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I've only just gotten into Magic, and of course I went and bought a large bundle of mostly commons. I loved the infect ability (once I worked out how it worked properly). I also had a Throne of Geth. I combined it with a Corpse Cur, and VOILA, infect death. I've changed my active deck since then, and it's not to this. This is kinda a testing ground for my hypothetical deck construction. And I want to see how much it costs, too. Did I mention it's legal in standard tournaments? Which like... no deck on here seems to be... apart from this one, of course.
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Its a decent start for a deck, but it does have hits weak spots. You don't really have anything in the way of creature removal, because your matches will get drawn out. The other option is to add some means of pumping your creatures. If you really really want to stick with proliferate, you could splice in spread the sickness. http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=221557 Another card that would be really good for you, given your proliferate heavy deck is virulent wound. Its a quick way to assure that your opponent gets a poison counter, in addition you will also have something to cast your first turn for one mana. http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=213777 Another card worth checking out is Hand of the Praetors. http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=215086
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Creature removal, eh? This was my plan for creature removal; summon lots of infect creatures, then use Contagion Engine or Contagion Clasp (Which each put a -1/-1 counter on creatures) then proliferate, and put more -1/-1 on them until they die. Corpse Cur can bring back another Corpse Cur from the grave, so if I have 2, then I can be really aggressive with them one at a time, because I just summon the other one and get the first one back from the graveyard. Ichor Rats is my way of making sure they have a poison counter on them. But it does have the draw-back of if they steal my proliferation card/s then I'm screwed. Spread the Sickness just costs too much mana for what it does in my opinion. I think I can deal with creatures fine once I get a -1/-1 counter on them. (Just for the record, -1/-1 counters can kill creatures, and so can any minus that reduces their toughness to 0 or less, like Grasp of Darkness) Hand or Praetors seems pretty good, but it's pretty pricy. None of the cards here are over $2 and only Contagion Engine and Everflowing Chalice is over $1 (at 3rd Coast Cards, I will look at other places, but this seems pretty good so far). My friends and I try to make the best decks for the best price.... except for one of us, but he's a dick...
i gotta say right now. Creature removal by proliferating -1/-1 counters often won't work fast enough. It works, but sometimes you need to kill a 4/4 IMMIEDETIELY because of its abilities and you can't spare the 4 mana to use either contagions. I would add a few doom blades or go for the throats, because ANY deck no matter what WILL benefit from them. Secondly, the deck is a very solid deck. If you want to make it a good deck or a great deck, sadly, your usually gonna have to buy a few cards that cost 4-5 bucks. Of course there are exceptions to this rule ^^ and who know, this could be one of those exceptions. Now for some cards i think you might want to check out: Phyrexian Vatmother. For 4 mana you get a 4/5 with infect for the small price of a poison counter a turn? I think thats great (unless you are fighting another infect deck, then its awful). I would get a few and use them, and take them out if you fight an opposing infect deck. The thing is also like only a buck. Phyrexian Crusader. All out amazing card, though pricey. its 6 bucks, but one of the best infect cards. Skithirix the Blight Dragon lol, 10-20 bucks depending where you buy XD Thats only if you want to really get serious, and you prolly don't even need it in most cases, though the thing is just a huge bomb that can normally get the finishing hit. But what i think you definetely need is go for the throats or doom blades. Lastly, one of my favorite cards is Skinrender. Why? it gives 3 -1/-1 counters on a creature which can kill a lot of creatures or significantely weaken them! You could also try mimic vat. Mimic Vat + Vatmother means you don't get the poison counter, and you get a 4/5 with infect and haste for 3 mana a turn. Or you could do it with ichorclaw rats. Or with your opponents creatures. happy deckbuilding!
and Virulent wound... maybe... you're right that I can use it for 1 mana, but it's also a card that's pretty pointless once I have a few infect creatures out. I wanted to see if I could incorporate Grafted Exoskeleton into this deck, but it would only really be useful on the Titans I could make, I might as well use Accorders Shield on my infect creatures, so they are harder to kill.
...and yes, I don't see the point of Grafted Exoskeleton with this deck as it is. Now, If you were to add some creature with a useful affect that doesn't already have infect, then I think it'd be pretty useful. Examples might be Black Knight (2/2 First Strike; 2B) or maybe Zulaport Enforcer (1/1; 1B and at level 3 it's 5/5 and can't be blocked except by black creatures). Maybe Accorder's Shield...but it's not aggressive enough for my tastes (although the vigilance could be useful). I would prefer something that contributes more directly to the goal of an infect deck, which is poison counters. Infect basically gives you twice as much life as your opponent. If you're going to play black, you should really get use to the idea of losing life yourself. Having twice as much life should make that pill easier to swallow. Not having vigilance probably wouldn't make me consider holding back a creature for defense. I would just take the damage from my opponent's attack feeling warm and fuzzy inside knowing that now he has one less blocker when it's my turn to attack.
I hope this doesn't sound overly critical or condescending...but this is just how I see things. I'm somewhat of a noob MTG player myself so some more experienced players might tell you to forget everything I'm about to say...and then you can make fun of me for being retarded :) I think you're missing the point (of a couple things). Virulent wound isn't to kill the creature...it's to put another poison counter on the player. So, it would work best once you have a few infect creatures out. Give the wound to target creature, then if it blocks and dies...poison counter. If it doesn't block...poison counter. If it's played on turn 1 on a */1 creature, then so much the better. Personally, I think you're kind of land heavy. Nearly half your deck is land. And then on top of that you have 4 Everflowing Chalices. I think you're being too harsh on Spread the Sickness. If for whatever reason you just can't bring yourself to use spread the sickness, at least put some sort of "destroy target creature" or "counter target [creature] spell." Black and Blue are FULL of these cards. If you go up against a a green deck that drops huge creatures on turn 3 or so...or buffs up a small creature even sooner, your simply not going to have enough time to proliferate it to death and it will just eat your creatures 1 by 1. So, they've used one spell to kill 3-5 of your creatures whereas you've used 3-5 spells to kill one of theirs and you are no closer to winning (i.e., you've added no poison counters...) Which is my final point...The power of proliferate + infect isn't the ability to kill creatures, if the ability to add another poison counter to your opponent (the creature deaths are just icing on the cake). So, you should take all the proliferate spells you can get. If they also destroy creatures in the process, so much the better. Multi-tasking is a good thing. And with all the mana production you have (30 cards...literally half your deck) you shouldn't really be whining about the cost of anything.
P.S. You might want to look at: Fuel for the Cause: 2U+{2}; Counter target spell then proliferate. Core Prowler: {4}; 2/2, infect, When Core Prowler is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, proliferate.
Maybe we just have different play styles... I was hoping to set up a sickness sort of deck. It probably won't be very fast, but it just slows the opponent down until they die. I understand what you are saying, I just think that having Plague Stinger and Ichor Rats (Ichor Rats instantly puts a poison counter on them) will be enough to get 1 poison counter on them. I don't like those two cards you said because they are 3-4 mana, and can only proliferate once. Inexorable Tides is the best one there, at 5 mana, and it will activate anytime I do anything. If I was going to try and remove a creature for 5 mana, I'd definitely use Corrupted Conscience (Steals their creature and gives it infect). In fact, I think I will.
And for plain creature removal, the good ol' "Terror", "Doom Blade" or "Go For the Throat" would be better, because I need to be able to remove them earlier than 5 mana.
P.S. I do need all that mana, because once I get a few proliferation engines out, I want to use more than 1 or 2 a turn. This deck CAN use a LOT of mana. And I need to apologise, I thought Trigon of Corruption was Trigon of Infestation. So I was thinking I'd have more creatures than I did...
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Here's the thing you are missing in what you said, you don't have tons of infect creatures to summon. You have 10. Yes corpse cur will bring any of them back, but they have to get into your graveyard before you can bring them back. Your trouble is going be getting them out in the first place. What's more is that they all have 2 toughness or less, that means they are dead pretty much the first time they are blocked (7of your 10 almost definitely are...) As for counting on contagion clasp and contagion engine to kill of creatures. I wouldn't count on it. If your opponent has a creature with 2 toughness, and you bring out your clasp on turn two. Turn four is the first time chance you get to kill it. Its just too slow. The trigon of corruption is good for this purpose. The point I think I was trying to make is that your deck looks like it will work well once you get the mana out to make it work. But, how are you going to survive until then. What's more is a lot of your opponent's decks will be in full gear by the time you get up and running. Also, if you want a cheap way to make your titans infect, check out phyresis: 1B+{1}: enchanted creature has infect. I also second vYzion in looking up core prowler. When combined with corpse cur you could get a lot of infect/proliferate action going.
I'm basing most of my opinion on what I'm getting when I draw sample hands. I'm basing the rest on how it will work on my friends. I know that the possibility of me proliferating one of their creatures to death annoys them, so they usually won't attack with their creature if I have an infect creature out (They're highly defensive). If I was to put in a core prowler what would I get rid of? And Core Prowler is 4 mana to proliferate once, and Inexorable tides is 5 mana to proliferate lots. Most green turn 3 creatures won't have reach, if I'm lucky, I'll get a 2 plague stingers or a plague stinger and a thrummingbird. I know that an outright aggro player is probably always going to beat me, unless they summon a strong creature and I use corrupted conscience on it. I'm making several decks on this website, ordering the cards I need and a few more, and I plan on changing this around if it doesn't work on my friends, so I can't be sure of how it will turn out. Also, like vYzion said, it's like I have twice as much health and they can't heal what I do, I only have to get 10 on them. It's a surprisingly small amount.
Titan Forge could be replaced, but I like the idea of summoning lots of 9/9 titans.
P.S Using Corpse Cur to bring back another Corpse Cur seems like a better plan to me, it means I always have a blocker with 2/2 and infect.
P.P.S I wonder if not using any proliferate and just using Grafted Exoskeleton on some unblockables and get a few more first strike creatures with infect would be a better way to ensure victory....
And how do you deal with e.g., Naturalize? Lots of green decks have it... Blue decks have umpteen ways to deal with artifacts and enchants as well. Certain red decks will devour your artifacts and lands both and deal you and/or your creatures direct damage in the process (i.e., you won't even have the chance to infect their creatures (if they even use creatures)). And you no way to stop any of it. You seem to think that attacking with creatures is the only thing your opponents can do. If you're just going to play your friends, then sure, tailor a deck to meet your needs there. But you did mention that this was tournament legal, which leads me (and others, I'm sure) to believe that you may want to play in tournaments with it. In tournaments, this is not going to work more than it is going to work.. Even without being an aggro deck, green decks are amazingly fast. They could pretty easily drop a that big creature on turn 3 (or sooner...long before you can play that enchant) and then Naturalize your attempt at enchanting it (once you're finally able to play it) or your contagion artifacts ...and you have nothing to stop the Naturalize. Good blue decks aren't even gonna let you cast any of your money-maker spells to begin with (and you have no way to stop them) and NO deck is going sit back while you pump out "lots of 9/9 Titans." It takes 3 turns per Titan, unless you can untap artifacts...which you have no way of doing. For things like Titan forge to work, you have to build a deck around it, specifically for the purpose of pumping out Titan after Titan. You can't just throw these things in there on a whim and expect results. If you don't like to play aggressive, then black is really not your color. Black is balls to the wall I'll kill myself before I let you beat me!! If you wanna sit back and chill while your opponent flounders around, you should look into white, if you want to control the pace of the game, then blue, but black is most likely not going to be able to deliver the type of game play you want.
Yeah, you're right. A burn deck would own this deck. But I'm not sure how I'd counter-act a burn deck using this idea. Someone with Naturalize COULD destroy ONE of my artifacts/enchantments. (And someone with Relic Crush could destroy 2). But then... unless I put in some Cancels, there's not much I can do about that... You're wrong about the Titan Forge... It uses counters to summon them, so I theoretically could have one out per turn (if I can manage 3 proliferates per turn, which would finish off any opponent pretty fast, so you're probably still right...) The Phyxian Crusader is so far my favourite of the cards suggested, but, it IS quite expensive... I'm still thinking about it, though... I know you guys think that this much mana is too much, but if the draw sample hand is right, then I'll spend my games not playing anything that can proliferate for 5-6 turns more often than not because I won't have enough mana. And I seem to never get the everflowing chalice in the draw sample hand. So... I'll drop some mana and Titan Forge, and put in "Go For The Throat" and "Cancel" for their relatively low mana cost and effectiveness...
Yeah, I just realised the stupidity of that comment on the 5-6 turns to proliferate... Maybe this idea just won't work?
The idea CAN work, but I don't see how it could be a budget deck. Right now, its more of a casual than anything, because as many people said, most tournament decks don't wait around. They either bring the game to a complete halt and don't let you do anything or kill you before you can :(
forgot to mention in my other comment, this deck is extremely slow. Most my decks win by turn 4-5. With no early game really, except your infect which against my decks (and a lot of others) really do absolutely nothing (ESPECIALLY my venser and burn deck). And just to clear something up: Having 30 mana over 24 is actually awful. Why? because after you've drawn all the mana you NEED or even want, your still gonna be drawing mana half the time. I think even 24 is a little much with your proliferate and chalice (you can proliferate the charge counters on chalice to make it even more effective). I'd lower the mana to 22 actually.
If I ever get to the stage where I have more mana then I want, either I'll have won because I'll be proliferating so very many times per turn, or they'll finish me off because they weakened me so much at the beginning. ...well... that's what I believe, anyway....
At this point I want to point out, I've only played about 30 games of Magic, with my friends, and we were all using nearly all commons and some uncommons, so I probably don't know what I'm talking about... but I'll say it anyway...
I know I'm talking for myself but I hope I am for others, but were not attacking you. Were trying to show you how your deck as it is won't work in tournaments and how to improve it (as this site was made for). I'm really happy you and your friends got into magic. If all you guys are using decks filled with commons and uncommons and are all decent (but not tournament-quality), then this deck should be able to do great. Thats how magic works: Sadly, to make some of the best decks, you gotta spend a lot of money, and a lot of people don't want to do that. When you say you want to keep this deck cheap, a lot of people think a cheap deck is like 30$. The deck has potential but if you ever want to go to tourneys your gonna HAVE to speed it up, put in a lot more removal, possibly some counters but with removal it isn't that necessary, and you would have to spend more money. Its how Wizards of the Coast makes a profit. I hope you find the right combo to make this a great deck within your playgroup! Thats what I do with my decks mostly, and because of how it turned out, most my decks have to win quickly because some of them are extremely competitive. I think what got most people off on how you wanted to keep your deck (casual vs. tournament) was your mentioning of that it was standard tournament-legal and thats why we all keep suggesting fast cards, removal cards, counter cards, pricey cards rather than cheap cards to help your deck in your playgroup. Happy Deckbuilding, I hope we see more decks from you and you stay into magic ^^
Cool deck, but think theres no goal with this deck, so whatabout 11/11 infect creature, you get out with profilerate on everflowing? Cool
Get this down to 60 cards
Hey there, I like that you got into Magic and immediately chose a mechanic like Proliferate to go with. Shows some ambition! Yet, Proliferate is ... iffy. In the end, you want to wind the game by killing your opponent, but how can Proliferate help you with that? Proliferate does a lot of things - it adds counters on creatures (killing them in the case of -1/-1 or boosting them in case of +1/+1 counters), permanents (Planeswalkers, Artifacts, Quests...) or players (Poison). Now, I would advise you to "streamline" this deck. Try to get 60 cards in your deck, and if you ever want to play this deck in a sanctioned environment (Friday Night Magic?), your sideboard needs to be exactly 15 cards. First of all, decide what you want to proliferate. It looks like you want to go Poison. I like. Thrummingbird, in that case, should be a 4-of, just like the Plague Stingers. The Ichor Rats I would replace with the Septic Rats. They give you a 3/3 for 3 with Infect, whereas the Ichor Rats are 2/1 for 3 that poison you aswell. That might blow against other Infect decks - and the creature is weaker, too. As for you Contagion Machines, how about you make it 4 Clasps and 2 Engines? That reduces your mana curve (basically, the indicator how much mana your deck needs ...) and allows you to use the Clasps as spot removal against pesky */1 or */2 creatures. Corrupted Conscience is iffy - it is, first of all, expensive. And you never know what you might get - a lot of players that have big gnarly beasts protect them, and those that don't often have just puny small creatures that combo - 5 Mana is a huge chunk. How about you look at more Poison instead? Virulent Wound is friend, as it gives a creature a -1/-1 counter, and if it dies that turn, it's controller gets a Poison counter! With that much proliferation going on, you should be able to put a hurtin' on a lot of bigger beasts. */4 Creature - Virulent Wound, Thrumming Bird attacks and hits, Contagion Engine activates - bamm. The 4/4 is dead and your enemy has +4 Poison counters. :) The Trigon of Corruption I would replace with Plague Myr (Mana Acceleration and/or Infect), as the Trigons happen to be quite slow and conditional. Also, the Plague Myr can be copied with the Mirrorworks, for more infect creatures on the board. If you can, try to acquire some dual lands. 2x Darkslick Shore, 2x Drowned Catacomb, 2x Creeping Tarpit sounds like a splendid idea. 2x Jwar Isle Refuge, if you feel like it. That should make sure that you avoid colour screw. Hope this helps! On a side note, I would appreciate some comments on my Red/Black Allies deck. :) http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=140209
You're definitely right about the Trigon. It's too mana heavy in an already mana heavy deck. I still don't know about virulent wounds... Plague Myr, however, perfect! I thought I had 4 of Plague Stinger and Thrumming Bird.... I want to have an answer for everything eventually. Contagion engine can take care of lots of small creatures. Corrupted Conscience is for if they get a single strong creature out. Or one with an effect I'd like to 'borrow'....
My word dual lands are expensive...
You say you have infect creatures, and you dont need virulent poison? You want to get them to 10 poison counters ASAP. Virulent Wound is a very nice card. Go for the throat a must. maybe nim's deathmantle may interest you. Phyrexian Crusader is amazing. Necropede also may flow with the style of your deck.
Mirrorworks and Trigon are way too slow. add some Vampire's Bite and Sign in Blood
Would you guys mind looking at mine? I'd like a few tips on this deck :D http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=151387
I run a deck very similar to this one, check my decks (multiplying contamination) for ideas =)
i say drop the go for the throat and get a grasp of darkness, it will take care of most things in your way and it removes the limit to go for the throats power if youre playing a metalcraft deck or anything artifact heavy, and other than that, i would say get 4 skinrenders for some creature control and plus if anything is substantially large in the toughness region like idk a blightsteel colosus or something, you can always prolif the -1/-1 counters on it with skinrender, it just allows for some tough spot removal, and gives you a 3/3 creature for 4? skinrender should just be a sorcery and it would be a uncommon haha
Okay, let's establish something here: Go for the Throat is a sideboard card. It's a creature killer against black. Doom Blade kills artifact creatures, too. In the Mirrodin Block, Doom Blade is stronger. Go for the Throat is the bomb in Extended/Limited, but in Standard, it is a sideboard card. Just because it's Uncommon doesn't mean it has to be mainboard over Doom Blade. No, you replace Doom Blades with GftT if you play against a black deck. That's it. Otherwise, Doom Blade will serve you better - because it can kill artifacts. Moving right along; you over compensate, seemingly. A 4-of is not always needed. Here are some switcheroo suggestions: -2 Mirrorworks (It slows you down) -2 Corrupted Conscience (It's too conditional and expensive to be mainboard) -1 Everflowing Chalice (3 do the trick) -4 Go for the Throat (see above) -1 Plague Myr -3 Ichor Rats -1 Inexorable Tide -1 Island +3 Ichorclaw Myr (He is the bomb as an attacker.) +3 Doom Blade (see above) +3 Septic Rats (beat Ichor Rats for the same CMC) +2 Into the Roil (bounce/card draw) Sideboard: 3x Flashfreeze (2 mana counter vs. green/red) 3x Go for the Throat (see above why) 3x Consume the Meek OR Black Sun's Zenith (clears the board against Weenie) 3x Elixir of Imortality (Lifegain / reverts Milling) 3x Nemesis Trap (vs. White. Quite the nifty card.) Hope this helps! :)
Nooo... no one seems to know why I like Ichor Rats, and then they all say; "you need to make sure you get a poison counter on them". Grah! I see what you mean about the sideboard, though. I need to make a sideboard that will counter each colour... I don't see what everyone's problem with Corrupted Conscience is. Contagion Engine and/or little infect creatures can deal with smaller creatures. I want to be able to take their trump card and use it on them... with infect. That's my plan. That's what I want to do... Elixir of Immortality is nice, but it kinda counters my Corpse Cur. I'd be better off with something else to gain life... which I suppose I might need to do... But I realised I misread Ichorclaw Myr. I thought it was the bomb as a defender. :P THAT'S going in.... I chose GftT because I didn't want to be stuck against Blacks, and pretty much all decks don't just use artifact creatures.
This deck screams black sun zenith. even if they lay a fattie and you can only put 2 -1/-1 counters on them you can polif them to dead. also, sign in blood. Cantrips will help alot and taht is the best one for black. always want to be +1 or more against anyone check out my deck and tell me what ya think http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=151925