a favorable match-up? Do I sideout counter-magic like the TurboDepths matchup? Sorry never encountered RG Lands before, weird, I know. :laugh:

Keep infecting guys!

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Originally Posted by Abantau

Decided to rock Poxy14's build 3 hierarch build.

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I don't think this is a real thing. Someone please correct me on this.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jesture

I don't think this is a real thing. Someone please correct me on this.

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https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=19485&d=324445&f=LE

https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=18749&d=317238&f=LE

https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=17871&d=310759&f=LE

https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=17753&d=310052&f=LE

Fair enough, should have been more clear. I don't think anyone other than poxy and budget players are doing this.

Hard to argue with Earl's results, but I do think this deck is deceptively mana hungry. I like the full playset of Hierarchs.

Re: Lands - I think it's one of our tougher match-ups. On the white splash, I like to bring in StP, Rest in Peace, Absolute Law, Surgical, and the extra Vines/Blossoming D (to beat Maze). I usually board out some number of counters, but also keep a few in to try to counter Exploration or Crop Rot for Glacial Chasm

Thanks ABANTAU for trying it out, and im glad from your initial testing, it went good right away. My list was sculpted on my playstyle. Im a fan of running 3's when I feel I need to insert important fillers. The thought of reducing Noble Hierarchs came from having piloting RUGdelver for years, before switching to UGW Infect. I felt like hierarchs are the stifles in this deck, though they have different functions as the game progresses. I dont want drawing them both midgame, You want them early, but I can still manage to have them hierarchs a bit late coz I have another important creature in our Glistener Elf.

I love playing 2 Crop Rotations, with 2 Become Immense main. I have basically 14 infectors, and Croprot fuels Bimmense Fast. The EoT croprot to inky with lethal pumps on our turn is just so fun for me!

The 3 Hierarch configuration also makes room for our SB, might be another pierce/fluster. In my case the 2nd crop rotation.

Expecting also during Game 2/3 that opponents will run every mass removal they carry, 1 less hierarch for another key spell we have in our SB seems efficient to me.
I usually cut numbers of NH too when i'm battling superfast unfair decks.

Yup, the deck is a bit mana hungry, but efficient brainstorming/pondering/sylvan can already fix that for you.

I'm very consistent with playing that list, Results shows. But it's NOT definitely for everyone.

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Originally Posted by poxy14

I'm very consistent with playing that list, Results shows. But it's NOT definitely for everyone.

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Your 'results' are a couple of top 8's in 30 person tournaments at your LGS. If you're going to argue against the entire history of literally everyone who has ever top 8'd with this deck, you're going to need some higher profile finishes.

Or, you know, just don't bring up results. Because top 8'ing a tournament with a 3 Brainstorm list doesn't mean it's correct to play 3 Brainstorms.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jesture

Your 'results' are a couple of top 8's in 30 person tournaments at your LGS. If you're going to argue against the entire history of literally everyone who has ever top 8'd with this deck, you're going to need some higher profile finishes.

Or, you know, just don't bring up results. Because top 8'ing a tournament with a 3 Brainstorm list doesn't mean it's correct to play 3 Brainstorms.

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The format is dwindling in my country.. and having 30+ participants is already huge here.. legacy players here have mini tourneys weekdays with an attendance of 8-10max... major tourneys that are once a month have an average of 20-25 players... I was very successful last year with several top1 finishes in the majors... and minis.. some of the minis arent sanctioned. I agree with you that it needs to be tested in a wider field, but that's just what we have here. If youre happy with your list that's fine with me. Im not even encouraging everybody here to try my configuration... but it's working for me. Here. Im just sharing it.

Anyone check out the Baltimore SCG Open results? 6 Infect decks in day 2 and Todd Stevens, Aaron Barich, and Zach Alexander all made top 32.

Alexander had a 1-of Great Sable Stag in his board. If you're putting non-infectors in your board, I think I prefer TNN because it can't gets plowed either, but the can't be countered pro UB action vs. Shadow seems good, albeit quite narrow.

There's been so many equipment decks running around my local meta, I actually tried Dissenter's Deliverance main and two TNN sideboard. Deliverance bailed me out against a game 1 Jitte in one match and the other two times I drew it, having to cycle it away wasn't too taxing. Never drew the TNNs in the matches I brought them in for though.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by qomori

Anyone check out the Baltimore SCG Open results? 6 Infect decks in day 2 and Todd Stevens, Aaron Barich, and Zach Alexander all made top 32.

Alexander had a 1-of Great Sable Stag in his board. If you're putting non-infectors in your board, I think I prefer TNN because it can't gets plowed either, but the can't be countered pro UB action vs. Shadow seems good, albeit quite narrow.

There's been so many equipment decks running around my local meta, I actually tried Dissenter's Deliverance main and two TNN sideboard. Deliverance bailed me out against a game 1 Jitte in one match and the other two times I drew it, having to cycle it away wasn't too taxing. Never drew the TNNs in the matches I brought them in for though.

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Yeah, this was a really interesting tournament for Infect. Looking at that top 8, I can't say I'm surprised that nobody did better than top 32, as it looks to be chock full of Infects worst matchups. Though I think we're reasonably well positioned in the meta right now, I can't say I like our chances if this what the typical top 8 is going to look like going forward.

On the topic of Stag vs TNN, there's actually quite a few reasons why you'd run something else over the TNN (I'm not certain it should be Stag.) For one, all of the sweepers that you have to worry about also hit TNN and are going to be brought in against us. For two, I still see a lot of people (mistakenly) bring in Pyroblast effects against us, which lines up very well against a 3 mana blue spell. At the end of the day, I don't love that Stag still gets hit by Bolt and Plow, but after exhaustively looking at the list of 3cmc creatures, I don't think I've found anything better than these two.

Of note is that we get access to both Thrun and Chameleon Colossus if we're willing to go up to 4 mana. Thrun is a resilient threat that's incredibly hard to remove and Chameleon Colossus has protection from black (great against Grixis Control) and does goofy silly things with Invigorate/Berserk.

In regards to Dissenter's Deliverance, one of the guys from Eternal Durdles was trying it and seemed very happy with how it performed at SCG Baltimore. I've since tried it myself, and though I'm still unsure of its utility I think it's a fair inclusion in the main deck based on the merits of cycling alone.

One card that I haven't seen brought up recently which seems great is Shapers' Sanctuary. I think this and Sylvan Library are going to be our best tools for combating Grixis Control going forward, though I'm hesitant to run more than 1x of the latter. Testing has been sparse, but like Dissenter's Deliverance, what I've seen of Shapers' Sanctuary so far seems like exactly what our deck wants.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jesture

In regards to Dissenter's Deliverance, one of the guys from Eternal Durdles was trying it and seemed very happy with how it performed at SCG Baltimore. I've since tried it myself, and though I'm still unsure of its utility I think it's a fair inclusion in the main deck based on the merits of cycling alone.

One card that I haven't seen brought up recently which seems great is Shapers' Sanctuary. I think this and Sylvan Library are going to be our best tools for combating Grixis Control going forward, though I'm hesitant to run more than 1x of the latter. Testing has been sparse, but like Dissenter's Deliverance, what I've seen of Shapers' Sanctuary so far seems like exactly what our deck wants.

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Yeah, I should've mentioned I got the Dissenter's main deck idea from Eternal Durdles.

I was on 2 Sanctuary in the board before DRS got banned and loved it as a way to out keep pace the card advantage they generate. I haven't seen many people on Grixis control locally yet, but was thinking about adding them back as I expect we'll catch up to the wider meta soon.

1st Place, Legacy Majors XI 17-man tourney with UGWInfect; My fellow teammate who tried my 3-Noble Config went to 6th place, unfortunately he lost to Gobs, we had the same 75main, slightly different though in SB.

Decklist: http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=20397&f=LE

Prelims: 3-1-1 only loss was from eventual 2ndplacer SnT

Quartersfinals: 2 - 1 vs BGDepths, pithing needle here is MVP, they got sylvan safekeepers for my STPs, key targets too are VHexmages, Thespian Stages.

Semifinals: 2 - 0 vs Grixis Control, I managed to 2nd turn twice Sylvan Library and abused it vs his slow clock. My winning play was getting Inky to 9 poison via BImmense, he Kolaghan's Command destroying Inky as an artifact, I BlossomeD for an additional 2 poison making it lethal, he FOW'ed, I flustered.

Finals: 2 - 1 vs SnT
Game 3 I had multiple counters and pumps, but no infectors. I managed to PNeedle Sneak, slowly 2 Nobles got him at 11 damages. Midgame I drew Surgical targetting Show, He fowed pitching another Show. He had 1 left. He Cunning Wish recklessly and fell into Daze, as I pondered on my turn, there's 1 Glistener Available and I have 2 Invigorates in my hand and another fluster. Next turn it's GAME!

Another one inspired by the Eternal Durdles dudes, but has anyone played around with Mission Briefing? I am skeptical, but the fact that you can pay alternate costs and it plays nice with BI piqued my interest enough to jam it into my 60 (cut 1 of 4 Ponders) last night.

I ended up playing against two graveyard decks, so I sided it out, because I sided in RiP. The one time I actually saw it, it was gas though. Let me flashback Flusterstorm to counter a Council's Judgement and bin a Pithing Needle to put Vines on top for the kill next turn. Super small sample size, obviously and it feels really greedy with the white splash as well. Definitely want to test it out more though--it almost felt like Dig in that game and I can see that being the case in a lot of the grindier match ups.

Had my best run in awhile today and came in 4th at a 38 person local here in Vancouver, Canada.

Rd. 1: 2-0 vs. Sneak and Show
Game 1 was a bit of a sign of things to come in the Swiss, where I was running hot like the sun. I win the die roll, play Glistener. He plays Misty and passes. I have Invigorate in hand and draw Berserk with FoW back-up.

Game 2 he leads with fetch, go. I play an Elf and pass. He plays land, pitches monkey and tries to cast a Show and Tell that I have a FoW for. He ends up stuck on land and I find an Become Immense to go with my Invigorate and kill him a few turns later.

Rd. 2 vs. Mono Black Reanimator
Game 1, I win the die roll, have Daze back up after Elf and get a quick kill.

Game 2, he lands a turn 2 Elesh Norn and gets there.

Game 3, I hit him with Elf + Invogorate, knowing I have Elf, Invig on top with Swords in hand. He Entombs for Elesh Norn EOT and Animates her on my turn. I draw Elf, take 3. Then draw Invig, crack a fetch for Savannah and Swords Elesh, then play out Elf. He Thoughseizes Invigorate away. I draw and play Agent. He lands a Liliana of the Veil and makes me sac Elf. I Ponder into Vines and get him.

Rd. 3: 2-0 vs. Burn
Game 1 he gets a pretty fast draw and ends up beating me down to 7 with two Guides and a Swiftspear on board. I fire up Inkmoth and swing in. I fire off Invigorate and he tries to Bolt in response. I cast a second Invogorate and he sacs his two mountains to try to Fireblast Inkmoth. I have an unkicked Vines and put him to 9 poison. I've got a Daze in hand and he can only crack in for 6 max. He could've gone face and got me, but it's a tough line for him, I think, since he potentially dies if he lets the Invigorates resolve.

Game 2 I draw a fast hand with counter back up.

Rd 4: 2-0 vs. Grixis Control
Can't remember this match-up super well, but game 1, I keep a hand with Inkmoth, Invigorate, a cantrip and double Spell Pierce and eek one out when I end up with Inkmoth in play when we're both hell bent.

Game 2, I draw a strong hand, sandbag my second Inkmoth and attack with my first one to trade with his Strix and eventually get there.

Rd. 5/6 I ID into top 8

Quarters: 2-0 vs. Miracles
I end up matched against a overall good Magic player, but a guy who mostly plays Standard/Modern, rather than Legacy.

In both games he 1) fetches a lot of basics and 2) fetches almost all Islands, so he was never really threatening Swords/Terminate very hard, which let me pump my dudes without having to worry about a blowout. In both games I wait for him to tap his single white source and then empty my hand to get him.

Semis: 1-2 vs. Burn
I win the die roll and turn 2 him in Game 1.

Remember I said I was running hot? Well, all good things must come to an end. He gets a relatively fast draw in game 2 and gets me. And in game 3, I keep a hand that should be able to finish the job pretty fast, but my Brainstorms and Ponders hit more cantrips and lands and he gets there.

All in all, I didn't have much to complain about. I had some fortunate draws and mostly favourable matches and 9-3 in games on the day felt pretty great. I took a leap of faith and ran Mission Briefing as a one-of main deck. I only drew it twice and ended up pitching it to Force both times, but definitely still interesting in testing it out more. Grixis Control is always going to be tough, but the Miracles match-up still feels good and there's just a lot of decks I feel like we're favoured against right now. Plus, the Pile/Grixis Delver DRS era seemed to scare a lot of people away from Infect, so I feel like we get to face some opponents who aren't super comfortable playing against us, which is a big advantage for us.

3/4th was supposed to be decided by who's opponent from the semis ended up 1st/2nd. But my buddy Ed and I ended up playing an unsanctioned match for it. He's an Elves master, so while that's obviously a good match up for us in general, he ended up getting there.

Ended up with a SP Plateau for my troubles, instead of the Taiga for 3rd, but I've also been slowly buying up pieces for Painter, so it worked out okay. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by qomori

Had my best run in awhile today and came in 4th at a 38 person local here in Vancouver, Canada.

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Congrats on the finish qomori. R/W Painter is favored against R/G Lands, so Plateau is probably a better dual than Taiga anyway.

Recently played Infect at Eternal Weekend. Wrote a tournament report that can be found here.

Congrats on the finish at EW!

I was checking out the Top 24 thread and was hoping you were on here.

How was running the Tundra? Also, now that you've had time to reflect on it, what are you thinking for a sideboard in a big open tournament meta?