I see your point about counters and I understand it. I have tried to play Spell Pierce but keeping open a mana all the time for a potential hate card is something I don't want to do when playing a deck like Affinity.
I prefer all my spells to be proactive or just an, I cast it, throw it on the board and don't need to do anything with it anymore like Torpor Orb, Blood Moon and spells like that.
Have to agree about Whipflare, that card is jut a monster at the right time. Also the look on your opponents face is nice when you say, every creature takes to damage EXCEPT artifacts.
Anyway it is good that not everyone thinks and plays the same otherwise this would be a very boring game.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Legacy - Reanimator
Modern - Burn
EDH - Neheb the Eternal
I have been lurking since a while here, and I want this deck so muuuuuuuuuuch! Soon, I will have enough $$$ to afford a big modern deck, I playtested Robots on Cockatrice with my buddies and it appears that I have troubles to beat my friends's decks.
I play a lot with them and I do very few tournaments (like twice a year), so I would like to know the reason why I lose versus them, is that because I don't pilot the deck well enough or it is because my meta is very hard for me? I would like to avoid spending 500$ in a deck that's awful in my meta, even if I love it...
They play Abzan Liege, Grixis Delver, B/W tokens (budget version), Zoo and Scapeshift. They have a lot of removals and flying bodies, so it's hard to run my Robots perfectly!
What do you think about theses matchups? Do you think I should "give up" building the deck for the moment?
Thanks a lot!!!
In those match ups, Etched champion and to a lesser extent overseer/master of etherium is your path to victory. I run tempered steel to improve my grixis and lingering souls matchup, could try that. Scapeshift isn't too bad preboard but games 2&3 they have shatter storms/ancient grudges
Ok so seriously. When are they going to ban splinter twin? They banned birthing pod and it wasn't jammed into virtually any deck as easily as the a splinter twin combo.
kolaghan's command, as absurdly strong as it is in itself, is suppressing the format. We are already a game 1 deck at this point with all of the hate potentially available to any deck post board. This card is too powerful and being able to jam it in almost any deck with little to no drawback of ever seeing it (4 freakin modes), is just too much.
Grixis is too strong. We don't know if were up against a Delver, Splinter Twin or straight Control, and the ambiguity in itself is simply too powerful.
GBx is already tough enough for us.
Affinity is slowly becoming unplayable and its a damn shame because Modern has the potential to be (imo) the best, most wide open format in Magic right now.
i don't agree with your statement. because of kolaghan's command, we have a breather from worst hate. i will said improve your game by doing the right thing and don't rush. treat all grixis as twin and play accordingly. it is just hard but not impossible. spellskite and etched champion works wonder against that match-up. in the grixis match-up, don't rush to spam threats. it allow them to 1 for 2 more often than not.
i don't agree with your statement. because of kolaghan's command, we have a breather from worst hate. i will said improve your game by doing the right thing and don't rush. treat all grixis as twin and play accordingly. it is just hard but not impossible. spellskite and etched champion works wonder against that match-up. in the grixis match-up, don't rush to spam threats. it allow them to 1 for 2 more often than not.
a breather from worse hate...? you mean from games 2 and 3?? where they still have insane answers regardless if it "isn't as bad" or as much as it used to be if they run kolaghan's command MD? at the expense of an insane decrease in game one advantage? no thanks. not at all.
plus the card is so freakin strong, in addition to what they have in their side (regardless if it isn't as much), were just further behind in those games as well. all they really have to do is devote 1 slot to another copy its that strong. in addition to bolts, inquisitions, terminates, electrolyzes... its too much and on top of that you cant try and race them game one in fear of getting blown out now? and you have to hold back in fear of a combo on top of all of it? what if game one you didnt see the combo, so at this point your post board and you STILL dont know if your up against a twin combo or straight control (not even discussing the possibility of it being control game one and having the combo in the side) its just way too much.... idk who your testing with but 90% of my meta is grixis or gbx at this point and its insanely clear why. Oh yeah, whats common about those two decks? They both run an average of 3 copies of kolaghan's command MD (if its Jund).
bring back birthing pod over this ridiculous meta any day. cant believe i'm even saying that.
i mean stony silence and kataki where you are not able to recover at all. in the grixis match-up, you need ravager to gain value. i am curious in what list you run and the sideboard you used and how you sideboard. this could be where the problem lies. also, how do you response to their command? what did you do that let them have so much advantage? did you leave 1 mana for your manland to activate in case of wipe? did you put graveyard hate? they delve, they flashback. if you have graveyard hate, they might run out of solution and advantage. are you too quick to sac your ravager? i think these are a few question i will ask in how you play. all the little misplay could accumulate to your loss. i will suggest you get a friend to play with you on the grixis match-up. ask him to point out your mistake or misplay and see where you go wrong. this will help improve your game and your playing skill. i was afraid of kolaghan's command initially, but after playing a few games with it, i learnt how to deal with it. i believe you can too. you just need advice and guide to point out where you go wrong.
i mean stony silence and kataki where you are not able to recover at all. in the grixis match-up, you need ravager to gain value. i am curious in what list you run and the sideboard you used and how you sideboard. this could be where the problem lies. also, how do you response to their command? what did you do that let them have so much advantage? did you leave 1 mana for your manland to activate in case of wipe? did you put graveyard hate? they delve, they flashback. if you have graveyard hate, they might run out of solution and advantage. are you too quick to sac your ravager? i think these are a few question i will ask in how you play. all the little misplay could accumulate to your loss. i will suggest you get a friend to play with you on the grixis match-up. ask him to point out your mistake or misplay and see where you go wrong. this will help improve your game and your playing skill. i was afraid of kolaghan's command initially, but after playing a few games with it, i learnt how to deal with it. i believe you can too. you just need advice and guide to point out where you go wrong.
we cant hold back and have all of that out on the board at the same time...
let's just look at a COUPLE variations of an optimal grixis curve out, regardless of what we have, regardless of what variation of grixis it is.
turn one they inquisition/thoughtseize/bolt/visions
two two they terminate, or do another of the previous (or combination)
turn three your open to all of that in addition to kolaghan's command and electrolyze
edit: didnt even mention the fact that they have access to spell snare on all of those turns too...
its too much to keep up with even if you are holding back and the longer the game goes on for affinity, the worse it gets us. on top of that, they are setting themselves up for delve/flashback, they should be doing as much of that as possible at end of our turn, plus we still may lose to the combo. it's all too much. i've played the match-up plenty, I just told you grixis in general (all variations) are a huge part of my meta. ive been playing affinity since its inception.
no i dont run graveyard hate MD. were talking about game one here and is specifically why kolaghan's command is too powerful.
if the card was 3 mana for a destroy artifact and/or shock something at least then it would be more fair, yet it has two other modes (which happen to be quite good in themselves but is basically regardless) and because of this it's pretty damn powerful no matter who or what, and can be jammed MD. And on ~3 copies to boot.
thoughtseize or spell pierce md, which seems better to you guys (given my meta is 90% grixis/gbx)? we only have so many spell slots.... and its going to be really hard for me to run less than 4 galvanic blast (given that splinter twin combo is a thing) and cut any thoughtcast for either of the two MD..... and if its only for one copy either of the two, that seems just way too random...
for spells im currently running only/either a combination of
Ensoul artefact is not a good choice in this meta. you open yourself up to 1 for 3. I will run 2 spellskite mainboard in your meta. another card you can look into is hangarback walker. I had been thinking how to incorporate in the affinity shell. perhaps you can run 1-3 against grixis. they will find it a bad target to destroy and you can grow it over time. etched champion is still good against the GBx and grixis match-up. you can try to run 4 maindeck instead. overall there is only so much you can do without diluting the game plan too much. take note that they also run limited counter, removal and discard. the plan is to out resource them or make their removal less effective and such. consider mulligan more aggressively if there is a need. I think that is howmuch I can advise. to stay or walk away and play something else is up to you.
thoughtseize or spell pierce md, which seems better to you guys (given my meta is 90% grixis/gbx)? we only have so many spell slots.... and its going to be really hard for me to run less than 4 galvanic blast (given that splinter twin combo is a thing) and cut any thoughtcast for either of the two MD..... and if its only for one copy either of the two, that seems just way too random...
for spells im currently running only/either a combination of
3-4 galvanic blast
3-4 thoughtcast
90%? No wonder you're overreacting! If the meta is that hostile towards Affinity then, maybe you should put it on the shelf and play a different deck. But if you still want to try it, I have found in my testing that running at least 6 cards mainboard between Spellskite and Galvanic Blast gives you a favorable game 1 against Twin. Keep in mind that Spellskite can redirect both the Shock and Shatter modes of Kolaghan's Command it. Thus, negating the 2-for-1. I'm still not sold on this, but a few players have found success in using Hangarback Walker im order to blanm removal. Also, playing 4 Etched Champions main looks to be the obvious choice for your meta.
I been testing three mainboard Spellskite cause I am really not into Welding Jar. Never played with the Jar since a couple weeks ago and after testing I think Spellskite is just better.
Maybe you would like it in your meta to.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Legacy - Reanimator
Modern - Burn
EDH - Neheb the Eternal
Plus with junk "dead" and fish rising (t1) affinity seems the way to go!
Most of the Grixis I face is Splinter Twin, and that chart agrees that we are not favored against it. I really dont think were favored against straight control either, but hey.
Yeah 4 Champ's MD might be the way to go right now...
Hangarback Walker is a great answer to midrange decks. I wonder when you guys will start testing it.
How many are you running? What did you cut for them? How many Steel Overseer/Spellskite you run along side them? Fighting for similar slots it seems...
90%? No wonder you're overreacting! If the meta is that hostile towards Affinity then, maybe you should put it on the shelf and play a different deck. But if you still want to try it, I have found in my testing that running at least 6 cards mainboard between Spellskite and Galvanic Blast gives you a favorable game 1 against Twin. Keep in mind that Spellskite can redirect both the Shock and Shatter modes of Kolaghan's Command it. Thus, negating the 2-for-1. I'm still not sold on this, but a few players have found success in using Hangarback Walker im order to blanm removal. Also, playing 4 Etched Champions main looks to be the obvious choice for your meta.
Thanks for posting Michael, your a long time poster like myself and I know your an avid affinity tester/pilot
Whats the most amount of Spellskite you have ran to your liking? Do you ever find 3-4 to be too many? Ive never ran more than 2 in the past but maybe that must change? And what about Welding Jar? Your opinion, do you run it, and balancing the addition of a Welding Jar with Spellskite(s)?
I find the 4 galvanic blast and 2 spellskite mainboard version have a better chance against twin. With sideboard, we have 9 hate card against their combo. Against twin, don't tap out. Always respect the combo and we can win slow and steady. They are often hesitant to play the combo when you have cards in hand and open mana. That is the best way to pull bluff
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I prefer all my spells to be proactive or just an, I cast it, throw it on the board and don't need to do anything with it anymore like Torpor Orb, Blood Moon and spells like that.
Have to agree about Whipflare, that card is jut a monster at the right time. Also the look on your opponents face is nice when you say, every creature takes to damage EXCEPT artifacts.
Anyway it is good that not everyone thinks and plays the same otherwise this would be a very boring game.
Modern - Burn
EDH - Neheb the Eternal
In those match ups, Etched champion and to a lesser extent overseer/master of etherium is your path to victory. I run tempered steel to improve my grixis and lingering souls matchup, could try that. Scapeshift isn't too bad preboard but games 2&3 they have shatter storms/ancient grudges
kolaghan's command, as absurdly strong as it is in itself, is suppressing the format. We are already a game 1 deck at this point with all of the hate potentially available to any deck post board. This card is too powerful and being able to jam it in almost any deck with little to no drawback of ever seeing it (4 freakin modes), is just too much.
Grixis is too strong. We don't know if were up against a Delver, Splinter Twin or straight Control, and the ambiguity in itself is simply too powerful.
GBx is already tough enough for us.
Affinity is slowly becoming unplayable and its a damn shame because Modern has the potential to be (imo) the best, most wide open format in Magic right now.
a breather from worse hate...? you mean from games 2 and 3?? where they still have insane answers regardless if it "isn't as bad" or as much as it used to be if they run kolaghan's command MD? at the expense of an insane decrease in game one advantage? no thanks. not at all.
plus the card is so freakin strong, in addition to what they have in their side (regardless if it isn't as much), were just further behind in those games as well. all they really have to do is devote 1 slot to another copy its that strong. in addition to bolts, inquisitions, terminates, electrolyzes... its too much and on top of that you cant try and race them game one in fear of getting blown out now? and you have to hold back in fear of a combo on top of all of it? what if game one you didnt see the combo, so at this point your post board and you STILL dont know if your up against a twin combo or straight control (not even discussing the possibility of it being control game one and having the combo in the side) its just way too much.... idk who your testing with but 90% of my meta is grixis or gbx at this point and its insanely clear why. Oh yeah, whats common about those two decks? They both run an average of 3 copies of kolaghan's command MD (if its Jund).
bring back birthing pod over this ridiculous meta any day. cant believe i'm even saying that.
we cant hold back and have all of that out on the board at the same time...
let's just look at a COUPLE variations of an optimal grixis curve out, regardless of what we have, regardless of what variation of grixis it is.
turn one they inquisition/thoughtseize/bolt/visions
two two they terminate, or do another of the previous (or combination)
turn three your open to all of that in addition to kolaghan's command and electrolyze
edit: didnt even mention the fact that they have access to spell snare on all of those turns too...
its too much to keep up with even if you are holding back and the longer the game goes on for affinity, the worse it gets us. on top of that, they are setting themselves up for delve/flashback, they should be doing as much of that as possible at end of our turn, plus we still may lose to the combo. it's all too much. i've played the match-up plenty, I just told you grixis in general (all variations) are a huge part of my meta. ive been playing affinity since its inception.
no i dont run graveyard hate MD. were talking about game one here and is specifically why kolaghan's command is too powerful.
if the card was 3 mana for a destroy artifact and/or shock something at least then it would be more fair, yet it has two other modes (which happen to be quite good in themselves but is basically regardless) and because of this it's pretty damn powerful no matter who or what, and can be jammed MD. And on ~3 copies to boot.
For the sake of affinity something has to give.
i already run 1 welding jar MD and 1 spellskite
thoughtseize or spell pierce md, which seems better to you guys (given my meta is 90% grixis/gbx)? we only have so many spell slots.... and its going to be really hard for me to run less than 4 galvanic blast (given that splinter twin combo is a thing) and cut any thoughtcast for either of the two MD..... and if its only for one copy either of the two, that seems just way too random...
for spells im currently running only/either a combination of
3-4 galvanic blast
3-4 thoughtcast
90%? No wonder you're overreacting! If the meta is that hostile towards Affinity then, maybe you should put it on the shelf and play a different deck. But if you still want to try it, I have found in my testing that running at least 6 cards mainboard between Spellskite and Galvanic Blast gives you a favorable game 1 against Twin. Keep in mind that Spellskite can redirect both the Shock and Shatter modes of Kolaghan's Command it. Thus, negating the 2-for-1. I'm still not sold on this, but a few players have found success in using Hangarback Walker im order to blanm removal. Also, playing 4 Etched Champions main looks to be the obvious choice for your meta.
Maybe you would like it in your meta to.
Modern - Burn
EDH - Neheb the Eternal
Most of the Grixis I face is Splinter Twin, and that chart agrees that we are not favored against it. I really dont think were favored against straight control either, but hey.
Yeah 4 Champ's MD might be the way to go right now...
Why/how exactly is Junk dead?
How many are you running? What did you cut for them? How many Steel Overseer/Spellskite you run along side them? Fighting for similar slots it seems...
Thanks for posting Michael, your a long time poster like myself and I know your an avid affinity tester/pilot
Whats the most amount of Spellskite you have ran to your liking? Do you ever find 3-4 to be too many? Ive never ran more than 2 in the past but maybe that must change? And what about Welding Jar? Your opinion, do you run it, and balancing the addition of a Welding Jar with Spellskite(s)?
until they just start running shatterstorm again... vandalblast..., etc.
It's pretty narrow though, and only running one copy just seems too random/inconsistent...
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Etched Champion
4 Hangarback Walker
4 Memnite
4 Ornithopter
4 Signal Pest
4 Steel Overseer
4 Vault Skirge
4 Cranial Plating
4 Springleaf Drum
4 Mox Opal
Lands (16)
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Mutavault
3 Relic of Progenitus
4 Thorn of Amethyst
2 Welding Jar
4 Spellskite
2 Dismember
GWUBAtraxa and Her Superfriends
WUB Oloro, the Life Drain Train
URG Animar, Soul of Elements
WBR Kaalia of the Vast
BWTeysa Karlov, Scion of Orzhov
R Purphoros, Goblins of Pain ($100 Budget Challenge)
U Talrand, Fun Police (Needs updating)