THIS was a good match. A close match. A nail-biter.
G1: Infect waits to play a creature until he can protect it. An elf arrives, Cast Down tries to kill it, but Apostle’s Blessing saves it. The elf gets a rancor and attacks for 3 poison. The next turn Titanic Growth for lethal? No – Disallow counters it. Now at 6 poison, a Vraska’s Contempt kills the elf. Infect gets a bit flooded. A few turns go by while Infect tries to find another creature. AN ichorclaw myr gets countered by a Gearhulk. There’s still hope though when an inkmoth nexus gets animated. Fatal Push? Mental Misstep. Ok then, how about a Vraska’s Contempt? Basically Esper draws tons of removal and Infect gets flooded. Esper 1-0.
G2: Two nexus in play. Mental Misstep protects one from a fatal push. An Turn 3 Ichorclaw Myr arrives but dies to Cast Down. Turn 4 a Nexus attacks with Rancor and Mutagenic Growth and an Exalted buff from a Cathedral. 7 poison. Turn 5 the nexus attacks again with a replayed Rancor. Vraska’s Contempt is nullified by an Apostle’s Blessing, Infect wins. Infect 1-1.
G3: Gitaxian Probe and Duress make most of this game declassified. Glint-Sleeve makes an appearance for the Esper deck. A single exalted nexus attacks several times in the air, while the Glint-Sleeve helps draw extra cards. With Esper at 9 poison Infect plays an elf. It resolves but the Nexus gets killed by removal instead. Now the Glint-Sleeve stays back on defense. Next turn, Infect plays a spellskite but the elf gets killed in response by another Vraska’s Contempt. After that 2 essence scatters and 2 Gearhulks control the rest of what happens. Esper 2-1.
G4: Duress gets stopped by a mental misstep, but Duress #2 steals an Apostle’s Blessing. Ironclaw Myr is cast, but Esper plays a 1/1 Walking Ballista and immediately kills it. A nexus attacks twice with 2 exalted triggers and we’re at 6 poison. Field of Ruin “ruins” the nexus, but this kindly gives the Infect deck some green mana after playing only colorless lands, so an elf comes down. Esper topdecks land #4 and plays Yehenni’s Expertise to kill the elf, but unfortunately there’s another elf right on the following turn, protected by a Ranger’s Guile. Infect 2-2
G5: It all comes down to game five. Esper has to mull to 6 and keep a risky hand. Duress steals a Ranger’s Guile, an elf attacks with Mutagenic Growth to deal 3 poison. Infect adds a Myr and attacks with an exalted elf. 5 poison. Spyglass turns off an Inkmoth Nexus that is also in play, which is lovely – now we’re at 7 poison. Fatal push gets the myr, but the elf gets in again, now we’re at 9 poison. Esper finds the 4th land and can Vraska’s contempt that elf, with another Vraska in hand for the following turn. But sadly he plays TWO more creatures. I can kill one, but not both. Infect found 2 nexus and 4 creatures. For a deck with only 8 creatures and 4 nexus, that’s pretty lucky!
Infect wins the match 3-2.