I dont think the maindeck spellpierce is necessary. I would drop it for an extra apostles blessing which stops most things you would want to counter anyway and helps you push through poison. I dont think viridian corrupter is necessary alongside natures claim, against affinity, I would think evasion would be more important than the extra removal. I would add an extra wild defiance, that card can win games if its resolved, and nobody is going to bring in enchantment hate for this matchup

@hannibal6 thanks for looking! Spell Pierce can also help counter cards that could put my opponent ahead, like Kolaghan's Command in grixis, Ad Nauseam in ad nauseam, and opposing Groundswells in the mirror.

Viridian Corrupter is in the sideboard also because it can become an additional threat. Using it against slow control-esque decks to draw into another threat can be valuable.

Wild Defiance seems too slow, but I'm willing to be wrong about it. Another one might prove to be very good.

If you're not too bummed about not drawing a card, you could put in Aqueous Form instead of Slip Through Space.

Your list seems fine. It's a matter of tuning it to what you want to beat. This has some random-ish cards that you can try out, and perhaps find room for in your maindeck or sideboard. It's important to think of it as a 75 card deck when you're building it. If you know you want 2 Dismembers total, maybe you can put 1 in the main and so on.

Do you ever have trouble with your land base? 16 seems too few, in my opinion. Also, I second a second Wild D - especially with so much damage based removal in the format. Dismember and Twisted Image can be relegated to sideboard, I think. Simic infect wants to be able to react game one, sure, but since you've got a Spellskite and a Spell Pierce I think you should be fine. I dislike Viridian Corruptor, but it's a personal decision; if it works for you, then great! I think 2 Slip through Space is the right number. Every time I put in Mutagenic Growth, they seem to just disappoint. Sure, that's where the majority of your turn two kills come from, but I would rather play less All-in options. I can see running one or two, though. It's still a fantastic card.

I've been testing out splashing black for plague stinger, abrupt decay, and discard, and I'm loving it. It seems to put up much better results than my simic list did. It's quite nice to be able to keep producing threats in plague stingers. There is only so much removal a deck can pack (except for delver - I think that deck is 75% removal; infect is usually not the best agasint it in my experience) and once they falter and you can stick a dude and swing, you've got it.

How have the Finks been working for you? I saw them in a list that top-8ed, but I haven't tried them yet, though, but if you think they are worth the inclusion, I'll definitely check them out.

@mtgThaen I haven't updated the list in a while, but I'll get to that right now! It looks a lot different than before.

@mtgThaen here's the list now!

I think I'd rather play spells like Spell Pierce, Dispel, and Apostles Blessing over Wild Defiance just because they're faster. Even though wild defiance is a great card, it's too much mana I think. Since there is so much removal, the turn you cast it, if they have terminate, you can just get soooo behind.

Finks are mostly for Burn Scapeshift, and possibly zoo. They just are able to net you enough life to get out of burn range. Against decks like affinity, merfolk, and humans, I wouldn't side it in.

So, how do you think Scavenging Ooze is against dredge? Grafdiggers Cage is basically a blank against them, and I think they can come back easily enough from Relic. Scooze is slow, but inevitable. Also, dredge lacks impactful removal to deal with Scooze.

Day's Undoing might also be the right way to deal with it, since you can reload your hand full of goodies while wrecking their bin.

Looks quite good. Some notes:

Wild Defiance in the main is a meta call - it's obviously great against UWR and similar decks, but quite slow against many other decks. I sometimes run it as a 1-of in the md in addition to the obvious 1-2 copies in the board, and it's great in the right meta, awkward and quite bad in the wrong one.

Jace doesn't really serve a purpose in this deck. I get that filtering is good in such a heterogenic deck and whatnot, but it's just too clunky for the deck and doesn't really serve a definite purpose.

You need more evasion for Elf (and sometimes Nexus) than a 1-of Rancor. At least add another Rancor or some Slips/Distortion Strikes.

You don't need 20 lands unless you're running Arbor in the main. Prob should cut Coast. I would also run Arbor in the main if you're going to run it in the first place - it's a card that serves a good, generic purpose, and you definitely want all 15 slots to be available.

3+ mana is too much against Dredge. The matchup is favourable anyway. You don't really need hate for the matchup.

I don't really see enough of an argument to be made for going BUG instead of UG. You don't actually get much from the splash - you don't really even want more than 12-13 Infect creatures. The only reasonable splash is 2-3 Decays in the board imo, but even that just makes your mana that much more awkward. It's not like you don't already have answers to the relevant things.

I've never really understood Hurkyl's Recall in Infect. Affinity is already a good matchup, and Nature's Claim (/Unravel the Aether/Virdian Corrupter) already pretty much wins you the game if your hand isn't horrible. Your clock is much faster and killing Plating/Overseer/Skirge will take most of their capability to beat your face away. Your sideboard slots are precious - don't waste them in good matchups.

You could swap out one of your Nature's Claims for a Unravel the Aether or Viridian Corrupter. You generally don't need the full three copies in more than 1-2 matchups, and having one answer to Chalice and Academy Ruins is great. The extra mana is a cost to pay, but losing to Chalice or to Bridge/Skite + Ruins really sucks and is a thing that happens at times.

I don't really see a reason to run Torpor Orb. Cage and Relic are both better anti-Snapcaster hate, if that's what it's there for - can't really think of anything else, especially since Twin is out of the format.

Dispel is a really good 1-of to have in the sb against Chord/CoCo and UWR/similar decks. Spell Pierce is superior on the play, but often doesn't even counter Bolt or Path from UWR and similar nonsense.

Spellskite is great. I don't really see a reason to only run a 1-of - it helps so much against the URx family of decks, which are generally terrible matchups.

Here's my current list, in case you're interested: UG Infect

@326:

Wild Defiance might be a card I should mainboard. Burn and Jeskai are two decks I'm weak against, so I'll find a slot for it.

Jace isn't just filtering. If you've cast another instant or sorcery IN THE GAME, he's another copy of that. Also, most of my arguments you might have read up there, so I won't relist them.

I think you could be overestimating the affinity matchup. Agent is the only strong infect card against them. The other guys aren't good against a creature filled deck that runs 12 flyers. Also, Recall is AMAZING against Lantern. Bounces all of their cards, you get to swing in for a bunch, and their Ensnaring Bridges become so much worse.

Torpor Orb is also for Abzan CoCo. Just bricks 'em and forces them to have to play their aggro-midrange plan. There probably is a better sideboard card, but this one deals with two matchups pretty effectively.

I don't enjoy running lands maindeck that can't tap for mana the turn I play them. Therefore, I stray away from mainboarding Arbor.

I don't know what I'd cut for another evasion spell. Jace seems like something, but not only do I really like that card, I think it's better, since it can dig me to an evasion spell or an agent. Possibly Twisted Image? Maybe a land goes out for a Slip.

I just run my dispel mainboard. I had it in side, now its in the maindeck :P

Last notes - I only own one Skite, Dredge probably doesn't really need sideboard slots, and I'm not BUG, I just have some Dismembers.

Thanks for the comment! I'll take a look at your deck too.

I just feel like Jace suffers a lot from the same problem as Simic Charm - they both do many different things that the deck definitely wants, but two mana is a lot to pay. I haven't tried Jace myself, tho.

Ehh, it's not like Affinity can leave their fliers back that often. The average Infect build also has 2-3 sources of Evasion for Nexus/Elf, so you're quite likely to draw one of them. Even if you don't, it's not like you're in bad shape. Sometimes they just don't have a flier, you can often grind through a couple of chump blocks etc. Be that as it may, I'm quite convinced that both Affinity and Lantern are very good matchups (especially if you run 3x artifact hate in the board). You won't be running into them that often and you're already favored against them, so I generally don't see the Recall as worthy of the slot. It's a 1-of, too, so you won't be seeing it that often even in the matchups that you side it for.

Cage seems better than Orb to me - it shuts down Company and Chord while also dealing with Snapcaster and Nahiri (for whatever that's worth - once UWR has assumed control, it's mostly a formality for them to bring your life total down to 0). Cage has utility in other matchups and only costs one mana, though these are obviously not primary reasons to include it.

Dryad Arbor is not great when you actually draw it, but you very rarely will see it in your hand. Just having it in your deck will win you a whole lot of games - people are quite liberal with their life totals against Infect, and having a beatstick on demand is great. Idk if it really makes that much of a difference, but I'm really, really loathe to waste sb slots in Infect (and in Modern in general).

The 20th land seems like a good cut for Slip. Another option is to cut a pump spell for Rancor, seeing as it serves both purposes relatively well.

I generally prefer to have Spell Pierce/Apostle's Blessing/Skite in the main over Dispel - Dispel is very narrow - though it's really a metagame thing.

All right, I see you've updated.