@Darkest_before_dawn Not counting your LGS meta, I would definitely recommend UG over GB in general. UG is just more consistent. I don’t know of any streamers though, sorry.
@bobmtg i think they are a choice, i’m not sure what we can afford to cut to accomodate both. Finks is required to shore up burn and is decent vs removal decks, stalker is decent vs burn and amazing vs removal decks. They can come in for the same things but are better against one than the other.
As for which one to play, depends on which one you are expecting! Midrange or burn? In a blind field midrange is actually many decks and so you prepare for a larger % of the field by choosing stalkers. In this meta in particular, mardu pyromancer, jeskai, and jund are all popular so its a safe bet stalkers will be used in some games against one of those. In addition, burn is an atrocious matchup that gets worse the better the burn player is- finks definitely helps but not enough to make it even or favorable, whereas stalkers i would say push midrange matchups post-board to even or favorable.
Final note: it’s still very meta dependent! Burn & Jund were the top 2 for Minneapolis, they are obviously both being played at a high level. Researching your local meta and speculating based on that data should give you a reasonable glimpse of what to expect and you should choose accordingly. Hope this helps!
PPTQ this past Saturday, went 4-1-2
(50 players)
Bogles- 2-0
Easy match up, poor guy didnt have any sb prep for me
Abzan Valuetown (2-1)
Wierd list with resto/smiter/slyvan carytid/etc. I hadn’t seen it before but for us it played like abzan midrange. G1 he destroyed me, G2 he only had discard with no removal, G3 he missed a land drop- his hand was gas but missing the land and a color made it difficult to lose.
Humans (2-0)
He kind of misplayed the matchup, tried racing with mantis rider instead of prioritizing controlling my board with staticaster/reflector mage
Counters Company (2-1)
Kind of lucked out, he whiffed a coco and never found melira or a chord
ID
ID
QF- Mono Green Tron (1-2)
I’m really disappointed by this one- got g1, disrespected him g2 and kept an elf hand that got bricked by his thought-knot blocker, g3 i kept a risky hand without a clear gameplan in mind. I simply tilted and didn’t think clearly- only my second tournament, i hadnt played in 2 1/2 hours bc of the IDs, and he found the perfect card in g2 and g3 with ancient stirrings. G2 he found his only out with a walking ballista, G3 he found his tron land.
Overall, i like infect, i like its positioning, and i think theres still a lot of room for me to improve. My advice for playing this deck- there are three critical aspects to infect. 1) This is the one most people get pretty fast- play around your lose conditions. Sometimes this means playing safe and holding up protection, sometimes it means going for the unsafe kill if you feel theres an unbeatable card about to be played.
2) MULLIGANING. The skill I’m currently trying to develop. It isn’t about knowing when or when not to keep, it’s about recognizing the hand you’ve drawn, what your hand needs, and the probability that you’ll draw that needed card. A few rules of thumb, in order from most to least important- never mull less than 4, strongly consider never mulling below 5, I never ever keep without an infect creature, i sometimes keep no landers if the hand is absolutely INSANE with a land.
3) deckbuilding and sideboarding are a skill. I havent developed this one yet, i still netdeck, but ive found that infect is an outsider strategy. By that I mean we are always trying to prey on the meta, not be the meta. Naturally that means we always need to be aware of what decks we are likely to face and have a gameplan for them. Is it creature heavy we need dismembers main, is it spell heavy and we need pierces main, do we just want to go fast and cut the fluff for more consistent pump. These are all questions we should ask- infect does not netdeck particularly well, so i encourage everyone including myself to learn this skill asap!
My list was very similar to Dillion Nelson’s PPTQ on MTGtop8, without the sleight of hands.
Finally, a question: i’m considering testing street wraith since i havent seen any lists running it. Zan syed’s version w/ stalkers appears a lot faster than Aaron Barich’s Geist list, aren’t street wraiths good if we are trying to go fast?
It hurts our burn matchup but I’ve basically given that one up, my PPTQ list had almost nothing for it.
@bobmtg i think they are a choice, i’m not sure what we can afford to cut to accomodate both. Finks is required to shore up burn and is decent vs removal decks, stalker is decent vs burn and amazing vs removal decks. They can come in for the same things but are better against one than the other.
As for which one to play, depends on which one you are expecting! Midrange or burn? In a blind field midrange is actually many decks and so you prepare for a larger % of the field by choosing stalkers. In this meta in particular, mardu pyromancer, jeskai, and jund are all popular so its a safe bet stalkers will be used in some games against one of those. In addition, burn is an atrocious matchup that gets worse the better the burn player is- finks definitely helps but not enough to make it even or favorable, whereas stalkers i would say push midrange matchups post-board to even or favorable.
Final note: it’s still very meta dependent! Burn & Jund were the top 2 for Minneapolis, they are obviously both being played at a high level. Researching your local meta and speculating based on that data should give you a reasonable glimpse of what to expect and you should choose accordingly. Hope this helps!
(50 players)
Bogles- 2-0
Easy match up, poor guy didnt have any sb prep for me
Abzan Valuetown (2-1)
Wierd list with resto/smiter/slyvan carytid/etc. I hadn’t seen it before but for us it played like abzan midrange. G1 he destroyed me, G2 he only had discard with no removal, G3 he missed a land drop- his hand was gas but missing the land and a color made it difficult to lose.
Humans (2-0)
He kind of misplayed the matchup, tried racing with mantis rider instead of prioritizing controlling my board with staticaster/reflector mage
Counters Company (2-1)
Kind of lucked out, he whiffed a coco and never found melira or a chord
ID
ID
QF- Mono Green Tron (1-2)
I’m really disappointed by this one- got g1, disrespected him g2 and kept an elf hand that got bricked by his thought-knot blocker, g3 i kept a risky hand without a clear gameplan in mind. I simply tilted and didn’t think clearly- only my second tournament, i hadnt played in 2 1/2 hours bc of the IDs, and he found the perfect card in g2 and g3 with ancient stirrings. G2 he found his only out with a walking ballista, G3 he found his tron land.
Overall, i like infect, i like its positioning, and i think theres still a lot of room for me to improve. My advice for playing this deck- there are three critical aspects to infect. 1) This is the one most people get pretty fast- play around your lose conditions. Sometimes this means playing safe and holding up protection, sometimes it means going for the unsafe kill if you feel theres an unbeatable card about to be played.
2) MULLIGANING. The skill I’m currently trying to develop. It isn’t about knowing when or when not to keep, it’s about recognizing the hand you’ve drawn, what your hand needs, and the probability that you’ll draw that needed card. A few rules of thumb, in order from most to least important- never mull less than 4, strongly consider never mulling below 5, I never ever keep without an infect creature, i sometimes keep no landers if the hand is absolutely INSANE with a land.
3) deckbuilding and sideboarding are a skill. I havent developed this one yet, i still netdeck, but ive found that infect is an outsider strategy. By that I mean we are always trying to prey on the meta, not be the meta. Naturally that means we always need to be aware of what decks we are likely to face and have a gameplan for them. Is it creature heavy we need dismembers main, is it spell heavy and we need pierces main, do we just want to go fast and cut the fluff for more consistent pump. These are all questions we should ask- infect does not netdeck particularly well, so i encourage everyone including myself to learn this skill asap!
My list was very similar to Dillion Nelson’s PPTQ on MTGtop8, without the sleight of hands.
Finally, a question: i’m considering testing street wraith since i havent seen any lists running it. Zan syed’s version w/ stalkers appears a lot faster than Aaron Barich’s Geist list, aren’t street wraiths good if we are trying to go fast?
It hurts our burn matchup but I’ve basically given that one up, my PPTQ list had almost nothing for it.
Good luck and happy games, everyone!