On the one hand, two hits from this big guy will
finish off the opponent, and with haste, there's
a good chance that your opponent didn't
anticipate needing to leave a blocker up for it.
On the other hand, it only gets one hit, it
costs five mana for five power (compare to
similar creatures like Spark Elemental, Ball
Lightning, etc.) and if you don't draw a second
one, what have you accomplished? And even if you
do, if your opponent blocks either one, you're
not two-shotting him. But with infect, if he
does block, he'll permanently shrink anything he
doesn't kill, and he can kill indestructible
creatures as thought they weren't at all, and
still trample through given sufficient power.
When this hits, it wreaks immediate havoc. Just
don't depend on it to two-shot anybody.
We recently saw Ball Lightning in M10. One of
those, unblocked, is in effect almost lethal by
itself, because of what is sure to follow it.
Putrefax is like Ball Lightning. If it had 10
power instead of six. And it couldn't be hit by
Celestial Purge. And it could kill Kor
Firewalker. And the opponent could never gain
the life back. And you could play it in
two-color decks. Actually, maybe Putrefax isn't
like Ball Lightning at all - sometimes, it may
be even better.
Today's card of the day is Putrefax which is a
five mana 5/3 with Haste, Trample, Infect, and a
requirement to be sacrificed at the end of turn.
This is a big part of a Green deck's Infect
option as having Haste and Trample will often
get it over any defense and landing several
poison counters. Combined with other
effects and it will either win the game or come
very close which makes it an excellent finisher.
The casting cost is quite reasonable for Green
to manage and even though it costs more than the
older Ball Lightning, the higher toughness,
Infect attribute, and color shift make it
viable. Infect is still not a fully proven
design at the moment, but with two sets left in
the block and quite a bit of time to go with
Scars of Mirrodin in rotation this card will
continue to make a strong impact.
In Limited this is one of the best reasons to
draft an Infect deck as a single hit from it
makes winning with poison dramatically easier.
For Sealed if your pool can support Green and
Black or Blue for Proliferate then it should
almost build itself. In Booster drafting
this first is an easy choice as a clear attack
is half of the game in one turn. Even if
it is against your color this should not be
passed to an opponent and can potentially be a
late addition to your deck in the second or even
the third pack with the right picks. A
fantastic card in the format with an easily
managed casting cost, solid toughness compared
to similar creatures in past blocks, and Corpse
Cur in set as a method of playing it again.
For a Blue/Green variation Disperse, Lumengrid
Drake, and Neurok Replica are each common cards
that can return Putrefax to your hand before the
end step.
