Defense's utility really makes me want to play around with the balance of the deck more. I feel like it weakens the need for Blessing a little bit and possibly increases the usefulness of Strike or Slip. It feels like, at least for me in my meta, there are 2 or 3 cards I want to play around with now with regard to total count of Blessing, Strike, Pierce and Image.
I'm picking up the deck again after an extensive lay off (had a child so priorities and opportunities had to change unfortunately.
Can someone help out with a rough sideboard guide for the major archetypes to get me back up to speed with everything?
On page 140 there is a good guide that can help you.
Feeling that there would be a lot of decks with Red and/or White, yesterday played the BG infect. Did 4-0.
2-0 vs Boros Burn
2-1 vs Affinity
2-0 vs Junk
2-1 vs UR
Let see what happen tomorrow if I play the Simic or Golgari infect. Only to say that I have more fun with the BG infect than UG.
Is it ok if you could post BG infect deck list? I used to play BUG infect back in 2014 and would like to try the deck again.
A couple of notes for personal preferences in the deck:
1. 3 BI only since I never wanted multiples of it.
2. Groundswell over Might of Old Krosa for me for instant-speed applicability. Rarely was it relevant that I'm unable to fetch and I know how to save them for when I need it.
Can't really play in big local events lately due to medical school + qualifying for PPTQ Dublin Looking forward to testing it in tourneys soon.
I have to say, I didn't notice the lack of Skite anywhere in the 75 at first glance.
The 2-of Defiance in the board is a little surprising; I wonder what the motivation was there.
It seems like Infect might be growing a little in the meta; I think it had the 3rd highest presence at SCG Orlando and there were 4 Infect in the top 16 at this event. Given that, you'd think you'd really want Skite in the sideboard, but then again, he took first, so who knows.
Have tweaked my deck a little to more closly reflect his. Thinking about running 1 spellskite in the main and running 19 lands. As it was i was running 19 lands plus a dryad arbor so i cut the arbor and to help make room for some of the changes needed.
Wild defiance looks like its game against jund,junk,grixus or anyone else that has more midgame against us and plays a lot of removal.
Ill be trying 3x blossoming defense mb and 2x distortion strike the same as him.
Wild defiance also fills the roll of being good against opposing Spellskite/Melira/Chalice by just powering through them, so if you are unsure what hate is brought in, it's a solid go to.
Their hands with turn 1 Delver are pretty annoying. They then only have to take care of Blighted Agent and can proceed to play on their terms, chipping in dmg whenever they can or staying back to block and threaten a 2 for 1 if we go for it. The cheap removal/counter suite and KCommand are also annoying, I'd say it's a bit better for us than Jund due to the lack of/reduced discard, it's still no walk in the park.
I am currently running a single Apostle's Blessing but I doubt I'll go lower, I've always loved the card.
Against Valakut the most versatile thing imo is dismember. They run a melira in the side to get with Summoner's Pact and sometimes Spellskite. Dismember can also remove a Sakura/Courser out of the way to get Glistener Elf through.
Other than that I bring in the spell pierce, it's the most versatile to deal with bolt/chalice/ramp/anger/pact. I just mostly hope to dodge Chalice or be lucky enough to either counter it or have a become immense in hand.
I'm always skeptical of bringing in Dispel/Corrupter/Wild Defiance since the latter two are a bit slow and the Dispel/Corrupter are situational. Dispel is really good for pact though which might be worth it over one of the pierce.
Edit: I was just checking out the most recent successful Valakut lists and they run a mix of Spellskite/Melira/Sudden Shock/Chalice in the SB, every list differs a bit but those are mainly it, plus the usual Bolt/Anger. If you have no clue which hate he has then Wild Defiance is the most versatile card by far, it helps against everything except Anger.
Do you guys have room for Apostle's Blessing ? I've seen that Brad Carpenter's list doesn't run any and I've to say that I wished I had it more than once (I also love the card but there is no logical explanation behind this)
But he runs 2 Distortion Stikes. One of the excuses to keep the apostle's blessing is that gives also the possibility to bypass creatures of the opponent. With the extra DS is the possibility to do it two turns more.
And Blessing can be cast of an Inkmoth Nexus.
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Legacy - Reanimator
Modern - Burn
EDH - Neheb the Eternal
Today I went to a 5 round + top 8 tournament and went 6-1 with an ID in the finals. I tested blossoming defense for the first time as a 2-of and it actually won me two games so I enjoyed it alot. The versatility it provided as pump and protection against QC/Fulminator/generic removal, and the +1 Distortion Strike felt great. Additionally, since BD reads target creature you control it cannot be redirected to spellskite, giving us a pump/protection to finish off games when facing Spellskite.
I lost the first one against Abzan Evolution to then win 6 in a row vs UTron/Scapeshift/Jund/Ad Nauseam/Abzan CoCo/Abzan.
Today I went to a 5 round + top 8 tournament and went 6-1 with an ID in the finals. I tested blossoming defense for the first time as a 2-of and it actually won me two games so I enjoyed it alot. The versatility it provided as pump and protection against QC/Fulminator/generic removal, and the +1 Distortion Strike felt great. Additionally, since BD reads target creature you control it cannot be redirected to spellskite, giving us a pump/protection to finish off games when facing Spellskite.
I lost the first one against Abzan Evolution to then win 6 in a row vs UTron/Scapeshift/Jund/Ad Nauseam/Abzan CoCo/Abzan.
Damn, way to do some work against Jund, Abzan CoCo and Abzan.
Anything you can share with us about those matchups since they're traditionally quite difficult for us?
Well,for starters I was on the play against all 3 which helps alot the abzan coco and abzan were in the top 8 where I had better standings so I went first.
All of those matchups have different nuances when playing against but basically hope you either have a stellar hand or that yours is, compatible, so to say, against your opponents hand. If you are relying on a blighted agent/glistener and he has the discard there is not much you can do.
To give an example of this, my second game after being up 1-0 against abzan, I mulled to 6 and kept something along the line of - glistener elf, 2 lands, spell pierce, blossoming defense, vines. My opponent didn't have the discard and just passed turn 1 with a tapped land, to which I played a fetch and passed with spell pierce up. He played a grim flayer turn 2 and I played the glistener elf with another fetch. My opponent decided to test the waters before atking with grim flayer (he was afraid of mutagenic + block with protection backup) and decay'd him, and I cast Blossoming Defense which royally screwed him since he couldn't atk through the elf anymore if he wanted. On my turn I untapped, played a pendelhaven and forced a chump block with grim flayer since I could've had lethal in hand. The pendelhaven went on to be crucial since he had lingering souls as a follow up and I ended up drawing 2 inkmoth later on.
Other than that, you just need to play flawlessly against any interactive deck, since any minor slip up can lose you the game. Know how to SB and learn which opposing deck packs which hate, know your deck and your outs in certain situations by heart and play to them, know how to read your opponent (example: your opponent had white mana available and could've tried to path your creature on your eot, does this mean he doesn't have it? highly likely it does, or it's his only removal). Generally, having alot of experience in modern and in these harder matchups helps alot.
Copied brian's list, and it has been stellar. 4-0'd competitive modern
I like the blossoming defense in conjunction with distortion strike. It does most of the same work that apostle's blessing but also turns and lets you go on the offense with it. The only 2 concessions you give up when switching out apostle's blessing for defense are as follows:
Inkmoth is less likely to help you cast anything except (become immense, blighted agent, activate other inkmoths, dismember)
you are softer to red based 3+ damage mass removal (anger of the gods)
what you get:
pump that gets around spellskite
versatile attack and defense spell
I will be testing it further but as from my limited testing it has been very good.
I've been testing what I call the "max-protect" version of Infect, and it's been performing very well thus far (undefeated thus far, and that includes 2-0 vs. Jund and 1-0 vs. Delver). Here's what I'm running:
I was just wondering what people thought about it. I honestly haven't sided the Spellskite in much at all, and I'm considering cutting it for something like a Wild Defiance. Any opinions on that?
My most recent build is:
4 Glistener Elf
4 Blight Agent
4 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Noble Hierarch
Utility Spells
4 Gitaxian Probe
2 Twisted Image
1 Spell Pierce
2 Apostle's Blessing
1 Distortion Strike
Pumps
4 Vines of Vastwood
4 Mutagenic Growth
4 Blossoming Defense
4 Might of Old Krosa
3 Become Immense
2 Forest
2 Breeding Pool
2 Pendlehaven
3 Windswept Heath
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Wooded Foothills
1 Dismember
1 Dryad Arbor
3 Kitchen Finks
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Spell Pierce
1 Slip Through Space
2 Spellskite
1 Viridian Corrupter
2 Nature's Claim
Defense's utility really makes me want to play around with the balance of the deck more. I feel like it weakens the need for Blessing a little bit and possibly increases the usefulness of Strike or Slip. It feels like, at least for me in my meta, there are 2 or 3 cards I want to play around with now with regard to total count of Blessing, Strike, Pierce and Image.
Want to be a better Magic player? Read the rulings forum and check out the comprehensive rules!
Want to be a better Magic player? Read the rulings forum and check out the comprehensive rules!
Is it ok if you could post BG infect deck list? I used to play BUG infect back in 2014 and would like to try the deck again.
4x Glistener Elf
4x Blighted Agent
4x Gitaxian Probe
4x Mutagenic Growth
4x Blossoming Defense
4x Groundswell
4x Vines of Vastwood
3x Become Immense
2x Apostle's Blessing
2x Distortion Strike
1x Spell Pierce
4x Windswept Heath
4x Wooded Foothills
1x Misty Rainforest
2x Breeding Pool
2x Forest
2x Pendelhaven
3x Dismember
1x Spell Pierce
2x Dispel
2x Twisted Image
2x Nature's Claim
1x Deglamer
1x Viridian Corrupter
1x Grafdigger's Cage
2x Spellskite
A couple of notes for personal preferences in the deck:
1. 3 BI only since I never wanted multiples of it.
2. Groundswell over Might of Old Krosa for me for instant-speed applicability. Rarely was it relevant that I'm unable to fetch and I know how to save them for when I need it.
Can't really play in big local events lately due to medical school + qualifying for PPTQ Dublin Looking forward to testing it in tourneys soon.
Want to be a better Magic player? Read the rulings forum and check out the comprehensive rules!
4 Blighted Agent
4 Glistener Elf
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Dryad Arbor
2 Forest
2 Breeding Pool
4 Inkmoth Nexus
3 Verdant Catacombs
3 Windswept Heath
3 Wooded Foothills
2 Pendelhaven
4 Become Immense
3 Blossoming Defense
1 Dismember
4 Might of Old Krosa
4 Mutagenic Growth
1 Spell Pierce
1 Twisted Image
4 Vines of Vastwood
2 Distortion Strike
4 Gitaxian Probe
Sideboard
3 Kitchen Finks
1 Viridian Corrupter
2 Wild Defiance
2 Dismember
1 Dispel
2 Nature's Claim
2 Spell Pierce
2 Twisted Image
also, Hi...im new here. currently still building my Infect Deck.
The 2-of Defiance in the board is a little surprising; I wonder what the motivation was there.
It seems like Infect might be growing a little in the meta; I think it had the 3rd highest presence at SCG Orlando and there were 4 Infect in the top 16 at this event. Given that, you'd think you'd really want Skite in the sideboard, but then again, he took first, so who knows.
Want to be a better Magic player? Read the rulings forum and check out the comprehensive rules!
The choices are a little off the norm but that may have been part of the decision
Have tweaked my deck a little to more closly reflect his. Thinking about running 1 spellskite in the main and running 19 lands. As it was i was running 19 lands plus a dryad arbor so i cut the arbor and to help make room for some of the changes needed.
Wild defiance looks like its game against jund,junk,grixus or anyone else that has more midgame against us and plays a lot of removal.
Ill be trying 3x blossoming defense mb and 2x distortion strike the same as him.
LOLOL :)) I forgot I have 1 Dryad Arbor maindeck haha
It seems like it's creeping back into the running a little bit from what I can see.
It doesn't seem like it should be much worse than Jund, but I haven't played against it much.
Want to be a better Magic player? Read the rulings forum and check out the comprehensive rules!
Against Valakut the most versatile thing imo is dismember. They run a melira in the side to get with Summoner's Pact and sometimes Spellskite. Dismember can also remove a Sakura/Courser out of the way to get Glistener Elf through.
Other than that I bring in the spell pierce, it's the most versatile to deal with bolt/chalice/ramp/anger/pact. I just mostly hope to dodge Chalice or be lucky enough to either counter it or have a become immense in hand.
I'm always skeptical of bringing in Dispel/Corrupter/Wild Defiance since the latter two are a bit slow and the Dispel/Corrupter are situational. Dispel is really good for pact though which might be worth it over one of the pierce.
Edit: I was just checking out the most recent successful Valakut lists and they run a mix of Spellskite/Melira/Sudden Shock/Chalice in the SB, every list differs a bit but those are mainly it, plus the usual Bolt/Anger. If you have no clue which hate he has then Wild Defiance is the most versatile card by far, it helps against everything except Anger.
And Blessing can be cast of an Inkmoth Nexus.
Modern - Burn
EDH - Neheb the Eternal
I lost the first one against Abzan Evolution to then win 6 in a row vs UTron/Scapeshift/Jund/Ad Nauseam/Abzan CoCo/Abzan.
Damn, way to do some work against Jund, Abzan CoCo and Abzan.
Anything you can share with us about those matchups since they're traditionally quite difficult for us?
Want to be a better Magic player? Read the rulings forum and check out the comprehensive rules!
All of those matchups have different nuances when playing against but basically hope you either have a stellar hand or that yours is, compatible, so to say, against your opponents hand. If you are relying on a blighted agent/glistener and he has the discard there is not much you can do.
To give an example of this, my second game after being up 1-0 against abzan, I mulled to 6 and kept something along the line of - glistener elf, 2 lands, spell pierce, blossoming defense, vines. My opponent didn't have the discard and just passed turn 1 with a tapped land, to which I played a fetch and passed with spell pierce up. He played a grim flayer turn 2 and I played the glistener elf with another fetch. My opponent decided to test the waters before atking with grim flayer (he was afraid of mutagenic + block with protection backup) and decay'd him, and I cast Blossoming Defense which royally screwed him since he couldn't atk through the elf anymore if he wanted. On my turn I untapped, played a pendelhaven and forced a chump block with grim flayer since I could've had lethal in hand. The pendelhaven went on to be crucial since he had lingering souls as a follow up and I ended up drawing 2 inkmoth later on.
Other than that, you just need to play flawlessly against any interactive deck, since any minor slip up can lose you the game. Know how to SB and learn which opposing deck packs which hate, know your deck and your outs in certain situations by heart and play to them, know how to read your opponent (example: your opponent had white mana available and could've tried to path your creature on your eot, does this mean he doesn't have it? highly likely it does, or it's his only removal). Generally, having alot of experience in modern and in these harder matchups helps alot.
I like the blossoming defense in conjunction with distortion strike. It does most of the same work that apostle's blessing but also turns and lets you go on the offense with it. The only 2 concessions you give up when switching out apostle's blessing for defense are as follows:
Inkmoth is less likely to help you cast anything except (become immense, blighted agent, activate other inkmoths, dismember)
you are softer to red based 3+ damage mass removal (anger of the gods)
what you get:
pump that gets around spellskite
versatile attack and defense spell
I will be testing it further but as from my limited testing it has been very good.
I've been testing what I call the "max-protect" version of Infect, and it's been performing very well thus far (undefeated thus far, and that includes 2-0 vs. Jund and 1-0 vs. Delver). Here's what I'm running:
4 Blighted Agent
4 Glistener Elf
4 Noble Hierarch
Instants (22)
2 Apostle's Blessing
4 Become Immense
4 Blossoming Defense
4 Might of Old Krosa
4 Mutagenic Growth
4 Vines of Vastwood
2 Distortion Strike
4 Gitaxian Probe
Lands (20)
2 Botanical Sanctum
2 Breeding Pool
2 Forest
4 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Pendelhaven
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Dismember
2 Dispel
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Nature's Claim
2 Spell Pierce
2 Spellskite
2 Viridian Corrupter
I was just wondering what people thought about it. I honestly haven't sided the Spellskite in much at all, and I'm considering cutting it for something like a Wild Defiance. Any opinions on that?
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers: