Rest in peace is really good against storm and dredge, probably not bad against death shadow aggro either. Stuff like cage and relic don't do much work against storm as they tutor up a million artifact hate off gifts ungiven. So I'd get some enchantments in the sideboard.
I goldfished some hands with ancient stirrings a while back (in place of galvanic blast) and really liked it. Glint nest crane is probably good but I don't like it for a few reasons; it comepetes with the other 2 drops in the deck, strains the colored mana in the deck, and isn't an artifact by itself. It flies though which is nice. Bitterblossom is probably fine, never tried it, but i'd rather run a blood moon or grid in place of it.
But anyway, I was wondering, should we drop most of the galvanic blast out of the main in favor of thoughtcast? Seems like we board out galv blast most matchups anyway.
How effective is grid against merfolk, elves, and collected company combo? I can see grid trashing decks like affinity and infect, but wonder if stuff like elves with all its one and two drops could just outrace it. Still seems like whipflare is more reliable???
idk, maybe we're stuck with galv blast. people still 5-0-ing dailies with it online and it does little things like help win the mirror, kill goblin guide, a merfolk lord, ect.
i board out galv blast against death shadow aggro, urzatron, burn, ad nauseam, jund and abzan and grixis, also valakut decks. against attrition decks im usually boarding out masters and galv blasts in favor of etched champion, spellskites, rest in peace and thoughtcast. rest in peace seems good against abazan, stopping goyf and flashback lingering souls.
not going to 4 etched champion main as there's too much eldrazi/tron/affinity/combo stuff for my liking.
So I'm seeing some new card in Affinity's 75s. I'm seeing Glint Nest Crane, Bitterblossom, and Rest in Peace.
I'm not that fond on Crane, did anyone try it already?
And what do you think about the other 2? Bitterblossom seems great in grindy matchups, and RIP is a better Relic with the only downside of partially shutting our Ravager. Thoughts?
Craig Wescoe mentioned Glint Nest Crane as an innovative addition to the deck in this article http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=13867&writer=Craig Wescoe&articledate=3-24-2017. I was shocked honestly and don't like the look of it either. Granted, I haven't tried it yet. Although I think I'd sooner play Ensoul Artifact because it's already a hasty threat and doesn't still need to search out a threat and then cast it.
I thought Bitterblossom is an awesome idea at first glance but a problem that might have is that the faerie tokens it produces don't exactly synergize with Steel Overseer, Master of Etherium or Arcbound Ravager and would probably need a plating or a signal pest to turn said tokens into threats?
The issue abut Wear // Tear to fight Stony Silence is that it requires several things to go right in order to do its job. It's not just that it's hard to cast under it but by the time you will have both Wear // Tear itself and Glimmervoid to cast it you will very possible be too far behind to matter. I agree that Ghirapur Aether Grid is the best way to fight Stony Silence and should the first card to come in if you expect that piece of hate, after that some mix of Thoughtseize and Stubborn Denial or Spell Pierce. This should already be enough cards since you don't want to over sideboard.
The "how to fight Stony" has been debated often. The consensus now seems to be to ignore it and bring in Ghirapur Æther Grid to get some value of your shut down artifacts. I have opted for this solution too in the past, and some games the strategy worked, coz you draw the right part of your deck (Glimmervoid and creatures).
Lately I've come to the conclusion that Stony does wreck our gameplay too much for us to ignore it. My main concern is that Stony does not only take out the Drums and Opals, but also Darksteel Citadel. Most of the games I lost was not for the lack of coloured mana, but for the lack of mana in general.
I have been testing the following:
Most opposing decks board in only 1 enchantment like Stony, Worship, Night of Souls' Betrayal to combat us.
I've been toying around with 3x Spire of Industry in the sideboard with either 2x Wear or 2x Dromoka's Command. Spire also comes in in non-white, non Ghost Quarter mu for the basic land.
Dcommand can take out Stony Silence, but is double coloured.
Hear me out! The plan is when an opponent plays white, you can be sure that Stony will come in.
You take out 3x Darksteel Citadel for the Spires in order to increase the odds of hitting (double) coloured mana. Add the Commands/Wears & Aether Grids.
Bringing in Thoughtseize and Spell Pierce is to narrow if it is just to combat Stony Silence.
If they don't slam a Stony, Dcommand is never a dead card coz the other mods are relevant, like "countering" an Anger/Bolt or putting an extra counter on a Nexus/Ravager.
Trust me, you're opponent will be salty and think you got lucky, coz you fought through their premier hate card.
In testing Spire of Industry solves the Stony problem of having mana in general, but Grid is starting to lose value for me in the current meta.
Hahaha XD. Brilliant! No one will see this coming! I shall try it someday. After I've finished testing Thoughtseize mainboard.
Can pithing needle hit khalni heart expedition? I'm guessing it's an activated ability. If not, will name sakura-tribe elder. Might need to fit a blood moon in the side.
This may be an oddball suggestion, but has anyone considered 2-3 Selfless Spirit in place of Blasts? I was reading through the Eldrazi and Taxes thread and it occurred to me that this could potentially work in Affinity as well. I know it's a 2-drop that's tough with the manabase and isn't an artifact, but it would protect against mass removal, make blocking tricky for the opponent and allow swings into unfavorable board states, it flies and can carry a Plating like Crane, but would do one more damage. Just wanted to throw it out there, something I was mulling over that I don't think anyone's mentioned. Anyone tried it or considered it?
I think i'll drop my 3 galv blast for 3 thoughtcast and run some dispatch in the sideboard. might sleep on it for a few days. galv blast doesnt have enough targets in this meta.
selfless spirit is good but technically more narrow and whatnot, if you're worried about board wipes youre probably supposed to run thoughtseize to pluck it out of their hands. plus thoughtseize is good against combo. idk you can probably get away with it at smaller tournaments but if you own stuff like thoughtseize no sense in not using that.
i did play selfless spirit in a draft one time and loved it
hi guys! Long time bot player but first time posting here. On the thought of galblast it's only really good against an aggressive meta. Now don't get me wrong I'm not a fan of Thoughtcast but it might be required as at least a 1 or 2 of. I know the board is tight but can the remaining blasts come out of the board for those mus? Also, what's everybody's opinions on possibly playing metallic rebuke over spell pierce? The idea of nabbing kataki gives it promise in my eyes
Hi, I'm fairly new to the deck. Is there a reason Ancient Stirrings has never seen play in Affinity? I imagine part of the issue is mana, so I've been thinking about increasing the Glimmervoid/Spire of Industry above 4 by cutting one of each Nexus and using Stirrings to find them when I need them. It just seems better than something like Thoughtcast; from my past experiences with combo decks I value card quality over quantity.
Steelshaper's Gift has been use as Cranial Plating 5-6 in the past and would fill a similar function to Ancient Stirrings in your scenario. The problem is colored mana as you noted and it generally just slows the deck down by .5 to a full turn.
against death shaddow aggro, should i be playing thoughtcast/welding jar/etched champion/spellskite type of stuff, or should i play dispatch, rest in peace, chalice of the void, and thoughtseize? are we trying to just kill their threats or win through a grind? whenever i played abzan i just boarded in a ton of kill spells and that worked great but i don't know with this deck.
edit: nevermind i think i'll go with boarding etched champion, rest in peace, and dispatch and take out masters, and whatever galv blasts/thoughtcasts i have. maybe a land if on the draw
Has anyone been sideboarding bloodmoons vs a lot of the greedy manabases for the current modern meta? I feel like it'd just completely hose so many decks that you can just ignore them, continue with beat downs and laugh as they struggle to cast their hand. For example with Jund, hand disruption is usually boarded out vs affinity (not so much on the play I assume) and Jund has a lot of interaction by default with abrupt/ancient grudge/kologhans/fatal push for postboard. But if we bloodmoon, we can laugh as abrupt decay is their only save forcing them to sit back with an open black and green mana source to abrupt after floating when it resolves. I'd imagine it'd stress their hand so much that the game can quickly become unrecoverable.
Apologies for any running on thoughts that are a bit incoherent. Jund has been a chore lately to face off with but this hypothetical scenario just makes bloodmoon look so good currently (even vs many other decks too).
Hi, I'm fairly new to the deck. Is there a reason Ancient Stirrings has never seen play in Affinity? I imagine part of the issue is mana, so I've been thinking about increasing the Glimmervoid/Spire of Industry above 4 by cutting one of each Nexus and using Stirrings to find them when I need them. It just seems better than something like Thoughtcast; from my past experiences with combo decks I value card quality over quantity.
I'd never cut manlands in a deck like this. Seems totally wrong
With this I concur. I would consider Spire of Industry instead of a basic as the seventeenth land or perhaps in place of one Darksteel Citadel. maybe both, but I'm very hesitate to pull a Citadel. One needs one's artifact count to stay high.
Side-boarding lands also feels wrong but perhaps one Spire in the board isn't an awful idea.
Has anyone been sideboarding bloodmoons vs a lot of the greedy manabases for the current modern meta? I feel like it'd just completely hose so many decks that you can just ignore them, continue with beat downs and laugh as they struggle to cast their hand. For example with Jund, hand disruption is usually boarded out vs affinity (not so much on the play I assume) and Jund has a lot of interaction by default with abrupt/ancient grudge/kologhans/fatal push for postboard. But if we bloodmoon, we can laugh as abrupt decay is their only save forcing them to sit back with an open black and green mana source to abrupt after floating when it resolves. I'd imagine it'd stress their hand so much that the game can quickly become unrecoverable.
Apologies for any running on thoughts that are a bit incoherent. Jund has been a chore lately to face off with but this hypothetical scenario just makes bloodmoon look so good currently (even vs many other decks too).
Blood Moon has been tried to be sure, yours truly gave it a brief go. It isn't really the sort of thing Affinity wants. Most of the match-ups where Blood Moon would shine are better addressed with the speed Affinity has pre-board. At least, that's my view. Moreover, grindy match-ups are where one needs his man-lands the most.
Ended doing 2-2 on my FNM tonight. Won 2-0 against Burn and Grixis Shadow (on G2, I mulled into a 2 lands, Opal, Champion, RIP and Moon, just brutal), lost 1-2 against Jeskai Copycat and Dredge.
Without going in details, again, I just don't like Blast anymore. I think Dickmann is right when he says it's not great in this meta, I was thinking about doing something like 3 Cast and 1 Jar, or 4 Cast.
Also, Rest in Peace is beast, definitely took the Relic spot in my sideboard.
Do you board out all of the Ravagers or just some?
Has anyone been sideboarding bloodmoons vs a lot of the greedy manabases for the current modern meta? I feel like it'd just completely hose so many decks that you can just ignore them, continue with beat downs and laugh as they struggle to cast their hand. For example with Jund, hand disruption is usually boarded out vs affinity (not so much on the play I assume) and Jund has a lot of interaction by default with abrupt/ancient grudge/kologhans/fatal push for postboard. But if we bloodmoon, we can laugh as abrupt decay is their only save forcing them to sit back with an open black and green mana source to abrupt after floating when it resolves. I'd imagine it'd stress their hand so much that the game can quickly become unrecoverable.
Apologies for any running on thoughts that are a bit incoherent. Jund has been a chore lately to face off with but this hypothetical scenario just makes bloodmoon look so good currently (even vs many other decks too).
I love my bloodmoon out of the sideboard - has won me a lot of otherwise tough matchups - been great against Melira co, bant eldrazi, abzan/junk and Ad Nauseum in particular. They dont expect it & therefore not fetching for basics.
I goldfished some hands with ancient stirrings a while back (in place of galvanic blast) and really liked it. Glint nest crane is probably good but I don't like it for a few reasons; it comepetes with the other 2 drops in the deck, strains the colored mana in the deck, and isn't an artifact by itself. It flies though which is nice. Bitterblossom is probably fine, never tried it, but i'd rather run a blood moon or grid in place of it.
But anyway, I was wondering, should we drop most of the galvanic blast out of the main in favor of thoughtcast? Seems like we board out galv blast most matchups anyway.
not going to 4 etched champion main as there's too much eldrazi/tron/affinity/combo stuff for my liking.
Craig Wescoe mentioned Glint Nest Crane as an innovative addition to the deck in this article http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=13867&writer=Craig Wescoe&articledate=3-24-2017. I was shocked honestly and don't like the look of it either. Granted, I haven't tried it yet. Although I think I'd sooner play Ensoul Artifact because it's already a hasty threat and doesn't still need to search out a threat and then cast it.
I thought Bitterblossom is an awesome idea at first glance but a problem that might have is that the faerie tokens it produces don't exactly synergize with Steel Overseer, Master of Etherium or Arcbound Ravager and would probably need a plating or a signal pest to turn said tokens into threats?
Hahaha XD. Brilliant! No one will see this coming! I shall try it someday. After I've finished testing Thoughtseize mainboard.
selfless spirit is good but technically more narrow and whatnot, if you're worried about board wipes youre probably supposed to run thoughtseize to pluck it out of their hands. plus thoughtseize is good against combo. idk you can probably get away with it at smaller tournaments but if you own stuff like thoughtseize no sense in not using that.
i did play selfless spirit in a draft one time and loved it
I've nearly talked myself into running Mishra's Bauble along with Pia's Revolution main-deck. It's . . . just . . . SO . . . funny!
Frenzy-Affinity-Ghost Quarter-Rock-Tokens- RGWPhyrexian Zoo- WVial KnightsStandard:
BW Knights(Rotated)Pioneer: RW Knights - BW Rally Zombies - UW Heroes
Commander:WUG
Jenara, Asura of War- WGSigarda, Host of HeronsCasualties of economicsLegacy: Good-night, sweet prince. Mono-R Burn
edit: nevermind i think i'll go with boarding etched champion, rest in peace, and dispatch and take out masters, and whatever galv blasts/thoughtcasts i have. maybe a land if on the draw
Apologies for any running on thoughts that are a bit incoherent. Jund has been a chore lately to face off with but this hypothetical scenario just makes bloodmoon look so good currently (even vs many other decks too).
With this I concur. I would consider Spire of Industry instead of a basic as the seventeenth land or perhaps in place of one Darksteel Citadel. maybe both, but I'm very hesitate to pull a Citadel. One needs one's artifact count to stay high.
Side-boarding lands also feels wrong but perhaps one Spire in the board isn't an awful idea.
Frenzy-Affinity-Ghost Quarter-Rock-Tokens- RGWPhyrexian Zoo- WVial KnightsStandard:
BW Knights(Rotated)Pioneer: RW Knights - BW Rally Zombies - UW Heroes
Commander:WUG
Jenara, Asura of War- WGSigarda, Host of HeronsCasualties of economicsLegacy: Good-night, sweet prince. Mono-R Burn
Blood Moon has been tried to be sure, yours truly gave it a brief go. It isn't really the sort of thing Affinity wants. Most of the match-ups where Blood Moon would shine are better addressed with the speed Affinity has pre-board. At least, that's my view. Moreover, grindy match-ups are where one needs his man-lands the most.
Frenzy-Affinity-Ghost Quarter-Rock-Tokens- RGWPhyrexian Zoo- WVial KnightsStandard:
BW Knights(Rotated)Pioneer: RW Knights - BW Rally Zombies - UW Heroes
Commander:WUG
Jenara, Asura of War- WGSigarda, Host of HeronsCasualties of economicsLegacy: Good-night, sweet prince. Mono-R Burn
Bomat Courier? Hope of Ghirapur? Laughs aplenty!
Frenzy-Affinity-Ghost Quarter-Rock-Tokens- RGWPhyrexian Zoo- WVial KnightsStandard:
BW Knights(Rotated)Pioneer: RW Knights - BW Rally Zombies - UW Heroes
Commander:WUG
Jenara, Asura of War- WGSigarda, Host of HeronsCasualties of economicsLegacy: Good-night, sweet prince. Mono-R Burn
Do you board out all of the Ravagers or just some?
I love my bloodmoon out of the sideboard - has won me a lot of otherwise tough matchups - been great against Melira co, bant eldrazi, abzan/junk and Ad Nauseum in particular. They dont expect it & therefore not fetching for basics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlzYDB0FCVQ