I've learned a lot about Scars draft in the past week, especially with regards to Poison. When Poison works, the deck is insane. Even the average deck is very strong simply because your opponents start at ten life and have to make miserable plays early just to stay alive.

Poison is a pretty standard aggressive archetype against normal decks. You are aiming to just beat them down before their larger end game creatures get going. Combat tricks are much better than normal due to the Wither aspect of Infect. Removal should be used aggressively to push through damage and once they start to pull back in you have to finish them quick as it only gets incrementally worse with every guy they play.

In the mirror, things are the exact opposite. Suddenly most of your guys lose their resilient aspects like regeneration and your tricks become bad or even blanks. Lots of trades will happen and you have to position yourself relative to what cards you have. Boarding large non-infect creatures just to produce two for ones on the block is completely valid.

Here's a ranking of the non-rare Infect creatures, from highest to lowest pick. Note that this doesn't really take into account the mirror, as often if that is a huge concern there weren't enough poison guys for you to make a deck anyways.

1. Plague Stinger- Evasion is the nut.
2. Corpse Cur- All your guys are at worst mediocre removal spells that grind down the guys they block with. This is a hybrid Gravedigger and Izzet Chronarch. Looping these is also pretty unbeatable, so the second one gains a lot of value.
3. Tangle Angler- This might even deserve to be higher. He ends the game with his Lure ability, is awkward to block as x/5 is giant, and can peck away at midsized blockers that would otherwise hold back your 1/1s. The only downside, if there is one, is that Ichor Rats and Grasp of Darkness tend to pull your towards a mana base heavier on Black making Luring all their guys hard late game.
4. Cystbearer- 2/3 is giant. The main way the non-poison decks win the match up is trading early. There really isn't a good way for them to trade with this guy. If it is late in the draft and you don't have a couple two drops this may drop below the next two cards, but the effective four this does per hit is so much more than the two that the two drops deal.
5. Ichorclaw Myr- Same as Cystbearer. Blocking this is miserable.
6. Blight Mamba- Costing mana to not die is obnoxious as is not just eating their 2/2's. It's better on the defensive, but you don't really want to be there. Also much worse in the Poison mirror as their three drops just shrink on the block as opposed to a real trade. Still, it's a two drop that keeps up the aggressive curve.
7. Necropede- The -1/-1 counter is much more relevant when you are a normal deck and this is just a Perilous Myr. In poison you would rather end the combat with a two drop still in play rather than them down a random Myr. The obvious exception is the mirror where the two for one is backbreaking.
8. Tel-Jilad Fallen- 3 power is giant and Metalcraft decks can easily be left with only artifact creatures to block with after a removal spell. The inability to be equipped can get obnoxious at times though and the abundance of four drops means that he can often drop down below the next two cards later on. If you have a lot of fours already, this drops below the next two cards.
9. Contagious Nim- About as average as he looks, but obviously the point of this deck is that it makes average much better.
10. Ichor Rats- Being an actual x/1 in combat is very obnoxious. The burn aspect is nice, but it can often backfire in the mirror or if your opponent decided to open a Contagion Engine.

    All the cards above this I would have a very hard time cutting. The ones below are still playable but not locks in a good deck.

11. Carrion Call- 1/1's aren't great, but this is fine. Where this card is good is in the mirror as it often is just a two for one. If you have several Untamed Mights the ability of this card to create attackers out of nowhere is also helpful, but not as much as the actually good creatures.
12. Blackcleave Goblins- Costs four, has one toughness. You will never trade this profitably. Play this guy like you would Lightning Elemental. Don't send him into a trade with a Myr and aggressively use removal to push him through.
13. Trigon of Infestation- Like Carrion Call, only slower. Time is not something the poison deck has to play with. Absolutely dominant in the mirror or out of real decks against infect though.
14. Vector Asp- If you can't find any of the real two drops, this does a mediocre impression. If you actually have enough infect creatures for a deck, forget about him.

Other than Poison guys, you have three main categories of cards: bombs, removal, and tricks/pump.

Bombs should be obvious. If they are good enough to win the game on their own, take them and play them.

Removal obviously fits in high on the pick order. Grasp of Darkness, Slice in Twain, Skinrender, and Tumble Magnet are all better than Plague Stinger. Sylvok Replica is better than anything below Cystbearer, while Flesh Allergy, Fume Spitter, and Instill Infection only come ahead of the real Infect guys (Contagious Nim and above) later once you have the count secured. Contagion Clasp is unreal and comes ahead of all non-rares with one exception.

As for instant tricks, the average ones like Tel-Jilad Justice and Withstand Death you can just pick up as they come. They are fine 21^st to 23^rd cards, but nothing special. Tainted Strike is something you can go after later pack 2 if you feel you might be short on infect, but it rarely makes the cut if things go right.

Untamed Might is a different story. If knew I was Poison, I would take Untamed Might over every non-rare. As for the rares, these are probably better:

• Geth, Lord of the Vault
• Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
• Hand of the Praetors
• Molten-Tail Masticore
• Wurmcoil Engine
• Contagion Engine
• Carnifex Demon (maybe)

This card is that good. There is almost no way for them to not take a hit at some point late game. To not die most of the time they have to block all your guys at every point as their removal was probably used to not die earlier. At worst it just kills their best blocker. The usual case is just double Fireball you. If you already have three the fourth one might be lower value, but I'm not sure how realistic that is. I've heard people try to argue it against removal. Sure, you can kill their guy and push in a few extra damage. You could also just kill them. Clasp is the closest as it is removal and Sulfuric Vortex, but it's fairly mana intensive and the previous argument applies: with Might, they just die.

(Aside on rares: Putrefax is better than all commons and uncommons except Might and Clasp).

Equipment pump is nice to have, but I wouldn't necessarily go too far out of the way to get it. You can usually mise a Strider Harness midpack, but getting Sylvok Lifestaff usually involves you incorrectly passing up a good poison guy or removal. Darksteel Axe is very good, but I'm not where it actually falls in the order. It's definitely better than Tel-Jilad Fallen and worse than Tangle Angler, but whenever I end up with one it was usually my safe P1P1 out of a average pack.

There are a few other random cards that fall outside these lines.

Culling Dais is fine. You can just cash in guys that would otherwise just die in attacks or level up on removal. It also works out very will with Trigon of Infestation and Carrion Call.

Throne of Geth is amazing when it works. Nihil Spellbomb often makes the cut as a cycler and I've seen this burn people out from two poison with double Cur. Taking it early behind the two drops or late once you have the support is idea. It also works very well with Fume Spitter and Instill Infection.

To be fair, the above "pick order" is very flexible as are most in this format. Your end deck ideally has around 11 poison guys with 4 two drops, 3 threes, 3 fours, and 1 extra somewhere. You hopefully have around 4 tricks or pump spells and 3-4 removal. If you get to pack 3 and have 10 poison guys but no hard removal and the pick is Syvok Replica against Cystbearer, it's worth considering taking the removal spell.

I've seen poison decks other than GB try to work, but I've been fairly unimpressed. They are at best bad fallback plans. The scenario where you are taking the best infect guys and they all end up in Green or Black is rare. If you are GU or UB, odds are you don't have enough infect guys. Thrummingbird tries to do a Plague Stinger impression, but isn't a clock starting on two and doesn't carry pumps well. Steady Progress is cute, but still just a mediocre burn spell. White and Red bring decent tricks/pumps and removal, but most of the time if those cards are coming around at the point you take them over infect cards you misjudged the draft and should have been in that deck.

On the subject of other decks, one that I've found to be underrated is WB metalcraft. The key to this archetype is that there are a lot of very good black cards that come around way later than they should due to poison. Think Necrogen Scudder, which is miles ahead of the curve but always shows up later on as it doesn't say infect. You also have access to a large amount of reach. Necrogen Censer is a lot better than people think, Exsanguinate is still an X-spell, and Bleak Coven Vampires just wins most regular races. Black's removal also plays well into an aggressive plan, though Red's is better. While the good WR deck is probably still better, WB is probably the second best metalcraft beatdown deck.

Constructed Bonus Section

First off, here's an update to the Boros list from last week.

[cardlist]

[Creatures]

4 Elite Vanguard

4 Steppe Lynx

4 Goblin Guide

4 Plated Geopede

4 Kor Skyfisher

3 Stoneforge Mystic

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

4 Burst Lightning

4 Lightning Bolt

2 Staggershock

3 Adventuring Gear

[/Spells]

[Lands]

4 Terramorphic Expanse

4 Arid Mesa

4 Marsh Flats

4 Scalding Tarn

3 Mountain

5 Plains

[/Lands]

[Sideboard]

4 Cunning Sparkmage

1 Basilisk Collar

2 Koth of the Hammer

2 Mark of Mutiny

4 Kor Firewalker

1 Staggershock

1 Sword of Body and Mind

[/Sideboard]

[/cardlist]

Don't be fooled by the creatures. This plays out much more like a Red deck than a White deck. You aren't trying to establish a board presence. You just want to cash your guys in for as much damage as possible before they die or become obsolete and finish with burn. It just happens that Steppe Lynx is the second best burn spell in the format behind Goblin Guide. Kor Skyfisher? That's your Sulfuric Vortex.

Comments on various cards that are or could be in the main

Spikeshot Elder: Too often was this just a Dwarven Pony, and even when it wasn't it was too expensive to activate. You can't even kill snap kill a Lotus Cobra with it unless you are on the play.

Student of Warfare: The deck is very mana hungry as is. It also detracts from your early board presence and makes the main thing this deck can lose to (cheap spot removal) even worse.

Elite Vanguard: Boring, but it works. Costing one is a solid form of evasion, and this is the only one drop other than Guide and Lynx that actually does a reasonable amount of damage if you only untap with it once.

Stoneforge Mystic: I really hate this card in this deck. Often it feels like it is just there for the boarded Sparkmage combo, and at best it feels like a bad Magma Jet. It doesn't really turn into damage that well. Early there are issues with casting all your guys in a time frame where they all actually turn into burn and late you don't necessarily have the land to make it work. The next best option is Stormfront Pegasus though, and that doesn't solve anything. If you don't expect a lot of creature decks I would cut one for the 3^rd Staggershock.

As for the sideboard, it is very simple. Koth comes in for a Mystic and a Gear against Ux control while Mark comes in for those against Titan Ramp. I tried Luminarch Ascension but Into the Roil just got you and it clashes with the whole attacking plan. Against the creature beatdown decks like Elves you board out 3 Elite Vanguard, 1 Adventuring Gear, and 2 Plated Geopede for the Sparkmages, Collar, and Staggershock. If your opponent decided they wanted to play Mono-Red, Firewalker tags in for Geopede and teaches them a lesson (Staggershock also comes in for a Vanguard). Sword is just a good value equipment but is probably better as a random miser card for each metagame. Another Koth might help against control, Arc Trail blows out the mirror and WW, Linvala shuts down the Green creature decks, a Tunnel Ignus forces an answer from Valakut, etc.

The WWu deck got abandoned for two reasons. The first was that it played out too similarly to the Vengevine decks when it won, and the second was because it had no real trump card like Monument to pull it back from behind where as the Green decks doing the same thing did.

I would try to move it further into a tempo direction, but this format isn't inviting to that. You can generate all the tempo you want early but your opponent can just slam down a card and reverse all the work you have done. You maybe have one or two turns to close out with some reach once that happens. Traditionally counter magic worked here, but the big spells are so cheap that you often have issues laying down a clock before setting up the counter wall (unless your threats are things like Lotus Cobra and Garruk that are actually free).

Finally, for those interested in single set block, I have the following advice:

• Poison is the real deal.
• UW control is the real deal.
• Myr are terrible due to Contagion Clasp.
• Precursor Golem is unreal.
• Glimmerpoint Stag is pure value and comboes with Venser to kill Walkers.

If you want to build a MODO collection, single set block is the place to start. In fact, time for me to battle the first Daily for this one.

Afterwards: 4-0'ed with UW Glimmerpoint Stag control, losing only one game that I didn't terribly punt. Look for an article about this format next week