Not infect

Here's the list I was running after one mirrodin besieged pack and two scars.

18 creatures
2x blightwidow
1x myr smith
2x plaguemaw beast
1x ghalma's warden
1x snapsail glider
1x tangle angler
2x ichorclaw myr
1x shimmer myr
1x plague myr
1x gold myr
1x myr galvanizer
1x bellowing tanglewurm
1x melira's keepers
1x abuna acolyte
1x alpha tyrranax

6 spells
1x lead the stampede
1x mirran mettle
1x dispense justicd
1x silverskin armor
1x trigon of infestation
1x untamed might

Despite going 2-0 and splitting the finals in the last round, as per the etiquette at the store, this is not my best work. the deck feels unfocused, and lacks a solid direction. each of my games ended in poison damage and proliferating through with plaguemaw beast, but there's only 7 infect guys. i feel like this was a lucky break; good match ups, less than optimal play from my opponents and some ideal draws on my side.

the first game i'm paired against someone who should be named vlad, but is not. it seems like he hasn't been playing magic for very long, and spends and inordinate amount of timing thinking over each blocking and attack decision, and mulling over the different plays to make in his hand. when i'm in these kinds of situation, i'm very inclined to act as fast as possible when the play is on my side.

i see it as having a two-fold benefit. 1st, if it goes to time, which this match did, it stops the onus from being on my, i'm exonerated from any blame of slow play. the 2nd factor, which is a bit harder to measure, is overloading your opponent with decisions. keeping the ball in their court, with little time to think outside of what their next play is, keeps them under pressure and more likely to make a misplay. the longer they are thinking, the better it's going for your as they will eventually exhuast their mental resource. this works best against newer players and expert level guys seem to be able to spot the right play very quickly.

another fast example. you're in round 1 against a red-white deck. his board is a 2/2 dude and spin engine vs. your tumble magnet an 1/4 blocker. he declares his attack. i think situation, if i'm at 20 life, i'm going to let the spin engine attack until i fall to 11. the reason being, he has to go back and think if he's going to tie up his red mana in keeping my guy from blocking, which will start to gum up the play in his hand. whether or not it works is almosta moot point, we're giving him more opportunities to make the wrong decision.

back to the game, he has a decent red-white metal graft build with cards like rusted relic, mox opal, chrome steed, glint hawk idols, etc. i'm able to get through for early infect damage and end up sacrificing myr smith minions and trigon 1/1s to plaugemaw beast for the win. the first game takes the better part of of 40 minutes and we're left with 7 minutes to complete the next game.

never a fan of stalling for the win, i'm playing to kill, rushing out an ichor claw myr, until myr galvanizer and tangle angler. he has the arc trail to blow out my guys, but the tangle angle keeps coming in, getting him to two poison. i drop leonin abuna, and he keeps unloading his hand into glint hawk idol, and the 4/4 and 5/5 metal craft guys. i make a critical error during my second to last turn, forgetting how to count my mana, and using an untamed might to get him to 8 poison counters. from there i'm facing down lethal damage while at 2 life from the glint hawk and metal craft guys. i take my last turn and say go. he smiles to himself and attacks in with the team, i drop shimmering myr and snapsail glider with the instant flash play, use the abuna acolyte to prevent one of the damage from the glint hawk flier, and finish out the game at 1 life as final turns are finished.

again, this win shouldn't have been mine. with faster and more aggressive play on his part he would've had it.

second round i'm paired against mara, a ormal professional talking lawyer, ex-district attornies office now private. he has a very strong black and white deck, made from my idiotic passing of Geth to her in pack two. in retrospect i should've moved into pure black green infect once again to support geth.

geth aside, she has mirran crusader, spread the sickness, glint hawk, contagion clasp, sphere of suns, and all manner of other beasties. she makes a game breaking error in which she plays glint hawk but returns sphere of suns for more mana instead of her contagion clasp to kill another one of my guys. she swings with mirran crusader and the loxodon battle cry dude into my metalcrafted dispense justice, the rest is mathematic until i win with proliferate counters. in the second game she keeps a land heavy draw that she's can't draw out of. i'm able to punch through with blightwidow wearing silverskin armor and bellowing tanglewurm blanking out an potential blockers she might have had.

i apologetically point out the glint hawk play to her and she is visibly upset, but assures me that she much rather i told her than the alternative.

my last match is with a good spirited dude who has a monster deck and i'm only too happy to split. he's got the red-haste dragon, oxidia scrapmelter, grasp in darkness, metalcraft-shock, arc trail, the removal keeps coming. he curves out with turn 2 and 3 removal in oxidia scrap melter each time. i stabilize at 4 life with my trigon and myrsmith pulling overtime generating an army of blockers and i catch him with a dispense justice. unfortunately he finds his vampires that drain for four with a metalcraft board, and that's that.

lessons from this draft is to never throw in the towel, even if you've drafted a less than optimal pool. over confident and sloppy opponents will hand you wins if you keep your head in it and capitalize on their mistakes. this means making sure your own play is pristine throughout all games, understanding your deck and playing to your outs. in my case, the strategy developed into getting through for some early poison, then either evading in with tanglewurm intimidate, catching them with a pump spell or proliferating them out with plaguemaw beast and my dudes from myrsmith and trigon of infestation. so early and aggressive trades and clearly not in my favor, and i'm ok to sit back with blockers if it means getting through for less damage in the early turns.

also, straddling the line between infect and non infect is very dangerous game to play. suddenly with them on 9 poison and 20 life, makes all of your guys that don't proliferate or poison into dead draws. while blightwidow and ichorclaw myr feel good enough to play even in decks that don't plan to poison into the win, its very important to go all out in poison or not at all. considering that we were only playing with one besieged pack, poison was a little bit harder to pull off, as the stronger commons seem to lie in besieged.