Creature — Beast

Infect You may have Spinebiter assign its combat damage as though it weren't blocked.

Browse Alters View at Gatherer

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Set Rarity
New Phyrexia (NPH) Uncommon

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Format Legality
Block Constructed Legal
Highlander Legal
Leviathan Legal
1v1 Commander Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Legacy Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Unformat Legal
Noble Legal
Magic Duels Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Vintage Legal
Casual Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
2019-10-04 Legal

Spinebiter Discussion

emraaaakuull777 on Infect 2.0

3 months ago

that makes sense and is generally true but with infect you won't have enough creatures or board presence to keep it competitive in the late game unless you get lucky with near perfect draws. If you want to add in a few late game cards, you could splash black to throw in a Spinebiter Phyrexian Swarmlord or Phyrexian Juggernaut, and add a few more blight mambas plus a Plague Stinger to get you to the late game, but you would have to sacrifice a few buff cards. this would give you a late game threat but you would be less likely to get an early win. In my opinion not the best tradeoff for infect, a shell that succeeds by being fast.

triproberts12 on Mutate/Infect deck ratios

3 months ago

Unlife, makes sense. The mana sources might be a bit conservative for an aggro deck, and I probably don't have much room for self-mill. I think that this deck might rely a little more on Otrimi than the typical Mutate deck, ironically enough, though. A 6/6 Trampling body for 4 mana is about the best Mutate outcome for an Infect deck. It's kinda weird, because I've been listening to set reviews and whatnot, but while Parcelbeast and Sea-Dasher Octopus might be some of the best options in a non-Infect deck, mutating either on top of a Cystbearer is a worse end result for the deck's strategy than something derpy like a Cavern Whisperer. I feel really weird thinking of Flensermite being better than Blighted Agent or Spinebiter on account of the same reasoning.

bossomus on Ezuri 98% Permanents

10 months ago

I know, I know, I hate to recommend it...

But with that being said, it looks like you're playing a lot of proliferate and big creatures with trample, so I'd recommend some infection. You don't have to change too much of the deck, but a few cards here and there can be the difference between doing a lot of damage to someone and killing them outright.

  • Phyrexian Swarmlord . He has infect, he makes mini-infectors for every poison counter out there. It's great. You can even use your commander to buff up the small ones so that you don't have to swing with Swarmlord himself!

  • Triumph of the Hordes . This card can cause you to kill everyone out of nowhere. Swing in at everyone for a lot of damage, they'll usually block enough to live assuming regular damage. This card makes it a lot harder for your opponents to do that.

  • Melira, Sylvok Outcast . This card gives all your creatures infect. It can also counter other infect players. Just a good creature overall that will demand removal over your commander.

  • Lastly, Spinebiter and Blighted Agent . They allow you to give someone some poison counters which you can proliferate off of to win!

If you're not looking to use infect to win, then I'd still recommend a few cards that are cheap:

  • Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter . This gives all your creatures with +1 counters the ability to create mana. Free ramp!

  • Leyline of Anticipation . Casting at instant speed is very powerful. It reduces the amount of time between attacking and letting your opponents interact with your board.

  • Last but not least! Rashmi, Eternities Crafter . Just a good value card that can help you to draw an extra card each turn or even cast something big!

I hope these suggestions help, and good luck with your deck!

Phroggy1 on astaxa infect

1 year ago

kdplumb thanks for the interest and the questions(i will get to an actual better description of this deck one day, i promise). first suggestion with the deck is upgrade the land base, it is pretty budgety, otherwise to answer your question: I designed this deck to be stronger against a full table than 1v1(no glistener elf and fast wimpy infecters, lil more resilient powerful critters) : with that being said, at 1v1 this deck can be a beast, i have played against dedicated 1v1 builds (notably a dark depths/thespian stage marit lage deck, and yes as gross as it sounds) i believe i lost that match turn 5 but my opponent went first and i would have infected him out on my turn 5). against multiple opponents you draw a bit of hate (atraxa seems to do that all by herself) if they know the deck or realize they are getting infected be prepared, however that is the reason we add propaganda/ghostly prison and blind obedience and maze effects, we just need to hold off our opponents long enough to explode with proliferation. Duelist's Heritage to kill enemy with other enemy's creatures out of no where is an over performer, Transmogrifying Wand is awesome, constantly asking people "you want an ox", Viral Drake can just win the game. Ichor Rats Spinebiter are probably tied for most out of nowhere.

fishhorn on Ezur-in Trouble

1 year ago

KayneMarco is that because he basically tutors for ezuri at any time?

ZendikariWol I absolutely agree with your feelings toward infect as a strategy. That being said I do have a soft spot for a bit of infect in some of my decks, whether it be Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon or Putrefax. I absolutely love your Buttermilk Pancakes build though. I did change out most of the infect-y creatures in favor of a a build like yours, but I'm leaving in a couple like Plague Myr, Spinebiter, and Triumph of the Hordes. Aluren was there to combo with Shrieking Drake for infinite counters on Ezuri. How many cards with triggered abilities would warrant the inclusion of Panharmonicon?

FlyingBison on Aisling’s Atraxa Infect Test

1 year ago

So, the first thing to do is make sure there are enough lands in the deck. A four color deck with multiple mana sinks is going to need 38 lands. If the mana curve is lowered by these edits, then a case could be made for 37, but for now it’s best to aim for 38.

This means 7 cards have to be cut. These cards should not come from necessary categories, since some of those actually need more.

  1. Viridian Betrayers is way too easy to kill and block in the late game, and will often not have infect during the early game, which is really the only time it can do good work.

  2. Flensermite is too little impact for the cost. The Lifelink isn’t worth it and there are plenty of other cheap infect creatures.

  3. Followed Footsteps is something I always want to work, but it hardly ever does because it is so easy to deal with. It can be dealt with using anything that can destroy enchantments OR creatures, or even something that flickers or returns a creature to your hand. On top of that, you don’t even get your first token until your next turn. You should check out Helm of the Host if you really like that effect.

  4. Necropede doesn’t have a good enough pay off, and you have other better two drops with infect. This also doesn’t have evasion. Early game you might not play it right away to ramp instead, and then it gets blocked easily by turn 3 and beyond. The extra -1/-1 counter isn’t necessary when every infect creature can give them just the same.

  5. Ichorclaw Myr, pretty much for the same reasons as Necropede.

  6. Spinebiter costs way too much for what it does. It may be able to get through and get someone by surprise, but probably only once. It takes too much set up, and there are only a few ways in the deck to make sure it raises it’s power or can attack right away. This may be something to revisit later if you find ways to use it more effectively, but so many of the other infect creatures are more efficient or way more powerful.

  7. Core Prowler is too expensive for what it does and there are way better ways to proliferate reliably in the deck.

These 7 cuts will bring you to 38 land slots.

Spirits on Budget Xenagos, God of Revels - EDH $50

1 year ago

Armed // Dangerous another CMC2 Double Strike, $0.21. Downside is it's Sorcery.

Archetype of Aggression, gives all your creatures Trample, $0.39. 6 ground + 4 flying (partial evasion) don't have trample, thats 1/2 your available hitters, including 1 infect.

Gruul Signet, CMC2 Rock, $0.30.

Thud, Another Fling for CMC1 but Sorcery speed unfortunately, $0.20. Really need more Soul's Fire to Infect.

Farseek, CMC2 Ramp!!, $0.27.

Flameblast Dragon won't get his doubled. Timing is off.

Slagstorm scary because it wipes out the dorks, but I understand the thinking, with Cats/Snakes/Vampires.

Arbor Elf, CMC1 Dork, $0.26.

Beastcaller Savant, CMC2, But he has Haste, $0.40 though.

Heart Warden, annoying at CMC2, but can draw a card if late in the game if he's a dead draw, $0.20. Modular is sometimes nice, especially in longer games.

Explore might work pretty well with 40 lands, and it draws a card, so maintains your card-advantage and ramp advantage. I also feel you have quite a bit (too many) lands with all the additional ramp/dorks you have? Might try 38 instead.

Thunderfoot Baloth $1.69, but has trample, with Xenagos is 14 Trample, and gives all other creatures Trample. The best of the Trample enablers mentioned for sure.

Deus of Calamity $1.40, only 6/6 trample, but fills your Xenagos, God of Revels devotion, so he really enables a 6/5 Indestructible attacker as well.

Tyrant's Familiar feels better than a Flameblast Dragon ($1.28), because he can potentially blow away a flying blocker, $0.44.

Fyndhorn Elves ($2.03) can free up some cash for a Thunderfoot Baloth if he's an Arbor Elf $0.26.

Sakura-Tribe Elder ($1.25) is really good, but a Farseek can be effective $0.27, free up $1

Artisan of Kozilek he is 10/9 (20/19 with Xenagos), Returns a creature from your graveyard to the battlefield (not hand), and has Annihilator 2 (Opponent sacrifices 2 permanents, with haste from Xenagos) for $0.43. I have lots of this guy, I'll bring you one.

Maybe with some shuffling of mana sources you can free up cash for Malignus, but he's quite expensive. Tough for budget.

Fierce Empath tutoring Atarka, World Render or Soul of the Harvest or Siege Behemoth or Spinebiter Etc. gives consistency, I feel like its doubling your Atarka, World Render chances.

Phyrexian Hydra another Infect guy. Makes it easier to kill 3 players.

Khenra Charioteer more trample, hes a 3/3 so he's not shabby for CMC3. Probably don't need that much anyway.

Life's Legacy could re-populate your hand and stabilize your life. Feel like the cards better than the double life on Predator's Rapport.

Talisman of Impulse best non- non- mana source available for $0.33.

Explosive Vegetation is good, but $0.92 and CMC4, I'm not sure. Might look for another lower CMC one to ramp a little faster for that $. Go a bit faster.

I haven't seen this one work yet, See the Unwritten and at $0.82, I'd probably just draw another creature like a Artisan of Kozilek. If you get lucky and the stars align, maybe you get 2, but one might be an Elf. I'd rather just draw another key creature, instead of the randomness. If it was CMC5 or CMC4 and casting a CMC8 maybe, but it's CMC6 probably casting a CMC6 or lower (based on probability, I can calculate it when I have some more time)

Living Hive is in Main and Maybeboard.

I only like Momentous Fall (too expensive $), Deus of Calamity (enables Xenagos), Kavu Predator could be interesting in our Pod (vs cats/vamps anyway). Malignus if you can budget him in. Steel Hellkite good utility again CMC0 Snakes/Vampires for example. Thunderfoot Baloth.

Don't like anything else there.

I think, less lands -2 perhaps, cheaper ramp (and maybe 1 more), 1 more creature (infect guy preferably), reallocate some cash to make sure each creature is a finisher, like Avatar of Fury is kind of blah, if you can cast for 2 he's ok, but what you doing with the other mana that turn anyway, would rather pay the 6 for a finisher. Siege Dragon feels a little underpowered too, but can board wipe (cats/vamps/snakes), would rather use Steel Hellkite instead, better control, lower CMC.

Inquisitor's Flail not sure equip is right, but it is only equip so maybe? Rancor instead?

Living Hive feels small for CMC8! Wtf, not sure what your doing with the 1/1 insects, that don't even fly.

That's about all I have for now +1.

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