Phyrexian Crusader: overpowered?

[0rion79]

Hi all. Today I've tried to update an old white-only deck that I was using long time ago and I had to test it against a mono-Black deck, with the latest cards.
You know, Malakir Bloodwitch and other white-warded creatures are really a pain in the butt, but if your deck is good you can survive. Phyrexian Obliterator is very strong, but as long it may die with a Sword to Plowshares you can survive.
What really has proven to be deadly is Phyrexian Crusader because there was no way in which I could prevent the poison counters. The best strategy that I've found is to place 4 Soldevi Simulacrum in the deck to quickly get basic lands, to add other lands that grant extra life points, 4 Moonglove Extract to kill them... and 4 Jester's Cap in order to get rid of the same Phyrexian crusader, then Get's Verdict and then Consuming Vapors. Those cards are really DAMN strong.
I really wonder if they will ever do anything to re-balance White coloro because, even if it is the only one who may exile creatures that will automatically re-shuffle in the library, it is the most vulnerable color to white-warded creatures.
I mean, black has Diabolic Edict & co, Red has Ghostfire, Blue has Vedalken Shackles and Counterspells, while Green doesn't have to worry too much about warded creatures and most often is already in advantage.
So, which cards do you use to re-balance the power of Black now?

[stassy]

Quicksand, Maze of Ith, Tumble Magnet, Brittle Effigy, Jace...

Edit:Also just nearly got my ass beaten by Enchantress deck with 2 Controls on...my Phyrexian Crusaders

[0rion79]

quicksand won't target flying creatures... but it may be not too bad Brittle Effigy, instead, is good and also kills Malakir Bloodwitch (where I would need 2 moonglove extract) but has an high activation cost...
Instead Maze of Ith was a surprice: the fact that it doesn't give mana was a severe limit for me. Are you still using it? It is no longer restricted in 1.5, isn't it?

[stassy]

It can be used in a sideboard but you are right, it's not so effective. The general consensus seems to be dealing against infect with infect (Tumble Magnet + Contagion Clasp...) but infect deck in general is sure all around powerful.

[0rion79]

I have a question. Are creatures with infect supposed to deal standard damage AND poison counters? Or just poison counters?
Because in custom version, that Crusader is dealing both and I would like to know if it is an approximation or maybe just the custom version that is buggish (like with Doran, which has part of the code in Magic.exe file and which is missing in the Custom version).

[Megres]

When a creature with infect deals damage to a player, the player doesn't lose any life as a result of the damage—he or she gets that many poison counters instead. If any player ever has ten or more poison counters, that player loses the game.

That's the reason why you think it's overpowered.

In fact it is not.

[0rion79]

I've seen it: in constructed everything is working fine.

[juzamjedi]

You're playing white, so Wrath of God and Day of Judgment are answers to any of the creatures you've mentioned. If we're talking older cards you have Balance, Moat, Solitary Confinement and probably others I'm not thinking about.

If you are a white creature deck fighting a black creature deck, then you could run Stoneforge Mystic + whichever equipment suits your fancy.

Re Maze of Ith: just think of it like a spell slot instead of a land slot.

[0rion79]

Thank you for your hints. Of course, I have to agree even if I wouldn't use each of those cards in every white-only creatures deck. Until now, I've seen that Moonglove Extract is really the best answer: it is cheap and may be fired on opponent if his deck is creatureless.
Anyway, now that I've seen that the P. Crusader doesn't deal any damage, I've removed it from many decks and re-evaluated it
I just wonder what they shall do in the next expansion set to re-balance colors....