@BaskingMongrel You pretty much answered it, I side out memnites because they're the weakest card in the deck, and in my opinion a much better game 1 card than game 2 or 3 card. I understand I'm giving up some percentage of making explosive turn 1 plays, but when I'm fighting against the kind of sideboard hate modern has against affinity, I just don't really want to ever draw a memnite. The cuts you make in this deck are difficult anyway, because of how synergistic everything is, but they have to come from somewhere.
@Baron_Sengir_007 I decided to run 2 mountains with 2 glimmervoids because in the entire 75, I was only running one sideboard card that needed colored mana that wasn't red (Thoughtseize). Everything else was either red or colorless, so going up to 2 mountains made sense for cards I would expect to be used against me like Ghost Quarter or Path to Exile. As for the number of total lands, 16 land with 4 mox opal is pretty standard for this deck, I don't think I had any reason to change it.
Burn / Zoo you gold fish faster than these decks, so your mainboard is pretty strong as it is. It always ends in a race, and one that you can just win automatically if you get in a single hit with a Vault Skirge wearing a cranial plating. My sideboard plan is usually:
Burn - +1 Etched Champion, +1 Welding Jar, +2 Whipflare
-1 Hangarback Walker, -2 Memnite, -1 Steel Overseer
Small Zoo - +1 Etched Champion, +1 Welding Jar, +2 Whipflare, +1 Dismember
-1 Hangarback Walker, -2 Memnite, -2 Shrapnel Blast
I like keeping the Steel Overseers here because it puts them to a decision to where to put their limited burn spells and both decks are based on velocity so if they ignore him for even a turn or two you can win easily.
Big Zoo (Knight of the reliquary / 5c Geist Zoo) - +1 Etched Champion, +1 Welding Jar, +1 Dismember +2 Blood Moon
-1 Hangarback Walker, -2 Memnite, -1 Shrapnel Blast, -1 Steel Overseer
Big Zoo decks, from my experience, usually don't have time to play around blood moon vs affinity, we put them on a clock too fast and they have so many colors they need to play their spells that they try to race you even through fetch / shocking multiple times. A well timed blood moon can just lock them out of the game completely.
I think that covers everything, let me know if you have any other questions.
As for Grixis control, its a strange match up. On paper, they should annihilate us. 3 Kolaghan's Command and 4 bolts pre board? How do you fight that? In practice, however, we seem to dominate that deck pretty hard, and more so the more all in your version is. I believe this is because we come on so strong so fast that they can't keep up, even with Kommands. We wear down their 1 for 1 removal and tax it too hard, and them trying to finish off of one big non-trampling delve guy just isn't good enough. I'm not really ever worried about this match up. My sideboard for them is very similar to Jund;
+1 Etched Champion, +1 Relic of Progenitus, +1 Thoughtseize, +1 Welding Jar, +1 Dismember (Sometimes I bring in the Blood Moons if I get the same feeling that they aren't playing around it at all).
-2 Memnite, -2 Shrapnel Blast, -1 Steel Overseer (-3 if I bring in moon).
As for a Jund sideboard strategy, it depends on the person I'm playing against. I can usually get a bit of a read on people and tell if they're good blood moon targets or not. If they seem somewhat careless with their fetching or I feel like they aren't playing around it / won't play around it until they see it. I'll bring it in. My usual board for Jund is:
+1 Etched Champion, +1 Relic of Progenitus, +1 Thoughtseize, +1 Dismember, +1 Welding Jar (+2 Blood Moon or not, depending)
-2 Memnite, -2 Steel Overseer, -1 Shrapnel Blast (-1 Steel Overseer, -1 Shrapnel Blast if Blood Moon comes in)
The match up against jund usually feels in my favor, but only maybe 10%. Its obviously very draw dependent, but you can usually come out fast enough to pressure their life total quite a bit before they can clear out your board, and by then you can finish with burn. They have a very hard time dealing with etched champion, and hangarback also shines here. Post sideboard, it depends GREATLY on how much hate they have. I've played against some jund players who have 2-3 slots set up for affinity and some with a full 8-10 cards they bring in. I try not to over board, because your main deck is strong vs jund, but overseers pretty much always die before they can activate even once, so they're usually pretty useless for me. Your main goal, like Nickums said, is to get an etched champion or two or three, and ride them to victory.
Hey Baron, I'm not sure about the second spellskite. I do like it, but I feel like this version of the deck is a bit too all in to want another purely defensive main deck card. I may go to 1 main 1 side though.
If I remember correctly, my sideboard configurations were:
Twin: +1 Etched Champion, +1 Torpor Orb, +1 Dismember, +1 Thoughtseize
-1 Hangarback Walker, -2 Memnite, -1 Shrapnel Blast
I would've taken out a steel overseer against grixis twin variants, but the UR versions I was playing against, shrapnel blast seemed like a better option to take out because remand is such a beating.
R/G Tron: +2 Bloodmoon, +1 Ancient Grudge, +1 Etched Champion, +1 Welding Jar, +1 Thoughtseize
-2 Memnite, -1 Hangarback Walker, -1 Spellskite, -2 Steel Overseer
My experience with R/G tron is that my easiest wins come from cranial plating. I get punished often by going wide because of pyroclasms, so I skew my sideboard plan towards making one big threat, rather than hope my overseers get there.
Abzan CoCo: +2 Whipflare, +1 Etched Champion, +1 Torpor Orb, +1 Grafdigger's Cage, +2 Ghirapur AEther Grid
-2 Memnite, -2 Shrapnel Blast, -1 Hangarback Walker, -1 Steel Overseer, -1 Spellskite
This match up was interesting, because I wasn't sure which version of CoCo he was on (there are lots of variants depending on how combo heavy they want to go) but no matter what version, the game almost always ends up grindy. I took out the Shrapnel Blasts and 1 overseer / spellskite and went for the longer game with AEther Grids and Whipflares. If I can keep his board mostly clear, I have a faster clock, and these games usually come down to how many / how fast I can get etched champions on the table. I think it would've worked well too, I just ended up not finding red mana in game 3.
Those were all the decks I faced that day. I had other plans for other match ups, but never ended up seeing Jund, Grixis (non twin), or Burn / Zoo.
Hey everyone, I went to a Modern RPTQ this Halloween and wrote a tournament report playing affinity. Thought I would share it here with people who might find it interesting.
Last weekend I spent my Halloween driving three and a half hours to play in my RPTQ at the Eudomonia gaming store in Berkeley. I really love this store, it’s an excellent venue to host a tournament with lots of room and a positive atmosphere. The date and location for the RPTQ by wizards, however, was not so great. Berkeley is already a very busy city, and trying to get downtown and find parking for the whole day on Halloween was bad, but there was also a football game that day so it was even worse. I arrived an hour early to the event and still had to park a mile away in a parking garage that was charging double, and I ended up with the last spot available. I heard multiple players that day grumbling that they had had to choose between attempting to qualify for the pro tour or spending the day with their children, and I hope that wizards takes a look at this type of situation in the future.
As for the event, I tried to meta game as best I could based on what I had seen at previous events. I was expecting to see a good amount of jund, grixis, and twin decks, as well as some burn and tron players who were hoping to beat them. I decided to go with ‘Red Affinity’, which is basically your stock affinity deck except I’m running 4 galvanic blast and 2 shrapnel blast main deck in order to push as hard as I can for a fast kill and try to negate some of the damage from Kolaghan’s command. My sideboard was also almost entirely colorless or red cards that I felt covered all of my bases with the exception of a single thoughtseize. I have to say that my deck choice for the day was spot on. I don’t think I’ve ever predicted a metagame so well before and was very rewarded for it.
32 players showed up for the RPTQ, here’s how my tournament went;
Round 1 vs R/G Tron – 2/0
I was on the play this match. I opened with a vault skirge on turn 1, and suited it up with a plating on turn 2. Turn 3 I swung in again, bringing him down to 8 and finished him off with a galvanic blast and a shrapnel blast. Game 2 he was dead again before he was able to assemble tron after I cast my third galvanic blast.
Round 2 vs RUG Twin – 2/0
Game 1 I was fairly lucky to win this one. He countered my plating and was able to keep my board mostly clear except for 2 etched champions that eventually went the distance. I was able to fade a splinter twin draw for about 3 turns, even through a serum visions. Game 2 he ancient grudge’d away my plating and steel overseers, but turn 2 and 3 etched champions got there again. Best gray ogres ever.
Round 3 vs Abzan CoCo – 1/2
This was my toughest match in the swiss by far. Also my draws were fairly awkward which weren’t helping. All 3 games here were very close, and I believe could’ve gone either way. Game 1 was a mull to 6 on the draw for me, with a fairly slow hand. It turned into a slug fest, and I was able to get him to 8 infect before he killed me with kitchen finks and scavenging oozes on the ground. If I had drawn a galvanic blast for his last bird blocker I would’ve poisoned him out. Game 2 was a bit quicker for me and I got him with etched champions. On the last turn he chorded for a kitaki at the end of his turn, but when I untapped I had 2 darksteel citadels, an etched champion, a springleaf drum and an arcbound ravager. So I just ate everything but the citadels and put the counters on the champion and swung for lethal. Game 3 I opened 2 land hand with ornithopter, plating, signal pest, galvanic blast, and ghirapur aether grid. If I saw a red mana this game would be over very quickly. His only play in the first 3 turns was a viscera seer, but I didn’t find my red mana until I was dead, and even then it was 3 cards down. Sometimes you just don’t get there.
Round 4 vs UR Twin – 2/0
Game 1 was a slow hand with 13 points of burn in my opener. I decided why not and kept and went for it. I ended up drawing very little pressure but even more burn. He eventually was at 9 played a twin on his deceiver with 1 blue open. I tried to galv blast it and he dispels, so I point a galv and a shrapnel blast at his face for lethal. He just blinked a few times and scooped up his cards. Game 2 was unfortunately not really a game. He mulliganed into a 1 land hand with a serum visions and didn’t find a land in the top 5 cards of his deck, while I had a ornithopter with a plating swinging in on turn 2. After he showed me his hand with 2 bolts, 2 grudges, and an electrolyze. Pretty unfortunate.
Round 5 vs G/W? Tron – 0/0/3 Intentional Draw
I checked the standings for this round and I had somehow made it to the top of the X-1’s, in 5th place. There were 4 above me who were X-0 and double drawing into top 8, and then a lot of X-1’s below me. I had worked out the math and believed that a draw in my spot locked me into 7th and forced the rest of the X-1’s to play, and because of a pair down at the bottom of the X-1’s, my opponent would also make top 8 on a draw if the X-2 won. I offered the draw and he spent awhile thinking about it. He was leaning toward playing to be safe, which probably would’ve been fine for me, but I played my first turn of citadel, drum, opal, ornithopter, plating and said I would still offer the draw but he had to choose now, or it wasn’t on the table anymore. He looked at the board and his 6 card hand and accepted. Fortunately for us, the player who was paired up won (Good job JJ) and we both made top 8.
Top 8
Round 6 vs U/R Twin
As a player who is trying to go pro, it was interesting to sit down to this match knowing it was probably the most important set of 3 games I had ever played in my life up to this point. I didn’t really feel nervous, but it was a weird feeling knowing how much there was potentially riding on these draws.
Game 1 I had a pretty slow start and drew no interactive spells at all. I had him to about 7 before I died to twin on turn 5. Game 2 I played 2 etched champions and rode them to victory as I lost the rest of my board to ancient grudges. Game 3 I came out fairly strong but lost my plating to an ancient grudge and then got twinned out on turn 4.
This match ended up being very frustrating for me, as the point of playing red affinity is seeing some of your red cards, also I hadn’t lost a game to twin all day. I feel like seeing even one galvanic blast in this match could’ve swung it in my favor, but I did not draw any of them, or a shrapnel blast for that matter. It did end up being close anyway and I feel like I played as best as I could. My opponent also played well and I hope he has good luck in Atlanta. (Congrats Jason!)
I was pleased with my deck choice for this event, but if I could do it over, I would've played the 4th etched champion in the main and moved the hangarback walker to the side. It came out in most of my games and the champion always came in. Hangarback was always just a little too slow, especially for this style of affinity.
Overall I was happy with the event, even falling one game short. This was my first RPTQ and as close as I have ever been so far to playing on the pro tour and I definitely feel like it is within reach. I will keep pushing as hard as I can, and will be jamming lots of standard as GP Oakland and RPTQ Santa Clara get closer in early 2016.
Tjd, that's really weird, that is almost the identical 60 that I've been playing, except that I'm running a cavern of souls over something else, I think the 3rd blackcleave cliffs. I am pretty happy with this main deck set up. I feel like I have enough threats most of the time, and my top decks are almost always much stronger than my opponents. My sideboard is a bit different, however. I'm using vampiric links and a pair of pyroclasms (local meta call). How has crypt incursion been for you? It was on my short list of burn deck sideboard tech, but I have been using the vamp links and a tribute to hunger instead for awhile. They have been decent, but I still don't feel very favored in that match up.
I dropped to the 3/3/3 split of abbot, jace, and snap. I also upped my Young Pyro count to 2, he's been very strong. I haven't really had an issue running him with Lilianas main. The sideboard is full of cards I'm testing. I really don't like being a huge dog to burn, so I'm trying to shore up that match up while keeping the rest as strong as possible. I played against tron recently and it feels like if I don't see my fulminators or have a really strong opener, its hard to deal with. Though I felt like my opponent was drawing pretty well most games, getting turn 3-4 tron often. I am also testing a Cavern of Souls in place of my third rise // fall, upping the land count to 21. Not sure if its right but I did want to try it. So far it seems good.
I like the idea of having probes and baubles in this deck, but there just isn't room unless you change the deck at its base.
I've had the same thought about standard, unfortunately I don't think the cantrips are there, and this deck needs lots of cheap ways to kill creatures and there are just no comparables to Bolt or Terminate in standard at the moment. Or rise / fall for that matter.
The following is my tournament report from the WMCQ in Santa Clara.
WMCQ Santa Clara 9-5-2015 – Abbot Grixis (Blue Jund)
4x Abbot of Keral Keep
3x Snapcaster Mage
1x Young Pyromancer
3x Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
2x Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1x Gurmag Angler
4x Serum Visions
3x Thought Scour
4x Lightning Bolt
3x Terminate
1x Go for the Throat
2x Kolaghan’s Command
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
1x Thoughtseize
3x Rise // Fall
2x Liliana of the Veil
Sideboard
3x Fulminator Mage
2x Vampiric Link
1x Nihil Spellbomb
1x Anger of the Gods
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Izzet Staticaster
1x Liliana of the Veil
1x Kolaghan’s Comand
1x Negate
1x Damnation
2x Dispel
Rd1 – Grisshoalbrand 2/1
This match went about as you could expect. Game 1 I picked his hand apart with inquisition into fall. He spent about 4 turns digging with faithless lootings to find some gas, but he couldn’t repair his hand enough to combo or even drop a shoal before I killed him with a Tasigur and an abbot. Game 2 he faithless lootings away a Griselbrand turn 1, I play a watery grave into serum visions and pass, he combos off turn 2. Game 3 he mulls to 6, I thoughtseize and see 2 land, Borborygmos, and 3 goryos vengeance. I take a goryos (not going to put a borbor into his yard for him). I play a gurmag on turn 2 and kill him in 4 attacks.
Rd2 – Amulet Bloom 0/2
What a frustrating match this was. Game 1 I kept a hand with a few lands, inquisition, serum visions. I take his summer bloom with inquisition and bottom 2 lands off the visions, but still manage to get 7 or 8 lands and kill his first Primetime before he hive mind kills me on about turn 6. The next game was worse. I mulligan to 6, keep a hand with blue mana and serum visions. Bottom lands only to find more. He slowly works his way up to 6 mana (never got to bloom this whole match) and drops the hivemind again. I felt like I was playing a deck with no threats this match for some reason. I never cast a delve creature or an abbot.
Rd3 – Naya Company Zoo 2/1
This match was very close. Game 1 he had a ton of threats out very quickly. Nacatl, Knight of the Reliquary, Loxodon Smiters, etc. I wasn’t really able to keep up. I kept his board partially clear, but lost. Game 2 went similarly, but I opened with damnation, so kept building towards that, while staying alive. He got a Thalia down, which slowed me for a turn. I had to kill it and then untap and damnation, but still got a 4 for 1. He never really recovered after that, I built up card advantage and won with abbots. Game 3 he cast a heirarch into a blood moon and thought he had just won the match. I untapped and played an island into my singleton young pyromancer. I eventually serum visioned into a swamp and just went off with the YP. He got stuck without white mana for most of the game because of his own moon after I had killed his heirarchs while I had blockers forever and eventually won at about 4 life.
Rd4 – Jund 2/0
I already feel very favored with this deck, but in game 1 my opponent kept a 1 lander on a mull to 6 and never really got out of it. He missed his second and third land drops while I was able to land a jace, fall, then flip jace and fall again into a concession. Game 2 was grindy, as this match tends to be, but my first fall hit a maelstrom pulse and a courser of kruphix and I saw a lot of the fight just fade out of him. We were eventually both hell bent, but I had an abbot and a flipped jace to his nothing. He swung a raging ravine into my jace but I had drawn a bolt for it and finished him quickly after that.
Rd 5 – Infect 1/2
This is another match up I feel heavily favored, however that relies on drawing the necessary removal spells. Game 1 I saw Go for the Throat, but no bolts or terminates after drawing >20 cards, and eventually ran out of blockers / answers. Game 2 the deck performed fairly normally and I drew removal and killed him with an unanswered Tasigur. Game 3 was as frustrating as game 1. I saw all 3 snapcaster mages, which became removal spells as flash goblin pikers because I drew zero removal spells. I got him down to 3 and was eventually pecked to death by an inkmoth nexus I couldn’t answer. Sometimes you just don’t draw the cards you need I suppose.
Rd 6 – Jund 1/2
I saw a bloodstained mire fetch an overgrown tomb turn 1 and was pretty happy. I would probably prefer to face jund all day with the abbot / grixis deck. This match, however, did not go according to plan. He had a very aggressive start with goyfs and bobs and plenty of removal. I was able to clear his board at 3 life, and got him hell bent with a freshly played jace in play and a snapcaster in my hand, but I was tapped out. I pass the turn and he flips a kolaghans command off the top, discarding my snapcaster and killing jace, then top decks a bolt to finish me. He acknowledged after the game that his draws were very good. I wrecked his hand game 2 and locked him out pretty quickly. Game 3 I mulled to 6 and saw no discard spells. He was able to break down my hand and stick a goyf that did enough damage that I wasn’t able to recover. This was one of maybe 3 or 4 matches I’ve ever lost to jund with this deck. My opponent played well but his deck was also running pretty hot. I’d still prefer to play nothing but jund all day if it were up to me.
Rd 7 – Burn 2/1
After 2 losses to decks I felt favored against, I was really annoyed to see a fetch, mountain, goblin guide start from my rd 7 opponent. I knew burn wasn’t a good match up for me, and had managed to dodge it until now. Game 1 on the draw I was woefully unprepared and died in short order. Game 2, he started very fast and got me down to 1 by about turn 4. I landed a tasigur and tapped my last land to play a vampiric link on it and just prayed. He drew his card and I didn’t immediately die, so I knew I had a chance. He passed the turn and I was able to go back up to 5 on the attack. I kept his board clear and he wasn’t able to overcome the 4 life gain per turn until he died. Game 3 he didn’t see a land until he had mulled down to 4, and although he gave it his best, you can’t really make a game on 4 cards so I took this match. I really don’t like the burn match up still, but vampiric link definitely proved itself this time around. Having 2 of those plus 2 dispels and a negate in the board is a sizable concession to make this match up better, but it still feels 50/50 at best.
Rd 8 - 5c humans 2/1
This deck was very interesting. He kept a 1 lander on a mull to 6 and didn’t see another until about turn 4, so he played 3 boros elites in a row until then. I didn’t really know what I was up against for a while, so I just kept him off battalion until I had a Tasigur in play to start doing my own beats. He eventually got up to 3 or 4 lands, so I saw a little more of his deck but he was too far behind at this point. Game 2 I was setting up for a turn 3 gurmag angler when he dropped rest in peace on me. I made a game of it, got him to about 6 after casting a full price gurmag. Game 3 I came quickly out of the gate with a couple abbots into a lot of removal. I kept his board mostly clear and killed him with 4 and 5 power abbots. This version of the deck was unlike any I’ve seen, it was very aggressive and low to the ground with bolts, paths and 1-2 mana creatures. The mana base was city of brass / mana confluence, gemstone mine, and cavern of souls.
Rd 9 – Jund 2/0
This match was textbook. I stripped his hand with back to back falls game 1 and out carded him. Game 2 I landed a total of 3 abbots that got in for a ridiculous amount of damage. Not a whole lot to say about this match. We were both tired after 9 rounds and ready to be done. This was my third jund match of the day, and even though it’s my preferred match up, it does get to be quite a grind sometimes.
All in all, I was 6-3 for the day with a deck I had about a week and a half to practice with, so I was pretty happy. They were paying down to 64th, and my breakers were so horrendous, that even with 345 players, I took 67th with an X-3 record. Frustrating, but those were the breaks. I thoroughly enjoyed playing this deck and plan to continue developing it. The burn match up is not fun, and I’d like to test a bit more against amulet bloom and tron, but I feel favored against most of the field.
I took this deck to the WMCQ in Santa Clara, and ended up 6-3. The matches I lost felt close (for the most part) and I feel like this deck definitely can compete with anything out there. I'm working on a tournament report and will post it here when its finished.
As to the recent conversations regarding match ups;
Affinity: Highly unfavourable
I definitely disagree here. We have so much interaction that I rarely have too much trouble with affinity except for their most explosive starts. Early discard hurts them more than most, and if you take their big threats and give yourself time to develop, they will never recover enough to overcome your removal.
Burn: Unfavourable
This is true, the burn match up for grixis is never going to be good. It could be even worse if we ran more shocks or thoughtseizes, but it isn't great either way. You have to make a choice when sideboarding to either hope to dodge this match up entirely, or use a few slots on dragons claw / vampiric link type cards. I personally run 2 vampiric link and 2 dispel in the side for burn.
Twin: Even (?)
Mostly agreed, though I think were a slight favorite. We can't play draw / go forever, as someone else noted, but we have a lot of hand disruption that will make it incredibly difficult for them to combo through, and lots of removal. Our pressure and better top decks usually win these games in my experience.
Jund/Abzan: Favourable
I always feel like a heavy favorite against jund. We play the same game they do and we do it better. Abzan I have less experience with, but I definitely don't like to see lingering souls. We can fight through it, but its not as easy as jund.
Mefolks: Slightly Unfavourable
I think were at least even here. We kill everything they put out, 2 for 1 them with rise/fall and kolaghans command, and grind much better. If we survive the initial assault, we almost can't lose.
Grixis control(traditional Chapin style): Favourable
Agreed here, we just grind better than they do and Rise is such a beating against an early tap out delve creature. We play around counters pretty well and pick their hand to pieces.
Infect: Highly favourable
We are a definite favorite here. Just use your removal at sorcery speed and force them to waste their pump spells on your turn. Wild defiance can be annoying, just try to pick it from their hand. Terminate / GFTT is your friend here, obviously.
Tron: Unfavourable
I don't have the experience here to say for sure, but I feel like discard / pressure should give us at least a fighting shot, then whatever flavor of land destruction from the side should put us in a decent position. I am using fulminator mages at the moment.
Abzan CoCo: Favourable
Agreed, for the same reasons we beat other midrange decks. We just kill everything and top deck better. Discard works well here.
Elves: Unfavourable
I don't quite get how elves is an unfavorable match up. You kill the combo pieces if they're on the curio plan, or anything that isn't a basic mana dork. They don't vomit their hand as well as affinity so discard does work, then you bring in whatever sweepers you're using after game 1. I don't think I've lost a match to any flavor of elves yet.
Amulet Bloom: Even (?)
My one experience with Amulet Bloom at the WMCQ was watching my 20 land deck draw 8 of its lands by turn 5, where I was hivemind killed both games. I feel like if I had gotten my normal spread of land / threats / discard and interaction, these games would've been decisively in my favor. I think against a good amulet bloom pilot we are probably close to even.
Scapeshift: Another match up I'm not sure how we lose. This deck is so slow and fairly soft to discard. We strip their hand and land a few threats and win. Post board, land destruction on top of everything else should shore this up.
Last night at my local tournament I dropped 1 gurmag for a third jace and I like those numbers. I think 3 delve fatties is enough when we burn through our deck so fast and can recur them out of the yard so easily and Jace just wins the game when he lives for a turn. The way I typically want my sideboards to be, I'll have maybe 5-8 cards I bring in for most match ups. With this deck it usually ends up being 4-6 cards, just because our main deck is so solid. It is, of course, very match up dependent. I'll bring out Lilianas sometimes, rise / falls, GFTT against affinity, even bolts occasionally against a deck like grixis control where the wont kill anything and we aren't fast enough to burn them out. Just basically have to find the cards that do the least and bring them out for the board cards that help you the most. There are no real go-to dead cards in this deck to fall back on for sideboarding options, but maybe that speaks to the strength of what we're playing.
Lupine Prototype (2)
Artifact Creature - Wolf Construct
Lupine Prototype can't attack or block unless a player has no cards in hand.
5/5
@Baron_Sengir_007 I decided to run 2 mountains with 2 glimmervoids because in the entire 75, I was only running one sideboard card that needed colored mana that wasn't red (Thoughtseize). Everything else was either red or colorless, so going up to 2 mountains made sense for cards I would expect to be used against me like Ghost Quarter or Path to Exile. As for the number of total lands, 16 land with 4 mox opal is pretty standard for this deck, I don't think I had any reason to change it.
Burn - +1 Etched Champion, +1 Welding Jar, +2 Whipflare
-1 Hangarback Walker, -2 Memnite, -1 Steel Overseer
Small Zoo - +1 Etched Champion, +1 Welding Jar, +2 Whipflare, +1 Dismember
-1 Hangarback Walker, -2 Memnite, -2 Shrapnel Blast
I like keeping the Steel Overseers here because it puts them to a decision to where to put their limited burn spells and both decks are based on velocity so if they ignore him for even a turn or two you can win easily.
Big Zoo (Knight of the reliquary / 5c Geist Zoo) - +1 Etched Champion, +1 Welding Jar, +1 Dismember +2 Blood Moon
-1 Hangarback Walker, -2 Memnite, -1 Shrapnel Blast, -1 Steel Overseer
Big Zoo decks, from my experience, usually don't have time to play around blood moon vs affinity, we put them on a clock too fast and they have so many colors they need to play their spells that they try to race you even through fetch / shocking multiple times. A well timed blood moon can just lock them out of the game completely.
I think that covers everything, let me know if you have any other questions.
+1 Etched Champion, +1 Relic of Progenitus, +1 Thoughtseize, +1 Welding Jar, +1 Dismember (Sometimes I bring in the Blood Moons if I get the same feeling that they aren't playing around it at all).
-2 Memnite, -2 Shrapnel Blast, -1 Steel Overseer (-3 if I bring in moon).
+1 Etched Champion, +1 Relic of Progenitus, +1 Thoughtseize, +1 Dismember, +1 Welding Jar (+2 Blood Moon or not, depending)
-2 Memnite, -2 Steel Overseer, -1 Shrapnel Blast (-1 Steel Overseer, -1 Shrapnel Blast if Blood Moon comes in)
The match up against jund usually feels in my favor, but only maybe 10%. Its obviously very draw dependent, but you can usually come out fast enough to pressure their life total quite a bit before they can clear out your board, and by then you can finish with burn. They have a very hard time dealing with etched champion, and hangarback also shines here. Post sideboard, it depends GREATLY on how much hate they have. I've played against some jund players who have 2-3 slots set up for affinity and some with a full 8-10 cards they bring in. I try not to over board, because your main deck is strong vs jund, but overseers pretty much always die before they can activate even once, so they're usually pretty useless for me. Your main goal, like Nickums said, is to get an etched champion or two or three, and ride them to victory.
If I remember correctly, my sideboard configurations were:
Twin: +1 Etched Champion, +1 Torpor Orb, +1 Dismember, +1 Thoughtseize
-1 Hangarback Walker, -2 Memnite, -1 Shrapnel Blast
I would've taken out a steel overseer against grixis twin variants, but the UR versions I was playing against, shrapnel blast seemed like a better option to take out because remand is such a beating.
R/G Tron: +2 Bloodmoon, +1 Ancient Grudge, +1 Etched Champion, +1 Welding Jar, +1 Thoughtseize
-2 Memnite, -1 Hangarback Walker, -1 Spellskite, -2 Steel Overseer
My experience with R/G tron is that my easiest wins come from cranial plating. I get punished often by going wide because of pyroclasms, so I skew my sideboard plan towards making one big threat, rather than hope my overseers get there.
Abzan CoCo: +2 Whipflare, +1 Etched Champion, +1 Torpor Orb, +1 Grafdigger's Cage, +2 Ghirapur AEther Grid
-2 Memnite, -2 Shrapnel Blast, -1 Hangarback Walker, -1 Steel Overseer, -1 Spellskite
This match up was interesting, because I wasn't sure which version of CoCo he was on (there are lots of variants depending on how combo heavy they want to go) but no matter what version, the game almost always ends up grindy. I took out the Shrapnel Blasts and 1 overseer / spellskite and went for the longer game with AEther Grids and Whipflares. If I can keep his board mostly clear, I have a faster clock, and these games usually come down to how many / how fast I can get etched champions on the table. I think it would've worked well too, I just ended up not finding red mana in game 3.
Those were all the decks I faced that day. I had other plans for other match ups, but never ended up seeing Jund, Grixis (non twin), or Burn / Zoo.
Last weekend I spent my Halloween driving three and a half hours to play in my RPTQ at the Eudomonia gaming store in Berkeley. I really love this store, it’s an excellent venue to host a tournament with lots of room and a positive atmosphere. The date and location for the RPTQ by wizards, however, was not so great. Berkeley is already a very busy city, and trying to get downtown and find parking for the whole day on Halloween was bad, but there was also a football game that day so it was even worse. I arrived an hour early to the event and still had to park a mile away in a parking garage that was charging double, and I ended up with the last spot available. I heard multiple players that day grumbling that they had had to choose between attempting to qualify for the pro tour or spending the day with their children, and I hope that wizards takes a look at this type of situation in the future.
As for the event, I tried to meta game as best I could based on what I had seen at previous events. I was expecting to see a good amount of jund, grixis, and twin decks, as well as some burn and tron players who were hoping to beat them. I decided to go with ‘Red Affinity’, which is basically your stock affinity deck except I’m running 4 galvanic blast and 2 shrapnel blast main deck in order to push as hard as I can for a fast kill and try to negate some of the damage from Kolaghan’s command. My sideboard was also almost entirely colorless or red cards that I felt covered all of my bases with the exception of a single thoughtseize. I have to say that my deck choice for the day was spot on. I don’t think I’ve ever predicted a metagame so well before and was very rewarded for it.
My decklist:
4x Signal Pest
4x Arcbound Ravager
4x Vault Skirge
3x Steel Overseer
1x Hangarback Walker
3x Etched Champion
2x Memnite
1x Spellskite
4x Cranial Plating
4x Springleaf Drum
4x Galvanic Blast
2x Shrapnel Blast
4x Mox Opal
4x Darksteel Citadel
4x Blinkmoth Nexus
4x Inkmoth Nexus
2x Glimmervoid
2x Mountain
2x Whipflare
1x Etched Champion
2x Ancient Grudge
2x Blood Moon
1x Torpor Orb
1x Dismember
1x Welding Jar
1x Grafdigger’s Cage
2x Ghirapur AEther Grid
1x Relic of Progenitus
1x Thoughtseize
32 players showed up for the RPTQ, here’s how my tournament went;
Round 1 vs R/G Tron – 2/0
I was on the play this match. I opened with a vault skirge on turn 1, and suited it up with a plating on turn 2. Turn 3 I swung in again, bringing him down to 8 and finished him off with a galvanic blast and a shrapnel blast. Game 2 he was dead again before he was able to assemble tron after I cast my third galvanic blast.
Round 2 vs RUG Twin – 2/0
Game 1 I was fairly lucky to win this one. He countered my plating and was able to keep my board mostly clear except for 2 etched champions that eventually went the distance. I was able to fade a splinter twin draw for about 3 turns, even through a serum visions. Game 2 he ancient grudge’d away my plating and steel overseers, but turn 2 and 3 etched champions got there again. Best gray ogres ever.
Round 3 vs Abzan CoCo – 1/2
This was my toughest match in the swiss by far. Also my draws were fairly awkward which weren’t helping. All 3 games here were very close, and I believe could’ve gone either way. Game 1 was a mull to 6 on the draw for me, with a fairly slow hand. It turned into a slug fest, and I was able to get him to 8 infect before he killed me with kitchen finks and scavenging oozes on the ground. If I had drawn a galvanic blast for his last bird blocker I would’ve poisoned him out. Game 2 was a bit quicker for me and I got him with etched champions. On the last turn he chorded for a kitaki at the end of his turn, but when I untapped I had 2 darksteel citadels, an etched champion, a springleaf drum and an arcbound ravager. So I just ate everything but the citadels and put the counters on the champion and swung for lethal. Game 3 I opened 2 land hand with ornithopter, plating, signal pest, galvanic blast, and ghirapur aether grid. If I saw a red mana this game would be over very quickly. His only play in the first 3 turns was a viscera seer, but I didn’t find my red mana until I was dead, and even then it was 3 cards down. Sometimes you just don’t get there.
Round 4 vs UR Twin – 2/0
Game 1 was a slow hand with 13 points of burn in my opener. I decided why not and kept and went for it. I ended up drawing very little pressure but even more burn. He eventually was at 9 played a twin on his deceiver with 1 blue open. I tried to galv blast it and he dispels, so I point a galv and a shrapnel blast at his face for lethal. He just blinked a few times and scooped up his cards. Game 2 was unfortunately not really a game. He mulliganed into a 1 land hand with a serum visions and didn’t find a land in the top 5 cards of his deck, while I had a ornithopter with a plating swinging in on turn 2. After he showed me his hand with 2 bolts, 2 grudges, and an electrolyze. Pretty unfortunate.
Round 5 vs G/W? Tron – 0/0/3 Intentional Draw
I checked the standings for this round and I had somehow made it to the top of the X-1’s, in 5th place. There were 4 above me who were X-0 and double drawing into top 8, and then a lot of X-1’s below me. I had worked out the math and believed that a draw in my spot locked me into 7th and forced the rest of the X-1’s to play, and because of a pair down at the bottom of the X-1’s, my opponent would also make top 8 on a draw if the X-2 won. I offered the draw and he spent awhile thinking about it. He was leaning toward playing to be safe, which probably would’ve been fine for me, but I played my first turn of citadel, drum, opal, ornithopter, plating and said I would still offer the draw but he had to choose now, or it wasn’t on the table anymore. He looked at the board and his 6 card hand and accepted. Fortunately for us, the player who was paired up won (Good job JJ) and we both made top 8.
Top 8
Round 6 vs U/R Twin
As a player who is trying to go pro, it was interesting to sit down to this match knowing it was probably the most important set of 3 games I had ever played in my life up to this point. I didn’t really feel nervous, but it was a weird feeling knowing how much there was potentially riding on these draws.
Game 1 I had a pretty slow start and drew no interactive spells at all. I had him to about 7 before I died to twin on turn 5. Game 2 I played 2 etched champions and rode them to victory as I lost the rest of my board to ancient grudges. Game 3 I came out fairly strong but lost my plating to an ancient grudge and then got twinned out on turn 4.
This match ended up being very frustrating for me, as the point of playing red affinity is seeing some of your red cards, also I hadn’t lost a game to twin all day. I feel like seeing even one galvanic blast in this match could’ve swung it in my favor, but I did not draw any of them, or a shrapnel blast for that matter. It did end up being close anyway and I feel like I played as best as I could. My opponent also played well and I hope he has good luck in Atlanta. (Congrats Jason!)
I was pleased with my deck choice for this event, but if I could do it over, I would've played the 4th etched champion in the main and moved the hangarback walker to the side. It came out in most of my games and the champion always came in. Hangarback was always just a little too slow, especially for this style of affinity.
Overall I was happy with the event, even falling one game short. This was my first RPTQ and as close as I have ever been so far to playing on the pro tour and I definitely feel like it is within reach. I will keep pushing as hard as I can, and will be jamming lots of standard as GP Oakland and RPTQ Santa Clara get closer in early 2016.
Thanks for reading!
-Brian
3x Snapcaster Mage
2x Young Pyromancer
3x Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
2x Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1x Gurmag Angler
4x Serum Visions
3x Thought Scour
4x Lightning Bolt
3x Terminate
1x Go for the Throat
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
1x Thoughtseize
2x Rise // Fall
2x Kolaghan’s Command
2x Liliana of the Veil
3x Bloodstained Mire
2x Scalding Tarn
1x Steam Vents
1x Watery Grave
1x Blood Crypt
1x Darkslick Shores
2x Blackcleave Cliffs
2x Creeping Tar Pit
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Swamp
1x Island
1x Mountain
3x Fulminator Mage
2x Vampiric Link
1x Tribute to Hunger
1x Nihil Spellbomb
2x Pyroclasm
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Kolaghan’s Comand
1x Glen Elendra Archmage
1x Damnation
2x Dispel
I dropped to the 3/3/3 split of abbot, jace, and snap. I also upped my Young Pyro count to 2, he's been very strong. I haven't really had an issue running him with Lilianas main. The sideboard is full of cards I'm testing. I really don't like being a huge dog to burn, so I'm trying to shore up that match up while keeping the rest as strong as possible. I played against tron recently and it feels like if I don't see my fulminators or have a really strong opener, its hard to deal with. Though I felt like my opponent was drawing pretty well most games, getting turn 3-4 tron often. I am also testing a Cavern of Souls in place of my third rise // fall, upping the land count to 21. Not sure if its right but I did want to try it. So far it seems good.
I like the idea of having probes and baubles in this deck, but there just isn't room unless you change the deck at its base.
4x Abbot of Keral Keep
3x Snapcaster Mage
1x Young Pyromancer
3x Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
2x Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1x Gurmag Angler
4x Serum Visions
3x Thought Scour
4x Lightning Bolt
3x Terminate
1x Go for the Throat
2x Kolaghan’s Command
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
1x Thoughtseize
3x Rise // Fall
2x Liliana of the Veil
4x Polluted Delta
3x Bloodstained Mire
2x Scalding Tarn
1x Steam Vents
1x Watery Grave
1x Blood Crypt
2x Blackcleave Cliffs
2x Creeping Tar Pit
1x Swamp
2x Island
1x Mountain
Sideboard
3x Fulminator Mage
2x Vampiric Link
1x Nihil Spellbomb
1x Anger of the Gods
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Izzet Staticaster
1x Liliana of the Veil
1x Kolaghan’s Comand
1x Negate
1x Damnation
2x Dispel
Rd1 – Grisshoalbrand 2/1
This match went about as you could expect. Game 1 I picked his hand apart with inquisition into fall. He spent about 4 turns digging with faithless lootings to find some gas, but he couldn’t repair his hand enough to combo or even drop a shoal before I killed him with a Tasigur and an abbot. Game 2 he faithless lootings away a Griselbrand turn 1, I play a watery grave into serum visions and pass, he combos off turn 2. Game 3 he mulls to 6, I thoughtseize and see 2 land, Borborygmos, and 3 goryos vengeance. I take a goryos (not going to put a borbor into his yard for him). I play a gurmag on turn 2 and kill him in 4 attacks.
Rd2 – Amulet Bloom 0/2
What a frustrating match this was. Game 1 I kept a hand with a few lands, inquisition, serum visions. I take his summer bloom with inquisition and bottom 2 lands off the visions, but still manage to get 7 or 8 lands and kill his first Primetime before he hive mind kills me on about turn 6. The next game was worse. I mulligan to 6, keep a hand with blue mana and serum visions. Bottom lands only to find more. He slowly works his way up to 6 mana (never got to bloom this whole match) and drops the hivemind again. I felt like I was playing a deck with no threats this match for some reason. I never cast a delve creature or an abbot.
Rd3 – Naya Company Zoo 2/1
This match was very close. Game 1 he had a ton of threats out very quickly. Nacatl, Knight of the Reliquary, Loxodon Smiters, etc. I wasn’t really able to keep up. I kept his board partially clear, but lost. Game 2 went similarly, but I opened with damnation, so kept building towards that, while staying alive. He got a Thalia down, which slowed me for a turn. I had to kill it and then untap and damnation, but still got a 4 for 1. He never really recovered after that, I built up card advantage and won with abbots. Game 3 he cast a heirarch into a blood moon and thought he had just won the match. I untapped and played an island into my singleton young pyromancer. I eventually serum visioned into a swamp and just went off with the YP. He got stuck without white mana for most of the game because of his own moon after I had killed his heirarchs while I had blockers forever and eventually won at about 4 life.
Rd4 – Jund 2/0
I already feel very favored with this deck, but in game 1 my opponent kept a 1 lander on a mull to 6 and never really got out of it. He missed his second and third land drops while I was able to land a jace, fall, then flip jace and fall again into a concession. Game 2 was grindy, as this match tends to be, but my first fall hit a maelstrom pulse and a courser of kruphix and I saw a lot of the fight just fade out of him. We were eventually both hell bent, but I had an abbot and a flipped jace to his nothing. He swung a raging ravine into my jace but I had drawn a bolt for it and finished him quickly after that.
Rd 5 – Infect 1/2
This is another match up I feel heavily favored, however that relies on drawing the necessary removal spells. Game 1 I saw Go for the Throat, but no bolts or terminates after drawing >20 cards, and eventually ran out of blockers / answers. Game 2 the deck performed fairly normally and I drew removal and killed him with an unanswered Tasigur. Game 3 was as frustrating as game 1. I saw all 3 snapcaster mages, which became removal spells as flash goblin pikers because I drew zero removal spells. I got him down to 3 and was eventually pecked to death by an inkmoth nexus I couldn’t answer. Sometimes you just don’t draw the cards you need I suppose.
Rd 6 – Jund 1/2
I saw a bloodstained mire fetch an overgrown tomb turn 1 and was pretty happy. I would probably prefer to face jund all day with the abbot / grixis deck. This match, however, did not go according to plan. He had a very aggressive start with goyfs and bobs and plenty of removal. I was able to clear his board at 3 life, and got him hell bent with a freshly played jace in play and a snapcaster in my hand, but I was tapped out. I pass the turn and he flips a kolaghans command off the top, discarding my snapcaster and killing jace, then top decks a bolt to finish me. He acknowledged after the game that his draws were very good. I wrecked his hand game 2 and locked him out pretty quickly. Game 3 I mulled to 6 and saw no discard spells. He was able to break down my hand and stick a goyf that did enough damage that I wasn’t able to recover. This was one of maybe 3 or 4 matches I’ve ever lost to jund with this deck. My opponent played well but his deck was also running pretty hot. I’d still prefer to play nothing but jund all day if it were up to me.
Rd 7 – Burn 2/1
After 2 losses to decks I felt favored against, I was really annoyed to see a fetch, mountain, goblin guide start from my rd 7 opponent. I knew burn wasn’t a good match up for me, and had managed to dodge it until now. Game 1 on the draw I was woefully unprepared and died in short order. Game 2, he started very fast and got me down to 1 by about turn 4. I landed a tasigur and tapped my last land to play a vampiric link on it and just prayed. He drew his card and I didn’t immediately die, so I knew I had a chance. He passed the turn and I was able to go back up to 5 on the attack. I kept his board clear and he wasn’t able to overcome the 4 life gain per turn until he died. Game 3 he didn’t see a land until he had mulled down to 4, and although he gave it his best, you can’t really make a game on 4 cards so I took this match. I really don’t like the burn match up still, but vampiric link definitely proved itself this time around. Having 2 of those plus 2 dispels and a negate in the board is a sizable concession to make this match up better, but it still feels 50/50 at best.
Rd 8 - 5c humans 2/1
This deck was very interesting. He kept a 1 lander on a mull to 6 and didn’t see another until about turn 4, so he played 3 boros elites in a row until then. I didn’t really know what I was up against for a while, so I just kept him off battalion until I had a Tasigur in play to start doing my own beats. He eventually got up to 3 or 4 lands, so I saw a little more of his deck but he was too far behind at this point. Game 2 I was setting up for a turn 3 gurmag angler when he dropped rest in peace on me. I made a game of it, got him to about 6 after casting a full price gurmag. Game 3 I came quickly out of the gate with a couple abbots into a lot of removal. I kept his board mostly clear and killed him with 4 and 5 power abbots. This version of the deck was unlike any I’ve seen, it was very aggressive and low to the ground with bolts, paths and 1-2 mana creatures. The mana base was city of brass / mana confluence, gemstone mine, and cavern of souls.
Rd 9 – Jund 2/0
This match was textbook. I stripped his hand with back to back falls game 1 and out carded him. Game 2 I landed a total of 3 abbots that got in for a ridiculous amount of damage. Not a whole lot to say about this match. We were both tired after 9 rounds and ready to be done. This was my third jund match of the day, and even though it’s my preferred match up, it does get to be quite a grind sometimes.
All in all, I was 6-3 for the day with a deck I had about a week and a half to practice with, so I was pretty happy. They were paying down to 64th, and my breakers were so horrendous, that even with 345 players, I took 67th with an X-3 record. Frustrating, but those were the breaks. I thoroughly enjoyed playing this deck and plan to continue developing it. The burn match up is not fun, and I’d like to test a bit more against amulet bloom and tron, but I feel favored against most of the field.
As to the recent conversations regarding match ups;
Affinity: Highly unfavourable
I definitely disagree here. We have so much interaction that I rarely have too much trouble with affinity except for their most explosive starts. Early discard hurts them more than most, and if you take their big threats and give yourself time to develop, they will never recover enough to overcome your removal.
Burn: Unfavourable
This is true, the burn match up for grixis is never going to be good. It could be even worse if we ran more shocks or thoughtseizes, but it isn't great either way. You have to make a choice when sideboarding to either hope to dodge this match up entirely, or use a few slots on dragons claw / vampiric link type cards. I personally run 2 vampiric link and 2 dispel in the side for burn.
Twin: Even (?)
Mostly agreed, though I think were a slight favorite. We can't play draw / go forever, as someone else noted, but we have a lot of hand disruption that will make it incredibly difficult for them to combo through, and lots of removal. Our pressure and better top decks usually win these games in my experience.
Jund/Abzan: Favourable
I always feel like a heavy favorite against jund. We play the same game they do and we do it better. Abzan I have less experience with, but I definitely don't like to see lingering souls. We can fight through it, but its not as easy as jund.
Mefolks: Slightly Unfavourable
I think were at least even here. We kill everything they put out, 2 for 1 them with rise/fall and kolaghans command, and grind much better. If we survive the initial assault, we almost can't lose.
Grixis control(traditional Chapin style): Favourable
Agreed here, we just grind better than they do and Rise is such a beating against an early tap out delve creature. We play around counters pretty well and pick their hand to pieces.
Infect: Highly favourable
We are a definite favorite here. Just use your removal at sorcery speed and force them to waste their pump spells on your turn. Wild defiance can be annoying, just try to pick it from their hand. Terminate / GFTT is your friend here, obviously.
Tron: Unfavourable
I don't have the experience here to say for sure, but I feel like discard / pressure should give us at least a fighting shot, then whatever flavor of land destruction from the side should put us in a decent position. I am using fulminator mages at the moment.
Abzan CoCo: Favourable
Agreed, for the same reasons we beat other midrange decks. We just kill everything and top deck better. Discard works well here.
Elves: Unfavourable
I don't quite get how elves is an unfavorable match up. You kill the combo pieces if they're on the curio plan, or anything that isn't a basic mana dork. They don't vomit their hand as well as affinity so discard does work, then you bring in whatever sweepers you're using after game 1. I don't think I've lost a match to any flavor of elves yet.
Amulet Bloom: Even (?)
My one experience with Amulet Bloom at the WMCQ was watching my 20 land deck draw 8 of its lands by turn 5, where I was hivemind killed both games. I feel like if I had gotten my normal spread of land / threats / discard and interaction, these games would've been decisively in my favor. I think against a good amulet bloom pilot we are probably close to even.
Scapeshift: Another match up I'm not sure how we lose. This deck is so slow and fairly soft to discard. We strip their hand and land a few threats and win. Post board, land destruction on top of everything else should shore this up.