Many people groan at the mention of Infect. It's that dastardly mechanic that cleaves your opponent's life in half, allowing you to win by only dealing half the necessary damage. Creatures with infect don't deal physical damage, instead they place poison counters on an opponent and -1/-1 counters on a creature. A player with 10 or more poison counters loses the game.
Lucky for us Pauper players, there are many common creatures with infect, and they allow us to build very fast, very competitive decks that often swing for a turn 2 win, with the average game lasting about 3 turns on a good day. The Pauper strategy is to drop weenies like Glistener Elf and Ichorclaw Myr, pump them up with cheap spells like Giant Growth and Invigorate.
CREATURES:
The wonderful thing about Infect is that is appears in most colors, and some of it's best pauper creatures are artifacts, allowing us to put them into any color deck. Here I'll list the best pauper infectors, by color:
Colorless: Ichorclaw Myr A staple of any infect deck, a 1/1 that pumps up to 3/3 when blocked, basically killing the majority of pauper creatures. Corpse Cur Pricier than the majority of pauper infect critters, but he's got a solid body and returns other Infectors to your hand from the grave. Phyrexian Digester Decent when run along Corpse Cur in an Unearth/Reanimator deck, otherwise not too important. Vector Asp Decent one-drop, but make sure you keep that swamp open to give him infect. Pestilent Souleater Out of our ideal mana cost range for pauper infect, we're looking for cheap, disposable dudes.
Blue: Blighted Agent The one and only. Blue infect can only work as a splash, preferably with green for the pump spells, but Blighty WILL be your best friend.
Green: Glistener Elf King of the Turn 2 win. This guy can be devestating as a first turn drop; he should be in every infect deck. Blight Mamba Not always recommended, but he can regenerate and serves as fine filler. Good for a few chump blocks if you're forced to go on the defense. Rot Wolf Another great creature with a solid body. Usually a two-of in a deck. CystBearer Same cost as Rot Wolf, with a thicker butt and no fancy abilities.
White: Lost Leonin If you insist on going White for Infect, here's your man. Priests of Norn If you can pump this guy, he'll be pretty deadly. 1/4 body with vigilance let's you stop most pauper creatures. Tine Shrike Flying, but simply too pricy for pauper infect.
Black: Blackcleave Goblin 4cmc, with Haste, if you can ramp up to him with a Dark Ritual then he's okay, otherwise he comes into play way too late. Contagious Nim Solid black dude, not much else to say. Flensermite this guy is great for mono black, he's got infect and lifelink which could save us when we're facing down something like Pauper Burn. Plague Stinger at 2cmc, this is the cheapest you can go for a dude with infect and flying, saves you the trouble of casting other evasion on his later.
THE PUMPS:
Pauper Infect runs lots of cheap weenies. The goal is to pump these weenies with as many cheap spells as possibly to deal maximum poison damage as fast as possible. To do this we dig into our reserve of Instants, Auras, and Equipment for the most cost effective pumps. Once again I'll break them down by color:
Green:
Green will, for obvious reasons, have the most, and cheapest, pump spells. They don't need to be explained since they appear in most types of aggro decks and people are probably very familiar with them. Giant Growth, Groundswell, Titanic Growth, Vines of Vastwood, Rancor and Invigorate are our staples. Ranger's Guile is similar to VoV and protects against removal.
Invigorate is a five star card and the most important staple in pauper infect. It's a free spell, which means on Turn 2 we can drop a forest to play two Giant Growths, then play a free Invigorate and attack for the win with a Glistener Elf. We don't care if our opponent gains 3 life, because life doesn't matter to Poison Counters. It's a win/win card and should be in every Infect deck if possible.
Predator's Strike: Gives us trample, which is great if we know we'll be chumpblocked.
Mutagenic Growth: another great card that can go in any color deck. Let's us add those extra 2 poison counters for free.
Black: Predator's Gambit: A "strictly better" Unholy Strength, it can make our creature unblockable if we don't control any other guys at the time. Rouse: Essentially the black version of Mutagenic Growth, solid card in a mono-black infect deck. Vampire's Bite: 1 mana for +3/+0, with the optional kicker for lifelink.
Blue: Distortion Strike: Makes our guy unblockable, can be used two times, and gives an extra +1/+0, can't really complain if you're running blue. Unstable Mutation: If you can win soon enough, this guy is worth while. Alongside other pumps it should be fine.
White: Etherial Armor: Great in any infect deck that wants to ride a game out for the long haul. If you're choosing auras over instants for pumps, then this guy can be lethal. Hyena Umbra: Works great alongside Etherial Armor.
Though a green card, Ancestral Mask has great synergy with the above mentioned auras.
UTILITY:
There are some cards that make Pauper Infect that don't actually do much to pump our creatures, just protect them and help the general cause.
Gitaxian Probe: Should be in every pauper infect deck. It's a free spell that let's us look at our opponent's hand. This is how we know if we're safe to blow all our pumps on one attack. We can see if we'll be facing any Fogs or Boomerangs that could screw up our attack. I'll say it again: This should be in every pauper infect deck.
Virulent Wound: I would include this is a black infect deck. It can kill a lot of pauper creatures through the -1/-1 counter alone, and tacks a poison counter onto our opponent as a result. Three point five stars.
Unearth: Works in certain decks, and most infect dudes are under 3cmc. If you find yourself with no board presence and no critters in your hand, this guy can save the day.
Quicksand: Great if you're running an artifact heavy deck, but many infect creatures call for a single solid color. Deters attackers and can take out most pauper creatures.
Soaring Seacliff: If you can afford to hold onto it, it's a free evasion spell.
Apostle's Blessing: A super card that protects your pumped infectors from the color of your choice. Highly Recommended and you can run it in any deck.
Nature's Claim: Since we don't care about the opponent gaining life, this is simply a 1 mana "destroy target non-creature obstacle."
Llanowar Augur: For the 0/3 blocker body and eventually an additional +3/+3.
Hornet Sting: Great pauper removal, can usually kill most other 1 drop critters that might stand in our way.
Sandstorm: For when your opponent get's a chance to attack and is banking on you chump blocking.
SAMPLE DECKS:
I think Pauper is the perfect place to try new things, so the following decks might not be proven to work, but they're a building block to try new things. I tried to find 3 different decks that demonstrated a variety of colors and spells.
Personally I think Pauper Infect calls for two-color decks. Mono Black infect does have it's weaknesses, most importantly being less than ideal black infect creatures.
Pauper Infect can be extremely competitive. It can also be a glass canon, often if the deck doesn't click by turn 3 then you're done for.
Against other aggro decks it can hold its own.
Goblins and Zombies build slowly, sure they can blow up a field by turn 4, but Infect should be winning before then.
Hexproof/Ethereal Armor decks shouldn't be too much of a problem. They function a lot like Infect, but tend to be slower, and need to deal a full 20 dmg, vs. Infect's 10 dmg.
Discard/Control: much weaker. Any counterspells will leave us struggling. Discard is also our enemy, as every pump spell in our hand matters. It helps to run full sets of Ranger's Guile and Vines of Vastwood in your sideboard for these match-ups, since cheap removal/bounce will be the number one danger.
PEASANT ADDITIONS :
There actually aren't many cards that can make this deck better in Peasant, just stronger variations of cards we already have.
Might of Old Krosa: gives us +4/+4 at sorcery speed, or +2/+2 at instant speed. Choice is nice. However, at $3 a card, it's be the most expensive addition to the deck. Next to Rancor, maybe.
Necropede: has the possibility of removal, but really, you don't want your dudes dying, you want them breaking through to the otherside.
Swiftfoot Boots: Of course, why not? if your turn 2 dude gets killed, slap these guys onto the next batter up and you should have no problems.
How about Fortify? I haven't plaid with it yet, but it seems like a card that has the perfect home in a weenie deck. Run 2, just for that extra kick at the end.
Thanks to turbofog I was finally able to defeat an Etherial Armor/Hexproof deck - my least favorite pauper deck; I had been encountering them all morning (They seem to be in vogue at the moment), none of my decks were strong enough, not even pauper RDW (kept losing steam, then losing to a 20/20 Slippery Boggle), until I switched to turbofog
In regards to Whirlpool Rider and Tolarian Winds - I second Obermeir. Unless You manage to get off a turn 2 Jace's Erasure, and play one of those two cards early game, then I would try to avoid them. Late game my hand is just full of Fogs, and you can't afford to lose those.
There are currently only 2 people in my life who I play paper Magic with. One of them is my roommate and he uses my decks. I need to branch out more, but I do play on Cockatrice with who knows how many strangers.
Hey gang, I was wondering what some functioning archetypes were in pauper that weren't aggro or creature based. Any good enchantment decks? Things not quick burn related.
Look, we have way too many pumps, not enough creatures, and zero ramp. I'm voting out Platinum Emperion and Basalt Golem beacuse they're expensive. The most expensive card in our deck should be precursor, we don't want to waste time trying to have any more than 6 or 7 mana on a turn to drop Precursor then hit him with a haste spell, or 2 open to protect him until our next turn.
But we do need more golems - so how about Wing Splicer? She gives us a golem and gives all of them evasion. Win/Win. Now let's turn to ramp, shall we?
(I'm voting to remove 1 brass Herald, all Emperions, and all Basalts)
I would second Echoing Truth, also, if you find yourself up against another aggro evasion deck, I'd try Snakeform - It's a pauper Turn to Frog with a cantrip, how can you go wrong?
I suppose I could really do my homework and come up with one, but I've got a real noob understanding when it comes to Magic, I'm still trying to break out of my Timmy shell that's been trapped in 1999 - that includes both Magic and all other aspects of my life.
Though I s'pose a Pauper Infect primer can pretty much write itself. I'll see what I can come up with this weekend.
@XMB Yosho: I'm actually running Preordain over brainstorm right now, I've found that Brainstorm helps less with getting the cards I need, sure I get to dig 3 deep, but If I'm drawing doubles, or need a snap over a rescue, I have no way of fixing the draw. Augury Owl and Preordain let me choose which cards I do or don't draw, it's a very precariously balanced deck, that needs a certain combination to work, so Brainstorm is simply too risky.
I left the Archaeomancers at 4 because they're actually one of the most important cards, letting me reuse spells over and over, because it takes more than 4 of any one spell to keep things going.
This is the deck at the moment, I'm enjoying the Augury Owls over the Sage, and Delver does help me eat away at their life. Still by no means an optimal, competitive deck, but as a pauper deck I'm pretty happy with it.
Better Precursor Recall - Shadow Rift, unblockable with a cantrip. I would say use this in place of distortion strike, we can get our pumps elsewhere. My favorite deck of mines is actually a Precursor deck, I run GU, but it'll be fun to make this deck UR, so many great red instants, like Reckless Charge and Assault Strobe, but I'll let someone else add those.
(Sorry, I forget how to include my choice of removals, feel free to fix my notation)
@DarkNinja107: Thanks for giving it the time! I was actually using Ghostly Flicker to blink the Archaeomancers, because spell retrieval is key in this deck, you can also turn it into a 2cmc spell by blinking a spent Halimar Depths, thus triggering it to set up your next draw. But I see what you mean.
Crusher is simply too big, and requires too much mana that needs to be spent to maintain the rest of the board control in a single turn. Also, Boomerang is the card I kept meaning to add but forgot about, I'll need to acquire a set of those somewhere.
@ThatRedwood: Drake Familiar looks good but since I'm only running one enchantment, could be dead in my hand until I get a Reality Acid onto the board.
So I'm thinking that maybe Delver is my best bet, despite my efforts to say otherwise. I just finished switching Delver out of my other decks - the great Delver cleansing - so I guess just one deck running Delver won't be too bad.
-2 Ghostly Flicker
-2 Ulamog's Crusher
-2 Sage of Epityr
+2 Augury Owl
+2 Delver of Secrets
+2 Boomerang
All I need is to acquire the Boomerangs, and I'll see how it goes.
I noticed in my Eldrazi deck that with no early game, you sometimes get run over by fast aggro decks before you can really get much going so I figured Ivory Tower would help keep me alive until I got things rolling.
As would Blessed Reversal, and once you reveal the first during an attack, your opponent might be a little less likely to want to hit you again so soon.
I really like your deck build over-all. It's a little out of my budget range, I think, How would it fare with Urzatron? Those are cards I already have. Though I guess those subtract from your white mana base a lot more than Locus. I might try a cheaper (cmc) build, splash red for a Norin, add Soul Sisters, see what comes about.
There's also Orim's Prayer to buy you time once you get the Felidar out. Your opponent will put his focus into destroying the enchantment rather than attacking, which gives you time to build up your win-con.
Here's the thing with Talrand, Sky Summoner, if you add him to a deck, then it becomes a Talrand deck, and you find yourself shaping the deck around him, and you'll always include a set of Talrand's Invocation. Also Talrand is Legendary, so if he's already in play and you draw him, he'll be dead in your hand.
Oh snap, that was actually in Tony-The-Tiger's deck and I think I skipped right over it. That will be corrected.
Many people groan at the mention of Infect. It's that dastardly mechanic that cleaves your opponent's life in half, allowing you to win by only dealing half the necessary damage. Creatures with infect don't deal physical damage, instead they place poison counters on an opponent and -1/-1 counters on a creature. A player with 10 or more poison counters loses the game.
Lucky for us Pauper players, there are many common creatures with infect, and they allow us to build very fast, very competitive decks that often swing for a turn 2 win, with the average game lasting about 3 turns on a good day. The Pauper strategy is to drop weenies like Glistener Elf and Ichorclaw Myr, pump them up with cheap spells like Giant Growth and Invigorate.
CREATURES:
The wonderful thing about Infect is that is appears in most colors, and some of it's best pauper creatures are artifacts, allowing us to put them into any color deck. Here I'll list the best pauper infectors, by color:
Colorless:
Ichorclaw Myr
Corpse Cur
Phyrexian Digester
Vector Asp
Pestilent Souleater
Blue:
Blighted Agent
Green:
Glistener Elf
Blight Mamba
Rot Wolf
CystBearer
White:
Lost Leonin
Priests of Norn
Tine Shrike
Red:
Razor Swine
Black:
Blackcleave Goblin
Contagious Nim
Flensermite
Plague Stinger
THE PUMPS:
Pauper Infect runs lots of cheap weenies. The goal is to pump these weenies with as many cheap spells as possibly to deal maximum poison damage as fast as possible. To do this we dig into our reserve of Instants, Auras, and Equipment for the most cost effective pumps. Once again I'll break them down by color:
Green will, for obvious reasons, have the most, and cheapest, pump spells. They don't need to be explained since they appear in most types of aggro decks and people are probably very familiar with them. Giant Growth, Groundswell, Titanic Growth, Vines of Vastwood, Rancor and Invigorate are our staples.
Ranger's Guile is similar to VoV and protects against removal.
Invigorate is a five star card and the most important staple in pauper infect. It's a free spell, which means on Turn 2 we can drop a forest to play two Giant Growths, then play a free Invigorate and attack for the win with a Glistener Elf. We don't care if our opponent gains 3 life, because life doesn't matter to Poison Counters. It's a win/win card and should be in every Infect deck if possible.
Predator's Strike: Gives us trample, which is great if we know we'll be chumpblocked.
Mutagenic Growth: another great card that can go in any color deck. Let's us add those extra 2 poison counters for free.
Black:
Predator's Gambit: A "strictly better" Unholy Strength, it can make our creature unblockable if we don't control any other guys at the time.
Rouse: Essentially the black version of Mutagenic Growth, solid card in a mono-black infect deck.
Vampire's Bite: 1 mana for +3/+0, with the optional kicker for lifelink.
Blue:
Distortion Strike: Makes our guy unblockable, can be used two times, and gives an extra +1/+0, can't really complain if you're running blue.
Unstable Mutation: If you can win soon enough, this guy is worth while. Alongside other pumps it should be fine.
Red:
Brute Force - the planeshifted Giant growth. I love this card.
Reckless Charge: One mana for +3+0 and haste? You throw in some Simian Spirit Guides into a RG Infect deck and you're looking at a Turn 1 Kill.
Fists of the Anvil: Pricy, at 2cmc, but gives a +4/+0 boost at instant speed.
Assault Strobe: Double strike, FTW.
White:
Etherial Armor: Great in any infect deck that wants to ride a game out for the long haul. If you're choosing auras over instants for pumps, then this guy can be lethal.
Hyena Umbra: Works great alongside Etherial Armor.
Though a green card, Ancestral Mask has great synergy with the above mentioned auras.
UTILITY:
There are some cards that make Pauper Infect that don't actually do much to pump our creatures, just protect them and help the general cause.
Gitaxian Probe: Should be in every pauper infect deck. It's a free spell that let's us look at our opponent's hand. This is how we know if we're safe to blow all our pumps on one attack. We can see if we'll be facing any Fogs or Boomerangs that could screw up our attack. I'll say it again: This should be in every pauper infect deck.
Virulent Wound: I would include this is a black infect deck. It can kill a lot of pauper creatures through the -1/-1 counter alone, and tacks a poison counter onto our opponent as a result. Three point five stars.
Unearth: Works in certain decks, and most infect dudes are under 3cmc. If you find yourself with no board presence and no critters in your hand, this guy can save the day.
Quicksand: Great if you're running an artifact heavy deck, but many infect creatures call for a single solid color. Deters attackers and can take out most pauper creatures.
Soaring Seacliff: If you can afford to hold onto it, it's a free evasion spell.
Apostle's Blessing: A super card that protects your pumped infectors from the color of your choice. Highly Recommended and you can run it in any deck.
Nature's Claim: Since we don't care about the opponent gaining life, this is simply a 1 mana "destroy target non-creature obstacle."
Llanowar Augur: For the 0/3 blocker body and eventually an additional +3/+3.
Hornet Sting: Great pauper removal, can usually kill most other 1 drop critters that might stand in our way.
Lotus Petal: Because, obvious reasons.
Sandstorm: For when your opponent get's a chance to attack and is banking on you chump blocking.
SAMPLE DECKS:
I think Pauper is the perfect place to try new things, so the following decks might not be proven to work, but they're a building block to try new things. I tried to find 3 different decks that demonstrated a variety of colors and spells.
Mono-Black
4 Contagious Nim
2 Corpse Cur
4 Ichorclaw Myr
4 Phyrexian Digester
4 Rouse
4 Vampire's Bite
4 Virulent Wound
4 Unearth
18 Swamp
2 Quicksand
Personally I think Pauper Infect calls for two-color decks. Mono Black infect does have it's weaknesses, most importantly being less than ideal black infect creatures.
It would be interesting to see how the deck would run if you added a set of Vampire Hounds and Tainted Strike
Your Very Typical Pauper Infect Deck - lethal and competitive
4 Glistener Elf
4 Ichorclaw Myr
2 Rot Wolf
4 Rancor
4 Giant Growth
4 Invigorate
4 Mutagenic Growth
3 Distortion Strike
4 Brainstorm
8 Forest
8 Island
2 Simic guildgate
2 Terramorphic Expanse
I would recommend checking out XBM Yosho's version in Mono-green.
Tony-The-Tiger's Untested WG Deck (With some revisions by XBM Yosho)
4 Ichorclaw Myr
4 Lost Leonin
4 Priests of Norn
4 Rancor
4 Etherial Armor
4 Hyena Umbra
2 Ancestral Mask
4 invigorate
3 Apostle's Blessing
2 Vines of Vastwood
3 Selesnya Sanctuary
9 Forest
5 Plains
MATCH-UPS:
Against other aggro decks it can hold its own.
Goblins and Zombies build slowly, sure they can blow up a field by turn 4, but Infect should be winning before then.
Hexproof/Ethereal Armor decks shouldn't be too much of a problem. They function a lot like Infect, but tend to be slower, and need to deal a full 20 dmg, vs. Infect's 10 dmg.
Discard/Control: much weaker. Any counterspells will leave us struggling. Discard is also our enemy, as every pump spell in our hand matters. It helps to run full sets of Ranger's Guile and Vines of Vastwood in your sideboard for these match-ups, since cheap removal/bounce will be the number one danger.
PEASANT ADDITIONS :
Might of Old Krosa: gives us +4/+4 at sorcery speed, or +2/+2 at instant speed. Choice is nice. However, at $3 a card, it's be the most expensive addition to the deck. Next to Rancor, maybe.
Necropede: has the possibility of removal, but really, you don't want your dudes dying, you want them breaking through to the otherside.
Swiftfoot Boots: Of course, why not? if your turn 2 dude gets killed, slap these guys onto the next batter up and you should have no problems.
Elvish Spirit Guide: Who doesn't love free mana?
STATE OF THE PRIMER:
Match-Ups have been added, could probably be fleshed out.
All suggested changes so far have been made.
In regards to Whirlpool Rider and Tolarian Winds - I second Obermeir. Unless You manage to get off a turn 2 Jace's Erasure, and play one of those two cards early game, then I would try to avoid them. Late game my hand is just full of Fogs, and you can't afford to lose those.
But we do need more golems - so how about Wing Splicer? She gives us a golem and gives all of them evasion. Win/Win. Now let's turn to ramp, shall we?
(I'm voting to remove 1 brass Herald, all Emperions, and all Basalts)
4 Precursor Golem
3 Brass Herald (1 @ -1)
3 Platinum Emperion (1 @ -2) (1 @ -all)
2 Basalt Golem (2 @ -all)
2 Wing Splicer
Spells 30:
4 Crimson Wisps
4 Soul's Fire
4 Shadow Rift
2 Soul's Majesty (1 @ -all)
2 Rite of Replication
2 Fabricate
2 titanic growth (1 @ -all)
3 Twisted Image
3 Simic Charm (1 @ -all)
4 Remand
3 Izzet Signet
1 Soul Foundry
Lands 24:
24 Placeholder
Though I s'pose a Pauper Infect primer can pretty much write itself. I'll see what I can come up with this weekend.
I left the Archaeomancers at 4 because they're actually one of the most important cards, letting me reuse spells over and over, because it takes more than 4 of any one spell to keep things going.
This is the deck at the moment, I'm enjoying the Augury Owls over the Sage, and Delver does help me eat away at their life. Still by no means an optimal, competitive deck, but as a pauper deck I'm pretty happy with it.
Full Deck v.6
2 Delver of Secrets
2 Dream Stalker
2 Augury Owl
4 Reality Acid
4 Counterspell
2 Ghostly Flicker
2 Boomerang
2 High Tide
4 Rescue
4 Snap
4 Preordain
18 Island
(Sorry, I forget how to include my choice of removals, feel free to fix my notation)
4 Precursor Golem
4 Distortion Strike (-1)
4 Soul's Fire
4 Shadow Rift
2 Rite of Replication
Crusher is simply too big, and requires too much mana that needs to be spent to maintain the rest of the board control in a single turn. Also, Boomerang is the card I kept meaning to add but forgot about, I'll need to acquire a set of those somewhere.
@ThatRedwood: Drake Familiar looks good but since I'm only running one enchantment, could be dead in my hand until I get a Reality Acid onto the board.
So I'm thinking that maybe Delver is my best bet, despite my efforts to say otherwise. I just finished switching Delver out of my other decks - the great Delver cleansing - so I guess just one deck running Delver won't be too bad.
-2 Ghostly Flicker
-2 Ulamog's Crusher
-2 Sage of Epityr
+2 Augury Owl
+2 Delver of Secrets
+2 Boomerang
All I need is to acquire the Boomerangs, and I'll see how it goes.
As would Blessed Reversal, and once you reveal the first during an attack, your opponent might be a little less likely to want to hit you again so soon.
I really like your deck build over-all. It's a little out of my budget range, I think, How would it fare with Urzatron? Those are cards I already have. Though I guess those subtract from your white mana base a lot more than Locus. I might try a cheaper (cmc) build, splash red for a Norin, add Soul Sisters, see what comes about.
Also, Blessed Reversal in white as a defensive card.
I'd save him for his own deck.