It’s getting close to that time of year again. The part of the year when every Standard player looks at their pile of, in this case Innistrad, cards and the depression of rotation sets in. It’s the time of year when you start to feel worse and worse about trading your cards away, or your money, for that fourth [card]Geist of Saint Traft[/card]. Of course, it’s also the time when every player begins to swear off Standard, and promise that the four boxes of Modern Masters they buy aren’t going to all end up in EDH combo decks. It all becomes a lot harder when you realize that a lot of stores only support Modern FNM (Which is a godsend in itself) once a month.

So what happened when I looked in my inbox and saw an email from a local store that they were going to be hosting Modern Mondays?

Several minutes of celebration, followed by being told to keep quiet because of Exams.

All that being said; I didn’t have a modern deck ready. I haven’t been playing close to long enough to have all of the staples that I was going to need to make one. What was a surprisingly attractive member of the MTG community to do?

It hasn’t been that long since I had just jumped into my magical addiction. That love beat into me with decks that were lent to me by friends, followed by furious matches where my -horribly awkward- homebrews faced down their decks while they took handicaps.

One of those handicaps: Only starting with ten life.

We don’t have the cards to fight against the current Modern decks. We are going to have to make them play with 10 life.

Or get them to ten poison counters, no difference.

Along with the general advantage that poison offers, it is also the perfect time to play infect in the Modern metagame. In the past two months there have been nine infect decks in the top 8 of MTGO dailies. That is less than 2%. Infect is at its most brutal in this exact situation. If nobody is playing against infect, people aren’t going to be ready.

Based on contemporary infect lists, there are a few cards that are almost an automatic four-of in the list:

[card]Blighted Agent[/card]
[card]Glistener Elf[/card]
[card]Ichorclaw Myr[/card]
[card]Groundswell[/card]
[card]Vines of Vastwood[/card]
[card]Might of Old Krosa[/card]

Right there is the skeleton of a deck (Some people would recommend that you play the four [card]Mutagenic Growth[/card] as well), with the recent “Combo Infect” playing copies of [card]Wild Defiance[/card].

Here is the basic list that I started with:

[deck title=Basic Infect]
[Lands]
4 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Hinterland harbor
2 Cathedral of War
4 Breeding Pool
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Pendelhaven
[/Lands]
[Creatures]
4 Glistener Elf
4 Blighted Agent
4 Ichorclaw Myr
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Groundswell
4 Vines of Vastwood
4 Might of Old Krosa
4 Giant Growth
4 Apostle’s Blessing
4 Mutagenic Growth
4 Artful Dodge
[/Spells]
[/deck]

The deck was blisteringly fast from the get-go, being able to garner a turn one [card]Glistener Elf[/card] into a turn three kill very easily. Even [card]Blighted Agent[/card] could be turn three unblockable, but it was a lot less consistent. The Nexus wasn’t doing much at this point, but I wasn’t going to cut it for a basic land.

One of the biggest points in the deck was that it was faster than its combo counterpart. Sure, it was probably worse in a longer game, but I didn’t want to be dropping an enchantment when I could be killing the opponent. In the end, I felt like it deserved a slot in the sideboard.

[card]Wild Defiance[/card]: Sideboard.

The early play-testing showed that one of the worst draws that I could get in the early game was playing a [card]Hinterland Harbor[/card]. One of those and a colourless land lead to a painfully slow start that I couldn’t afford.

[card]Hinterland Harbor[/card]: Out

[card]Artful Dodge[/card] turned out to be pretty useless as well, one of my creatures was unblockable to start with and I shouldn’t be wasting my mana just to keep my creatures the same size.

[card]Artful Dodge[/card]: Out

The deck still had a major problem though- early game [card]Spell Pierce[/card]s and [card]Mana Leak[/card]s left me high and dry with Glistener Elves dying to Birds. I was going to need a way to make sure that the extra power and toughness got through, and it turned out the answer was in Standard. Bloodrush.

[card]Slaughterhorn[/card]: In

[card]Giant Growth[/card]: Out

This is where things got interesting for the deck as I added to third colour to splash for a single spell, [card]Ghor-Clan Rampager[/card]. The Bloodrush ability on this creature is so aggressively costed that it makes the other pump spells in the deck seem cute, and to me it was worth adding a few more shocklands.

[card]Ghor-Clan Rampager[/card]: In

After a little bit of work on the Mana Base, the deck looked like this:

[deck title=Bloodrush Infect by Jackson Haime]
[Lands]
4 Steam Vents
4 Stomping Ground
4 Breeding Pool
4 Inkmoth Nexus
2 Cathedral of War
2 Pendelhaven
[/Lands]
[Creatures]
4 Glistener Elf
4 Blighted Agent
4 Ichorclaw Myr
4 Slaughterhorn
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Vines of Vastwood
4 Might of Old Krosa
4 Groundswell
4 Apostle’s Blessing
2 Mutagenic Growth
2 Simic Charm
[/Spells]
[/deck]

The deck was fast and ready to go, but I didn’t have a sideboard. Unlike at FNM where I slip certain cards in to deal with the decks that are in the meta, this was going to be a blind run. Rather than sideboard against a meta where I didn’t know what cards were going to be useful, I tried to sideboard for an open meta and pray my deck was fast enough.

Sideboard

3 [card]Wild Defiance[/card]
3 [card]Nature’s Claim[/card]
4 [card]Dismember[/card]
2 [card]Simic Charm[/card]
2 [card]Mutagenic Growth[/card]
1 [card]Forest[/card]

Why one forest? If I am going to be losing a creature to Path, I am going to get my basic land.

War Report

The first match up of the night was, of course, a god damn mirror match. It was my version of the Infect Aggro vs the Combo Infect that has been showing up online. This matchup offers inherent difficulty because the -1/-1 counters stick and kill every creature in the deck.

All of that being said; the match was quick. In my favour. Had I not punted the first game it would have been an EASY 2-0 (Did you catch the emphasis?) The trample from Rampager, as well as the [card]Dismember[/card], brought the match creeping in our direction. That and we were a tick faster. It was a big deal in matches that only go 2-3 turns.

I ended the third game at 4 life because of all the phyrexian mana and shocklands.

2-1

Highlight Card: Rampager

Changes to the deck:

After the match against Infect, I looked over the list and figured that I was going to need a way to have more aggressive creatures if my hand starts to falter. I opted for the aggressive [card]Rancor[/card] to fill up the slot, bumping out one of each [card]Slaughterhorn[/card], [card]Vines of Vastwood[/card], and [card]Apostle’s Blessing[/card].

Another note, the [card]Cathedral of War[/card] are being cut for a pair of basics, a [card]Forest[/card] and an [card]Island[/card]. A sideboard [card]Ghost Quarter[/card] in the opposing deck never got brought in against me, but the idea of taking away my greedy manabase without any way to recover was frightening.

Round 2: Versus [card]Scapeshift[/card].

This round was a very simple game. Could they drop Valakut before I had a good amount of creatures? I found myself fighting against [card]Mountain[/card]s being dropped which made me have to hold onto my pump spells to avoid the untimely death of my creatures.

The all-stars of the match were definitely the hexproof granters. With the two extra Charms coming in post-board, we were able to almost chip away with little hits even if Valakut was dropped turn one or two. The Rampager didn’t offer the extra distance I was hoping for in the match, mostly due to the fact that I was rarely willing to spend two mana on the Bloodrush ability. In the second game, I was almost able to pull through with a Rampager swinging home for several turns, but overall lost that one to a lack of creatures.

[card]Wild Defiance[/card] crushed the deck post-board when I drew it. It felt good.

4-2

Changes to the deck? Nope.

Final Round: Jund

At least the deck I was playing against was called Jund. That being said they were splashing White for [card]Lingering Souls[/card] and Path, not a good situation for us.

The match was hard fought. I was very happy with the maindeck basics to help when I lost a creature. I was also very happy with keeping the shocklands rather than the fetches as it helped keep their Goyfs reasonable (he had to make it smaller to mana ramp with the Deathrite).

Again the charms saved me, granting hexproof and the works over and over again. That being said, the first game I lost handily to a reckless Confidant and a massive Goyf. Drawing all of the removal just made it so that we didn’t have the creatures to survive.

The match was decided game three with a [card]Glistener Elf[/card] facing down a nice little 4/5 Goyf. The card is worth more than its weight in gold for a reason. It all came down to throwing a [card]Dismember[/card] at Goyf. My Elf was technically blocked but I knocked it home with the trample granted from the Rampager. It felt good to see my little pet card win the game. We ended the game at 3 life (Losing 4 for the [card]Dismember[/card] twice), it wasn’t an easy fight. The King is hard to kill.

6-3

The night against friends went very well knocking out a 3-0 against a group of decks purposely taken from the current top-8 online. The deck feels more flexible than the counterparts that are currently around, able to strike before the combo versions and reaching a little further with the Bloodrush kiddies being uncounterable. The Bloodrush gave a beatdown to the control magic that [card]Scapeshift[/card] held onto. The deck is fast and furious so don’t worry comrades.

All Will Be One.

[deck title=Bloodrush Infect v2 by Jackson Haime]
[Lands]
4 Steam Vents
4 Stomping Ground
4 Breeding Pool
4 Inkmoth Nexus
2 Pendelhaven
1 Island
1 Forst
[/Lands]
[Creatures]
4 Glistener Elf
4 Blighted Agent
4 Ichorclaw Myr
3 Slaughterhorn
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
3 Vines of Vastwood
4 Might of Old Krosa
4 Groundswell
3 Apostle’s Blessing
2 Mutagenic Growth
2 Simic Charm
3 Rancor
[/Spells]
[Sideboard]
3 Wild Defiance
3 Nature’s Claim
4 Dismember
2 Simic Charm
2 Mutagenic Growth
1 Vines of Vastwood
[/Sideboard
[/deck]