Do you feel that Noble Hierarch should be in mono-green Sylvan Scrying? There's two problems that it solves:
1) Lets Inkmoth attack one turn earlier.
No Hierarch:
T1 land
T2 land, Scrying
T3 Inkmoth
T4 animate Inkmoth & attack
With Hierarch:
T1 land, Hierarch
T2 Scrying, Inkmoth
T3 animate Inkmoth & attack
2) Pays for Inkmoth's animation.
I'm thinking -2 Dismember, -2 Cathedral of War, +4 Noble Hierarch.
If you are willing to add hierarch, why not also add blue? I have been playing with sylvan scrying since GP detroit, and hierarch is a huge help at making the card more effective.
Generally people play with Monogreen because is budget or because is better than UG?
Because, particularly I think that the UG version is better than the Monogreen.
Mono Green is much weaker than UGx or BGx. Since there are very few color issues in modern, it's gotta be budget.
I'm actually using RUG for Ghor-Clan (can't be spellskited, trample is amazing) and testing out Titan's Strength because I think scry 1 is interesting enough for a heavy aggro deck. And funny enough as a friend pointed out, you can let them spellskite titan's strength just so you can scry 1 if you're in a busted spot. I remember people saying that titan's strength is not as good due to bolt, but every time I had vines or apostle's blessing or some other spell in hand anyway. It's been doing good so far but i'm not 100% on it.
Do you feel that Noble Hierarch should be in mono-green Sylvan Scrying?
...
I'm thinking -2 Dismember, -2 Cathedral of War, +4 Noble Hierarch.
It could work. Cutting Cathedrals and adding Hierarchs seems to be removing the reason to be MonoG though (4 Cathedral of War), once you have done that there is no reason not to add blue (as MrPhysics said). However I would look at what you are saying as more of a case for adding Sylvan Scrying to UG, probably as a 2 of.
Running 4 Cathedral of War is the main reason to go Mono Green. Over the course of a game you tend to accumulate multiple Cathedral of War/Pendelhaven, especially when running Sylvan Scrying. This results in games where every time you swing with an Infect creature it is a 3/3 or bigger, without even casting a pump spell. It helps win games that would otherwise have been lost.
Generally people play with Monogreen because is budget or because is better than UG?
Because, particularly I think that the UG version is better than the Monogreen.
In my case, I am not running Mono Green because of budget reasons, I am running it because of Cathedral of War. You could say that UG can win fast more consistently, while MonoG is better at converting longer games into wins, with the potential to be fast. Either way they are both viable, it is more about what suits your play style the most.
@Ultra_Magnus I believe you arent budget, but why no horizon canopy? I would guess 4 is correct, but at least one is good as a solid tutor target with scrying when you absolutely need to topdeck a specific card to win. Also, I remember you saying you tested hierarch, but have you tested it after making the switch to sylvan scrying?
Also, 4 tormod's crypts seems excessive. Even when they work, they are typically mediocre. Relic is actually quite solid against goyf, and in my experience even better against living end. I am something like 8-0 against storm lifetime vs storm, its not a deck you need to devote a bunch of slots for in my opinion. Living end is bad though, so I agree you need some grave hate.
On a completely random sidetangent, some notes about playing monoU tron (and to a lesser extent other decks with remand). I saw you play shocktroopa twice on stream on your way to winning the premier, losing in the swiss. In your swiss loss you went for the win turn after turn, when attacking with multiple inkmoths would all but ensure victory. Some controlling style decks have very few ways to actually deal with inkmoth, and rely on cards like remand to dig for answers. If you simply dont cast spells, they cant dig. This is unusually relevant against Utron due to condescend. Well played in your top8 rematch and grats on the premier win.
How are people handling the R/W/x decks? Every time I go up against one my defeat seems to be pretty much guaranteed because of their cheap removal.
They have a lot of burn based removal, which makes wild defiance and spellskite very good against them. Also, a couple dismember can eliminate their clock. Play conservatively and deal 1-2 infect at a time, building up for a 'big turn' where you have more 1 mana answers than they have 1 mana removal. Having enough mana is critical, and if they path your guys, you should end up with lots of mana. Use inkmoth nexus to attack through cryptic command (say you have glistener elf and go to attacks, if they try to tap draw or bounce draw, you can animate inkmoth and still attack, if they attempt to play around this using bounce+tap, you can animate inkmoth and cast apostle's blessing/vines which will not only counter the bounce, but the tap as well.
If you know you are againt UWR, dont be afraid to keep otherwise great hands without an infect guy, especially if you have a turn 2 wild defiance and/or spellskite. A lot of their spells trade 1 for 1, and they often simply flood out due to a higher land count. Sylvan scrying is a great card, as it lets you play an infect guy without being too vulnerable to burn based removal.
I play dismember, wild defiance, spellskite, etc all main, as there is a lot of UWR in my local meta. Ive found the matchup to be highly skill dependent, but against the best UWR at my store (kyle Boggemes, GP win and PT top8) we both agree the match is roughly 50/50.
@Ultra_Magnus I believe you arent budget, but why no horizon canopy? I would guess 4 is correct, but at least one is good as a solid tutor target with scrying when you absolutely need to topdeck a specific card to win. Also, I remember you saying you tested hierarch, but have you tested it after making the switch to sylvan scrying?
Horizon Canopy looks viable. It does cost 1 life every time you use it for mana. One of the things I enjoy about MonoG is not paying life for the mana base. It could still work though. On the Hierarch topic, I have to say I am not a fan of it in MonoG. One of the reasons it is good in UG is because it taps for blue, as such it is just not as good in MonoG. Also MonoG runs more land, because of Cathedral, so there is the issue of fitting Hierarch in.
Also, 4 tormod's crypts seems excessive. Even when they work, they are typically mediocre. Relic is actually quite solid against goyf, and in my experience even better against living end. I am something like 8-0 against storm lifetime vs storm, its not a deck you need to devote a bunch of slots for in my opinion. Living end is bad though, so I agree you need some grave hate.
The 4 Tormod's Crypt came about because of having tournament runs ruined by Living End and Goryo's Vengeance, and it is good against Storm too when you don't have any counterspells. If I know that I will be facing Living End, I sometimes run 2 Chalice of the Void and cast it for 0, because it counters Living End. It is so good being able to attack and pump without worrying about Violent Outburst.
On a completely random sidetangent, some notes about playing monoU tron (and to a lesser extent other decks with remand). I saw you play shocktroopa twice on stream on your way to winning the premier, losing in the swiss. In your swiss loss you went for the win turn after turn, when attacking with multiple inkmoths would all but ensure victory. Some controlling style decks have very few ways to actually deal with inkmoth, and rely on cards like remand to dig for answers. If you simply dont cast spells, they cant dig. This is unusually relevant against Utron due to condescend. Well played in your top8 rematch and grats on the premier win.
Yeah that game against MonoU Tron was hilarious. I should definitely have just attacked with all my moths! It was quite amazing though how many times he survived lol. I also made a mistake against him where I let a Repeal that was targeting my Rancor resolve before casting my next pump, so he got the card draw. In that game it didn't make a difference, but with cards like that such as Repeal and Remand, if I am intending to keep pumping, I usually do so before they get the card draw (depending on the circumstances of course).
I have a question for all of you UG players out there. What does your mana base look like and how many sources of blue do you need? I was basically going to just splash for Blighted Agent so I don't need a lot of blue. I am somewhat on a budget switching over from mono green. This is the starting point I have so far:
I am not sure how many basic forest and additional blue sources I should run. Ideally I would like to have 4 Verdant Catacoms and 2 basic forest but I don't know if 4 Verdant Catacombs will be in the budget right away after getting the Misty Rainforsts and Noble Hierarchs. I was thinking maybe some number of Yavimaya Coast and basic forest to round it out. I'm not sure I like Hinterland Harbor. It just seems like this deck has too many non islands/forests for it to enter untapped. Not to mention it's terrible turn one. So let me know what mana bases you all are using and how to finish mine out please.
Anyone who questions Sylvan Scrying or Giant Growth in the MonoG version either never tested it or just doesn't get it. Both cards are huge blowouts in the control MU. If I were going to pick All-Stars of the MonoG version they would be, Sylvan Scrying, Cathedral of War, and Giant Growth. These three cards do work. I've played all three versions, and the MonoG version just gets there, consistently.
I have a question for all of you UG players out there. What does your mana base look like and how many sources of blue do you need? I was basically going to just splash for Blighted Agent so I don't need a lot of blue. I am somewhat on a budget switching over from mono green. This is the starting point I have so far:
I am not sure how many basic forest and additional blue sources I should run. Ideally I would like to have 4 Verdant Catacoms and 2 basic forest but I don't know if 4 Verdant Catacombs will be in the budget right away after getting the Misty Rainforsts and Noble Hierarchs. I was thinking maybe some number of Yavimaya Coast and basic forest to round it out. I'm not sure I like Hinterland Harbor. It just seems like this deck has too many non islands/forests for it to enter untapped. Not to mention it's terrible turn one. So let me know what mana bases you all are using and how to finish mine out please.
So, you want at least 2 basics, and I prefer 3 forests. You want 9+ blue sources, depending on how many other blue cards you have main/side (twisted image/dispel/hurkyl's recall/spell pierce/etc). I currently run
4 verdant catacomb
4 breeding pool
3 forest
4 inkmoth nexus
2 pendlehaven
2 yavimaya coast
1 cathedral of war
The only 'budget' consideration is you probably want -2 breeding pool +2 misty rainforest. I run a spell pierce main, and sometimes you want to leave it up turn 1 without shocking yourself. Yavimaya coast as a 1-2 of can be great since its a way to play blighted agent while only giving up a single life, critical vs burn. With shock+fetch, you take 3 to get a blue source, and i find the 'average' damage you deal with coast is less than 3. Hinterland harbor is unplayable in infect.
On giant growth: I agree with its place in Ultra_Magnus' build. Infect needs *something* vs bolt. I prefer spellskite and wild defiance, but giant growth is better in a deck without hierarch (as they will often have already used their bolt on hierarch, and turn 2 wild defiance is much better than turn 3)
Anyone who questions Sylvan Scrying or Giant Growth in the MonoG version either never tested it or just doesn't get it. Both cards are huge blowouts in the control MU. If I were going to pick All-Stars of the MonoG version they would be, Sylvan Scrying, Cathedral of War, and Giant Growth. These three cards do work. I've played all three versions, and the MonoG version just gets there, consistently.
I think you need to play the deck a little more before you make such a bold claim like that.
I know I started placing higher up at events here ( first second third etc) when I cut stuff like 2 cathedrals, 2 giant growth and tightened up my list a little.
I know what you're thinking, I thought the same.
" oh if he bolts me on my turn, I can cast the giant growth in response then swing 4!"
Doesn't work that way. Everybody who knows what their doing knows not to pick a fight with a Glistener elf on his turn.
Because if you attempt to path to exile that little thing, he's going to come out swinging with a kicked vines of vast wood.
The only thing an infect player wants to get rid of on their opponents turn is a apostles blessing.
The upside of having them discard an apostles blessing means that you can declare blockers or not have your damage prevented this turn with him shocking himself.
And if I was playing against infect, and I saw that he wasted 2 of his mana to fetch an Inkmoth that is not even a threat until turn 3/4 I know I pretty much have the game in the bag at that point. And he's pissing mana and running sub optimal pump, he's going to need 3 giant growth to end this rather than something effective in its spot.
Plus most modern decks can deal with taking 4 infect on turn 4, where the game ends for storm, affinity, and splinter twin. where you spent all your time and land to get a manland on turn 2. Then on turn 3 you spent 3 mana ( Inkmoth, something to power Inkmoth, and a forest) to swing for 4 infect after spending a whole turn 2 ( the scary one where infect wants to win) putting a damn land in your hand and giant growth ing it
I'm new to Modern and I've been keeping up with this post for a while and it's been a great read. I've learned a lot from you guys so thanks for all the input. I'm a bigger fan of having a couple sylvan scrying in the sideboard and just bringing them in against control decks. What do you guys usually side for white weenie decks like humans or knights? I also seem to have a bit trouble against UR Delver with their consistent removals and counters. Even though I fetch my Inkmoth, it's usually pinned by lavamancer or a bolt/electrolyze in their hand followed by counters for any pumps I give it.
@Horrible You're thinking too offensively. MUs where path or bolt are relevant, I'm not trying to hit vines or GG on my turn. You don't HAVE to win on turn 2-3, you just have to win. With Cathedral I get a pump that costs me nothing, meaning I can vast for 1g and not care I lost the kicker pump. 1 infect while dodging removal and making them spend their cards works for me. These games usually go long so spending my scrying on nexus early to dodge counters knowing its twice as hard to remove is worth it. If you think strictly offense with the mono green deck, you're doing it wrong. It has a strong late game. On modo I often win turn 5-8 and sometimes longer in the grindy matchups. I also run 4 Ranger's Guile in my side for the grindy games. That's 12 1 mana cards that keep my creatures alive long enough to win the game. I've played the deck long enough to understand why GG and scrying are what makes the mono g version the perfect fit for me. I can race fast decks, and grind out control decks. This means sliding under combo decks, and beating late game wincons in game 1 all the easier. I don't usually find myself down a game going into match two.
All your examples smell of desperation, which is not this decks strong point. Inevitabilty is what it represents when running cathedral, giant growth, and sylvan scrying.
Also without GG how do you protect your creature from bolt with no blessing in hand? Vines? But you said using vines on opponents turn isn't great...how about path on their turn, how can you justify losing +4/+4 when vines is your only answer??? Easy, that's how. Don't tell me you just kick vines on blockers step as a pump when they have open mana up??? That's just silly.
Cathedral costs you one colorless on the turn you cast it. Which really sucks in monog.
There are so many things you want to spend that mana on. I run 2 myself but if something better comes along I would ideally cut that.
With this deck I can't afford to wait until turn 8. Otherwise I'm starring at an emurakuel and 0 infect on board.
I had the same crticism with people running the ancient stirrings attempting to make their deck more combo ish digging for a nexus.
The Inkmoth isn't your optimal play idk why you want to dedicate 4-8 slots digging for it. It helps, but keep in mind that for 1 infect you're paying a colorless ( Inkmoth itself) and the land to activate it....
Don't get me wrong I have had to mull to 4 and had to rely on that nexus when my opponent had a Goyf and a Lilliana of the veil on board (sac creature but Inkmoth is land when they do it) but I had to mutagenic growth a 1/1 more times than I care to admit to pull that win.
Ideally you will want to vines on your turn. That is basically a free groundswell and a grave misplay on their part if they do try to make some targeted removal moves on the turn you can swing. To make that clear that is a yes to your question.
If your best pump spell is a cathedral, giant growth and your optimal turn 2 is digging for a manland that isn't a threat for a full 2 maybe 3 turns. And you cut 4 threats in the deck to pull this "combo" the only inevitability is the deck falling on its face. Drawing into not of these weak answers then attributing it to " oh well infect is a coin flip" is a novice mistake.
The deck already has to do without the aspects of real infect where hand disruption, counterspells and fetch lands make it more consistent ( run 8 fetch lands, 8 shock and a few basics with Inkmoth, pendlehaven and dryad arbor) so we always have the risk of hitting one of our way too many for a modern deck basics.
Mono green does not have an answer to replace blighted agent. But we can still choose a suboptimal "better" answer in that slot. I don't know what is the right answer but I know it's not blight mamba, necropede, viridian corrupter, viridian betrayer or anything along those lines.
That's the thing about vines, it is only a groundswell if they tapout. If you plat it first kicked and it is your only protection spell in your hand you just made a rookie mistake. You have to play the stack with mono g, and that is what makes cathedral great. You shouldn't be facing emrakul turn 8 because the decks that play it only have red answers for your guys. Most of the time those answers are sorcery speed which nexus dodges and in those matchups apostle's blessing is your best friend.
If you can't play using the stack, then I suggest the other color combos because they are less stack dependent.
The stack is the reason GG and cathedral are so good in mono g.
i spent 2 paragraphs and multiple posts explaining how to "play the stack" in a more efficient manner than what you're doing. And i spent the rest of the post explaining how the deck the way you play it lacks tempo/synergy
you have all these things working against you going down the rabbit hole of wrong answers and sub-optimal plays that only work in very limited manners. I made the same mistakes you're making when i first threw together infect. been there done that, thinking oh cathedral +pendel is an amazing combo, omg ancient stirrings for inkmoth! and viridian corrupter main board because artifact hate!!
then i learned to think a little differently, if a single card does not perform 3 duties, or can be used as an "out" then i cut it. and it made the deck way way more reliable. about as reliable as infect will get.
roughly a 60% win rate.
turn 8 emurakul is slow for tron...
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1) Lets Inkmoth attack one turn earlier.
No Hierarch:
T1 land
T2 land, Scrying
T3 Inkmoth
T4 animate Inkmoth & attack
With Hierarch:
T1 land, Hierarch
T2 Scrying, Inkmoth
T3 animate Inkmoth & attack
2) Pays for Inkmoth's animation.
I'm thinking -2 Dismember, -2 Cathedral of War, +4 Noble Hierarch.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
If you are willing to add hierarch, why not also add blue? I have been playing with sylvan scrying since GP detroit, and hierarch is a huge help at making the card more effective.
Because, particularly I think that the UG version is better than the Monogreen.
Mono Green is much weaker than UGx or BGx. Since there are very few color issues in modern, it's gotta be budget.
I'm actually using RUG for Ghor-Clan (can't be spellskited, trample is amazing) and testing out Titan's Strength because I think scry 1 is interesting enough for a heavy aggro deck. And funny enough as a friend pointed out, you can let them spellskite titan's strength just so you can scry 1 if you're in a busted spot. I remember people saying that titan's strength is not as good due to bolt, but every time I had vines or apostle's blessing or some other spell in hand anyway. It's been doing good so far but i'm not 100% on it.
Reprint Opt for Modern!!
FREE DIG THOROUGH TIME!
PLAY MORE ROUGE DECKS!
Running 4 Cathedral of War is the main reason to go Mono Green. Over the course of a game you tend to accumulate multiple Cathedral of War/Pendelhaven, especially when running Sylvan Scrying. This results in games where every time you swing with an Infect creature it is a 3/3 or bigger, without even casting a pump spell. It helps win games that would otherwise have been lost.
In my case, I am not running Mono Green because of budget reasons, I am running it because of Cathedral of War. You could say that UG can win fast more consistently, while MonoG is better at converting longer games into wins, with the potential to be fast. Either way they are both viable, it is more about what suits your play style the most.
Also, 4 tormod's crypts seems excessive. Even when they work, they are typically mediocre. Relic is actually quite solid against goyf, and in my experience even better against living end. I am something like 8-0 against storm lifetime vs storm, its not a deck you need to devote a bunch of slots for in my opinion. Living end is bad though, so I agree you need some grave hate.
On a completely random sidetangent, some notes about playing monoU tron (and to a lesser extent other decks with remand). I saw you play shocktroopa twice on stream on your way to winning the premier, losing in the swiss. In your swiss loss you went for the win turn after turn, when attacking with multiple inkmoths would all but ensure victory. Some controlling style decks have very few ways to actually deal with inkmoth, and rely on cards like remand to dig for answers. If you simply dont cast spells, they cant dig. This is unusually relevant against Utron due to condescend. Well played in your top8 rematch and grats on the premier win.
They have a lot of burn based removal, which makes wild defiance and spellskite very good against them. Also, a couple dismember can eliminate their clock. Play conservatively and deal 1-2 infect at a time, building up for a 'big turn' where you have more 1 mana answers than they have 1 mana removal. Having enough mana is critical, and if they path your guys, you should end up with lots of mana. Use inkmoth nexus to attack through cryptic command (say you have glistener elf and go to attacks, if they try to tap draw or bounce draw, you can animate inkmoth and still attack, if they attempt to play around this using bounce+tap, you can animate inkmoth and cast apostle's blessing/vines which will not only counter the bounce, but the tap as well.
If you know you are againt UWR, dont be afraid to keep otherwise great hands without an infect guy, especially if you have a turn 2 wild defiance and/or spellskite. A lot of their spells trade 1 for 1, and they often simply flood out due to a higher land count. Sylvan scrying is a great card, as it lets you play an infect guy without being too vulnerable to burn based removal.
I play dismember, wild defiance, spellskite, etc all main, as there is a lot of UWR in my local meta. Ive found the matchup to be highly skill dependent, but against the best UWR at my store (kyle Boggemes, GP win and PT top8) we both agree the match is roughly 50/50.
The 4 Tormod's Crypt came about because of having tournament runs ruined by Living End and Goryo's Vengeance, and it is good against Storm too when you don't have any counterspells. If I know that I will be facing Living End, I sometimes run 2 Chalice of the Void and cast it for 0, because it counters Living End. It is so good being able to attack and pump without worrying about Violent Outburst.
Yeah that game against MonoU Tron was hilarious. I should definitely have just attacked with all my moths! It was quite amazing though how many times he survived lol. I also made a mistake against him where I let a Repeal that was targeting my Rancor resolve before casting my next pump, so he got the card draw. In that game it didn't make a difference, but with cards like that such as Repeal and Remand, if I am intending to keep pumping, I usually do so before they get the card draw (depending on the circumstances of course).
Edit: Where did you watch the stream?
Edit: Found it - http://www.twitch.tv/kharniverous
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Breeding Pool
2 Pendelhaven
4 Inkmoth Nexus
I am not sure how many basic forest and additional blue sources I should run. Ideally I would like to have 4 Verdant Catacoms and 2 basic forest but I don't know if 4 Verdant Catacombs will be in the budget right away after getting the Misty Rainforsts and Noble Hierarchs. I was thinking maybe some number of Yavimaya Coast and basic forest to round it out. I'm not sure I like Hinterland Harbor. It just seems like this deck has too many non islands/forests for it to enter untapped. Not to mention it's terrible turn one. So let me know what mana bases you all are using and how to finish mine out please.
So, you want at least 2 basics, and I prefer 3 forests. You want 9+ blue sources, depending on how many other blue cards you have main/side (twisted image/dispel/hurkyl's recall/spell pierce/etc). I currently run
4 verdant catacomb
4 breeding pool
3 forest
4 inkmoth nexus
2 pendlehaven
2 yavimaya coast
1 cathedral of war
The only 'budget' consideration is you probably want -2 breeding pool +2 misty rainforest. I run a spell pierce main, and sometimes you want to leave it up turn 1 without shocking yourself. Yavimaya coast as a 1-2 of can be great since its a way to play blighted agent while only giving up a single life, critical vs burn. With shock+fetch, you take 3 to get a blue source, and i find the 'average' damage you deal with coast is less than 3. Hinterland harbor is unplayable in infect.
On giant growth: I agree with its place in Ultra_Magnus' build. Infect needs *something* vs bolt. I prefer spellskite and wild defiance, but giant growth is better in a deck without hierarch (as they will often have already used their bolt on hierarch, and turn 2 wild defiance is much better than turn 3)
2 Pendelhaven
3 Verdant Catacombs
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Breeding Pool
2 Forest
4 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Island
I run 2 Forest and 1 Island because of decks that run Blood Moon for example.
I think you need to play the deck a little more before you make such a bold claim like that.
I know I started placing higher up at events here ( first second third etc) when I cut stuff like 2 cathedrals, 2 giant growth and tightened up my list a little.
I know what you're thinking, I thought the same.
" oh if he bolts me on my turn, I can cast the giant growth in response then swing 4!"
Doesn't work that way. Everybody who knows what their doing knows not to pick a fight with a Glistener elf on his turn.
Because if you attempt to path to exile that little thing, he's going to come out swinging with a kicked vines of vast wood.
The only thing an infect player wants to get rid of on their opponents turn is a apostles blessing.
The upside of having them discard an apostles blessing means that you can declare blockers or not have your damage prevented this turn with him shocking himself.
And if I was playing against infect, and I saw that he wasted 2 of his mana to fetch an Inkmoth that is not even a threat until turn 3/4 I know I pretty much have the game in the bag at that point. And he's pissing mana and running sub optimal pump, he's going to need 3 giant growth to end this rather than something effective in its spot.
Plus most modern decks can deal with taking 4 infect on turn 4, where the game ends for storm, affinity, and splinter twin. where you spent all your time and land to get a manland on turn 2. Then on turn 3 you spent 3 mana ( Inkmoth, something to power Inkmoth, and a forest) to swing for 4 infect after spending a whole turn 2 ( the scary one where infect wants to win) putting a damn land in your hand and giant growth ing it
All your examples smell of desperation, which is not this decks strong point. Inevitabilty is what it represents when running cathedral, giant growth, and sylvan scrying.
Also without GG how do you protect your creature from bolt with no blessing in hand? Vines? But you said using vines on opponents turn isn't great...how about path on their turn, how can you justify losing +4/+4 when vines is your only answer??? Easy, that's how. Don't tell me you just kick vines on blockers step as a pump when they have open mana up??? That's just silly.
There are so many things you want to spend that mana on. I run 2 myself but if something better comes along I would ideally cut that.
With this deck I can't afford to wait until turn 8. Otherwise I'm starring at an emurakuel and 0 infect on board.
I had the same crticism with people running the ancient stirrings attempting to make their deck more combo ish digging for a nexus.
The Inkmoth isn't your optimal play idk why you want to dedicate 4-8 slots digging for it. It helps, but keep in mind that for 1 infect you're paying a colorless ( Inkmoth itself) and the land to activate it....
Don't get me wrong I have had to mull to 4 and had to rely on that nexus when my opponent had a Goyf and a Lilliana of the veil on board (sac creature but Inkmoth is land when they do it) but I had to mutagenic growth a 1/1 more times than I care to admit to pull that win.
Ideally you will want to vines on your turn. That is basically a free groundswell and a grave misplay on their part if they do try to make some targeted removal moves on the turn you can swing. To make that clear that is a yes to your question.
If your best pump spell is a cathedral, giant growth and your optimal turn 2 is digging for a manland that isn't a threat for a full 2 maybe 3 turns. And you cut 4 threats in the deck to pull this "combo" the only inevitability is the deck falling on its face. Drawing into not of these weak answers then attributing it to " oh well infect is a coin flip" is a novice mistake.
The deck already has to do without the aspects of real infect where hand disruption, counterspells and fetch lands make it more consistent ( run 8 fetch lands, 8 shock and a few basics with Inkmoth, pendlehaven and dryad arbor) so we always have the risk of hitting one of our way too many for a modern deck basics.
Mono green does not have an answer to replace blighted agent. But we can still choose a suboptimal "better" answer in that slot. I don't know what is the right answer but I know it's not blight mamba, necropede, viridian corrupter, viridian betrayer or anything along those lines.
If you can't play using the stack, then I suggest the other color combos because they are less stack dependent.
The stack is the reason GG and cathedral are so good in mono g.
you have all these things working against you going down the rabbit hole of wrong answers and sub-optimal plays that only work in very limited manners. I made the same mistakes you're making when i first threw together infect. been there done that, thinking oh cathedral +pendel is an amazing combo, omg ancient stirrings for inkmoth! and viridian corrupter main board because artifact hate!!
then i learned to think a little differently, if a single card does not perform 3 duties, or can be used as an "out" then i cut it. and it made the deck way way more reliable. about as reliable as infect will get.
roughly a 60% win rate.
turn 8 emurakul is slow for tron...