I don't want to gum up the official thread with a budget question, and also don't want to ask the budget forums because I'm only out of one certain card.
I traded away my Hierarches back in standard, and have been refusing to get them back on principle now.
I'd like to try infect, and want to know what's the best route of constructing the deck.
Do you play the Wild Defiance game, or just sub in Cathedral of War in place of the Hierarchs? Or is the card just impossible to substitute for, and I should just play without it?
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The very fact that Flamethrowers exist proves that someone somewhere said to themselves, "You know, I want to set those people over there on fire... But I'm just not close enough to do it"
Cathedral of War is the closest replacement. The big problem Infect has is that it needs a really specific mix of mana, pump spells, protection, and threats in order to function. A large part of making the deck work involves having cards that fill multiple roles so that it consistently hits everything. So that means Cathedral of War hits both the mana and pump requirements. The problem is that Cathedral of War doesn't accelerate you, and colorless mana is pretty weak in a deck that uses mostly colored mana so you're taking a pretty big power hit to run it.
Sounds less "on principle" than "off budget", tbh.
The only budget replacement I can think of is Birds of Paradise, but they're really subpar here, obviously.
I have a feeling there is no true replacement, no.
I traded them away at the lowest they ever were, and now my mind has that pegged as its price memory...
Can I afford it? Probably could get them 1 per paycheck and have the set done in 2 months. But my issue is that Nobles can be staples, but I don't usually play decks they are staples in. I'm not really a midrange type of guy, so investig significant discretionary money towards something that is usable in so few applications is giving me pause.
Hence why I'm asking if there's a better way. Or probably to be more accurate, the least crappy way.
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The very fact that Flamethrowers exist proves that someone somewhere said to themselves, "You know, I want to set those people over there on fire... But I'm just not close enough to do it"
It doesn't work on the competitivw level. Simply as that. Noble Hierarch adds that bonus damage which is very important when you try to race your opponents. Mana she produces also isn't negligible.
Basically this. She's a 1 mana accelerator that basically says "all your creatures get +2/+0 whenever they attack" and there's simply no other effect that mimics that. There's a reason why she and Pendelhaven show up in essentially every infect deck.
I run a RG version of Infect that eschews all Exalted effects and goes for doublestrike via Assault Strobe, Ghor-Clan Rampager as it can't be redirected by Spellskite, and runs Simian Spirit Guide for the surprise factor. It's a bit of a glass cannon and often mulligans but is still super fun. If you are against the prices of the normal infect pieces like the Noble, this might be a direction to look.
There is no replacement for Noble Hierarch. Honestly, you should just buy them now before they rise in price. I get the whole budgeting thing, but if they spike, you're going to lose considerable $ getting them. I found this out the hard way getting Karn and Spellskite for Tron.
Trade/sell/take on a little credit card debt for them and budget elsewhere. $35 today is better than $50 two months from now.
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These days, some wizards are finding they have a little too much deck left at the end of their $$$.
MTG finance guy- follow me on Twitter@RichArschmann or RichardArschmann on Reddit
If you build a monoB or RG infect variant, then you can forget about the hierarchs. There are more than one way to play infect.
I always found the doublestrike RG variant to be stronger/faster and the monoB one to be more resilient.
Hierarch is far more important as a source of pseudo card advantage (by repeatedly pumping) than as a ramp spell, and there is no replacement period in UG / BG infect.
I traded away my Hierarches back in standard, and have been refusing to get them back on principle now.
I'd like to try infect, and want to know what's the best route of constructing the deck.
Do you play the Wild Defiance game, or just sub in Cathedral of War in place of the Hierarchs? Or is the card just impossible to substitute for, and I should just play without it?
The only budget replacement I can think of is Birds of Paradise, but they're really subpar here, obviously.
I have a feeling there is no true replacement, no.
I traded them away at the lowest they ever were, and now my mind has that pegged as its price memory...
Can I afford it? Probably could get them 1 per paycheck and have the set done in 2 months. But my issue is that Nobles can be staples, but I don't usually play decks they are staples in. I'm not really a midrange type of guy, so investig significant discretionary money towards something that is usable in so few applications is giving me pause.
Hence why I'm asking if there's a better way. Or probably to be more accurate, the least crappy way.
Basically this. She's a 1 mana accelerator that basically says "all your creatures get +2/+0 whenever they attack" and there's simply no other effect that mimics that. There's a reason why she and Pendelhaven show up in essentially every infect deck.
URW Control
WBG Abzan
GRW Burn
EDH
GR Rosheen Meanderer
Trade/sell/take on a little credit card debt for them and budget elsewhere. $35 today is better than $50 two months from now.
MTG finance guy- follow me on Twitter@RichArschmann or RichardArschmann on Reddit
I always found the doublestrike RG variant to be stronger/faster and the monoB one to be more resilient.
RETIRED - GAME SUCKS
Modern:
UUUMerfolksUUU
RGoblinsR
Ad Nauseam
BR 8 Racks RB
WUB Mill BUW
Legacy:
XOps! All splels! X
What I think of MaRo
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall