[Deck] U/G Infect

[shocked439]

GP Columbus was easily my worst GP ever. I've been struggling to try and figure out what went wrong and I'm not happy with the answers I have come up with. Here's a round by round summary I'll my opinions at the bottom. I posted my deck list above, As I discuss below I will be returning to the more streamlined version of this deck.

R1-Bye (1-0 event, 0-0 games)
R2-Lost to Storm (1-1, 0-2) game one mull to six keep hand with stifle and one land, knew better than typing out to play something. Opponent git probes, knows stifle is my only permission decide to play blighted agent and put a clock on him. He goes for it and gets there, turns out he had cabal therapy so one piece of permission was not going to get it. Game two keep an aggressive hand with no permission thinking I can force the issue, turns out I forced the issue he probes and goes off. I dislike playing storm, I hate most 50/50 matchups that's why I gave up rug delver.

r3-5 lost to punishing lands, shardless, and the mirror match. Won one game against shardless lost all the others in 2 (1-4, 1-8) At this point I am at a complete loss. I'm not a bad infect player. In all the matches leading up to this event I was unbeatable. I was happy with my build. I am unable to pinpoint why I lost the games. It is easy to blame the game three loss to shardless on a mull to five (no colored sources at 7 or 6) keep a dryad arbor glistner elf, berserk brainstorm hand and get hymmed after casting the elf. I keep replaying the sequences and plays that I made but in the vast majority of the games it really didn't seem to matter, I never had the ability to protect, and pump or I had all the protection and couldn't get an infector.

Round 6 - 8 won three in a row, beat enchantress and don't remember the other two.

round nine lost to abzan in three probably the best match of the day, fittingly it ended with me mulling to 5 in game three and never catching up.


As I looked at the top performing deck lists it became obvious what they all had in common, they valued consistency and information over utility. I love the three flusterstorm package out of the side board from the gp Columbus deck, I also love that it is an easy board in with the three git probes in the main. I had multiple opponents comment about the one ofs in my deck that they were playing around, at that point I realized what my mistake was. My opponents were already afraid of the cards I might have, they had done their job. I should have went with the tighter lists and played for the least variance.

There are infinite cute things to do with this deck, but the best thing is to pressure your opponent.

[Bichon_Blitz]

I performed as I pretty much always do at gp's starting 3-0 into 4-4-drop. I lost to elves, jund, grixis delver and eldrazis. Won jund, shardless and two miracles.

I could have played tighter against elves while they took game one against me drawing creature heavy seven. Jund is annoying with all the removal. Infect is very strong as seen in Columbus but in my case pilot was eventually rather shitty.

In side events I played basically only bad matchups like lands and couldn't navigate my way to anything worth telling about.

Flusterstorms in main deck were very good and relevant in every matchup. Next step for me is to find room for Sylvan library in main and I wouldn't mind having a second Become Immense either. The 4 Daze plan from Columbus is also very promising.

My good friend plays jund. I can say it is for the most part a pretty easy matchup. Def possible to lose but in playing him 7 times I beat him 6, and he's only beaten me outside of that a handful of times.

[Bosaapje]

My good friend plays jund. I can say it is for the most part a pretty easy matchup. Def possible to lose but in playing him 7 times I beat him 6, and he's only beaten me outside of that a handful of times.

How do you beat Jund? I rarely play them but when I do it feels awful. They have Liliana, PuFi, Decay, Bolt, Wasteland for the Nexus and also a decently fast clock with Goyf. I consider Jund to be my worst matchup.

@Shocked: Sucks to see you doing so bad. What was the list you ran?

[kova]

Yea in play testing never really had issues, but makes me feel better hearing from an Elves player.

Nice to see the deck take down the GP, I thought he had a better than average chance with 4 miracles decks in there.

Looking at his list 4 daze maindeck seems fine for g1 and probably makes sideboarding a little easier for g2. I cannot figure out what the wasteland in the SB is for. I think this was discussed a few posts back. I feel like the 1-of works fine as a silver bullet to glacial chasm/maze/etc...5 pieces of artifact hate, looks like he came prepared for jittes, chalices, and needles. 3 Probes might be better in a lot of matchups than a 2/1 ponder split. But can't argue with the results! I still like the white sb splash, has done right by me for the most part.

Well, I've tried answering the wasteland question here before... Besides obvious utility via a topdeck, the second wasteland... is just another land at times. Against mana denying decks. Do bring it in not only vs lands, d&t and mirror. But also when facing eldrazi, grixis, etc. And, despite opinions around here, it's uber uselfull against elves. Just try playtesting both ends of the matchup...

PS 9-5-1 at Prague :/

[Bosaapje]

Yea in play testing never really had issues, but makes me feel better hearing from an Elves player.

Nice to see the deck take down the GP, I thought he had a better than average chance with 4 miracles decks in there.

Looking at his list 4 daze maindeck seems fine for g1 and probably makes sideboarding a little easier for g2. I cannot figure out what the wasteland in the SB is for. I think this was discussed a few posts back. I feel like the 1-of works fine as a silver bullet to glacial chasm/maze/etc...5 pieces of artifact hate, looks like he came prepared for jittes, chalices, and needles. 3 Probes might be better in a lot of matchups than a 2/1 ponder split. But can't argue with the results! I still like the white sb splash, has done right by me for the most part.

As said above, it's sometimes just another land but more often it's an out against Maze of Ith and Tabernacle. I always run it mainboard because there is space enough and you can punish people sometimes just like you can with Stifle. It's very good if you open with an Elf or Noble Hierarch on the play and then Wasteland them. That could be enough disruption that you win the game on the spot.

I'm gonna play the winning GP list this weekend, not sure if two Crop Rotations mainboard is the correct choice with Chalice in the format right now but it's very good against Miracles so I'll see. I'm also not that much fan of three Probes mainboard, it feels just a tad too much but we'll see. The list (and player) has proven itself.

[Bichon_Blitz]

How do you beat Jund? I rarely play them but when I do it feels awful. They have Liliana, PuFi, Decay, Bolt, Wasteland for the Nexus and also a decently fast clock with Goyf. I consider Jund to be my worst matchup.

@Shocked: Sucks to see you doing so bad. What was the list you ran?

You're only out to an active lilly is inkmoth, but that can sometimes be enough. And honestly that doesn't happen all that often, I'm not sure if they side lilly out or not cause of the slowness. I think my buddy has had better luck against me with duress.

Save brainstorms for discard. Try to save pumps for inkmoth to dodge decay, unless they're tapped out. They might have a hand of bolt and p.fire, but stuff like pendelhaven and pretty much any pump spell. I think I win most of my games with inkmoth against them but I generally try to time my pump spells properly, you know like if you see an untapped badlands play around the bolt. Usually they can't go through 2 pump spells, or even 1 pump spell and a counter. Be aware of ancient grudge on inkmoth coming in g2/3. The majority of my games are over t2-4 against them, but some games because of attrition you have to rebuild and try to reassemble the right to hand and go off at the right time, almost like lands in a way.

I beat jund at columbus but all i can remember is losing g1 on a mull to 5 i think, winning g2 on t2 with invig/berserk on elf and dazing a DRS, and slowly grinding out g3 and getting absolute law out. Gitaxian probe informed me what to play around, i think it was decay and diabolic edict. I'm going up to three of those and not looking back. Absolute law, by the way, is insane against any deck that runs p.fire if that is giving you fits. I will bring it against lands, jund, UR delver, sometimes even grixis delver. And just like spellskite, set that up first, then cast your critters.

[poxy14]

5th after 6 rounds swiss in yesterday’s 40-man legacy tournament.
We all decided to split the packs of EMA box between all of us, as it was raining hard, so we can all go home.

record: 4-1-1

1-0 (2-0) shardless BUG
Both games my multiple invigorates paired with permissions helped my inkmoths go through without even worrying on abrupt decays, 2 crop rots are key here, I had one resolved eot for the kill, and had 1 key replacement when he wasted it.

2-0 (2-1) BURN
Lost game 1 easily when he had a main deck grim. Flusterstorm, several pierces and a hydroblast sealed 2 games quickly for the match win

3-0 (2-0) REANIMATOR
Probe was very crucial early on, He had a 1-lander but with fow, daze, entomb, exhume... I opened with glistener, he fetched for delta... I crop rot, he lets it resolved and quickly got a wasteland and landed noble. That’s game right there. 2nd game he mulled to 5 and never got back to the game.

3-1 (1-2) UWR MIRACLES
A maindecked flusterstorm proved very crucial, Lost game 3 on a resolved bloodmoon with me having no fows at hand, never drew any of my removals by not accessing my trops for my cantrips.

4-1 (2-1) ELVES
Inkmoth is just MVP here!

4-1-1 (ID) SNEAKSHOW

We projected a heavy Dnt meta and combos, but then lots of burn showed up! I think we had 5-6 burn decks, a number of BUG variants, 3 played Infect and some miracles. Ive been drawing my invigorates via multiples and that was key for my fast wins, I was suppose to replace them with new EMA version, but I wont anymore with their performance last night haha!

Deck: 1 savannah, 2 crop rotations, 1 become immense, 1 flusterstorm, 1 pierce, 4 fows, 1 sylvan.... everything else is from the usual lists...

Helpers:
1 grafdigger's cage
1 relic progenitus
1 RIP
1 absolute law
2 STPs
2 kgrips
1 seal primordium
2 pithing needles
1 spell pierce
1 hydroblast
1 dispel
1 invasive surgery

[Sparkii]

Nice finish. :)

How is hydroblast for you? I see it everywhere, but just dislike the card in the board. Dispel is an interesting choice too, I think I'd have liked another fluster in that slot.

[poxy14]

Nice finish. :)

How is hydroblast for you? I see it everywhere, but just dislike the card in the board. Dispel is an interesting choice too, I think I'd have liked another fluster in that slot.

Thanks man! well hydroblast for me these days is Huge! burn and grixis tempo is a badmatchup since they have a fast clock and removals... that's why i inserted in a dispel too for variance... alongside an absolute law to minimize creature loss when battling this somewhat hard matchup.

[Sparkii]

Thanks man! well hydroblast for me these days is Huge! burn and grixis tempo is a badmatchup since they have a fast clock and removals... that's why i inserted in a dispel too for variance... alongside an absolute law to minimize creature loss when battling this somewhat hard matchup.

Yeah, I'm also playing the white splash, with 3 STP, 2 RIP and 1 Absolute law. Probably going to cut a RIP for a surgical or another form of gravehate to cut reliance on white and come down a turn faster. I'm also still playing Reality Ripple, that card has been great for me.

How do people feel on the 3/4 Daze maindeck? I am a big fan of the flusterstorm main.

[Cartesian]

Ive been drawing my invigorates via multiples and that was key for my fast wins, I was suppose to replace them with new EMA version, but I wont anymore with their performance last night haha!

Had to find the new version and take a look. I am puzzled, why would you replace a forest dryad with mad eyes power-throwing a mysterious monster with hooves and sharp teeth, with that? I looks like an anime girl lifting a latex hammer, while posturing for a photo shoot. :D

And yes, drawing Invigorate in multiples is key to succes with Infect. Sometimes I wonder if win percentage is directly related to the average number of Invigorates drawn.

@Sparkii: I am back and forth on the Dazes, would almost certainly not play 4 even though a deck like that just won a GP. Daze is obviously great if you have everything you need and move in for the kill. If not and I have to play a longer game, then I feel like the cost to my own early mana development is high.

[poxy14]

Had to find the new version and take a look. I am puzzled, why would you replace a forest dryad with mad eyes power-throwing a mysterious monster with hooves and sharp teeth, with that? I looks like an anime girl lifting a latex hammer, while posturing for a photo shoot. :D

And yes, drawing Invigorate in multiples is key to succes with Infect. Sometimes I wonder if win percentage is directly related to the average number of Invigorates drawn.

Yeah, I agree haha. I had 1 foil EMA, i'll just sell em and stick to my older ones. Yup, it also boosts our sequencing of plays and confidence once we see invis in multiples early on. It just puts too much pressure on the opposing side when we have em right away. It surely does affect this deck's W percentage versus any other pump spell we have main.

@sparkii: 3's the most for me for dazes, I would rather have the 4th fow instead. Probably the easiest way to cut too during sideboarding, except ofcourse vs any combo matchup.

[Svyelunite]

We get one Legacy Grand Prix in the USA each year. This year it was in Columbus Ohio, and a very inspiring young man took it down playing a deck very close to Svyelunite's heart. Check out this week's episode of Legacy's Allure as GP Columbus Winner Clay Spicklemire recounts his awesome tournament performance!

Webcast: https://youtu.be/tolLrPUlZQE

Podcast: http://shoutengine.com/LegacysAllure...cklemire-21016

Also available on iTunes!

[Jesture]

We get one Legacy Grand Prix in the USA each year. This year it was in Columbus Ohio, and a very inspiring young man took it down playing a deck very close to Svyelunite's heart. Check out this week's episode of Legacy's Allure as GP Columbus Winner Clay Spicklemire recounts his awesome tournament performance!

Webcast: https://youtu.be/tolLrPUlZQE

Podcast: http://shoutengine.com/LegacysAllure...cklemire-21016

Also available on iTunes!

Some great stuff in that podcast right there. Congrats to Clay on taking down GP Columbus, and a big thanks to him and Zach for putting this interview together.

[Capt4in]

Had to find the new version and take a look. I am puzzled, why would you replace a forest dryad with mad eyes power-throwing a mysterious monster with hooves and sharp teeth, with that? I looks like an anime girl lifting a latex hammer, while posturing for a photo shoot. :D

Mysterious monster?? It's a sad day in an old-school magic forum when somebody doesn't recognize the original Humpus Wumpus

[Cartesian]

I see it now. My sincere apologies. I didn't know.

[chewemy]

A new counter for infect ?

[Cartesian]

It's a reprint, dude.
The effect isn't strong enough, there are better options.

[chewemy]

It's a reprint, dude.
The effect isn't strong enough, there are better options.

Didn't see sorry :/

[Hopo]

The new baby natural order looks somewhat interesting as it is practically your fifth agent. Looking forward to test that one.