Greetings. I haven't posted much recently so forgive me if this has been discussed. I've seen a lot of Grixis Delver in my meta recently and I suspect most of you have. This means many more 5 toughness creatures like Tasigur and Angler along with the ever-present 4/5 Goyfs. My first response was to add another copy of Dismember to my sideboard and it's been okay. But what about another plan? Would it be ridiculous to board a couple of Shrapnel Blasts? They hit all the same creatures and offer a "to the face" burn kind of option that I haven't seen affinity running in quite a while. Doing this would make my board look something like:
2x Spell Pierce
1x Master of Etherium
2x Thoughtseize
2x Shrapnel Blast
2x Whipflare
2x Ancient Grudge
1x Nature's Claim
2x Relic of Progenitus
1x Torpor Orb
It's possible that those two slots are just better as Blood Moon but some people don't want to run them. Thoughts?
Inkmoth and poison counters are essentially 100% more alternative options than a lot of other decks in Modern have. That's definitely the best one and I can't think of another that's playable in this deck and not god awful.
UWR is one of our worst matchups in my opinion. I'm not convinced that Blood Moon even wins it at this point. It seems like it could be better to create a stronger postboard against everyone else.
That's pretty much what I figured. I'd just honestly forgotten the card existed until it was brought to my attention again today. I agree with your analysis 100%. Just wanted to see what others thought.
Hey Affinity peeps. There seem to be quite a few Infect players roaming my local meta all of a sudden and I thought some chatter about how to win that matchup was warranted. Burn and point removal are less good than they should be here so I've been making sure I bring in something like this.
+2 Spellskite
+2 Spell Pierce
Whipflare has also proved to be worth it on some occasions, but has some of the same issues as single target burn. Thoughts?
Has anyone discussed Helix Pinnacle in this deck? Perhaps it's way too silly to be a good idea, but it seems like it's pretty hard to remove and this deck makes a lot of mana.
Gets eaten by Stormbreath Dragon. Stats are too low. Raid is too conditional to be reliable. $2 mythic rare.
It DOES pair poorly against Stormbreath, but I think this is pretty reasonable otherwise. You'll get two 3/4s most of the time and when you don't it's likely in a topdeck situation where a 3/4 with evasion wins the game a good chunk of the time anyway. I think this is worth testing/theory crafting on.
I don't have clear pics yet but checking twitter for #mtgktk results in several very authoritative Magic figures confirming this. Big news for Standard AND Modern.
I was thinking actually perhaps as Stormbreath #5. A lot of the time, you just need that hasty body to finish things and trying to topdeck one is the name of the game.
In addition to M16 speculation Maro has said that they're working on a new product line to introduce new players to the game now that Core Sets are going the way of the dodo. I think that Magic Origins could easily be the title for this new product line.
I ran a singleton Choke in my board for a bit. I'm still new so take this with a grain of salt. Most of the times when I've stuck it against UWR it's been good but not insane. Every UWR player has called it "annoying" but they eventually find a couple of Colonnades or another non-island blue source and get there. I think it's a reasonable option if you don't want Blood Moon but much narrower. Obviously it doesn't hit GBx or Tron, or any of the other non-U matchups that Blood Moon is good against.
I'm unsure at this point if my inability to finish off someone who's been Choked is an issue with the card just not being quite strong enough, or me not being a good enough pilot yet.
2x Spell Pierce
1x Master of Etherium
2x Thoughtseize
2x Shrapnel Blast
2x Whipflare
2x Ancient Grudge
1x Nature's Claim
2x Relic of Progenitus
1x Torpor Orb
It's possible that those two slots are just better as Blood Moon but some people don't want to run them. Thoughts?
+2 Spellskite
+2 Spell Pierce
Whipflare has also proved to be worth it on some occasions, but has some of the same issues as single target burn. Thoughts?
It DOES pair poorly against Stormbreath, but I think this is pretty reasonable otherwise. You'll get two 3/4s most of the time and when you don't it's likely in a topdeck situation where a 3/4 with evasion wins the game a good chunk of the time anyway. I think this is worth testing/theory crafting on.
https://twitter.com/maro254/status/505952704871796737
And LSV:
https://twitter.com/lsv/status/505953150390796288
Etc.
I'm unsure at this point if my inability to finish off someone who's been Choked is an issue with the card just not being quite strong enough, or me not being a good enough pilot yet.