MTG Salvation

Great way to look at it. You can bring in RiP if you have those in the board also, but don’t forget to bring out a ravager or two

Quote from FitzRolf »

Round 1: Jund 2-1

I've been playing affinity more or less casually since forever. The GBx matchup always felt 50/50, but since BBE unbanning and the resurrection of Jund feels much worst. Do you have any advice for the matchup?

Thanks!! It,s really usefull to get other player's insight in the matchup!!

So a bunch of Bogles decks showed up to my LGS and I need some advice for the matchup. I can't get around the trample damage lol

Also, I was thinking about running Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas in the SB but I can't think of what matchups it would come in again.

Hi guys, I've been running affinity for quite a while now and wanted to know if there was any comprehensive sideboard guides somewhere ? Cheers !!

Hey guys, been playing Affinity as my go-to Modern deck for about a year now. I've been following the innovations in this thread and will probably start contributing myself since I have a fair amount of modern events upcoming! I'm on Bomats main (continue to reasonably relevant as opposed to blasts), 3/1 Skirge/HoG split, and an enchantment-haymaker-heavy sideboard pretty similar to Zyrnak's latest. Anyway, brief MNM summary:

R1: 1-2 MonoBlack Devotion (Draw)

This is my co-worker that I'm teaming with for Baltimore (He's Standard, I'm Legacy), and we practice this matchup a lot. I have a tendency to keep speculative hands to push my knowledge of what's keepable in the Push/Inq/LOTV matchup, and that's what happened here. Could have probably mulled to 5 to try and steal a game but it's MNM, I'd rather experiment. G1 went wide and ran him over, G2 kept a hand of Bitterblossom, Ravagers, and Overseer with 1 mana source and a scry on the draw, G3 kept a slow 6, could have mulled to a faster 5 or something less vulnerable to removal with a Champ.
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SB: -4 Signal Pest, -1 Mountain, +1 Etched Champion, +2 Bitterblossom, +2 Thoughtseize

R2: 2-0 MonoRed Prison (Draw)

Talkative kid borrowing a deck from someone at the shop. I see a chalice through the translucent deckbox and feel pretty good already. He starts with t1 Magus of the Moon, I shrug and vomit my hand out. I draw straight manlands but give him the business anyway with a wide Pest board. G2 he starts mountain pass, and my hand can start with Pest+Bomat+Bomat turn 1, but instead I Thoughtseize him and take the Sweltering Suns, leaving him with a Moon and a Haz. Hazoret stonewalls my ground dudes, but a pair of Signal Pests get the job done as he draws stone nothing. I did get a Ravager down so Suns wasn't really an out once we hit the last couple turns.
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SB: -2 Master of Etherium, -1 Hope of Ghirapur, -1 Mountain, +2 Ancient Grudge, +2 Thoughtseize (Of note, I took the Master of Etheriums out because I guessed he had Ensnaring Bridge since that's somewhat typical of these red prison decks)

R3: 2-1 Affinity (Draw)

Man, I lost so many die rolls last night. Anyway, we both have a chuckle because we're literally the only robot players at the shop and yet we get paired amidst 30-ish people. He keeps a self-described "manly" 6 and scries, visibly content with it on top. I keep a very solid 6 that's a mox/drum away from t1 Overseer, and scry to the bottom. He plays Darksteel->Pest pass. I rip drum off the top and go Darksteel->Drum->Opal->Ornithopter->Overseer. He draws for turn, knows he has no way to contest the Overseer and scoops. G2 I keep a 6 with a turn1 Bitterblossom and an Aether Grid but no third mana source. He has a turn 2 Overseer plus dudes and I don't see this third source or a Grudge, so things get out of hand fast. G3 I keep a killer 7 of Grid, Grudge, Darksteel, Blinkmoth, Overseer, Welding Jar, Skirge. I get the turn2 Overseer, and so does he, but I draw Spire of Industry, and turn 3 I Grid his Overseer, activate mine, and start chunking in with Skirge. He plays Master of Etherium, which if I hadn't had Grid would have been nuts. Next turn I Grudge it, we shrug. Affinity mirrors.
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SB: -3 Etched Champion, -3 Signal Pest, -1 Mountain, +2 Ancient Grudge, +2 Ghirapur Aether Grid, +2 Bitterblossom +1 Spell Pierce (I realized with all these Champs main my mirror sideboard plan is kinda weak compared to what it used to be. Maybe I'm supposed to take the last Pest for a Thoughtseize, I dunno. I kept a second Pest in and didn't bring Pierce in on the play compared to draw, but that still may be incorrect)

R4: 2-0 BW 8-Rack (Play, but lost dieroll)

As soon as he chooses Draw, I have an idea what I'm against and mull to an appropriate 6 that doesn't get blown out by Smallpox or edicts. I get a Steel Overseer and a Signal pest out while he rips apart my hand, and stick a Plating. I put the hat on the Pest and get in a big attack, and he follows up with LotV minus. I have to sac the Overseer to it, so that I don't have to re-equip plating. That gives me the out of drawing any 1 or 0 mana artifact off the top, and having exact lethal by animating a Blinkmoth to attack with the hat-wearing pest. Sure enough I see a drum and it's over. G2 goes pretty similarly, I stick a plating ASAP and try and build a wide board but he keeps Pushing and edicting. I play out an Inkmoth and he plays out an Ensnaring bridge with a couple cards in hand. At this point, plating is +4/+0, but I have the mana to animate Inkmoth, attack, and equip in combat, so I infect him out in two attack steps as he fails to find removal or empty his hand.
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SB: -2 master of Etherium, -2 Etched Champion, -4 Signal Pest, +2 Ancient Grudge, +2 Ghirapur Aether Grid, +2 Bitterblossom +2 Thoughtseize (Once again, took Masters out because I'd seen de-siding Bridges after an earlier round. Seeing a Concealed Courtyard in g1 made me wary of Souls and RIP which informed this boarding strat, but the BBs and TSeize were probably unnecessary. Just tried to go down on weak topdecks and expensive creatures.)


Deck's great, still feels pleasantly comfortable to put hats on robots. Last three MNMs at this shop have been 3-1, 4-0, and 3-1 for me with the same exact list. I'm planning to at least play Affinity in the Sunday PTQ at GP Hartford, maybe in the main event if I can stomach the price.

How was hazoret been working out for people? I’m about to finish up building affinity and I remember some people were trying him out in place of a MoE. My meta has a lot of non-white decks like burn, jund, death shadow decks

The Robots absolutely stole a game last night from Bogles despite a turn-two Stony Silence with an Ensnaring Bridge. I kept two cards in hand and rode first one than two Etched Champions to victory.

They also managed to beat Lantern Control despite his Ensnaring Bridges. Another highlight was a turn-three Infect kill (he scooped on turn three actually).

I'm still not sure Bridge belongs in the side-board but it has stolen a couple of games for me.

Woohoo Hoosiers!

Lol on related note: lantern can be brutal if they assemble bridge lock quickly, but otherwise not too shabby

I'll lead by saying that I'm not the most experienced pilot here, but I think mulligan discussions are very important to have! I mulligan aggressively in general, and especially with Affinity. I think it's largely reasonable to do so given the extreme power level of your payoffs.
A. T1 Overseer and not much else, no castable creatures, 1 man land if any.
- If this is a 7 on play or draw, I'm always shipping it back. The number of Modern decks with t1 removal is much greater than those without right now, and Steel Overseer without backup technically isn't a clock at all. Yes, you could stand up a creatureland to hold a counter, but that's really taxing your development t2. The deck can produce way stronger 6-card hands than that. If there was a 0-creature, or a couple 1-mana dudes for the followup turn, the hand is far better.

B. Mana heavy hand with accelerators, at least 1 man land, and a cranial plating, no castable creatures.
- Again, I probably ship this one back, but it depends. I think for a hand with more than 2 lands, you have to have a pretty hot 3-4 other cards to make it work. Plating plus one or two dudes to wear it works, so does something like a Master, a zero, and a mana accelerant. But if it's lands, Drums, an Opal and a Plating, it's tough for me to not throw it back. Two creaturelands plus the plating and artifact-based acceleration is a begrudging keep however.

C. Mana heavy, 2-3 small creatures, no payoff card.
- This one can be borderline depending on which small creatures you have and what the matchup is. If among those 2-3 small creatures you have one or even two Signal pest, the hand rapidly approaches keepable. At two Pests, any creature you add starts to make them into actual payoff cards, so something like Pest, Pest, Skirge, Blinkmoth and then mana approaches a reasonable keep. A single-pest hand is much less keepable if the clock falls apart significantly to a removal spell. These are the kinds of hands I'm iffy about at 7, but am very happy to see at 6.

Here's a link to a very good 2016 article from Frank Karsten. I didn't see it in the primer, but I expect it's been posted here multiple times. Take it all with a grain of salt for the then meta context and his list, but he articulates a lot of helpful points. He mentions some baseline criteria for keeps and mulls in it, loosely summarized as:

1. One payoff card (Plating, Ravager, Master, Champ, Overseer, 2xPest+Fliers counts)
2. Two reliable mana sources.
3. Then EITHER: Interaction/reach (GalvBlast), another Payoff, or Explosiveness (Mox Opal, Drum+Ornithopter)

Mulliganing with affinity is tricky, because even a 7-card hand can be completely non-functioning. I keep most hands with a payoff and the mana to cast it in the blind. I’ve kept “2 nexi, 2 citadel, mox Champion” hands vs UWx decks before too, not explosive but grindy and hard to deal with

So there is increasingly more and more talk about the new karn

Zyrnak mentions it in his gameplay video vs RG hollow one

However reddit and 4chan seem to be torn

I think we should talk about pros and cons of the card and give it more in depth discussion.

Where is he best? Sideboard or mainboard? If sideboard what matches does he come in? If mainboard what matches does he get taken out? How many should we run?

Could his -2 ability be used well with ensoul artifact? Could this give us reason to play tempered steel? I have seen tempered steel used to some success. Where can affinity go with this new karn?

I am genuinely curious if he would be a good inclusion. So far it seems as much but idk what to take out for him (perhaps the 1 of hope of ghirapur or welding jar?) or where hed go in terms of sideboard or mainboard.

I have been really comparing karn to tezzeret as well and they are pretty similar. Its difficult to really seperate them from each other i feel that its be a matter of taste as to which one a person would pick bc their abilities for our deck are so so similar at least to me they are.

I feel like Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas is just better. He ultimates the next turn after he comes out and usually ends the game on the spot. Not to mention both his +1 and -1 abilities are relevant. Just my 2 cents though

Quote from FitzRolf »

How are everyone's sideboards looking at the moment? I'd definitely like to trim the fat off mine yet need ideas for good replacements.

I am on this

Very similar to this
https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/a-new-affinity-for-2018-top-16-at-grand-prix-phoenix/

I have to say that I am not very impressed with Shapers' sanctuary, but the rest has been working fine.

The only enchantment I would personally add as of now is Bitterblossom for the grindier matchups.

I cut blood moon in favor of Ceremonious Rejection because of valakut deck's falling slightly out of favor. In the tron matchup I find blood moon a bit mediocre and I prefer Ceremonious Rejection to counter those damn Walking Ballista .

These are all considerations based on my meta of course.

Blood moon is more for greedy manabases than tron decks. Tron’s answers for artifacts also typically answer enchantments (nature’s claim, karn, o-stone).

Best plan for tron is go fast, ceremonious is obviously great but that isn’t a card we can bring in vs Jund decks so it’s a give and take. Tron is usually pretty swingy, either they answer your turn 3/4 kill or they die.