Doing a little custom tournament soon...$10 deck from the TCG average price and only basic lands (which don't count as part of the cost). Everyone got assigned colors, I'm RG. My current thought is to go infect. Never played it, sounds fun. Here's where I'm at right now..
I'd love to get more Invigorates, but they're .79 per and I can't figure out how to fit more in the price limit. I opted to go with a bunch of trample buffs to help get through the chumps, looking for a T2 (best case), but more likely T3 or T4 win. Any thoughts?
Well, since you are allowed to use Invigorate you absolutely need to make that a four of no matter what. I also dislike Virulent Sliver in this deck, he is basically useless in my opinion. This deck is obviously going for the quick kill, so I would drop your creature count down to fourteen rather then sixteen and focus more on the spells.
I would suggest spells such as Groundswell and or Mutagenic Growth which may be cheap. It's a shame about the $10.00 cap because in most cases a T2 win will come at the hands of Rancor.
I completely agree with XBM about Virulent Sliver. No matter how big you pump Virulent Sliver he will still only give one poison counter to your opponent. It's a complete waste in your list.
Also, are you allowed a sideboard? How does that fit into the budget if you are allowed one? Your main deck has a lot of cards that are more for a sideboard than the main deck. Perhaps you can drop those cards for more quality pump spells.
Woah, totally failed to see poisonous does not equal infect. It's gone. Rancor's definitely out of the price range, and the Invigorates are tough to squeeze in. I just can't figure out how to cut things to make 4 of them work. Other than the Ichorclaw Myr (41 cents) and Nature's Claim (31 cents, everything else is under 25 cents. Not much fat to cut for more Invigorates. If I go with Naturalize instead of Nature's Claim, I'm still 89 cents too high. You can see my pricing problems here.
I can have a sideboard, but it counts against the $10 cap. I was thinking to try and make the best deck I can as opposed to have multiple lesser decks with the sideboard.
Hang on a second, if you are using that website then why are you going by the average price? It's Pauper so realistically the condition of the cards shouldn't matter. Just go by the lowest cost and you can fit in whatever you want. If they didn't stipulate that then I suggest doing that.
I can have a sideboard, but it comes out of the $10 total. I figured I'd rather just roll with 60 cards than have dead money sitting in the sideboard.
I completely failed to read the poisonous text, I'm an idiot. The sliver's out. As for the Invigorates, there just isn't much to cut. With only have 18 lands, I've got a lot of cards that count against the limit. I've only got about 0.24/card to spend, and cards don't get much cheaper than 0.12-0.15. If I drop the Flame Slash to a Shock, trade the Nature's Claim out for Naturalize, and get rid of the Ichorclaw Myr (which I really want to have, I feel like 8 infecters is not enough), I can get close. I'm also going back and forth between Predator's Strike and Mutagenic Growth. I'm a big fan of the trample, but the free cast for mutagenic is great. Doing all that, I could get 3 Invigorates and 3 Groundswells, which isn't bad. Would look like this....
Now I think you lack enough creatures to make your list viable. You're going to have a handful of buffs and nothing to use it on or you're gonna mull down until you get creatures. You only have 8 infect creatures so I'd drop Llanowar Augur for Ichorclaw Myr since you already have plenty of pump spells and try and squeeze in 2 Rot Wolfs to give you a bit of card advantage too.
Honestly I'd work on making this the fastest list you can. I'd bring your Apostle's Blessings up to 4 and drop Ranger's Guile to give you more room. Drop Naturalize because you want to win within the first few turns and if you've gone past that then you've lost anyway so Naturalize won't help at all. Up the count on your free pumps like Invigorate and Mutagenic Growth. Then drop your burn spells for 4 Lightning Bolt and 2 Flame Slash since those are more efficient.
If you do need a bit of help in later turns you can always try Goblin Tunneler for some unblockable damage (which is very important for the G/U infect decks).
Round 1 was a match against a UR aggro deck with Delver of Secrets, Nivix Cyclops, and Wee Dragonauts. The first game, I mull'ed to 5, never saw an infect creature, and lost quickly. Game 2 I won on turn 4 with no problem, and game 3 was a grind. He got an Insectile Aberration protected with Clout of the Dominus that I outraced by 1 turn for the win. Whew!
2nd round was against a GW lifegain/big creature deck. Poor guy didn't stand a chance.
The championship was against a BR creature destruction deck. Pretty much my worst nightmare. First game, we both mull to 5, I've got no creatures and he's got no land. I drew and infecter after like 5 turns, he never saw a land. Game 2, he puts out a Goblin Arsonist, which slowed me down a bit. Then he had enough direct damage and burn to get rid of my creatures and I couldn't get back in to it. The final game came down to the very end. He burned away or destroyed my Glistener Elfs, but I had 2 Blight Mambas that I kept regenerating and getting a poison counter or two through every now and then. He had 2 Bump in the Nights that he played and flashed back, taking me to 3 life. If he had one more or a bolt, I was done. However, he ran dry, I topdecked a Colossal Might, and it was over. Came down to the wire.
Thanks for all the help! This deck ended up being very strong. If I didn't have the $10 limit and could flesh it out with 2 more Invigorates and some Lightning Bolts, it'd be formidable under most any casual setting, I think, not just in pauper.
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Doing a little custom tournament soon...$10 deck from the TCG average price and only basic lands (which don't count as part of the cost). Everyone got assigned colors, I'm RG. My current thought is to go infect. Never played it, sounds fun. Here's where I'm at right now..
2 Blight Mamba
4 Glistener Elf
2 Ichorclaw Myr
4 Llanowar Augur
4 Virulent Sliver
4 Assault Strobe
2 Colossal Might
2 Invigorate
4 Predator's Strike
Protection
4 Ranger's Guile
2 Apostle's Blessing
2 Nature's Claim
2 Electrostatic Bolt
4 Flame Slash
Land
11 Forest
7 Mountain
I'd love to get more Invigorates, but they're .79 per and I can't figure out how to fit more in the price limit. I opted to go with a bunch of trample buffs to help get through the chumps, looking for a T2 (best case), but more likely T3 or T4 win. Any thoughts?
I would suggest spells such as Groundswell and or Mutagenic Growth which may be cheap. It's a shame about the $10.00 cap because in most cases a T2 win will come at the hands of Rancor.
W White Weenie
Also, are you allowed a sideboard? How does that fit into the budget if you are allowed one? Your main deck has a lot of cards that are more for a sideboard than the main deck. Perhaps you can drop those cards for more quality pump spells.
I can have a sideboard, but it counts against the $10 cap. I was thinking to try and make the best deck I can as opposed to have multiple lesser decks with the sideboard.
W White Weenie
I completely failed to read the poisonous text, I'm an idiot. The sliver's out. As for the Invigorates, there just isn't much to cut. With only have 18 lands, I've got a lot of cards that count against the limit. I've only got about 0.24/card to spend, and cards don't get much cheaper than 0.12-0.15. If I drop the Flame Slash to a Shock, trade the Nature's Claim out for Naturalize, and get rid of the Ichorclaw Myr (which I really want to have, I feel like 8 infecters is not enough), I can get close. I'm also going back and forth between Predator's Strike and Mutagenic Growth. I'm a big fan of the trample, but the free cast for mutagenic is great. Doing all that, I could get 3 Invigorates and 3 Groundswells, which isn't bad. Would look like this....
4 Blight Mamba
4 Glistener Elf
4 Llanowar Augur
Buffs
4 Assault Strobe
4 Colossal Might
3 Groundswell
3 Invigorate
2 Mutagenic Growth
2 Naturalize
2 Apostle's Blessing
4 Ranger's Guile
Burn
4 Electrostatic Bolt
2 Shock
11 Forest
7 Mountain
See the TCG deck with prices here.
Honestly I'd work on making this the fastest list you can. I'd bring your Apostle's Blessings up to 4 and drop Ranger's Guile to give you more room. Drop Naturalize because you want to win within the first few turns and if you've gone past that then you've lost anyway so Naturalize won't help at all. Up the count on your free pumps like Invigorate and Mutagenic Growth. Then drop your burn spells for 4 Lightning Bolt and 2 Flame Slash since those are more efficient.
If you do need a bit of help in later turns you can always try Goblin Tunneler for some unblockable damage (which is very important for the G/U infect decks).
4 Blight Mamba
4 Glistener Elf
2 Ichorclaw Myr
4 Llanowar Augur
2 Goblin Tunneler
4 Assault Strobe
4 Colossal Might
2 Invigorate
2 Mutagenic Growth
Protection
2 Ranger's Guile
4 Apostle's Blessing
1 Naturalize
3 Electrostatic Bolt
3 Flame Slash
Land
11 Forest
8 Mountain
I ended up going 2-1, 2-0, and 2-1.
Round 1 was a match against a UR aggro deck with Delver of Secrets, Nivix Cyclops, and Wee Dragonauts. The first game, I mull'ed to 5, never saw an infect creature, and lost quickly. Game 2 I won on turn 4 with no problem, and game 3 was a grind. He got an Insectile Aberration protected with Clout of the Dominus that I outraced by 1 turn for the win. Whew!
2nd round was against a GW lifegain/big creature deck. Poor guy didn't stand a chance.
The championship was against a BR creature destruction deck. Pretty much my worst nightmare. First game, we both mull to 5, I've got no creatures and he's got no land. I drew and infecter after like 5 turns, he never saw a land. Game 2, he puts out a Goblin Arsonist, which slowed me down a bit. Then he had enough direct damage and burn to get rid of my creatures and I couldn't get back in to it. The final game came down to the very end. He burned away or destroyed my Glistener Elfs, but I had 2 Blight Mambas that I kept regenerating and getting a poison counter or two through every now and then. He had 2 Bump in the Nights that he played and flashed back, taking me to 3 life. If he had one more or a bolt, I was done. However, he ran dry, I topdecked a Colossal Might, and it was over. Came down to the wire.
Thanks for all the help! This deck ended up being very strong. If I didn't have the $10 limit and could flesh it out with 2 more Invigorates and some Lightning Bolts, it'd be formidable under most any casual setting, I think, not just in pauper.