I just tried the Karsten list and I strongly disliked it. Not having Thoughseize or Stubborn Denial left me horrifically vulnerable to the decks with wraths or combos that I played against. Because you really want those options in your sideboard and because Etched Champions are so strong in so many matchups, I think you can't afford the room to be so heavy on Masters. Affinity is simply not fast enough and too easy to interact with to not care about what our opponent is doing most of the time.
Towards Karsten's list, my thoughts were the same. The Champion is a strong out for many MU's, and besides the anthem effect of Master of Etherium, Karn's tokens are equally sized and come in groups. So no Master for me right now. Reducing the interaction main to 2 slots seems okay, but he also doesn't pack a lot in his SB. I thought that was what Affinity wants from the board.
My current list was:
Also Welding Jar is a superb card, though seemingly weak. It overperformed whenever I drew it.
I want more Hope of Ghirapur in my 75, just have more to test to find space.
I am gathering the cards for "real" Affinity, too. A while ago, there was a mono-brown list from GP Milan 2014, I think. Went like 15-0 in Swiss, then lost first match in the T8. He also played Scale of Chiss-Goria as a 2-of. That enables better Affinity starts and is a nice trick to make your stuff survive removal like Pyroclasm and Electrolyze.
I tested again with Galvanic Blast, and I think I'll stick with that in the Color-Robots version for now. The interaction proved its worth, so Stirrings is back in Tron sleeves.
I think it isn't as weak to push which is why it did... ok. It's also 12 lands, with 4 moxes and 4 springleaf drum, which is significantly less than most decks. contested warzone means he is just going wide. It's interesting, but with so many 0's can get super wrecked by EE or ratchet bomb.
I messed up a turn 2 kill in a game. My hand was ravager, inkmoth, HS, mox opal, dsc, welding jar x2. There's only two cards to play possibly play, and I chose the wrong one in hardened scales. Ravager on turn 1 gives mana for hs and activating inkmoth with putting 8 counters on ravager for a total of 9 and moving 10 over to the inkmoth on turn 2. You can do almost the exact same thing with a turn 2 ballista to win. Metallic mimic is pretty great, pumping everything in the deck except ravager (unless you name beast). I had a game against eldrazi tron where I got 8 power on the board turn 2 from HS, mimic -> hangarback ballista ballista.
It's too bad people probably think HS is an inferior joke version and aren't testing it. It's just as fast, and faster with turn 2 kills, higher creature quality, better against removal, goes wider and larger. And the biggest thing is it's better against removal, and better against stony silence (and you're more likely to be able to destroy stony because of all the green producing lands). With wotc printing better creatures they're also printing better removal. Affinity isn't getting the creatures but it is getting hit by the removal.
That go wide affinity version is also growing on me. Reminds me of 8 whack. I'm a sucker for these kinds of decks.
I messed up a turn 2 kill in a game. My hand was ravager, inkmoth, HS, mox opal, dsc, welding jar x2. There's only two cards to play possibly play, and I chose the wrong one in hardened scales. Ravager on turn 1 gives mana for hs and activating inkmoth with putting 8 counters on ravager for a total of 9 and moving 10 over to the inkmoth on turn 2. You can do almost the exact same thing with a turn 2 ballista to win. Metallic mimic is pretty great, pumping everything in the deck except ravager (unless you name beast). I had a game against eldrazi tron where I got 8 power on the board turn 2 from HS, mimic -> hangarback ballista ballista.
It's too bad people probably think HS is an inferior joke version and aren't testing it. It's just as fast, and faster with turn 2 kills, higher creature quality, better against removal, goes wider and larger. And the biggest thing is it's better against removal, and better against stony silence (and you're more likely to be able to destroy stony because of all the green producing lands). With wotc printing better creatures they're also printing better removal. Affinity isn't getting the creatures but it is getting hit by the removal.
That go wide affinity version is also growing on me. Reminds me of 8 whack. I'm a sucker for these kinds of decks.
I don't think HS Affinity is a joke version, but I think it's deeply different. Every turbo kills involves Hardened scales in the first two turns (less than 50% chance) and without the namesake card I feel it as a clunkier version of traditional affinity (that's my opinion driven by a few matches I played and a few other whatched online so I can be wrong). I think that traditional affinity has more redundancy and while it could be slower can have a higher number of broken starts. All in all I think that HS Affo can be more broken but less often than traditional.
That said, I think it can be quite competitive and even stronger in certain meta.
A question: why do you feel it stronger against stony silence? It shuts up 16 creatures and block all the tricks to grow them. I think both decks perform pretty the same under SS. It's true that you can run more removal for it post side though, and that could be the best upside.
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Decks played: Modern:
0 Affinity;
URG Delver
URGW Countercats
(Here you can find some video contents about Countercats and Temur Delver decks)
Have been playing around with this old school affinity build. Overall I'd say it's actually not that bad, it might not be as resilient as a normal affinity build but it's a lot of fun to play. I especially love being able to play out no-land hands and actually win.
The basic idea being to vomit cards onto the battlefield as quickly as possible then pump them with contested war zone, either going over the opponent with flying or just going wider. Can establish a clock really quickly, but is lacking the back-up plans of regular affinity (such as Inkmoth nexus or Etched Champion).
Bomat Courier seems pretty important, its stops you running out of gas and provides a way of recovering from sweepers etc, assuming you can hold up a mana for it.
I think I'll try taking this to my local FNM and see how it does
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Decks - Modern Currently active
- Humans
- Evolve Zoo
I don't think HS Affinity is a joke version, but I think it's deeply different. Every turbo kills involves Hardened scales in the first two turns (less than 50% chance) and without the namesake card I feel it as a clunkier version of traditional affinity (that's my opinion driven by a few matches I played and a few other whatched online so I can be wrong). I think that traditional affinity has more redundancy and while it could be slower can have a higher number of broken starts. All in all I think that HS Affo can be more broken but less often than traditional.
That said, I think it can be quite competitive and even stronger in certain meta.
A question: why do you feel it stronger against stony silence? It shuts up 16 creatures and block all the tricks to grow them. I think both decks perform pretty the same under SS. It's true that you can run more removal for it post side though, and that could be the best upside.
It's stronger because 2/2's and up are better than 1/1's. Metallic mimic still works, which turns on HS. Hangerback still gets you 1/1's. HS is the decks cranial. Play regular affinity without cranial and tell me how well it works.
And on another note I'm glad they're coming out with a ton of hosers in m19. Because no one can complain without the retort "what about stony silence".
Those were the first changes I made when I saw the deck. Just from looking at the list it needs a little something like lupine prototype type creatures.
Experimenting lately with a cantrip heavy build. Basically, I took the idea of Ancient Stirrings and thought, why not another cantrip too? As it turns out, Oath of Nissa is extremely consistent, usually hitting two options, and can even pick up a couple of things that Stirrings can't like Vault Skirge, or out of a sideboard something like Master of Etherium.
I haven't really figured out my sideboard in this particular build yet, other than the fact that I'm interested in a Mountain, some Whipflare, Ghirapur, Aether Grid, and Bomat Courier. Anyways, here's the 60.
Johann Fink's affinity in 9th place at gp barcelona.
If I understood well that's a Mat Nass' tweaked list. It's impressive! Throne of Geth and Evolutionary Leap are monster cards!
I still prefer Traditional list for my play style though
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Decks played: Modern:
0 Affinity;
URG Delver
URGW Countercats
(Here you can find some video contents about Countercats and Temur Delver decks)
Johann Fink's affinity in 9th place at gp barcelona.
If I understood well that's a Mat Nass' tweaked list. It's impressive! Throne of Geth and Evolutionary Leap are monster cards!
I still prefer Traditional list for my play style though
It is almost identical to a mattn decklist from MTGO. If I was actually trying to grind someone out I'd be playing spellskite, shaper's sanctuary, and more welding jars.
I'm someone who has been toying with the idea of getting into Affinity for a while now. Whenever I have proxied up the deck I had a ton of fun with it and I overall really enjoy the way the deck plays.
I realize that right now, with Jeskai being a thing Affinity might not be in the best position it has ever been, but a bad matchup has never done much to discourage me from picking a deck.
However, jumping in blind is something I'm genreally not very fond of, so I'm hoping you all can answer me some question before I even think about getting any of the cards. So here goes:
1. I've been seeing a lot about the Hardened Scales version of Affinity. Going forward, do you think that this list will be the go-to or do you think once some other decks put Jeskai back in it's place the good old regular Affinity versions will return? Maybe the Scales version is just a flavor of the month kinda thing? What I'm getting at is, which one is the one I should pick up if I decide to actually get the cards?
2. Watching some of Zyrnak's videos (which I think tought me a lot, so thanks for making them), he said that you should always have 4 Steel Overseers in your deck, but looking at many of the lists that place in tournaments or 5-0 on MTGO, some actaully only run 3. I've seen that enough times to wonder what the actual community consensus is on this matter.
3. Speaking of community consensus, what ended up being the verdict on Karn, Scion of Urza and The Antiquities War? I realize that both seem very nice in grindier matchups, but which one is actually better? Also, is Karn worth a mainboard slot or two in reality?
4. Lasty I have a question about 3 drops and their ratios. Etched Champion seems to always get a spot, but how many do you think are correct at the moment? Also, Do we still want Master of Etherium, or has he been replaced by Karn?
Anyway, I think that's enough for now. I look forward to hearing your answers and a big Thank You to all of you in advance!
I try to answer with my opinion and experiences.
1. I think both decks have the same power level. It's a matter of meta and play style. I don't like how HS plays so I stick with the traditional build. But that's me.
2. I like having 4 but it is and has always been one of the flex slot of the deck. So feel free to go down to 3 if you like.
3. I think 2 Karns maindeck are a must. It's way better than TAW (which can go in side if the meta requires some more tools against grindy match-up).
4. I play a 2-2 split. I think it's the most balanced configuration. I'm still playing with karsten's list sometimes and I must say that in some MU 4 Master are gorgeus. I think we can't afford to have 3 side slot filled with champions though.
Hope it helped.
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Decks played: Modern:
0 Affinity;
URG Delver
URGW Countercats
(Here you can find some video contents about Countercats and Temur Delver decks)
1. I still play traditional though I've bought into the Hardened Scales version and I haven't played it yet. I think traditional is still good though, I'm turning decent results where I'm at so I'm not too worried.
2. I play 4, but they're one of the first things I board out. At 2 mana I think they're slow and require too much board presence when my opponent is playing more interaction. I still love when they work out and do play the full set main though.
3. I can honestly see the argument for both sides. Karn has been great 70ish% of the time I've landed him on T2 or T3, but I think TAW would have won me the game as well. Unless you get hit with Shatterstorm or similar you likely have 3+ artifacts in play, both Karn and TAW give you 2 more that you can play (since you already played a 4cmc card), and both give you some decent beat sticks.
4. I play 4 Master main and 4 Champion side. Masters main since most opponents don't interact, Champions come in when I see too much interaction (and typically I've been taking out the Overseers/Masters in some combination).
I build my sideboard a bit different, at least I think I do. I was watching one of Zyrn's videos and he was saying how you want the cards in your board to impact them the same way Stony Silence impacts you and worry less about removing their thing that hampers you. My board is 3 Blood Moons, 2 Damping Sphere, 2 Rest in Peace, 4 something (I can't remember), and 4 Etched Champion. It's played out pretty well, most of my opponents seem pretty happy to drop Stony but when I fire back with something equally devastating they seem to be at a huge loss. Anyway, it seems to have opened more than a few sideboard slots for me.
My current list was:
4 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Darksteel Citadel
1 Mountain
4 Mox Opal
4 Springleaf Drum
1 Welding Jar
4 Cranial Plating
4 Ornithopter
2 Memnite
4 Signal Pest
1 Hope of Ghirapur
3 Vault Skirge
4 Steel Overseer
4 Arcbound Ravager
2 Etched Champion
4 Ancient Stirrings
2 Karn, Scion of Urza
2 Damping Sphere
2 Blood Moon
2 Thoughtseize
2 Stubborn Denial
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Wear // Tear
1 Karn, Scion of Urza
2 Whipflare
2 Rest in Peace
Also Welding Jar is a superb card, though seemingly weak. It overperformed whenever I drew it.
I want more Hope of Ghirapur in my 75, just have more to test to find space.
Greetings
1x hope of ghirapur
2x memnite
2x etched champion
2x steel overseer
3x master of etherium
3x vault skirge
4x ornithopter
4x signal pest
4x arcbound ravager
2x ensoul artifact
2x thoughtcast
2x karn scion of urza
Non creature artifacts
1x welding jar
3x springleaf drum
4x cranial plating
4x mox opal
1x island
2x glimmervoid
2x spire of industry
4x darksteel citadel
4x blinkmoth nexus
4x inkmoth nexus
Its been performing pretty well and im really liking it alot
RUAffinityUR
GMono Green StompyG
CEldrazi TronC
URWJeskai GeistWRU
WRBoros BurnRW
BRWMardu PyromancerWRB
Like from today's MTGO tournament
s_b_i_r_u (5th Place)
Modern PTQ #11434967 on 06/17/2018
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/modern-ptq-2018-06-18
I've got the cards lying around and might try putting something together just for fun
Currently active
- Humans
- Evolve Zoo
I tested again with Galvanic Blast, and I think I'll stick with that in the Color-Robots version for now. The interaction proved its worth, so Stirrings is back in Tron sleeves.
Greetings
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Memnite
4 Metallic Mimic
4 Hangarback Walker
4 Steel Overseer
4 Walking Ballista
Spells:
4 Hardened Scales
4 Mox Opal
4 Ancient Stirrings
2 Karn, Scion of Urza
4 Welding Jar
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Inkmoth Nexus
10 Forest
3 Nature's Claim
2 Shaper's Sanctuary
2 Etched Champion
2 Spellskite
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Relic of progenitus
2 Surgical extraction
I messed up a turn 2 kill in a game. My hand was ravager, inkmoth, HS, mox opal, dsc, welding jar x2. There's only two cards to play possibly play, and I chose the wrong one in hardened scales. Ravager on turn 1 gives mana for hs and activating inkmoth with putting 8 counters on ravager for a total of 9 and moving 10 over to the inkmoth on turn 2. You can do almost the exact same thing with a turn 2 ballista to win. Metallic mimic is pretty great, pumping everything in the deck except ravager (unless you name beast). I had a game against eldrazi tron where I got 8 power on the board turn 2 from HS, mimic -> hangarback ballista ballista.
It's too bad people probably think HS is an inferior joke version and aren't testing it. It's just as fast, and faster with turn 2 kills, higher creature quality, better against removal, goes wider and larger. And the biggest thing is it's better against removal, and better against stony silence (and you're more likely to be able to destroy stony because of all the green producing lands). With wotc printing better creatures they're also printing better removal. Affinity isn't getting the creatures but it is getting hit by the removal.
That go wide affinity version is also growing on me. Reminds me of 8 whack. I'm a sucker for these kinds of decks.
I don't think HS Affinity is a joke version, but I think it's deeply different. Every turbo kills involves Hardened scales in the first two turns (less than 50% chance) and without the namesake card I feel it as a clunkier version of traditional affinity (that's my opinion driven by a few matches I played and a few other whatched online so I can be wrong). I think that traditional affinity has more redundancy and while it could be slower can have a higher number of broken starts. All in all I think that HS Affo can be more broken but less often than traditional.
That said, I think it can be quite competitive and even stronger in certain meta.
A question: why do you feel it stronger against stony silence? It shuts up 16 creatures and block all the tricks to grow them. I think both decks perform pretty the same under SS. It's true that you can run more removal for it post side though, and that could be the best upside.
Modern:
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
3 Contested War Zone
4 Darksteel Citadel
1 Mountain
Creatures
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Bomat Courier
4 Frogmite
4 Memnite
4 Myr Enforcer
4 Ornithopter
4 Signal Pest
4 Vault Skirge
4 Cranial Plating
4 Mox Opal
4 Springleaf Drum
4 Welding Jar
Have been playing around with this old school affinity build. Overall I'd say it's actually not that bad, it might not be as resilient as a normal affinity build but it's a lot of fun to play. I especially love being able to play out no-land hands and actually win.
The basic idea being to vomit cards onto the battlefield as quickly as possible then pump them with contested war zone, either going over the opponent with flying or just going wider. Can establish a clock really quickly, but is lacking the back-up plans of regular affinity (such as Inkmoth nexus or Etched Champion).
Bomat Courier seems pretty important, its stops you running out of gas and provides a way of recovering from sweepers etc, assuming you can hold up a mana for it.
I think I'll try taking this to my local FNM and see how it does
Currently active
- Humans
- Evolve Zoo
It's stronger because 2/2's and up are better than 1/1's. Metallic mimic still works, which turns on HS. Hangerback still gets you 1/1's. HS is the decks cranial. Play regular affinity without cranial and tell me how well it works.
And on another note I'm glad they're coming out with a ton of hosers in m19. Because no one can complain without the retort "what about stony silence".
Those were the first changes I made when I saw the deck. Just from looking at the list it needs a little something like lupine prototype type creatures.
I haven't really figured out my sideboard in this particular build yet, other than the fact that I'm interested in a Mountain, some Whipflare, Ghirapur, Aether Grid, and Bomat Courier. Anyways, here's the 60.
3 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Darksteel Citadel
2 Forest
2 Spire of Industry
4 Cranial Plating
4 Mox Opal
4 Springleaf Drum
1 Welding Jar
2 Memnite
4 Ornithopter
4 Signal Pest
3 Steel Overseer
3 Vault Skirge
1 Hope of Ghirapur
1 Arcbound Worker
4 Ancient Stirrings
4 Oath of Nissa
Johann Fink's affinity in 9th place at gp barcelona.
If I understood well that's a Mat Nass' tweaked list. It's impressive! Throne of Geth and Evolutionary Leap are monster cards!
I still prefer Traditional list for my play style though
Modern:
Yeah it's a well built deck.
Modern:
It is almost identical to a mattn decklist from MTGO. If I was actually trying to grind someone out I'd be playing spellskite, shaper's sanctuary, and more welding jars.
I try to answer with my opinion and experiences.
1. I think both decks have the same power level. It's a matter of meta and play style. I don't like how HS plays so I stick with the traditional build. But that's me.
2. I like having 4 but it is and has always been one of the flex slot of the deck. So feel free to go down to 3 if you like.
3. I think 2 Karns maindeck are a must. It's way better than TAW (which can go in side if the meta requires some more tools against grindy match-up).
4. I play a 2-2 split. I think it's the most balanced configuration. I'm still playing with karsten's list sometimes and I must say that in some MU 4 Master are gorgeus. I think we can't afford to have 3 side slot filled with champions though.
Hope it helped.
Modern:
2. I play 4, but they're one of the first things I board out. At 2 mana I think they're slow and require too much board presence when my opponent is playing more interaction. I still love when they work out and do play the full set main though.
3. I can honestly see the argument for both sides. Karn has been great 70ish% of the time I've landed him on T2 or T3, but I think TAW would have won me the game as well. Unless you get hit with Shatterstorm or similar you likely have 3+ artifacts in play, both Karn and TAW give you 2 more that you can play (since you already played a 4cmc card), and both give you some decent beat sticks.
4. I play 4 Master main and 4 Champion side. Masters main since most opponents don't interact, Champions come in when I see too much interaction (and typically I've been taking out the Overseers/Masters in some combination).
"Reveal a Dragon"
"Reveal a Dragon"