MTG Salvation

Quote from skip430

Sure creeping corrosion sucks, but not many decks have the capability of playing double green SB cards.

There are shocklands in Modern. That's like having duals in Legacy, they allow you to play even 3-color decks consistently, without the tempo loss from playing ETB tapped lands.

Quote from skip430

But there are really so many ways to take this deck. It can be refined to beat combo with tidehollow sculler and canonist, great removal with dispatch, and reach/removal with galvanic blast/shrapnel blast. It can go balls to the walls aggro with cheap creatures and pump via signal pest, MoE, and tempered steel, or it can play quality creatures that aren't artifacts like ardent recruit, who is the affinity wild nacatl.

I don't like Dispatch because if your opponent reduces you to below 3 artifacts, you only get to tap. Path to Exile is more consistent and if you play aggressively (which you should, given that Affinity's strength lies in cheap creatures), you don't care about the extra land.
Same deal with Ardent Recruit, if he loses metalcraft he's a dud. At least Wild Nacatl is boosted by lands, which are much harder to get rid of. Court Homunculus is smaller but more consistent, and is an artifact to boot.

Quote from weirdolighting

What's the best way to ramp into Ad Nauseam?

Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Lotus Petal and Lion's Eye Diamond.

Which is why Ad Nauseum is only used in Legacy. The wincon, Tendrils of Agony, is also Legacy-exclusive. Grapeshot has only half the damage output and Empty the Warrens leaves you open to board wipes.

When you've blown 5 mana on Ad Nauseum, it's going to be difficult to cast anything that you drew, unless you draw into ramp which you can use immediately (so no Birds of Paradise). Unfortunately all the black ramp is in Legacy, the only ramp in Modern is red.

Update on Vedalken Certarch: I played a few games and he does seem awesome. The deck is cluttered with Memnites, Ornithopters, and mana artifacts (Mox Opal, Darksteel Citadel, Springleaf Drum). It's very easy to get him to activate. Once he does he can tap your opponent's lands like Rishadan Port (without requiring mana!), or tap your opponent's Sworded creatures, etc.

You know how Legacy's Vial Goblins uses Aether Vial to put creatures into play and disrupts the opponent's mana with Rishadan Port and Wasteland? Something like that could see play in Modern Affinity, with Vial+Certarch+Ghost Quarter/Tectonic Edge. You win by getting a pumped army from Signal Pest/Steel Overseer/Master of Etherium, or beating with an enormous Master of Etherium/Cranial Plating-equipped dude.

Genesis Chamber won me a few games but I'd much rather tap an enemy land/creature with Certarch. Replaced it with Aether Vial.

EDIT My current build:


Yes, I consider AEther Vial to be a mana source.
I might add some (Bl)inkmoth Nexus or Etherium Sculptor.

Quote from XenoNinja

Also - Kird Ape is strictly worse than Figure or Grim Lavamancer - why run it?

It's a damage race against Zoo. You're not trying to eat Goyfs. You're racing them by playing pump effects and more creatures than they can shoot, in the form of Spectral Procession and Cloudgoat Ranger.

Kird Ape is a staple of Zoo because it's a 2/3 for 1 mana. It's not strictly worse than either of those cards - Figure needs mana to be any use, and Lavamancer needs mana & cards (which you may not have if you didn't draw any fetches).

You won't be able to race Zoo when your 2/2s are unable to get past its 2/3s. The Zoo player can just sit there stalling you all day until they draw a Knight/Goyf.

About Steel Overseer: As a lord, he's poorly positioned. Compared to, say, Master of Etherium or Tempered Steel, those are 3-drops, which means you have 2 turns to drop as many beaters as you can (less if you accelerate with Mox Opal). Steel Overseer gives you only 1 turn to drop your beaters, and doesn't pump the turn he ETBs.
Also, it sucks when you drop an Overseer and it gets killed. If your opponent is playing an aggro deck, the tempo swing usually leads to a loss (since your Memnites, Ornithopters etc are unable to contend with larger creatures).
That said, if you do manage to tap it once you're in the money. Lightning Greaves/Swiftfoot Boots helps. Those would also go well with Innistrad's Mikaeus, the Lunarch. Mikaeus might be better suited in a WW deck though.

Spellskite is a boss; it doesn't die to Bolt or Helix and draws removal away from Steel Overseer. Sadly, it doesn't do much for offense.

I have a weird idea with Vedalken Certarch and Genesis Chamber/Howling Mine...will playtest to see how it turns out.

Quote from XenoNinja

The deck has to compete with Jund/Zoo on damage levels

You can't beat a 2/3 Ape, Lion or 3/3 Nacatl straight up. Goldmeadow Stalwart, Knight of Meadowgrain, Wizened Cenn are mere 2/2s, and the latter two are 2-drops.

The only way you're going to beat Zoo's creatures is by using Student of Warfare or Porcelain Legionnaire, but Zoo has a full set of Bolts/Helixes to kill them.

Wall of Omens/Spellskite beats Zoo but they can't attack, and you lose to 12post's Eldrazi.

No Inkmoth Nexus?
The problem with this deck is:
1) Shoal and Progenitus are useless on their own.
2) Spellskite walks all over you.
3) Glistener Elf can be chump blocked. Right before you Apostle's Blessing or Not of this World, if your opponent has any kill spells he'll just slap them on your elf. You get 2-for-1ed.

If you still want to play this sort of "mulligan aggressively" deck, you need Serum Powder.

A quick Gatherer search turned up some options you missed:
Militia's Pride
Ballyrush Banneret
Surge of Thoughtweft
Kithkin Harbinger
Crib Swap (but its only advantage over Unmake is that it's tutorable)

And if you're playing tribal there is Preeminent Captain and Kinsbaile Cavalier.

Gifts Ungiven? With some modifications to the deck, search for Through the Breach, Footsteps of the Goryo, Protean Hulk, Eternal Witness/Recollect.

Play Hulk and let it die (via effect of Through the Breach/Footsteps of the Goryo).
Search for Viscera Seer and Body Double (targeting the GY Hulk).
Sac Double to Seer, search for Reveillark and Bile Urchin.
Sac Bile Urchin to itself for 1 damage.
Sac Reveillark to Seer, return Bile Urchin and Body Double (targeting Reveillark).
Rinse & repeat.

BTW, isn't Death Cultist/Mogg Fanatic better than Bile Urchin?
And if you draw a combo piece you need a way of putting it back in the library. Without JTMS the only way I know is See Beyond...

T4 Chandra into T5 Time Warp.
Or copy a land destruction spell to set your opponent back 2 lands.

Mikokoro, Center of the Sea is a land that draws cards. I use it as a 1-of.
My current build focuses entirely on getting the Time Warp/Manamorphose + Noxious Revival combo online.



Next I want to try a mana denial strategy with Boomerang and Eye of Nowhere. I'll be able to play a full 4 Muddle the Mixture because I'll have more 2CMC cards (both bounce spells, Manamorphose, Remand, PA).

Compulsive Research and Ideas Unbound are great draw spells but I don't know what to take out. Tough decisions.

The Splinter Twin combo has a lot of redundancy in Modern.
Get either 1) Deceiver Exarch OR Pestermite, with 2) Splinter Twin OR Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and you have an infinite number of tokens.

With so much redundancy you might as well run 4 each of Gitaxian Probe, Street Wraith and Manamorphose. They replace themselves so your deck essentially consists of 48 cards.

The remainder can be standard combo material: Gigadrowse, Remand, Rite of Flame, Simian Spirit Guide. The +1 mana cards allow you to combo faster, and T3 Exarch/Mite into T4 Kiki-Jiki (who costs 5 mana).

Drift of Phantasms can tutor a blue creature.

Modified the deck:
-8 Mountain
-4 Mogg Fanatic
-4 Stormblood Berserker
+4 Arid Mesa
+4 Scalding Tarn
+4 Grim Lavamancer
+4 Zektar Shrine Expedition

Fetches provide fuel for Mancer and ZSE, and some minor deck thinning. ZSE is capable of dealing as much damage as Shrine of Burning Rage, it just has to get past that tricky little step called "combat".

T2 ZSE, T3 pop fetch+proliferate brings out the token quickly.

Searing Blaze is another consideration as it also goes well with fetches.

With this sort of deck immediate draw is better than having to wait for it, so I'd take out Mine and Bell for Kaleidostone and Elsewhere Flask.

Having some way to reduce the costs of those cantrip artifacts helps as well. Vedalken Engineer, Etherium Sculptor, Cloud Key and Semblance Anvil come to mind. Anvil is particularly rewarding as if it works, yo can cast a 2 CMC cantrip for free, potentially drawing into more 2 CMC cantrips.

You're missing Thoughtcast or Thirst for Knowledge.

Run 4 Darksteel Citadel. The bulk of your deck is colorless anyway.

Epochrasite is a pretty fun dude to feed to Time Sieve, since Sieve takes a counter off him.