[Deck] U/G Infect

[qomori]

Congrats on the great finish!

I've always found Lands to be one of the tougher match ups because of Punishing Fire, Wasteland, Maze. They're slower than us, for sure, but always seem to have enough disruption to either lock us out with multiple PFs or make Marit Lage. Would be interested to hear your take on the match up.

For Reanimator, I like to counter the Entomb if there's nothing else in their yard already. There's only 4 Entombs/4 Faithless, but there's 12 reanimation spells game 1. Playing from the Reanimator side, if my Entomb resolves, I usually feel pretty good about being able to find (or already having) multiple reanimation spells to fight through counter magic. If my one-of Entomb gets countered, then I'm waiting to draw another one or I need Faithless and need to hit a creature. The only other option to bin is targeting yourself with Thoughtseize/Unmask, but if they had that, they would have fired it at you before trying to combo off.

[Tiberius42]

I think I'm at least a little favored in lands based on my build. 4 vines and access to 2 crop rotations and a rip post board are pretty important in the matchup. Maze is good but vines shuts it down just by casting it before attackers. Noble's are a pretty decent answer to tabernacle funny enough. If I expected a lot of lands I'd bring two needles rather than the split between null rod and needle. I used to have a karakas in the board which also made the matchup better. Rotating for pendelhaven in response to a punishing fire is another solid play.

You might be right on countering entomb. The blowout potential is higher with the surgicals and the instant speed bog if you let the entomb resolve.

[Sibelius]

Nic Dionykos​ has written a brilliant and in-depth piece on how to approach playing Infect in Legacy. I'm sure you will all enjoy it!

https://thelibraryatpendrellvale.com...g-with-infect/

Thanks

Sib

[Jesture]

We board out Dazes... on the play against JeskaiSpellstutter.Dec? They seem like they're at their best when you make the first land drop.

[Tiberius42]

It's totally possible that that was wrong. I'd never played against the deck. I figured that it would be a grindy matchup and the dazes would be likely to be dead draws.

[KingOfThePanda]

It's totally possible that that was wrong. I'd never played against the deck. I figured that it would be a grindy matchup and the dazes would be likely to be dead draws.

I feel like in this situation it would be helpful to think about the opponent's perspective. They are a control deck facing a fast combo deck. So they want to bring in things that are powerful as early as possible as to not get blown out. In this instance, Daze would be useful because you can 1 for 1 a removal spell early on. In game 2, it feels like we need more protection against a deck with a lot of removal, and Daze is not only a card that will do that early (Where we are most powerful in this matchup), but a card that is in the main deck. That means that we can better utilize the sideboard to bring in things that help this axis of attack.

[qomori]

I feel like in this situation it would be helpful to think about the opponent's perspective. They are a control deck facing a fast combo deck. So they want to bring in things that are powerful as early as possible as to not get blown out. In this instance, Daze would be useful because you can 1 for 1 a removal spell early on. In game 2, it feels like we need more protection against a deck with a lot of removal, and Daze is not only a card that will do that early (Where we are most powerful in this matchup), but a card that is in the main deck. That means that we can better utilize the sideboard to bring in things that help this axis of attack.

I would agree with bringing out some number of counters in game 2 for answers to permanents, but on the play, I'm keeping Daze and boarding out FoW. Yes, Daze gets worse the longer the match goes, but it's good in the opening turns when we're developing our board (and hopefully setting up a kill) and it's easier to get over the tempo interruption from picking the land up than the straight card disadvantage of FoW.

[Jesture]

So I've been having some trouble against Punishing Jund and traditional Team America BUG Delver (Hymns, Lilis) recently. I've moved back to the white splash to include two RIP's in the board, but at the end of the day it seems like I'm always a step behind on resources needed to close the game out.

Any thoughts/suggestions on these matchups? For what it's worth, I used to think both were favorable so it's possible I'm just running into a stretch of bad variance. Fatal Push has made the BUG matchup slightly worse, but Punishing Jund lists don't seem to have changed at all.

Last played sideboard:
1x Swords to Plowshares (one maindeck)
2x Rest in Peace
1x Serenity
1x Dismember
1x Surgical Extraction
1x Pithing Needle
1x Null Rod
1x Nature's Claim
1x Krosan Grip
1x Sylvan Library
1x Hydroblast
1x Flusterstorm
1x Force of Will
1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor

[KingOfThePanda]

Jace in Infect is hilarious. I know that Vyrn's Protege was tried with a little success a bit ago.

My immediate thought is that we are faster than these decks, so maybe Blossoming defense would be good here. It lets us try to plow over the opponent with protection. It also feels like Sylvan Library becomes extremely valuable for a long grind.

[Jesture]

Hey all, quick tournament report for a local "Win a Plateau" event. Apologies for the gaps in information, most of this is done from memory so it might feel incomplete.

Maindeck:
3x Misty Rainforest
3x Windswept Heath
2x Wooded Foothills
4x Tropical Island
1x Forest
1x Pendelhaven
1x Wasteland
4x Inkmoth Nexus

4x Noble Hierarch
4x Glistener Elf
4x Blighted Agent
1x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy

4x Invigorate
3x Vines of Vastwood
2x Berserk
1x Become Immense

4x Brainstorm
2x Gitaxian Probe
1x Ponder

3x Daze
3x Force of will
2x Spell Pierce
1x Flusterstorm
1x Stifle

1x Crop Rotation

Sideboard:
1x Pithing Needle
1x Null Rod
1x Dismember
2x Surgical Extraction
1x Nature's Claim
1x Seal of Primordium
1x Krosan Grip
1x Viridian Corrupter
1x Sylvan Library
2x Submerge
1x Flusterstorm
1x Hydroblast
1x Force of Will

Round 1: Ben on Sneak and Show

Game 1:
Ben is a local guy, so when he opens on a basic Island and passes I have a pretty good idea of what he's on. I feel pretty good about the Force of Will + blue card in hand and open with a fetch into a Tropical Island into Ponder, which yields a shuffle and nothing of note off the top. Ben drops an Ancient Tomb and a Lotus Petal, casting Show and Tell off of the pair of lands. I cast Force of Will pitching a Brainstorm, he responds with a Spell Pierce off of the Lotus Petal, and I proceed to feel pretty good about cheating my Wooded Foothills into play while he lays down a blue, ten mana enchantment called "Omniscience" that should never have been printed. Luckily for me, he then passes turn with nothing but a land in hand. My next 3 top decks are Glistener Elf, Invigorate, and Berserk. His next two top decks are Sneak Attack and City of Traitors.

Sideboard:
-3 Inkmoth Nexus
-2 Vines of Vastwood
-2 Noble Hierarch
+1 Force of Will
+1 Flusterstorm
+1 Hydroblast
+2 Surgical Extraction
+1 Seal of Primordium
+1 Pithing Needle

Game 2:
I keep a hand with lands, Noble Hierarch, 2x Invigorate, and cantrips. Ben opens with a Fetch into Volcanic Island and casts a Preordain, bottoming both. I lead with a Tropical Island into Noble Hierarch and pass the turn back to him. My hand is notably devoid of any sort of counter magic, but this doesn't seem to be a problem as we both spend out next turns making land drops and cantripping. I find and cast a Gitaxian Probe which reveals Show and Tell, Emrakul, and Flusterstorm. Probe draws me into Jace, Vryn's Prodigy and I cast it, hoping he doesn't Show and Tell the Emrakul in fear that I'll have a Blighted Agent and swing back for Lethal. The hope quickly dies as he casts Show and Tell, which I let resolve as I have no counter magic. His Emrakul comes down, and my Pithing Needle comes down, disappointingly naming Flooded Strand to cut him off of one mana that he doesn't really need.

I untap and draw into a fetch land. Jace loot finds me another fetch, so I discard one and add the other to board. Jace flips, and I use his -3 to flashback a Ponder, which finds me Blighted Agent, Berserk, and a Force of Will. I keep the cards in order and draw into Blighted Agent, which I quickly deploy before passing turn. Ben untaps and swings. I sacrifice Noble Hierarch, Jace Telepath Unbound, Pithing Needle, 2x Tropical Island, and a fetch land which leaves me at 1 life with Blighted Agent and a Tropical Island in play.

Untap, draw the Berserk I left there. My hand is now 2x Invigorate + 1x Berserk, and I know he has Flusterstorm plus one other card I haven't seen yet. I know my only out is to get him to burn Flusterstorm on one of the Invigorates to clear the way for Berserk, and I just have to hope that his second card isn't a relevant piece of interaction. I make the motion of slightly turning the Blighted Agent sideways, turn it back to its untapped position, then clarify that I'm still in main phase before casting the first Invigorate. He lets it resolve, so I quickly cast another one and do my best to bluff whatever facial expression I think would best communicate that I need this second Invigorate to resolve. I'm not sure if the charade worked, but he does end up casting Flusterstorm on the second Invigorate in fear of my last card being a Noble Hierarch, so I move to combat and swing with Blighted Agent and cast Berserk for lethal damage.

For what it's worth, I do feel he made the right decision in playing around Noble Hierarch rather than Berserk, as Infect typically plays more copies of the former than the latter.

Match 2-0, Record 1-0

After crossing "survive an Emrakul attack and win game" off of my bucket list, I spend the next 35 minutes watching the tables around me finish their matches. Some highlights include a quick mental run through of decks that play Plateau in legacy (just Zoo and Imperial Shortcake?). a discussion session on the merits of playing Blood Moon in U/B delver, and a feature match with T2 Brainstorm that was met with Spellstutter Sprite, followed by both players fighting over the Sprite with Force of Will. The Sprites won that match.

Round 2: Joann on U/B Faeries

I find myself paired against Joann in round 2, who I quickly realize is the one on U/B Faeries that I watched after my last round had ended. I saw Aether Vials, Chalice of the Voids, Spellstutter Sprites, Mutavaults, Vendilion Cliques, and Liliana of the Veil when she played so I had a reasonable idea of what kind of deck I was up against.

Game 1:
This is where the report starts to get a little hazy. I remember an Aether Vial, some Mutavaults, and several chump blockers hopping in the way of my exalted Glistener Elf for several turns. There might've also been a Liliana somewhere in there, but eventually I managed to bulldoze through the chump blockers and strike for ten over the next couple turns. I think Joann might've played this one a little too passively, often vialing in blockers and chumping with Spellstutter Sprites in order to respect the Glistener Elf. That said, she seemed to have realized her mistakes and proceeded to play a much cleaner game 2.

Sideboard:
-2 Daze
-1 Force of Will
-1 Glistener Elf
+1 Seal of Primordium
+1 Pithing Needle
+1 Viridian Corrupter
+1 Flusterstorm

Game 2:
This game got pretty ugly pretty fast. She leads with a turn 1 Duress off of a swamp and takes an Invigorate. I move to my turn and play a Noble Hierarch off of a Tropical Island, followed by a pass. She drops a Mutavault on turn two and casts a Bitterblossom, which I am unable to counter with Daze or Force of Will, then passes the turn. I play an Inkmoth Nexus on my turn and cast a Glistener Elf, which is traded away the following turn to a Mutavault. She drops an Underground Sea, passes back, and I probe to see Bitterblossom, Standstill, and Chalice of the Void in hand. I draw a Wasteland off of the probe, and use it on her Underground Sea to cut off her access to blue.

At this point, I'm holding a Force of Will, a blue card, a land, and a pair of Vines of Vastwood. I'm currently attacking with exalted Inkmoth every turn to keep the tokens at bay, so I figure that if the second Bitterblossom resolves there's no way I can outpace her with Inkmoth Nexus. She casts a Bitterblossom, and I cast a Force of Will on it. Unfortunately this clear the way for both Chalice and Standstill, and I bemoan my luck when she plays another Underground Sea and casts a Chalice on one with 3 lands in play and I top deck a Spell Pierce the following turn. Next turn, she casts Standstill and I manage to catch it with the Spell Pierce in hand (play to your outs kids). I'm feeling pretty good about this game as the Bitterblossom ticks her down to 10 life, but on the following turn she untaps and immediately plays another Mutavault into Standstill. With no counter magic in hand, I'm forced to let this one resolve on a board with two mutavaults and an active Bitterblossom.

In the next four turns, I draw 2 Inkmoths and a Pendelhaven. Pendelhaven lets me attack with multiple creatures per turn while pumping the creatures that get chumped block. Two poison at a time, we get there in the next couple of turns because I'm good at topdecking manlands against Standstill.

Match 2-0, Record 2-0

I do feel a little guilty about the last stretch of top decks, but ultimately U/B Faeries still feels like a favorable matchup as it's just a little too slow and lacking in removal to contest us. I'm fairly confident I could've taken a game 3 on the play, and I'm looking forward to playing this one again in the future.

Round 3: Adam on Four Color Delver (sans white)

Adam is a strong player, formerly on ANT but moved away from it to Delver during Eldrazi era and never really went back. I figure he's on one of the two as we sit down to do battle.

Game 1:
Again with the hazy recollection, I can't quite remember how this one went but I believe I was on the draw to kick things off. After seeing an early Delver and realizing he was on a tempo strategy, I played a land and passed, followed by a Noble Hierarch on turn 2 to play around Daze. This was how most of the game went, as I avoided tapping out to play things at the cost of taking 3 a turn from a flipped Delver. I make a move to Berserk the Delver to get it off the table, but I'm met with a Force of Will and continue to take 3 a turn. With a pair of Inkmoths in play, I eventually top deck a Pendelhaven, which lets me set up favorable blocks against Delver on the following turn if needed. I instead choose to race, and we take turns cracking in for 3 damage and 2 poison. Somewhere amidst this there's a Snapcaster Mage on bolt which I Force of Will. I make a mental note that letting the Berserk get countered was the right play.

A couple of turns later, I crack a fetch which takes me from 10 to 9 and he continues with Delver beats to bring me to 6. The game eventually gets to a state where he's at 8 poison and casts an end of turn Brainstorm with no cards in hand, and I respond by Crop Rotating away a Tropical Island to be left with one Tropical Island, 3 Inkmoths, and a Pendelhaven. He untaps, swings with Delver, and I chump block with Inkmoth to remain at 6 health. On my turn, I untap, drop a land, and fire up both Inkmoths to swing for lethal. He has to bolt one away, and I pump the other one to finish game 1.

Sideboard:
-2 Force of Will
-1 Daze
+1 Flusterstorm
+1 Hydroblast
+1 Surgical Extraction (This was probably bad?)

Game 2:
This one's also a bit hazy, but it goes by a little quicker. I manage to get in one point of poison with elf, but he taps out to cast Lightning Bolt to fry the elf. I let it resolve with a Daze in hand to A) cast Blighted Agent and play around Daze the following turn and to B) get more value out of the Daze at a later time. B pays off in a big way when I go for lethal with Invigorate Berserk on turn 4 while he has one mana open. Adam lets Invigorate resolve, but then casts a Spell Pierce on Berserk, which I Daze, and is forced to use Force of Will on the Berserk in order to stop lethal. At this point I have 3 Tropical Islands, two untapped, and an Inkmoth Nexus in play with a pair of Vines of Vastwood in hand. I opt to hold both Vines and not go for lethal, taking him up to 6 poison and passing the turn. It ends up not mattering as I go for it the turn after and he has no response to the first kicked Vines.

Match 2-0, Record 3-0

Adam is a great guy, but he hates my deck. If you're reading this Adam, I make no apologies.

3-0 ends up being enough to double draw into top 8, so I end up drawing round 4 with a Grixis Delver player and round 5 with an Eldrazi guy.

Record 3-0-2

In a comical turn of events I'm seeded 3rd into the top 8 with 2 good friends and we're all on the same side of the bracket. We end up scooping our friend Stephen all the way into the finals, as two of us had plans and had to leave and the other guy on our side of the bracket also had to take off. Stephen on Death and Taxes ends up against Eldrazi in the finals, and an hour later our group chat is met with this picture:



Overall the decklist felt really good, I'd forgotten how solid the consistency of the straight U/G build feels. Jace, Vryn's Prodigy was a fun experiment that ended up pulling out a clutch victory against Sneak and Show, but besides that I didn't see him anywhere. I do appreciate that he adds some grinding power to the deck, and he is another reason to not play white splash as he plays horribly with Rest in Peace.

The rest of the deck feels good as is, I'm really happy with main deck Flusterstorm and the Stifle comes and goes based on if people are expecting it. I'm not sure I'd change anything out of the maindeck other than swapping out a Misty Rainforest and a Windswept Heath for 2x Verdant Catacombs, but that's incredibly minor and more of a personal peeve than a legitimate deckbuilding critique. Sideboard changes with the meta, but as it is I think I'll probably try rocking the no white splash build for a couple of weekly tournaments to come.

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any questions/comments, apologies again for not quite remembering all of my matches (I really need a better note taking system).

[KingOfThePanda]

Congrats, Jesture. Sounds like you guys had a lot of fun. It's always nice when everyone who goes does good.

I want to try out Blazing Infect. I like the Idea that you can pump and win with 2-4 counters up. I'm not sure where to start though. Does anyone have any experience?

[Jesture]

Congrats, Jesture. Sounds like you guys had a lot of fun. It's always nice when everyone who goes does good.

I want to try out Blazing Infect. I like the Idea that you can pump and win with 2-4 counters up. I'm not sure where to start though. Does anyone have any experience?

I've goldfished the deck a couple of times, but Shoal Infect almost seems strictly worse than U/G Infect in today's day and age. Your combo turns do seem more potent with the Blazing Shoal setup, but what you make up for in power you're giving up in resilience and consistency. Think about the turns leading up to a kill with Infect. How many times does an opponent leave your threats on board unchecked? And when you do combo off, how often is it Invigorate + Berserk? How often is your kill 3 exalted hits and an Invigorate? Or 4 and a Berserk? 2 and a Become Immense? U/G Infect's pump spell suite gives us many, many options for game plans, and I feel a more fragile and streamlined combo variant would just be a worse A+B combo deck. Tempoing someone out when you have Progenitus and Blazing Shoal in hand seems like an incredibly difficult thing to do.

That said, if you really want to try it the latest versions I've seen are on 4 Progenitus, 4 Blazing Shoal, and 3 Natural Order to catch people off guard with Progenitus. Some lists used to play Cunning Wish, I guess that's for pump spells, counter magic, or a Searing Wind out of the board to pitch to Shoal.

[tescrin]

I'm considering trying rug out (swapping the singleton wasteland, singleton forest, and 4th Trop for 2-3 Volcs, and adjusting the fetches), and the reason is I remembered Reckless Charge
For the Charges, I was just going to cut the random 1-ofs of Tom Ross's list (since they will likely have nuance I won't understand anyway) and go for a streamlined bigger version.

I won't argue about it too much; but I'm gonna try it out next Thurs. My thinking:
* The haste clause gives you wins out of no where when an Opp is tapped out thinking that they have a couple turns.
* The Flashback is quite relevant as a way to re-boost later; and allows riskier combo turns
* Still a total of +6 out of a single card, making it good value per card

Cons:
* Sorcery speed -> you need Probe, Vines, or good hand knowledge (experience) to be able to use it well. I may convince myself against it
* Landbase becomes a little weaker to hate

I also am not a fan of singleton Ponder, so will probably shave other goofy 1-ofs to up consistency in the short term, if nothing else. I've looked at a few lists, but I'm mostly basing my talking points on the old 2015 Tom Ross list and then looked at other lists for tech advancements or card number averages. Going from memory, it'd look something like

-12-
4 Elf, Agent, Noble

-29-
4 Brainstorm
3 Ponder
1 Sylvan Library
3 Reckless Charge (should be 2, but I want to see it in testing, 3rd should be a Become Immense, Ponder, or Probe I imagine.)
4 Invigorate
2 Berserk
3 Vines of Vastwood
3 Daze
3 Force of Will
2 Spell Pierce
2 Gitaxian Probe

-19-
4 Inkmoth
3 Volcs
3 Trops
8 fetch
1 Pendle

I may shave the third ponder for a second Library or a utility card. Thanks for any thoughts on the card

[Neffy]

Reckless looks cool, but the problem with the mana base is mostly that will have a hard time casting any green spells with the volcs. opening volc + inkmoth and noble, elf, invigorate, berserk, is just sad.

I think that is where the deck falls short. So if any, you should be running taiga?

[tescrin]

Interesting; maybe I should swap the three volcs to 1 volc, 1 taiga, 1 forest? The fetches would be Wooded Foothills and Misty (that will allow a grab of any dual and the forest if I include it)

I am inexperienced with this deck, so I am beginning to see that it seems green is as important in this deck as GB is in DRS decks, since not casting your ramper is a big deal? If I find a copy of Become Immense i'll probably put that in the third Reckless slot.

I do like the idea of the couple extra ponders; though I've been reading more and can see that Crop Rotation and it's 1-ofs are pretty nifty so I'll likely eventually convert there too.


I know that people say it has a good miracles matchup; and I've seen it play out.. but I still don't get why. is it basically just that Inkmoth is a beast and Invigorate/Become-Immense are hard to counter?

EDIT: I haven't been goldfishing yet since I'm waiting on (of all things) the Elf and Agent.. else I imagine I would've ran into the noble issue you mentioned

I was also thinking the inclusion of red allows REBs and sweeper options; which I could see being a boon.

Dumb as it sounds; looking at my sig Ghor-Clan Rampager could be worth considering. Difficult to counter [requires stifle], gives Trample (meaning you have more outs than Berserk), and is "instant speed" [sort of.] If I have success with Charge I may move towards testing GCR too.

[EJexpresss]

Interesting; maybe I should swap the three volcs to 1 volc, 1 taiga, 1 forest? The fetches would be Wooded Foothills and Misty (that will allow a grab of any dual and the forest if I include it)

I think that's a wise change -- the deck can very green-hungry. Your best t1 plays are G, you can't free-cast Invigorate without a forest (so it's v. nice to have an un-wasteable one), and you need GGG for kicked Vines + Berserk. On the other hand, you want enough islands that Daze is live (or at least so your opponent has to worry about it). I'm skeptical of how well this will work due to those mana pressures, but one suggestion might be to swap the Vines for Blossoming Defense -- less upside but lower mana requirements. Glad to see some new ideas -- let us know how your testing goes!

EDIT: w/r/t miracles, it's considered a good matchup b/c miracles has to respect your ability to just kill them in the early turns if they stumble, which limits the hands they can keep, but at the same time they can easily lose a grindy game, which limits how far they can mulligan. On top of that, Git Probe lets you learn their gameplan and act accordingly. That said, it's a very skill-intensive match on both sides -- it took a lot of practice before I felt comfortable vs. skilled pilots.

[raulrubio]

This weekend I played 3 legacy events of the GP Barcelona with this list:


4 tropical island
1 forest
1 tundra
4 misty rainforest
4 windswept health
1 flooded strand
4 inkmoth nexus
1 pendelhaven

4 noble hierarch
4 glistener elf
4 blightened agent

4 brainstorm
4 ponder
4 force of will
3 flusterstorm
3 berserk
4 invigorate
3 vines of vastwood
1 blossoming defense
2 become immense

---

2 meddling mage
2 null rod
1 pithing needle
2 surgical extraction
1 rest in peace
1 necropede
3 krosan grip
1 echoing truth
1 invasive surgery
1 spellskite

The list is the same that was posted days ago but with little changes:

-1 vines, +1 blossoming : this change is better than I think before the tournament because in a lot of matches you don't have a lot of mana to pay the kicker of the vines and the +2/+2 of the blossoming with other bump (invigorate, pendelhaven, hierarch) do more damage thatn the vines... and 1 copy is not bad because, really that the +4/+4 is better but in this legacy list maybe is better use 1 mana only to have the other mana for berserk or fluster.

-2 absolute law, +1 spellskite, +1 invasive surgery : this change is because I didn't have the absolute law to the tournament and in the stores of the GP hadn't that card. Hopefully I was the card because I played with a lot of burn decks and bolt decks... -.-


My results was good:

Tournament 1: 4-0 played with jund, miracles, shardless BUG and BG dark depths

Tournament 2: 3-1 played with 2 D&T (lose 1 D&T), burn and miracles

Tournament 3: 3-1 played with RB reanimator (lose), WUR blade, burn and dredge


I will play more this deck and I'm considering to do a little changes.

[Terrene]

Last weekend I played UG Infect to a 2nd place finish at Fire and Dice’s Legacy Staples event.
First off, this was the list I ran: http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=14900&d=289906&f=LE

This list is relatively stock, except for the mainboard Flusterstorm and Stifle. I apologize for the lack of detail as this is all from memory.

Round 1: Andrew on MUD

Game 1:

He wins the die roll and stars with a Cloudpost. I kept a pretty slow land heavy hand with Noble Hierarch and Brainstorm, but no infect creature. I lead with Noble Hierarch, and he plays a turn 2 chalice for one. I have no countermagic for the chalice and fail to draw anything relevant. He gets out a Lightning Greaves, then a Metalworker, and finally a Platinum Angel before I scoop.
I believe I bring in the Nature’s Claim, Krosan Grip, Null Rod, Force of Will and Viridian Corrupter.

Game 2:

My memory is pretty hazy this match. I Force of Will his turn 2 Trinishpere. Stick a Blighted Agent with a Noble Hierarch in play. My hand contains two copies Vines of Vastwood, Become Immense and some other arbitrary cards. I attack for 2 poison, and he plays a turn 3 Chalice for 1. During his end step, I cast Vines that gets countered by his Chalice, and as I proceed to untap and go through the motions of casting Become Immense, he scoops.

Game 3:

My hand is pretty unimpressive, but it has countermagic for the turn 1 Chalice I’m hoping to dodge. He doesn’t have it. Andrew starts with a Sol Land, followed by Grim Monolith that I choose to let resolve. I believe he tries to put a Chalice or a Trinishpere in play with the monolith, but I counter it with my Force. My first draw of the game is a Null Rod. I play a land, Noble Hierarch and pass. Andrew puts in a Metalworker. I respond with my null rod, and he’s forced to start attacking with the metalworker. I play my Blighted Agent and pass. Andrew puts down a Ratchet Bomb, and I have a heart attack, thinking that he could take care of both the agent and the null rod with it. Andrew puts down a second Metalworker, and my Blighted Agent backed up with multiple Invigorates gets me the game and match.

Round 2: Ivan on Belcher

I’m paired against my friend and carpool on Belcher. During the car ride, I asked him what spells I should counter when playing against him so I’m somewhat prepared for the matchup. Additionally, during the first round we discussed stifling the storm trigger on Empty the Warrens.

Game 1:

I win the die roll. My hand is extremely weak, but I have my mainboard Flusterstorm in my opener. I take a gamble and keep the hand. I believe Ivan mulls to 6. I play land and pass. He starts with Land Grant. I’ve seen him goldfish the deck enough times to determine what he’s planning to do with the hand, and I let the land grant resolve. Important things to note, he has both Goblin Charbelcher and Empty the Warrens in hand. He doesn’t have enough mana or cantrips to draw him into more mana, and is forced to go off with Empty the Warrens. My Flusterstorm wins me game 1.
I remember boarding in the second Flusterstorm and the Force of Will.

Game 2:

Ivan starts on Elvish Spirit Guide into Xantid Swarm. I keep my hand on the merit of a Stifle and some countermagic. I believe the counterspell was a Daze or a Flusterstorm. Ivan attacks with the Xantid Swarm, and I Stifle the trigger. I play a Noble Hierarch, Ivan attacks with the Xantid Swarm again and this time I Berserk the Swarm before damage. I hope he doesn’t have what it takes to go off, and he passes turn. At this point, I know I need to kill him as quickly as possible I play Glistener Elf as my threat, and Ivan responds with a Tinder wall. At this point, I would like to point out that this belcher deck is all foil and/or foreign. Anything that isn’t foil is foreign. This tinder wall is in Japanese. At this point in the game, I thought tinder wall only had one ability, and that was to add RR to the mana pool. I attack with the Glistener Elf pumped by the exalted trigger from the Noble Hierarch. Ivan blocks with the tinder wall, I use my Invigorate, and he responds by dealing 2 damage to the Glistener Elf. Ouch. We play draw go for a couple of turns, and I draw and cast a blighted agent. Ivan tries going off with a wished Past in Flames, but is forced to wish for a Pyroclasm instead of a kill because he lacks the mana to end the game that turn. I eventually draw another Glistener Elf, and close out the game in a few turns.

Match 3: Todd UR Delver

Todd starts with Volcanic Island into Swiftspear, and Dazes my Glistener Elf. I fail to draw another land for a couple of turns, despite casting the Brainstorm in my hand and the die un-spectacularly.

Game 2:

My first Glistener Elf eats a Chain Lightning despite me having the means to counter it. Just a momentary brain fart and I fear that this moment has cost me the match. Todd sticks a swiftspear and a delver that flips, and I stick a Glistener Elf with protection up. Todd casts a Gitaxian Probe and sees that I have Invigorate and Become Immense in hand, and attacks with both creatures and taps out. I probe back, see that his hand is just lands, attack, cast Invigorate and Become Immense and take the game. It turns out that he thought Become Immense cost 7G and thought I didn’t have the means to cast it.

Game 3:

I cast a threat that stays alive, it goes unblocked, and cast triple Invigorate to end the game.

Match 4: Adam on Miracles

Game 1:

I win the die roll, and keep a hand that has two copies of spell pierce. I drop a card from my hand under the table, and in my attempt to retrieve it, drop one of my two copies of pierce. I don’t remember much about this match other than I lose a counter magic battle over a Terminus because I’m missing that copy, and in a few later turns discover it on the floor next to me. Somehow I win this game. I believe it was off the merit of Inkmoth Nexus.

Game 2:

I remember Adam casting a Sensei’s Top turn 1, Ponder turn 2, and casting a Snapcaster Mage into Ponder turn 3. I sense that his hand is weak because of the Snapcaster play. I attack with a Glistener Elf and Pendelhaven takes care of the Snapcaster Mage Blocking it. I cast probe and see that his hand has a Blood Moon but no Swords to Plowshares. This Blood Moon turns off my Pendelhaven, and Inkmoth Nexus. I play a Wooded Foothills with the intent to fetch for a basic Forest. In my hand is an Invigorate, but he’s not at enough poison to go for the kill. Adam takes his turn, casts the Blood Moon, and I respond by fetching for a basic Forest. He leaves a basic Plains untapped with a top in play. I take my turn, topdeck a timely Berserk, and go for the Invigorate and Berserk kill. He spins top, sees nothing and I take the match.

Match 5: ID with William on Sultai Delver

Match 6: ID with Trevor on Miracles

Quarterfinals: William on Sultai Delver

At this point we’re allowed to look at decklists and I notice that William has no mainboard way to answer an Inkmoth Nexus that isn't a Wasteland.

Game 1:

I’m on the play as I’m the higher seed. William starts with a Deathrite Shaman, casts 2 Hymn to Tourach, and Wastelands me multiple times. He sticks a Delver that flips and doesn’t attack with it as I have an Inkmoth Nexus in play. I’m prepared to trade an Invigorate for the Delver, but when I go to attack, he doesn’t block. Multiple pump spells on the unblocked Inkmoth Nexus takes the game.

Game 2:

I’m unsure of much of how the second game went, but I remember letting at least 1 hymn resolve. I remember attacking for a small amount, 1-2 poison that went unblocked, and to my opponents surprise, pump spells ended the game in a timely fashion.

Semifnals: Alex on Elves

The match can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yJD5uSCZMw

Stifle is awesome. I sideboard what I believe to be incorrectly, despite having decklists. I did not bring in the second crop rotation, or the Karakas.

Finals: Chris on BR Reanimator

Match can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwVO9HW56QU

This matchup felt horrendous. I kept hands based on the merit of either countermagic, or the possibility of a turn 2 or 3 kill if my opponent didn’t have it. In game 2, I forgot about the Sire of Insanity trigger, and when my opponent noted it, I discarded my Crop Rotation instead of casting it, forgetting that I could have responded to the trigger.

Overall, I would say I ran pretty hot that day. I drew extremely well, and dodged a lot of bad matchups. How would you guys address the BR reanimator matchup? Should I be mulliganing aggressively? Should we splash white? Splashing white for Rest in Peace might be too slow.

Thanks for reading!

[Jesture]

Hey Terrene, congrats on your tournament finish. Thanks for taking the time to write up this tournament report, it's always interesting to get a look at how other people pilot this deck.

In regards to the B/R Reanimator matchup, I'd say your best bet is to just mulligan really aggressively for interaction. Even if you're going down to 6 or 5 cards, our deck has more cantrips and redundancy, which lets us rebuild more quickly.

From the footage, it looked like you kept 1x Daze hands both games, which is rarely going to be enough to stop them from comboing off. It's also probably better to run something else into the Chancellor G2, as the hand you had looked far too slow to race, putting you on the back foot and playing defense by digging for counter magic. I'd say play the Elf/Hierarch based on the rest of your hand (probably Hierarch there), then cast Probe to dig one card deeper and so you know exactly what needs to be Dazed (ie. he casts Dark Ritual, you can let it resolve if you know he's going to go Entomb => Exhume.)

As far as the white splash is concerned, bring in Swords to Plowshares if you have it but don't count on it saving your life, as you're in a pretty bad spot if your opponent draws 14 cards off of Griselbrand in response. You're right in that Rest in Peace is often too slow, but if you're playing it for other matchups (Lands, Tarmogoyf/Deathrite decks) I'd definitely bring it in here as well. For now, your 2x Surgical Extraction combined with your suite of counter spells should be enough to deal with B/R Reanimator post board.

[Hrothgar]

Hi Terrene, congrats for result.
I've seen your video and imho you have make 2 great mistakes:

- you have not play invigorate when Elf is not blocked;
- you have no play Crop rotation on Sire trigger.

This 2 mistake cost you the game imho, because if you pump your opponent, he goes at 8 infect and with Crop for Nexus the game is in your favor with 3 creatures.

By the way the BR Reanimator is a shitting matchup for many deck.
I don't think who White splash is right in Infect.

By the 15's:

You can Crop on Bojuka.
You can play up to 3 Surgical Extraction if this matchup and other matchup like Lands, ANT, Dredge are common in your meta.
If you play Karakas in side, you can Crop for her.
Needle vs Griselbrand is not the great card ever you can play but is not bad.
Flusterstorm is very nice not only for counter, but also for limit his mana curve, just a Tempo play sometimes vs BR, is the victory.
Viridian is good vs Animate Dead, but I'm not sure about his inclusion (and the inclusion of Krosan Grip, sincerely).
In last analisys, if you play 3x Force of Will main deck, You can add the 4th from the 15 to the 60.

I hope you can fine some ideas in this words.