The one thing I debate back and forth a lot are replacing the Ponders and or Tezzeret's Gambits with more Artful Dodges.

or going with 4 Tezzeret's Gambit and getting rid of Ponder.

or 4 Ponders and no Tezzeret's Gambits.

Ponder seems like a great 1st turn card. Tezzeret's Gambit is more of a later game thing + proliferate. Neither target any of my creatures and thus don't use Livewire Lash.

I think a 3/2 split favoring Ponder should work fine.

Blight Mamba is amazing, it can be regenerated to save itself from a board wipe without using another card(Withstand Death).

I think that Ranger's Guile, Artful Dodge, and Apostle's Blessing all serve a similar role. If I may suggest it, I think dropping Apostle's Blessing and adding 2 Ranger's Guile, 2 Artful Dodges, and a Ponder would be very good. Possibly move the blessings to SB instead of Wing Puncture.

If you're going to use card draw, which this deck shouldn't necessarily need, use Think Twice. Trust me it'll work wonders for you.

Too many land. You can probably go down to 21 or even 20. Playtest to see how that works.

This kind of deck works with you have 23ish creatures, 12 pumps, 4 lashes, and 21 land. Anything else will just slow you down.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the comments.

I really like Apostle's Blessing for the following reasons

1. Can serve as a counter spell.
2. Can make a creature unblockable if facing mono color or if they only have one color out.
3. Can serve as a surprise in blocking or attacking. My creature gets blocked or i block something that will kill my creature and surprise; I don't die and your creature gets infect counters.

To me Apostle's Blessing is a counter spell, an Artful Dodge, and a Withstand Death (in combat) all in one. Its the diversity of the card that really makes it work. None of those other cards do all of that. Ranger's Guile is close but not the unblockable ability.

Blight Mamba is probably a good option. Its cheap, and like you said, hard to kill. I find the deck a little creature light. I usually like to have at least 20 creatures.

I agree about taking Wing Puncture out of my SB. Probably Pistus Strike also. This deck works fast. In all the games ive played so far, I have never put those 3 cards in. If the game lasts long enough to get a nasty flyer out its usually over for me anyway. The only thing that's nice about Wing Puncture is that it technically targets one of my creatures which is good with Livewire Lash.

Livewire Lash). But I've got to have the cards in my hand to stack. Because the creatures are cheap, I find that if I take card drawing out, my hand can empty quickly.

I'm really not a fan of Think Twice, especially over Tezzeret's Gambit in this deck. Its a total of 5 mana to draw 2 cards. Tezzeret's Gambit, 3 colorless mana (if you pay the life) for 2 cards and the bonus proliferate. I don't see the benefit of Think Twice unless I'm missing something.

And I love Ponder. The ability to draw a card and set your next two draws is really good. Or reshuffle if the next 3 cards are something you don't need. Plus you can do it first turn.

The 22 land is not so much for casting individual things; more for dropping multiple instants on a turn. I frequently can do 11 poison in 1 strike by turn 5. Sometimes I even drop Livewire Lash, equip it, and drop a couple instants all on one turn. Ponder and Tezzeret's Gambit help me deal with any land flooding that might occur. Also, its very important that this deck gets off to a very quick start. I must always have an island and a forest in my opening hand. or one of those and the Hinterland Harbor. The deck really stalls if I can't get a creature drop on turn 1 or 2 (hopefully both). And because 4 of the lands are colorless, i'm really only running with 18 colored land.

Do you have any Birds of Paradise to switch with Llanowar Elves so you can produce either green or blue (or white) mana? Or am I missing the reason for why you're using Llanowar instead of BoP?

Are you getting Livewire Lash out consistently with only using 3 instead of 4? I had a buddy who ran a BG version with 4 lashes and would get one equipped every game. It's a beast of a deck when you have all the target spells to play. Too bad Groundswell and Giant Growth rotated out of standard.

Oh! Just thought of this, if you're looking for draw, consider Curiosity instead of ponder/gambit. You only have 4 draw spells currently, but with Curiosity, you would turn your 14 targeting instants into draw spells when you have one livewire lash equipped. That might be something to consider.

And +1!

Good call on Birds of Paradise. I don't own any but will pick some up.

I seem to get at least 1 Livewire Lash out every game. And I really only need to get one out usually. Getting two out is a little slow. And honestly i've won games without the lash getting out as well. That's why I went down to 3. The lashes become ineffective if i don't have spells to use with them.

Curiosity seems like a really good card for this deck. Don't own any yet. It will allow me to take out the Rot Wolfs and replace them with something better like Blight Mamba or maybe something a little bigger.

thanks a lot.

Titanic Growth is nice but feels out of place. You need something more in line with the rest of the deck. Perhaps a Rampant Growth for speed or even Gitaxian Probe for more drawing power and awareness. Llanowar Elves also seems odd in this mix outside of giving another 1 drop. Not really sure what to suggest, but fliers to accompany your Inkmoth Nexuses would be preferred.

Think twice allows you to draw 2 cards. That is classic card advantage. Ponder is better for when you need to draw a specific card. This deck just needs to draw creatures and instants reguardless of what they are. That is why it's better in this deck. I played this kind of deck before and I got damn good at it, I'm just telling you from experience.

Thanks for the comments.

Going to have to disagree on Titanic Growth Its the bread and butter. I'd never take it out. 4 infect for 2 mana. It's the equivelent of doing 8 life for 2 mana in a non infect deck. And with Livewire Lash? A Titanic Growth on a Rot Wolf with Livewire Lash is a total of 10 poison.

I'm probably going to put a Birds of Paradise in place of Llanowar Elves. Its strictly to have another 1 drop and allow me to cast instants faster or equip the Livewire Lash quicker. I thought a lot about Plague Myr; just wish it was a 1 drop.

Gitaxian Probe is interesting. Thought about it. But in the end it takes up a space in my deck and only lets me draw 1 card. Not sure if I care about seeing the other player's hand. Think I'm probably going to go with Curiosity like dcarpntr suggested.

Think Twice as well. Ponder isn't just about getting a specific card. Its about getting a card then setting up the next two rounds. Or clearing 3 cards that you don't need. Plus its a possible first turn play. Besides the debate for me is do I take Ponder out for Tezzeret's Gambit. Tezzeret's Gambit is 2 cards for 3 colorless mana + prolliferate. Think Twice is 2 cards for 5 mana. Think Twice is better when you need to have cards in your graveyard or have something triggered when you cast cards out of the graveyard. I don't. I'm not going to pay more for the same number of cards.

Nice deck! Turn 5 win with no lashes! Rot wolf, titanic growth, mutagenic growth, rangers guile, and artful dodge. 9 infect on turn 4... Lol!

I never argued against Tezzy's gambit, it can work in this deck, but I am telling you Think Twice>Ponder in this deck.

I guess what I'm saying is that if I take Ponder out, I'm going to replace it with more Tezzeret's Gambit, not Think Twice.

I absolutely love this deck, it's pretty unique compared to all of the mono black/B/G infect i've seen lately. I built in IRL and gonna playtest with all my friends and the local shop. It seems so fun!

Only thing i'd consider, maybe, is swap an Apostle's Blessing for another Artful Dodge. Because if you can't pay the white you're slightly hurting yourself, and you don't always want that.

Other than that, GREAT DECK! +1

I tend to agree that Ponder and Tezzeret's Gambit might be out of place on this one. Actually, I have a UB Infect Undying Ebola with Tezzeret's Gambit and Gitaxian Probe which I think I'm going to change. Not sure yet, looking for more live playtests. +1 for G/B tho! :)

So I took the original version of this deck to fnm today, except I had the 4 curiosity instead of gambit and ponder.

I went 3-1. Deck ran amazingly, I pulled a long clutch draws. Managed to counter an inferno Titan for an easy win again wolf run.

Only problem I noticed is, it has a lot of trouble against rdw. Since rdw has so much burn, this deck can't keep up with it. Other than that it shuts down werewolves. Zombies. White weenie. Pretty much any agro deck out there. Definitely destroys wolf run. Way faster than any other infect out there.

Gonna make some changes, I'll share my copied creation with you!

Thanks for the feedback Syinide. Ironically in the last standard tournament I played in I went 3-1 and lost to wolf run. But I made a huge mistake in one of the games in which I forgot to save one of my creatures with a Mutagenic Growth.

I'm also taking out the Ponder and Tezzeret's Gambit for 4x Curiosity. That also let me take out the Rot Wolfs for other creatures.

Yea I'm planning on taking out rot wolf for something else, but then again I don't want the 2cmc slot to get too cramped. There's a lot of 2cmc creatures which is why I left rot wolf in. And his card draw actually saved my creatures twice and won me a game by getting me a mutagenic growth to pump a lash for a win. So it's debatable, I'll mess around with I ichorclaw myr and blight mamba, maybe Ben necropede.

Sorry for all the spelling errors and what not, iPhones suck.

The reason I like Blight Mamba is that its hard to kill. And the deck should have enough mana to be able to regen it often. Ichorclaw Myr kind of has an unblockable ability built in]] (sort of) in that people may be less likely to want to block it. I haven't played with the current version of the deck yet though. Necropede would be better with the Tezzeret's Gambit in the deck.

In my version of this deck, I took out the 4 curiosity and put artful dodge up to 3 and rangers guile to 4. IMO hex proof and unblock able to better than card draw.

The way I look at it, the Apostle's Blessings kind of serve to make things unblockable if you want them to. They also make you hex proof at the same time. Only problem is that its only unblockable and hexproof on one color at a time.

Also, the deck already has 4 unblockable creatures built in. Artful Dodge is wasted on them.

With that said I've been thinking about going up to 2 Artful Dodges and going down to 3 Curiosity.

I just took out curiousity because when I play, unless I have a creature out its a waste. I'd rather make my 1 creature hexproof so I have a better chance of swinging and getting through.

Throne of Geth is amazing in an infect deck, even with as few artifacts as you have. At worst it's 2 mana for a poison counter, at best you get one each turn for 2, 3 or 4 turns. And no one ever sees the last 2 poison coming from sacrificing Core Prowler to it.

how would you play this versus a burn focused deck? I run a mono green infect deck, but I either play my creatures and get burned, and since I have more pump spells than creatures I just lose faster than I can win, or if I wait to have mana to protect my creatures, it either involves phyrexian mana so I'm helping them win either way, or they have just dumped their mana into 6 damage a turn. I like the other color besides green, and this is fairly more expensive probably due to the noble heirarch haha, but I really want to make the infect work as my modern deck. Any feedback?

This is a pretty sweet list. Ever think about running Rancor ? It might help if you find creatures dying since you get it back.