MTG Salvation

Quote from zyrnak »

I've got several leagues with Karn in my deck recorded and up on my youtube channel here:

https://www.youtube.com/user/Zyrnak/playlists

Karn has sat in my hand dead every so often, but for every time he's a dead card there's another where he wins the game almost by himself.

Interesting to note cases where Karn you thought was going to be a bad matchup, and he ended up winning you the game. I am testing Karn in the Hardened Scales build as well.

@Grandrane32

I side out Vault Skirges, as against storm the lifelink and the flying don't matter, so it's just a 1/1 for 1 and that's not very good.

How does everyone feel about where affinity fits in the meta now that domanaria is out? Are we still well placed or is it kinda hoping our matchups line up good enough? I bounce between affinity and pyromancer and dredge but I haven't really played affinity or seen it that much at my FNM level lately.

It recently got first and second place at a scg event iirc

Not only that zyrnak has been absolutely destroying ppl on mtgo

So affinity is as strong as ever

I honestly believe karn could place affinity in the eyes of the ban hammer again its THAT good

But thats just me and im somewhat a noob.

Affinity isn’t ban worthy because of a 4drop lol but the card is definitely good. I’ve been playing antiquities war in the same slot, it’s been actual gas every game it’s resolved. Similar to karn except it just kills them in 2 turns

It is allways one step away from bannings and if a 4 drop is better in this deck then other mainslots in this deck...so it means GG opal Jodie because of this 4 slot

Quote from kodieyost »

Affinity isn’t ban worthy because of a 4drop lol but the card is definitely good. I’ve been playing antiquities war in the same slot, it’s been actual gas every game it’s resolved. Similar to karn except it just kills them in 2 turns

Would have to agree. Antiquities war is pure gas, and the 5/5's are also a win condition.

A turn two karn bc of opal would deffinitely put this deck in the path to a ban. It has already teetered with that fine line. So yes a 4 drop could potentially push it over the edge to where wotc will intervene.

Quote from marlboro92 »

Hi everyone, im on the antiquities war over karn team... More diffucult to interact with, and even more powerfull.

Im testing now courier over vault skirge, sorry if i dont g. Feel like reading 40 pages.. Thoughts on that? I love the card!

That's a really interesting idea. Any results yet?

Have any of you guys tested with zahid, djinn of the lamp?

I just played a few games and he was pretty solid.

Can even come out turn 2 and is really tough to deal with outside of path for many decks

Guys should consider it, he is a faster clock than an early karn

Even if we are under a Stony Silence, the 5/5's from Antiquities War can still attack.

Hi everybody. I'm an old affinity player who's getting back to the archetype.
Just few question consideration about currents test build

Quote from ccc1522 »

Have any of you guys tested with zahid, djinn of the lamp?

I just played a few games and he was pretty solid.

Can even come out turn 2 and is really tough to deal with outside of path for many decks
Guys should consider it, he is a faster clock than an early karn

How can it be faster than Karn? It's just a 5, while karns drops multiple growing creatures. True that evasion can be good but I can't see it being better. Incremental card advantage is top imho.

Quote from marlboro92 »

No real results with bomat... what i see is that is terrible when the ground is locked, and very good when he can hit just 1 or 2 times. I think in certains metagames makes absolute sense, right now, is only bad against humans..the only tier that really doesnt let you go through. Bomat plus craneal is brutal, the oponent feels safe

Again, antiquities war is busted!

I tested bomat some time ago and quite like it, but the meta was completely different. I can see many decks that can block it quite easily right now: the already said humans, but also jund, zoo iterations, even elves and other tribals can stop it. And you always have to keep R up. It can be painful sometimes.

About War: I can see it being the toughest choice for replacing Karn. I may still prefer karn though due to its colorlessness and the fact that it's less "all in". Karn's also better in the rare cases in which we are "behind".

Quote from hellkite12 »

i really do not like the +1 on karn, he will give us the worse card all the time wich is in over 75% not a payoff card.

The -2 is really good and most of the time better than the -1.

-2 is the best mode and the one we'll use the most. The other modes are used only to recharge karn after a double -2 (or some damage). If we +1 we can always get the other card back next turn if needed; in any case the only completely useless cards are spire of industries closely followed by darksteel citadel since every other card could be considered a threat or at least deal some damage.

Quote from hellkite12 »

The Antiquities War find us 2 Threats and then turns our bord into one really mean attack as all cards get bigger.

True but it does very little the turn it comes into play. If we are ahead that's not a problem; if we are behind it is.
Karn is also more playable under stony silence too, since we don't need colored mana sources to cast it.

That said I see both of them very close in power level since both have upside.

Quote from hellkite12 »

I think both cards are not fast enough to be good in the main board, as the deck can get to slow for some combo matchups

I thought it too, but after watching zyrnak's video I quickly changed my mind!

The tokens karna create are more fragile than the djinn.
Fatal push, abrupt decay, pulse, not to mention they shrink if your other artifacts die and they have no evasion.

Djinn has flying and has a heavy mana cost so push cant deal with it and boarded in artifact removal cant either. It is almost a certain 5 damage every turn. Thats how it can be faster then karn.

@ccc1522: I don't want to dismiss Djinn hastily since I think it can be a good card. I just analize your statements. There isn't an easy way to define how fast is a card imho.

Quote from ccc1522 »

The tokens karna create are more fragile than the djinn.

True, but Djinn is always one, while karn's tokens are usually two in two turns and that compensate.

Quote from ccc1522 »

Fatal push, abrupt decay, pulse, not to mention they shrink if your other artifacts die and they have no evasion.

They can be shrinked, but they can be also bigger and usually are. A part from pulse that can deal with all of tokens at once, other removals can deal with only one. Don't forget they also have to deal with Karn itself otherwise we'll get other tokens.

Quote from ccc1522 »

Djinn has flying and has a heavy mana cost so push cant deal with it and boarded in artifact removal cant either. It is almost a certain 5 damage every turn. Thats how it can be faster then karn.

True, but that could be compensated a bit by the fact that we can get more tokens usually bigger.
If they have a lot of blockers we usually don't need to be fast, but grindy and in that karn shines. Against the decks we need to be fast there aren't many blockers active so usually "the bigger, the best". Moreover the fact that djinn isn't an artifact can also be seen as a downside since it doesn't interact with ravager, plating and overseer.

all valid and good points to consider.

Though plating can be placed on djinn to get him real fat if needed. Through my testing Djinn has been pretty good in some match ups though in all honesty i cant say if a karn would have been worse or better or the same. I encourage others however to at least try 1 or 2 in place of karn (i wouldnt play them together in this deck) What ive been doing is playing 2 djinn mainboard and 2 karn sb and i just switch them out post board just to test out more cards. I am planning on doing the same with antiquities war.

Right now is prime brewin time with all these new cards so thats all im up to.

So I mentioned the other day that baby Karn could put affinity on the ban hammer radar again.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xtHE-LRkxLQ&list=PLVfwJL8w3MecJpU8p6rUAOlIEKLzkFvF0

I think Zyrnak proves this point pretty well. Turn 2 7/7 followed by turn 3 8/8...

This is some very powerful stuff. Good sh** Zyrnak love your content.

a bolt, push, and Kolaghan's Command would have left him with a memnite and etched champion. There are lots of ways of beating affinity. Just because karn is a good instead of another awful artifact doesn't mean it's OP or something needs to be banned.affinity often lacks results at GP's and scg events. When everyone plays the same decklist it's pretty easy to hate and beat unless you happen to get the nuts turn 3 kill.

I'll put up the list I made when eldrazi first came out and it was pretty much just it vs tron

It's a little different, offering up disruption instead of removal. Colors are lighter so your sideboard needs to match it. Haven't taken it to fnm because I've been playing a hardened scales variant.



Unfortunately I'm winning the games at fnm and not learning much. I've played against Jund, UWg control, Company, GR eldrazi. I beat jund 2-0 on the draw both games, and he brought in some 7-8 sb cards, but the value creatures are just too good for 1 for 1 to be any good, and they don't have a real answer for karn as long as he's out of bolt range. The normal decklist with throne of geth and arcbound worker puts you with no way to hit 2 mana on turn one except for exactly opal DSC welding jar, and you're overloaded on the 2 slot so you really need to get to 2. Walking ballista is removal so you aren't just dead to the board, and it goes around ensnaring bridge. I've only been to 3 weeks of fnm so I need a lot more games. The deck looks soft to burn and super fast beatdown.

Finished 4-4 drop at SCG Louisville after starting 4-1 On the plus side, I was playing in the feature match in round 1 and beat a pro player on Jund with Antiquities War in game 3. The card felt REALLY good all day

Is the Antiquities War in the SB? That's pretty sweet to beat Jund like that!