Infectious Design

This post requires a bit of a pre-script. Around 9pm Monday night I started to type this, got down to the end, it was about 9 pages along, I mean I delved into each and every infect card and cards that help the build, equipment buff spells support spells creatures not of the right type but aided your build. Then I clicked “Save Draft” the page refreshed and it went back to how it was before I started to type.

So, I raged on facebook and went to bed. Around 9:30am Tuesday I started to retype it, fininshed it, started pasting pictures in when one didn't go in the place it should have, I CTRL+Z to take the picture out, and EVERYTHING dissapears and then the document autosaved to be blank.
Lucky for me, I had the preview page without images up. This allowed me to save my rear by taking a screen shot for about 5 or 6 screens, combine into one picture and use freeOCR to turn the image into text document, which I am now editing on OpenOffice.org.

---

Infectious Design

So, Infect is good yah? Instead of having to get in with 20+ damage you only need to get
in for 10! and that number doesn't change, end of story.
My last post I found to be a bit  bad. It wasn't a deck I made, I had suggestions put Into
it, but It wasn't MY deck. So this week, we'll step away from combo corner and look into a
consistent style deck, you know, the ones that are good. I'll even go through my
thoughts on choosing each and every card.

I've decided on Infect, but what colours should I run? what are the infect cards of each
colour?
Colours

-Lost Leonin: decent, 2/1 infect for 1W.
-Unlife: almost says "gain 10 life".
-Priests of Norn - Standing Troops with infect, It's not that threatening.
-Shriek Raptor /Tine Shrike: To high of a cost for what they bring to the field.

Blue
Blighted Agent: Amazing, a 1/1 infect that is unblockable. for cheap! only 1U to drop.
Chained throatseeker: a un-shatterable Phyrexlan Juggernaut. too slow, but is a major thread if on the board and able to attack.
Corrupted Conscience: Could see It's place in long term control, I would like to take inferno titan with that would be hilarious.
Viral Drake: This is how flying infect should be done. 1/4 for 4. with a statIc proliferate.
Corrupted Resolve: Will spend too much time In your hand, not being cast.
Fuel for the Cause: What‘s important in a counter spell Is the counter. Mana leak Is far
more effective.
Inexorable Tide: too little too late In the game, not a tonne of spells to cast when you're
able to drop this to the field.
Steady Progress: This card has been out modded by--
Tezzeret's Gambit :Draw 2 and then proliferate. Glorious! gets you cards, and prolferates
for relatively cheap.
Thrumming Bird : If this had infect and or didn't require having to make contact with
opponent to work, It would be worth It's spot, but at 1U, I'd rather have an unblockable
dude.

Black
Blackcleave Goblin: Too slow, in a 4 drop I want amazlngness not mediocrity.
Contagious Nim: Vanilla Infect
Flensermite : Cute, but doesn't have much going for it. Would only use this in draft.
Flesh-Eater Imp: This card reminds me of Bloodthrone + Pawn of Ulamog. Could make It
Into a deck wrapped around Itself.
Glistening OiI/Phyresis/Tainted Strike : I want my dudes In an infect deck to already have
Infect.
Ichor Rats : 3cc to put a poison counter on your opponent and get a body on the field?
good card.

Hand ofthe PTBEYOTSZ
LOL, remember that OCR thing I mentioned earlier, it took Hand of the praetor’s and turned it into that, so gonna leave that there!


Hand of the Praetor’s: Really good, a great lord that can make the game really bleak for
your opponents.
Phyrexian Crusader: Best 3 drop for Infect. great card does It need an explanation why?
Vatmother : 4/5 infect for 4? sounds good just don’t kill yourself.
Plague Stinger: 2 mana slot in Infect should be tilled with something that when It attacks,
cannot be blocked :).
Reaper of Sheoldred: Too little too late. Maybe if It slung poison counters like negator
slung damage.
Scourge Servant : Vanilla 3/3 Infect, no thanks, not for 4B
Septic Rats: other rats are better as they guarantee a poison counter.
Skitheryx: sexy sexy card. best flying infect creature.
Toxic nim: If this were a 6/1 with regen B I might use It. But 4/1 for 4BB Is not good
enough.
Whispering Specter: it’s a specter, and not a fantastic one at that.
Grim Affliction Put a -1/-1 on target creature, then proliferate. Kill a */2, put another
poison counter on opponent. Good enough for a 3 drop.
Caress of Phyrexia: Game finisher, 3BBto put 3 poison counters on a player.

Red
Fallen Ferromancer: a prodigal sorcerer, that costs 1 more, still a 1/1, and costs 1R to
deal the ping damage. It would be more effective to give Spikeshot elder Infect.
Ogre Menial: 0/4 Infect for 3R, but It has Firebreathing which is nice. If the Firebreathing
used Phyrexian red mana Instead of regular red, then I would love this card.
Razor Swine: the best red Infect creature? 2I'1 first strike for 3. that's decent for a non
Infect card.
Volt Charge: would help control and do some proliferating, begs to be ran with Koth, but
f that's an entirely different deck.

Blight Mamba: It regenerates, that's the only positive, If it regenerated and had reach it
would have been sideboard material.
Blightwidow: Ok, In green there are good creatures... then there are spiders.
Carrion Call: 4 mana to get 2 1/1 Infecting bugs, That's not enough to help board position
I fear.
Cystbearer: 2/3 Vanilla Infect for 2G I'll pass.
Glistener Elf: Oh Iawd, Is dat sum 1/1 infect for 1? yup.
Phyrexian Hydra: 7/7 infect for 5 Is good. Too bad it's a hydra and gives the blocked or
blocking creature wither. Begs to be used with Melira, Sylvok Outkast.
Phyrexian Swarmlord: if you can keep this 6 drop on the board long enough(2 turns?)
you just win. The down side Is that the opponent HAS to have multiple poison counters
and not be able to kill a 4/4. this just dant hold up against the titans as far as power goes.
Putrefax : good card Is good, don't care If it does at the end oft he turn, means you won‘t
be affrald to attack |Ike crazy with it. Works too well with mimic vat.
Rot Wolf: a good 3 drop, fun to do mind games with. early game this dog won‘t get
blocked, especially if you put Infiltration Lens onto It.
Spinebiter: may not be the same power as the titans but it Is just as effective. Deals damage straight to
the opponent, so attack and they get 3 whether they block or not :).
Tangle Angler: Used mostly to lure opponents creatures away from the dudes you wanna
get in for the damage. Honestly Prized Unicorn would be a better choice for this roll as
you don't have to pay G for each creature you want to divert, this just diverts them all.
Tel-Jiled FallenI/Viridian Betrayers: 3/1s, fallen Is prot artIfacts, Betrayers has Infect if
opponent has a poison counter. Why wouldn't you always just use Tel-Jiled Fallen? but
still for 4 It's not good enough.
Viridian Corrupter : you know a card is good when It gets used outside of It's archetype
just because of It's secondary ability. 2/2 Infect for 2G, and it shatters an artifact when It
enters the battlefield.
Triumph of the Hordes Infect Overrun? hells yeah, card can be cute If the deck Is built
like the Overrun decks of the past.
Pistus Strike: Good sideboard card, kills a creature with flying and gives the creatures
controller a poison counter.


Ok, well that's the coloured cards. The colours that stand out to be good to me are Blue,
, Black and Green. The best of blue has to be Blighted Agent, a weeny that gets damage
where it needs to go. Blue also comes with counters and some neat evasion spells. Green gives us Glisten Elf, Viridian Shaman and various buffing spells. Getting the
Infecters on the board early is important, and whats earlier then turn 1? the early game
stuff for Black is not that Impressive other then Phyrexian Crusader. But I wanna get shit done with this deck, all the while not burning my wallet.

When It comes to artifacts, most of them make great support, Plague Myr is everything
you want in an Infect creature, It has Infect, it's cheap, and It accelerates your mana.
Helps you win in every way.

So, question - Aggro or Control?Aggro, and I don't mean the aggro that scoops if the
match has made It to turn 4 with out a win. An aggro that measures the tempo of the
game and still wins relatively quickly.

ready for this? I don't have a fancy name so here's UG infect.


UG infect
TheWillRogers Type II

Main Deck:
4 Blighted Agent
4 Glistener Elf
3 Plague Myr
2 Spellskite
1 Viral Drake
2 Viridian Corrupter

3 Distortion Strike
4 Groundswell
2 Ichor Wellspring
3 Lead the Stampede
3 Mana Leak
3 Mycosynth Wellspring
3 Piston Sledge
1 Tezzeret's Gambit

11 Forest
2 Halimar Depths
5 Island
4 Misty Rainforest

Sideboard:
3 Livewire Lash
3 Nature's Claim
4 Spell Pierce
2 Torpor Orb
3 Vines of Vastwood

So you may see lead the stampede In there. The reason I chose this over more tezzeret's
gambit is because this Is a deck that wins with dudes, and there's not very many dudes – only 16.  Lead
the stampede will either refresh your hand of creatures, or cut out the next 5 turns worth
of cards that are not creatures.
Piston Sledge is amazing when put onto any mild threat, makes them a gigantic threat.

The sideboard Consists of
Livewire Lash – in case Piston Sledge isn't doing the trick, or if your opponent is using a lot of creature targeted removal.
Nature's Claim – Kills artifacts and enchantments at G and instant speed. We don't care if they get 100000000000 life, it only takes 10 damage from us to win.
Spell Pierce – great against decks using a lot of non creature spells. Easily deals with their first Plainswalker drop or a Day of Judgment, or even a bolt if it's still early, or you can spell pierce a Mana Leak, that's always cute.
Vine of Vastwood – Some may want this main deck, but I see it as a GG drop, not to rough in this deck, but i'd bring it in against someone running more burn then creatures.
Torpor Orb – stops a lot of stuff dead in their tracks. Including your own Viridian Corruptor, but more importantly titansmysticshawksgatekeeperseldrazigodsetc.
Well then, it's been an adventure trying to get this post done, so I’m gonna toss it up here as is. Will do some play testing soon.