Faces of Infect

Hello there! Welcome back to another episode of my quest to make Infect an insane deck. In past episodes we have seen the hype and eventual failing of 2 different infect decks. These decks attacked from incredibly different angles, and there are still more angles to be explored, so let's go!

The 2 decks I raved about in the past were the mono-green infect deck that won by using Giant Growth effects on an unblocked creature and a UB control deck that won with control magic, proliferating, and Skittles. Both had many flaws, probably from lack of testing and refining before I tried them out in an FNM. Mono-Green was too reliant on having a nut draw. Even if it did nut draw, if my opponent had played a t1 Khalni Garden (or worse t2 Wall of Omens), I typically was slowed down too much to get a single attacker through. UB Control was far better, but I ran too much beatdown and not enough control, which made the deck have to synergistic purpose and basically lost to it's own confusion. I believe the UB version is currently the more powerful one, and I plan on running it again soon, now that I have cut 4x Plague Stinger and 1x Ichor Rats for 2x Counterspells, 2x Removal, and 1x Skittles.

But enough about refining decks, I read an awesome article on SCG today that has some breakout tech for a green infect deck: Gigantiform. Who needs pump spells when anything is an 8/8? Who cares about Walls and Plant Tokens when you have trample? When you are being aggressive, you can probably get a poison counter or 2 on by turn 5. The problem that mono-green had was that there was no late-game plan after turn 3. Gigantiform lets you play just as aggressivly because you know you can blow your opponent out in the late game. I think this deck can profitibly go BG and use all of the epic poison bombs from Putrafax to Skittles to Gigantiform to Hand of Praetors. Here is the decklist:

4x Putrafax
4x Skittles
4x Hand of Praetors
3x Canopy Cover
4x Ichorclaw Myr
4x Cystbearer

3x Doom Blade
3x Contagion Clasp
4x Gigantiform
4x Inquisition of Kozelik

4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Turntimber Grove
3x Terramorphic Expanse
4x Forest
8x Swamp

There are a couple interesting card choices aside from the Gigantiform that I want to address. The first is the 4 Turntimber Grove. If you knew what this card does without having to look up Gatherer, you must be drafting Zendikar still on the side from time to time. I completely forgot about this card until I read about it in Bernie's article. I remember reading in the Mothership's Building on a Budget column a deck that was basically my mono-green infect/nut draw deck which also ran 4x Teetering Peaks to act as a bonus pump spell to help combo out turn 3 or 4. This deck is 2 colors, so I don't want to waste land slots if possible, but Grove gives a nice light pump that is always welcome.

Another card that may not make much sense initially is the 4x Inquisition of Kozelik. Normally this card resides in UB control as a way to get rid of a counterspell, Baby Jace, or get important information on the matchup. However, in this case we want it as a way to take out a Sea Gate Oracle, a Plated Geopede, or a Wall of Omens. By delaying our opponent's board presence we can gain an insane advatage with our low drops. Should we get hit with Day of Judgement, Consume the Meek, or Pyroclasm we can blast back with Putrafax and Skittles and finish the game right out (and yeah we do have a Contagion Clasp to get there if necessary).

So here are our faces of infect:
Combo/Nut Draw: Mono Green Pump Spells
Aggro: BG Beatdown (above)
Control: UB Phyrexian Control

I'm sure soon will come with due time, but I think going forward, Wizards is going to push Infect as an aggressive beatdown deck. As it is, UB Phyrexian Control is UB Control played by Guillaume(s) with a different finisher. As for the Combo/Nut draw.... Yeah I'm not going to ever play that again. Well, while we are on the topic of the nut draw, we can just go for the ultimate 5-card legacy nut draw that will make you win on T2:

Forest
Lotus Petal
Ichorclaw Myr
Invigorate
Beserk

Basically just play Ichorclaw Myr on T1 with Forest, Lotus Petal. Then you attack, pump with Invigorate, making the Myr a 5/5, then you double its power with Beserk, bash with your 10/5 infect and win. If your opponent has a blocker with less than 3 toughness you still win because of Ichorclaw's +2/+2 when blocked clause. Yeah! Phyrexia can rock Legacy too!

Until next time, All Will Be One! and stay classy