Affinity
I'm curious to hear your opinions on these two questions:
- how is Affinity positioned at the moment?
- will Affinity be able to maintain it's tier 1 status in long terms?
Thanks in advance
Affinity is still a top tier deck. With the multiple different builds, the deck can change to the format to still do well. The number one thing it has going for it is speed. It is probably if not the fastest, one of the fastest decks in the format.
Quote from SpeedGrapher »
Hi, just in my opinion as a long time affinity player. The format is not longer good for affinty. Back when eggs and storm were top decks going around I used to win a lot more specifically against those two match ups. Now there is so much easy hate to sb in against it that it is hard to keep up. UWR and Jund match ups have never been good to start and they are worse now. Today I when 4-4 at a ptq in Connecticut. There were no affinity decks in the top 8. There were I believe, 1 storm, 2 birthing pod, 2 UWR control, 1 burn, 2 jund. I wanted to find the results for that, I've been searching but wizards website is now dysfunctional and I don't know where they put those results any more. Even arcbound ravager is no longer the super man that he was. I went all in on a lot of game because I had to because of a anger of the gods. Then my opponent would simply lightning bolt the creature I tried to move the counters to. Everyone has see all of our tricks. The removal that we fight an uphill battle against is extremely strong. Today I played against R1 win vs Jund, R2 Loss vs Jund, R3 Loss vs Jund, R4 win vs R/G Tron, R5 loss vs UWR control, R6 loss against affinity mirror, R7 win against UWR control, R8 free win no opponent. I used to steam roll over tournament with affinity against eggs, storm and affinity mirrors, those were my main sb concerns. I remember when UWR control became a deck and matches got much tougher. I would even beat splinter twin often because I was ready for that match up too in my sb. I really do feel like affinity is dropping out of tier 1. I might keep posting good results, but I would actually prefer switching to a all combo deck in the current meta. 3 of the decks that came in top 8 today are basically oops I win combos. Storm wins in by itself with no interaction and so does birthing pod, if you can't stop them creating 50,000 restoration angels and attacking, or dealing you infinite damage with, or gaining infinite life. I'm rather curious as to who won.
Sounds like you need some more play testing to understand what threats you need to deal with a.s.a.p. when they hit the board. There are certain cards in each match up you just can not let stick or stay on the board after they do stick. Yes the deck has some bad match ups, but like I said above, speed helps a lot. Sometimes you have to go all in and hope you get there, other match ups you can hold back and play more cautious. The key is knowing what you are playing as soon as possible.
This is where it is wrong, ignoring the fact that it allows you to hate on storm, scapeshift and pod. He brings it in against certain control decks (like UWR, gifts and blue moon) hitting key pieces like sphinx's rev, cryptics, snappies. Admittedly he doesn't run a stock jund build but it has proven to be very effective at shutting down a wide variety of strategies.
That sounds like a pretty awful usage of Slaughter Games, actually. There's a fairly good explanation here as to why the "take all copies of a card from your opponent's library" aren't very good in most circumstances. It's focused mostly on the Standard environment of the time, but much of what it says applies straight to in Modern.
Slaughter Games costs 4 mana. That's a pretty hefty investment. You should only bring Slaughter Games in against decks that truly do only have one or two cards you care at all about. All you really care about in Scapeshift is Scapeshift and (if they have it) Primeval Titan. All you really care about in Ad Nauseam is Ad Nauseam--well, technically you care more about their win condition, but they sometimes replace Lightning Storm with Conflagrate to trick you, so Ad Nauseam is the safer choice. All you really care about in Storm is Grapeshot and (if they're boarded it in) Empty the Warrens. So if they're robbed of the one card you really care about above all else, it's worth it to spend 4 mana and possibly achieve card disadvantage if it isn't in their hand.
But naming something like Snapcaster Mage? There's no deck where Snapcaster Mage is card you care about the most by a significant margin. All you did was spend 4 mana on what was, at best, a discard spell that slightly lowered their chance of drawing a useful card. And that's if it was in their hand; if it wasn't, then you just spent a whopping 4 mana to slightly reduce their chance of drawing a useful card, which isn't a particularly impressive effect at 4 mana, or at 1 mana for that matter. So you're spending 4 mana to achieve an effect that's at best only slightly better than what you could achieve at 1 or 2, and at worst actually worse than those. I'd rather play Brain Pry against a control deck, because at least that replaces itself if they don't have the card in hand.
Now, paying 4 mana to cast an uncounterable card that says "you win the game" is quite powerful, which is why Slaughter Games is great against decks like Scapeshift or ad Nauseam; you resolve it and your odds of winning the game have shot up significantly, if not straight up to 100%. But you don't do that when naming Snapcaster Mage/Sphinx's Revelation/Cryptic Command.
I suppose naming Cryptic Command makes sense if you're up against Eternal Command, because that shuts off their lock, but otherwise using Slaughter Games for Cryptic Command seems just as bad as against Snapcaster Mage.
It sounds to me like your testing partner thinks Slaughter Games is a lot better than it actually is.
Absolutely spot on Slaughter Games explanation. A lot of player really over value this type of effect. Efficient use of resources usually wins Magic games, not one or two cards, and Slaughter Games is a terrible investment of resources against everything but a few decks. If you really, REALLY want to beat combo decks, then sure go ahead. But as a control player, I see way too many people play Slaughter Games against me in standard and Modern and they lose 100% of the time. My opponenents literally lost every game it was cast in test sessions because I got an extra turn to stabilize and they end up taking a card I really don't need to win the game anyways.
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Current standard decks:
Gruul Aggro
EDH General:
Sydri, Galvanic Genius
Modern
Jeskai Control
Jeskai Midrange
Affinity
Esper Teachings
Tribal Zoo
Absolutely spot on Slaughter Games explanation. A lot of player really over value this type of effect. Efficient use of resources usually wins Magic games, not one or two cards, and Slaughter Games is a terrible investment of resources against everything but a few decks. If you really, REALLY want to beat combo decks, then sure go ahead. But as a control player, I see way too many people play Slaughter Games against me in standard and Modern and they lose 100% of the time. My opponenents literally lost every game it was cast in test sessions because I got an extra turn to stabilize and they end up taking a card I really don't need to win the game anyways.
Slaughter Games would have been better against control in Standard if it was in different colors. The problem is that if you can cast Slaughter Games, you can cast cards like Duress or Thoughtseize. And if you can play those cards, why are you bothering with Slaughter Games? Now, I remember in Innistrad-RTR Standard I had Nevermore in my UW aggro deck's sideboard because it was a good way to stop Supreme Verdict (and unlike Rootborn Defenses, it can still have a use if you draw it after they're hit you with a Supreme Verdict, to name Sphinx's Revelation and stop their card advantage). If I could have run Slaughter Games in that deck (say it cost 2WW or something), I think it would have been a good sideboard choice against control, but it's unimpressive for the colors it is in for Standard.
Personally, I do run 2-3 Slaughter Games in my Modern sideboard, but as a GR Tron player I'm soft to combo and cards that flat out win the game against them are very good for me.
Though besides the Eternal Command case I mentioned, one other time it's worth bringing in Slaughter Games against control--at least in GR Tron--is if you know they're bringing in Slaughter Games (so this typically only happens in Game 3). Slaughter Games isn't the game-winner against Tron that it is against something like Scapeshift, but it's still a powerful card, so bringing in your own Slaughter Games to take away their Slaughter Games can be worth it. But there aren't that many BRx control decks in the format right now, so this doesn't happen that often.
Meddling Mage effects are their own case of weird though.
I mean, a Cranial Extraction effect, no matter how badly misplayed, erases all copies of the named card of choice, for whatever difference it makes in a given matchup. Meddling Mages hang around telling an arbitrary card that it's now dead, at the risk of being answered by yet some other card.
I mean, Nevermore naming Verdict? No one played D-Sphere in that environ or anything?
Meddling Mage effects are their own case of weird though.
I mean, a Cranial Extraction effect, no matter how badly misplayed, erases all copies of the named card of choice, for whatever difference it makes in a given matchup. Meddling Mages hang around telling an arbitrary card that it's now dead, at the risk of being answered by yet some other card.
I mean, Nevermore naming Verdict? No one played D-Sphere in that environ or anything?
Just some tangential musing...
Sure, people played Detention Sphere. But if they don't happen to have the Detention Sphere that point is irrelevant, and if they do have it (and haven't already used it up on something else), it means that after spending 3 mana casting that, they'll have trouble casting anything else, meaning you at least delayed them a turn, which is highly relevant when you're attacking with creatures to drop their life total.
From where I stand BG/x decks are far from being predominant.
In the past 2 months I saw 1 Jund and 1 Junk while everything else seems to be URx, Scapeshift or Affinity.
But who knows, maybe on a bigger scale?
Well it is important to note how he comes to the results that he is presenting.
"For this analysis, I am defining “top-finishing deck” as finishing in the top 5% of tournaments with 129+ players (8 rounds or more). I know that I have been inconsistent in choosing a definition for top-finishing deck, so there are issues with comparing these analyses. However, I decided that I will stick to this definition for this and all future analyses. Furthermore, this methodology means that we are looking at a winner’s metagame, not necessarily a complete metagame."
So it is possible that those BG/x decks may not have the huge numbers of the other ones but are the decks that show up a lot in the top8 of events in the end.
And that winner's metagame looks definitely different from what we are used to seeing with:
1.) BG/x Variants (18.2%)
2.) Tempo Twin Variants (14.7%)
3.) UW/x Control Variants (12.8%)
4.) Affinity (10.7%)
5.) Melira Pod (9.4%)
I've done well using Slaughter Games to hit Sphinx's Revelation.
In Standard.
I've never had the opportunity to do so in Modern, and don't know UWR control well enough to say that it would be as crippling as it is to Esper/UW in Standard, but I doubt it, and like people have been saying, four mana.
I'd still strongly consider boarding it in if I didn't have anything else worth boarding in and was also playing a grindy deck that wanted to establish card advantage.
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The access to Abrupt Decay is really one of the most important thing in this meta but I always thought the BGx folded against Tron.
The reason for this alleged rise of BG would be the lack of Tron?
I saw only one Junk this month at an FNM (it went 4-0 but faced 3 really bad rogue decks).
Shall we expect to see more BG?
BG Rock is better than Jund against Tron. The stuff you get from the Red splash in Jund is weak against Tron, and playing BG Rock lets you run more copies of Tectonic Edge.
The access to Abrupt Decay is really one of the most important thing in this meta but I always thought the BGx folded against Tron.
The reason for this alleged rise of BG would be the lack of Tron?
I saw only one Junk this month at an FNM (it went 4-0 but faced 3 really bad rogue decks).
Shall we expect to see more BG?
BG Rock is better than Jund against Tron. The stuff you get from the Red splash in Jund is weak against Tron, and playing BG Rock lets you run more copies of Tectonic Edge.
Playing Rock makes you lose access to Sowing Salt. Jund is better against Tron and Junk is the best of all (Path to Exile is the best way to kill a Wurmcoil Engine).
The access to Abrupt Decay is really one of the most important thing in this meta but I always thought the BGx folded against Tron.
The reason for this alleged rise of BG would be the lack of Tron?
I saw only one Junk this month at an FNM (it went 4-0 but faced 3 really bad rogue decks).
Shall we expect to see more BG?
BG Rock is better than Jund against Tron. The stuff you get from the Red splash in Jund is weak against Tron, and playing BG Rock lets you run more copies of Tectonic Edge.
Playing Rock makes you lose access to Sowing Salt. Jund is better against Tron and Junk is the best of all (Path to Exile is the best way to kill a Wurmcoil Engine).
Sowing Salt? You mean the card that Jund doesn't really play much, because Fulminator Mage is better? Oh, and look at that, Fulminatore Mage is also perfectly playable in BG Rock. Oh no, in moving to Rock, I lose access to... I card I wasn't playing anyway! THE HORROR!
Even ignoring that, Sowing Salt isn't really that big of an advantage. Sure, if you can resolve it, it hurts Tron... until they just get their lands together and hardcast their stuff. Additionally, unless you're running 3-4 copies of Sowing Salt (which is very rare because it's not really that good against anything other than Tron; this is why Fulminator Mage is better, it's more versatile in what you can bring it in against), you usually won't draw the thing anyway. 4x Tectonic Edge maindeck may not be the perfect answer to Tron, but it's still better than having a few Sowing Salts in the sideboard.
When did the meta swing from having more jund decks than rock decks to more rock (g/b) than jund?
Honestly, your mana base is much better if you're in GB. GB is a very powerful Midrange deck that has no poor matchups (other than Tron).
If you want to know more about GB, Jund, and Junk, then CFB.com has an article by Mr. Jund himself, Willy Edel, where he discusses many aspects of these decks. I would trust him probably the most and there is not much of a reason to run something different than his lists other than if you're metagaming for your own FNM. For a large tournament, I would just go with his list and maybe change just a little bit based on your play style.
His Jund list does not play Sowing Salt. It plays Fulminator Mage, being the easier card to cast and more versatile card. You can't blame someone for running Sowing Salt, but there's no denying that Fulminator Mage is the more versatile card.
My own opinion is that Tron does well enough against ALL of these decks enough not to try and figure out which one does best. I would say Junk > BG > Jund, but this is only my opinion. Even with the resurgence of Tron in the metagame, you still can't expect to see more than 7% at any given competitive REL tournament (perhaps slightly more in a different region). The resurgence was like 3% of the metagame to about 7-8%.
Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
When did the meta swing from having more jund decks than rock decks to more rock (g/b) than jund?
Honestly, your mana base is much better if you're in GB. GB is a very powerful Midrange deck that has no poor matchups (other than Tron).
If you want to know more about GB, Jund, and Junk, then CFB.com has an article by Mr. Jund himself, Willy Edel, where he discusses many aspects of these decks. I would trust him probably the most and there is not much of a reason to run something different than his lists other than if you're metagaming for your own FNM. For a large tournament, I would just go with his list and maybe change just a little bit based on your play style.
His Jund list does not play Sowing Salt. It plays Fulminator Mage, being the easier card to cast and more versatile card. You can't blame someone for running Sowing Salt, but there's no denying that Fulminator Mage is the more versatile card.
My own opinion is that Tron does well enough against ALL of these decks enough not to try and figure out which one does best. I would say Junk > BG > Jund, but this is only my opinion. Even with the resurgence of Tron in the metagame, you still can't expect to see more than 7% at any given competitive REL tournament (perhaps slightly more in a different region). The resurgence was like 3% of the metagame to about 7-8%.
Doesn't straight BG Rock have problems with Affinity?
Most definitely. There is a BG Rock player at my LGS that is one of the best players at our LGS, especially in Modern and Legacy. This kid has 4 Creeping Corrosion, as well as something else that's slipping my mind, in his SB. We have a lot of Affinity players and all of them lament playing against him because of his SB slanting toward Affinity.
I know for a fact that if and when he plays at a large Competitive REL tournament, he will change the SB, but he will still probably keep some number of anti-affinity cards. He wouldn't simply copy Willie Edel's list because he is very well-versed in the deck and knows what suits his play style and his weaknesses the best.
EDIT> I believe that the other card is 3 Nature's Claim from the SB and he probably also sides Fulminator Mage since it's good against Inkmoth Nexus. I've actually seen him play against Affinity quite a bit and it's amusing to watch Affinity players slow play in fear of Slaughter Pact. That card is very good vs. Affinity in combination with the other hate cards, really making Arcbound Ravager have a much more minimal effect.
Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
Doesn't straight BG Rock have problems with Affinity?
Most definitely. There is a BG Rock player at my LGS that is one of the best players at our LGS, especially in Modern and Legacy. This kid has 4 Creeping Corrosion, as well as something else that's slipping my mind, in his SB. We have a lot of Affinity players and all of them lament playing against him because of his SB slanting toward Affinity.
I know for a fact that if and when he plays at a large Competitive REL tournament, he will change the SB, but he will still probably keep some number of anti-affinity cards. He wouldn't simply copy Willie Edel's list because he is very well-versed in the deck and knows what suits his play style and his weaknesses the best.
EDIT> I believe that the other card is 3 Nature's Claim from the SB and he probably also sides Fulminator Mage since it's good against Inkmoth Nexus. I've actually seen him play against Affinity quite a bit and it's amusing to watch Affinity players slow play in fear of Slaughter Pact. That card is very good vs. Affinity in combination with the other hate cards, really making Arcbound Ravager have a much more minimal effect.
I do the same with Zoo. I like pat cox, and I like kibler, but I'm at a point with playing zoo I can confidently say their views shouldn't be taken as the be all be all word for me. I highly respect their opinion, but I've played zoo for long and hard enough, I know what I'm talkin' about in my own rights too.
Thanks for the artical though. As far as I knew (probably only a little more then the adverage modern player) staight rock traded a slip in reformance against aggro for a better control and midrange matchup. This will help me understand why better.
My own opinion is that Tron does well enough against ALL of these decks enough not to try and figure out which one does best. I would say Junk > BG > Jund, but this is only my opinion. Even with the resurgence of Tron in the metagame, you still can't expect to see more than 7% at any given competitive REL tournament (perhaps slightly more in a different region). The resurgence was like 3% of the metagame to about 7-8%.
Tron is good against all of them, but it it's better against some than others.
Jund is definitely the weakest against Tron. Other than Sowing Salt, which is too narrow to see much play unless your meta is full of Tron, the Red splash doesn't offer that much for the matchup.
I'm on the fence as to whether Junk or BG Rock is better against Tron. Path to Exile solves the Wurmcoil Engine problem, but it also means you lose access to Tectonic Edge. Tectonic Edge isn't as effective against Tron as Ghost Quarter, but playing 4 copies maindeck can give you a real edge against Tron.
The funny thing that I didn't mention is that the player at my LGS that regularly gets 1st place is running GB Obliterator. This makes it much stronger against Aggro, but probably slightly weaker against Control and Combo. I personally would run the non-Obliterator Tectonic Edge version (partially because I hate Obliterator), but there's no denying that his version is effective.
Also a friend of mine who hasn't played in a while told me that if he started again, he'd run GB Obliterator. This surprised me because I thought Pod/Twin/Affinity was the holy trinity. He told me that the "best" deck is not always what people play the most. Sometimes I get into the "sheep" mentality, so this surprised me.
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
Just as a heads up, I will be updating the metagame spreadsheet to make sure it has all the dailies/PTQs from the past week or so. Then the forum will be updated and threads moved around accordingly. There are also some policy changes to the reorganization:
1. A thread can't be demoted from Established to Creation unless it fails to meet criteria in 2 consecutive B&R periods. So if Deck X didn't meet Established criteria this time around but DID meet it last time, it stays for now.
2. The deck cutoff for Established is dynamic, so although in the past it has been 12+ or 6+, it may change depending on the metagame. After all, above average performance is necessarily defined by the average performance in a metagame. And that average will vary depending on our time period.
Those are the big two. Stay tuned for more details.
Just as a heads up, I will be updating the metagame spreadsheet to make sure it has all the dailies/PTQs from the past week or so. Then the forum will be updated and threads moved around accordingly. There are also some policy changes to the reorganization:
1. A thread can't be demoted from Established to Creation unless it fails to meet criteria in 2 consecutive B&R periods. So if Deck X didn't meet Established criteria this time around but DID meet it last time, it stays for now.
2. The deck cutoff for Established is dynamic, so although in the past it has been 12+ or 6+, it may change depending on the metagame. After all, above average performance is necessarily defined by the average performance in a metagame. And that average will vary depending on our time period.
Those are the big two. Stay tuned for more details.
Number 1 seems somewhat confusing for players who think that a deck is still good when it didn't meet the criteria. Could a tag be added to the decks that failed to meet the criteria but are still in Established to help distinguish between the 2?
BW Tokens can have a chance against the decks in the meta? In case not, GW Auras Bogle is a strong choice to compete? Im really interested in the opinions, Ty!
Tokens is doing poorly right now, but Bogles is doing well.
Affinity is still a top tier deck. With the multiple different builds, the deck can change to the format to still do well. The number one thing it has going for it is speed. It is probably if not the fastest, one of the fastest decks in the format.
Sounds like you need some more play testing to understand what threats you need to deal with a.s.a.p. when they hit the board. There are certain cards in each match up you just can not let stick or stay on the board after they do stick. Yes the deck has some bad match ups, but like I said above, speed helps a lot. Sometimes you have to go all in and hope you get there, other match ups you can hold back and play more cautious. The key is knowing what you are playing as soon as possible.
http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/decks
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
Absolutely spot on Slaughter Games explanation. A lot of player really over value this type of effect. Efficient use of resources usually wins Magic games, not one or two cards, and Slaughter Games is a terrible investment of resources against everything but a few decks. If you really, REALLY want to beat combo decks, then sure go ahead. But as a control player, I see way too many people play Slaughter Games against me in standard and Modern and they lose 100% of the time. My opponenents literally lost every game it was cast in test sessions because I got an extra turn to stabilize and they end up taking a card I really don't need to win the game anyways.
Gruul Aggro
EDH General:
Sydri, Galvanic Genius
Modern
Jeskai Control
Jeskai Midrange
Affinity
Esper Teachings
Tribal Zoo
Personally, I do run 2-3 Slaughter Games in my Modern sideboard, but as a GR Tron player I'm soft to combo and cards that flat out win the game against them are very good for me.
Though besides the Eternal Command case I mentioned, one other time it's worth bringing in Slaughter Games against control--at least in GR Tron--is if you know they're bringing in Slaughter Games (so this typically only happens in Game 3). Slaughter Games isn't the game-winner against Tron that it is against something like Scapeshift, but it's still a powerful card, so bringing in your own Slaughter Games to take away their Slaughter Games can be worth it. But there aren't that many BRx control decks in the format right now, so this doesn't happen that often.
I mean, a Cranial Extraction effect, no matter how badly misplayed, erases all copies of the named card of choice, for whatever difference it makes in a given matchup. Meddling Mages hang around telling an arbitrary card that it's now dead, at the risk of being answered by yet some other card.
I mean, Nevermore naming Verdict? No one played D-Sphere in that environ or anything?
Just some tangential musing...
http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/july-2014-modern-metagame-analysis/
His numbers show that BG/x decks are the best performing decks right now. On paper and online.
Well it is important to note how he comes to the results that he is presenting.
"For this analysis, I am defining “top-finishing deck” as finishing in the top 5% of tournaments with 129+ players (8 rounds or more). I know that I have been inconsistent in choosing a definition for top-finishing deck, so there are issues with comparing these analyses. However, I decided that I will stick to this definition for this and all future analyses. Furthermore, this methodology means that we are looking at a winner’s metagame, not necessarily a complete metagame."
So it is possible that those BG/x decks may not have the huge numbers of the other ones but are the decks that show up a lot in the top8 of events in the end.
And that winner's metagame looks definitely different from what we are used to seeing with:
1.) BG/x Variants (18.2%)
2.) Tempo Twin Variants (14.7%)
3.) UW/x Control Variants (12.8%)
4.) Affinity (10.7%)
5.) Melira Pod (9.4%)
In Standard.
I've never had the opportunity to do so in Modern, and don't know UWR control well enough to say that it would be as crippling as it is to Esper/UW in Standard, but I doubt it, and like people have been saying, four mana.
I'd still strongly consider boarding it in if I didn't have anything else worth boarding in and was also playing a grindy deck that wanted to establish card advantage.
Playing Rock makes you lose access to Sowing Salt. Jund is better against Tron and Junk is the best of all (Path to Exile is the best way to kill a Wurmcoil Engine).
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Even ignoring that, Sowing Salt isn't really that big of an advantage. Sure, if you can resolve it, it hurts Tron... until they just get their lands together and hardcast their stuff. Additionally, unless you're running 3-4 copies of Sowing Salt (which is very rare because it's not really that good against anything other than Tron; this is why Fulminator Mage is better, it's more versatile in what you can bring it in against), you usually won't draw the thing anyway. 4x Tectonic Edge maindeck may not be the perfect answer to Tron, but it's still better than having a few Sowing Salts in the sideboard.
Honestly, your mana base is much better if you're in GB. GB is a very powerful Midrange deck that has no poor matchups (other than Tron).
If you want to know more about GB, Jund, and Junk, then CFB.com has an article by Mr. Jund himself, Willy Edel, where he discusses many aspects of these decks. I would trust him probably the most and there is not much of a reason to run something different than his lists other than if you're metagaming for your own FNM. For a large tournament, I would just go with his list and maybe change just a little bit based on your play style.
His Jund list does not play Sowing Salt. It plays Fulminator Mage, being the easier card to cast and more versatile card. You can't blame someone for running Sowing Salt, but there's no denying that Fulminator Mage is the more versatile card.
My own opinion is that Tron does well enough against ALL of these decks enough not to try and figure out which one does best. I would say Junk > BG > Jund, but this is only my opinion. Even with the resurgence of Tron in the metagame, you still can't expect to see more than 7% at any given competitive REL tournament (perhaps slightly more in a different region). The resurgence was like 3% of the metagame to about 7-8%.
Here is the article for reference.
http://www.channelfireball.com/home/junk-is-the-new-jund/
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)Doesn't straight BG Rock have problems with Affinity?
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Most definitely. There is a BG Rock player at my LGS that is one of the best players at our LGS, especially in Modern and Legacy. This kid has 4 Creeping Corrosion, as well as something else that's slipping my mind, in his SB. We have a lot of Affinity players and all of them lament playing against him because of his SB slanting toward Affinity.
I know for a fact that if and when he plays at a large Competitive REL tournament, he will change the SB, but he will still probably keep some number of anti-affinity cards. He wouldn't simply copy Willie Edel's list because he is very well-versed in the deck and knows what suits his play style and his weaknesses the best.
EDIT> I believe that the other card is 3 Nature's Claim from the SB and he probably also sides Fulminator Mage since it's good against Inkmoth Nexus. I've actually seen him play against Affinity quite a bit and it's amusing to watch Affinity players slow play in fear of Slaughter Pact. That card is very good vs. Affinity in combination with the other hate cards, really making Arcbound Ravager have a much more minimal effect.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)I do the same with Zoo. I like pat cox, and I like kibler, but I'm at a point with playing zoo I can confidently say their views shouldn't be taken as the be all be all word for me. I highly respect their opinion, but I've played zoo for long and hard enough, I know what I'm talkin' about in my own rights too.
Thanks for the artical though. As far as I knew (probably only a little more then the adverage modern player) staight rock traded a slip in reformance against aggro for a better control and midrange matchup. This will help me understand why better.
Jund is definitely the weakest against Tron. Other than Sowing Salt, which is too narrow to see much play unless your meta is full of Tron, the Red splash doesn't offer that much for the matchup.
I'm on the fence as to whether Junk or BG Rock is better against Tron. Path to Exile solves the Wurmcoil Engine problem, but it also means you lose access to Tectonic Edge. Tectonic Edge isn't as effective against Tron as Ghost Quarter, but playing 4 copies maindeck can give you a real edge against Tron.
Also a friend of mine who hasn't played in a while told me that if he started again, he'd run GB Obliterator. This surprised me because I thought Pod/Twin/Affinity was the holy trinity. He told me that the "best" deck is not always what people play the most. Sometimes I get into the "sheep" mentality, so this surprised me.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)1. A thread can't be demoted from Established to Creation unless it fails to meet criteria in 2 consecutive B&R periods. So if Deck X didn't meet Established criteria this time around but DID meet it last time, it stays for now.
2. The deck cutoff for Established is dynamic, so although in the past it has been 12+ or 6+, it may change depending on the metagame. After all, above average performance is necessarily defined by the average performance in a metagame. And that average will vary depending on our time period.
Those are the big two. Stay tuned for more details.
Number 1 seems somewhat confusing for players who think that a deck is still good when it didn't meet the criteria. Could a tag be added to the decks that failed to meet the criteria but are still in Established to help distinguish between the 2?
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
When Willy Edel's article on Channel Fireball got posted and the sheeple ate it up.
Tokens is doing poorly right now, but Bogles is doing well.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.