Counting to 10 in Legacy

Hello everyone!

Legacy infect is a deck that has been talked about a lot, but has never really become a thing. As a part of my quest to make everything playable, I have decided to turn my lens over to infect. Recently I have been giving lessons to some guys on my floor, and one of the things I start with is consistency and power. Power is basically, "what is the most powerful things your deck can do?" For infect that's a mulligan to 4 that wins on turn 2. Then the second part asks about consistency. Can your deck reliably get all the pieces together quickly enough? Can your deck fight through disruption? I think infect may actually be able to do those things too! Here's the list I'm currently on:

4x Noble Hierarch
4x Blighted Agent
4x Glistener Elf

1x Crop Rotation
4x Brainstorm
4x Gitaxian Probe
3x Ponder
4x Daze

3x Vines of Vastwood
4x Might of Old Krosa
3x Berserk
4x Invigorate

4x Inkmoth Nexus
4x Misty Rainforest
1x Polluted Delta
4x Tropical Island
2x Pendelhaven
3x Centaur Garden

Sideboard:
3x Tormod's Crypt
4x Chain of Vapor
3x Tezzeret's Gambit
3x Force of Will
2x Ranger's Guile

I took this deck (-3 Tezzeret's Gambit +3 Leyline of Sactity) into an online Legacy 8-man, and by golly I won the whole thing! It was a legitimate win too, I wasn't playing against something like Kobolds combo anywhere. I played against Bant, BUG Deathrite, and Junk in that order, so there was A LOT of Tarmogoyf!  It's a good thing this deck doesn't care about Tarmogoyf, otherwise I would have been bringing a knife to the gun fight as I saw 2 or 3 other Tarmogoyf decks while watching other games!

Here's a breakdown of the deck:

Dudes:
Glistener Elf - This is actually your worst infect dude because she doesn't have any evasion. It does only cost 1 mana though, and gives you a ton of game against the likes of Show and Tell or Storm by allowing the turn 2 kills to happen.

Blighted Agent - This is fantastic because your mana isn't tied up every turn and he will not be blocked. However, this guy dies to all kinds of removal including things like Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Supreme Verdict

Inkmoth Nexus - While not completely unblockable, the lack of playable flying creatures (Delver, Vendilion, ...?) effectively makes this so. Abrupt Decay has seen a spike in play recently, especially in the BUG Deathrite Shaman deck, but Abrupt Decay can't hit lands so Inkmoth gains a lot of value. Dodging sorcery speed removal is awesome too, but the tradeoff is it can die to Wasteland, and it can tie up your mana a lot.

Noble Hierarch - When I saw this in Ari Lax's modern infect deck from the Pro Tour, I was skeptical, but in testing Hierarch is insane! This deck is so fast that it doesn't have enough time to hit enough lands drops to play out the whole hand, so doubling up on mana turn 1 is a huge help! The Exalted is another major boost as it allows you to play fair much better.

Pump:
Invigorate - This is your best pump spell. Life doesn't matter when you're killing in poison counters, so this is a 0 mana +4/+4. Simple, clean, elegant.

Might of Old Krosa - This is usually the first card to get sideboarded out in any matchup that plays creatures. Showing your hand and committing a creature to a pump spell during your main phase has a significant cost attached, but it very good on the Blighted Agent and Inkmoth Nexus

Berserk - Playing Berserk after an Invigorate or a Might of Old Krosa makes a perfect 10. Besides that, the card is fairly bad which is why we only play 3. Having to sacrifice your guy at the end of turn is a significant disadvantage to the card, so use it only when winning.

Pendalhaven - This card is awesome! Like Noble Hierarch, it helps you push through incremental damage over the course of a couple turns and apply significant pressure on the opponent.

Centaur Garden - In an effort to stuff as much possible value in the deck as we can, we take a page out of Dredge's book. In my experience I find it is actually relatively difficult to accumulate 7 cards in your graveyard to activate the Garden, but it has also been integral for a couple grindy wins, so overall I have been pleased with it.

Other Spells:
Crop Rotation - This card has always been decent for me, but never insane. It offers you some Wasteland protection, it helps you get Threshold for Centaur Garden, it shuffles post-Brainstorm, and can tutor for an Inkmoth when in need. It's important to remember with Crop Rotation that you sacrifice the land before putting the spell on the stack so counterspells REALLY ruin your day!

Brainstorm - We're a blue combo deck with 7 fetch lands and Crop Rotation, obv playing best card in Legacy

Ponder - Like Brainstorm, we just want to find combo pieces and get there

Gitaxian Probe - Every combo player's best friend! This simply leaves nothing to the imagination and allow you to sculpt your game plan based on what they have.

Daze - A common mistake people make when building combo decks is to not have enough interaction with the opponent. That's why Belcher has never won anything and probably never will. We too are trying to ignore the opponent as much as possible, but Daze is simply to good to not have. Dazing your opponent's game plan, be it a Tarmogoyf or Jace is sweet, but Daze will also help you push pump spells through your opponent's disruption.

Vines of Vastwood - The primary responsibility of this card is to make a creature Hexproof and save it from a Swords to Plowshares/Abrupt Decay. The kicker is just gravy, but essential to remember. In the final game of the 8 man I was down to just a Vines in Hand because he had a Liliana of the Veil. He was at 1 Infect and I had a Blighted Agent in play. I topdecked a second Vines and was able to kick two of them to get in for the game!

Lands:
I decided that I really didn't want to have any basic lands in the deck because I felt there simply wasn't space or need. Usually people will try to save their Wastelands for your Inkmoth Nexus, which allow us to cast our cantrips and ignore the Waste.

Sideboard:
Tormod's Crypt - because Dredge is a bitch

Chain of Vapor - This is designed to be a catch-all for cards like Moat, Umezawa's Jitte, and other random goodies.Simple and straightforward, but I have been very pleased with it

Tezzeret's Gambit - This isn't tested, but it feels decent in theory. Basically I want to answer Thoughtseize and Hymn to Tourach by ignoring them, recouping my hand, and then just killing them anyways. I played Leyline of Sanctity in the 8-man, but never wanted to bring it in.

Force of Will - We have a very low blue count (19 in the main) so Force isn't the most reliable spell however in the matchups we want it, we want it BAD

Ranger's Guile - This is to back up Vines of Vastwood to help grind through a wall of removal. I went with a second Ranger's Guile over a fourth Vines because games with tons of removal are far grindier and we may only have 1 mana, so I want to get the extra point of power when I can.

I have been very pleased with this deck in testing, and reccommend it if you're looking for a combo deck no one is prepared for. Like I said, the decks I beat in the 8 man were Bant, BUG, and Junk all of which pack tons of disruption. Cards I had to fight through include: Swords to Plowshares, Daze, Force of Will, Abrupt Decay, Darkblast, Inquisition of Kozelik, and Liliana of the Veil. I feel this is a perfect sample to show the resiliency and power of the deck, two essential qualities of a good deck for Legacy.

When it comes to playing the deck, I find the best approach is to be slightly conservative. Obviously when your opponent plays a turn 1 Aether Vial off a mountain you can just dump your hand and go all-in, but unless you know exactly what you're up against, there's no need to get blown out. The deck can kill out of nowhere so feel free to take the extra turn and make sure you actually have a window of opportunity. In general a turn 1 Noble Hierarch is better than a turn 1 Glistener Elf, and a hand without an infect guy is basically unkeepable.

This has been a very fun deck to play, and I think it may have legs to be a fully competitive deck in the metagame! That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack