MTG Salvation

Quote from FoodChainGoblins »

Is the Antiquities War in the SB? That's pretty sweet to beat Jund like that!

It is currently SB. But I have thought about trying it MB.

I want to try Karn, Scion of Urza when the price goes down. The Antiquities War seems pretty sweet though.

In light of SnK-Arcbound's list above, what do people make of a non-Galvanic Blast list that would run 3-4 Thoughtseize instead?
I find that I regularly sideboard in 2 copies of Thoughtseize anyway, and often prefer disruption/information over a random 4 damage burn spell - when we win, its usually by a BIG margin EG Cranial Plating, all in with Arcbound Ravager, a big Master of Etherium or poison damage, not necessarily finishing them off with Blast.

Thoughts?

I have a friend who mainboards 2 copies of Spell Pierce in his Affinity list too as he prefers the surprise interaction.

My 2 cents.

Quote from FoodChainGoblins »

I want to try Karn, Scion of Urza when the price goes down. The Antiquities War seems pretty sweet though.

The more I use Karn the more I love it. It's faster than AW and it's a real game changing (well at least it feel faster: as said in older post it's pretty difficult to tell which card is faster). Most of all is colorless and can always be cast if you have 4 mana available. AW is surely an awsome budget option though.

Quote from RochiTomRochi »

In light of SnK-Arcbound's list above, what do people make of a non-Galvanic Blast list that would run 3-4 Thoughtseize instead?
I find that I regularly sideboard in 2 copies of Thoughtseize anyway, and often prefer disruption/information over a random 4 damage burn spell - when we win, its usually by a BIG margin EG Cranial Plating, all in with Arcbound Ravager, a big Master of Etherium or poison damage, not necessarily finishing them off with Blast.

Thoughts?

I have a friend who mainboards 2 copies of Spell Pierce in his Affinity list too as he prefers the surprise interaction.

It depends a lot on the meta. In a meta full of aggro Blast is better. Otherwhise, if combo e controls dominate I could see mainboarding TS. Surely Blast is more versatile and a better topdeck than TS late game. Blast is more important to destroy creatures than finish opponents (though it happens sometimes). I won a lot of games clearing with it the path for my attackers. Moreover now that I play Karn that drops huge non flyers threats.
I personally dislike counters a lot (I play just one in side and I'm not sure if I'll keep it) so I'd never play them mainboard.

Hey, I am finishing my Affinity pool right now after a 7-3 result at MKM Hamburg with the following:

Karn ist hilarious. But because of running 5 non-artifact spells MB now, I run into more unplayable starting hands now.
My thought: replacing Blast with Ancient Stirrings. That can find either any artifact threat besides Vault Skirge, plus Karn.
And Hope of Ghirapur ist really spicy. Against a Control MU or Combo, it can often be turned into a Time Walk, or it makes sure to resolve Karn (or anything) vs open U(x) Mana post-combat.

Greetings

When did Ray of revelation come in?

It was mainly in the SB for Bogles, I think (the entire list was made up by a friend). I boarded it in against any MU where I expected Stony Silence - never drew it though.
My MU's were:
R1 vs RUG Scapeshift - 1:2
R2 vs GB Midrange - 2:1
R3 vs Jund - 2:0
R4 vs Death'n'Taxes - 0:2
R5 vs MartyrProc - 2:0
R6 vs Jund - 2:1
R7 vs Hollow One - 2:0
R8 vs Humans - 2:1
R9 vs RG Titanshift - 2:0
R10 vs UWR Nahiri - 0:2

I think of a different SB now:

More Karn for the Stony Silence MU's as well as UWR Decks, also one more Moon. I will test Ancient Stirrings online, soon.

Greetings

There are multiple ways:
1) Cast Karn before Stony Silence
2) remove Stony Silence, then cast Karn
3) Draw a fourth Land (Ancient Stirrings might help here)
I mean, Karn is still working while Stony Silence is on the Battlefield, and is a MWP at any given turn.

Since Karn would replace a Grid, numbers should be run to find if it's easier to cast Karn (4 generic) or Grid (3 mana but one must be R). I'm not good at this, so unfortunately I can't help. In general, in any case, I wouldn't play 3 karn, even if I love having 2.
I love moon and I think that at least one could help a lot improving many match-ups.
About stirrings: I'm reluctant to give up interaction and I think stirrings may only slow us down. It must be tested to be sure though so I'd love to hear about hinterweltler's tets.

Ancient stirrings is really good. In your opener you can keep 1 landers that would normally be terrible when you're flooded with 2 drops. Late it lets you dig for what you need. I've taken opal for the extra mana turn 1, and karn late in the game. I've also dug for ravager to live, or kill the opponent. And I've gotten 5 crap cards that get shipped to the bottom, but hardened scales runs higher creature quality which is better against mid range and control, regular affinity plays a lot of garbage. Also hardened scales is much better against stony silence, but much worse against Solemnity. No one wants to actually try out the deck which is too bad, because it's very good. I'm happy to play against removal.deck because the card quality is too high. I played against jund and he 2 for 1'd me until he was out of cards, which is the opposite of what should happen.

I am a crazy guy though, I think springleaf drum is complete garbage and have no idea why people play 4 of it. And back in the day didn't play thoughtcast when it was an auto 4 of because the other blue cards were terrible. Removal is getting more efficient and affinity doesn't really benefit from most sets.

Towards Ancient Stirrings:
I played just a few matches (like 10) with slight changes from my previous posted list:
-3 Galvanic Blast
-1 Etched Champion
+4 Ancient Stirrings
I kept the Basic Mountain because of the heavy Red SB, but maybe I'll change that. My SB now includes 2 more Karn, to get a feeling for running a playset in bad MU's.
So Stirrings is huge. Like mentioned above, it almost always finds impactful threats, or it ships 4 cards I don't want to draw to the bottom.
And mutliple Karns in hand become far more playable when you can find that 4th mana source via Stirrings. So with now 8 non-artifact spells that impact the game a lot, I'd suggest to increase the slots for Hope of Ghirapur. This tiny guy has been the best I could have in multiple situations:
- my opponent was on UWR, and had removed any real threat, leaving HOG on board as the only creature. I have 4 Lands, an active Mox and Stirrings in hand. HOG connects and disables his Counters and anything sorcery or PW-like, then Stirrings finds Karn and I proceed to win the game (topdecked a 2nd Karn after making 2 huge Tokens)
- my opponent is on Scapeshift and was 1 landdrop away from Scapeshift'ing me, then HOG turns into a Timewalk and I topdecked a lethal Plating
And there were more, less obvious situations where HOG forced my opponent into sub-optimal plays due to fearing the activated ability.
And it has evasion, besides all that.
So I guess I'll get another one maindeck, and maybe more in the SB (another serious catch for Stirrings).

Greetings

If you talk about control and midrange I can see stirrings miles ahead blasts. But what about humans and other creatures decks match-ups? Nobody told how theses have become without interaction. Any idea?
About HOG. I tried it too and it clearly deserves at least a slot. I'm reluctant to put in more because it's legendary. I always want to be able to empty my hand if needed.

I played just few games, and Humans was not among them. I played other Aggro decks, and either didn't have Stirrings/Blast or Stirrings was the real deal. Found the Plating with an Ornithopter on board ready to swing for lethal, or the Champion to break the boardstall.
Karn was live in every creature MU when I resolved one; the token is almost everytime the biggest guy on board, the second one is usually lethal damage if unblocked, and the CA in the longterm (ha-ha) wins any games not won yet.

PS: I still play interactive cards G2 and eventually G3 - those are in the SB (TS, SD, Moon etc.)

Thanks for the answer. I think I'll give it a try myself and see how it goes.

I find myself in need of some advice.

I am looking to improve my winrate vs combo decks (storm, KCI, etc). I know that's not a great matchup to begin with, so lets assume game 1 goes to them.
I would say I have an average of 6 "hate" cards frome sideboard.

Considering that Affinity doesn't mulligan so well, how aggressively would you look for your sideboard in your starting hand?

I see SB cards as improvements. So I won't specifically look out for those few cards I boarded in, but instead try to get a fast opener for the fast games against Combo. The SB cards are there to put just enough stress on my opponent so that I win faster.
One exclusion, however, is expecting Stony Silence. In that case, I'd suggest to look out for an opener that either does have an out to it (TS/Denial/removal) or is playable with Stony Silence in play (fast Champion(s) or Karn, or an Aether Grid).

But overall, I am quite new to the deck, so be careful with my hints

PS: For those Combo Decks you mentioned, there are a lot of viable SB options:
-2+ Damping Sphere
-2+ Thoughtseize
-2+ Stubborn Denial
-1-2 Rest in Peace
-1+ Wear // Tear (just KCI)
That makes 7-10 SB cards, rather a lot.

I see SB cards as improvements. So I won't specifically look out for those few cards I boarded in, but instead try to get a fast opener for the fast games against Combo. The SB cards are there to put just enough stress on my opponent so that I win faster.

This is the way I've been playing so far. With these fast combos (relatively frequent T3) you basically hope that they don't have it before turn 4/5 where we can consistenttly win.

I would probably reformulate my question to: would you mulligan a 7 cards hand that wins on turn 4/5 but that lack interaction? If so, would you go lower than 6 for the same reason? Either on the play or on the draw.

On the play, I would think about how my opener can become really fast via topdecks (an additional Plating, for example). If there are thinkable scenarios (Ancient Stirrings in hand, for example), I would keep it.
On the draw, I'd probably ship it, because T4/5 means T5/6 of my opponent. That is too slow.

Going below 6 cards is only correct, if the 6 cards are unplayable.

How is everybody’s main deck looking? Curious to see how the impact of Karn has affected the 3 drop slot.

Quote from Ravagingmox »

How is everybody’s main deck looking? Curious to see how the impact of Karn has affected the 3 drop slot.

Here's my last list:



Today Karsten released an article about his last list. I tried it and I like it a lot especially if you go into an unknow or high level meta. In some (heavy creatures/control/midrange) local metas I'd rather keep my champions mainboard though. I do agree about 6 >3 cmc spells being ok in a deck and about all he said about 4 cmc spells. I disagree with blood moon being bad, but who am I to disagree with him?

Edit: Fixed the link to the article