Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon really good infect

I don't disagree that Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon is a really good infect card, but it'd instantly make this deck not budget friendly.

If I was to make a deck ever like this, what might you suggest be upgraded?

I was thinking cards like Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx as a start.

Then of course the cards in the maybe board certainly already have a place, but besides that what else might do?

@Delta-117 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx is usually a safe addition to any mono-color deck that has permanents with 2+ colored mana in the cost. In the case of this deck, it'd allow you to cast something on top of using Contagion Clasp's ability on most turns. On top of this, Inkmoth Nexus is also a common upgrade to any deck looking to win through poison counters.

As for recommendations on what to "upgrade", it would depend on what direction you want to go with the deck; IE more offensive (fast finish) or more controlling.

At this point in time, i find this deck is built to be more controlling than aggressive; albeit the Plague Stinger poke can get annoying on the receiving end!

Why would you put Ichor Rats in if they gave you poison counters Too?

@Algarath giving yourself poison counters doesn't really matter if the opponent does haven't their own way of dealing them.

Worst comes to worst, it's an almost guaranteed way of landing a poison counter (unless it gets countered ofc) to start proliferating. This can come in handy if the opponent has really walled themselves down.

For Delta-117 the way to make this deck better is to make it green and black. I don't have the entire deck list but a buddy of mine has the deck and it commonly kills players on turn 2. The way it does this is by turn 1 Glistener Elf turn 2 attack cast Giant Growth or Larger Than Life or Titanic Growth along with Invigorate and Mutagenic Growth all the infect creatures in this deck are in it also. I am pretty sure it also runs Wild Defiance Carrion Call and Blight Mamba. I can attest to the fact that it is not fun to play against and turn 2, 3, and 4 wins are common. It does lose a lot of steam after that, and if it is a multiplayer game it will lose simply because no one wants to get poisoned and everyone targets him. This version may be more resiliant in that regard.

Invigorate isn't modern legal but I see what you mean for changing. That is sounding a little too much like a different deck though instead becoming just about infect and wanting to win a bit faster. I already plan on building U/G infect eventually but Inkmoth Nexus and Noble Hierarchs are costly..

Hyperalgialysis The suggestions you made definitely sound like a totally different deck; similar to what the pros run (although they run UG). This deck aims for more of a "grindy win" where you lock non-black decks out of the game via Kulrath Knight + Midnight Banshee and killing with proliferate effects like Contagion Clasp.

Delta-117 I actually have a UG infect deck (Infectious) on here, which i admit is basically the cookie-cutter build for UG; except i run Sylvan Caryatid instead of Noble Hierarch for budget reasons.

Again, thanks for commenting on this guys!

Sudden Spoiling with infect and assuming they don;t have too much creature boosters, can instantly board wipe with infect.

Really cool deck design for multiplayer Infect!

Awesome +1

4 Ichorclaw Myr, also Mutagenic Growth I also think, even though it's a cool idea, you are completely split between infecting or dealing them regular damage. Just some ideas

@Guardians the Mutagenic Growth suggestion has the same implications that Hyperalgialysis's had. To make room for it takes away from the current game plan\synergy, and frankly you might as well take out all the instants\enchantments\artifacts and make a aggro buff infect deck (like Infectious) if you did.

On the other side, I could see the Ichorclaw Myr replacing Plague Stinger if the flying creature isn't mandatory.

Was going to leave this in the other comment, but it timed out...

About being split between infect and regular damage, i don't think it is much of a problem if piloted correctly. The wither creatures aren't meant to go on the offense, rather they hang back and support the mechanics of the rest of the deck. Midnight Banshee weakens all non-black creatures every turn with -1/-1 counters, Kulrath Knight takes advantage of all the -1/-1 producers in the deck to lock the enemies down for infect creatures to break through, Necroskitter recruits your enemies that die with -1/-1 counters; see where this is going?

This deck isn't designed to have a fast clock like most "traditional" decks that win via poison counters. The odd time you might win via normal damage, but that's likely because they got locked out :)

This is absolutely fantastic! +1 for simplicity!

Very nice deck, instantly upvoted! Just a question: I already own a set of Ichorclaw Myr, what would you replace to put them in? The Ichor Rats?

@coldjin very good question and thanks for the up vote!

First things first, depending on your local meta this queston likely has many "correct" answers; but I'll try to help you find yours.

Three possible replacements are: Septic Rats, Ichor Rats and Plague Stinger.

Ichor Rats potentially has -1/-2 when comparing stats while attacking, but unless countered provides a guaranteed poison counter on EACH opponent to start the proliferate train. Unless they are also running infect threats, who cares if we get one?

Septic Rats has the same stats if both cards meet their "buff" conditions. However Ichorclaw Myr costs one less and doesn't require them to be poisoned. Although it shouldn't be hard to land one poison counter, it depends on the opponent. Personally this would be my choice.

Plague Stinger has the advantage of flying but potentially weaker stats. Due to its flying it usually lands the first poison counter if Ichor Rats hasn't already. Depending on the opponent it could be easy to deal with, or their downfall.

Hope this helps you make a choice. I would delve deeper, but I'm actually working right now!

@SKUFFLEZ, thanks for the thorough answer! I guess that my best shot is, if I ever decide to build this deck, to side them and decide which ones the game requires me to swap. Thank you again!

three weeks ago I made something similar, budget deck focusing strictly on infect and evasion.. but you showed some really interesting wither cards here, probably need to reconsider :D http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/sepsis-1/

SaffronOlive made a mono-black infect deck a while back, but it feels way different than this deck. This deck seems more focused on proliferating for reach, while his infect deck was a mono black control deck.

Anyway, cool deck, +1.

Don't expect it to stay $20 for long.

@Midn8 JohannKlink saturn999 thanks for the comment & upvote.

As for this deck staying $20, that's up to you\whomever decides to play this. I don't plan on changing the main board on here since it's a foundation for others to build from. Also I don't play this much in RL, it's more to show my friends what $20 can do!

I meant that people would start buying this deck, so the price of all the pieces would increase.

The same thing happened with the $20 Mikaeus deck, and now the guy who built it has to keep swapping cards around to make the price go down.

I noticed after commenting that it had increased by a dollar already haha