Hello! Today my friend and I bought four (yes, four) boxes of Modern Masters and, being quite new to Modern, decided to build Block Constructed decks to sorta 'dive in' with. He built RG Storm an I built this:
I'm looking for ways to make this lower level competitive (not Grand Prix level, but good enough to win store tournaments), but I wish to stay on a budget of ~$50-$100. Any ideas?
(P.S. Mods, I wasn't sure which section this went in, but I figured Affinity was the closest thing this would be compared to. If I'm wrong, please feel free to correct me)
Countermagic is the smell before rain, the sun on the horizon and the chocolate chips in my mint chocolate chip ice cream. It's the first time I saw a woman naked and the first time I smelled perfume. It's that feeling you get when you know you're right.
But most of all; it's the feeling of playing Magic
Hello! Today my friend and I bought four (yes, four) boxes of Modern Masters and, being quite new to Modern, decided to build Block Constructed decks to sorta 'dive in' with. He built RG Storm an I built this:
I'm looking for ways to make this lower level competitive (not Grand Prix level, but good enough to win store tournaments), but I wish to stay on a budget of ~$50-$100. Any ideas?
(P.S. Mods, I wasn't sure which section this went in, but I figured Affinity was the closest thing this would be compared to. If I'm wrong, please feel free to correct me)
Questions to you: are you planning on only using cards from Modern Masters, or is it just going to be Modern legal?
You could take out white (Etherium Sculptor, Court Homunculus, Path to Exile) and black (Tidehollow Sculler) and make it blue/red so that you can have Pyrite Spellbomb and Shrapnel Blast. Maxing out Esperzoa, Arcbound Worker, Bonesplitter, and having 4x Frogmites sound good to me as a tempo deck. 1x Sword of Fire and Ice and 3x Arcbound Ravager would add more consistency to the deck, but they are not necessary. I don't like the Pact of Negation much, but that's up to you.
Outside of the Modern Masters set, 4x Cranial Plating, 4x Thoughtcast, and 4x Galvanic Blast, 4x Ornithopter, 4x Vault Skirge, 4x Springleaf Drums, and 4x Darksteel Citadel are the cheaper components of core Affinity. The other parts you're missing are pretty cheap too, like the Inkmoth Nexus, Master of Etherium, Etched Champion, and Steel Overseer are all relatively inexpensive rares at $5 each. The only card that's running high are the Mox Opal at $30, but not running Mox Opal gives you options to not run Memnites as well which I feel like isn't the worst trade off because it gives you more consistency in threats.
Affinity is more or less already a budget deck, and it's currently doing very well in the metagame (it won the last Modern SCG in Milano). So you're off to be pretty good start!
Welcome to Modern, where eternal playability meets budgets.
Questions to you: are you planning on only using cards from Modern Masters, or is it just going to be Modern legal?
You could take out white (Etherium Sculptor, Court Homunculus, Path to Exile) and black (Tidehollow Sculler) and make it blue/red so that you can have Pyrite Spellbomb and Shrapnel Blast. Maxing out Esperzoa, Arcbound Worker, Bonesplitter, and having 4x Frogmites sound good to me as a tempo deck. 1x Sword of Fire and Ice and 3x Arcbound Ravager would add more consistency to the deck, but they are not necessary. I don't like the Pact of Negation much, but that's up to you.
Outside of the Modern Masters set, 4x Cranial Plating, 4x Thoughtcast, and 4x Galvanic Blast, 4x Ornithopter, 4x Vault Skirge, 4x Springleaf Drums, and 4x Darksteel Citadel are the cheaper components of core Affinity. The other parts you're missing are pretty cheap too, like the Inkmoth Nexus, Master of Etherium, Etched Champion, and Steel Overseer are all relatively inexpensive rares at $5 each. The only card that's running high are the Mox Opal at $30, but not running Mox Opal gives you options to not run Memnites as well which I feel like isn't the worst trade off because it gives you more consistency in threats.
Affinity is more or less already a budget deck, and it's currently doing very well in the metagame (it won the last Modern SCG in Milano). So you're off to be pretty good start!
Welcome to Modern, where eternal playability meets budgets.
I'm looking at full modern, block constructed was just a stepping off point.
This is what I made up earlier tonight with cards I had on hand:
I'm think of trying to play Disciple of the Vault as a way to avoid just dying to board wipes and such. I'm not sure if the Scars duals are really great in this deck, but I didn't have spare shocks. A fun interaction I found for the late game is saccing the Sculler to Ravager with his ETB effect on the stack, permanently exiling a card, the Academy Ruins-ing it back.
Countermagic is the smell before rain, the sun on the horizon and the chocolate chips in my mint chocolate chip ice cream. It's the first time I saw a woman naked and the first time I smelled perfume. It's that feeling you get when you know you're right.
But most of all; it's the feeling of playing Magic
Since you have already 3 Ravager, it's the only non-budget card you have left to get. I bought 3 Overseers on Friday for 5 € (~ 6.60$), and last time I checked Champions they weren't that expensive either. For the manabase you can get rid of shocks and duals as you already have the expensive card of the land core too:
Since you have already 3 Ravager, it's the only non-budget card you have left to get. I bought 3 Overseers on Friday for 5 € (~ 6.60$), and last time I checked Champions they weren't that expensive either. For the manabase you can get rid of shocks and duals as you already have the expensive card of the land core too:
Countermagic is the smell before rain, the sun on the horizon and the chocolate chips in my mint chocolate chip ice cream. It's the first time I saw a woman naked and the first time I smelled perfume. It's that feeling you get when you know you're right.
But most of all; it's the feeling of playing Magic
I'm using the U/R version right now as I thing Thoughtcast is a key component to the deck that helps you refill gas, but a very quick slaughter using Galvanic and Shrapnel Blast and some Bolts could suffice too, specially at LGS level. Don't get mistaken, though: it's not tempo but balls to the wall aggro. You deploy your hand, draw with probe and cast, put pressure via manlands and build up a threat with plating / overseer / ravager, with pests battle cry helping out, and you kill them as fast as possible or simply swing for lethal with a 10/x Inkmoth nexus. You use the evasiveness of the creatures and their synergies to build a powerful threat that ends the game fast. Drums play a key role to this, as you can do the following:
T1 Land, Ornithopter / Memnite, Mox Opal, tap land play drum, tap drum and ornithopter / memnite to cast skirge / pest, and then opal to cast another skirge / pest, OR tap both to cast Ravager / Plating / Overseer. Drum ups your artifact count, let's you ramp and provides color mana (which only opal and glimmervoid produce too) while helping with the low landbase.
I'm using the U/R version right now as I thing Thoughtcast is a key component to the deck that helps you refill gas, but a very quick slaughter using Galvanic and Shrapnel Blast and some Bolts could suffice too, specially at LGS level. Don't get mistaken, though: it's not tempo but balls to the wall aggro. You deploy your hand, draw with probe and cast, put pressure via manlands and build up a threat with plating / overseer / ravager, with pests battle cry helping out, and you kill them as fast as possible or simply swing for lethal with a 10/x Inkmoth nexus. You use the evasiveness of the creatures and their synergies to build a powerful threat that ends the game fast. Drums play a key role to this, as you can do the following:
T1 Land, Ornithopter / Memnite, Mox Opal, tap land play drum, tap drum and ornithopter / memnite to cast skirge / pest, and then opal to cast another skirge / pest, OR tap both to cast Ravager / Plating / Overseer. Drum ups your artifact count, let's you ramp and provides color mana (which only opal and glimmervoid produce too) while helping with the low landbase.
What are your thoughts on a tempo based strategy, using Tidehollow Sculler, Ethersworn Canonist and Æther Spellbomb? I guess Etherium Sculptor isn't quite needed in this deck, is it?
Countermagic is the smell before rain, the sun on the horizon and the chocolate chips in my mint chocolate chip ice cream. It's the first time I saw a woman naked and the first time I smelled perfume. It's that feeling you get when you know you're right.
But most of all; it's the feeling of playing Magic
No, I don't think Sculptor should be needed. Most of the creatures cost 0-1 mana, and those which cost 2 are key card to the deck and powerful threats with endgame potential if not answered (Ravager, Overseer, Plating) Compare that to a mere 1/2 body that even has mana commitment. And for a tempo deck, it is possible, but it's not what affinity best does, and UWR Delver and the like do it better. Affinity plays optimal when going highly aggresive.
No, I don't think Sculptor should be needed. Most of the creatures cost 0-1 mana, and those which cost 2 are key card to the deck and powerful threats with endgame potential if not answered (Ravager, Overseer, Plating) Compare that to a mere 1/2 body that even has mana commitment. And for a tempo deck, it is possible, but it's not what affinity best does, and UWR Delver and the like do it better. Affinity plays optimal when going highly aggresive.
Do affinity decks run Academy Ruins at all? It seems like it'd help in the late game where aggrieved decks have a bit of a problem sometimes
Countermagic is the smell before rain, the sun on the horizon and the chocolate chips in my mint chocolate chip ice cream. It's the first time I saw a woman naked and the first time I smelled perfume. It's that feeling you get when you know you're right.
But most of all; it's the feeling of playing Magic
Do affinity decks run Academy Ruins at all? It seems like it'd help in the late game where aggrieved decks have a bit of a problem sometimes
Generally not. Ruins is for more controlling decks that pop artifacts like Lotus Bloom (or Mindslaver if you're playing Tron) or expect a lot to hate on some key artifacts like a Sword or Vial, but it's mostly used as a Lotus recurring engine. It's imperative for our gameplan to not get into the late game or else we'll have alredy lost.
Generally not. Ruins is for more controlling decks that pop artifacts like Lotus Bloom (or Mindslaver if you're playing Tron) or expect a lot to hate on some key artifacts like a Sword or Vial, but it's mostly used as a Lotus recurring engine. It's imperative for our gameplan to not get into the late game or else we'll have alredy lost.
So what is our late game play? Sometimes you keep a fast hand then run out of gas. If our rush is met with Kataki, Wars Wage or Creeping Corosion, what do we have to keep pressure on? Is it just our card draw and some burn?
I've always questioned the logic of 'if it goes late, we've lost'. To me it feels like throwing away games.
Countermagic is the smell before rain, the sun on the horizon and the chocolate chips in my mint chocolate chip ice cream. It's the first time I saw a woman naked and the first time I smelled perfume. It's that feeling you get when you know you're right.
But most of all; it's the feeling of playing Magic
So what is our late game play? Sometimes you keep a fast hand then run out of gas. If our rush is met with Kataki, Wars Wage or Creeping Corosion, what do we have to keep pressure on? Is it just our card draw and some burn?
I've always questioned the logic of 'if it goes late, we've lost'. To me it feels like throwing away games.
We have no real late game play because all of it is really pressure early and mid game. Affinity is highly efficient (Thoughtcast, Galvanic Blast), it is also highly resilient (Arcbound Ravager, Etched Champion), and it is very quick (Cranial Plating, Inkmoth Nexus). These attributes are deadly for ending a game by the 4th or 5th turn. Your basic plan is to play 20+ evasive creatures that kill the opponent as quickly as possible without them ever being able to amount a retaliation.
Cards like Creeping Corrosion and Shatterstorm are game ending, but Affinity do have sideboard cards to deal with it like Thoughtseize, Duress, Spell Pierce, and Unified Will. Wrath effects tend to not be game ending because it doesn't get rid of Cranial Plating, enabling our Inkmoths and Blinkmoths to do the final points of damage. There is also a good amount of flexibility within Affinity due to Arcbound Ravager to enable damage to go through even with blockers. With 25+ creatures and 8 manlands, we are the deck with the most creatures in the meta and can play the war of attrition well.
To answer your question, it is better to end the game on turn 4 rather than turn 6 because that means the opponent has 2 fewer land drops, 2 fewer draws, and much less ability to deal with threats. Ending the game early is also key to winning games against combo decks like Spliter Twin, Melira Pod, and Scapeshift because these are decks that mid range decks really can't compete against simply because it doesn't matter what your board state is if your opponent comboes out.
We have no real late game play because all of it is really pressure early and mid game. Affinity is highly efficient (Thoughtcast, Galvanic Blast), it is also highly resilient (Arcbound Ravager, Etched Champion), and it is very quick (Cranial Plating, Inkmoth Nexus). These attributes are deadly for ending a game by the 4th or 5th turn. Your basic plan is to play 20+ evasive creatures that kill the opponent as quickly as possible without them ever being able to amount a retaliation.
Cards like Creeping Corrosion and Shatterstorm are game ending, but Affinity do have sideboard cards to deal with it like Thoughtseize, Duress, Spell Pierce, and Unified Will. Wrath effects tend to not be game ending because it doesn't get rid of Cranial Plating, enabling our Inkmoths and Blinkmoths to do the final points of damage. There is also a good amount of flexibility within Affinity due to Arcbound Ravager to enable damage to go through even with blockers. With 25+ creatures and 8 manlands, we are the deck with the most creatures in the meta and can play the war of attrition well.
To answer your question, it is better to end the game on turn 4 rather than turn 6 because that means the opponent has 2 fewer land drops, 2 fewer draws, and much less ability to deal with threats. Ending the game early is also key to winning games against combo decks like Spliter Twin, Melira Pod, and Scapeshift because these are decks that mid range decks really can't compete against simply because it doesn't matter what your board state is if your opponent comboes out.
Is Stoic Rebuttal any good in Affinity? How about Cryptic Command or Mana Leak?
Just to recap, what are the absolute must haves for this deck? Like 4 Ravager, 4 Plating, 4 Blinkmoth Nexus?
Countermagic is the smell before rain, the sun on the horizon and the chocolate chips in my mint chocolate chip ice cream. It's the first time I saw a woman naked and the first time I smelled perfume. It's that feeling you get when you know you're right.
But most of all; it's the feeling of playing Magic
Is Stoic Rebuttal any good in Affinity? How about Cryptic Command or Mana Leak?
Just to recap, what are the absolute must haves for this deck? Like 4 Ravager, 4 Plating, 4 Blinkmoth Nexus?
There's no way in playing Rebuttal or Command. Rebuttal has double color commitment, and Cryptic Command costs a whopping 4 with 3 color commitment. Mana Leak would be good if it wasn't for Spell Pierce. We're not seeking to control the board like for example Faeries did in it's moment. Our sideboard is tailored just to gain one or two more turns to do the few last points of damage, and Spell Pierce does it just well: counters a problematic thing like Shatterstorm or Creeping Corrosion for U just so we can deal the final blow. We don't seek permanent solutions for anything, just to buy a little more of time to strike.
For the absolute must haves I think you mean the threats (the core is formed by small dudes like Pests, Skirges, Thopters, Memnites...)
Some decks use Master of Etherium instead Etched Champion, but due to Champion being a lot more evasive, colorless, devastating with a Plating or some Ravager counters on it, blocking all day long and very hard to get rid I prefer it more.
There's no way in playing Rebuttal or Command. Rebuttal has double color commitment, and Cryptic Command costs a whopping 4 with 3 color commitment. Mana Leak would be good if it wasn't for Spell Pierce. We're not seeking to control the board like for example Faeries did in it's moment. Our sideboard is tailored just to gain one or two more turns to do the few last points of damage, and Spell Pierce does it just well: counters a problematic thing like Shatterstorm or Creeping Corrosion for U just so we can deal the final blow. We don't seek permanent solutions for anything, just to buy a little more of time to strike.
For the absolute must haves I think you mean the threats (the core is formed by small dudes like Pests, Skirges, Thopters, Memnites...)
Some decks use Master of Etherium instead Etched Champion, but due to Champion being a lot more evasive, colorless, devastating with a Plating or some Ravager counters on it, blocking all day long and very hard to get rid I prefer it more.
Should I be picking up Tempered Steels, or is the WW a tough cost for the deck?
Countermagic is the smell before rain, the sun on the horizon and the chocolate chips in my mint chocolate chip ice cream. It's the first time I saw a woman naked and the first time I smelled perfume. It's that feeling you get when you know you're right.
But most of all; it's the feeling of playing Magic
Temp Steel is not a well like card in this forum. That goes double for double colors (ha! pun). They can work rather well, but they require you to drop land-creatures which is also not well like here. Anything outside of this template will not be well received. That should point you in the right direction.
Temp Steel is not a well like card in this forum. That goes double for double colors (ha! pun). They can work rather well, but they require you to drop land-creatures which is also not well like here. Anything outside of this template will not be well received. That should point you in the right direction.
This is posted as a budget list as a starting point to get to play Affinity, no need to get snippy. We arent expecting him to build the best deck available, we are helping him build the best deck within his price range.
For a $50-100 budget tempered steel is pretty good until you can complete a playset of all the best affinity the cards (TS is like a 1.50). ur missing Opals, Glimmervoids, and Ravagers. They all are kinda expensive and you wont be able to get them on that budget easily.
My advice would be build a u/w pump version using Master of EtheriumSteel Overseer and Tempered Steel it plays pretty well and gets you used to affinity. It'll do until you can complete a more competitive version. It'll build similiar to the recent Master Affinity based lists from the few previous Tournaments before the list that Spec.Ops posted came out.
This is posted as a budget list as a starting point to get to play Affinity, no need to get snippy. We arent expecting him to build the best deck available, we are helping him build the best deck within his price range.
For a $50-100 budget tempered steel is pretty good until you can complete a playset of all the best affinity the cards (TS is like a 1.50). ur missing Opals, Glimmervoids, and Ravagers. They all are kinda expensive and you wont be able to get them on that budget easily.
My advice would be build a u/w pump version using Master of EtheriumSteel Overseer and Tempered Steel it plays pretty well and gets you used to affinity. It'll do until you can complete a more competitive version. It'll build similiar to the recent Master Affinity based lists from the few previous Tournaments before the list that Spec.Ops posted came out.
Glimmervoid and Ravagers may not be a problem as my friend (same one as before) is planning on buying two more MM boxes, and said he'd trade what I needed to me. Is Opal a must have, or would Springleaf Drum or a creature be just as good? Also, would Steel Overseer be better or about the same as Master of Etherium?
Countermagic is the smell before rain, the sun on the horizon and the chocolate chips in my mint chocolate chip ice cream. It's the first time I saw a woman naked and the first time I smelled perfume. It's that feeling you get when you know you're right.
But most of all; it's the feeling of playing Magic
You want both Opal and Springleaf drum, and Overseer for the most part is better. because he doesnt run a u, and is one mana cheaper, check the list Spec.Ops posted is the highest placing affinity list recently and is a great deck to check against
You want both Opal and Springleaf drum, and Overseer for the most part is better. because he doesnt run a u, and is one mana cheaper, check the list Spec.Ops posted is the highest placing affinity list recently and is a great deck to check against
Is there a budget alternative to Opal? What would be good until I can afford them?
Countermagic is the smell before rain, the sun on the horizon and the chocolate chips in my mint chocolate chip ice cream. It's the first time I saw a woman naked and the first time I smelled perfume. It's that feeling you get when you know you're right.
But most of all; it's the feeling of playing Magic
4 Etherium Sculptor
4 Court Homunculus
4 Tidehollow Sculler
2 Arcbound Worker
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Esperzoa
1 Arcbound Ravager
4 Spell Snare
2 Cryptic Command
2 Pact of Negation
2 Path to Exile
Artifacts (8)
4 Æther Spellbomb
3 Bonesplitter
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
2 Glimmervoid
2 Academy Ruins
8 Island
5 Plains
3 Swamp
I'm looking for ways to make this lower level competitive (not Grand Prix level, but good enough to win store tournaments), but I wish to stay on a budget of ~$50-$100. Any ideas?
(P.S. Mods, I wasn't sure which section this went in, but I figured Affinity was the closest thing this would be compared to. If I'm wrong, please feel free to correct me)
Questions to you: are you planning on only using cards from Modern Masters, or is it just going to be Modern legal?
You could take out white (Etherium Sculptor, Court Homunculus, Path to Exile) and black (Tidehollow Sculler) and make it blue/red so that you can have Pyrite Spellbomb and Shrapnel Blast. Maxing out Esperzoa, Arcbound Worker, Bonesplitter, and having 4x Frogmites sound good to me as a tempo deck. 1x Sword of Fire and Ice and 3x Arcbound Ravager would add more consistency to the deck, but they are not necessary. I don't like the Pact of Negation much, but that's up to you.
Outside of the Modern Masters set, 4x Cranial Plating, 4x Thoughtcast, and 4x Galvanic Blast, 4x Ornithopter, 4x Vault Skirge, 4x Springleaf Drums, and 4x Darksteel Citadel are the cheaper components of core Affinity. The other parts you're missing are pretty cheap too, like the Inkmoth Nexus, Master of Etherium, Etched Champion, and Steel Overseer are all relatively inexpensive rares at $5 each. The only card that's running high are the Mox Opal at $30, but not running Mox Opal gives you options to not run Memnites as well which I feel like isn't the worst trade off because it gives you more consistency in threats.
Affinity is more or less already a budget deck, and it's currently doing very well in the metagame (it won the last Modern SCG in Milano). So you're off to be pretty good start!
Welcome to Modern, where eternal playability meets budgets.
I'm looking at full modern, block constructed was just a stepping off point.
This is what I made up earlier tonight with cards I had on hand:
4 Etherium Sculptor
4 Vault Skirge
4 Tidehollow Sculler
3 Master of Etherium
3 Arcbound Ravager
2 Ethersworn Canonist
Spells (10)
4 Spell Snare
2 Cryptic Command
2 Pact of Negation
2 Path to Exile
4 Æther Spellbomb
2 Bonesplitter
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Sword of War and Peace
Land (22)
3 Blinkmoth Nexus
3 Darkslick Shores
3 Seachrome Coast
2 Glimmervoid
2 Academy Ruins
6 Island
3 Swamp
2 Plains
I'm think of trying to play Disciple of the Vault as a way to avoid just dying to board wipes and such. I'm not sure if the Scars duals are really great in this deck, but I didn't have spare shocks. A fun interaction I found for the late game is saccing the Sculler to Ravager with his ETB effect on the stack, permanently exiling a card, the Academy Ruins-ing it back.
What do you think of this version?
4 Vault Skirge
4 Ornithopter
3-4 Steel Overseer
4 Arcbound Ravager
Since you have already 3 Ravager, it's the only non-budget card you have left to get. I bought 3 Overseers on Friday for 5 € (~ 6.60$), and last time I checked Champions they weren't that expensive either. For the manabase you can get rid of shocks and duals as you already have the expensive card of the land core too:
4 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Darksteel Citadel
3 Glimmervoid
And for the spell suite, you can go either red burn route or a more UR build with thoughtcast, using some of these spells:
3 Gitaxian Probe
3 Galvanic Blast
4 Galvanic Blast
2 Lightning Bolt
and of course, the utility artifacts
[CARD=Artifacts]4 Cranial Plating
4 Springleaf Drum
4 Mox Opal[/CARD]
Since Mox Opal are pretty expensive, you can replace them with something like Paradise Mantle. Hope it helps
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
How important is Springleaf Drum? Does the deck really need extra mana?
So you recommend going with a U/R burn-tempo type deck?
T1 Land, Ornithopter / Memnite, Mox Opal, tap land play drum, tap drum and ornithopter / memnite to cast skirge / pest, and then opal to cast another skirge / pest, OR tap both to cast Ravager / Plating / Overseer. Drum ups your artifact count, let's you ramp and provides color mana (which only opal and glimmervoid produce too) while helping with the low landbase.
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
What are your thoughts on a tempo based strategy, using Tidehollow Sculler, Ethersworn Canonist and Æther Spellbomb? I guess Etherium Sculptor isn't quite needed in this deck, is it?
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
Do affinity decks run Academy Ruins at all? It seems like it'd help in the late game where aggrieved decks have a bit of a problem sometimes
Generally not. Ruins is for more controlling decks that pop artifacts like Lotus Bloom (or Mindslaver if you're playing Tron) or expect a lot to hate on some key artifacts like a Sword or Vial, but it's mostly used as a Lotus recurring engine. It's imperative for our gameplan to not get into the late game or else we'll have alredy lost.
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
So what is our late game play? Sometimes you keep a fast hand then run out of gas. If our rush is met with Kataki, Wars Wage or Creeping Corosion, what do we have to keep pressure on? Is it just our card draw and some burn?
I've always questioned the logic of 'if it goes late, we've lost'. To me it feels like throwing away games.
We have no real late game play because all of it is really pressure early and mid game. Affinity is highly efficient (Thoughtcast, Galvanic Blast), it is also highly resilient (Arcbound Ravager, Etched Champion), and it is very quick (Cranial Plating, Inkmoth Nexus). These attributes are deadly for ending a game by the 4th or 5th turn. Your basic plan is to play 20+ evasive creatures that kill the opponent as quickly as possible without them ever being able to amount a retaliation.
Cards like Creeping Corrosion and Shatterstorm are game ending, but Affinity do have sideboard cards to deal with it like Thoughtseize, Duress, Spell Pierce, and Unified Will. Wrath effects tend to not be game ending because it doesn't get rid of Cranial Plating, enabling our Inkmoths and Blinkmoths to do the final points of damage. There is also a good amount of flexibility within Affinity due to Arcbound Ravager to enable damage to go through even with blockers. With 25+ creatures and 8 manlands, we are the deck with the most creatures in the meta and can play the war of attrition well.
To answer your question, it is better to end the game on turn 4 rather than turn 6 because that means the opponent has 2 fewer land drops, 2 fewer draws, and much less ability to deal with threats. Ending the game early is also key to winning games against combo decks like Spliter Twin, Melira Pod, and Scapeshift because these are decks that mid range decks really can't compete against simply because it doesn't matter what your board state is if your opponent comboes out.
Is Stoic Rebuttal any good in Affinity? How about Cryptic Command or Mana Leak?
Just to recap, what are the absolute must haves for this deck? Like 4 Ravager, 4 Plating, 4 Blinkmoth Nexus?
There's no way in playing Rebuttal or Command. Rebuttal has double color commitment, and Cryptic Command costs a whopping 4 with 3 color commitment. Mana Leak would be good if it wasn't for Spell Pierce. We're not seeking to control the board like for example Faeries did in it's moment. Our sideboard is tailored just to gain one or two more turns to do the few last points of damage, and Spell Pierce does it just well: counters a problematic thing like Shatterstorm or Creeping Corrosion for U just so we can deal the final blow. We don't seek permanent solutions for anything, just to buy a little more of time to strike.
For the absolute must haves I think you mean the threats (the core is formed by small dudes like Pests, Skirges, Thopters, Memnites...)
4 Cranial Plating
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Inkmoth Nexus
Some decks use Master of Etherium instead Etched Champion, but due to Champion being a lot more evasive, colorless, devastating with a Plating or some Ravager counters on it, blocking all day long and very hard to get rid I prefer it more.
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
Should I be picking up Tempered Steels, or is the WW a tough cost for the deck?
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This is posted as a budget list as a starting point to get to play Affinity, no need to get snippy. We arent expecting him to build the best deck available, we are helping him build the best deck within his price range.
For a $50-100 budget tempered steel is pretty good until you can complete a playset of all the best affinity the cards (TS is like a 1.50). ur missing Opals, Glimmervoids, and Ravagers. They all are kinda expensive and you wont be able to get them on that budget easily.
My advice would be build a u/w pump version using Master of Etherium Steel Overseer and Tempered Steel it plays pretty well and gets you used to affinity. It'll do until you can complete a more competitive version. It'll build similiar to the recent Master Affinity based lists from the few previous Tournaments before the list that Spec.Ops posted came out.
My Trade Thread
Glimmervoid and Ravagers may not be a problem as my friend (same one as before) is planning on buying two more MM boxes, and said he'd trade what I needed to me. Is Opal a must have, or would Springleaf Drum or a creature be just as good? Also, would Steel Overseer be better or about the same as Master of Etherium?
My Trade Thread
Is there a budget alternative to Opal? What would be good until I can afford them?