Went into a relatively small (22 people) tournament on Sunday, which is the last prep I'll get until GP Seatac. Played Burn and Storm twice and was 1-1 against each, getting pretty unlucky in the Burn match I lost. And lost a long one to Miracles. I think I could've tried to play for the draw a little harder, but it was against a guy I know and the tourney was more for practice than anything else.
Pretty meh results, but it gave me the opportunity to try a couple things that I wanted to test out last minute: running a Piracy Charm main deck, running Seal in the board instead of Nature's Claim, and playing 20 lands with 4 Inkmoth, 4 Trops, Savannah, Forest, Pendelhaven, Waste, and 8 fetches. I wasn't super keen on Piracy Charm MD (but I also didn't see Delver or D&T), so I think I'm going to go with Sylvan MD, since I expect a ton of Miracles at the GP and would love to be able to stick it game 1, before they board in Wear//Tear. But I really didn't like playing the 5th dual land and ended up with Brainstorming into spell, dual, dual (or spell, dual, forest) three times when I would've loved to have a fetch in there to let me shuffle. Seal came in handy in one of my Miracles games and it's obviously great against any Blood Moon match ups as well.
I think I'm settled on this deck list for the GP:
Inkmoth x4
Trop x3
Savannah x1
Forest x1
Wasteland x1
Pendelhaven x1
Fetches x9
Hierarch x4
B Agent x4
Elf x4
Invigorate x4
Brainstorm x4
Vines x3
FoW x3
Daze x3
Berserk x2
Spell Pierce x2
Probe x2
Ponder x1
Become Immense x1
Sylvan Library x1
Stifle x1
Crop Rot x1
SB:
StP x2
Krosan x2
RiP x2
Flusterstorm x1
Piracy Charm x1
Grafdigger's Cage x1
Absolute Law x1
Vines x1
FoW x1
Pithing Needle x1
Seal x1
Submerge x1
solid list! goodluck on the GP qomori, do give us a feedback with your games.
i just noticed too many spot removals in your sb (4) naming 2 stps/1submerge/1 piracy charm.... well that can act too as a toolbox card. If youre expecting miracle heavy meta, keeping sylvan main is definitely a Go, i would however cut any 1 spot removal from your 4 and double on my pithing needle. after dtt banning, wastelands have been rampant again. im also using seal primordium, dodges cotv1 and permissions once already at the board. an insurance card too vs bloodmoon.
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The list looked a bit shaky to an outsider's eye, but a quick comparison with a RUG list gave the following breakdown:
Ebola:
Mana: 20 (inc. Waste, Pendelhaven, Hierarch, no Nexus)
Threats: 12 (no Hierarch, inc. Nexus)
Pump: 7 (no Vines)
Protection: 14 (inc. Vines, Probe)
Selection: 7
RUG:
Mana: 18 (inc. Waste)
Threats: 12
Removal: 6
Protection: 16 (inc. Probe)
Selection: 8
Originally Posted by Lemnear
So Im attending a tournament at a friends, with 24 people and cool prizes.
I normally play the white splash list, but seeing a rise in reanimator, i've felt that RIP is just way too slow. The increase in Shardless also got me thinking on trying out the more aggressive build, like Ross did, but without any GSZ or Arbors (dont like them). I havent played non-white infect in a while, so any comments are appreciated!
The list im working with so far is:
1 Forest
4 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Pendelhaven
4 Tropical Island
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Wasteland
2 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Become Immense (i've won many games by drawing this more often, but do you think 2 is too much?)
2 Berserk
4 Blighted Agent
4 Brainstorm
1 Crop Rotation
3 Daze
3 Force of Will
2 Gitaxian Probe
4 Glistener Elf
4 Invigorate
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Piracy Charm (really not sure on this, but it is indeed very useful; unblockable against strixes, remove strixes, take out an elf, pitch to fow, bla bla)
1 Ponder
2 Spell Pierce
1 Sylvan Library (i've had good luck with this maindeck, and it frees a room in the SB)
3 Vines of Vastwood
Sideboard:
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Crop Rotation
1 Flusterstorm
1 Force of Will
1 Hydroblast
1 Karakas
1 Krosan Grip
1 Nature's Claim
1 Necropede
2 Pithing Needle
1 Spellskite
2 Submerge
1 Surgical Extraction
I dont think there will be much miracles in the meta, so two krosans are not that importrant, thus running a claim instead for strixes, etc. Im considering trying the Skite, but im unsure of this. I've played the Law before, but without white this might be ok. The necropede is new for me, but seems good with baleful strix and small dudes all over the place.
Im packing an additional crop rotation to get the bojuka bog in the reanimator matchups etc, and also because i miss having the second one.
Any thoughts on the lists?
Im assuming that the meta will be containing: shardless, delver variants, DT, painter, elves, reanimator and maybe some form of storm
Thanks!
@NEFFY: i personally love 2 bimmense main, and it has won me a lot of games early. with the rise of shardless, u want to end games early, counter any of their disrupts and end the game immediately on your turn. if youre not sure with piracy charm, you could always switch back your 2nd croprot to main as it fuels bimmense too fast and acts as ur infectors no.13 and 14. im still not convinced on maindecking sylvan (our list is too tight, and probes are way too valuable to this deck), but with a meta full of midrange shardless/miracles... i think it's a good inclusion, and a lone probe or ponder might be the slot for this.
if youre expecting lots of reanimators,delvers...a white splash would be a better fit if you can as stps are good vs delvers, strixes, elesh norns, goyfs..... im playing the white splash too but not for RIP anymore (replaced it with relic progen, i agree with u as it is too slow vs reanimators) but just for 2 stps... submerge is too conditional for me.
good luck and do post a report after your tourney.
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To all you Ponder players out there: Do you think Ponder really belongs here?
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Thanks, i will.
The problem with just running the STPs alone, is that it still requires the savannah. Either in the board or main.
If run main, i need to take out a trop, which i am really not fond of. And my board barely have room for a land.
Do you or any other experience problems with running the 3 trops and 1 savannah main? I could imagine a starting hand of savannah, inkmoth, and blue cards :S
im running 2 crop rots, 1 forest, 3trops,1savannah, 2pendels main no wasteland...19 total lands.. i seldom experience color problems as my only colorless lands are inkmoths...i can always croprot sav to trop for an unexpected daze or pierce which is a very nice trick too if u present a nonblue deck with an opening sav or forest.
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It's really just there to do its best Brainstorm impression, and it does an adequate job of it. Thoughts on what to replace it with? The job of any cantrip is to smooth out the draws a bit, I don't know how beneficial/consistent it would be to add another singleton into the list.
I will say I like the split of Ponder and Preordain that some players have tested. The need for a shuffle effect to take full advantage of Ponder is a real concern that comes up every so often in my games. At heart, this is a deck that's trying to assemble a threat + pump/counters to protect it. Though Preordain looks at one less card, it has the benefit of being a better a stand alone card than Ponder by allowing us to pick up whatever piece we're missing while simultaneously filtering through the top of our library, all without the aid of a fetch land.
I'm at the moment on 3 Probes. I guess I'm just wondering whether the cantrip of choice would be better than the 4th Probe. Probe is just so strong in this deck as it can save you from blowouts even before you play your first land. Id' love to go to 4 Probes but it's so damn difficult to get the ratio of Become Immense/Crop rotation/counterspells right by doing this.
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I guess it really depends on personal preference but Im actually using 2 Ponders myself and have been very pleased with it. I'm also only running 2 Git Probes though, so whether you want the cantrip to come from looking at your opponents hand or looking at the top 3 cards of your library is what you'll want to decide.
I find after playing this deck for the better part of the last year, I don't rely on Git Probe as heavily, which allows me to focus on other cards to enter into the main deck. Git probe is a great card but it also doesn't really "do" anything either. Information is never bad but I never want to be overloaded with them and there's been plenty of times I've wished I could dig just a little deeper for the one pump spell I need to finish the game. Ponder enables that much more than Git Probe does.
Just my personal taste though, everyone values these types of cards differently. Too bad we couldn't just play with more brainstorms :)
Bit of a GP Seatac report...
I ended up playing mostly the same list as I posted before, swapping out Piracy Charm to the main, moving Stifle to the board and replacing Submerge with a 2nd Pithing Needle (thanks, Poxy! That was a great call).
It was 9 rounds of Swiss on the first day, 7-2 or 6-0-3 to make day two, and I ended up making it to round 8 before taking my 3rd loss:
Round 1 - Sneak and Show 0-1:
My opponent wins the die roll. I keep a relatively slow hand with no infecter, but Ponder, Brainstorm, some coloured mana and some counter magic. He opens with island, Ponder, says go. I assume Miracles, fetch for Trop, Ponder say go. He drops Ancient Tomb, follows with Show and Tell. I Force, re-check my hand and think "oh oh". I Brainstorm, looking for a threat, find some lands and a Pierce, keep the Pierce, play a fetch to shuffle with before my next turn and pass back. He casts another Show and Tell and I Spell Pierce. I draw a blank, he casts Sneak Attack. I draw Wasteland and waste his Volc, but he plays Petal, sneaks in Griselbrand and it's game shortly after. Game two, I keep a pretty decent hand with some Agents, pumps, but no counters. I stick a threat drop Hierarch and he counters 1 of my Inv. He eventually resolves Sneak Attack and sneaks in Emakrul off of a petal, then swings for exactsies after I had Probed and fetched x3. GGs
Round 2 - Miracles 1-1:
I get him game 1 with a strong draw. Game 2 goes long and he plays Swords on a bunch of my threats. I eventually get an Inkmoth in play, but when it can attack he's one turn away from a Jace ultimate. He fate seals me. He plays Entreat making one Angel and passes back with Jace on 13 and I use my uncracked fetch to shuffle and pray with double Inv in hand. I pull Berserk off the top, but have no counter back up. I fire up my Inkmoth, attack, play Invigorate, wait for it to resolve, play the 2nd Invigorate, wait for it to resolve, and then Berserk. He asks if "Berserk gives trample too" and I know I have it.
Round 3 - Elves 2-1:
He gets their faster than me in game 1. Game 2 he resolves Craterhoof, but only has 19 power with me at 19 and I'm able to suck up 1 with an Elf. I Brainstorm into Berserk with Inv in hand and get there with Inkmoth. Game 3, I draw the nuts and blitz him on my turn 2.
Round 4 - Death and Taxes 3-1:
He mulls to 6, keeps a 1 lander and only plays a Plains for the first 4 turns. He gets my Elf with Swords, but I get there with Agent, pumps, and counter back up. Game 2 he's got more action, but is willing to trade his Revokers for my Elves. I Piracy Charm Thalia and eventually get there with an Inkmoth (that I have to save one turn by tapping it to animate/playing Vines) and double Hierarch.
Round 5 - the mirror 4-1:
I have the nuts and get him on turn 2 game 1. I board in to play control, counter his attempted blitz and then crack back for the win.
Round 6 - Miracles 5-1:
Game 1 he gets some of my threats, but I keep him off of Countertop lock and assemble Inv/Berserk with back up for the win. Sylvan was great all day, but is an all star in this game. Game 2, I keep a decent hand against Miracles, but despite a couple of perfect Brainstorms, I can't dig for enough gas. He rips my Berserk with Clique and eventually gets there with 3 damage per turn. Game 3, I have him on the back foot early with Elf/Agent, sucking up his Swords one at a time, plus an Inkmoth I don't activate. I draw some counter back up for my pumps and attack with Elf and Inkmoth. I Invigorate my Elf and he flashes in Venser and we have a bit of a counter war. Venser resolves and he targets my Inkmoth. I respond with a kicked Vines and he ends up having to block my 5/5 Elf and takes 5 poison from Inkmoth. He draws and passes, I draw a pump and get him to 10 next turn.
Round 7 - Punishing Jund 5-2:
He rips my hand apart and eventually gets there with 3 Deathrites in game 1. Game 2, I use both of my Berserks defensively and think I'm maybe okay with a Brainstorm and fetch in hand for next turn. He slams Chains of Mephistopheles. I assume I made a really awkward face. He gets there with a Goyf.
Round 8 - Goblins 5-3:
I've never seen Goblins in action and he ends up catching me with a slow hand with Cabal Therapy and takes game 1. Game 2, I have a decent hand, but still only get there on 4 life with an Inkmoth and some pumps. Game 3, I punt hard, playing around the Gempalm Incinerator I saw in his hand 3-4 turns earlier and declining to Vines/Berserk on an Inkmoth attack. He only has one Mountain up, which, at the time, I believe is what he needs for the cycle. I miss my chance and lose the long game, realizing I had him when he drops his hand on the table. :/
Was pretty disappointed with the misplay against Goblins, but with so little experience in the format, I was expecting to do far worse going in, so overall, I'm pretty happy with my result.
It seemed like there were a lot of Infect players around. Whenever I sat down to play a round, I could look around my table and saw someone else slinging poison. :) Seth Manfield managed top 32 with the non-white splash build, as did someone else, but both versions of the deck were well represented.
It was a small sample size, of course, but I loved running Piracy main. Sylvan was even better in an equal number of games.
@QOMORI: appreciate it buddy, glad u did well on the tourney. what place did u finish? 2 infect made it to top32... seth manfield and zachary koch, both ug versions. with rise of miracles, wastelands.dec, sneaks... 2 needles are just so good in the meta today. i'll be playing the white splash this 29th and hope i'll have good results to share. thanks for posting your report.
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Anyone going to NJ for the Legacy Open? I'd like to get some metagame predictions because I don't really know what's popular in the NE. Obviously I'll run Infect no matter what, I just need to prep a sideboard appropriately.
Did a sideevent at GP Brussel with 40ish players. Did 2-2 so not that great but I haven't been playing a lot lately so that's my excuse for why I didn't play as good as I could.
List:
4 Hierarch
4 Glistener Elf
4 Blighted Agent
3 Force of Will
3 Daze
2 Spell Pierce
4 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Become Immense
3 Vines
2 Berserk
4 Invigorate
2 Gitaxian Probe
1 Sylvan Library
1 Dryad Arbor
3 Tropical Island
1 Savannah
1 Wasteland
4 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Forest
8 Fetch
Side:
2 Submerge (had to be Swords to Plowshares in hindsight but I decided to go for Submerge)
1 Null Rod
1 Spellskite
1 Pithing Needle
1 Force of Will
1 Flusterstorm
1 Viridian Corrupter
2 Rest in Peace (didn't need them throughout the tournament)
1 Vendillion Clique
2 Krosan Grip
1 Karakas
1 Necropede
The list was okay. I expected a lot more BUG but I only played against it once. Could have won a game against ANT because I miscounted and thought I had a win with Become Immense but I had to play my cards otherwise to win. Didn't do it and lost the turn after that. Deck is still playing okay but I kinda miss the aggression in the deck. Sometimes I see people win early, like turn 3 or 4 but I almost never do that. Maybe it's my luck but it can also be my sequencing. Anyway, what do you guys think of the list?
Sorry to hear about the finish. The important thing is you're still having fun with the deck =D.
List seems a bit all over the place, especially the sideboard.
-Submerge should probably be StP if you're already splashing white (you got this one)
-If you instead opt to take out the white splash, include a Bojuka Bog somewhere in the sideboard
- If you're playing Bog and Karakas, I'd recommend another crop rotation in the side board
-Null Rod seems worse for us than Needle, especially since you're playing Spellskite
-Clique is a personal favorite, but I haven't found it nearly as useful as when ANT and Omni were running rampant at my LGS. Consider playing a Flusterstorm or Envelop in this slot
-Consider finding a maindeck slot for Viridian if you're playing main deck GSZ and Necropede in the side (have less experience on this one, your configuration could be right)
My sideboard for reference:
1 Pithing Needle
1 Karakas
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Crop Rotation
1 Viridian Corrupter
1 Vines of Vastwood
1 Nature's Claim
1 Seal of Primordium (I know a Standstill guy)
1 Krosan Grip
1 Force of Will
2 Flusterstorm
1 Divert (Secretly think this card is bad, considering second Needle here)
1 Teferi's Response (Hi Zach)
1 Surgical Extraction (Also not sure about this one, seems okay but not great so far)
I played in a local tournament last Sunday.
Guaranted prizes were amazing so we were 40 at the start.
This is the list, for reference:
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Blighted Agent
4 Glistener Elf
2 Berserk
4 Brainstorm
1 Crop Rotation
1 Ponder
2 Spell Pierce
3 Vines of Vastwood
3 Daze
4 Invigorate
3 Force of Will
2 Become Immense
2 Gitaxian Probe
1 Stifle
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Inkmoth Nexus
2 Misty Rainforest
3 Wooded Foothills
3 Windswept Heath
1 Pendelhaven
3 Tropical Island
1 Savannah
1 Wasteland
1 Forest
3 Swords to Plowshare
1 Nature's Claim
2 Krosan Grip
2 Pithing Needle
2 Rest in Peace
1 Vines of Vastwood
1 Absolute Law
1 Sylvan Library
1 Flusterstorm
1 Force of Will
I’m not a fan of Dryad Arbor (usually I play 1 Flusterstorm in that slot) but I was expecting lots of Liliana of the Veil around: actually they were there but I didn’t face anyone all the tournament.
I finished 3rd the Swiss rounds and I faced these opponents:
R1 Reanimator: won 2-0
R2 Death & Taxis: won2-1
R3 Death & Taxis: won 2-1
R4 Miracles (w/Mentors): won 2-1
R5 Burn: ID
R6 Oops, All Spells: ID
We split the 900 € in-store credit in the Top 8 (112,50 € each) and we played for the glory and 1 Bye for a big Eternal event next month.
In the quarterfinals I’ve lost against Oops, All Spells (the same I intentional drew previously) 0-2: I wasn’t fast enough both games (G2 I mulligated to 5 too), but by the time I sat in front of him I was already satisfied.![]()
A few pointers. I don't know what your issues are in practice but I share some observations made by playing UG infect for some time now. Others may disagree, which is fine as you should always keep your metagame in mind.
-Two Become Immense with zero Crop rotations. I would call this a bit clunky. Crop Rotation is the best Immense enabler in the deck. Everytime I play less Crops than BI's, I've had issues casting them. I have now one of each and I have no problems. Fetchland into Crop into fetchland turns Become Immense on very fast.
-GSZ + Dryad Arbor. This configuration I deem too slow in general. Many people play it, however, so maybe I'm wrong. It could be useful against a sea of Chalices. To me the dealbreaker is the thing that you sort of have to play Arbor, which I dislike. Beating down with Hierarch comes up likely something like once in a bigger tournament, I guess. When I tested GSZ, the idea was to have 5 Hierarchs and 5 Elves but it was frustrating because many times when you need the infect creature, Elf is not the one you want to have. Also, the single best thing the Elf has is the ability to be played on turn 1. GSZ doesn't do that.
- If you play in a developed meta (lots of BUG decks) you might want 4 Vines maindecked because otherwise Abrupt Decay plays around 8 of your 11 protection spells, a thing I'd pay attention to. This is the perfect replacement for the second Become Immense and gives you the 12th protection without diluting pump density. I play with 9 counters and 4 Vines myself.
-To me 2 Probes is random, 4 Probes is super solid but 3 Probes is correct because you need to have room for all the other stuff as well.
-Sylvan Library seems like a sideboard card (unless you expect to grind all day.)
With above in mind you end up pretty much with my list. Your sideboard is a bit of a mess but maybe I touch it later if needed.
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grats on your amazing finish LOUKEY, good job! ooops all spells is winnable, but if opponent is lucky with his draws, itll be tough, post board, everything's a bit easier... i havent lost to that matchup, since i own an oops deck too, making it for me to manuever well my turns : )
HOPO is on point with the 2 crop/ 2 bimmense config. and its always fun to sac-crop rot-fetch-trick for more delve power.
playtested last night, testing the maindecked sylvan and it was super good, i cut a probe
vs reanimator the earlier games are almost 50/50 but with sbs, my W's went up... in 8 games with sbs = 6-2
vs aggroloam, sylvan did the job here, never allow chalice1, i experimented resolving it with me having 2 blighteds, 2 invigorates and still got punished, he has abrupts... Kotrs too shld never land, we havent had a chance to sb, but im still on top in 6 games 4-2. now im all ready for sunday!
sb:
1 necropede (flex slot)
2 k grips / 1 seal primordium / 2 needles
1 graf / 1 relic / 1 surgical
1 fow / 1 fluster / 1 pierce
1 reality ripple / 2 stps
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