Meren Infect (HouseRule)

Commander / EDH* BG (Golgari)

Grix1236

Creature (30)

• 1x Acidic Slime
• 1x Bane of Progress
• 1x Blightwidow
• 1x Bloom Hulk
• 1x Contagious Nim
• 1x Corpse Cur
• 1x Cystbearer
• 1x Disciple of Bolas
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Evolution Sage
• 1x Fauna Shaman
• 1x Flesh-Eater Imp
• 1x Glistener Elf
• 1x Hand of the Praetors
• 1x Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons
• 1x Ichorclaw Myr
• 1x Meren of Clan Nel Toth
• 1x Necroskitter
• 1x Phyrexian Crusader
• 1x Phyrexian Swarmlord
• 1x Plague Stinger
• 1x Plaguemaw Beast
• 1x Pollenbright Druid
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Septic Rats
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Spinebiter
• 1x Viridian Corrupter
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Whispering Specter

Land (37)

• 1x Ash Barrens
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Darksteel Citadel
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 8x Forest
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Hissing Quagmire
• 1x Karn's Bastion
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Svogthos, the Restless Tomb
• 8x Swamp
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Thespian's Stage
• 1x Tree of Tales
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Vault of Whispers
• 1x Woodland Cemetery

Instant (5)

• 1x Assassin's Trophy
• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Grisly Salvage
• 1x Titanic Growth

Sorcery (13)

• 1x Black Sun's Zenith
• 1x Blood Divination
• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Explosive Vegetation
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Jarad's Orders
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Planewide Celebration
• 1x Price of Betrayal
• 1x Rampant Growth
• 1x Skyshroud Claim

Artifact (11)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Eldrazi Monument
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Grafted Exoskeleton
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Trading Post

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Asceticism
• 1x Deadbridge Chant
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Moldervine Reclamation

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Building an Infect deck because I like the idea of infect and it works as a mechanic but not as a deck theme. Generally, when I see an infect deck played in EDH the entire table sighs in unison, and then about 5 turns later I hear the infect player sighing in defeat because the whole table targeted him. In order to make Infect a fun and fair theme for an EDH deck, I am going to playtest the following house rules:

(This is the first iteration of these rules)

Infect no longer auto kills at 10stx(Stacks). Instead Infect will kill at half your starting life total (I.E. Standard starting HP=20, infect kills=10stx / EDH starting HP=40, infect kills=20stx).

Infect counters apply as normal, but are removed one at a time, at your upkeep. upon removing an infect counter the infected player takes ((1)/2) damage.

I struggle to decide between one and two damage per stack of infect on removal. On the one hand I'm trying to think of infect as originally referencing a 20hp format so in a format like EDH where the starting life total is double I can see a valid argument for doubling the damage the stack does once removed, but this rule would mean the one mana spell Price of Betrayal would deal ten damage. Then again outside of leeches and the above example I don't know of any cards that can remove a # of counters from opponents for infect to have a burst option. Do you agree it should even have a burst option?

The goal is to keep infect in theme but give it a new spin to make it not so brain dead to focus an infect player. The idea comes from MMOs; WoW in specifically with ass rogues. Assassination rogues get a lot of their damage from DoTs(Damage over Time effects) and maintaining and boosting the damage of these DoTs. This mechanic is simple to port to MTG and I'm pretty sure it does exist already, just not for infect... It will have an interesting role to play in the politics of a pod while still being a bursty damage dealer if there are more cards like Price of Betrayal + proliferate effects can create scary situations for people but it also doesn't limit the deck to skipping attack phase. Hopefully this makes infect an interesting deck to see at a table instead of a sign that this 4 man pod will be a 3 man pod very soon.

Date added	4 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	3 - 0 Mythic Rares 28 - 0 Rares 29 - 0 Uncommons 24 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.25
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Citizen 2/2 WUBRG, Experience Token, Goat 0/1 W, Phyrexian Insect 1/1 G, Snake 1/1 G, Snake 1/1 G w/ Deathtouch