purkle

hey there.

i've got 4x assault strobe in the sideboard, my friend =)

i've only got 1x concussive bolt for unusual matchups against people with large defenses or perhaps control decks.. hero of oxid ridge doesn't deal infect damage, and also doesn't affect larger creatures.

it's a super-duper card, make no mistake... i'm just not sure it fits in this particular deck, my friend.

heyhey. yes i'm well aware of what double strike does.... but on top of dealing normal damage you also get to deal first strike damage, which is the real deal-breaker... shrinking their dude before they can deal damage is seriously good stuff.

which is why i was focusing on first strike more than anything. that's the real reason i'm using assault strobe.

at 21 lands, it seems to perform well. haven't had any obvious trouble mana-wise yet, even after 30 or so games.
24 is a bit land-heavy for a deck that is mostly colourless.
and more than 24 is just ridiculous anyway, lol.

it was 22 originally, but i took one out and replaced it for a fourth plague myr.

unfortunately not extended legal... but i love the card.

only ever owned two of them, but used to play them in everything i possibly could.

i did kinda notice, yeah.

but hey... imitation is the greatest form of flattery, lol.

tested signal pest a lot actually... initially it seemed like a good deal for one mana. the main problem was that it doesn't contribute to infect damage, making it essentially a very-easily-removable battle cry mechanic, and also you're using 4 slots on the deck which could be spent on something much more game-breaking.

on more than one occasion, i drew two signal pests and a tempered steel in my opening hand... not good my friend.

in a quest for the holy relic deck, signal pest is fricking awesome. it doesn't fit here though, unfortunately.

dude. knowledge pool.

seriously =).

i've got some experience with mill, and there's a couple of things a mill deck needs and i'll explain why:

1) counterspells. this is to push through your mill spells or protect your life total (or board position)
2) board control i.e. walls or bounce. this is to keep the board clear. losing to a turn three kiln fiend is not pleasant.
3) card draw. you'll very quickly find yourself running out of gas in a mill deck. once that mind funeral's gone from your hand you'll be scrabbling for answers.
4) possibly some discard. this helps control their hand and force them to top-deck which in some cases can really save your bacon.


the problem with pure mill is that even when you've nearly killed your opponent, they'll still be working at optimum efficiency. milling cards doesn't stop them from drawing good spells from what's left of their library and it does nothing to control the board. you'll find yourself quickly overrun, and any creatures you DO lay will be forced to chump block.

so i would suggest:
3x spell pierce
3x mana leak
4x preordain
4x inquisition of kozilek/duress.
4x spreading seas (control their mana base, shut off valakut & man lands, card draw)

and then once you've got that solid controlling base, put in all your mill spells.

finally, twincast is strictly worse than a mill spell because it requires you to have another one in your hand. sometimes (quite frequently) you'll draw twincast with no other relevant spell and really kick yourself. i would advise putting another mill spell in there instead, so no matter what you draw, you'll always have some gas.

update for you guys:

Oust (which originally took Condemn's spot) has been provisionally replaced by condemn.... the reason being that sorcery speed removal can't target man-lands (something which i've come across on a few occasions). even though oust is a better offensive removal spell (getting rid of blockers) i found that i only really needed to remove creatures once they became a threat (i.e. when they attack). it can also make for a good combat swing in your favour if your opponent wasn't expecting it... remove their guy, double block. simples.

nim deathmantle..... maaan i wish i could evaluate this card better. the problem i have is that 4 mana is a lot to leave open, and it suffers from the same problems as mimic vat (i.e. you have to already have creatures on the board for it to work).... often i would drop a mimic vat before a creature just to get the imprint effect, thus slowing down my creature drops by an entire turn.... true that the mantle comes down a lot earlier than the vat, but it requires a fairly obvious 4-open-mana to use, and your opponent will be able to see this.

top-decking mimic vat or nim deathmantle with an empty board is just sigh-worthy. whereas top-decking corpse cur mid-game with an empty board is a large swing in your favour.

it needs testing, but i'm still thinking that corpse cur (while less flashy) is probably the better card.

splinter twin is nice. the only downside is that it doesn't actually do anything by itself. if you have an empty board and draw this, good luck! you've just got a dead draw.

also, for copying 2 mana 1/1s it seems a bit overcosted. i'd much rather just run more 1/1s maindeck.

mimic vat is nice but i felt that (compared to my white deck) this one needed a little extra speed. mimic vat lends itself to slower games as the 3-mana investment per-activation (ideally per-turn) is actually pretty tough to maintain in this deck until the late game.

instead, i went for some straight-up cheap removal and cheap efficient tempered-steel targets.

nim deathmantle was a card i originally rated very high in the Scars set... but then subsequently forgot about completely.

i'd say that 4 mana is potentially too much for this effect, but i'll need to test it out. true that corpse cur gives a gravedigger effect for the same mana cost, but it doesn't require any other creatures to be on the board. it's a tricky comparison. one brings a creature back from the graveyard into play but a cost has to be paid during combat. the other can be main-phased, provides a creature and a raise dead effect, but in dire need can be dropped as a vanilla creature.

tricky.

i'd like to try it out. i'll call my buddy, see if he's got a couple in his binder.

heyhey. commented on your deck.

thanks for your praise!

heyhey.

yeah i think it's an overlooked resource for denying your opponent *their* resources.

tumble magnets are the bomb =).

haha bonesaw just makes me laugh whenever i see it =).

i've always been more of a fan of Shuko, but hey that's just me. i like crazy cards.

that's fair enough. i understand the sentiment.

it may be worth putting this in the description though =).


oh and also, from teaching a few of my friends to play, one thing they found necessary to grasp the strategies behind a deck and the basic principles of play, is consistency within the deck they are playing.

for example, if the deck tries to do too many things, it can often be too much to expect a new player to be able to dissect all the uses of the cards in the deck.

with this in mind, i'd still recommend dropping signal pest for necropede. it gives that little bit more consistency in dropping an infect 'dude' and strengthens the main theme of the deck.

thanks.
yeah i've been on a bit of a roll with infect. my aim was to push the boundaries of how to use it effectively.

arguably, this deck doesn't contain any "secret tech", but it's far enough away from the kitchen table "giant growth" decks to be interesting.

essentially, i've dropped the burst-damage blowout style deck for something more consistent and that has answers, which can only be a good thing.

i realise you're limited to the cards you own, but i have some suggestions based on a load of testing i did with infect (for tournament quality play).

plague stinger is a 4-of.
phyrexian vatmother is also a 4-of, by a mile. exceptional card.

signal pest is taking up 4 slots for potentially awesome infect beaters just for a measly battle-cry ability... and trust me, vs. most decks they'll be removing as many creatures as they can from the board... you'll be left with one or two and then when you want to draw action you'll get signal pest and sigh heavily to yourself.
remove signal pest. put in 4x necropede or plague myr and you'll thank me.

two other useful cards:
black sun's zenith. ignores protection from black as well as indestructibility. worth it.
contagion clasp. extra removal/shrinkage and a nice proliferate effect. useful.

not the best deck i've seen by a long way, but i understand you're working from cards you own rather than just posting the best deck evarrrr.

ok i altered the sideboard to fit assault strobe in.

first strike with infect is just broken, lol.

lol you're like, in the next room... just come and tell me these things!

assault strobe is a serious bomb with tempered steel on the battlefield. i'll work it into the deck for sure. give me a minute.