Infectious Inquiry

Sorcery

You draw two cards and you lose 2 life. Each opponent gets a poison counter.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Brawl	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Pre-release	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Standard	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (9)

HeavenlyAxe on

1 month ago

Hey Indie,

First off I really like the lands you have assembled and the suggestions from SufferFromEDHD are all good.

You are definitely going to want an artifact ramp package.

Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone, Gilded Lotus, Thran Dynamo

Special Mention to Nyx Lotus, it could be good being in mono black. and Jeweled Lotus, pays for your commander for free on turn 1 even.

Sword of the Animist is not bad ramp at all and buffs yours rats

Commander's Plate might be cute.

Liliana of the Dark Realms, makes sure you always get a land drop and could make your swamps tap for four.

Chittering Witch if your playing with more opponents.

Crypt Ghast is sort of ramp, but doubles your swamps. Very good in mono black.

Dauthi Voidwalker is not on theme at all but is just sooo much value in a two cost card I have to recommend it.

God-Eternal Bontu is excellent draw power in the right situation.

Dont forget you can run any number of Relentless Rats

Gray Merchant of Asphodel will heal you up a lot and hurt your opponents

Krav, the Unredeemed is also great card draw.

Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, has card draw, removal, and proliferate all on one card

Deadly Rollick, potentially free removal

Defile, cheap good removal

Thrilling Encore saves you from a board wipe or lets you bring everything back after sacrificing it all to like God-Eternal Bontu

Phyrexian Arena some ok card draw.

Bojuka Bog if you are worried about graveyards

Mutilate, a good board wipe in mono black

Night's Whisper, Read the Bones, Sign in Blood, are a great draw package for mono black

Toxic Deluge a great board wipe for when things need resetting, and you could follow with Thrilling Encore and get it all back

Syphon Mind is great draw if your playing with more players

Victimize - is really really strong, get rid of one weak thing for two of your best things

Yawgmoth's Will - lets you treat your graveyard like your hand for a turn

Lord Skitter, Sewer King makes rats

Marrow-Gnawer - lets you make lots of rats

Infectious Inquiry - good draw and gives poison

Ogre Slumlord - makes rats when your creatures or your opponents creatures die.

Tangled Colony - if your opponent has to block it or it dies to like Blasphemous Act will make you rats

Vraska's Fall removal and poison counter

Drown in Ichor removal and poison

Bontu's Monument all your creatures cost less

Rat Colony can have any number and they buff themselves, and cost less mana than Relentless Rats

Typhoid Rats deathtouch rat opponents wont want to block

Crypt Rats can board wipe but can also win the game if you give it infect, doesnt work with your commander because toxic specifies combat damage but does work if you give it infect and deal damage with it's ability.

Ratcatcher tutors rats, and gives you card advantage

Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm - buffs your rats and lets you get rats back

Wave of Rats has blitz and reanimates itself

Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni rat that steals opponents stuff

Nashi, Moon Sage's Scion rat that steals opponents stuff

Adaptive Automaton is a rat and buffs rats

Okiba-Gang Shinobi rat makes opponents discard and has ninjutsu

Filth gives all your rats swampwalk pairs well with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Dark Ritual lets your get a head start or some extra mana a turn you need it

Tainted Strike instant speed infect, funny in multiplayer because you can use it on anyone's creatures.

Phyresis Outbreak gives poison and might kill opponents creatures

Feed the Swarm enchantment removal in black

Vat Emergence gets a creature back and proliferates

Spread the Sickness destroys a creatures and proliferates

Pact of the Serpent strong tribal card draw

Living Death swap graveyards with battlefields, great after sacrificing your whole board to draw cards

Skullclamp sack small rats for card draw

Thrumming Stone if you go the Relentless Rats or Rat Colony route

Coat of Arms your rats will be huge

Bolas's Citadel this card is dumb lol, lots of casting power and then you hit Gray Merchant of Asphodel and keep going lol

Icon of Ancestry kinda draw buffs rats...is ok

Contagion Engine proliferate twice each time you activate

Eldrazi Monument gives creatures flying indestructible and +1/+1

Grafted Exoskeleton gives a creature infect, great with Crypt Rats

Sword of Truth and Justice proliferate sword

Bad Moon buff all black creatures, opponents too

Phyresis gives infect again good with Crypt Rats

Greed card draw

Vraska, Betrayal's Sting proliferate planes walker

I know that's a lot but hopefully gave you some ideas to work with!

HydraVulgaris on Yawgmoth - mk_II (New Phyrexia)

6 months ago

Man..... (or Woman). With Myself being a fellow Yawgers pilot since The Father of Machines released 4Years ago, I Also have two Yawgmoth decks!!! However, I OnNLY own two EDH decks in total, both VERY Competitive. (not a Flex, giving background) Playing with Yawg for the last 4 years, while playing Exclusively in Mono Black for the last 9 years, One Gathers a lot A LOT of information in lore, in rule changes, in how Yawgmoth interacts with other creatures and abilities, etc. My Heart filled with Ichor an Love just gotta correct a few things................ Phyrexia (new or old in reference) was originally an unnamed plane created by an ancient evil planeswalker. Little is known of him, aside from the fact that he was a humanoid that preferred to assume the form of a dragon: he died just a month before Yawgmoth was transported to Phyrexia. That’s just from the wiki but is true if you’ve read the Books, secondly Purely from Experience, cramming more infect creatures in there isn’t redundant and really REALLY hurts the mana-curve of said build. the Current state of Personal List Only Runs 1.... Ichor Rats being that One creature innately with infect in the build, I'm Never use it to attack unless absolutely opportune. The Strength of Ichor rats is in its ETB, giving everyone a Poison counter! That Power in its ETB is that with NO NONE NADA Combat damage the funky rats essentially speeds your board Progression and Line(s) of play by THREE FREAKIN’ TURNS!!! Aside from the Rats being an “Infector” strictly run Infectious Inquiry Phyresis Outbreak Tainted Strike and Vraska's Fall. at the core of the card Yawgmoth Is the Best Mono-{B} Aristocrat commander they ever designed! Highly recommend Playing into Yawgs natural way of play including an ESPECIALLY abuse Our Fathers printed abilities... Even the first line of text,Makes an incredible blocker against the certain noted types. Late Game Proliferation sounds mediocre when you can proliferate for the Win in a single turn EARLY! don’t NOT use or abuse what the Ineffable One, that’s just asking for mid to late game where Yawg-Diddly really can’t hang.. hope this didn’t come off sometime of way, Id love to share more

Unlife on Has Toxic fixed poison counters?

1 year ago

Metroid_Hybrid I gotta disagree, winning with infect in EDH isn't difficult, there just haven't been too many options until recently, the primary options being Atraxa, Skittles and occasionally Kamiz because they had the best options for infect creatures and support. With toxic creatures now an option, you can build a poison deck in most colors (other than red). I've been playing Skittles for years and with even a slightly above average hand, you can have 2/3 opponents in a 4 person pod down very quickly.

To answer the original question, Toxic fixes most of the issues with infect, primarily being you can block them. Being able to block and not just watch your board get smaller and smaller is huge, it lets (in standard at least) you be able to run a creature heavy strategy against a toxic deck and be able to block normally. It slows down how fast you can kill your opponent (excluding weird infect storm things) but there's always a chance you can die to damage or poison.

I don't seeing it taking over from infect in modern or legacy outside some fringe builds, I think it's not strong enough outside a few support cards.

As you may have guessed, I'm an infect player, and I've argued for years that "No, 10 is fine because normally you can take someone out but the rest of the table is there to strike back." Which was true for a while. Now though, now I'm starting to think 15 may be a better option. But not because of toxic. A toxic creature still dies to removal and board wipes, they can be chumped and traded with like any other creature. (If you're running one kill spell and two board wipes in EDH and complain about creatures hitting you, your deck needs some work first) For me, the things that's make me reconsider are cards like Infectious Bite or Infectious Inquiry. The entire point of infect and toxic has been, "Hit them, they get poison. Don't hit them, oh well." Removing the combat damage requirement I think is stupid and shortsighted, and for me what pushes us into seriously considering have many poison counters are required in an EDH game, especially with the flood of proliferate on everything.

TL,DR Toxic fixes infect, however other ONE cards are more problematic

Metroid_Hybrid on Has Toxic fixed poison counters?

1 year ago

As the local Infect enjoyer, I'm overall thrilled about the return of Poison Counters. Not so much about Toxic per sè, however Niko9 did make an excellent point, but Toxic was the only way they were going to be able to make a proper "Return to Phyrexia" block without making Infect absolutely busted in the process..

That being said...

The five cards that I am excited about in particular are Phyresis Outbreak, Vraska's Fall, Infectious Inquiry, Prologue to Phyresis, and Infectious Bite. One or more of these five cards are going to find their way into all but one of my existing Infect decks (2 Modern, 3 EDH), plus inspiring more.

I have not spent any money directly on sealed product since (MH1). However, not only did I pre-order a booster box, but a "Compleat" Bundle, and the Ixhel Precon...

Unfortunately, I'm still waiting on the Box and the Bundle.....

Crow_Umbra on For Doom the Hive Calls

1 year ago

Nice deck! I'm a little surprised you aren't running Infectious Inquiry. It's basically a Night's Whisper that gives each of your opponents a poison counter for 1 more mana.

amarthaler on EDH Skithiryx, the Blighted Dragon

1 year ago

Deck overhaul list!

Out: Cabal Ritual... Dark Ritual... Dark Confidant... Dash Hopes... Dauthi Voidwalker... Feign Death... Lotus Petal... Mana Crypt... O-Naginata... Oubliette... Royal Assassin... Sign in Blood... Sword of the Chosen... The Meathook Massacre... Vorpal Sword... Wasteland... Withering Boon... 1x Swamp

In: Blightbelly Rat... Contagion Clasp... Decanter of Endless Water... Drown in Ichor...Hand of the Praetors... Infectious Inquiry... Mirrex... Necrogen Communion... Nimraiser Paladin... Pestilent Syphoner... Phyrexian Arena... Sudden Spoiling... The Seedcore... Thought Vessel... Trailblazer's Torch... Vraska's Fall... Vraska, Betrayal's Sting... Whisper of the Dross

Vlasiax on The Song of Phyresis

1 year ago

Mortlocke, thanks for your detailed answer. Most of your changes feel "correct" but keep in mind some of these:

• Don't feel bad cutting Grateful Apparition as Proliferate source because you've just added Bloated Contaminator and Contaminant Grafter which have easier time connecting and actually getting that effect due to Trample. With Phyresis Outbreak counting as one-time Proliferation (at least mathematically speaking, given the fact that you'll most likely use it AFTER everyone got counters). I personally play it ALONGSIDE those, because I've just bought Ixhel precon and my upgrades funds went elsewhere.
• You're right about White Sun's Twilight but please count it as a 7 CMC spell, because that's the minimum amount of mana required to unleash it's true potential.
• Yeah, Phyrexian Arena aside from thematic name I think already got it's time to shine. Burst draw from Infectious Inquiry is worth 2 turn cycles of keeping Arena around AND helps with main gameplan of killing opponents with poison counters (great starter and if they already have counters, consider this a pseudo-proliferate effect).
• Same thing applies to Infectious Bite - I might have an easier time slotting it in due to lacking {U}, however during extensive goldfishing sessions I've discovered that it's not uncommon to start with T1 Toxic/Infect/anything creature and T2 Infectious Bite just to have posion counters spread and maybe kill that Birds of Paradise or Llanowar Elves out there. And late-game it's just "whatever, 2 mana, pseudo-proliferate" that might be enough to push someone to 9 poison and kill on the endstep from Atraxa (in your case) or push to 9 poison after combat with proliferation from creatures AND kill with Infectious Bite.
  
  On the last note, I'll have another look at both mine and your decklist and let you know if I have any other ideas :) EDIT: I also forgot to mention Phyrexian Scriptures - I use it to protect my commander and sweep the board during the same turn due to Proliferate. I think that you might cast it, targetting Atraxa and making her artfact creature just to blow every other creature at the endstep during the same turn from her Proliferate effect.

Mortlocke on The Song of Phyresis

1 year ago

Vlasiax,

Thanks for posting! ONE is definitely going to shake this deck up considerably in that I absolutely plan to incorporate some of the spells that give opponents Poison counters - without targeting them, no less. I have a number of changes already planned and would love to hear your thoughts as I'm honestly having a bit of a tough time speculating on what to cut to make room. So far, here are my planned changes

• Ixhel, Descendent of Atraxa for Hand of the Praetors: Given that Infect will be less dominant of a mechanic among creatures in this deck cutting Hand of the Praetors seems logical. Besides, with the host of cards that allow me to place poison counters directly on opponents, Hand of the Praetors seems even less relevant.

• Skrelv, Defector Mite for Viridian Corrupter: Skrlev provides so many benefits being a psudo Mother of Runes that also grants Toxic and evasion. Viridian Corrupter's ETB effect is far too narrow for my liking, and only amounts to just a 2/2 with Infect. Toxic creatures such as Skrlev boast so many "goodstuff" effects that it's a no brainer why Corrupter has to be cut.

• Myr Convert for Grateful Apparition: Apparition has long been on the replacement list as it's a non-phyrexian. Myr Convert is a perfect replacement as it's another mana dork that can put poison counters on players. Losing a proliferation source is a loss, but given the horde of new Toxic creatures that proliferate off of one trigger or another, this overall is a net gain.

• Bloated Contaminator for Priests of Norn: Bloated Contaminator is actually my dream creature for the set. Evasion, Poison and Proliferate on a great body is just a dream come true. My only hope is that there is another creature just like it in March of the Machines. Priests of Norn is an okay creature for the most part but doesn't amount to much beyond just being a 1/4 infect creature.

• White Sun's Twilight for Winds of Abandon: I've always been somewhat disappointed with Winds of Abandon as it more likely than not can ramp my opponent far beyond my ability to stop them. Sure, a horde of tokens can be wiped out - but at what cost? White Sun's Twilight isn't exactly a one sided boardwipe, but it can get me a bunch of 1/1 creatures that put Poison counters on players on top of slowing them down.

• Vraska, Betrayal's Sting for Sheoldred, Whispering One: Obviously i'm happy to see Phyrexian themed planeswalkers and I'm overjoyed to see another Planeswalker with a focus on Poison counters. Swapping Vraska in for Sheoldred is both a mechanics and a flavor win - Sheoldred turned her back on Elesh Norn to pursue her own misguided and selfish desires along with the heretic Urbrask.

• Tyrranax Rex for Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger: I've enjoyed the Soft lock VoH places on the board just by virtue of being there alone, but I've felt that his control never really synchronized with the rest of the deck. Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider compliments the deck directly and is a huge flavor win. Tyrranax Rex just seems like the perfect upgrade as it is {1} CMC cheaper, has almost as many keywords as Questing Beast and places multiple Poison counters on an opponent when it hits. Rex in my eyes is a "backup" Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon in terms of power level and "feel".

• Phyresis Outbreak for Toxic Deluge: Phyresis Outbreak is the mass removal I've always wished for and is a direct upgrade to Deluge - within the context of this deck that is. This card is absolutely a must include.

• The Seedcore for Swamp: The Seedcore gives me Sliver Hive vibes, but having a card that fixes my mana in a 4 color deck and is a flavor win just seems like a no-brainer.

• Venerated Rotpriest for Glistener Elf: Venerated Rotpriest is just a deterrent as this deck has very few spells that I would consider worthwhile for targeting my own creatures. Glistener Elf is an okay card but within the context of EDH it's "meh". Late game it hardly makes an impact without a horde of +1/+1 counters and some form of evasion.

• Contaminant Grafter for Blight Mamba: Containment Grafter feels like a great card that can help reinforce a boardstate and put additional pressure on opponents mid to late game. Early game it would essentially help me run away with the game through conditional ramp and card advantage. Blight Mamba has honestly never done much for me and generally is as impactful as Glistener Elf.

Now comes the list of cards I think are at least worth considering (that I may or may not include) but don't exactly know what to cut to make room for:

• Staff of Compleation: This is a big flashy card that caught my attention given the myriad of things it can do. However without the right combo piece this card could end up doing me more harm than good.

• Glistening Sphere: There are very few {3} drop mana rocks that are worthwhile, but this one definitely caught my eye. I'm not sure if it's any better than Astral Cornucopia though, as i've been ramped into the stratosphere with just a few proliferation triggers. Not to mention it only gets better just by having Atraxa on the field. I really want to like this card, but it doesn't seem to make the cut. If only it were {2}

• Infectious Inquiry: this seems like an absolute must have and am honestly considering cutting Phyrexian Arena for it. Arena does nothing the turn it ETBs and if I draw it late game it'll literally do nothing. Infectious Inquiry on the otherhand is always relevant, replaces itself and draws me a card. I just can't help but feel like i'm missing something by cutting Phyrexian Arena. I want to go ahead with this decision but I can't help but feel apprehensive and would really like your thoughts on this one.

• Infectious Bite: I want to love this card but unfortunately besides the commander there are relatively few creatures whose bite would make any meaningful impact on the game. I think I might pass on this one.

• Prologue to Phyresis: Everything you said about this card is spot on, and it is relevant at any point of the game. The question is - what to cut for it? I think cutting Contagion Clasp might be the move on this one, but i'm not entirely sure. Clasp is very conditional removal but what's important is that it's a repeatable proliferation source. But, maybe the new inclusions will help offset the loss of a proliferation source? I think this is the right move but I would like to hear your thoughts.

"What's your experience with Blightsteel Colossus and Contagion Engine? Do they ever come out to the battlefield or just happen to be on-theme inclusions?" To answer your question both hit the battlefield on a regular basis. Blightsteel Colossus is surprisingly easy to cast with a proliferated Astral Cornucopia or Everflowing Chalice. One of my best plays was countering a Villainous Wealth with {X} being equal to 8 with Mana Drain and funneling that mana into a turn 5 Blightsteel. Contagion Engine is great for mass removal as well as a proliferation engine. If I tutor for it it's usually alongside Tangle Wire after Ichor Rats hit the field. It essentially grinds the game down to a snail's pace - or a halt under the right conditions.

End rant, sorry to write you a book but I had a lot on my mind. Please let me know what you think of all the upcoming changes!