I m now running the build with 2 steelshaper's gift it's not a conventional card but cranials are just too important to us. 2 cranials unanswered on an etched champ is gg right there
I m now running the build with 2 steelshaper's gift it's not a conventional card but cranials are just too important to us. 2 cranials unanswered on an etched champ is gg right there
Hmmm, what is your decklist?
I feel that you aren't running enough win-cons and your reliance on cranial plattings and etched champions might hurt you in the long run
I feel that you aren't running enough win-cons and your reliance on cranial plattings and etched champions might hurt you in the long run
Here is the list I run. Don't flame me for the tolarian academy and the sol ring[/cring. its a casual multiplayer deck anyway and i need the help these cards give.
Cranials work on a host of critters be it etched, master of etherium, ornithopter and signal pest.
I'm not sure I like the tutors over Tezz 2.0. Sure, Cranial Plating on Etched Champion is usually game over, but Tezzeret gives you another option incase your creatures can't finish the job. Tezzeret also provides pretty sick CA and can even find your plating himself sometimes.
I'm not sure I like the tutors over Tezz 2.0. Sure, Cranial Plating on Etched Champion is usually game over, but Tezzeret gives you another option incase your creatures can't finish the job. Tezzeret also provides pretty sick CA and can even find your plating himself sometimes.
QFT, plus you have the mana base to support tezz 2.0
I know it's really not the same, but I feel for some reason that Thopter Foundry has potential to help you in the sacrificial aspect a bit more than the Gargadon. It's an artifact and produces artifact tokens so that your Cranial Platings stay at an all-time high. It requires more mana, but you're running 25 mana sources so I don't really perceive that as being an issue and besides that it has longer staying power in this kind of faux-Affinity deck. Arcbound Ravager is really only used in Affinity in this day and age to ensure that the opponent's targeted removal is worthless, not for random, haphazard mass-sacrifices, which is probably why a lot of lists don't even bother with Disciple of the Vault anymore. Beating face with some of the new dudes from new Mirrodin is just more consistent and more powerful, even if the deck isn't a tier 1 contender anymore due to hate. Anyway, yeah, gain 1 life, get a 1/1 flyer and the opponent loses 1 life still sounds like a strong exchange to me, especially if the opponent had a Shatter targeting whatever you sacrificed. I know it's not as fast as sacrificing several things to the Gargadon, but it'd help you live through stalemate board positions and give the deck greater longevity for only 1 mana an activation. Besides that, 1/1 flyers are the bomb with Cranial Plating, battle cry buffs and buffs from Steel Overseers and Master of Etheriums.
I'd ditch Fling for Signal Pest. Yes, Fling is fantastic with Gargadon and Master of Etherium... but that's about it. Signal Pest is good with literally everything else in the deck and the fact that he has pseudo-flying is excellent with Cranial Plating, not to mention the Battle Cry ability is very nice for your other evasive attackers.
Speaking of other evasive attackers: Vault Skirge is another one I just can't do without in my Affinity build. Remove 4 of literally anything (leaning heavily toward Nicol Bolas and 2 of something else) to fit in four of these beasts. They don't look like much, but for 1 mana and a Cranial Plating afterwards, they're extremely powerful and put you out of killing range quick.
I know that mostly kills red in your deck, but if it matters I originally only ran red in my build for Shrapnel Blast. Still do, in fact. Love that card. Some days I like it more than Dispatch, lol.
I'm trying to mostly recommend commons/uncommons for budget concerns, so I hope that helps.
One more quick note, how's Etched Champion as far as budget goes? He's insanely hard to deal with and I like seeing him in hand more than Master of Etherium, most games. Even without Cranial Plating, a Signal Pest Battle Cry buff makes this guy a huge pain for most opponents.
Plans- 3 ravagers, more mox opal, tolarian academy.
It goldfishes like crap but I win a lot against my friend, currently like 8-1.
Tezz is great but I usually have the mana to cast him just not the colors.
I think more mox and another glimmervoid will help, but I am kinda constrained on mana base space as it is, I may have to drop to 2 clamps to make space.
I am also thinking of going with city of traitors instead of the tomb cause the lift lose really hurts especially with all the phy mana costs around.
While Glimmervoid is ideal, you can do with other multicolor lands. City of Brass works just as well. You're an aggro deck and it is unlikely that the City's drawback will mean much.
So, if you're considering removing the darksteel citadels and don't have mox opal and glimmervoid, try +4 City of Brass and +4 Chromatic sphere, then remove 2 sets of underperforming creatures in favor of master of etherium (or the red spells that you mentioned, although if I'm adding more red, I'm adding atog, disciple of the vault, and maybe 1-2 fling).
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"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
I mean this is just an affinity deck right? Maybe you'd do better if you changed the thread title to "Casual Affinity." I've also found that well-thought-out decks don't draw much commentary, so maybe your deck already doesn't have much that people would change.
I mean, what exactly are you looking for here? What problems are you running into? What is your meta like? You have a pretty solid casual Affinity deck - without more specifics as to what you're looking for, it's hard to help you.
In the dark, if you're just looking to juice the power level a bit, I would add Tinker x4 and a Blightsteel Colossus instead of Tezzeret and the Probes.
Alright - if you're really wanting to still play Tezz, then the card you're looking for is Springleaf Drum. (Paradise Mantle also does the job, but is generally inferior) Of course, Springleaf Drum is a pretty solid card in this list even you decide to cut Tezz - I would run at least 3 and probably 4 until you get your Academy or more Glimmervoids.
Master of Etherium is another card you probably want to be looking at - he pumps and beats and is just one of the strongest finishers Affinity has.
Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas is generally the superior Tezzeret to use in this kind of deck, IMO, due to how significantly more aggressive he is at a slightly lower cost. In Legacy if he lands, your opponent doesn't Shattering Spree on his or her turn and you somehow manage to lose, there's a problem.
Agent of Bolas can do 3 things better than Seeker:
1) Agent of Bolas does not have to rely on the combat step to finish getting those last few points of life loss through. Normally insignificant, sometimes can be the difference between a win and a loss (I mean, Moat, Elephant Grass, etc., do exist).
2) Agent of Bolas, if you're slightly behind, can give you needed turns for recovery by making a gap between you and your opponent. Your opponent may have put you down to 5 because you were losing the creature race, but even if you still have 8 artifacts on field that's still a -16 swing against your opponent but a +16 swing for you, even a Vault Skirge getting through from this point could mean your win.
3) Agent of Bolas's +1 ability is actually relevant to your game plan, while Seeker's really only functions as pseudo-vigilance, which I can't name too many decks that apply so much pressure to Affinity, in the way that it matters, that you'd need to focus on blocking over finding a new artifact to stick in hand (By way that it matters, I mean if an Emrakul, Blightsteel or Darksteel Colossus is coming your way, blocking probably isn't going to help all that much when your highest native toughness is 4), or as mana acceleration. Which, using a 5 mana card as a temporary mana accelerator seems to slightly defeat its purpose. Time Vault, on the other hand, would make Seeker significantly more worthwhile, but, uh, money.
That's 3 reasons to use Agent of Bolas over Seeker in an aggressive deck, without even having to touch on the fact that Agent of Bolas is 1 mana less than Seeker which can be a pretty big advantage in a deck with only 15 land and 3 nonland mana sources. The disadvantages of AoB to Seeker is that you lose the tutor ability of Seeker, but you're not really a combo deck so revealing top 5 is normally marginally equivalent, and you're still building up to using the ultimate.
Another recommendation is to swap Gitaxian Probe or Frogmite (yeah, it's awesome that he's free, but he's also very lackluster. 2/2s just don't decide games, and he's a poor Cranial Plating carrier) for Arcbound Ravager, as he makes your opponent's removal absolutely useless. If you were looking for a place to stick 3 of them, there you go.
My last suggestion is to ditch Myr Enforcer for Master of Etherium. In bad games, when an opponent is post-board and has artifact removal, Myr Enforcer will wind up costing 1-3 mana anyway but he'll also have a significantly smaller body than the Master. Master, on the other hand, gives a valuable buff to Signal Pest, Vault Skirge, Etched Champion and Ornithopter, making them not quite so useless without a Cranial Plating. What makes Master of Etherium valuable, however, is not just his large body (which can come in handy), but the fact that his collective buff helps every single other thing in your deck kill your opponent. A 9/9 Master is scary, but easily blocked for a couple turns. A couple 3/2 Skirges and a 1/2 Signal Pest going at the opponent's face unblocked is far scarier than just that 9/9 attacking them, lol. He easily applies pressure, which is what this deck is supposed to do.
When you add Ravagers, consider adding another Mox Opal or two since the Ravager can chew multiples if need be (and it even functions like an amusing mana acclerator-buff sometimes lol), that'll more easily aid your colored casting requirements.
Depends on your meta. Etched champion is GREAT against control decks, fair to good against aggro, kinda bad against combo (costs too much and you also need a cranial plate/dead arcbound ravager to make him work). If you're going for speed, it isn't the best choice.
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"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
Depends on your meta. Etched champion is GREAT against control decks, fair to good against aggro, kinda bad against combo (costs too much and you also need a cranial plate/dead arcbound ravager to make him work). If you're going for speed, it isn't the best choice.
Adding to this
If you're not familiar with your playgroup's meta run a 3-3 or 2-2 split between Master of Etherium and etched champion. Both are excellent finishers.
Its that simple. Ravenger is the icing/cherry on the top of the cake that we do not necessarily need but is good to have.
Essentially, your games will be powered by:
T1: Artifact land, Mox, Sol Ring, MoE/Etched Champ + rest of hand
Don't detract from what an affinity deck is. Synergy and speed. You are going for their throat from the get go. There are not many decks that can defend against a Cranial Plated Etched Champ on T2.
Here is my most recent list and it is explosively insane:
2 Steelshaper's Gift: This is Cranial Plating 5-6. An unanswered and equipped plating is almost GG right there on T2.
1 Tinker: Just for fun and an alternate win con with Blightsteel.
PS: When playing with this deck, be as aggressive as you can. Double equip a skullclamp to kill your own creature if need be to draw cards. Do not sit back and block. These is barely any deck in the world that can race an affinity deck.
I made some changes to my deck, taking into considerations your advice. Now I'd like to add atog and disciple of the vault to the mix. I've tried a version myself, but I've been destroyed both by control and aggro. I think the problem was I only tried to go for a combo instead of diversifying a bit my options. This is the build:
In paper, it seemed really broken. The problem is when I get some of the creatures burned in the first turns or when the cranial plating gets destroyed. Then the flig-cranial or fling-atog delays for another turn... and I get smashed by their creatures.
So I thoght of reducing the fling (2 is a good number, I've learnt why nobody plays more of them), then adding 4 shrapnel blast for oldschool flavour (disciples and skullclamp make them even better).
I feel 2 is also the right number for atog, what do you think?
Finally, to make it more consistent I thought of a playset of master of etherium, as I said, to diversify the options of winning with the swarm approach. Anyway, I haven't seen them played in such decks. Is it a good idea or is more like trying to do everything and achieving nothing?
Thanks in advance!
for Master of Etherium. It's like having more Cranial platings.
I'm not a fan of fling. Too many eggs in one basket and you said it yourself; control destroys this deck. You already have disciple of the vault and atog, it seems like a bad idea to depend on your atog even more.
You might also want to consider adding in some Arcbound Workers which synergizes very well with skullclamp and doesn't lose tempo to aggro decks.
edit: If all possible, try to sneak in some thoughtcasts. You can never go wrong with more cheap draw
Hello- Looking for some thoughts on my old affinity. I know Etched Champ and Master of Etherium, anything else? Wondering if clamps could be something like chromatic star or another fixer.
I've been considering splashing green instead of white for Abrupt Decay and Beast Within. There is way too much hate floating around that massively screws over Affinity nowadays, and being able to wipe out a problem permanent (looking at you, Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale and Trinisphere, although Null Rod is even worse, arguably) is invaluable. Sure, white has Oblivion Ring, I guess... What are your thoughts?
You could just put in a playset of Nature's Claim for artifacts/enchantments and if you have any Mox Opals or Glimmervoids alongside of springleaf drum, you should be able to cover the green portion of your mana fairly well without having to put in the green artifact lands. As for land hate your best bet is indeed abrupt decay. If you play that alongside of nature's claim, you might have to add tree of tales
Hello- Looking for some thoughts on my old affinity. I know Etched Champ and Master of Etherium, anything else? Wondering if clamps could be something like chromatic star or another fixer.
You want to keep clamp. In fact, I would up the count to 4 and take out that singleton copy of shrapnel blast.
I'd strongly suggest taking our Myr enforcer. If you don't want Master of Etherium and Etched champion, I suggest a playset of arcbound workers that synergizes very well with skullclamp and lets you dig very deep for your cranial platings which from the way I see it, is your only "win-con"
Excellent. That was fast, thank you. I will toss the Champ and Master in if I happen across them, not looking to invest so much right now. I'm missing clamp #4, but after flipping through my binder for the fourth I find my one Arcbound Ravager copy. He'll take the spot of shrapnel blast now.
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How's my land distribution look?
Its fine, you're running a solid lane base with mana fixing from opal and drums.
Hmmm, what is your decklist?
I feel that you aren't running enough win-cons and your reliance on cranial plattings and etched champions might hurt you in the long run
Here is the list I run. Don't flame me for the tolarian academy and the sol ring[/cring. its a casual multiplayer deck anyway and i need the help these cards give.
Cranials work on a host of critters be it etched, master of etherium, ornithopter and signal pest.
4 Arcbound Ravager
3 Disciple of the Vault
3 Etched Champion
3 Master of Etherium
4 Memnite
4 Ornithopter
4 Signal Pest
2 Steelshaper's Gift
4 Thoughtcast
Artifacts
4 Cranial Plating
3 Mox Opal
3 Skullclamp
4 Sol Ring
2 Ancient Den
4 Glimmervoid
4 Seat of the Synod
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Vault of Whispers
Signature and Avatar by Inkfox Aesthetics
QFT, plus you have the mana base to support tezz 2.0
I'd ditch Fling for Signal Pest. Yes, Fling is fantastic with Gargadon and Master of Etherium... but that's about it. Signal Pest is good with literally everything else in the deck and the fact that he has pseudo-flying is excellent with Cranial Plating, not to mention the Battle Cry ability is very nice for your other evasive attackers.
Speaking of other evasive attackers: Vault Skirge is another one I just can't do without in my Affinity build. Remove 4 of literally anything (leaning heavily toward Nicol Bolas and 2 of something else) to fit in four of these beasts. They don't look like much, but for 1 mana and a Cranial Plating afterwards, they're extremely powerful and put you out of killing range quick.
I know that mostly kills red in your deck, but if it matters I originally only ran red in my build for Shrapnel Blast. Still do, in fact. Love that card. Some days I like it more than Dispatch, lol.
I'm trying to mostly recommend commons/uncommons for budget concerns, so I hope that helps.
One more quick note, how's Etched Champion as far as budget goes? He's insanely hard to deal with and I like seeing him in hand more than Master of Etherium, most games. Even without Cranial Plating, a Signal Pest Battle Cry buff makes this guy a huge pain for most opponents.
Sig and Avatar drawn by me.
3x Etched Champion
4x Frogmite
4x Memnite
3x Myr Enforcer
4x Ornithopter
4x Signal Pest
4x Vault Skirge
4x Darksteel Citadel
1x Glimmervoid
4x Seat of the Synod
4x Vault of Whispers
2x Tezzeret the Seeker
2x Mox Opal
3x Skullclamp
1x Sol Ring
3x Gitaxian Probe
4x Thoughtcast
Plans- 3 ravagers, more mox opal, tolarian academy.
It goldfishes like crap but I win a lot against my friend, currently like 8-1.
Tezz is great but I usually have the mana to cast him just not the colors.
I think more mox and another glimmervoid will help, but I am kinda constrained on mana base space as it is, I may have to drop to 2 clamps to make space.
I am also thinking of going with city of traitors instead of the tomb cause the lift lose really hurts especially with all the phy mana costs around.
Decks I play and stuff.
Legacy Burn
Modern Mono U Tron
chromatic sphere also helps in smoothing out mana.
So, if you're considering removing the darksteel citadels and don't have mox opal and glimmervoid, try +4 City of Brass and +4 Chromatic sphere, then remove 2 sets of underperforming creatures in favor of master of etherium (or the red spells that you mentioned, although if I'm adding more red, I'm adding atog, disciple of the vault, and maybe 1-2 fling).
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
Spam infraction covered below.
-EC
Decks I play and stuff.
Legacy Burn
Modern Mono U Tron
Infraction for Spam.
-EC
Decks I play and stuff.
Legacy Burn
Modern Mono U Tron
In the dark, if you're just looking to juice the power level a bit, I would add Tinker x4 and a Blightsteel Colossus instead of Tezzeret and the Probes.
My Decks:
Casual MP
:symg::symb:GB Glissa Pod:symg::symb:
:symu::symw::symb:Esper Artifacts:symu::symw::symb:
:symu::symb::xmana:Ninjas!:xmana::symb::symu:
I have been trying a split of both tezz latly.
I usually have the mana to pay for them, just the colors don't come up.
Its a horrible goldfish but I beat my homie by t3-4 every time though, If I could get how it plays every time I goldfish that would be great.
EDIT: sorry about the horrible description in the op, I sorta forgot about what I posted cause I was suspended for a week.
Decks I play and stuff.
Legacy Burn
Modern Mono U Tron
Master of Etherium is another card you probably want to be looking at - he pumps and beats and is just one of the strongest finishers Affinity has.
My Decks:
Casual MP
:symg::symb:GB Glissa Pod:symg::symb:
:symu::symw::symb:Esper Artifacts:symu::symw::symb:
:symu::symb::xmana:Ninjas!:xmana::symb::symu:
Decks I play and stuff.
Legacy Burn
Modern Mono U Tron
Agent of Bolas can do 3 things better than Seeker:
1) Agent of Bolas does not have to rely on the combat step to finish getting those last few points of life loss through. Normally insignificant, sometimes can be the difference between a win and a loss (I mean, Moat, Elephant Grass, etc., do exist).
2) Agent of Bolas, if you're slightly behind, can give you needed turns for recovery by making a gap between you and your opponent. Your opponent may have put you down to 5 because you were losing the creature race, but even if you still have 8 artifacts on field that's still a -16 swing against your opponent but a +16 swing for you, even a Vault Skirge getting through from this point could mean your win.
3) Agent of Bolas's +1 ability is actually relevant to your game plan, while Seeker's really only functions as pseudo-vigilance, which I can't name too many decks that apply so much pressure to Affinity, in the way that it matters, that you'd need to focus on blocking over finding a new artifact to stick in hand (By way that it matters, I mean if an Emrakul, Blightsteel or Darksteel Colossus is coming your way, blocking probably isn't going to help all that much when your highest native toughness is 4), or as mana acceleration. Which, using a 5 mana card as a temporary mana accelerator seems to slightly defeat its purpose. Time Vault, on the other hand, would make Seeker significantly more worthwhile, but, uh, money.
That's 3 reasons to use Agent of Bolas over Seeker in an aggressive deck, without even having to touch on the fact that Agent of Bolas is 1 mana less than Seeker which can be a pretty big advantage in a deck with only 15 land and 3 nonland mana sources. The disadvantages of AoB to Seeker is that you lose the tutor ability of Seeker, but you're not really a combo deck so revealing top 5 is normally marginally equivalent, and you're still building up to using the ultimate.
Another recommendation is to swap Gitaxian Probe or Frogmite (yeah, it's awesome that he's free, but he's also very lackluster. 2/2s just don't decide games, and he's a poor Cranial Plating carrier) for Arcbound Ravager, as he makes your opponent's removal absolutely useless. If you were looking for a place to stick 3 of them, there you go.
My last suggestion is to ditch Myr Enforcer for Master of Etherium. In bad games, when an opponent is post-board and has artifact removal, Myr Enforcer will wind up costing 1-3 mana anyway but he'll also have a significantly smaller body than the Master. Master, on the other hand, gives a valuable buff to Signal Pest, Vault Skirge, Etched Champion and Ornithopter, making them not quite so useless without a Cranial Plating. What makes Master of Etherium valuable, however, is not just his large body (which can come in handy), but the fact that his collective buff helps every single other thing in your deck kill your opponent. A 9/9 Master is scary, but easily blocked for a couple turns. A couple 3/2 Skirges and a 1/2 Signal Pest going at the opponent's face unblocked is far scarier than just that 9/9 attacking them, lol. He easily applies pressure, which is what this deck is supposed to do.
When you add Ravagers, consider adding another Mox Opal or two since the Ravager can chew multiples if need be (and it even functions like an amusing mana acclerator-buff sometimes lol), that'll more easily aid your colored casting requirements.
Sig and Avatar drawn by me.
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
Adding to this
If you're not familiar with your playgroup's meta run a 3-3 or 2-2 split between Master of Etherium and etched champion. Both are excellent finishers.
If your meta is cool on restricted lists (it is causal after all), these are the cards you NEED to add in:
4 Skullclamp
4 Sol Ring
1 Tolarian Academy
Its that simple. Ravenger is the icing/cherry on the top of the cake that we do not necessarily need but is good to have.
Essentially, your games will be powered by:
T1: Artifact land, Mox, Sol Ring, MoE/Etched Champ + rest of hand
Don't detract from what an affinity deck is. Synergy and speed. You are going for their throat from the get go. There are not many decks that can defend against a Cranial Plated Etched Champ on T2.
Here is my most recent list and it is explosively insane:
4 Arcbound Ravager
1 Blightsteel Colossus
4 Etched Champion
4 Master of Etherium
4 Memnite
4 Ornithopter
3 Vault Skirge
2 Steelshaper's Gift
4 Thoughtcast
1 Tinker
Artifacts
4 Cranial Plating
3 Mox Opal
4 Skullclamp
4 Sol Ring
2 Ancient Den
2 Ancient Tomb
4 Glimmervoid
4 Seat of the Synod
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Vault of Whispers
Some of the less commonly seen card choices
2 Steelshaper's Gift: This is Cranial Plating 5-6. An unanswered and equipped plating is almost GG right there on T2.
1 Tinker: Just for fun and an alternate win con with Blightsteel.
PS: When playing with this deck, be as aggressive as you can. Double equip a skullclamp to kill your own creature if need be to draw cards. Do not sit back and block. These is barely any deck in the world that can race an affinity deck.
for Master of Etherium. It's like having more Cranial platings.
I'm not a fan of fling. Too many eggs in one basket and you said it yourself; control destroys this deck. You already have disciple of the vault and atog, it seems like a bad idea to depend on your atog even more.
You might also want to consider adding in some Arcbound Workers which synergizes very well with skullclamp and doesn't lose tempo to aggro decks.
edit: If all possible, try to sneak in some thoughtcasts. You can never go wrong with more cheap draw
4 Memnite
4 Signal Pest
4 Vault Skirge
4 Frogmite
4 Myr Enforcer
4 Thoughtcast
4 Cranial Plating
4 Springleaf Drum
3 Skullclamp
1 Shrapnel Blast
4 Great Furnace
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Darksteel Citadel
You could just put in a playset of Nature's Claim for artifacts/enchantments and if you have any Mox Opals or Glimmervoids alongside of springleaf drum, you should be able to cover the green portion of your mana fairly well without having to put in the green artifact lands. As for land hate your best bet is indeed abrupt decay. If you play that alongside of nature's claim, you might have to add tree of tales
You want to keep clamp. In fact, I would up the count to 4 and take out that singleton copy of shrapnel blast.
I'd strongly suggest taking our Myr enforcer. If you don't want Master of Etherium and Etched champion, I suggest a playset of arcbound workers that synergizes very well with skullclamp and lets you dig very deep for your cranial platings which from the way I see it, is your only "win-con"