with affinity the hate is always going to be strong as long as affinity is popular but your opponent still has to draw the hate and sometimes you can win through it.... you can still win through a stony silence for instance depending if you draw signal pest and get very wide before they get threats out or put a plating on someone before stony hits the board... not going to happen often but it can... and you can also draw disruption in thoughtseize to get in ahead of the hate a small percentage of the time...
when you get boardwiped on multiple turns and you're stuck with citadels, opals and overseers that can't do anything it's not very fun and at times demoralizing... but when they don't draw it you're in pretty decent shape... i have a twin deck that i switch between when i get tired of affinity and since they're very different it keeps things fresh for me...
i will say after that playing more with the deck that playing more than 1 etched champion means conceding that you have less turn 4 kills and leads to hands like Hand 10... ec plus plating leads to more guaranteed turn 5-6 kills though if you're playing against interaction on the other side you will wind up winning more although discard rains on your parade...
that's kind of why i've been going with a 3 MoE/1 EC split.... it just mulligans a lot less and more reliable quick kills if the opponent isn't interacting...
Hey guys, I'm back to UR Twin again after giving it a break for six months and have a couple of questions which I'd really appreciate if someone could help me with. For reference, here's my current list (unfortunately no Scalding Tarns).
it's a pretty stock list and good... although i would probably go 4 sulfur falls if you can.. it's the best land in the deck...
* I noticed that BBD played Vandalblast instead of Ancient Grudge. What are people's experiences with this?
vandalblast i always liked and i play over grudge... it's relevant against amulet and tron and also affinity esp on the draw.. they all have relevant turn 1 artifact plays and if you're on the draw it's going to be too late to grudge most of them.... vandalblast works as a later shatterstorm for the affinity matchup so you don't lose too much from grudge...
* Twisted Image has been picking up in popularity. Does it deserve one slot main deck? Any thoughts on what to cut then?
this usually fills the flex slots in the deck and it's a meta call... twisted image is mainly for spellskite which sees play in half the t1/2 decks out there... it also has some uses on offense so it's sort of relevant... it's an ok card but for it to get the full power you should put it in when you're expecting a lot of spellskite...
* With GR Tron and BW Eldrazi getting played more, doesn't Crumble to Dust fit in as a one-of in the sideboard? Do I cut Anger of the Gods?
* Any additional thoughts on my deck? (aside from "wrong" fetchlands that is..)
I love crumble to dust.... but again it's a meta call on how much of the decks you're expecting revolve around land... if you go online the meta is definitely shifting in that direction so it's good there...
@Ilnez - blood moon/crumble and a dedicated combo plan is sometimes enough... UR is going to have a much tougher time against eldrazi than grixis because removing a blight herder let alone an oblivion sower is really tough and the discard really helps in this matchup...
turning off the lands is a start... it will buy you a few turns to land the combo.... board out a good number of snap/bolts and try not to run into strangler... spellskite is of course great here also... but boarding in stuff like keranos or jace or even pia kiran is a mistake imo...
i think shatterstorm is a little better since if you have it by turn 4 it's usually game over... you need to reliably have a kill the next turn or two where hurkyl's is better since they can rebuild their board pretty fast...
Bx eldrazi has diversified threats and devalues alot of the maindeck cards.... i struggled a lot against it at first but then after giving it more thought finally found an adjusted sideboard plan that works a lot better to where i think it is a 50/50 matchup....
i probably have more experience against bw eldrazi and i think that's the best version of it so far... br also seems good but i haven't played against it at all so can't comment... but here's the way i look at the bw matchup...
game 1 you should be on the combo plan as plan A but if they don't draw any lingering souls.. there's a small window to burn them out and chip away with cliques/pestermites... if you have a snap/bolt heavy draw and they took a good bit of damage in the early turns you're going to want to go to the face before you miss opportunities to snap/bolt.. either way it's like tron and plan for the game to end around turn 7-8 either way....
postboard combo should still be the focus .... blood moon isn't an auto win much like against tron but it slows down their game plan significantly since eye of ugin and eldrazi temple makes the eldrazi's even playable and they don't have boil or choke to worry about... if you get blood moon out you are highly favored to win but you have about 3 or 4 turns where it starts hurting you more...
i usually board like this...
on the play
out: 2x spell snare, 3x snapcaster, 3x bolt, 1x remand
in: 2x blood moon, 2x anger of the gods, 2x thoughtseize, 1x spellskite, 2x shadow of doubt
draw
out: 2x spell snare, 2x snapcaster 2x bolt, 3x remand
in: 2x blood moon, 2x anger of the gods, 2x thoughtseize, 2x shadow of doubt, 1x engineered explosives
snaps are not totally useless since you will have some windows to flash something back but it's going to be pretty hard... and bolts become less useful without snaps.... clique is really good as instant speed discard to slow them down and number 1 targets are removal, and either sower or herder depending on where you are in the game... lingering souls isn't too much of a problem by itself but lingering souls + blight herder is a huge problem and that's why anger and engineered explosivies are brought in....
shadow of doubt is sort of a spicy card and i just think it's really really good in a lot of relevant matchups now especially this one... it's good early to kill a fetch or counters expedition maps which we can't normally interact with and if eye of ugin is out it does better than remand an ulamog... it's a strong card in other matchups too and i'm thinking of upping my sideboard count to 3 or even 4...
think the focus has mostly been on winning the first game as fast as possible... i really like welding jar myself seeing as how bolt is the most popular early removal it's really good keeping your overseer alive for a turn.. when there's a lot of terminate or path's it's pretty dead but it powers everything else... i almost like it over memnite...
[quote from="SamAffandy »" url="http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/tier-1-modern/219590-affinity?comment=4037"]
Hand A is an OK hand, but 1 bolt and your are basically screwed. It is the type of hand that in the dark I will ship most of the time but if I know that the opponent is targeted removal light I would keep.
Hand B is one I will snap keep. While it is slow it is resistant to discard spells, makes any of our large number of terrible creatures an instant threat, and a topdecked Etched Champion is pretty much unstoppable.
i like the reasoning for both.. thanks that helps...
kind of new to affinity and loving it.. have about 30 or so matches under my belt and struggling with some mulligan decisions.. playing stock list except 1 thoughtcast/3 galvanic, 1 MoE/3 EC and 2 spellskite... couple of examples on the play against unknown opponent:
a)2x Ornothopter... 2x signal pest... glimmervoid... citadel... mox.... i know the rule about mulling without the big guns but i usually keep this hand since we dump everything and gets better if we pick up anything.. is this usually correct with 2x signal pests?
b)2x ravager... 2x cranial plating... 1x citadel/ornothopter/drum... i find the hands with multiple platings and multiple ravager or overseer to be a bit slow.. i've been keeping this also with soso results...
i guess a follow up question would be what's the worst hand that you would keep on the play against an unknown opponent? apologies if this isn't an obvious question... just looking for examples to get an idea on what's good and what's not...
when you get boardwiped on multiple turns and you're stuck with citadels, opals and overseers that can't do anything it's not very fun and at times demoralizing... but when they don't draw it you're in pretty decent shape... i have a twin deck that i switch between when i get tired of affinity and since they're very different it keeps things fresh for me...
that's kind of why i've been going with a 3 MoE/1 EC split.... it just mulligans a lot less and more reliable quick kills if the opponent isn't interacting...
it's a pretty stock list and good... although i would probably go 4 sulfur falls if you can.. it's the best land in the deck...
vandalblast i always liked and i play over grudge... it's relevant against amulet and tron and also affinity esp on the draw.. they all have relevant turn 1 artifact plays and if you're on the draw it's going to be too late to grudge most of them.... vandalblast works as a later shatterstorm for the affinity matchup so you don't lose too much from grudge...
this usually fills the flex slots in the deck and it's a meta call... twisted image is mainly for spellskite which sees play in half the t1/2 decks out there... it also has some uses on offense so it's sort of relevant... it's an ok card but for it to get the full power you should put it in when you're expecting a lot of spellskite...
I love crumble to dust.... but again it's a meta call on how much of the decks you're expecting revolve around land... if you go online the meta is definitely shifting in that direction so it's good there...
turning off the lands is a start... it will buy you a few turns to land the combo.... board out a good number of snap/bolts and try not to run into strangler... spellskite is of course great here also... but boarding in stuff like keranos or jace or even pia kiran is a mistake imo...
i personally like vandalblast over both...
i probably have more experience against bw eldrazi and i think that's the best version of it so far... br also seems good but i haven't played against it at all so can't comment... but here's the way i look at the bw matchup...
game 1 you should be on the combo plan as plan A but if they don't draw any lingering souls.. there's a small window to burn them out and chip away with cliques/pestermites... if you have a snap/bolt heavy draw and they took a good bit of damage in the early turns you're going to want to go to the face before you miss opportunities to snap/bolt.. either way it's like tron and plan for the game to end around turn 7-8 either way....
postboard combo should still be the focus .... blood moon isn't an auto win much like against tron but it slows down their game plan significantly since eye of ugin and eldrazi temple makes the eldrazi's even playable and they don't have boil or choke to worry about... if you get blood moon out you are highly favored to win but you have about 3 or 4 turns where it starts hurting you more...
i usually board like this...
on the play
out: 2x spell snare, 3x snapcaster, 3x bolt, 1x remand
in: 2x blood moon, 2x anger of the gods, 2x thoughtseize, 1x spellskite, 2x shadow of doubt
draw
out: 2x spell snare, 2x snapcaster 2x bolt, 3x remand
in: 2x blood moon, 2x anger of the gods, 2x thoughtseize, 2x shadow of doubt, 1x engineered explosives
snaps are not totally useless since you will have some windows to flash something back but it's going to be pretty hard... and bolts become less useful without snaps.... clique is really good as instant speed discard to slow them down and number 1 targets are removal, and either sower or herder depending on where you are in the game... lingering souls isn't too much of a problem by itself but lingering souls + blight herder is a huge problem and that's why anger and engineered explosivies are brought in....
shadow of doubt is sort of a spicy card and i just think it's really really good in a lot of relevant matchups now especially this one... it's good early to kill a fetch or counters expedition maps which we can't normally interact with and if eye of ugin is out it does better than remand an ulamog... it's a strong card in other matchups too and i'm thinking of upping my sideboard count to 3 or even 4...
i like the reasoning for both.. thanks that helps...
a)2x Ornothopter... 2x signal pest... glimmervoid... citadel... mox.... i know the rule about mulling without the big guns but i usually keep this hand since we dump everything and gets better if we pick up anything.. is this usually correct with 2x signal pests?
b)2x ravager... 2x cranial plating... 1x citadel/ornothopter/drum... i find the hands with multiple platings and multiple ravager or overseer to be a bit slow.. i've been keeping this also with soso results...
i guess a follow up question would be what's the worst hand that you would keep on the play against an unknown opponent? apologies if this isn't an obvious question... just looking for examples to get an idea on what's good and what's not...
goyf is good if they have their slower hands... which is going to happen.. they don't turn 2 all the time...