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Infect is one of Pauper's classic archetypes, despite not having impressive results since Invigorate was banned in September 2013.
With the recent bans, however, the Pauper Metagame has expanded and several strategies that were once limited by the best decks are now achieving results in Challenges and Leagues — one such example came from Mono Green Infect, updated with several cards that the latest releases have given to the archetype.
The Decklist
75 commons
Land164
Escape Tunnel
7.05
12
Forest
74.8
Creature164
Glistener Elf
56.41
4
Llanowar Augur
27.7
4
Ichorclaw Myr
66.99
4
Blight Mamba
16.24
Enchantment44
Rancor
67.49
Sorcery22
Thirsting Roots
9.95
Instant224
Go Forth
11.33
4
Embiggen
13.47
4
Snakeskin Veil
2.77
4
Might of Old Krosa
9.19
4
Mutagenic Growth
95.95
2
Vines of Vastwood
36.96
60 cards maindeck
Sideboard 15
3
Scattershot Archer
106.15
2
Faerie Macabre
124.1
2
Tamiyo's Safekeeping
141.85
2
Nature's Claim
71.02
2
Vines of Vastwood
36.96
2
Ram Through
9.95
2
Evolution Charm
2.83
This is almost the same list ran by the player ICT95 to reach the Top 8 of the Pauper Challenge in early May. Although the archetype has been around for over a decade, this list takes advantage of several additions from recent years that, in some way, change or improve its game plan.
The most important of these is the change in the mana's philosophy. While some lists have already tried to speed up combo-kills with Lotus Petal and even Land Grant, the new version reduces the number of lands with cards that search for lands while also fulfilling another function: Escape Tunnel gets blockers out of the way, while Go Forth and Thirsting Roots increase the damage done and the number of poison counters the opponent has.
Playing with the Deck
Like all variants that have existed in Pauper, Infect is an Aggro-Combo deck that aims to pull ten damage as poison counters as early as possible, taking advantage of the new spells that the archetype has received in recent years, especially Might of Old Krosa and Embiggen, both capable of giving +4/+4 to the target creature.
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Sequencing is the most important part of the list. Except against slower, less interactive combos and archetypes, we need to make sure our creatures stay on the board for two or more turns to close out the game — that's why we have the protection package with Snakeskin Veil and Vines of Vastwood.
The most important role of the Infect player also involves knowledge: reading the opponent's plays and knowing what we need to play against is essential to avoid losing games for free. We have severe difficulties against lists with a lot of cheap Counterspells because they can bypass our usual protections, and we don't have the means to protect ourselves against stack interaction — in these cases, pulling damage little by little is our best choice as we try to find openings to play one or another pump spell.
Sweepers are a problem if they involve cards like Krark-Clan Shaman or Crypt Rats that can respond to a pump that would make our creature survive. On the other hand, spot removals tend not to do enough if played at the wrong time. It's common to force a Lightning Bolt or Galvanic Blast from your opponent to respond with a second pump or Snakeskin Veil.
Another common problem with Infect is consistency: we only have twelve creatures and no way to draw more cards or filter the top. An early-game removal or sequence of them that takes care of our threat can invalidate our entire plan for several turns, giving the opponent enough breathing room to win the game or stabilizing to a point where we have no way to recover.
Maindeck
The win conditions.
Glistener Elf is the only one-drop available with Infect and allows for turn-two combo-kill openings with Embiggen, Might of Old Krosa and Mutagenic Growth. The big advantage of its mana value, besides being played faster on the play, is that it is easier to protect in later turns with Snakeskin Veil.
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Blight Mamba protects itself from several removals on its own if we have enough mana. Our plan of attacking slowly and conserving pumps often involves it, as we can regenerate it several times.
Ichorclaw Myr benefits from Rancor and Llanowar Augur to punish blockers, since it gains +2/+2 if blocked and, usually, it feels bad for the opponent to put a creature in its path in these cases. It works with the plan of dealing damage gradually for the same reason.
Rancor and Llanowar Augur offer pump and evasion for the Infect creature. Augur is also a good first-turn blocker, but has the disadvantage of its pump being telegraphed by the opponent and countered by any removal.
Rancor is more efficient in this regard, since it returns to its owner's hand if the enchanted creature is destroyed.
Embiggen is part of one of Magic's biggest recent mistakes — making some Un-Set cards tournament-legal — but it works perfectly with Infect creatures due to errata that turned all of them into Phyrexians, making them gain an extra creature type and, consequently, make this instant offer +4/+4 without any conditions.
Might of Old Krosa also guarantees +4/+4 if used during the main phase, or +2/+2 when we need it as a combat trick or protection. It is normal to use it to pull an opponent's removal that we can respond to, but remember that it does not always need to be cast in the main phase if we already have enough power to pull lethal damage at instant speed.
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Mutagenic Growth is a free pump. That is enough to make it a staple of Infect in all formats where the mechanic is legal.
In the past, it would be common to see Vines of Vastwood with four copies on the maindeck. After all, the card offers cheap protection and a +4/+4 pump that will usually pull lethal damage against the opponent.
However, Pauper is now much more mana efficient, and Snakeskin Veil gives the creature a permanent power boost while protecting it from targeted removal. In addition to this boost doing more long-term damage, it also protects it from spells like End the Festivities.
As mentioned above, one of the new features of the current Infect is to reduce lands for cards that do something other than search for lands, increasing the flexibility of the archetype at the expense of speed.
Go Forth grants +2/+2 for a low cost, while Thirsting Roots works as the equivalent of a Shock, giving us a “burn” with Infect through Proliferate.
Escape Tunnel makes one of our creatures unblockable. Remember that we can use it in response to Llanowar Augur's trigger if Trample is irrelevant to the damage we want to deal or if the opponent has too many blockers, and in response to Rancor for the same reason.
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Sideboard
Faeries are a pain: they block well, counter everything we do for a very low cost and have an easy time reusing Spellstutter Sprite's ETBs, so we need an assertive answer against them and Scattershot Archer is our best option.
Tamiyo's Safekeeping provides more cheap protection for your creatures and life gain against Aggro, ideal for the various Burn variants in the format today.
The other copies of Vines of Vastwood are in the Sideboard for games where we expect to be unable to perform efficient combo-kills due to the large amount of board interactions. In these cases, we will have more mana available to capitalize on its Kicker cost.
Nature’s Claim has no drawbacks for Infect and deals with any artifact or enchantment in the format. Necessary against Affinity and Bogles.
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Faerie Macabre slows down Tolarian Terror decks and deals with Dredge without any mana requirement. It can be replaced by more comprehensive options like Relic of Progenitus, but the games where we need graveyard hate these days tend to be games where we should win outright.
Ram Through deals with trouble creatures. Its inclusion in the Sideboard is due to the possibility of a Standard Bearer coming from some archetype with white, but we also use it to hold the clock of more aggressive decks.
Evolution Charm does a bit of everything. Its main function is to return a creature from the graveyard to the hand in longer games, but it also searches for lands — so we can swap Go Forth for it, and it grants evasion to a creature during a turn.
Sideboard Guide
Mono Blue Terror
IN
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OUT
Synthesizer Burn
IN
OUT
Grixis Affinity
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IN
OUT
Bogles
IN
OUT
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Mono Blue Faeries
IN
OUT
Wrapping Up
That's all for today!
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If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
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