Its not a deck for me however, i like my multi color infect decka and im happy to keep working on them and trying to make them more interesting/effective.
According to the metadeta, the mono green infect build is the consistently more utilized and consistently competitive build.
I don't think you can make such a conclusion based on a 0.69% sliver of the meta. After a string of good results, Infect as an archetype seems to have fallen back to random 3-1's every now and then.
I'm not, that's simply the sliver of the most commonly used decks in the meta that infect occupies. That's still a large portion of players using infect. From all of the collated data, RUG Splinter Twin is the most utilized deck, at 11.93%. Between that, and mono green infect, there is no other infect build utilized. Ergo, the mono green infect build is the more commonly utilized and effective build.
Oh man, I took this to casual play testing and went almost unbeaten. The mono~red build has an answer to almost anything, and if it can't answer a problem you can outrace it to try and win with facial burn.
As a generalization Id say going first is optimum 2 out of the 3. I dont have much data outside my Burn playing and it also depends on decks I face and post board after game 1 side boarding. Going first being an all out kill them before they get they're combo usually wins me the first game. Also I rarely mulligan but if I have to even for 1 card its about 75% of the time a loss for me. I luv the consistency of Burn I think/estimate its been for every 8 times they mulligan I mulligan once. Id say going first in game 1 has won me the most matches in casual and tourney play.
In Modern vs Jund, Pod, Twin, Merfolk, Elves, Scapeshift if I go first 2 out of the 3 games I can win most of them. Soul Sisters, Affinity, Tron (unless my Molten Rain show up before they get their 3 lands) is usually an auto loss game 1 since I dont have anything main deck to stop them.
I concur with much of what you said. Burn is too consistently good, with too many answers/ options for it to lose too many T1, Game 1 matches. Provided, once your opponent sideboards, it gets tougher. But the deck is highly consistent, as your options for burn remain fairly equal, in all your cards.
Searing Blood is an amazing card in such matchups, as destroying a creature still damages its controller, even if they're hexproofed. Other than that, there's not really much else you can do in Mono~Red. I side or main many of those cards, and still rarely or barely beat a T1 Leyline.
However, as it's been stated, Leyline is not a common main or sideboard card. You're not entirely likely to regularly run into it. If you find that almost every person in your meta does employ it, and you're still unable to win utilizing sweepers, then you may have to splash green in your mana base for Naturalize or Nature's Claim.
So I'm thinking of building this deck together, seems like it'd be pretty cool.
Something new to try out...do you guys think it's worth it to build, price wise as well?
Price wise, the mono green infect deck is dirt cheap. It's literally the cheapest, or second cheapest modern deck you can build, while still hoping to place, competitively.
No, you'r mistaken. "Glass Canon" refers to a ploy which relies heavily on dealing as much damage (in our case, 'poison counters') as possible in 1 turn. If this ploy fails, then more than likely, your game is lost. Which is precisely what this deck is. At least, the mono~green iteration which I pilot.
This is correct. Think of it like an actual glass canon that has enough structural integrity for one big shot, but in the process it shatters and looses the ability to fire again. Infect can be this way when you go all-in with pump for an alpha strike because much of our pump is one time use and we rarely get as much pump a second time. Boggles is mostly a glass canon deck as well.
My approach is slightly less so, but it still has it's glass canon moments. Black adds removal which gives you access to non-pump/non-combat plays, and blue adds traditional control magic. Even red (a color I don't like in the deck) adds some deapth to the deck. Mono-Green has Vines of Vastwood and Apostle's Blessing as varied plays...that's about it.
No good deck is entirely one thing, and we know that this deck has placed well so it has chops, but for the most part Infect is a glass canon deck.
Thank you, that's just what I've been saying this entire time!
Match 3: tron 1-2
Brand new player to modern not going to lie he kicked my ass up and down. Only tricks I had were blocking and apostle's blessing for pro artifacts and folded. I snuck one game in on a turn 2 swing and pray
If you're experiencing issues with TRON, I'd recommend siding in the following: Nature's Claim and/ or Oxidize. With 8 amazing artifact hate cards in your deck, you'll draw into great answers for almost all of their artifacts, while you keep swinging for poison. Honestly, I'm personally glad when I play against a TRON opponent. The mono~green budget build is so fast, and it packs so much artifact hate that TRON is most times rendered completely useless.
I haven't employed my infect deck in quite some time. I'll be playing with it casually tonight, and I'll aim to post my results here.
Last note on resiliency of Mono-G infect: I don't have actual stats, but I probably win 90% of my games on the back of exalted, double-exalted, or exalted+Pendelhaven-pumped creatures. The other 10% of games that I win are living the dream with two +4/+4 pump spells on turns 2-3. Perhaps you're trying to go for it too often insecurely if you think this deck is a glass cannon. Stop "going for alpha," and you'll win more.
Perhaps. I'm always open to constructive advice. What kind of hands do you aim for, game 1?
Tried my luck with the mono red burn last night, at my LGS Modern Constructed night. Went 3-1 in brilliant fashion.
First Match: Vs. Merfolk: 1 - 1 - 1
This matchup went about as well as I'd expect. In the first game, I won in the first few turns. My opponent had a brilliant hand, but only 1 island. He did however, drop the Vial, and abused it to cast his creatures. Luckily, I had T 1 Guide, and drew into landfallen Blazes, so I was able to deal with his creatures, as well as his life total.
The second game, he dropped a [mc]1[/mc] Chalice, and then proceeded to turn my mountains into islands via Spreading Seas, so I was locked out of the duel.
I sided in Smash to Smithereens for the final round, and smashed both, his Vial and Chalice. He still managed to Spread his seas all over my face, and some of my lands, however most of the spells I cast cost only 1 Mountain, or were colorless.
Second Match: Vs. disruption/ removal/ creatures: 2 - 0
I'm not certain what deck this one was, but from the opening tip my opponent consistently played various copies of Inquisitions and Thoughtseize, and followed up with Tarmogoyf. Luckily, even though there was much hand disruption and discard, I managed to draw into cards I required, and easily stomped my opponent in only 2 games.
Third Match: Vs. Infinite Turn Deck: 1 - 2
This was a deck that I hadn't seen hide nor hair of before. My opponent played on Islands and turn extending spells, such as Time Warp and Walk the Aeons, and would recycle his graveyard with the Elixir. I wasn't certain what kind of deck it was at first, so I lost the first game as I didn't realize I had to bum rush this guy in order to win. I followed up my first loss with 2 consecutive wins, one with a God Hand, burning his life total before he could begin his turn extending shenanigans, and the second time by toughing out the entire thing. He had a Batterskull, and did put his life total back up from 2 to 6, but I still won out via Flames and Skullcrack. Those anti lifegain cards are so important!
Final match: Vs. Urza/ Iona Deck: 1 - 1 - 1
This was an odd deck, and I kept drawing bad hands. The opponent used Gifts ro recur Iona, and stifle my red spells. I did manage to win the second game, but simply couldn't get past Iona overall. I'm open on suggestions as far as how to beat this matchup, in the future. I do believe I'd stand a better chance, as it takes this opponent a few turns to build up the appropriate mana base, had I drawn better, or had better starting hands, but oh well!
Overall, this deck is insane. It's very tough to beat, can play different styles, and is supremely punishing against opponents miscues. I'm quite glad with its performance, and will be using it again next week. Hopefully, duelists don't begin mainboarding Leylines!
Random idea: It would be really neat to determine the relation (with collected data) between playing first and winning when running a burn deck
I'd venture out a guess that if you play first, you would more than likely win. In all of my duels, as long as I can T1 Guide, I usually win. Sure, the opponent can Exile it away on the second or so turn, but that's still hard removal they're wasting, while still giving me lands.
A lot of what people are touting for for mono~green infect can be said about the decks it plays against. Sure, if you use any tiered deck, and are lucky, draw well and pilot better, you'll come out with a win. It's just with MGI you need to be certain you'llw in when you can alpha, or else you'll lose more often than not.
Also let me go off on a tangent for a second, I believe that crypt is much better than cage ONLY and only because it costs zero mana. Considering half the games it seems like we are using our god damn lands to attack we truly, honestly really don't want to gimp our own plan by having to do nothing for a whole turn just to drop a cage. I'm dead serious, at least as monogreen we are so pressed for mana in the first third or so of the game it's wild.
This. This is absolutely the reason I run 4 copies of the Crypt as opposed to the Cage. I'll take the cheaper, yet narrower option every time if it hits what I want it to hit.
Also, "budget" is not a bad word. It simply describes a specific financial state, or mind set.
I'm not getting into this discussion. In my own personal experience, the mono~green build is extremely potent, yet extremely fragile, i.e. glass cannon.
Honestly, infect itself is such a glass canon, that you should pick your best win~con and stick to it.
It's really, really not. "Glass Cannon" refers to something like Dredge because it depends on something that is commonly hated or receives splash hate. If, for instance, we were to make a turn 2/3 combo depending on an activated artifact ability, provided that we draw the card in those turns, then we could expect to receive a lot of hate already targeted at affinity et al.
This deck, though, has a lot of defenses built in to its combo. All pump spells protect from a lot of removal. There are 8 hexproof effects maindeck.
Here's a fun play for you all. I have a Rancor'd Glistener Elf, and my Tron opponent is at 7 Poison counters (Rancor, Elf's 1 power, Might of Old Krosa). He casts Pyroclasm, so I Nature's Claim the Rancor and activate Pendelhaven to save it. On the next turn, I replay Rancor and swing for lethal.
No, you'r mistaken. "Glass Canon" refers to a ploy which relies heavily on dealing as much damage (in our case, 'poison counters') as possible in 1 turn. If this ploy fails, then more than likely, your game is lost. Which is precisely what this deck is. At least, the mono~green iteration which I pilot.
I'm not dismissing the deck, as I've piloted it to at least 2 out of 4 wins every time I've used it in a tourney, but I am admitting its faults. Which is mainly that it needs to be able to win, in as few turns as possible, which it does, admirably well most of the time.
If I swing for what I assume will be lethal poison, and exhaust my resource of pump and protection, and it doesn't win me the game, then more than likely my opponent will win in the following number of turns. The decks alpha swing consumes too many resources to be able to duplicate in the same duel sufficiently.
Which is what makes it a "glass canon" deck. Common hate, and splash hate have nothing to do with a deck being a glass canon.
Apparently, there's been a severe uptick in the mono~red Burn Deck usage. It's currently occupying ~4% of the meta, which is good enough for seventh best.
Spellskite is definitely an appealing sideboard option. And I can see how it can be utilized in many matchups. The biggest deterrents for me, personally are as follows:
Pricing: Currently, it's in the ~$18.00 price range, which is far too expensive for me to purchase, for a deck which is fairly cheap to build.
Utility: Sure, the card and ability itself are great, but it's simply too slow and costly to mesh cohesively with my gameplan.
Susceptibility to Removal: It's a wonderful card, but with all of the rampant artifact hate, it dies too quickly and easily for me to splurge both financially, and mana and lifely on it.
But, that's not a knock on the card itself. I personally adore the card, and am quite enamored by both, its toughness and unique ability. I simply can't justify including it in my build.
This is the current deck I've been using lately. It's performed fairly admirably thus far in play testing, absolutely stomping T1 decks (namely, Melira/Pod, Affinity and the RUG Splinter Twin decks.
The deck is great, for what it is, which is a budget, mono~red monstrosity. I've opted to forgo popular staples such as Devil and Lavamancer because they're both too slow and too easily removable for my style of play. I find there are other creatures I'd rather be casting, who win out in the limited creature spots available in this deck.
While a T1 Leyline does possess the potential to wreck this deck, it can still finagle a win via the creatures, Bloods and Fallouts. But obviously, that's far tougher as hexproof is almost always an autoloss.
I understand, and I respect that.
I'm not, that's simply the sliver of the most commonly used decks in the meta that infect occupies. That's still a large portion of players using infect. From all of the collated data, RUG Splinter Twin is the most utilized deck, at 11.93%. Between that, and mono green infect, there is no other infect build utilized. Ergo, the mono green infect build is the more commonly utilized and effective build.
This deck is absolutely oppressive.
http://www.mtggoldfish.com/metagame/modern/full
I concur with much of what you said. Burn is too consistently good, with too many answers/ options for it to lose too many T1, Game 1 matches. Provided, once your opponent sideboards, it gets tougher. But the deck is highly consistent, as your options for burn remain fairly equal, in all your cards.
In my experience, if you're running a Mono Red Burn deck, and you come across a Leyline, realistically, you've only got 2 options:
- Scoop immediately, if you're aware you've no answers.
Or
- Side in answers on the next round, for a shot at winning. Answers include the following:
Searing Blood
Spark Elemental
Hellspark Elemental
Goblin Guide
Vexing Devil
Volcanic Fallout
Flamebreak
Searing Blood is an amazing card in such matchups, as destroying a creature still damages its controller, even if they're hexproofed. Other than that, there's not really much else you can do in Mono~Red. I side or main many of those cards, and still rarely or barely beat a T1 Leyline.
However, as it's been stated, Leyline is not a common main or sideboard card. You're not entirely likely to regularly run into it. If you find that almost every person in your meta does employ it, and you're still unable to win utilizing sweepers, then you may have to splash green in your mana base for Naturalize or Nature's Claim.
Price wise, the mono green infect deck is dirt cheap. It's literally the cheapest, or second cheapest modern deck you can build, while still hoping to place, competitively.
Thank you, that's just what I've been saying this entire time!
Great minds, and all.
Basically, he casts 1 cost creatures which are pumped by lands, and then bumrushes.
I won 2 out of 3 matches. He simply had no answer for infect + pumps. He did bolt my creatures, sometimes but I always had the Nexus as a backup.
If you're experiencing issues with TRON, I'd recommend siding in the following: Nature's Claim and/ or Oxidize. With 8 amazing artifact hate cards in your deck, you'll draw into great answers for almost all of their artifacts, while you keep swinging for poison. Honestly, I'm personally glad when I play against a TRON opponent. The mono~green budget build is so fast, and it packs so much artifact hate that TRON is most times rendered completely useless.
I haven't employed my infect deck in quite some time. I'll be playing with it casually tonight, and I'll aim to post my results here.
Perhaps. I'm always open to constructive advice. What kind of hands do you aim for, game 1?
First Match: Vs. Merfolk: 1 - 1 - 1
This matchup went about as well as I'd expect. In the first game, I won in the first few turns. My opponent had a brilliant hand, but only 1 island. He did however, drop the Vial, and abused it to cast his creatures. Luckily, I had T 1 Guide, and drew into landfallen Blazes, so I was able to deal with his creatures, as well as his life total.
The second game, he dropped a [mc]1[/mc] Chalice, and then proceeded to turn my mountains into islands via Spreading Seas, so I was locked out of the duel.
I sided in Smash to Smithereens for the final round, and smashed both, his Vial and Chalice. He still managed to Spread his seas all over my face, and some of my lands, however most of the spells I cast cost only 1 Mountain, or were colorless.
Second Match: Vs.
I'm not certain what deck this one was, but from the opening tip my opponent consistently played various copies of Inquisitions and Thoughtseize, and followed up with Tarmogoyf. Luckily, even though there was much hand disruption and discard, I managed to draw into cards I required, and easily stomped my opponent in only 2 games.
Third Match: Vs. Infinite Turn Deck: 1 - 2
This was a deck that I hadn't seen hide nor hair of before. My opponent played on Islands and turn extending spells, such as Time Warp and Walk the Aeons, and would recycle his graveyard with the Elixir. I wasn't certain what kind of deck it was at first, so I lost the first game as I didn't realize I had to bum rush this guy in order to win. I followed up my first loss with 2 consecutive wins, one with a God Hand, burning his life total before he could begin his turn extending shenanigans, and the second time by toughing out the entire thing. He had a Batterskull, and did put his life total back up from 2 to 6, but I still won out via Flames and Skullcrack. Those anti lifegain cards are so important!
Final match: Vs. Urza/ Iona Deck: 1 - 1 - 1
This was an odd deck, and I kept drawing bad hands. The opponent used Gifts ro recur Iona, and stifle my red spells. I did manage to win the second game, but simply couldn't get past Iona overall. I'm open on suggestions as far as how to beat this matchup, in the future. I do believe I'd stand a better chance, as it takes this opponent a few turns to build up the appropriate mana base, had I drawn better, or had better starting hands, but oh well!
Overall, this deck is insane. It's very tough to beat, can play different styles, and is supremely punishing against opponents miscues. I'm quite glad with its performance, and will be using it again next week. Hopefully, duelists don't begin mainboarding Leylines!
I'd venture out a guess that if you play first, you would more than likely win. In all of my duels, as long as I can T1 Guide, I usually win. Sure, the opponent can Exile it away on the second or so turn, but that's still hard removal they're wasting, while still giving me lands.
This. This is absolutely the reason I run 4 copies of the Crypt as opposed to the Cage. I'll take the cheaper, yet narrower option every time if it hits what I want it to hit.
Also, "budget" is not a bad word. It simply describes a specific financial state, or mind set.
No, you'r mistaken. "Glass Canon" refers to a ploy which relies heavily on dealing as much damage (in our case, 'poison counters') as possible in 1 turn. If this ploy fails, then more than likely, your game is lost. Which is precisely what this deck is. At least, the mono~green iteration which I pilot.
I'm not dismissing the deck, as I've piloted it to at least 2 out of 4 wins every time I've used it in a tourney, but I am admitting its faults. Which is mainly that it needs to be able to win, in as few turns as possible, which it does, admirably well most of the time.
If I swing for what I assume will be lethal poison, and exhaust my resource of pump and protection, and it doesn't win me the game, then more than likely my opponent will win in the following number of turns. The decks alpha swing consumes too many resources to be able to duplicate in the same duel sufficiently.
Which is what makes it a "glass canon" deck. Common hate, and splash hate have nothing to do with a deck being a glass canon.
It must get results.
Pricing: Currently, it's in the ~$18.00 price range, which is far too expensive for me to purchase, for a deck which is fairly cheap to build.
Utility: Sure, the card and ability itself are great, but it's simply too slow and costly to mesh cohesively with my gameplan.
Susceptibility to Removal: It's a wonderful card, but with all of the rampant artifact hate, it dies too quickly and easily for me to splurge both financially, and mana and lifely on it.
But, that's not a knock on the card itself. I personally adore the card, and am quite enamored by both, its toughness and unique ability. I simply can't justify including it in my build.
4 Goblin Guide
4 Spark Elemental
4 Hellspark Elemental
4 Lava Spike
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Shard Volley
4 Searing Blaze
4 Skullcrack
4 Flames of the Blood Hand
4 Rift Bolt
20 Mountain
Sideboard:
4 Smash to Smithereens
4 Volcanic Fallout
The deck is great, for what it is, which is a budget, mono~red monstrosity. I've opted to forgo popular staples such as Devil and Lavamancer because they're both too slow and too easily removable for my style of play. I find there are other creatures I'd rather be casting, who win out in the limited creature spots available in this deck.
While a T1 Leyline does possess the potential to wreck this deck, it can still finagle a win via the creatures, Bloods and Fallouts. But obviously, that's far tougher as hexproof is almost always an autoloss.