NullMage Sheperd is Magical Christmas Land. You basically need to have it in the yard and resurrect 4 other creatures or play it and 4 other creatures, have it not being exiled, and obviously have it not blocked by one of those 3 pithing needles ( that can be tutored at instant speed). There's no way that it could be better than Ingot Chewer, Krosan Grip and potentially Shatterstorm if you want something good against Lantern. Shatterstorm has the advantage of not being discarded by inquisition and is very funny aginst Affinity, if you're not already dead when you can cast it.
Testing more and more with 19 lands and really considering to let down one of my two archfiends for it. I love Archfiend but you don't have that much use for two in the GY, so the second one just improves your chances of drawing it. In the end, it's either 1 Archfiend/1 SHriekmaw MB or 2 Archfiends MN and the Shriekmaws in the SB
Lantern is a tricky matchup but not one where we need to dig for obscure cards to solve the match up. Many of the current options counter lantern quite well while it's in the developing board state to achieve a lock.
3-4 Ingot chewers gives you free rein on any artifacts including the key cards such as ensnaring bridge and lantern of insight. Even if it gets binned by thoughtseize, it can still come back and do work with living end.
Faerie macabre is useful against the variants running surgicals, though I suspect that version is going to be less popular given the whir builds having far more consistency as well as access to silver bullets in the MB that can shore up bad G1 matchups.
Finally it lends even more weight to the importance of leyline of sanctity. That card already helps out immensely against decks we struggle with such as burn or scapeshift and tilting the DS matchup towards us, but it pretty much singlehandely halts lantern on it's tracks on all stages unless they land several pandemoniums/ghoulcaller's bell, both of which are not played as much as codex shredder.
I’ve not had much trouble with Lantern, every match I’ve played has been extremely interactive with this deck. We can typically fight over cards on the top because of all our cyclers, and like Raver said - Leyline is a great plan against them. Just make sure you keep fulminator Mage in against them, because Academy Ruins bringing back Bridge after you finally remove it can be a pain. And be wary of Whir for Welding Jar too!!
Regarding Archfiend: I’m on 1/1 split with him and Shriekmaw, but I’m starting to slide away from Shriekmaw in the MB. Might play the 19th land for a little while and see how I like that.
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I wonder about Leyline of Sanctity in the SB. The good thing is, I can't even think about it because I don't have the budget for 4 of those so whatever. But it is the only real Sideboard card against Burn and Storm that does wonders. Anyway, I like the list even if 2 Beast Withins is low.
I wonder about Leyline of Sanctity in the SB. The good thing is, I can't even think about it because I don't have the budget for 4 of those so whatever. But it is the only real Sideboard card against Burn and Storm that does wonders. Anyway, I like the list even if 2 Beast Withins is low.
I’ve played the 4 Leyline before and it’s great for the right meta, Burn Storm and even Lantern are hit pretty hard by it. 7 wins put him to a pretty good Modern finish, weren’t there only 10 modern rounds? So 7-3?
His mana base is identical to mine except he’s playing a Blooming Marsh over my 6th fetch and a 19th Land (his 3rd grove).
Our SB is similar too, he’s on 4 Leyline and 3rd Shriekmaw so I’m assuming he expected a lot of Humans (Good call against them). Beast Within is less good against the non-Ux and non-Scapeshift decks, I can understand the third in board, but I wonder why he didn’t jam the 4th Faerie in board if he wanted them so badly?
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Played in a local weekly last Thursday and only just getting around to posting the results. 50ish man event, Went 3-0 and split the 4th round. Heres the list:
Round one vs Mono Blue Merfok
Stock 12 lords list. First game I lost because I made a bad judgement call, thinking he would have vialed in cursecatcher in response to LE I waited for mainphase. If I had cycled my Street wraith first, which I didn't because my life was already very low and did not need more bodies, I would have draw into a SSG that would have let me played around it. As a result I lost to a master of waves for a ton of tokens and Pro red which made my blocking impossible. Games 2 and 3 I sided in Chewers for Vials and Hate and the single shriekmaw and got there both times. Shriekmaw in both games uses fear to eventually win, and both games relied heavily on fulminator taking care of mutavaults.
Round 2 VS Boros/Gideon
I'm not going to lie I'm not sure what this list even was. I saw Gideon, Helix, Boros Charm, and Bolt, so I assume its some sort of burn list. Game 1 I lost to having to cycle to many wraiths and shocks to draw a cascade and he burned me out. Sideboarding, I bring in Gnaw to the bone. Games 2 and 3 both he mulligans into Leyline of the void. I later found out that he was not using Rest in Peace or Relic in his list, I have no idea why. In both games however him bringing in Leyline was met with me hitting it with beast within which gave him a token so I could Demonic dread into game. Game 3 he mulliganed too hard for leyline and kept a 2 lander on the play and I was holding 2 Fulminators, 2 SSGs, and 2 lands in my opening. I feel like if his hate was just Relic or Rest in peace he may have won.
Round 3 VS Jund
Game one treats me to an opening hand with 2 Living ends being mulliganed into a hand with 1 LE and only 1 land with 3 Cascades and 1 cycler and a SSG that I felt like I had to keep. Mulligan Scry had me put a living end to the bottom of my deck so that's good. His opening move was a thoughseize where he took my Violent outburst, which was a mistake. If he hit my cycler I would have been dead in the water. I draw a land, play it, cycle a Cerodon into wrath into land. His turn 2 is Inquisition to get my other Violent Outburst. On my turn I realize the only reason he would do that is if he thought he was going to get discard spell, draw for the turn and get another street wraith, cycle it and get forbidden Orchard, play that, use it and my SSG to cascade off the orchard token because I figure I do not have time. His next turn he plays Dark Confidant. I attack with everything, he does not block and goes to 7. On his turn he reveals terminate with confidant and nukes my ceradon. I attack, he realizes I have swamp walk and gets all sorts sad. His turn he reveals a land with confidant, draws, and concedes.
Games 2 and 3 I bring in 2 faeries. He wins game 2 as I have an very uneventful hand I had to mull into. Game 3 We have this back and forth where I actually had to pop a living end early just to boardwipe, and eventually got there again with a ton in my yard through his goyfs. Carabid almost lost me the match to because of the must attack clause, but swamp walk got there.
Few points of learning
I added 3 Ricochet traps to the board thinking I would see counter magic like I had in the past few weeks. I was wrong, should have kept more lifegain cards in the list. Thinking of adding brindleboar back in as a 1 of.
Played 19 lands in anticipation of moon decks, also didn't happen. Would have gone 18 for sure if I had known what I would face
Shriekmaw was an all star but I cannot for the life of me justify bringing in another copy.
Land destruction is still very good.
I am constantly compelled to try grove of the burn willows and then decide not to. Besides the fact that the fastlands get better under Blood sun and are still good under Moon, I am realizing just how many games I win with just enough damage.
I'm still not sold on horror because of the black mana cycling. It has been a problem a few times now, many more times than I have won off the pump text on horror. If there was another 1 mana red cycler that had 4 toughness and reasonable attack I would use it, but it still feels much better than a 2 mana cycler. I do remember a fair number of moments where I was holding the damn thing saying to myself "if this was Jund Sojouners I would have an out to X and be in a better place." Not quite ready to make that leap though, probably wait to see if we get anything in the next set
List seems pretty stock, though i'm not a fan of the archfiends even before knowing the PT day 1 meta spread. It's just feels win more in the current meta and not immediately impactful the way shriekmaw is.
I'd be interested to hear what his matchups were to get to the 7-3 record, that could tell us a lot.
Horror cycling for black has not even once been a problem, granted I play 6 fetches + 2 swamp + 1 blooming marsh in addition to the cliffs... but that’s only 1 additional source.
How do you prioritize your shocks? I grab B/R, then B/G, then R/G. If already I have a land in each color (fast lands, groves), I grab B/R because it cycles the entire deck. Then B/G because with SSG it casts either Cascade spell.
I’ve nsver had an issue with Horror’s cycling, in fact playing 2 swamp for post-blood moon suspend has been instrumental in my horrors cycling.
Re: Archfiend — playing with him takes some getting used to, like if he’s one of your cyclists then t2 cycle him and save a street wraith or faerie for post-Living End — that’s a line that will blow out most every creature-based opponent. Today my Jeskai opponent animated their colonnade to trade with my Ceradon and cycling my Carabid turned it into a profitable block. He just manhandles Affinity and even takes care of Geist of Saint Traft.
I’m thibking of running Living End at the Indy Open, not sure if the meta is going to just be a ton of humans and mardu pyromancer but if it seems to settle back into its normal diversity then I’ll probably do it. Affinity is my backup if Humans stays prominent, storm is my backup if big mana resurges, traverse shadow is my backup if UWx takes the stage, and Living End is my choice for GDS/Tron/BGx diversity
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I usually don't prioritize shocks at all, instead I'll fetch basics if I need to, only fetching a shock if I absolutely need red mana. I have actually been considering dropping Overgrown tomb because I very rarely need G/B since everything is cycleable on red except the horror. Part of me considering running a grove of the burnwillows was just this, it would replace the tomb.
I always focus on the fastlands first if I can, and then basics if I can afford them. Fetching for 3 life is a play I will make if I'm not putting myself into critical life because of it, so typically on street wraith light hands, but fast lands are almost alwasy superior for me, even in later turns since your mana curve tends to go from 3 to 5 without the need of a 4 mana spell.
Some people from my LGS landed me some Leylines and Blood Moon for the GP Lyon. This way, I'm sure to have access to all the cards I may want and I'll have access to all the cards I need. ALl I need to do is buy a Kolaghan's command in Lyon for me. Speaking of which, I tried it and indeed it is never useless. It saved me from Burn by killing a Goblin Guide + discarding a Bolt from my opp hand, and is useful in pretty much any situation. It makes me even wonder if it would not be useful to have a second one in the Sideboard, seeing how flexible it is.
I'll be waiting for the results of GP Toronto to ask you what you think of the general Modern orientation for a LE side. While Waiting, I'll continue training against pretty much every Modern deck
Traverse Deaths shadow, mardu, hollow one, and Humans should all be Mu we can beat handily. Leyline of the void is probably going to pop up a lot, and burn is objectively strong right now. Who knows though!
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Quick Question : Isn't Damping Matrix a good answer against Affinity and Lantern? can be played t2 with SSG and any lands and it's basically a stony silence. The only problem I see is that it also turns off Fulminator Mage.But It also works against some lower tiers decks ( bant knightfall, Eldrazi Displacer, OOze, Clues, shuts off Oblivion Stone and of course TRON artifacts, a lot of elves non-mana abilities (not that we care), Sakura-Tribe Elder , Relic of Progenitus, etc.)
The fact that it shuts off Fulminator is bad, but it also has a broad range of decks it's affecting. Has anyone tried it at one point?
Damping matrix is not nearly as good as stony silence, specifically the mana ability clause which is pretty important.
And honestly, nothing beats the good ol fashion ingot chewer, it's pretty efficient and reliable taking out key cards in every matchup where it's demanded. Rarely do we need to run more than a full set of them at that and I don't see a world where damping matrix replaces chewer.
As for the other decks it shuts down that out that you listed, shriekmaw covers the rest.
Damping matrix saw some play back when Twin was a thing in this format. But even then we'd almost completely moved away from it by the time it was banned. I would second Raver and just recommend lots of Ingot Chewer.
I haven't seen work done on mind games with living end and I think this is an area i'd like to make my contributions.
Seeing as every list plays Simian Spirit Guide, that leaves our deck open to some serious Jedi mind tricks. In particular this can be used to at the very least make opponents hesitate in plays and at best can be used strategically in how we sequence our cycles to create unique opportunities to force through high impact spells like living end.
We get to play around what's generally accepted as "good magic" such as holding cycles to the very end of opponent's turn like this. For instance, in our first three turns, we're generally cycling to hit land drops or important spells and if all is well, we're doing it at opponent's EOT on the assumption we're good players. But with SSG in hand, we can "pretend" to be digging for something we really aren't such as a 3rd land and the opponent might assume we're in a bind and behave differently.
This is particularly useful against blue control decks that also hold instants like opt or think twice for EOT if they suspect the coast is clear to fire them off, by creating the illusion you don't have access to three mana, you can lull them into a false sense of security.
So TL;DR I've been compiling a small playbook of this which always involves SSG as the key card.
"Missing a land drop": The most basic one, simply don't play a third land with SSG in hand and see if the opponent wastes mana thinking they're safe from a LE.
Cycling during main phase pretending to look for a land drop, optionally if you find a land from the cycle, immediately play that one to create the illusion that was what you needed when you already had a land in hand to play.
If stuck with Demonic dread/Kari Zev + LE in hand, use beast within if available as the enabler with the aforementioned strategies, and if possible, aim at opponent lands to further constrain mana.
Two SSG in hand means we can go even harder with the mind games as odds are lower that combination of cards are not in our hand.
I haven't seen work done on mind games with living end and I think this is an area i'd like to make my contributions.
Seeing as every list plays Simian Spirit Guide, that leaves our deck open to some serious Jedi mind tricks. In particular this can be used to at the very least make opponents hesitate in plays and at best can be used strategically in how we sequence our cycles to create unique opportunities to force through high impact spells like living end.
We get to play around what's generally accepted as "good magic" such as holding cycles to the very end of opponent's turn like this. For instance, in our first three turns, we're generally cycling to hit land drops or important spells and if all is well, we're doing it at opponent's EOT on the assumption we're good players. But with SSG in hand, we can "pretend" to be digging for something we really aren't such as a 3rd land and the opponent might assume we're in a bind and behave differently.
This is particularly useful against blue control decks that also hold instants like opt or think twice for EOT if they suspect the coast is clear to fire them off, by creating the illusion you don't have access to three mana, you can lull them into a false sense of security.
So TL;DR I've been compiling a small playbook of this which always involves SSG as the key card.
"Missing a land drop": The most basic one, simply don't play a third land with SSG in hand and see if the opponent wastes mana thinking they're safe from a LE.
Cycling during main phase pretending to look for a land drop, optionally if you find a land from the cycle, immediately play that one to create the illusion that was what you needed when you already had a land in hand to play.
If stuck with Demonic dread/Kari Zev + LE in hand, use beast within if available as the enabler with the aforementioned strategies, and if possible, aim at opponent lands to further constrain mana.
Two SSG in hand means we can go even harder with the mind games as odds are lower that combination of cards are not in our hand.
All good points. I sandbag 3rd land if I have SSG and cast Beast Within EOT targeting land pretty frequently against Ux decks. They’ll usually counter it because
- we need to have 3rd land AND outburst, otherwise we would just cast outburst here with our only 3rd mana.
It also works in our favor against Deaths shadow who don’t know our hand to ask their life total during their upkeep. Their strategy is hold your threats as long as possible and then kill us in 1 attack. If we can fade pressure until we have 2 Cascade spells, the game is in the bag.
I also use fulminator exclusively on blue sources against them, if they don’t have one I just turn sideways. They eventually turn into a chump + stone rain when they think they have a window to kill us.
I think we should visit our humans MU and find out how to consistently beat it, because it’s a serious contender in the metagame now
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Just played a game against Traverse Shadow, kept a hand with faerie and Living End post side, the guy played t2 Inquisition, discard my LE, and then Thoughtseize and Surgical extraction. That was a pretty feel bad moment.
Here are two Jedi shenanigans that I learned while playing Living End. I suppose most of you already know them but Iùll post them for other new players because the second one is not obvious.
Look at what you reveal in your cascade spell.
Of course if you only reveal 2 cards that doesn't count, but when you reveal a ton of cards, you can guess what are the cards that are still on the top of your deck. Cascading 40 cards for the first cascade spell while having all 3 Living Ends in the deck tells you that you may want to crack a fetch fast because you're likely to draw another Living End soon. It's even better post sideboard because you know if your SB cards are on the top of your library or not.
Shriekmaw and Violent Outburst Shenanigan.
If you have 5 Mana, a Shriekmaw and a Violent Outburst, you can play Shriekmaw, put the sacrifice trigger on top of the ETB trigger; Let the sacrifice Trigger resolve, then play Violent Outburst(And Living End) before the ETB trigger resolves. Of course this one will fizzle but you will resurrect your graveyard with the Shriekmaw in it and get a new Shriekmaw ETB trigger that will allow you to get rid of a creature on the opponent's side. This is really cornercase but I snatched two wins with this so I share the trick here.
Thanks for your knowledge of the deck, it really helps!
Just played a game against Traverse Shadow, kept a hand with faerie and Living End post side, the guy played t2 Inquisition, discard my LE, and then Thoughtseize and Surgical extraction. That was a pretty feel bad moment.
Here are two Jedi shenanigans that I learned while playing Living End. I suppose most of you already know them but Iùll post them for other new players because the second one is not obvious.
Look at what you reveal in your cascade spell.
Of course if you only reveal 2 cards that doesn't count, but when you reveal a ton of cards, you can guess what are the cards that are still on the top of your deck. Cascading 40 cards for the first cascade spell while having all 3 Living Ends in the deck tells you that you may want to crack a fetch fast because you're likely to draw another Living End soon. It's even better post sideboard because you know if your SB cards are on the top of your library or not.
Shriekmaw and Violent Outburst Shenanigan.
If you have 5 Mana, a Shriekmaw and a Violent Outburst, you can play Shriekmaw, put the sacrifice trigger on top of the ETB trigger; Let the sacrifice Trigger resolve, then play Violent Outburst(And Living End) before the ETB trigger resolves. Of course this one will fizzle but you will resurrect your graveyard with the Shriekmaw in it and get a new Shriekmaw ETB trigger that will allow you to get rid of a creature on the opponent's side. This is really cornercase but I snatched two wins with this so I share the trick here.
Thanks for your knowledge of the deck, it really helps!
For number 1, I'd say don't try to see every card, but do make a mental note of relevant post-LE draws like Beast Within, sideboard cards, Faeries, etc. If you just keep a count of relevant cards when considering your next line of play.
Also, just wanted to share another fun experience regarding the 'hiding information with Simian Spirit Guide' topic. Was playing against Taking Turns and he used Exhaustion to timewalk me. I drew my card (wasn't relevant as I had SSG and Ricochet Trap in hand). I kept a poker face and passed. He slammed a land and cast Time Warp only to have me exile SSG and change the target to me with my trap. Thank God that one targets! Needless to say, with two turns of attacks, I was able to win the game and the match. I R BETTER COMBO!!
Testing more and more with 19 lands and really considering to let down one of my two archfiends for it. I love Archfiend but you don't have that much use for two in the GY, so the second one just improves your chances of drawing it. In the end, it's either 1 Archfiend/1 SHriekmaw MB or 2 Archfiends MN and the Shriekmaws in the SB
3-4 Ingot chewers gives you free rein on any artifacts including the key cards such as ensnaring bridge and lantern of insight. Even if it gets binned by thoughtseize, it can still come back and do work with living end.
Faerie macabre is useful against the variants running surgicals, though I suspect that version is going to be less popular given the whir builds having far more consistency as well as access to silver bullets in the MB that can shore up bad G1 matchups.
Finally it lends even more weight to the importance of leyline of sanctity. That card already helps out immensely against decks we struggle with such as burn or scapeshift and tilting the DS matchup towards us, but it pretty much singlehandely halts lantern on it's tracks on all stages unless they land several pandemoniums/ghoulcaller's bell, both of which are not played as much as codex shredder.
Regarding Archfiend: I’m on 1/1 split with him and Shriekmaw, but I’m starting to slide away from Shriekmaw in the MB. Might play the 19th land for a little while and see how I like that.
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Here is the list : https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/923128#paper
I wonder about Leyline of Sanctity in the SB. The good thing is, I can't even think about it because I don't have the budget for 4 of those so whatever. But it is the only real Sideboard card against Burn and Storm that does wonders. Anyway, I like the list even if 2 Beast Withins is low.
I’ve played the 4 Leyline before and it’s great for the right meta, Burn Storm and even Lantern are hit pretty hard by it. 7 wins put him to a pretty good Modern finish, weren’t there only 10 modern rounds? So 7-3?
His mana base is identical to mine except he’s playing a Blooming Marsh over my 6th fetch and a 19th Land (his 3rd grove).
Our SB is similar too, he’s on 4 Leyline and 3rd Shriekmaw so I’m assuming he expected a lot of Humans (Good call against them). Beast Within is less good against the non-Ux and non-Scapeshift decks, I can understand the third in board, but I wonder why he didn’t jam the 4th Faerie in board if he wanted them so badly?
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3 Demonic Dread
4 Violent Outburst
4 Beast within
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Fulminator Mage
4 Deadshot Minotaur
4 Monstrous Carabid
4 Desert Cerodon
4 street wraith
2 Horror of the Broken lands
1 Pale Recluse
1 Swamp
4 Copperline Gorge
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Forbidden Orchard
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
1 Blood Crypt
1 Shriekmaw
2 Faerie Macabre
1 Dismember
4 Ingot Chewer
3 Ricochet Trap
1 Crypt Incursion
1 Slaughter games
1 Lost Legacy
1 Gnaw to the bone
Round one vs Mono Blue Merfok
Stock 12 lords list. First game I lost because I made a bad judgement call, thinking he would have vialed in cursecatcher in response to LE I waited for mainphase. If I had cycled my Street wraith first, which I didn't because my life was already very low and did not need more bodies, I would have draw into a SSG that would have let me played around it. As a result I lost to a master of waves for a ton of tokens and Pro red which made my blocking impossible. Games 2 and 3 I sided in Chewers for Vials and Hate and the single shriekmaw and got there both times. Shriekmaw in both games uses fear to eventually win, and both games relied heavily on fulminator taking care of mutavaults.
Round 2 VS Boros/Gideon
I'm not going to lie I'm not sure what this list even was. I saw Gideon, Helix, Boros Charm, and Bolt, so I assume its some sort of burn list. Game 1 I lost to having to cycle to many wraiths and shocks to draw a cascade and he burned me out. Sideboarding, I bring in Gnaw to the bone. Games 2 and 3 both he mulligans into Leyline of the void. I later found out that he was not using Rest in Peace or Relic in his list, I have no idea why. In both games however him bringing in Leyline was met with me hitting it with beast within which gave him a token so I could Demonic dread into game. Game 3 he mulliganed too hard for leyline and kept a 2 lander on the play and I was holding 2 Fulminators, 2 SSGs, and 2 lands in my opening. I feel like if his hate was just Relic or Rest in peace he may have won.
Round 3 VS Jund
Game one treats me to an opening hand with 2 Living ends being mulliganed into a hand with 1 LE and only 1 land with 3 Cascades and 1 cycler and a SSG that I felt like I had to keep. Mulligan Scry had me put a living end to the bottom of my deck so that's good. His opening move was a thoughseize where he took my Violent outburst, which was a mistake. If he hit my cycler I would have been dead in the water. I draw a land, play it, cycle a Cerodon into wrath into land. His turn 2 is Inquisition to get my other Violent Outburst. On my turn I realize the only reason he would do that is if he thought he was going to get discard spell, draw for the turn and get another street wraith, cycle it and get forbidden Orchard, play that, use it and my SSG to cascade off the orchard token because I figure I do not have time. His next turn he plays Dark Confidant. I attack with everything, he does not block and goes to 7. On his turn he reveals terminate with confidant and nukes my ceradon. I attack, he realizes I have swamp walk and gets all sorts sad. His turn he reveals a land with confidant, draws, and concedes.
Games 2 and 3 I bring in 2 faeries. He wins game 2 as I have an very uneventful hand I had to mull into. Game 3 We have this back and forth where I actually had to pop a living end early just to boardwipe, and eventually got there again with a ton in my yard through his goyfs. Carabid almost lost me the match to because of the must attack clause, but swamp walk got there.
Few points of learning
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I'd be interested to hear what his matchups were to get to the 7-3 record, that could tell us a lot.
How do you prioritize your shocks? I grab B/R, then B/G, then R/G. If already I have a land in each color (fast lands, groves), I grab B/R because it cycles the entire deck. Then B/G because with SSG it casts either Cascade spell.
I’ve nsver had an issue with Horror’s cycling, in fact playing 2 swamp for post-blood moon suspend has been instrumental in my horrors cycling.
Re: Archfiend — playing with him takes some getting used to, like if he’s one of your cyclists then t2 cycle him and save a street wraith or faerie for post-Living End — that’s a line that will blow out most every creature-based opponent. Today my Jeskai opponent animated their colonnade to trade with my Ceradon and cycling my Carabid turned it into a profitable block. He just manhandles Affinity and even takes care of Geist of Saint Traft.
I’m thibking of running Living End at the Indy Open, not sure if the meta is going to just be a ton of humans and mardu pyromancer but if it seems to settle back into its normal diversity then I’ll probably do it. Affinity is my backup if Humans stays prominent, storm is my backup if big mana resurges, traverse shadow is my backup if UWx takes the stage, and Living End is my choice for GDS/Tron/BGx diversity
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I always focus on the fastlands first if I can, and then basics if I can afford them. Fetching for 3 life is a play I will make if I'm not putting myself into critical life because of it, so typically on street wraith light hands, but fast lands are almost alwasy superior for me, even in later turns since your mana curve tends to go from 3 to 5 without the need of a 4 mana spell.
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I'll be waiting for the results of GP Toronto to ask you what you think of the general Modern orientation for a LE side. While Waiting, I'll continue training against pretty much every Modern deck
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The fact that it shuts off Fulminator is bad, but it also has a broad range of decks it's affecting. Has anyone tried it at one point?
And honestly, nothing beats the good ol fashion ingot chewer, it's pretty efficient and reliable taking out key cards in every matchup where it's demanded. Rarely do we need to run more than a full set of them at that and I don't see a world where damping matrix replaces chewer.
As for the other decks it shuts down that out that you listed, shriekmaw covers the rest.
Seeing as every list plays Simian Spirit Guide, that leaves our deck open to some serious Jedi mind tricks. In particular this can be used to at the very least make opponents hesitate in plays and at best can be used strategically in how we sequence our cycles to create unique opportunities to force through high impact spells like living end.
We get to play around what's generally accepted as "good magic" such as holding cycles to the very end of opponent's turn like this. For instance, in our first three turns, we're generally cycling to hit land drops or important spells and if all is well, we're doing it at opponent's EOT on the assumption we're good players. But with SSG in hand, we can "pretend" to be digging for something we really aren't such as a 3rd land and the opponent might assume we're in a bind and behave differently.
This is particularly useful against blue control decks that also hold instants like opt or think twice for EOT if they suspect the coast is clear to fire them off, by creating the illusion you don't have access to three mana, you can lull them into a false sense of security.
So TL;DR I've been compiling a small playbook of this which always involves SSG as the key card.
All good points. I sandbag 3rd land if I have SSG and cast Beast Within EOT targeting land pretty frequently against Ux decks. They’ll usually counter it because
- we need to have 3rd land AND outburst, otherwise we would just cast outburst here with our only 3rd mana.
It also works in our favor against Deaths shadow who don’t know our hand to ask their life total during their upkeep. Their strategy is hold your threats as long as possible and then kill us in 1 attack. If we can fade pressure until we have 2 Cascade spells, the game is in the bag.
I also use fulminator exclusively on blue sources against them, if they don’t have one I just turn sideways. They eventually turn into a chump + stone rain when they think they have a window to kill us.
I think we should visit our humans MU and find out how to consistently beat it, because it’s a serious contender in the metagame now
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Honestly seems pretty straightforward.
Shriekmaw MB over archfiend and hold them for either Thalia or meddling mage. If needed, fire off a quick living end to relieve pressure.
Here are two Jedi shenanigans that I learned while playing Living End. I suppose most of you already know them but Iùll post them for other new players because the second one is not obvious.
Thanks for your knowledge of the deck, it really helps!
For number 1, I'd say don't try to see every card, but do make a mental note of relevant post-LE draws like Beast Within, sideboard cards, Faeries, etc. If you just keep a count of relevant cards when considering your next line of play.
Also, just wanted to share another fun experience regarding the 'hiding information with Simian Spirit Guide' topic. Was playing against Taking Turns and he used Exhaustion to timewalk me. I drew my card (wasn't relevant as I had SSG and Ricochet Trap in hand). I kept a poker face and passed. He slammed a land and cast Time Warp only to have me exile SSG and change the target to me with my trap. Thank God that one targets! Needless to say, with two turns of attacks, I was able to win the game and the match. I R BETTER COMBO!!
RBGLiving EndRBG
EDH
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BRXantchaRB
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@Robo_Memer on Twitter, Twitch, Reddit, and YouTube
Feel free to PM me about Affinity decks in any format!