I can vouch for this style of infect being viable in competitive play. I have a very similar list (you can check it out if you want) that I took to the SCG State Championships in NC and got 3rd place, losing to U/R Twin in the semifinals due to drawing ~8 lands in games 1 and 3. Other than that the deck went 6-1 in the swiss rounds and placed me at the #1 overall seed. Nobody expects the Geist game 2 and punished them for being greedy with their fetches and shocks. +1 from me

@MattTheNinja – Thank you for the encouragement and kind words! I will continue to pilot this particular flavor of infect, and see where it gets me. I will also take a look at your list(s).

Spellskite is a great sideboard option but I find it a better main board. Inevitably you will come across removals and he's already there to help us out!

+1 for the alternate idea!

Check out my infect, The Universally Hated A-Team if you get a chance and let me know what you think

@Pure_Insanity – I've been getting lots of recommendations for Spellskite lately. I will try and find room for it! Also sure thing, i will take a look. :)

I run 1 Spellskite main and one side. It's just a generally good card and kicks ass in the mirror matched and blanks twin on their combo.

@MattTheNinja – Very true. I will add two or three sprinkled in the mainboard and sideboard. By the way, how has Day's Undoing been working for you? I've been looking for some card draw myself, and found Vision Skeins, but Day's Undoing seems a lot stronger.

I have found Serum Visions to be a decent draw/scry

@Pure_Insanity – Yeah... except Serum Visions doesn't actually draw cards. All it does is replace itself, and set up future draws. I personally would rather have raw draw power; i don't care what cards i get, as long as i have enough of them. I don't care at all about card advantage, so naturally Vision Skeins looks pretty good. Day's Undoing is bigger and looks extremely powerful against control... If i had access to , then i would probably have some Dangerous Wager in here.

I run the Serum Visions as a flex spot in the mainboard. It can set up for next-turn kills or help smooth out a hand, but it isn't necessary and often gets replaced by a meta card. The Day's Undoing is amazing against any of the BGx decks and the 'Blue Jund' grixis decks, just not Grixis Twin lol. They use their turns 1-4 with hand hate and kill spells, not really setting up a board presence so if you stick a Inkmoth Nexus and then cast Day's Undoing on turn 3-5 you have a major advantage and can usually kill next turn.

@MattTheNinja @Pure_Insanity – So you use Serum Visions as a flex spot, then side it out? Sounds like it serves the same purpose as my Gitaxian Probe does. What do you think are the benefits of using Serum Visions over Gitaxian Probe, or even over a similar card like Sleight of Hand? I personally have been fond of Gitaxian Probe for its ability to be cast with no mana, but have found that it gives me incomplete information.

Wait... Sleight of Hand is a sorcery. I'm looking more towards instant speed draw/scry tricks i can use on my opponent's end step.

Never board out Gitaxian Probe except against Burn and Affinity.

I wouldn't look for "raw draw power". You are a slowish aggressive deck, and having those cards in your deck is very clunky. Serum Visions is a fine choice to set up kills through removal spells and supplements a more setup-based game well.

If you're in the market for instant-speed draw, play Peek. Thought Scour also exists, but Peek is better for your purposes. I used to board in a Vendilion Clique, though that may be a bit weird here.

No, I ment flex spot as it often gets taken out for a more meta relevent card for some tournaments

Flex slot means that it's not locked into your deck (most archetypes have 60+ cards locked into stock versions), and that you can tune it to fit your expected metagame.

Ahhhh, i see. Thanks :)

Just got done with a lot of playtesting. Here's what i'm finding:

• Dryad Arbor sucks. I'm gonna cut it entirely, since it's not really useful in the sideboard either. I'm going to replace it with ... hmmm, i don't know, probably another pump spell. I will be looking into both Might of Old Krosa and Become Immense as one-ofs for testing purposes.
• I'm already familiar with the Tier 1 and 2 decks out there. Gitaxian Probe is doing nothing but taking up space in my hand, especially when i am holding multiple copies. I'm going to cut all of them and replace them with two Serum Visions and another pump spell... maybe Rancor or Mutagenic Growth.
• Mutagenic Growth is an amazing combo with a turn 1 Inkmoth Nexus.
• Dispel is my new best friend. I love him forever.
• Path to Exile seriously lifts. I use it against everything, and i often find myself siding in Temple Garden just to use it.
• Gemstone Mine is terrible. I'm replacing it with a third Breeding Pool.

Small sample size? Because either you're playing badly or your first two conclusions are totally off. Dryad Arbor needs to be in the 75, because Liliana is frequently unbeatable otherwise.

Just because you "are familiar with the Tier 1 and 2 decks" doesn't mean Probe is useless. I know the format inside and out, but I still play Probes because exact information is much better than your educated guesses at their hand. This is super important for poking holes in removal-heavy hands, which are the main difficult games.

Become Immense is better than krosa in general, but krosa is what can enable the t2 kills, while immense cannot. that said, this deck is obviously not geared toward that so play immens

There's really no excuse not to play Become Immense. The graveyard is a very useful resource that you aren't using much.

@lordmalphas – You have a very good point about the difference between Become Immense and Might of Old Krosa.

@GlistenerAgent –

I have been frequently running into Dryad Arbor in my opening hand and while drawing. Each time, it dies to a Lightning Bolt. Also, it can't produce mana the turn it comes into play, which is a major setback for me... I don't know if i have just been incredibly unlucky, but i have found it clogging up otherwise keepable opening hands on every other game, it seems. I like having that built-in protection against Liliana of the Veil and having an emergency backup plan in Game 1, but i have been running into far more situations where it is just completely useless. Maybe it is just me, but i think i should sideboard it.

I will consider what you have said about Gitaxian Probe, and give it another shot down the line. For now, though, i wanna try out Serum Visions and see how useful it can be.

One of the cards my brother uses in his infect deck to great effect is Tezzeret's Gambit: three mana for two cards isn't bad, and the proliferate bit doesn't hurt, either.

Also, I'm not a huge fan of Spell Pierce in there largely because it's very much an early-game card: that's part of why I prefer Remand (plus, hey, cards) or possibly Corrupted Resolve (how likely is it that they're going to be poisoned?).

@fluffyeel –

Thanks for your feedback!

If i'm going to pay for something, it's gotta be big. for a Sign in Blood with proliferate attached isn't gonna win me the game. for a fresh hand of seven cards, as in Day's Undoing, could easily win me the game. The proliferate effect isn't as powerful as five additional cards, in my opinion.

If i haven't won the game by turn 4, then i probably am going to lose. Spell Pierce loses relevance after turn 3, sure; at the same time, i can't afford to stay alive much past that anyway. I include it mostly for combo decks (which i see a lot of), since it is extremely effective against Splinter Twin, Summer Bloom, Living End, Ad Nauseam, and the like. It also happens to be very effective against, well, anything an opponent would tap out to play on game 1, like Repeal, Terminate, Cryptic Command, and Karn Liberated. I typically side some out in game 2 in favor of Dispel. I have found Remand to be much too weak, since all it does is return the spell to their habd where they can re-cast it later (usually the same turn). Also, i can't guarantee poison damage, so Corrupted Resolve becomes a dead card against most decks, like control. Also, the biggest appeal of Spell Pierce and Dispel are that they only cost , which directly translates into more mana being spent on threats. If i was going to include a counterspell, it would be Mana Leak.

A juicy bit of tech I've been playing around with, and having quite good results from, is Ojutai's Command in the SB. Works wonders against the attrition GBx/UBx decks and isn't terrible against burn

The basic Island is horrible in Infect. It doesn't actually do anything relevant but make an opening hand unkeepable at times. If you want to run a 20th land, run Dryad Arbos. It's slightly less horrible in an opener but has very real and very relevant uses in games. It can also be fetched with every one of your fetchlands as opposed to the four of Island.

Rancor is pretty bad. I wouldn't run more than maybe one in the mainboard.

Running less than three copies of Might of Old Krosa and Become Immense is pretty much just wrong. They are your best two pump spells. Mutagenic should also be a 4-of. If you've had trouble casting BeImmense for 1-2 mana, it's because you're not running Probes and enough Mutagenics and are playing permanents (Rancor, Ichorclaw) instead.

Gitaxian Probe is an automatic 4-of. There really isn't a good reason not to run them - they do everything you want at a measly cost.

You don't need that many creatures. Cut at least 2 Ichorclaw Myrs.

Three copies of Spell Pierce in the mainboard is way too many. You're running too many protection spells and Spell Pierce is the worst of the bunch. Cut at the very least one copy.

Three copies of Distortion Strike is one too many.

Nature's Claim >>>>>> Unravel, even if you have a damage plan. You cannot afford to pay two mana for the effect.

I personally don't like the Geist plan - there really isn't a matchup that it's actually that good in, it forces you to play a random Temple Garden in your deck (or sideboard, which is even worse) and it makes your mana just that much more worse - you will be drawing hands with one fetchland, Path to Exile and Blighted Agent. Awkward. It also just takes up 4-5 precious sideboard slots from other very good cards (Twisted Image is a must-have).

I like the deck but I do not like apostles blessing I think it's completely pointless just to get protection for two mana and it's only protection from one color. I would recommend using like 1 or 2 more become immense I think that card is really good because of all of the instants in your graveyard you can just play become immense for like 1 or 2 mana. I like the deck but I would change it a little bit.