I finally found a LGS in my area that hosts sanctioned Modern tournaments. Needless to say it was ruff being my first Modern tourney. I got trounced, but I finally got to play against some of the decks I only get to read about. Now, I was up against my last opponent. We were both 1 for 1 and we each sideboarded. He went first. Then I went next. I had Blood Moon in hand, but I would have to wait till turn 2 to cast it. THEN, he busted out Stony Silence turn 2.
Turn 2 Stony Silence is no bueno.
How do you/ we (affinity players) deal with this problem without flipping the table? lol
The ways we deal with it are
1. Discard before it hits where hopefully you have colored mana t1
2. Have something like spell pierce up
3.Something interesting like Kami of the Ancient Law and hoping we don't have too many darksteel citadels in play/hoping we have glimmervoids out
4. Vomit our hand and hope
5. Hope
Silence is incredibly good against affinity on turn 2. There's not a lot we can actually do about it so we generally have to dodge it and get lucky.
The ways we deal with it are
1. Discard before it hits where hopefully you have colored mana t1
2. Have something like spell pierce up
3.Something interesting like Kami of the Ancient Law and hoping we don't have too many darksteel citadels in play/hoping we have glimmervoids out
4. Vomit our hand and hope
5. Hope
Silence is incredibly good against affinity on turn 2. There's not a lot we can actually do about it so we generally have to dodge it and get lucky.
Yeah, the artifact hate out their is nuts. But, stony silence seems to be the go-to card. I like your suggestions. I'm going to go with number 3 because more than likely I will be tapped out in the early turns vomiting my hand out before it drops. But, I will have to change out 2 of my 4 plains for glimmervoid's so ray of revelation can be flashed back. Thanks for the suggestion Zzzxya.
Would have to go with what has been said already. Ray of Revelation should get you out of the problem situation. Don't reduce the number of basic Plains too much, your opponent might have a Ghost Quarter for your Glimmervoid.
You two speak the truth! lol I made the purchase for Ray of Revelation last night and began to tinker with the mana base. I noticed 2x Glimmervoids + 2x Plains is not enough color support for Tempered Steel. So, I cut Inkmoth Nexus. Inkmoth Nexus is amazing under Cranial Plating, but not Tempered Steel. I wish I had come to this conclusion earlier. But, I never really got to play test the deck in a competitive environment. I'm can honestly say I'm very happy with the changes.
Going the Ray of Revelations route is the wrong way to go.
Affinity doesn't play a reactive game. It's all about I'm agro/tempo, you respond. That's why the most that Affinity has against enchantments are 1-2x Deglamer, Wear/Tear, and the rest of it is just 2x Spell Pierce and 2x Thoughtseize.
I don't recommend taking out Blinkmoths or Inkmoths for Plains/City of Brass/Glimmervoids unless you're going the Tempered Steel route, which is suboptimal because it's just not consistent at all.
I run Spell Pierce and Wear/Tear. Both are great and the Wear/Tear can help vs other decks like Pod and the Mirror so its more versatile then plus Tear is only one mana so you can just float it off an opal then cast it upon resolution of Stony silence. You should have versatile SB slots so they can stop as much as possible.
hy guys, first time posting in the sffinity thread, since i am building one myself. i started a week ago and it'll be done at the end of this week. i started to think about affinity 8 months ago, but never built it since i wanted a solid deck and this always seemed too fragile to me, having lots of dedicated hate. When i think about affinity what comes to my mind is a deck that wins g1 and then lose g2 and g3 ending up 1-2. BTW, since i so often see affinity in top8s, the thought came again, and finally i decided to give it a go now that URW is fallen off top8s everywhere.. of course hate is still my main concern, since i am a URW midrange player and i know what happens when i play stony silence g2. 90% of the times is GG. i only lose if i see it too late (t 4 or 5).
My plan was to go for 2x Ray of revelation SB since it's basically a 4x thanks to flashback. It can for sure be supported by 2x Spell pierce (which is pretty useless after t3 against URW anyways, because they play 25-26 lands) and some black discard cards. I don't own thoughtseize but maybe 2x duress can do the job... or do you advice to buy thought seize?
Do you guys feel dedicated hate is just too hard to beat or does it make playing affinity a pain? I need some feedbakcs before starting this adventure. How is affinity placed in actual Metagame?
Affinity generally has two plans facing Stony Silence. Hope that the opponent draws the card too late and bum rush them to death, or beat them down with a playset of Master of Etherium plus Etched Champion support.
When using the rush plan, Thoughtseize is vital not because it's a way to discard the Stony Silence, but because you absolutely need the Thoughtseize against Pod since Duress and Inquisition fire blanks. The recommended is 2x, although some lists have gone as far as 4x, skipping the Spell Pierce altogether.
The other plan is to run more basic lands and skip the Inkmoth Nexus. This is a much newer tech that's only appeared recently, as Stony Silence has become a more popular card due to Pod. In addition, the deck would run a playset of Master of Etherium plus either extra Memnite, Frogmites, or even Myr Enforcer. While this is a rather radical approach, it has been earning top spots in MTGO matches as of late.
I know it's not Stony Silence, but I'm having trouble against Kataki. My opponents keep slamming it turn two game 2 and I don't have Galvanic Blasts/Whipflare to deal with it and usually just lose. How viable an answer is Gutshot for it? It kills it immediately and is also useful vs mana guys and confidant.
I know it's not Stony Silence, but I'm having trouble against Kataki. My opponents keep slamming it turn two game 2 and I don't have Galvanic Blasts/Whipflare to deal with it and usually just lose. How viable an answer is Gutshot for it? It kills it immediately and is also useful vs mana guys and confidant.
Gutshot isn't a bad idea. If it killed Deathrite Shaman, it'd been an auto-sideboard card. The problem is that it doesn't, and it doesn't provide any reach. It does also kill Noble Hierarch, Pestermite, Grim Lavamancer, Bird of Paradise, Vendilion Clique, and Viscera Seer.
If your meta runs a good number of the cards above, it's not a bad choice over Dismember. Or you can just mull until you've a creature kill spell just to be safe. Arcbound Ravager in play also protects against Kataki as well.
I believe that 1 Whipflare is probably the right call for Affinity given its strong lineup against aggro. That should give you another spot for a 1 mana removal speed if need be, whether it's Dispatch, Dismember, Galvanic Blast, or Gutshot.
I believe that 1 Whipflare is probably the right call for Affinity given its strong lineup against aggro. That should give you another spot for a 1 mana removal speed if need be, whether it's Dispatch, Dismember, Galvanic Blast, or Gutshot.
To further elaborate, Dispatch is conditional removal.
If you are just barely at metalcraft and cast it, the opponent may respond by destroying enough artifacts to deactivate metalcraft, causing Dispatch to just tap the targeted creature.
i took a look at sideboards of decks making top 8s, and the very most part of them don't run any enchantment disruption. I saw more ray of revelations in casual tournament SBs than i see in these list i am talking about. seems like the pros just think that it's not worth it to slow us down by ourselves running that kind of card, and they rely on thoughtseize and spell pierce instead. i am starting to think that's the way to go, so probably against a stony silence deck i'd just take out the slower activated abilities cards like steel overseer to go with just champion and i'd try to be faster pushing more to win trough infect than i do in g1.
i also see lots of spellskite, sometimes even in 4x, and i just don't get it.
I think it's because Spell Pierce and Thoughtseize are your best shot to take out Stony Silence when on the draw. Spellskite is the most versatile sideboard card in modern. But more importantly, it's good against Splinter Twin, which is one Affinity's worst matchups.
The main reason you don't see dedicated Enchant removal is because your opponent has to start and/or draw one of their 1-3 copies of sideboarded Stony Silence, and you have to also have drawn your 1-3 anti-Stony Silence, and have the colored mana. If your opponent mulligans to a 6card hand with Double Stony, but you keep a hand of 7 and expect to play around it, is that Virtual Card Advantage? What if they Play Stony Silence, but you Thoughtseize away their Pyroclasm, and attack with a bunch of weenies for the next 10 minutes? Thoughtseize and Spell Pierce are a lot more flexible regarding their overall usage against more decks; take or stop Pyroclasm, take or stop a Liliana, take or stop etc etc etc. And stick to the plan of 'play guys, swing at lifetotal'. Also remember; Battlecry, Thoughtcast, Galvanic Blast, all unaffected by Stony Silence.
well there are other good cards against it, i saw people using pithing needle and torpor orb with success. torpor orb is also useful against Pod, so maybe it can be a better choice?
Well.... there are many cards that 'can', potentially, be better than anything, at any given time. Fog is amazing.
Seems to be very prevalent, this sideboard mentality of 'one has to be better than the other'. Safe to assume the 'it' you're referring to is Spellskite;
Both Orb and Skite have their uses, and you usually see 2x of one, and 1x of another, although it's not uncommon to see four of one, none of the other, or three of one, and 1x or 2x of the other, etc etc. Skite can wear a plating and hates on Twin/Infect, but falls victim to dedicated Skite hate, such as Flame Slash, Twisted Image, Dismember etc. Torpor Orb cannot die to creature removal and dodges this type of dedicated Skite hate, forcing something like Ancient Grudge or Echoing Truth. Having a mix also helps dodge Echoing Truth and Cryptic Command+Removal, as a multi-tiered defence. Pithing Needle has broad application too, and is rarely a dead card these days.
Because if you honestly look at top tier Affinity sideboards, you'll generally see some form of Skite/Orb setup, along with one or two Cages, one or two Wear // Tear, and 0-2 Pierce with 2-4 Thoughtseize (Four Seize generally means they ignore Pierce, to have better odds of simply ripping problem cards out of the opponents hand and also having more information).
It comes down to how you feel the meta will be in your area, what matchups you do/don't feel comfortable with, and/or the matchups you really want to hate against. Both Orb and Skite have their uses, as does Pithing Needle, (and even Runed Halo although not necessarily for Affinity rofl). They are all good at what they do, but they are also subtly different. If you want hate against Pod, what's stopping you from using Grafdigger's Cage?
Sideboards are never 100%; they shift with the game. To say one is better than the other, I just cannot agree with at all.
i also see lots of spellskite, sometimes even in 4x, and i just don't get it.
I have to admit, using multiple Spellskite and Thoughtseize when expecting lots of Tron and Twin, can be amazing for acquiring multiple free wins
Turn 2 Stony Silence is no bueno.
How do you/ we (affinity players) deal with this problem without flipping the table? lol
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1. Discard before it hits where hopefully you have colored mana t1
2. Have something like spell pierce up
3.Something interesting like Kami of the Ancient Law and hoping we don't have too many darksteel citadels in play/hoping we have glimmervoids out
4. Vomit our hand and hope
5. Hope
Silence is incredibly good against affinity on turn 2. There's not a lot we can actually do about it so we generally have to dodge it and get lucky.
Yeah, the artifact hate out their is nuts. But, stony silence seems to be the go-to card. I like your suggestions. I'm going to go with number 3 because more than likely I will be tapped out in the early turns vomiting my hand out before it drops. But, I will have to change out 2 of my 4 plains for glimmervoid's so ray of revelation can be flashed back. Thanks for the suggestion Zzzxya.
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You two speak the truth! lol I made the purchase for Ray of Revelation last night and began to tinker with the mana base. I noticed 2x Glimmervoids + 2x Plains is not enough color support for Tempered Steel. So, I cut Inkmoth Nexus. Inkmoth Nexus is amazing under Cranial Plating, but not Tempered Steel. I wish I had come to this conclusion earlier. But, I never really got to play test the deck in a competitive environment. I'm can honestly say I'm very happy with the changes.
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Going the Ray of Revelations route is the wrong way to go.
Affinity doesn't play a reactive game. It's all about I'm agro/tempo, you respond. That's why the most that Affinity has against enchantments are 1-2x Deglamer, Wear/Tear, and the rest of it is just 2x Spell Pierce and 2x Thoughtseize.
I don't recommend taking out Blinkmoths or Inkmoths for Plains/City of Brass/Glimmervoids unless you're going the Tempered Steel route, which is suboptimal because it's just not consistent at all.
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Affinity generally has two plans facing Stony Silence. Hope that the opponent draws the card too late and bum rush them to death, or beat them down with a playset of Master of Etherium plus Etched Champion support.
When using the rush plan, Thoughtseize is vital not because it's a way to discard the Stony Silence, but because you absolutely need the Thoughtseize against Pod since Duress and Inquisition fire blanks. The recommended is 2x, although some lists have gone as far as 4x, skipping the Spell Pierce altogether.
The other plan is to run more basic lands and skip the Inkmoth Nexus. This is a much newer tech that's only appeared recently, as Stony Silence has become a more popular card due to Pod. In addition, the deck would run a playset of Master of Etherium plus either extra Memnite, Frogmites, or even Myr Enforcer. While this is a rather radical approach, it has been earning top spots in MTGO matches as of late.
If he's becoming a big problem for you, there shouldn't be much problem finding at least one of these cards at the right time
Gutshot isn't a bad idea. If it killed Deathrite Shaman, it'd been an auto-sideboard card. The problem is that it doesn't, and it doesn't provide any reach. It does also kill Noble Hierarch, Pestermite, Grim Lavamancer, Bird of Paradise, Vendilion Clique, and Viscera Seer.
If your meta runs a good number of the cards above, it's not a bad choice over Dismember. Or you can just mull until you've a creature kill spell just to be safe. Arcbound Ravager in play also protects against Kataki as well.
I believe that 1 Whipflare is probably the right call for Affinity given its strong lineup against aggro. That should give you another spot for a 1 mana removal speed if need be, whether it's Dispatch, Dismember, Galvanic Blast, or Gutshot.
Dispatch is not removal.
Thanks to Heroes of the Plane Studios for the amazing sig.
NO RUG: Primer
Tempo Thresh: Primer
I'm confused. Please explain.
I honestly don't have the patience for the ignorant today.
If you can't figure out by yourself why Dispatch is not good in Modern Affinity, my explaining it will not help you.
Someone being confused to your statement because you never explained yourself is not ignorance. Warning for Flaming issued. Lantern
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NO RUG: Primer
Tempo Thresh: Primer
If you are just barely at metalcraft and cast it, the opponent may respond by destroying enough artifacts to deactivate metalcraft, causing Dispatch to just tap the targeted creature.
I think it's because Spell Pierce and Thoughtseize are your best shot to take out Stony Silence when on the draw. Spellskite is the most versatile sideboard card in modern. But more importantly, it's good against Splinter Twin, which is one Affinity's worst matchups.
Well.... there are many cards that 'can', potentially, be better than anything, at any given time. Fog is amazing.
Seems to be very prevalent, this sideboard mentality of 'one has to be better than the other'. Safe to assume the 'it' you're referring to is Spellskite;
Both Orb and Skite have their uses, and you usually see 2x of one, and 1x of another, although it's not uncommon to see four of one, none of the other, or three of one, and 1x or 2x of the other, etc etc. Skite can wear a plating and hates on Twin/Infect, but falls victim to dedicated Skite hate, such as Flame Slash, Twisted Image, Dismember etc. Torpor Orb cannot die to creature removal and dodges this type of dedicated Skite hate, forcing something like Ancient Grudge or Echoing Truth. Having a mix also helps dodge Echoing Truth and Cryptic Command+Removal, as a multi-tiered defence. Pithing Needle has broad application too, and is rarely a dead card these days.
Because if you honestly look at top tier Affinity sideboards, you'll generally see some form of Skite/Orb setup, along with one or two Cages, one or two Wear // Tear, and 0-2 Pierce with 2-4 Thoughtseize (Four Seize generally means they ignore Pierce, to have better odds of simply ripping problem cards out of the opponents hand and also having more information).
It comes down to how you feel the meta will be in your area, what matchups you do/don't feel comfortable with, and/or the matchups you really want to hate against. Both Orb and Skite have their uses, as does Pithing Needle, (and even Runed Halo although not necessarily for Affinity rofl). They are all good at what they do, but they are also subtly different. If you want hate against Pod, what's stopping you from using Grafdigger's Cage?
Sideboards are never 100%; they shift with the game. To say one is better than the other, I just cannot agree with at all.
I have to admit, using multiple Spellskite and Thoughtseize when expecting lots of Tron and Twin, can be amazing for acquiring multiple free wins
Don't forget that Spellskite is pure win against Infect and Boggles, both of which are decks that can outrace us.