Boros-Infect tournament deck

by purkle on 16 February 2011

Main Deck (60 cards)



Instants (4)

Planeswalkers (7)


Artifacts (3)


Enchantments (4)


Sideboard (15 cards)

Creatures (3)


Artifacts (1)


Enchantments (3)


Land (2)

Submit a list of cards below to bulk import them all into your sideboard. Post one card per line using a format like "4x Birds of Paradise" or "1 Blaze", you can even enter just the card name by itself like "Wrath of God" for single cards.


Deck Description

based on my previously hugely successful mono-white infect tournament deck, i'm expanding on the theme by including a second colour.
the deck is now red-white, and as before, for EXTENDED.
as you can see, this means i can add in some aggressive cards and excellent controlling strategies to my game. i think this may be a real winner.
here is a quick card-by-card breakdown of the effects going on:

tumble magnet: combines with ajani well, and does double-time suring up your defenses and bolstering your offense, protecting your planeswalkers and tapping down blockers.

core prowler: the only proliferate in the deck... in the late game, or after an open the vaults, these can be a huge threat to your opponent and force them to make unusual blocking decisions. very good when played offensively with tempered steel.

necropede: the best of the infect 2-drops by a LONG way. -1/-1 counters are huge and this card can get really beefy in the mid-late game with tempered steel.

ichorclaw myr: only really good at offense, sometime you'll goad your opponent into blocking this guy and it'll pay off. otherwise it's just another cheap target for tempered steel.

plague myr: strictly better than ichorclaw, has mana-ramping built in and can function as a very solid beater when there's a steel on the table.

tempered steel: the bread and butter of this deck. very, very nice. also works on inkmoth nexus!

arid mesa: thinning and mana fixing

inkmoth nexus: the star of the deck. i've beaten down more players with 2x tempered steel and a nexus than i care to count.

ajani vengeant: frankly absurd control in the infect deck. very very scary for your opponent when combined with tumble magnets and infect dudes.

elspeth: the best infect planeswalker by a mile. all of her abilities are relevant, especially the second one.

condemn: super-cheap removal with no drawback. unbelievable value in an infect deck.

day of judgment: you'll need board wipe more than you'd expect. this is the benchmark wipe spell. save your planeswalkers and hit home with an inkmoth nexus. it's a superb card.

open the vaults: would really like 1 more of these maindeck but i'm not sure i can fit it in.... basically an "i win" card in the late game if you've got a tempered steel in play. blown out a few games with this spell rather handily.

slagstorm: more wipe, and also the bonus of hitting planeswalkers. this is a card to be feared when there's an inkmoth and a tempered steel in play. double red makes it harder to cast but by the mid game you should be sitting pretty.

SIDEBOARD:

there are a few cards to fill up playsets... then:

corpse cur: side core prowler out directly for this against heavy removal

oblivion ring: super awesome.

contested war zone: excellent pseudo pump spell in a land. play this against control.

assault strobe: first strike on infect dudes is already completely unfair. so for double strike, this spell is insane.

concussive bolt.: in the late game when things can get gummed up, this spell is a one-off finisher. it may be expensive and the damage is useless.... but the ability to remove their blockers from the equation is great.

Deck Tags

  • Tournament

Deck at a Glance

Social Stats

18
Likes

This deck has been viewed 2,937 times.

Mana Curve

Mana Symbol Occurrence

300080

Card Legality

  • Not Legal in Standard
  • Legal in Modern
  • Legal in Vintage
  • Legal in Legacy

Deck discussion for Boros-Infect tournament deck

like the idea
love the explanation

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Posted 16 February 2011 at 08:14

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thanks very much!

i've really taken to infect as a deck concept and i'm determined to make it work, one way or another.

and as i said in my previous deck... "infect + giant growth" is unimaginative, inconsistent and easy to play around.

i think the main aim is to make it more like a tournament weenie deck, with strong controlling elements and ramping spells like tempered steel.

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Posted 16 February 2011 at 08:54

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i would take out 1 vengeant for the open the vaults, i dunno if its the best idea but you can atleast play test it

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Posted 16 February 2011 at 08:36

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i'll playtest it for sure. but for the record, initial testing has shown ajani to be a BEAST.

so we'll see.

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Posted 16 February 2011 at 08:55

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i've been on the receiving end of the ajani-testing.

trust me it's good =).

although there's the potential for another card to just creep in there and take the 4th ajani slot.

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Posted 16 February 2011 at 09:14

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lol trust me i know ajani's a beast! i've been on the receiving end of him! im just saying you dont necessarily need 4:p

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Posted 18 February 2011 at 09:03

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=/ if your having any trouble with blue control decks id suggest using guttural response its a nice card although with open the vaults its not necessary but you only have one of them main deck so for sideboard maybe
-1 condemn
-1 tumble magnet
+2 guttural response maybe?
and have you ever considered concussive bolt?
and maybe to put the other open the vaults in :/ probably a slagstorm i get that the slagstorm might not kill your creatures when you use it because you might have 2 tempered steels but youd need two for any but the core prowler to survive so id swap an open the vaults for that especially when the person has sideboarded in stuff to disenchant your tempered steel since it'll get that back as well
love the tumble magnets though i use them too

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Posted 16 February 2011 at 08:53

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concussive bolt!

i KNEW there was a card i'd forgotten about! it's sitting right here in my pile of red cards!

right. i'll do some re-thinking and shuffle a couple of them into the deck. excellent suggestion.

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Posted 16 February 2011 at 08:56

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added concussive bolt to the sideboard.

it's not main-deckable because lots of decks pack artifact or mass-removal. thus metalcraft is not attainable.

in certain matchups though (although the 4 damage is useless) it can win games.

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Posted 16 February 2011 at 09:01

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yeah i know lol i saw your deck and i was like o.o no concussive bolt? whats going on here xD

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Posted 16 February 2011 at 12:28

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omg m8, another good deck.

i see you took my advice from last time ^_^.

was going to suggest lightning bolt but somehow it just doesn't seem to fit.

contagion clasp is a loss though. no room for it at all?

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Posted 16 February 2011 at 09:04

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DUDE...... assault strobe?

seriously!

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Posted 16 February 2011 at 09:16

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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.

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Posted 16 February 2011 at 09:17

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ok i altered the sideboard to fit assault strobe in.

first strike with infect is just broken, lol.

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Posted 16 February 2011 at 09:19

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I love this idea. It's a very...uniquely designed take on infect, and it works arguably BETTER than "main-stream" designs.

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Posted 16 February 2011 at 23:18

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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.

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Posted 17 February 2011 at 03:54

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Any room for Splinter Twin or Mimic Vat in this one?

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Posted 17 February 2011 at 15:18

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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.

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Posted 17 February 2011 at 18:48

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Have you looked into Nim Deathmantle? I've found that giving my creatures the boost + intimidate + possible unearthing is a HUGE advantage. Most of my wins actually come from me equipping Nim Deathmantle and the laughing as something like Ichor Rats or Plague Myr goes unblocked. At the very least I'd side board it for decks not playing large amounts of artifacts.

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Posted 17 February 2011 at 17:36

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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.

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Posted 17 February 2011 at 18:44

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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.

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Posted 18 February 2011 at 07:04

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What about signal pest, cool deck

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Posted 18 February 2011 at 08:20

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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.

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Posted 18 February 2011 at 08:33

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im not sure if lightning helix is extended legal but if it is you should definitely give it a look mate:)

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Posted 18 February 2011 at 09:08

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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.

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Posted 18 February 2011 at 09:11

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yes its one of my favorites! :)

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Posted 18 February 2011 at 11:38

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I like it but you have to fix your mana base. I tried imagining what would happen if you mulligan and you need your 3rd and 4th land. I suggest running 24 at least.

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Posted 18 February 2011 at 10:04

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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.

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Posted 18 February 2011 at 10:18

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Overall a superb deck great idea.

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Posted 18 February 2011 at 22:02

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People always look at NIm Deathmantles Resurrection ability first. The reason why I like it is simply because I get +2/+2 and intimidate on something... That's won me a lot of match ups. In fact last night, I killed someone with a Nim Deathmantle on a Plague Stinger. Swinging for 3 unblockable each turn won me the game.

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Posted 19 February 2011 at 18:47

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If you are going to run red, why aren't you running assault strobe?

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Posted 20 February 2011 at 00:08

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hey there.

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

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Posted 20 February 2011 at 15:10

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I am just going to throw this out there, because it's wrong in your description. You're aware that Assault Strobe is in fact double strike, not just first strike right? I agree it's a better side board card, but I'm just making sure, since it's stated wrong in your description.

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Posted 20 February 2011 at 03:18

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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.

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Posted 20 February 2011 at 15:06

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great job maybe windborne charge would be good
also, please check out my necroskitter deck :)

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Posted 20 February 2011 at 06:15

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The intimidate on Nim's Deathmantle is effective enough on its own. its also +2/+2. so 2 more infect counters aint to shabby.

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Posted 20 February 2011 at 12:19

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Hero of Oxid Ridge might be a bit better than Concussive Bolt

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Posted 20 February 2011 at 12:20

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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.

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Posted 20 February 2011 at 15:08

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quick update.

haven't had a chance to test nim deathmantle properly yet.

however i REALLY like the card. so i'm going to give it a good whack and see what sort of numbers would suit the deck. i'll start with 2x and see where it goes from there.

cheers for your suggestions all! excellent times =)

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Posted 20 February 2011 at 15:13

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Very nice deck and lots of ideas. Read through the comments and it helps me a lot being a new magic player and all. I just wonder how do people come up with this stuff!?

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Posted 20 February 2011 at 19:26

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part of coming up with ideas is simply down to familiarity with the cards.

so you'll see a new card and go "huh.... that works really well with this older card here"

another part of it is being familiar with how the game plays out on the table. being able to judge how much disruption with aggressive cards you need for the deck, and keeping a playable mana curve is also key.

keep playing and you'll start to see patterns and tendencies coming out of the game which help you construct your decks.

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Posted 22 February 2011 at 03:48

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Please comment my R/W Battlecry :)

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Posted 21 February 2011 at 02:35

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Hey, I love the look of this deck. I was wondering if you've playtested it enough and gotten it down to the right level yet? I might proxy up something similar to this and adapt it. I love the style.

Also, have you thought about using Livewire Lash? It's almost invaluable when you cast a spell on a creature. You don't even have to attack and you get to ping your opponent for 2 poison counters which can then be proliferated.

Food for thought. Get back to me on that buddy :D.

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Posted 24 February 2011 at 18:12

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