Testing Infectwire Part 2

Yesterday we battled through a 3 game match against an Exarch/Splinter Twin deck, today we face down a Puresteel White Deck in a cage match to the death! Check it out after the jump!

Infectwire
Creatures (16) 4 Glistener Elf 4 Bighted Agent 4 Plague Myr 2 Viral Drake 2 Viridian Corrupter Pumps (12) 4 Distortion Strike 4 Mutagenic Growth 2 Gigantiform 2 Vines of Vastwood	Other Spells (4) 4 Preordain Artifacts (4) 4 Livewire Lash Lands (24) 4 Misty Rainforest 4 Inkmoth Nexus 8 Forest 8 Island	Sideboard 2 Viridian Corrupter 2 Viral Drake 4 Nature's Claim 2 Vines of Vastwood 2 Withstand Death 3 Contagion Clasp

As you can see, we are running the same deck today that was used yesterday. There was some talk today on the forum of putting in Garruk Wildspeaker, I'd like to try and get in some testing to see how he plays in that slot instead.

Today I'll be playing against the Steel Weenie deck that placed 3rd on Magic-League.com:
http://www.magic-league.com/deck/70101/standard_t2_with_nph.html#Steel Weenie107675
(Note: My opponent chooses the deck he's playing against me, and I don't find out what deck it is until after the match is over.)

Garruk says "Hi"

Game 1:

I roll a 3 to my opponents 4, and he chooses to play first. My opening hand has only an Island in it, and a hand full of green cards, so I mulligan to 6: Inkmoth Nexus, Island, Livewire Lash, Gigantiform, Glistener Elf, Blighted Agent.

Opp: Plays a Plains, taps it for Student of Warfare and passes the turn.

Turn 1: I draw an Island, play Inkmoth Nexus, and end my turn.
Opp: Drops a Plains, levels up Student twice for a 3/3 First Striker, and comes in for 3, I'm at 17 and he passes the turn.

Turn 2: Draw Misty Rainforest, I send out Misty Rainforest to search up a Forest (16 life), drop a Glistener Elf and pass the turn.
Opp: Drops another Plains, plays a Student of Warfare, and a  Puresteel Paladin. He attacks with old Student taking me to 13.

Turn 3: Draw Livewire Lash! Play an Island, and drop Blighted Agent because the ground is starting to get cluttered, I'm going to need the stealth.
Opp: Plays a Flayer Husk and draws a card off Puresteel Paladin. He levels the blank Student to 2 and sends in both level Students for 6 (7).

Turn 4: Draw a Mutagenic Growth. Play Island, cast Livewire Lash, and equip Livewire onto Blighted Agent. I do some quick math, and unless he is able to do something super fancy, he'll only be able to attack for 6 next turn, meanwhile, I'll be able to hit for 7 poison as long as Blighted Agent is still alive. It's worth the gamble, it's still game 1, so I attack with Agent for 3 unblockable poison.
Opp: Played Flayer Husk and drew from the Paladin. Played a Memnite, attacked with the team. My brave Glistener Elf throws himself on the Student's blade. I take 6 damage, taking me down to 1 life.

Turn 5: Attack with Blighted Agent, bounce Mutagenic Growth off him for 7 more poison and we are off to game number 2.

Sideboard: I have a feeling he'll be bringing in all the equipment hate he can find, so I want the instant speed removal of Nature's Claim. Taking out Viridian Corrupter was a mistake in hindsight, and I put him back in for Game 3.

-2 Viridian Corrupter

-2 Viral Drake

+4 Nature's Claim

Game 2:

Opponent chooses to play first, and I draw my opening hand of Forest, Forest, Forest, Misty Rainforest, Blighted Agent, Livewire Lash, and Preordain

Opp: Plains, Memnite, Memnite.

Turn 1: Draw a Nature's Claim. Send the Rainforest (19) to find me an Island, play preordian, the top 2 cards are both Forests, so I ship them to the bottom and draw from the top... another Forest.

Opp: Drops a Plains and Plays Puresteel Paladin. Both Memnites get in there (17).

Turn 2: Draw Inkmoth Nexus, play Forest and a Blighted Agent, and pass the turn back over.

Opp: Plains, taps out for Sword of Feast and Famine. He has Metalcraft now and Equips Sword onto Memnite and swings with just the Memnite. I discard one of my many Forests, he untaps and ends the turn (14).

Turn 3: Draw an Island and cast Livewire. I aim Nature's Claim at the Sword, and in response, opponent casts Dispatch (with Metalcraft FTL) on Blighted Agent, dispatching it.

Opp: Draws, then attacks for 4 (10)

Turn 4: Draw Inkmoth, play Inkmoth... Nothing else to do.

Opp: Plays Inkmoth, drops a kicked Kor Sanctifier, destroying my Livewire. Attacks for 4. (6)

Turn 5: Draw Gigantiform, Play Inkmoth, Attack with Inkmoth for 1

Opp: Plays Batterskull, equips Batterskull onto Memnite, attacks with everything. I activate Inkmoth, and block, taking 5 (1)

Turn 6: Draw Livewire Lash. Nothing I can do, so I scoop to lead us into Game 3.

Sideboard: I realize my mistake of siding out Viridian Corrupter, considering I only drew a single creature in the entirety of last game, I side out some pump in order to fit the little guy back in.
-2 Gigantiform
-1 Mutagenic Growth
-1 Vines of Vastwood
+4 Viridian Corrupter


Game 3:

I choose to play first and my opening hand is Island, Misty Rainforest, Mutagenic Growth, Distortion Strike, Livewire Lash, Glistener Elf, Vines of Vastwood. This is practically a god hand. If the opponent doesn't interact with our drops, this is an unstoppable turn 3 kill.

Turn 1: I send my Rainforest off to find me a Forest (19), windmill slam Glistener Elf down and pass the turn.

Opp: Inkmoth Nexus hits the table.

Turn 2: Draw a Forest, play an Island and attack with my shiny Elf opponent at 1 poison. I play Livewire Lash and send control back to my opponent.

Opp: Plays a Plains and drops a Stoneforge Mystic. The Mystic tutors up a Mortar Pod (which I would be very concerned about if I wasn't about to win) and passes back to me.

Turn 3: Draw a Forest and drop it onto the field. Attach Livewire Lash to Glistener Elf, let it resolve. Play Distortion Strike, bounce 2 poison off my opponent. Play Mutagenic Growth, bounce 2 poison off my opponent. Send in the scary 6/3 unblockable Elf for the win.

I've been preaching this ever since I built this NPH deck, but a lot of people still don't listen. The "God Hands" of turn 2 or 3 kills pop up a lot more often than people think, especially back when I played with Groundswell instead of Vines. They obviously don't happen every game, or even every other game, but I would say that if a match goes to 3 rounds then you have a pretty good chance of one of the possible god hands popping up. And as you can see in Game 3 above, they catch even the fastest of decks totally off guard.

After having played these games today, I'm starting to like Gigantiform less. It came up in 2 of the 3 games, and it didn't help in either game. Game 1 I was already slow rolling victory, and game 2 I didn't have any creatures on the field, so even a Putrefax would have been more helpful. At the same time, I'm not sure if Garruk is the right choice either. If I went back and replaced the Gigantiforms in both those games with Garruk, I don't see either game playing out any differently. I wouldn't even have played him in game 1, as I was busy spending my mana putting a Livewire onto my secret agent. And in Game 2, I drew into Gigantiform with 6 life remaining and no creatures on the field.

For now, I think I'll be dropping the Gigantiforms for Groundswells. We'll see how it does tomorrow.

See Part 1 here: http://ggxgames.blogspot.com/2011/05/testing-infectwire.html

See Part 2 here: http://ggxgames.blogspot.com/2011/05/testing-infectwire-part-2.html

See Part 3 here: http://ggxgames.blogspot.com/2011/05/testing-infectwire-part-3.html