How about changing out one of the colourless lands and the kicthen finks for 2 scavenging oozes? The 2 traverse are flexi slots, being a virtual '4 land destruction' vs tron. It also functions as 6 dark confidant. Or 5 scavenging ooze, depending on what the match up desiers. (I don't dare say liliana the last hope is an extra slot, as to much can go wrong.)
Frankly, I'm not a fan of Grim Flayer, unless you pair it with Lingering Souls in Abzan. In this deck, I'd go for Tireless Tracker in this slot instead: it draws cards, grows, and you are already running 11 2-drop creatures.
I am not high on a traverse plan personally. Its too inconsistant of a card to run imo. Also dont like Flayer, but thats personal preferences. For reference, here is my current Rock build:
There have been a lot of rumblings about unbannings after the Pro Tour. Out of all the possible unbans, it seems like blood braid elf and stoneforge mystic are the first and second most likely picks to come off that list. If stoneforge mystic were unbanned, what would your abzan list look like? I never played back in the good 'ol days of caw blade, and am unsure if abzan is a good shell for her- although it seems like she gives us some nice tools vs midrange creature decks, burn, and control. Can't help thinking about a lingering soul token equipped with a sword of fire and ice... Anyway, wanted to present a list that I came up with and get some feedback. I know this is all hypothetical and probably won't happen but one can dream
Alternatively could use sword of light and shadow as it could protect tarmogoyf or our other creatures from both fatal push and path to exile, although sword of fire and ice seems like it has the more powerful effect. It seems nice that if you draw duplicate stoneforge mystics you can just pitch her to a Liliana of the Veil +1 and not feel like you lost value.
Frankly, I don't believe we'll see Batterskull and Stoneforge Mystic legal at the same time in Modern, but that discussion is best left elsewhere. If it does happen, I would be running them in a Grim Flayer build: a 2/2 trample creature that gets value by dealing damage to a player is the perfect body to equip a sword to (though a 1/1 flying spirit is also fine).
Lets just focus on current cards unbanned for now Otherwise the mods will come in and clean the conversation up. I agree that Rock is well positioned right now. This list by trisok looks like a well tuned list https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/912792#online Some of Todd Stevens choices were off if you ask me
If you're just GB, I'd rather run creeping corrosion than stony if affinity has you worried.
Much to Spsiege's dismay, this is the traverse list I was playing. Traverse, probably more than it should, makes feel like I can play anything, although I did take the grave titan out.
I'm sure my love of durdling and the death cloud mindset shows through with the amount of finks I run, but I will admit they feel slow at times. Similarly, tech edge has been useful at keeping people off certain colors, but I've also had affinity/infect simply not play a fourth land to attack with inkmoth. Changes may include swapping out tec edge for field of ruin then dropping a land and a finks for the last two goyfs. A fulminator could be a boring replacement for kalitas in the board, or I'll find something exciting in my giant test pile.
Burn:
-4 Bob
-4 TS
-1 LtLH
+2 CB
+2 Tendrils
+4 Fulminator
+1 Nihil Spellbomb
Now this is not an ideal SB plan for the burn matchup, but I 100% don't want any of the 9 cards I board out, and if I draw them game 1, I will never cast them. Thats why I bring in Spellbombs to just have a redraw.
Note that I am here able to board out Decays, which I would 100% keep in Abzan/Jund, singlehandedly due to Blood Moon and Search for Azcanta. In this deck Blood Moon does almost nothing, and if they have Azcanta we can FoR it.
Thats about it for now, will add extra matchup when I thought them through.
Actually if affinity have you worried, you can try to have more copy of flaying tendrils in your side. At least tendrils have more uses in other matchups compared to creeping corrosion and its cheaper and less painful when flipped by dark confidant. Double black is also already what the deck wants in the first place for liliana so it’s easier on your mana compared to double green.
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I also like a second Tendrils more over a narrow Corrosion. Tendrils does have a wide range of applications against any creature based deck, especially the hard onces like GW Company.
If you're just GB, I'd rather run creeping corrosion than stony if affinity has you worried.
Much to Spsiege's dismay, this is the traverse list I was playing. Traverse, probably more than it should, makes feel like I can play anything, although I did take the grave titan out.
I'm sure my love of durdling and the death cloud mindset shows through with the amount of finks I run, but I will admit they feel slow at times. Similarly, tech edge has been useful at keeping people off certain colors, but I've also had affinity/infect simply not play a fourth land to attack with inkmoth. Changes may include swapping out tec edge for field of ruin then dropping a land and a finks for the last two goyfs. A fulminator could be a boring replacement for kalitas in the board, or I'll find something exciting in my giant test pile.
This---isn't a GB Rock deck, though. This is literally just a stompy black green deck. I don't see how this deck ever beats combo. I see that you have 2x Thoughtseize in the side, but that means game 1 you're pretty dead in the water.
Affinity looks like an auto loss, you don't have the removal, and you're too slow to race
Kitchen Finks were fine against older, traditional aggro decks, but that disappeared in 2015ish?
Traverse is sketchy here---you have 6x instants, a bunch of creatures, and your sorceries are the discard the the other traverse.
You have a chameleon colossus in the side which is confusing. Are you THAT worried about shadow decks or grindy matchups? Your deck is filled to the brim with slow, big value creatures
It seems fine at an FNM, but the deck construction honestly seems like a mess, it's way, way too slow. I don't see how any fair GBx deck beats you. I'm almost not sure how I beat you with Abzan a few weeks ago at the store looking at this list.
The Todd Stevens list I used could never beat your deck, but I didn't personally like Stevens deck too much, it makes more sense to just play Traverse Shadow if you want to prey on big mana and whatnot.
If your deck is fun and it's what you love, awesome, go for it. On a competitive level, this deck just doesn't work. It looks like you're tuned to beat other fair decks and scoop to nearly everything else, which isn't even that good in modern.
I did notice our store had a ton of fair decks on Monday though
I apologize in advance if this isn't the optimal place to post this deck list, but I have been calling my deck "Devoted Black Rock" (or Mono Black Rock) as GBx Rock serves as the foundation to the deck. I'd love to hear opinions from the experts of the archetype, and how I can improve. Thank you in advance.
First a bit of context: I have been tweaking this deck since Scars of Mirrodin was in standard (6 years ago now), winning off of disruption, Vampire Nighthawk, and Lashwrithe.
Being mono-colored allows me to MD 4x Ghost Quarter, which helps tremendously against Tron. I actually now like the Tron matchup, haha. The deck can win consistently on turn 4 (with Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx) or 5 Gary (Gray Merchant of Asphodel). I have also won a surprising number of times with the potent combination of Gifted Aetherborn + a bestowed Herald of Torment (the life swing is sick). I wish that I could run Bob (Dark Confidant), but with the 4 and 5 drops, I think my average CMC is too high. I have found a 3/1 split of Sign in Blood and Erebos, God of the Dead to be a decent replacement.
I consistently post 2-2 and 3-1 at FNM.
I would greatly appreciate any help to push this deck to the next level, ideally staying mono black or with a slight splash into Green or White. Thank you!
I apologize in advance if this isn't the optimal place to post this deck list, but I have been calling my deck "Devoted Black Rock" (or Mono Black Rock) as GBx Rock serves as the foundation to the deck. I'd love to hear opinions from the experts of the archetype, and how I can improve. Thank you in advance.
First a bit of context: I have been tweaking this deck since Scars of Mirrodin was in standard (6 years ago now), winning off of disruption, Vampire Nighthawk, and Lashwrithe.
Being mono-colored allows me to MD 4x Ghost Quarter, which helps tremendously against Tron. I actually now like the Tron matchup, haha. The deck can win consistently on turn 4 (with Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx) or 5 Gary (Gray Merchant of Asphodel). I have also won a surprising number of times with the potent combination of Gifted Aetherborn + a bestowed Herald of Torment (the life swing is sick). I wish that I could run Bob (Dark Confidant), but with the 4 and 5 drops, I think my average CMC is too high. I have found a 3/1 split of Sign in Blood and Erebos, God of the Dead to be a decent replacement.
I consistently post 2-2 and 3-1 at FNM.
I would greatly appreciate any help to push this deck to the next level, ideally staying mono black or with a slight splash into Green or White. Thank you!
This is a response to flyingdelvers sideboard guide:
I usually side out all LotV against affinity, I dont see there would be a point when they are useful, and instead keep the TS. Also with burn I've usually kept the TSs since they still do something sometimes, while a spellbomb generally does nothing but hurt us (ooze exiling). TSing a boros charm i still +2 life. You dont bring in flaying tendrils against storm? Seems crucial since they usually make a huge pile of goblins really early. Against Grixis DS I tend to bring the full set of fulminators, if the game goes long we can play the mana-denial game and that's usually a pretty certain win. Sideboarding that matchup is hard though.
Otherwise I agree with your choices. Thanks!
Alright, so let me explain my sideboarding plan:
Generally, it is not wrong to side out all LoTV against Affinity. However, but in the Affinity matchup LoTV is better than TS. So you want to board out all TS for sure, followed by some number of LoTV. And here it depends whether you have enough to bring in for the full set of LoTV to board out, or if you dont have enough to bring in. I would not bring in more Fulminators over LoTV personally, because I think LoTV has some potential to kill Etched Champions. You can also change that depending on if you are on the play or draw. But given this list and this sideboard, I rate LoTV higher than TS and Fulminator.
Here is probably one of the biggest misconsceptions against Burn we got in our GBx department. Leaving in TS against Burn. Let me explain to you why actually this is a horrible idea, and not a good one. The one argument I always hear is that taking a boros charm nets you +2 life. Well, this is only true if you look at the two cards in a vacuum. But what if we look at the decks in context?
Burn is essentially a combo deck, which has to resolve 7 spells to win the game. Why 7? Because on average, their cards do 3 dmg to us, and 7 x 3 nets a total of 21 dmg they generally need to do kill us. There are some spells which do more dmg (Boros Charm, 4 dmg) but there are also spells which do less (creatures, they do about 2 dmg on average against us before they get removed) which evens up to about 3 dmg per spell.
So assuming you have a good and thankful manabase, and you only fetch once for 1 life in the game against burn. So naturally you will 19 life left. Recalculating the number of spells they need to resolve against us still gives the number 7, since 6 spells will only deal 18 dmg on average. What now happens if you Thoughtseize and take Boros Charm? You are at 19 life, cast TS and take the Boros Charm. After the TS you are at 17 life and you took a combo piece from the oponents hand. Now lets do the math again: How many combo pieces do they now need to win? Unsurprizingly, only 6. That means, you spend 1 Mana and a card (which you could otherwise discard to Lili) in order to do absolutely nothing against the clock of the opponent. You actually helped the opponent. You take a card but they also need one less card. See what I am trying to say? Its doing nothing but costing you cards and mana, its negative CA and negative tempo as well. I cannot stress enough how bad TS is against them.
I also suggest you check out my Jund primer, where such things and interactions are clearly described: Jund Primer. This is Abzan ofc, but this general concept applies to all GBx decks essentially.
If you want more, I also asked Willy Edel long time ago about this issue, I asked "Would you keep TS in against Burn?" and his response was: "NO, unless I have zero sideboard cards". I guess this statement pretty much sums it up
Flaying Tendrils is alright to bring in against Storm. I personally feel it is not completely necessary, because we disrupt them enough that they wont make a huge amount of Goblins, but it is certainly not wrong to bring in. Maybe its better actually.
Against Grixis DS I am not high on Fulmiators, but my plan right now is to bring in 2 copies. At worst it is a jumpblocker and blows up a land, which kinda is a 1,5 for 1 trade, concerning the clock at least. I do not like that is so clunky though. I also am not 100 % sure how to sidebaord against this deck, but I will experiemnt with it further.
I honestly side out all discard spells against affinity most of the time.
IoK is only good if you have it turn 1 or 2 on the play and turn 1 on the draw. i often keep 2 liliana since it will always be able to do something.
The reason i board discard out is that, although affinity is very aggro, the matchup (with abzan at least) is quite grindy.
I don't want to draw any discard spells later on, while the things i board in are nice to have any time in the game.
i have enough to board in for the discard spells and board X lili for X fulminators depending on the play/draw
While I agree to a certain extent, IOK is also probably the best way to answer an Etched Champion. Especially on the play. It is probably the only threat I am worried about in that matchup. If I can cleanly take it away from their hand, we are in a great position. I also find it quite unlikely that Affinity players will always dump their entire hand on turn 1 or 2. Therefore I find IOK ok to leave in. On the draw it is usually correct to side out more discard spells.
You also have to keep in mind that we are talking about Rock here, which runs 8 discard spells. You don't have enough to bring in to cut all of them as well as 2 copies of LoTV.
The deck looks like this then.
1 Hissing Quagmire
3 Overgrown Tomb
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Blooming Marsh
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Windswept Heath
2 Forest
2 Swamp
2 Ghost Quarter
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Dark Confidant
4 Grim Flayer
3 Scavenging Ooze
Spells (23)
2 Mishra's Bauble
1 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Traverse the Ulvenwald
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
4 Fatal Push
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Go for the Throat
4 Liliana of the Veil
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Maelstrom Pulse
With traverses, do you think Kitesail Freebooter can be a good tutor target?
WBC Eldrazi & Taxes CBW
UR Keep on Cantripin' (UR Phoenix) RU
WU Surprise! It's not UW Control! (UW Midrange) UW
BG The Rock, Straight BG
U Mono-Blue Fish U
RBW Mardu Pyromancer BWR
RG Rabble! Rabble! (GR Blood Moon Aggro) GR
Legacy
W Death & Taxes W
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Blooming Marsh
4 Swamp
3 Hissing Quagmire
2 Overgrown Tomb
4 Field of Ruin
2 Forest
Creature [14]
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Dark Confidant
4 Scavenging Ooze
2 Tireless Tracker
4 Fatal Push
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Thoughtseize
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Dismember
4 Liliana of the Veil
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
4 Fulminator Mage
2 Collective Brutality
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Flaying Tendrils
1 Damnation
1 Night of Souls' Betrayal
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
3x Blooming Marsh
1x Concealed Courtyard
1x Forest
1x Godless Shrine
4x Marsh Flats
1x Overgrown Tomb
1x Plains
3x Shambling Vent
2x Swamp
1x Temple Garden
4x Verdant Catacombs
1x Windswept Heath
4x Lingering Souls
1x Maelstrom Pulse
3x Thoughtseize
2x Abrupt Decay
3x Fatal Push
3x Path to Exile
2x Dark Confidant
2x Scavenging Ooze
4x Stoneforge Mystic
4x Tarmogoyf
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
4x Liliana of the Veil
Alternatively could use sword of light and shadow as it could protect tarmogoyf or our other creatures from both fatal push and path to exile, although sword of fire and ice seems like it has the more powerful effect. It seems nice that if you draw duplicate stoneforge mystics you can just pitch her to a Liliana of the Veil +1 and not feel like you lost value.
Based on Butakov's list, I would cut the Tracker and Rhinos, the Collective Brutality, the Pulse and... maybe a Lingering Souls for 4xSFM, 1x Batterskull, 1x Sword of Fire and Ice and 1x Sword of Light and Shadow (for the mirror), and ajust from there.
WBC Eldrazi & Taxes CBW
UR Keep on Cantripin' (UR Phoenix) RU
WU Surprise! It's not UW Control! (UW Midrange) UW
BG The Rock, Straight BG
U Mono-Blue Fish U
RBW Mardu Pyromancer BWR
RG Rabble! Rabble! (GR Blood Moon Aggro) GR
Legacy
W Death & Taxes W
One could include a single W source for side-board copies of Stony Silence.
Ihave often considered it but I haven't tried it.
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
Much to Spsiege's dismay, this is the traverse list I was playing. Traverse, probably more than it should, makes feel like I can play anything, although I did take the grave titan out.
I'm sure my love of durdling and the death cloud mindset shows through with the amount of finks I run, but I will admit they feel slow at times. Similarly, tech edge has been useful at keeping people off certain colors, but I've also had affinity/infect simply not play a fourth land to attack with inkmoth. Changes may include swapping out tec edge for field of ruin then dropping a land and a finks for the last two goyfs. A fulminator could be a boring replacement for kalitas in the board, or I'll find something exciting in my giant test pile.
3x Scavenging Ooze
2x Tarmogoyf
2x Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1x Thragtusk
2x Tireless Tracker
1x Courser of Kruphix
1x Eternal Witness
1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1x Shriekmaw
3x Liliana of the Veil
2x Liliana, the Last Hope
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Traverse the Ulvenwald
2x Fatal Push
2x Hissing Quagmire
1x Mouth of Ronom
2x Overgrown Tomb
4x Tectonic Edge
4x Blooming Marsh
2x Snow-Covered Forest
3x Snow-Covered Swamp
2x Treetop Village
4x Verdant Catacombs
1x Big Game Hunter
1x Caustic Caterpillar
1x Chameleon Colossus
2x Damnation
1x Fatal Push
1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
2x Maelstrom Pulse
1x Necroplasm
2x Nihil Spellbomb
1x Reclamation Sage
2x Thoughtseize
B/G in Legacy
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Blooming Marsh
4 Field of Ruin
4 Swamp
2 Forest
3 Hissing Quagmire
2 Overgrown Tomb
Creatures [14]
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Scavenging Ooze
2 Tireless Tracker
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Thoughtseize
4 Fatal Push
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Dismember
4 Liliana of the Veil
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
4 Fulminator Mage
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Collective Brutality
1 Damnation
2 Flaying Tendrils
1 Night of Souls' Betrayal
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
My sideboard plans for the most popular matchups:
Affinity:
-4 TS
-2 LoTV
+1 NoSB
+1 Damnation
+2 Tendrils
+1 LtLH
+1 Fulminator
Burn:
-4 Bob
-4 TS
-1 LtLH
+2 CB
+2 Tendrils
+4 Fulminator
+1 Nihil Spellbomb
Now this is not an ideal SB plan for the burn matchup, but I 100% don't want any of the 9 cards I board out, and if I draw them game 1, I will never cast them. Thats why I bring in Spellbombs to just have a redraw.
Storm:
-2 Tracker
-2 Decay
-1 Dismember
-1 LtLH
+2 Spellbomb
+2 Surgical
+2 CB
Control:
-4 Push
-2 Pulse (unless they have PWs)
-2 Decay
-1 Dismember
+4 Fulminator
+1 LtLH
+2 CB
+2 Spellbomb (unless they have PWs)
Tron:
-4 Push
-1 LtLH
-1 Dismember
+4 Fulminator Mage
+2 Surgical
E-Tron:
-4 IOK
-2 Decay
-1 LtLH
+4 Fulminator
+2 Surgical
+1 Damnation
Abzan CoCo:
-4 IOK
-2 LoTV
+2 CB
+1 Damnation
+2 Flaying Tendrils
+1 LtLH
I would not bring in NoSB here, since exactly in this kind of matchup Bob shines very much, and those 2 cards don't play very well together.
Grixis DS:
-4 IOK
-3 Decay
+2 Surgical
+2 Fulminator
+1 LtLH
+2 Spellbomb
Depending on being on the draw or play, I would bring in more discard and less Fulminator.
Humans:
-4 TS
-2 LoTV
+1 CB
+1 LtLH
+1 Damnation
+1 NoSB
+2 Tendrils
Might be wrong to bring in NoSB, again due to our own Bob, but it just kills half their deck, which is amazing.
Mardu Pyromancer:
-4 IOK
-4 LoTV
+1 LtLH
+1 NoSB
+2 Spellbomb
+1 CB
+2 Tendrils
+1 Damnation
This deck basically folds to NoSB, and is very susceptible to GY hate. 4 Ooze and the Spellbombs are gonna shine here.
UR Breach:
-4 Push
-2 Decay
-1 Dismember
+2 CB
+2 Surgical
+2 Spellbomb
+1 LtLH
Note that I am here able to board out Decays, which I would 100% keep in Abzan/Jund, singlehandedly due to Blood Moon and Search for Azcanta. In this deck Blood Moon does almost nothing, and if they have Azcanta we can FoR it.
Thats about it for now, will add extra matchup when I thought them through.
TappedOut
Would love to have more input to improve!
This---isn't a GB Rock deck, though. This is literally just a stompy black green deck. I don't see how this deck ever beats combo. I see that you have 2x Thoughtseize in the side, but that means game 1 you're pretty dead in the water.
Affinity looks like an auto loss, you don't have the removal, and you're too slow to race
Kitchen Finks were fine against older, traditional aggro decks, but that disappeared in 2015ish?
Traverse is sketchy here---you have 6x instants, a bunch of creatures, and your sorceries are the discard the the other traverse.
You have a chameleon colossus in the side which is confusing. Are you THAT worried about shadow decks or grindy matchups? Your deck is filled to the brim with slow, big value creatures
It seems fine at an FNM, but the deck construction honestly seems like a mess, it's way, way too slow. I don't see how any fair GBx deck beats you. I'm almost not sure how I beat you with Abzan a few weeks ago at the store looking at this list.
The Todd Stevens list I used could never beat your deck, but I didn't personally like Stevens deck too much, it makes more sense to just play Traverse Shadow if you want to prey on big mana and whatnot.
If your deck is fun and it's what you love, awesome, go for it. On a competitive level, this deck just doesn't work. It looks like you're tuned to beat other fair decks and scoop to nearly everything else, which isn't even that good in modern.
I did notice our store had a ton of fair decks on Monday though
First a bit of context: I have been tweaking this deck since Scars of Mirrodin was in standard (6 years ago now), winning off of disruption, Vampire Nighthawk, and Lashwrithe.
Devoted Black Rock
4x Ghost Quarter
1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
2x Bloodstained Mire
2x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
13 Swamp
Creatures [16]
1x Erebos, God of the Dead
2x Geralf's Messenger
4x Gifted Aetherborn
2x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
4x Herald of Torment
2x Phyrexian Obliterator
1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Non-creature Spells [21]
4x Fatal Push
4x Thoughtseize
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Go for the Throat
3x Sign in Blood
3x Liliana of the Veil
1x Liliana, the Last Hope
1x Bontu's Last Reckoning
2x Damnation
2x Collective Brutality
2x Surgical Extraction
1x Nihil Spellbomb
1x Ratchet Bomb
2x Pithing Needle
Being mono-colored allows me to MD 4x Ghost Quarter, which helps tremendously against Tron. I actually now like the Tron matchup, haha. The deck can win consistently on turn 4 (with Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx) or 5 Gary (Gray Merchant of Asphodel). I have also won a surprising number of times with the potent combination of Gifted Aetherborn + a bestowed Herald of Torment (the life swing is sick). I wish that I could run Bob (Dark Confidant), but with the 4 and 5 drops, I think my average CMC is too high. I have found a 3/1 split of Sign in Blood and Erebos, God of the Dead to be a decent replacement.
I consistently post 2-2 and 3-1 at FNM.
I would greatly appreciate any help to push this deck to the next level, ideally staying mono black or with a slight splash into Green or White. Thank you!
I believe this belongs to here: http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/deck-creation-modern/597491-bx-devotion
TappedOut
Would love to have more input to improve!
Outgrind them, don't go for the land destruction plan. They're a deck full of cantrips, if anything they overflood for an 18 land deck.
Thoughtseize isn't a good choice for Affinity, keep your IOK instead
Too many sideboard out LOTV against creature decks, you can absolutely keep 1 or 2 on the play depending on how good your sideboard is against them.
Thoughtseize is awful against burn, it may as well be a dead card unless I'm looking for Reflecting Palm.
I can agree about tendrils and Storm
Alright, so let me explain my sideboarding plan:
Generally, it is not wrong to side out all LoTV against Affinity. However, but in the Affinity matchup LoTV is better than TS. So you want to board out all TS for sure, followed by some number of LoTV. And here it depends whether you have enough to bring in for the full set of LoTV to board out, or if you dont have enough to bring in. I would not bring in more Fulminators over LoTV personally, because I think LoTV has some potential to kill Etched Champions. You can also change that depending on if you are on the play or draw. But given this list and this sideboard, I rate LoTV higher than TS and Fulminator.
Here is probably one of the biggest misconsceptions against Burn we got in our GBx department. Leaving in TS against Burn. Let me explain to you why actually this is a horrible idea, and not a good one. The one argument I always hear is that taking a boros charm nets you +2 life. Well, this is only true if you look at the two cards in a vacuum. But what if we look at the decks in context?
Burn is essentially a combo deck, which has to resolve 7 spells to win the game. Why 7? Because on average, their cards do 3 dmg to us, and 7 x 3 nets a total of 21 dmg they generally need to do kill us. There are some spells which do more dmg (Boros Charm, 4 dmg) but there are also spells which do less (creatures, they do about 2 dmg on average against us before they get removed) which evens up to about 3 dmg per spell.
So assuming you have a good and thankful manabase, and you only fetch once for 1 life in the game against burn. So naturally you will 19 life left. Recalculating the number of spells they need to resolve against us still gives the number 7, since 6 spells will only deal 18 dmg on average. What now happens if you Thoughtseize and take Boros Charm? You are at 19 life, cast TS and take the Boros Charm. After the TS you are at 17 life and you took a combo piece from the oponents hand. Now lets do the math again: How many combo pieces do they now need to win? Unsurprizingly, only 6. That means, you spend 1 Mana and a card (which you could otherwise discard to Lili) in order to do absolutely nothing against the clock of the opponent. You actually helped the opponent. You take a card but they also need one less card. See what I am trying to say? Its doing nothing but costing you cards and mana, its negative CA and negative tempo as well. I cannot stress enough how bad TS is against them.
I also suggest you check out my Jund primer, where such things and interactions are clearly described: Jund Primer. This is Abzan ofc, but this general concept applies to all GBx decks essentially.
If you want more, I also asked Willy Edel long time ago about this issue, I asked "Would you keep TS in against Burn?" and his response was: "NO, unless I have zero sideboard cards". I guess this statement pretty much sums it up
Flaying Tendrils is alright to bring in against Storm. I personally feel it is not completely necessary, because we disrupt them enough that they wont make a huge amount of Goblins, but it is certainly not wrong to bring in. Maybe its better actually.
Against Grixis DS I am not high on Fulmiators, but my plan right now is to bring in 2 copies. At worst it is a jumpblocker and blows up a land, which kinda is a 1,5 for 1 trade, concerning the clock at least. I do not like that is so clunky though. I also am not 100 % sure how to sidebaord against this deck, but I will experiemnt with it further.
While I agree to a certain extent, IOK is also probably the best way to answer an Etched Champion. Especially on the play. It is probably the only threat I am worried about in that matchup. If I can cleanly take it away from their hand, we are in a great position. I also find it quite unlikely that Affinity players will always dump their entire hand on turn 1 or 2. Therefore I find IOK ok to leave in. On the draw it is usually correct to side out more discard spells.
You also have to keep in mind that we are talking about Rock here, which runs 8 discard spells. You don't have enough to bring in to cut all of them as well as 2 copies of LoTV.