I can't even imagine what the Affinity player's logic was. "Hey! We have 2 Thoughtseizes in the board, favorable matchup in games 2 and 3!" Get real.
You are welcomed to go in the Affinity thread and elaborate on your point of view if you disagree with Affinity's Game 2-3s against Ascendancy Storm. Galvanic Blast, Gut Shot, Whipflare, Dismember, Thoughtseize, Wear // Tear and Ethersworn Canonist are all cards that can give the deck problems and most of these see lots of play in Affinity's sideboard. I have faced Ascendancy Storm in the past and the difficult matches are Game 1s (especially in the dark) and some Game 2-3s where I have no interaction to cast in time.
Yeah, I know Mono-Black isn't the most competitive list; nor is it well positioned to do well against an artifact based deck. However, I'd like to see if I could increase my odds post-board to atleast 50-50. The best idea I've got is -1 Pithing Needle, -1 Sudden Death, +2 Drown in Sorrow. I fear 5 sweepers (3 BSZ, 2 Drown in Sorrow) might be too much. Opinions? Any other suggestions?
There is word going around the net of a new Jeskai Ascendancy storm deck that can consistently combo off on turn 3, and sometimes turn 2. Since the deck breaks the 'turn 4 rule' it can be a problem for the format, and I think we should discuss it just incase it becomes a thing. A few things I have gathered on it are 1) Jeskai Ascendancy is the lynchpin of the deck, which brings me to 2) the deck is more vulnerable to discard than Storm, and 3) killing their mana dorks sets them back.
Game 1, assuming we don't know what deck our opponent is playing, can prove very difficult. The key is Galvanic Blast, but if you don't have it, you HAVE to go for your fastest kill. Got an Inkmoth Nexus and an Arcbound Ravager? Get ready to sac your board without looking back. We must win turn 3-4-5. If we DO have Galvanic Blast in hand (and the appropriate mana source in play), it becomes slightly less stressful. However, keep in mind they run several mana dorks, so it's more or less buying you one turn. Something else to keep in mind is, assuming they believe we are too fast, they can Glittering Wish for Firespout or Abrupt Decay.
Game 2 and Game 3 are in our favor because they are more unfair than we are. We get to side out our slow threats like Etched Champion (sure, it can block a very fat Noble Hierarch on the combo turn, but literally everything in our deck can just chump it) and add strong hate like Thoughtseize, Wear // Tear. Whipflare doesn't sound too bad, but it barely misses the kill on Sylvan Caryatid and it's a Sorcery. Gut Shot is an all-star in this matchup because it plows every dork they have (bar the Caryatid) and doesn't force you to leave a red mana open. Dismember can be used as an alternative to Gut Shot if you don't have it in the sideboard.
Aggro
-Burn (best deck to allow players to dive into an unknown format)
Control
-UW Control (for those who would rather live long than kill the other fast)
Combo
-Living End (very cool combo deck that isn't too unfun for new players like Splinter Twin or Scapeshift)
Midrange
-Kiblers Naya Midrange (one of the greatest luxuries in Modern is the mana base, this should let them enjoy 3-colored decks without proxying BGx/URW decks)
Tempo
-Merfolk (lots of players love the idea of tribal decks and this one is no slouch)
Ramp
-RG Tron (if they are Commander players, they might like the idea of a deck that Turn 3 Karns often)
I know you said 8 decks, but these 6 are the best I can think of when restricting budget and representing deck archetypes.
I would like to mention 2 things I noticed in khans.... twin now has another way to win and it avoids Rakdos charm. Altar of the Brood and affinity got 1 1/2 cards in tomb of the spirit dragon and ghostfire blade I think this officially makes shattering spree better than smash. We simply can't let them gain that kind of life. It wrecks us. And on twin, the just go off and mill us with altar. Any thoughts about those issues. I mean I doubt altar is main board or .aye not even playable in twin but it gets around our Rakdos charm and some other cards. And I think if affinity starts gaining 5+ life, we are in trouble. I was kinda sad to not see anything that really helps us but we did get a big boost out of eidolon?
Tomb of the Spirit Dragon and Ghostfire Blade will not see play in Affinity (you should check out the Affinity thread for discussion regarding Ghostfire Blade, Hardened Scales and Tomb of the Spirit Dragon), so there is no need to worry about those cards in this particular matchup. I also think Altar of the Brood will not see play in Twin because "going off" just kills you regardless of Altar's presence. Basically, it's flat out win-more. And for the record, in order to mill you, they STILL need to generate like 40 tokens which puts them in Rakdos Charm range. There is nothing to worry about.
Burn is looking really solid and I embrace its return to Tier 1.
Tomb of the Spirit Dragon has been spoiled for Khan.
Land - Taps for 1, 2T: gain 1 life for each colourless creature you control.
Probably to clunky for us but could it be used to keep Burn in check?
Our landbase is perfect the way it is.
Darksteel Citadel is an artifact land that synergizes extremely well with the deck. Blinkmoth Nexus and Inkmoth Nexus are our answers to boardwipes and decks like BGx who rely on "Destroy target nonland permanent" and "Discard a nonland card" to beat us. Glimmervoid is our INVALUABLE any-color mana source that doesn't require any life payment to be effective. Island/Mountain is for Path to Exile. If Path to Exile wasn't a thing, this would be a fourth Glimmervoid.
While this land may appear to synergize well with a colorless creatures deck, Modern Affinity is not one of them because it does not help us achieve our goals (we are an aggro deck, life is a resource and we do not plan to play grindy matches) and it faces serious competition with the other lands in our arsenal. Our plan is to kill our opponent as soon as possible, not to stay alive as long as possible.
There is little to no purpose in running this card. It is very difficult to cast and its activation cost makes our deck useless (if we sacrifice 5 artifacts, we don't have many threats left for us to use the extra turn well). Leave artifact saccing to Arcbound Ravager and Shrapnel Blast.
Not a fan of the card. It only works if you have a Ravager or a non-summoning-sick Steel Overseer in play. It's complete deadweight if you don't get either of those cards and if you do, you should already have a good chance at winning the game. It's pretty much a win-more card.
Just been playing this deck for a few weeks and I have a few questions:
1. When you use blinkmoth's ability to pump another blinkmoth, do you have to tap a different land for mana then use that mana and then tap blinkmoth to use its ability to pump the other blinkmoth? Or just tapping the blinkmoth pumps the other blinkmoth?
Sorry for my questions and Thanks in advance for the replies
You must tap the Blinkmoth Nexus and use a seperate mana in order to activate the boost ability on a target Blinkmoth. You need one additionnal mana to activate Blinkmoth Nexus's booster ability.
+3 Thoughtseize
+2 Spellskite
+1 Relic of Progenitus
So the only card I never used all day was Illness in the Ranks, and I feel it's not all that needed against Twin.
And the reason I would go back to Thoughtcast is that Shrapnel didn't feel as game breaking as it has in other metas, and I'm always changing my list to get a different feel for different cards.
I will keep you updated on my list as I do testing for other events and GP Boston.
I got a question regarding Ancient Grudge. Is it really necessary to run 2 of those alongside 2 Nature's Claim? I know it helps with the mirror, but does it really do anything else? Also, what happened to Spell Pierce? I thought it was one of our strongest sideboard tech alongside Thoughtseize.
IN:
14 Crucible of Worlds
14 Disenchant
8 Diabolic Edict
5 Fact or Fiction
5 Staff of Domination
OUT:
717 Gitaxian Probe
662 Abrupt Decay
492 Pyroblast
443 Thoughtseize
330 Young Pyromancer
I wonder if ktkenshinx will quit Modern after this. I think he mentionned such a ban as his breaking point. (Please don't quit!)
One great mono-black answer to us is Darkblast.
Game 1, assuming we don't know what deck our opponent is playing, can prove very difficult. The key is Galvanic Blast, but if you don't have it, you HAVE to go for your fastest kill. Got an Inkmoth Nexus and an Arcbound Ravager? Get ready to sac your board without looking back. We must win turn 3-4-5. If we DO have Galvanic Blast in hand (and the appropriate mana source in play), it becomes slightly less stressful. However, keep in mind they run several mana dorks, so it's more or less buying you one turn. Something else to keep in mind is, assuming they believe we are too fast, they can Glittering Wish for Firespout or Abrupt Decay.
Game 2 and Game 3 are in our favor because they are more unfair than we are. We get to side out our slow threats like Etched Champion (sure, it can block a very fat Noble Hierarch on the combo turn, but literally everything in our deck can just chump it) and add strong hate like Thoughtseize, Wear // Tear. Whipflare doesn't sound too bad, but it barely misses the kill on Sylvan Caryatid and it's a Sorcery. Gut Shot is an all-star in this matchup because it plows every dork they have (bar the Caryatid) and doesn't force you to leave a red mana open. Dismember can be used as an alternative to Gut Shot if you don't have it in the sideboard.
Aggro
-Burn (best deck to allow players to dive into an unknown format)
Control
-UW Control (for those who would rather live long than kill the other fast)
Combo
-Living End (very cool combo deck that isn't too unfun for new players like Splinter Twin or Scapeshift)
Midrange
-Kiblers Naya Midrange (one of the greatest luxuries in Modern is the mana base, this should let them enjoy 3-colored decks without proxying BGx/URW decks)
Tempo
-Merfolk (lots of players love the idea of tribal decks and this one is no slouch)
Ramp
-RG Tron (if they are Commander players, they might like the idea of a deck that Turn 3 Karns often)
I know you said 8 decks, but these 6 are the best I can think of when restricting budget and representing deck archetypes.
Tomb of the Spirit Dragon and Ghostfire Blade will not see play in Affinity (you should check out the Affinity thread for discussion regarding Ghostfire Blade, Hardened Scales and Tomb of the Spirit Dragon), so there is no need to worry about those cards in this particular matchup. I also think Altar of the Brood will not see play in Twin because "going off" just kills you regardless of Altar's presence. Basically, it's flat out win-more. And for the record, in order to mill you, they STILL need to generate like 40 tokens which puts them in Rakdos Charm range. There is nothing to worry about.
Burn is looking really solid and I embrace its return to Tier 1.
Our landbase is perfect the way it is.
Darksteel Citadel is an artifact land that synergizes extremely well with the deck.
Blinkmoth Nexus and Inkmoth Nexus are our answers to boardwipes and decks like BGx who rely on "Destroy target nonland permanent" and "Discard a nonland card" to beat us.
Glimmervoid is our INVALUABLE any-color mana source that doesn't require any life payment to be effective.
Island/Mountain is for Path to Exile. If Path to Exile wasn't a thing, this would be a fourth Glimmervoid.
While this land may appear to synergize well with a colorless creatures deck, Modern Affinity is not one of them because it does not help us achieve our goals (we are an aggro deck, life is a resource and we do not plan to play grindy matches) and it faces serious competition with the other lands in our arsenal. Our plan is to kill our opponent as soon as possible, not to stay alive as long as possible.
There is little to no purpose in running this card. It is very difficult to cast and its activation cost makes our deck useless (if we sacrifice 5 artifacts, we don't have many threats left for us to use the extra turn well). Leave artifact saccing to Arcbound Ravager and Shrapnel Blast.
Blinkmoth Nexus and Inkmoth Nexus become Islands and therefor cannot become creatures.