Infect and Defile is one of two (The other being Into the Breach) Mirrodin Besieged Magic: The Gathering Event Decks rolling out just in time for Mirrodin Besieged Game Day, March 5-6. The decks go live with a price point of MSRP $24.99 on February 25th.
Infect and Defile is a Standard legal 60-card deck complete with a 15 card sideboard. Like Intro Packs, these Event Decks are designed to be played right out of the box - in a considerably more competitive environment.
Before we delve into a bit of analysis, let's look over the decklist for Infect and Defile, a blue/black "contrileate" concoction, previewed today by the ever enigmatic Monty Ashley at the Magic Arcana.
Infect and Defile
7 Swamp
10 Island
Sideboard:
1x Doom Blade
2x Smother
We had our doubts whether these decks would be suitable for Friday Night Magic play when they were announced, but overall we're quite pleased. Infect and Defile should handily compete against a wide variety of strategies and absolutely blow away friends sporting kitchen table elves or other casual homebrews.
Can Infect and Defile compete in actual FNM? That depends on what your opponents are running for sure, as it probably isn't enough to fend off Tier 1 compilations, but it is very serviceable against plenty of quality builds - it really depends on your FNM environment.
As far accomplishing the goals of the event decks - competitive enough for FNM right out of the box with a reasonable price point - we think they've succeeded.
Infect and Defile seeks to shove out a dangerous Phyrexian Vatmother as early as possible and then protect it with countermagic while removing opposing threats with removal.
Opponent plays a threat? Corrupted Conscience, grab it and swing, the game is probably pretty much over if you can dig in with just a few hits and your Contagion Clasps as backup.
Need to fill up on cards? Four copies of Foresee ensure you'll be drawing what you need. Corpse Cur allows you to play an attrition game, and Necropedes can keep you alive against aggro decks rushing out the gates and deliver important points of spot poison.
The rest of the event deck cards are solid, and Infect and Defile lives up to being playable from the time you crack it.
The single Hand of the Praetors is definitely a mystery, and the deck could obviously be improved very easily with some Inkmoth Nexus and some Jace, the Mindsculptor, but Infect and Defile is just fine. Unlike the Intro Packs, this is something we would feel very comfortable walking into the local gaming venue and kicking around a few casual games, feeling confident that Infect and Defile would at least have a chance against most of the field.
Welcome to FNM, Magic: The Gathering Event Decks. We're glad to have you here. Pull up a chair.
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