Discussion Forum

The deck is incomplete so it's hard to say what it's going to do.

I've tried to concept of infect+proliferate before and it turned out to be slow. It might work if you dedicate a portion of the deck to infect+proliferate and the other portion to control.

Pistus Strike is good for the sideboard, but I wouldn't mainboard it unless you want to go out of your way to give a creature flying in order to use it.

Honestly, I wouldn't run green at all for this deck idea. I'd go with black/blue.

]119.4. Damage is processed in a three-part sequence.
119.4a First, damage is dealt, as modified by replacement and prevention effects that interact with damage. Abilities that trigger when damage is dealt trigger now and wait to be put on the stack.
119.4b Next, damage that‘s been dealt is processed into its results, as modified by replacement effects that interact with those results (such as life loss or counters).
119.4c Finally, the damage event occurs.[/QUOTE]This sequence of play during the Damage Step makes me believe that the best way to make your Infect deck run faster is to use Curse of Stalked Prey.

Your main strategy is to use Blighted Agent to make sure your opponent gets Poison Counters. It would be faster just to give Blighted Agent +1/+1 every time it connects with your Opponent, and deals those Poison Counters to him or her, instead of waiting to Proliferate.

Plague Stinger is another good Creature with Infect and an evasion Ability that you can use with Curse of Stalked Prey.

Ichor Rats is another good Creature for making sure your Opponent has at least one Poison (1) Counter, and it doesn't really have a drawback unless you're playing in a mirror match. Hand of the Praetors is also pretty nifty.

Phyrexian Crusader is just an amazing card, even outside of dedicated Infect decks, and I'm surprised you aren't running it.

Creatures
4x Hand of the Praetors
4x Ichor Rats
4x Plague Stinger
2x Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
4x Phyrexian Crusader
Enchantments
4x Curse of Stalked Prey
Lands
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
4x Dragonskull Summit
4x Ghost Quarter
12x Swamp
Spells
3x Go for the Throat
4x Virulent Wound
2x Tezzeret's Gambit
4x Volt Charge
1x Doom Blade

i agree with everything dblock says except for one thing. if you did it his way it would be his deck not yours.

he is right is assuming that stalked prey would be better. but that is niether here nor there, my advice to help with the deck you have is as such.

either remove black or remove blue or remove green, but going with 3 colors(especially when you only have 4 black cards) is just a bit uh, not so good. i would remove black prob and add something more in blue or green.

I was messing around with an Infect/Proliferate/Control deck and it just has too much going on. Not enough focus. DBloch's deck is good for what it is, but it isn't Infect/Proliferate which is what the OP is wanting.

Black and Green have the most options for Infect.

Artifact and Blue have the most options for Proliferate.

I think I'd go with Artifact/Blue/Green. Here's something I just put together:

Artifacts
4x Contagion Clasp
2x Contagion Engine
4x Core Prowler
4x Plague Myr

Creatures
4x Blight Mamba
4x Blighted Agent
3x Viral Drake
4x Glistener Elf

Land
4x Hinterland Harbor
9x Island
9x Forest

Spells
4x Corrupted Resolve
3x Tezzeret's Gambit
4x Rampant Growth

Sideboard
4x Pistus Strike
4x Viridian Corrupter
3x Mana Leak
2x Creeping Renaissance
2x Naturalize

16 sources of proliferation.
23 sources of infect.

PLUS

8 sources of mana ramp to make it happen faster.
4 counter spells with the option to side in 3 more.
3 sources of draw power.

There's Pistus Strike in the sideboard if you have problems with fliers plus it gives you that direct poison counter to the creature's controller.

Creeping Renaissance is there in case you get hit with boardwipe (Day of Judgment, Black Sun's Zenith, etc.)

Viridian Corrupter is another source of Infect plus it takes out any artifact that's giving you trouble.

Naturalize is mostly for any enchantments giving you problems (Oblivion Ring), but can also give added support against artifacts.

[QUOTE=DBloch2012]This sequence of play during the Damage Step makes me believe that the best way to make your Infect deck run faster is to use Curse of Stalked Prey.

Your main strategy is to use Blighted Agent to make sure your opponent gets Poison Counters. It would be faster just to give Blighted Agent +1/+1 every time it connects with your Opponent, and deals those Poison Counters to him or her, instead of waiting to Proliferate.

Plague Stinger is another good Creature with Infect and an evasion Ability that you can use with Curse of Stalked Prey.

Ichor Rats is another good Creature for making sure your Opponent has at least one Poison (1) Counter, and it doesn't really have a drawback unless you're playing in a mirror match. Hand of the Praetors is also pretty nifty.

Phyrexian Crusader is just an amazing card, even outside of dedicated Infect decks, and I'm surprised you aren't running it.[/QUOTE]

You're right about the Curse of Stalked Prey, it would certainly make a more efficient deck, I'm hesitant to move so far away from my original idea though. I thought Ichor Rats was rather useless beyond it automatically giving the opponent a poison counter, it's weak and costly for it's combat usefulness and I just thought it would end up dying. Phyrexian Crusader is good but seeing as I only wanted most of my creatures for defence I thought the Blight Mamba would be ideal seeing as I can just regenerate it. Pistus Strike was in there specifically to keep the skies clear for my Thrummingbirds.

Noob question coming up: is it really such a big deal running three colours when I've only got a small number of black cards? I know the obvious reason why it seems like a bad idea, but if I choose the right nonbasic lands couldn't I solve the problem easily enough?

It looks fun, but i am seeing a couple suggestions that could really make this list shine:

I would drop Black completely, since it doesn't proliferate well, and while you gain access to some good removal, there are gonna be some better options:

Ichorclaw Myr would be a great choice in any deck with infect because it is just so efficient, and since it's colorless you don't have to worry about getting the wrong mana to drop it. I would go with at least 3 of these guys. With the proliferate side of things, Contagion Engine and Contagion Clasp are amazing. Serving a dual function of weakening your opponent's creatures and proliferating, having three of the clasps and 1 engine would allow you to have a mana sink.

Lastly i would reccomend increasing the amount of ramp you have (Rampant Growth and Birds of Paradise especially) so you can ramp up for the win faster.

Anyway, I hope these suggestions help! :)

[QUOTE=DJ_]Noob question coming up: is it really such a big deal running three colours when I've only got a small number of black cards? I know the obvious reason why it seems like a bad idea, but if I choose the right nonbasic lands couldn't I solve the problem easily enough?[/QUOTE]

ok well basically it's not a terrible terrible idea to 3 color. solar flare decks are big atm and they are 3 color. with that being said I'd like to mention 2 things, first of all i personally just hate 3 color so i'm a bit prejudice to it. 2nd you mentioned this being your first big attempt on making a strong deck, which says to me your not experienced in deck building as you could be, and while looking through your deck yes you could make changes to make 3 colors work, but what you gain from it just won't benefit enough to make it worth the risk. imagine being stuck with too much black mana and there is few bklack cards in this deck, your deck will likely be demolished.

in this particular deck, and also taking into account your level of deck building experience, two colors is just better.

also as a side note i very strongly agree with dblock on the use of phyrexian crusader

Well I played a test game with a friend and the strategies I had in mind certainly didn't work out. I simply couldn't count on having the right cards when I needed them, so it's looks like I've learned a lesson when concocting strategies for decks. My next will be a blue/black control/infect, then a vampire tribal deck.

Thanks all for your input and time in offering your thoughts :)