Instant (22)
Land (20)
Creature (14)
Sorcery (4)
Sideboard
Instant (8)
Land (1)
Maybeboard
Instant (4)
Creature (6)
Artifact (3)
My Infect deck is finally Compleat!
Thanks in advance for your thoughts and suggestions!
MAINDECK
Land
- 2x Breeding Pool, 2x Forest, 4x Inkmoth Nexus, 2x Pendelhaven: No surprises here ... you'd expect to see these in any serious UG Infect deck.
- 10x Green Fetches: To fuel Delve for Become Immense.
Creatures
- 4x Blighted Agent, 4x Glistener Elf, and 4x Noble Hierarch: No surprises here ... you'd expect these as a four-of in any serious UG Infect deck.
- 2x Spellskite: Great protection against removal and Creature decks. I've 'pre-boarded' two for removal-heavy and go-wide match-ups.
Spells
- 1x Apostle's Blessing: Does serious work against most decks, granting both protection and Unblockable-ish.
- 3x Become Immense: BI is an absurdly powerful pump spell, and it's just almost worth running a full playset. But with 4x I end up with two in my opening hand more than I prefer, so I'm running it as a three-of.
- 4x Blossoming Defense: Superb protection, especially during an attack. Running it as a four-of due to all the Removal currently in the format.
- 1x Dismember: Pre-boarded as a one-of vs. Creature decks.
- 1x Distortion Strike: Pump, Unblockable, and Rebound? Yeah, I'll take some of that!
- 4x Might of Old Krosa and 4x Vines of Vastwood: No surprises here ... you'd expect these as a four-of in any serious UG Infect deck.
- 4x Mutagenic Growth: I like this as a four-of in the main, because it enables so many quick wins in Game 1.
- 3x Serum Visions: I'm just always happy to see this card. Running it as a three-of due to all the Hand Disruption currently in the format.
- 1x Spell Pierce: Sure, it's a very conditional counterspell. But it's really good.
SIDEBOARD:
- 2x Dismember: The rest of my three-of. Especially good vs. Abzan Company, for Melira, Sylvok Outcast.
- 1x Distortion Strike: The rest of my two-of.
- 1x Dryad Arbor vs. Zoo decks mostly, though also bring it in for the extra mana with Wild Defiance and Kitchen Finks. It's especially nice to be able to Fetch a Creature when I need to chump block or sac' something to a Lili.
- 1x Grafdigger's Cage:
- 1x Kitchen Finks vs. Naya Burn.
- 2x Seal of Primordium vs. pesky Artifacts and Enchantments.
- 2x Spell Pierce: The rest of my three-of.
- 2x Surgical Extraction vs. Burn, Control, and Graveyard decks. Like Probe used to, Extraction fuels Delve for Become Immense and gains us a ton of information. But it also stops every Lightning Bolt/Thoughtseize/whatever after the first, blanks Snapcaster Mage's Flashback ability, nerfs Tarmagoyf, and generally messes with Graveyard decks (e.g., it's great against the Death's Shadow deck running Renegade Rallier and Liliana, the Last Hope).
- 2x Twisted Image vs. Affinity, Eldrazi Tron, and the Mirror ... anyone likely to have Spellskite post-board.
- 1x Wild Defiance: In a slower game, this card is just insane. Also gets around Chalice of the Void.
MAYBEBOARD
- 1x more Grafdigger's Cage or 1-2x Relic of Progenitus: These cards compete with Surgical Extraction for space in my sideboard.
- 1-4x Ichorclaw Myr: Because the best way to deal with all the Hand Disruption and Removal in the format may just be more Creatures.
- 1-2x more Kitchen Finks: I'd love to have a couple more of these in my sideboard.
- 1-2x Nature's Way: is kind of expensive, but the ability to Poison opposing Creatures painlessly is almost priceless.
- 1-2x Noxious Revival: For heavy removal and hand disruption.
- 1x more Spell Pierce: I'd love to have four in my 75.
- 1x Sylvan Scrying: Inkmoth Nexus #5
These are all cards I've tested and like, but they just don't have a home in the deck at this time:
- 1-2x Birds of Paradise: Birds isn't fetchable (unlike Dryad Arbor), but it's a more versatile blocker and I love the ability to generate any color (e.g., for Dismember). Plus it's often the target of early-game removal that would otherwise go to an Infector. I would run it for sure if I had more high-mana spells (e.g., more Wild Defiance). Kudos to Emma Handy, who was the first I know to recommend Birds for post-Probe Infect, in this article (list at the very bottom) over at StarCityGames.
- 1-2x Botanical Sanctum: Non-fetchable, so does nothing to fuel Become Immense. Still, I appreciate it as a budget option, and it's solid vs. Merfolk (as Breeding Pool allows Islandwalk).
- 2x Ceremonious Rejection: Solid vs. Affinity and Eldrazi.
- 2x Dispel: Nice vs. Control and the Mirror, though it's rare to actually win the stack war vs. Control.
- 2-3x Groundswell: With 10x Fetches in the deck, this is a GREAT pump spell. However, I prefer Mutagenic Growth because of the lightning-fast wins it enables.
- 2x Gutshot: Solid vs. Affinity and the Mirror.
- 2x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
: I REALLY like this card in Infect, but I've found Spellskite to be just a little bit better. Like Probe used to, Jace fuels Delve for Become Immense and provides some card advantage. But Jace also blocks and attacks for conventional damage when needed, nerfs opposing Creatures (or your own, when you need to sneak under an Ensnaring Bridge), and casts Instants and Sorceries from the Graveyard. Perhaps most importantly though, he seems to draw a ton of hate from opponents, soaking up Hand Disruption, Removal, and Burn spells that would have otherwise gone to Infectors or my face. - 1-2x Livewire Lash: The repeatable ability to Poison opposing players and Creatures is fun, but to cast and to Equip is just too expensive. Maybe in a grindier shell ...
- 1x Nature's Claim: I love the low cost. Too bad it's horrible against Chalice of the Void when X=1.
- 1x Pithing Needle: I love this card, but it rewards deep knowledge of the format ... I am frankly too new to Modern to use it effectively.
- 1-2x Pulse of Murasa: The card is amazing when behind ... it can absolutely pull a victory from the jaws of defeat. But I believe the slot is better used for something that would prevent getting behind in the first place.
- 2x Slip Through Space: I prefer the pump and Rebound effect of Distortion Strike.
- 1-3x Telepathy: It tends to eat counterspells, so that's maybe a good thing if there's a ton of Control in your meta. But in all other cases it didn't really do anything ... knowing an opponent has a spell doesn't stop them from playing it.
- 1x Tezzeret's Gambit: This is an amazing way to pick up that last point of Infect damage, and it's an absolute joy to cast on an opponent's Chalice of the Void. But it's just too hard to cast.
- 2-3x Thought Scour: It seems like this would be really good with Become Immense but I was surprisingly underwhelmed in testing.
- 1x Viridian Corrupter: I started with the Corrupter in mainboard, then moved it to the side, and have now pulled it entirely. I love the fact it can survive -1/-1 effects on its own and is Bolt-proof with only a Mutagenic Growth. But I'd rather use the slot for protection (e.g., Spellskite or Dispel) than for another Infector. Also, its 'destroy target artifact' effect is not really a selling point, as it's more expensive and less versatile than Seal of Primordium.
Shout-outs to ...
- All the people who have brewed competitive Infect decks in the post-Probe era (please see Infect.dec for a rolling list).
- Steven Henderson, who took a Spellskite- and Wild Defiance-heavy deck to 17th place at GP Vancouver. Here's his AMA on the deck from r/infect.
- Everyone who contributed to the Infect without Gitaxian Probe thread here on T/O and the Thoughts on The Boss' new list? discussion from r/infect.
- Andrew Jessup, for his Modern Infect Primer and his follow-on article, Who needs Probe?, over at GatheringMagic.
- Alex Roach, for Counting to 10: A Guide to Infect.
- Everyone responsible for the great UG Infect content over at ChannelFireball.
- The brewers of my favorite Infect decks (so far!) here on T/O.
- michael921, for his always-amazing suggestions and advice.
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And finally, please +1 Upvote this deck if you like it :-)
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| Date added | 7 years |
| Last updated | 5 years |
| Legality | This deck is Modern legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 24 - 4 Rares 16 - 7 Uncommons 18 - 4 Commons |
| Cards | 60 |
| Avg. CMC | 1.60 |
| Folders | Infect, Infect, test_opponents, Cool decks, Decks I Like, >> Modern Archive << |
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