The Brothers' Daily Deck Tech: The Gixian Infiltration of Pauper

Every workday while the set is new, Insight is taking a quick look at one deck featuring the latest additions from The Brothers' War. The Phyrexians already infiltrated—and took over—the world that gave us the original five artifact lands. Now they're coming for the last deck that's allowed to run them!

infiltration

Sometimes it's not easy to figure out the best shell for new cards, or if they're even good enough for the format at all. Such was the case for : a two-mana that clearly fits sacrifice decks but, unexpectedly, provided Affinity with a new relevant threat. I was surprised to find Gixian Infiltrator show up in Affinity. The deck has been shifting more and more toward a midrange playstyle ever since the banning of , a development only helped along by .

Well, there is one reason why a creature that gets a +1/+1 counter every time you sacrifice a permanent is the new darling of Affinity: the artifact lands. A lot of cards in this deck sacrifice artifacts: , , and are some of the one-shot effects, but we should not forget and either. The mass-removal Goblin and the common represent multi-purpose removal and game-changing top decks. The Shaman provides the most impactful win condition against any green deck, while Munitions gives you the best maindeckable answer to decks featuring or .

The great thing about Gixian Infiltrator is being able to win out of nowhere in the mid- to late game when the board is stalled and usually you'd need to find specific hate cards or a lot of removal. Blowing up your entire mana base with Krark-Clan Shaman, in one go, and then attacking with a couple of Infiltrators often means dealing more than 20 damage.

When it comes to pick a list we have plenty of options. There are so many good cards in Affinity's repertoire that it's difficult to pick the best selection. But I like 420dragon's Top 4 list. I feel like spending one blue mana to draw two cards must be busted in a deck with such a combo kill. So running four copies of is the right choice to me.

Grixis Affinity by 420dragon, Top 4 at Pauper Challenge, November 20
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Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, not of Cardmarket.