GB Infect Tuning

Hi all! A bit ago we looked at a GB Infect brew, and after finally being able to test it, I have some take aways, and some edits I feel are necessary. Let's take a look at the original list:
[[deck: 17198]]
While this Main deck build is solid, at times it has issues with mana. Granted, this is not uncommon with infect, so I will require more testing with it to see if it needs an additional land for consistency. My only change to it would be taking out 1x [[card_link: Vines of Vastwood]] in favor of and additional [[card_link: Apostle's Blessing]]. Because our only source of evasion is flying, sometimes that isn't enough, and we don't have the ability to become unblockable within our colors, outside of trample effects.
There are a couple cards that must be considered for the sideboard:
[[card: Rancor | set: EMA]] [[card: Virulent Plague]]
While [[card_link: Rancor]] allows us to trample over blockers, and it recurs. Funeral Charm should be considered as it offers us a little more versatility. Against Abzan specifically, [[card_link: Lingering Souls]] is almost too good to beat, and Funeral Charm allows us to either get rid of one blocker, or make our creature unblockable if they have a swamp out. [[card_link: Virulent Plague]] is a consideration as well because the current list has way too much trouble with [[card_link: Lingering Souls]] overall. I have not been a fan of [[card_link: Surgical Extraction]], but haven't had enough matches overall to say that it is strictly bad in our 75.
Here are a few match ups that I faced, and some takeaways from them:
Death's Shadow Aggro - we are generally faster, so it's not a big deal. The overall minimal removal on their end allows us to focus more on pumping as much as possible. Often these matches are decided by who plays first, and I would rank this around a 55-45 in our favor on the draw, and 60-40 when we are on the play.  A fun play is to leave a fetch out to block [[card_link: Death's Shadow]] with [[card_link: Dryad Arbor]], or even win though regular damage.
Mono U Tron - This is a good match up for us, though [[card_link: Cyclonic Rift]] is annoying. As long as they are off tron, we can easily win, and as they generally assemble on t4, on the play we will generally win.
Abzan - As one of our tougher match ups, this deck combines discard outlets with [[card_link: Lingering Souls]] and premium removal spells to make our lives difficult. While this isn't a hopeless match up, we must rely heavily on our own disruption to win, and that is generally few and far between.
Bushwhacker Zoo - This is a pure race to see who will finish first. Here's a quick tip: As long as you have an infect creature, always play G mana producing lands first. In general, you will not win on T3 by playing an [[card_link: Inkmoth Nexus]] on T2, and against this deck you have to win as quickly as possible. Close to our Death's Shadow Aggro matchup, this one is a little tougher as the deck goes much wider, so our flying evasion is much more important.

Overall this deck is incredibly fast, and plays much closer to the old UG infect than I initially thought. It doesn't play the attrition game often, so there may be some minor edits here and there to streamline the deck even more. I hope you got the chance to pick up this list, and hope you have fun playing it. I will continue to revisit this as I try to build this into a 5-0 MTGO Competitive League deck.

[[published_at: 1 Mar 2017, 10:00 am]]
[[category: Article]]
[[preview_content: Revisiting GB Infect, tuning, and more.]]
[[preview_image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4XwpZYh2T8dES-by6HLbI_FhzjNxcJi9daJir0T3tGkwiOJSYg6JuxZwer7UsEquasvNcf-FMoNdD32SSuVI4abug-S3K_n1eJ6OAbrayrlP1b6rZlxz3nz24dAxiQ-mbGCPWs4VisWo_/s1600/Crusader.JPG]]

GB Infect

Today we will be looking at a brew I have been wanting to test: GB Infect. With the recent banning of [[card_link: Gitaxian Probe]], there has been relatively few Infect lists in UG that have been performing well. I wanted to rework the list, and landed on a GB brew that looks quite interesting.


[[deck: 17198]]




[[card_link: Thoughtseize]] takes the place of [[card_link: Gitaxian Probe]] here, and the [[card_link: Plague Stinger]] offers evasion, even if it is not as good as [[card_link: Blighted Agent]]. While we lose counter-magic from blue, we gain a lot of removal in [[card_link: Abrupt Decay]], and a less painful [[card_link: Dismember]]. [[card_link: Phyrexian Crusader]] out of the board can just win games against RWx shells. It also dodges popular removal such as [[card_link: Path to Exile]] and [[card_link: Lightning Bolt]].
Overall, the deck plays a little slower. It is better to save all pump for a one shot kill with protection, if you can, making it lean more towards combo. Flying blockers are still an issue, and [[card_link: Vendilion Clique]] is particularly annoying. However, this should be a powerful deck, that should win in the same way as infect used to.


[[published_at: 23 Feb 2017, 11:00 am]]
[[category: Series]]
[[preview_content: GB Infect Brew]]
[[preview_image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4XwpZYh2T8dES-by6HLbI_FhzjNxcJi9daJir0T3tGkwiOJSYg6JuxZwer7UsEquasvNcf-FMoNdD32SSuVI4abug-S3K_n1eJ6OAbrayrlP1b6rZlxz3nz24dAxiQ-mbGCPWs4VisWo_/s1600/Crusader.JPG]]