U/G Infect wins a 55 man trial tournament

Congratulations to Mobius1 for winning a Magic-League trial tournament with U/G Infect and earning himself 2 byes into the Master Tournament. Let's take a look at his decklist.

Here is his winning decklist:

Deck
Land - 22 5 Island 7 Forest 1 Terramorphic Expanse 1 Evolving Wilds 4 Misty Rainforest 4 Inkmoth Nexus Creatures - 14 4 Glistener Elf 4 Ichorclaw Myr 4 Blighted Agent 2 Viridian Corrupter	Pump - 14 4 Groundswell 4 Vines of Vastwood 3 Distortion Strike 3 Mutagenic Growth Other Spells - 7 4 Preordain 3 Gitaxian Probe Equipment - 3 3 Livewire Lash	Sideboard 1 Distortion Strike 3 Nature's Claim 2 Viridian Corrupter 3 Spellskite 4 Mana Leak 2 Beast Within

Before we get into the details of the deck, let's look at the tournament.
55 Participants, single elimination, 6 rounds. Here are the decks that entered:

Red Deck Wins: 9

Caw-Blade: 6

U/G Tempo Ramp: 6

Vampires: 6

Valakut: 4

U/B Control: 4

Splinter Twin: 4

Darkblade: 3

Eldrazi Ramp: 3

Mono Green Infect: 2

Pyromancer Ascension: 1
Soul Sisters: 1
Elves: 1
Mono Black Control: 1
Pod: 2
U/W Venser Control: 1
U/G Infect: 1 <- Winner

Now, the matches that our winner had to endure:
Round 1: Vs Vampires (2-1)
Round 2: Vs Elves (2-0)
Round 3: Vs U/G Tempo Ramp (2-0)
Round 4: Vs Splinter Twin (2-0)
Round 5: Vs Bant-Blade (2-0)
Round 6: Vs B/W/G Pod (2-1)

As for his deck itself, I like that he's running a very "pure" version of the deck, every card in the mainboard is either a land, an infect creature, a pump, or a draw spell. What I'm not a very big fan of is the sideboard. One additional Distortion Strike seems like an odd choice, and would probably be better served as an additional of anything else that is at 3 count. The 3 Spellskite's might become important if the deck ever catches on enough to have to deal with a mirror match, but otherwise his only purpose is to stop Splinter Twin, and I feel that Dismember does a better job of that, especially combined with Vines of Vastwood in the mainboard. The Nature's Claims also help against Splinter Twin, but serve double duty against quest decks, any deck that plays Equipment, and just about anything else. However, I feel 2 additional Viridian Corrupters are out of place. If you need additional Artifact removal, you have access to the Nature's Claims, as you would typically prefer Instant speed and cheap over Sorcery speed and requiring double Green.

Despite these problems that I have with the deck, I can very much see why he chose the cards he did. Spellskite might not be as good as Dismember against Splinter Twin, but it is an additional body, and doesn't cost you 4 life to cast. Viridian Corrupter might not be as good as Nature's Claim when it comes to Artifact destruction, but it is also a 2/2 body with infect. Therefore, I feel that these choices are very good in their own right, even if they aren't what I would have chosen.

The only other, very minor, complaint that I have is that he never had to face a Red Deck Wins, despite those being the most predominant decks at the tournament. Red Deck Wins is one of the most difficult matches for this deck to win, and it is quite often very predominant at tournaments, due to its cheap cost and explosive victories. He did, however, have to fight against a B/R Vampires deck, which is typically just as tough of a match to win. He also didn't have to play against Darkblade or Cawblade, and instead played against Bant-Blade, which is a more aggressive version of the deck. Still, his was the deck last standing, while everyone else had been knocked out, and in the end, that's all that matters.

Congratulations again to Mobius1!

Thanks for reading!