It's an interesting deck, but I don't see how you survive long enough against aggro decks. 3 lightning bolts will give you a very brief reprieve from a source of damage...but I don't think it's enough. I think those tree speakers need to turn into Overgrown Battlements. also, I don't see how you can possibly not include at least one Boss Garruk over a Lil' Garruk. the Primal Hunter gives you tremendous card advantage in addition to loyalty gaining 3/3's. Am I missing something? are you using Garruk's Land ability more than his beast ability?
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Actually, I forgot Splinter Twin does not care about -1/-1 counters on the card. if a 0/3 Exarch is enchanted, it makes 1/4 Copies. So don't fall into that trap.
Let us know how the Royal Assassin play goes. I have a feeling it will be disrupted too often, Control decks will counter it, Aggro decks burn it, at best it's a great attack deterrent (as you have no way to force a tap). At worst it trades for a Counterspell, Burn, or gets murdered by the REAL Royal Assassin, Gideon Jura. Spellskite may be more beneficial here, as your plan is to attack with evasion or combat advantage infectors; Skite can protect your artifacts and your creatures from disruption (as he's a legal target for both).
Fun Combo, but I don't see how in the current meta he would be able to get out a 6 casting cost artifact in addition to having a creature that has little additional synergy. But still, that combo would unquestionably end games if it could get online.
Deathmark was a new addition for you, and while it's a very efficient removal spell, I can't imagine any situations that you'd profitably remove cards from your mainboard for this line of attack. I prefer Tech like Twisted Image (kills walls and spellskite), or perhaps house some sideboard Go For the Throat / Doom Blades I like the Virulent Wound sideboard addition; As it actually acts as another Exarch Twin hate card, in addition to a nice combat trick (I forsee huge Crusader blowouts), or a light removal option vs many decks (birds, x/1 aggro decks, mirror match). With the additions of Tezz's Gambit to your main board, you may want to consider getting something that "deals" with Creatures on both offense and defense. I really enjoyed having Tumble Magnets, which gained value with Tezz's Gambit. It's versitile (can stall for you to find removal or a quick kill condition). You also may want to move Corrupted Conscience to side board in favor of a more streamlined approach to game 1 scenarios (especially vs Aggro decks).
Looks like he's trying to get the deck into the Post-Zendikar rotation.
I'd be careful with Thrummingbird. yes he proliferates...but he doesn't proliferate equal to his power. the point is, he's a crappy attacker who at most does 1 point (albiet to everything with -1/-1 counters) but if you're in the situation where you're blocking to stay alive...it's bad times)
My Questions / Issues Side - Steel Sabotage - Why is this here? what do you expect to cause you enough problems to side in this card? Side - Marrow Shards - what decks are you going to get value out of this from? Most creatures in the format that are being played (and attacking) at at least 2/2 from the top tier'd decks. I'm guessing local Meta Card? Main - Corrupted Resolve - Cards like this seem great, but I tend to find you need them most when you can't get hits in on the enemy player. It's a dead card vs many control decks and aggro decks. Have you tried it yet? Side - Surgical Extraction - I dislike this card in most matchups. It's uses are very narrow, and you may get better results from a more proactive card, like Memoricide. However, it's worth a shot, When do you plan on siding this card in? How do you plan on protecting your creatures when trying to equip Livewire lash? After playing MANY games on MTGO (using UG infect), I find that equipping Livewire Lash is what players wait for, it's a sick tempo play aganst you.
What's the ideal hand here? Plague/Iron Myr, Paladium Myr, Galvanizer, Mountain, Mountain, Mountain, Fireball?
I don't recommend losing Vines of Vastwood at all, it's absolutly required to blow out removal spells (especially Dismember). -Rot Wolf and Viral Drake are too slow IMO, even if Viral Drake gives you an alternate win condition. + Ichorclaw Myr is a great replacement, as Favorable Combat usually allows for you to hit for 1 infect early (turning into 7+ on turn 3). -Naturalize definatly cut for Nature's Claim -4x Spell Pierce main is pretty ballsy, as often times if you get halted with any Tempo play, you have dead counters. - Terramorphic is too slow imo, if you draw one, you're hosed. - Unsummon is too situational, and many creatures in standard have ETB effects that will cause a lot of problems. +Add Viridan Corrupter to the sideboard at least - Corrupted Resolve is another card that vs. a controlling match up, may never get online with your current creature density. Very hit or miss. - Flashfreeze seems too targeted as well, Valakut should be an easy match up with this deck's speed, and you should have enough answers to splinter twin (vines, nature's claim, spell pierce). Otherwise, pretty standard and streamlined deck.
What about Preordain (while it's still available)? I run a Budget UG List ( http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=208778 ), and find that Preordain helps consistency tremendously. Though the deck I've tested runs a little more control oriented post board, I think the blitz technique could still use some draw smoothing in Preordain.
This deck was accidentally Deleted, please go to: http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=208778
I'd love the deck more if you could fit in Tezzeret's Gambit, although this is a very potent creature based infect beatdown strategy. what would be your sideboard?
I like the foundation, it's pretty solid. Some notes: I think Canopy Cover is too slow for this deck. Vines of Vastwood main deck would be a nice alternative, giving your creature removal protection at instant speed (think blowouts) as well as +4/+4. Birds of Paradise also feels like a busted draw, while normally they would be nice for some acceleration, I find when I draw them past turn 2-3 it makes me want to cry, and even in the opening hand, it slows you down by a full turn to get acceleration. You need card draw, not mana acceleration in my opinion. Unnatural predation feels awkward, as it only works out in the best of circumstances, (i.e. when you've already laid down a handful of pump spells, and in that case, you'd be better served to have more creature removal rather than Trample). I'm a big fan of Nature's Claim sideboard, so much so that I need to update a GB Infect deck with that as an option.