I don't remember when I deleted this or where the cards went but I'm posting it back to my profile. It could be that I only started moving decks from another site to this one, either way here we go!
This was standard during the Scars of Mirrodin Block, before Rize of the Eldrazi had phased out.
Although there are much faster decks out now, I still enjoy playing this due to all the tough decisions you will make. During every match you will have many moments where you wonder things like:
"Did I play the right card?"
"Did I play the cards in the right order?""Do I play cards and use activated abilities or just one of the two?""Did I sacrifice the permanent at the right time?"
"Is it right to expect this action from my opponent, or am I giving them to much credit and wasting time being overly cautious?"
Basic Premise is divided into three parts: Only attack with infect creatures when no blockers are present, maximize your proliferates, and sac only when two more things will benefit unless you have absolutely nothing else to do AND you are under pressure.
The Result? Either hitting them with Tezzeret's -4 for massive life gain or Slowly Poisen them to death in the most agonizing way possible oftentimes with a Spine of Ish Sah withering away their board state. Oftentimes your Tezzeret's -4 will bring you back from very low life and give you enough time to move to the the stage where you are setting up combos.
More clarification on creatures:
Inkmoth Nexus as a 5/5 is NOT a win con in this deck. You block as often as needed but in a way that gets the most out of Necropede (Use it to kill P/T 2/2) and Core Prowler (Use it to kill P/T 3/3, especially when you have other things to proliferate). Try to block anything besides 1/2 creatures with the rat unless you suspect that they will pump up the 1/2 via Giant Growth or something similar. The Crusader and Treasure mage are pretty much always fine to block with. There is nothing in this deck to get extra function from them, they merely exist to counter some of this deck's weaknesses back in the day. With that said, you may try running two spines and one Contagion Engine or vice versa but either way that is the function of treasure mage.
On artifacts: Alright I admit. I saw spine of Ish Sah and immediately started coming up with a deck to use this during it's release and this is what resulted. But, the artifact synergy for this deck is amazing for what we need. Throne of geth proliferates poisen counters on creatures, infect counters, Tezzeret, and Everflowing Chalice. Contagion Clasp does the same and handles creatures without needing mortar pod, because what do you think this is? Golgari / Infect / Artifact ramp?
Unfortunately I cannot remember the exact ratio of all of the cards. I do know that the Plauge Rats and Phyrexian Crusaders are right; only play more Crusaders versus Red/White decks and even then only run three. The Everflowing Chalice are also correct because I remember running one less land since getting out even one Chalice totally makes up for it. For the rest I can only recommend play testing until I have done so myself several dozen times offline. Good luck playing some good old fashioned infect that doesn't depend on cheese _
Be sure to check out maybeboard for additional fun cards that may or may not be legal.
