5¢ Infect & a little pointing talk

Hey Dudes!

No real coherent theme this time, it is a blog after all.

You know how you'll be lying in bed trying to get to sleep then you think of a good card to add to your deck; so you immediately get out of bed, turn the light on (usually stark naked) and start working it into the deck?...right?...just me? ok....

So here's something Brett Hughes (pronounced "Brett Who-gezz") and I have been working on for a while. I've only linked the cards I don't expect everyone to know cause I'm lazy.

5¢ infect!

18
Glistener Elf
Green Sun’s Zenith
Blight Mamba
Blighted Agent
Ichorclaw Myr
Lost Leonin
Necropede
Plague Myr
Plague Stinger
Cystbearer
Phyrexian Crusader
Razor Swine
Rot Wolf
Viridian Corrupter
Whispering Specter
Phyrexian Vatmother
Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
Phyrexian Hydra

17
Mental Misstep
Inquisition of Kozilek
Duress
Thoughtseize
Noble Hierarch
Rancor
Gaea’s Might
Might of Alara
Groundswell
Vines of Vastwood
Colossal Might
Predator’s Strike
Sylvan Might
Wildsize
Invigorate
Elspeth, Knight Errant
Angelic Destiny

25
10 Fetchlands
Tropical Island
Taiga
Savannah
Bayou
Overgrown Tomb
Scrubland
Badlands
Underground Sea
Plateau
Pendlehaven
Inkmoth Nexus
Wasteland
Mox Emerald [3 Points]
Mox Jet [3 Points]
Kessig Wolf Run

SIDEBOARD
Qasali Pridemage
Flensermite
Berserk
Might of Old Krosa
Assault Strobe
Hide//Seek
Mother of Runes
Fiery Justice
Swords to Plowshares
Oust
Seal of Strength
Blight Widow
Batterskull
Stoneforge Mystic
Umezawa's Jitte [1 Point]

It's a cool deck. You get to play a bunch of cards that no one else does and you have a lot of raw power. I played a similar list at a weekly a couple weeks ago and went 2-2. While testing the deck I found I couldn't yam every infect creature into the deck, Contagious Nim trading with a Trinket Mage was bad. Also, sorcery speed pump which provides no evasion sucks vs creature decks, they just chump and race you.
With power comes a price: the mana's not the best, there aren't many decent infect creatures and sometimes you'll draw too much pump. The times that you do 'get' people though, make it totally worth it, gotta love cheesy wins!

Random thoughts:

I used to advocate Chrome Mox in aggro decks, I played it in Mono Red and White Weenie for ages. I've realised that against U-control their counterspells are still cheap enough to hit your key spells despite the acceleration from the mox. And against decks with lots of spot removal/burn, Chrome Mox doesn't give you any tempo advantage because their removal is so cheap.

I thought of a simple way to explain the premise of my last blog entry; U-control crushes Midrange, Midrange crushes Zoo but Zoo doesn't crush U-control, the matchup's quite even. The metagame has settled so much that people have realise that midrange is bad because it can't beat U, so there's no midrange to keep Zoo in check, and U's so good that it matches Zoo, it's natural enemy.
I'm not saying nerf U, I'm saying weaken it just enough so that midrange has a chance to be viable so that the format is more diverse and therefore even more fun.
Combo? There is so much hate available that every archetype has answers to Combo, it's just a matter of the Combo player picking the right metagame where people aren't hating.

I've been playing Hermit lately, I went 2-2 in the last weekly and 2-1 last Saturday in the Monthly (Yes the Thursday night weekly had more players than the Monthly). Whilst I'm playing the deck I feel that at any time they could draw their answer and I'll lose. While the deck's really powerful, it's a glass cannon. Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile, two of the most popular highlander cards, totally wreck Hermit Druid.
I can still see the deck getting 1 or 2 points based on how unfair it feels to lose to it. I'm just saying that the deck still pales in comparison to highly tuned aggro and control decks. We need some Combo in the meta.

New blog feature that I'll do at the end of all my entries, random powerful underplayed card:

Pattern of Rebirth

Cheers!

Luke