I’m an avid infect fan. It’s my Modern deck of choice, and I have to rewrite my “One Deck, Three Formats” article sometime in the near future. I just love that every card in my hand brings fear to my opponent. Counterspells don’t make me nervous, but a Might of Old Krosa will kill me if I don’t have something to stop it. Any deck that makes me excited about every top-deck is one I want to play. I ran track, and that visceral feeling of wind in my hair is what I’m looking for in my deck. Then again, I ran hurdles and hit more than my share of them. Ahem.

This past weekend’s announcement of bringing the Onslaught fetch lands back to Standard and Modern in Khans of Tarkir has me thinking about a few cards I tested for my infect deck in the past. Most notably, with the addition of red, Assault Strobe allows for turn-two wins, Ghor-Clan Rampager gives evasion and pump in one spell that’s uncounterable, and finally, Flesh // Blood allows for a second-main-phase wins with Blood after attacking, when your pump spells last until end of turn:

Blood by Lucas Graciano, 11” × 14” Oil on Masonite

Yeah, that’s a filthy win condition.

I tried to make R/G infect work in the past, and again, I tried to make it work. It didn’t work again, but iteration is a necessity in deck-building. Both decks are attempts with some testing, and I encourage you to submit comments and inclusions!

Infect as Aggro/Combo

I love the original rock/paper/scissors flow of Mike Flores 1990s articles. They are like the novels, comics, and “strategy” guides that state how useful Llanowar Elves is or why Dark Ritual is a mere good idea. Modern is super-odd, with archetypes fitting the molds with oddball variations like infect decks not really quite fitting perfectly in there. Check out this this one by Pure MTGO on archetypical decks:

Image via Pure MTGO

Infect is generally an aggro deck, comboing up one creature to do silly damage. In recent sets, there are ways for infect decks to use spells to deal damage to a player without a creature attacking. Normally, hitting for 4 to 6 damage is great, but when it’s actually 8 to 12, considering an infect win is with 10 instead of 20 points to deal, checking out a new metagame-changing weird cousin of infect is definitely in order.

Oh yeah, I forgot about this guy. He’s good, too.

Ghor-Clan Rampager is the first Beast that red can make use of. Bloodrush, as an ability, is uncounterable, and you will have someone try to counterspell one, effectively discarding a card from that player’s hand and freeing up your creature to be pumped for serious! This will happen at your local Modern tournament. It feels awesome.

For bloodrush, I tried Rubblebelt Maaka and Slaughterhorn in decks to see how the uncounterable ability works. So often, I needed pumps to effectively counter a Lightning Bolt, and that was the only bloodrush card I was willing to include. It nullified every blue variant deck, and I’m sure I can wreck my local metagame with testing, but it still gets me hosed against anything with hard removal.

Check this one first. I took it to some testing, but it could use a dozen or so more matches to solidify choices.

R/G Aggro Infect ? Modern | Mike Linnemann

• Creatures (18)
• 2 Blight Mamba
• 4 Ghor-Clan Rampager
• 4 Glistener Elf
• 4 Ichorclaw Myr
• 4 Necropede

• Spells (22)
• 4 Groundswell
• 4 Might of Old Krosa
• 4 Mutagenic Growth
• 4 Vines of Vastwood
• 2 Assault Strobe
• 4 Rancor

• Lands (21)
• 2 Forest
• 2 Mountain
• 1 Kessig Wolf Run
• 2 Smoldering Spires
• 4 Inkmoth Nexus
• 4 Stomping Ground
• 4 Wooded Foothills
• 2 Pendelhaven

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Realms Uncharted
• 3 Nature's Claim
• 2 Lignify
• 3 Combust
• 3 Spellskite
• 2 Shatterstorm

Buy This Deck

The win condition is attacking—and then attacking more. Pump up your dudes, and swing away! You’ll notice you can reach 6 poison easily, but it’s often easier to go from 6 to 11 easier than it is to go from 8 to 10 for the win. Be careful around those numbers if you’re in top-deck mode, as you have no way to protect your cards! Playing against infect, if I see red and there’s 2 mana ever available, I assume the Blood side of Flesh // Blood is coming in hot!

Smoldering Spire – A lack of evasive creatures utterly necessitated the Smoldering Spire inclusion. So many times, I found myself needing Rancor or Ghor-Clan Rampager to push through some 1/3 or 1/4 dorktron.

Assault Strobe – Hitting for 10 poison on turn two feels pretty incredible. On a trample creature, double strike is absurd but fragile. You’ll notice zero Apostle's Blessings in this list. I had it in and then noticed that I needed the beef and men; I’m still not sure about Assault Strobe. Part of the problem I feel exists in the R/G version of infect is that I want to include all the things, but if it’s a two-of, it’s a waste of time in an aggro build.

It seems that this card would give you crazy value in a R/G deck, but that sorcery speed utterly kills you. In Legacy, you have Berserk, allowing for easy wins at instant speed, in green, with trample. I haven’t found Assault Strobe super-useful, and any sacrifice effects from my opponent basically makes me auto-lose after I play this card. You need a Mutagenic Growth with that beast.

I didn’t playtest against many artifact/metalcraft/affinity builds, so I left the two Shatterstorms as placeholders for Ancient Grudge, Shattering Blow, and the like.

Kessig Wolf Run – I found this thing to be great in long matchups, but if an infect deck is going until turn five, I should’ve mulliganed but decided to play bad Magic. That said, if you run out of pump spells—the gas—the Wolf Run gives trample. That alone is worth it. I don’t understand how this card is still under $1. It won’t be forever. Make sure you snag a copy for damn near nothing.

Realms Uncharted – I like me a wild card. I’ve been testing with this card and have found some great notes on choosing Inkmoth Nexus, Smoldering Spires, Kessig Wolf Run, and Pendelhaven. You gain a free Pendelhaven and something that opponents will struggle to comprehend. A Pod deck I tested against found it utterly baffling, and really, it’s a way to get out of a bind!

Pendelhaven – Remember that you can pump and then play your other copy! I have done this, and it feels like a mistake—until the opponent forgets about that extra for a pump spell. It is great.

Lignify – It stops Melira, hexproof guys before they equip, an affinity guy or any other troublesome thing like a Spellskite. I wish green had more lignify effects, it feels so flavorful!

Infect as Midrange Combo

As a changeup to the aggro/combo infect deck, I am looking at Wooded Foothills pushing the R/G infect deck into more combo midrange. Two things changed: Wild Defiance became relevant, and protection became paramount.

R/G Combo Infect ? Modern | Mike Linnemann

• Creatures (12)
• 4 Blight Mamba
• 4 Glistener Elf
• 2 Corpse Cur
• 2 Plague Myr

• Spells (25)
• 2 Ranger's Guile
• 2 Titan's Strength
• 3 Apostle's Blessing
• 4 Might of Old Krosa
• 4 Mutagenic Growth
• 4 Vines of Vastwood
• 4 Flesh // Blood
• 2 Wild Defiance

• Lands (23)
• 3 Copperline Gorge
• 3 Forest
• 3 Mountain
• 4 Inkmoth Nexus
• 4 Stomping Ground
• 4 Wooded Foothills
• 2 Pendelhaven

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Livewire Lash
• 2 Contagion Clasp
• 4 Spellskite
• 3 Nature's Claim
• 4 Combust

Buy This Deck

The win condition is attacking and casting a Flesh // Blood in the second main phase to deal direct damage for a final 4 or 5 infect damage for the win. Playing against infect, if I see and there’s 2 mana ever available, I assume the Blood side of Flesh // Blood is coming in hot.

Plague Myr – This card powers up an Apostle's Blessing, and the lack of a landfall pump is intentional. Keeping a land for second-main-phase +4/+4 is the tell of the entire deck. Keeping the illusion of a “bad R/G infect deck” that’s in disguise as a Flesh // Blood blowout is helpful. It can also bring your Wild Defiance out a turn faster, powering the Flesh // Blood-plus-Wild Defiance combo.

Corpse Cur – In a lot of mirror matches, I see a Virulent Wound or a Dismember dealt on turn one or two. If you can stabilize at all, Cur brings you right back in. Also, in any hiccups, it’s terrifying to opponents because infect decks with gas just need a spark to outright win out of nowhere.

Blight Mamba – If you can’t protect your creature, find a way to let it live. Regeneration? Sold. Remember that Flesh // Blood doesn’t care if Blight Mamba is tapped for it to work!

Might of Old Krosa – Works precombat for attacking! Works postcombat for Flesh // Blood! Shenanigans.

Titan's Strength – Not having 4 toughness to the power is limiting, but the +3/+1 doesn’t affect the creature if you’re not attacking at all. Add the 1-mana spell to the arsenal, and that means one scry effect helps to filter out a land, but I’ve found the knowledge of setting up the next turn is far more important. I’m now testing, off the list, any scry effects in poison decks. I think there’s something there I’m missing.

Ranger's Guile – It’s a boss. Remember to always cast that before anything else when shenanigans are suspected. Losing that doesn’t lose you the game.

Livewire Lash – Man, it is terrible, but on turn four, the opponent needs immediate answers or it’s game over, folks. Winning on turn five isn’t tier one, but if you’re playing with R/G infect, I don’t expect you to be winning a Grand Prix with it. The lack of evasion is a thing.

Volt Charge – This was cut as soon as I considered it. It’s terrible in nearly every deck—that’s the difference between 2 and 3 mana. If this were costed at , this could be playable. Many times, I find myself hitting for 9 with two spells giving +4/+4, being 1 short for the win. Proliferate could get there, but all the proliferators are just too slow. Even Tezzeret's Gambit is a bad gamble at best.

Things still to test – Adding black to an aggro version; adding blue to an aggro version; adding black to a midrange-combo version; adding blue to a midrange-combo version. Why?

Evasion creatures. Blighted Agent and Plague Stinger are so needed, and with silly mana, anything is doable with fetch lands into shock lands. This is what my next month will consist of before the set is released!

It seems that every Modern deck will get a shakeup from fetch lands becoming available. Infect just became faster, if that’s possible, and even the terrible R/G version became tier one.

-Mike