Playing Poison in Scars of Mirrodin: The Infect Mechanic
By Roberto Castro-Mahoney
The zombie apocalypse has made it’s way to Magic, although this time it’s the artifacts who carry the contagion. In case you’ve been on some other planet, some Mirrodin creatures now have the keyword ‘Infect,’ a new and very powerful mechanic. Creatures with Infect deal damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters and deal damage to players as POISON COUNTERS. Yup, poison counters are back and they are so much better than before. For those of you not familiar with poison, it takes just ten poison counters to kill an opponent, so a dedicated Infect deck lets you play like your opponent’s life total basically starts at ten. Apart from that, the ‘Wither’ effect your creatures have in combat with other creatures, makes sure they’ll leave scars on whoever they fight.
So you may be asking yourself – how can I make the Infect archetype work for me in Scars of Mirrodin draft?
As a reference, these are all of the cards in Scars of Mirrodin that have either Infect or Proliferate (and yes, Proliferate can add poison counters to players!):
BLUE:
BLACK:
GREEN:
ARTIFACT:
(Note that even Platinum Emperion won’t save you from poison counters!)
So just like in any normal draft, there are some bombs that might get passed to you- cards that scream at you to play Infect. Contagion Engine, Skithiryx, Inexorable Tide, etc. But most times you’ll be building without these bombs.*
Here are the key cards you’ll see more often at common: Corpse Cur, Tel-Jilad Fallen, Cystbearer, Contagious Nim. The key to each of these is the two-powered attack they all offer. Not only do these creatures only require 4-5 attacks to kill an opponent, but they also are hard to block since they will functionally destroy all combatants they engage with. Now notice that the list of good common Infect creatures is tiny! So to win with poison you need a long-term gameplan. You can either swarm the board with poisonous vermin, or you can proliferate for the win.
If you get your hands on a good Proliferate card like the Clasp, Engine, or Tide, then you may only need to give your opponent one poison counter on your path to victory. In a deck like this, you just want as many Infect creatures as possible. Deal that one point or two and then block! The -1/-1 counters are permanent and constant proliferation will kill their infected guys. Tangle Angler is phenomenal in this role as no one wants to feed creatures to it.
Or, if you start the draft with maybe four Infect creatures, simply take every one after that! Apart from poisonous creatures effectively hitting twice as hard, they also get around effects like Indestructible and Regenerate. There’s not enough Phyrexian plague to share so cut it all from other drafters’ sightlines, and grab the proliferate cards to make all your creatures more lethal. What do these plans have in common? Everything! The deck needs to be a synergistic wave of plague. Think of the Phyrexian Invasion on Mirrodin; You don’t want a weak link… you want 100% infection.
If you’re drafting at the prerelease this weekend, definitely take advantage of those not yet aware of the strength of Infect. Of course, the archetype isn’t strong enough to support too many players, so jump ship accordingly. Look for the Corpse Cur to get passed; It’s the best common creature with the Infect mechanic and probably means your daddy isn’t playing for poison counters. If you see a late Tel-Jilad Fallen that also means get in. Don’t get trapped by cards like Contagion Clasp. Yes the card is great. No it cannot win by itself. And don’t chase simply -1/-1 cards unless you’ve got the support of Infect!
Pitfalls:
#4 Nothing can stop someone next to you opening Skithiryx. The key is realizing when the deck is not there quickly.
#3 Even thought B/G creature ‘dregs’ may have Infect, a lot of those creatures were passed for a reason. 1/1s with little staying power will not be enough for your deck. Not realizing that your daddy is playing Black or Green “good creatures” means that you won’t get good removal in your colors. As a remedy, get into blue for proliferate, or find the good artifacts to fill your slots.
#2 Even if you’re playing for Infect, take GOOD CARDS. There’s no reason to give up a Wurmcoil Engine just to get Corpse Cur.
#1 The biggest pitfall will be your own greed. Don’t commit to the archetype until you are allowed to. You can lean heavily if you desire… but until your picks are weighing towards it don’t kill your deck over a Blight Mamba.
How do you perfect your deck?
Equipment will be a huge part of making Infect win for you. Even a simple Accorders Shield will turn your 1/1 dorks into relevant threats. Or at least make them hard to deal with. Other All-Star equipment in Scars of Mirrodin include Barbed Battlegear and Darksteel Axe. Giving your dorks the ability to annihilate any attacker is powerful. Now think about the Battlegear on Cystbearer. Find an opening for that guy and your opponent is dead in TWO TURNS!
I hope you all have a great time at your Scars of Mirrodin Pre-Release this weekend! If you get to draft, you now have an edge in Scars Limited. For Scars Sealed Deck you will still know what cards to look out for.** I’ll be judging and running events in Hadley, MA at DraftMagic’s flagship store ‘X9 Games’ all Saturday. I’m excited for this new set and I hope you are too!
~Roberto
P.S. I’ll start signing off with a Judge’s Tip section. Here’s the first and as a special edition, second!
Judge’s Tip:
Make sure you are clear with your opponent about what counter denote what. Tokens, charges, infects, imprints… there’s a lot happening on a magic board. Keeping it clear will help avoid accidents.
Special Inaugural Tip:
Infect creatures don’t reduce your opponent’s life total. They replace the damage with Poison counters. No double-dipping!
*If you cut other players out of Infect hard enough then you can get lucky when in Pack Three they open a strong Infect card that’s not good for their deck, yet great for yours.
**Play Skithiryx if you have it!***
***Also play Molten-Tail Masticore, Wurmcoil Engine, Chimeric Mass, Sword of Body and Mind, Lux Cannon, Precursor Golem, and Steel Hellkite!
Thanks for the primer, Roberto.
You might want to rename your list to say ‘cards with infect AND support cards”, since Invisimancer and others obviously don’t actually do poison themselves.
And if your list is including support cards, I think you’re missing some of the best non-poison poison cards, such as Trigon of Rage and Untamed Might. From the Pre-Release, I feel like more players lost to these pump-poison kills than more gradual strategies.
Also, Bladed Pinions seems like a better infect equipment to mention than Accorder’s Battleshield or Barbed Battlegear (of the 16 cards with infect, counting Carrion Call and Trigon of Infestation, Battlegear kills 10…). Meanwhile Pinions gives evasion and first strike, and first strike is nasty with wither/infect.
And right, Skithiryx is fine by itself. He’s his own win condition, and is a bomb in any deck, even if it has zero other infect cards. The same does NOT go for Putrefax.
Random thought: Grafted Exoskeleton on Bloodshot Trainee is pretty nuts.
Also I want to add: INFECT IS GOOD. Ignore the poison counter thing, it’s basically wither, which acts as soft removal. Your chump blockers stick around.
um…agreed with all points in protoman’s post. I feel like you should just ammend that to the original post honestly… I also think the clasp is sweet even without infect and gets totally nutso when you have it, you can kill at myr at worst or pick off a bigger guy with a couople installments even with no infect around. counts towards metalcraft, etc