OK, so I love Raph's Jund Hollow Vine list from TCGplayer, but there are a few things I plan to change about it for my own deck.
Firstly, I agree that the fastlands are less good here and I would much prefer to have 5c lands such as City, Confluence or gemstone.
Secondly, I think that Scourge Devil is a super loose include in the deck and doesn't really do enough to justify its mana cost (both front end and unearth). The deck has 12 creatures that can return a Amalgam more efficiently, so I think it is by far the worst card in the deck. The reason I am posting here is because I have multiple options to replace these 2 slots and I want to hear your thoughts. In no particular order, they are:
Ghor-Clan Rampager
Pros - Allows our larger creatures to punch through trample damage, can trade for a blocking Tarmogoyf and generally further supports the all in approach of the deck.
Cons - Bloodrush ability costing two mana does not support early Hollow One casts very well.
Dismember
Pros - Kills almost everything for one mana.
Cons - No other synergy with the deck.
Gurmag Angler
Pros - 1 mana 5/5...
Cons - most of the deck is made up of recursive creatures, would feel real bad to have to delve away Vengevines.
Cathartic Reunion
Pros - Discard outlet, draw machine, general gas.
Cons - One of the worst cards to play into a counterspell in the format.
Simean Spirit Guide
Pros - Helps cast early creatures/ chain creatures to trigger vengevine
Cons - Doesn't interact with anything and backup mode of a 3 mana 2/2 is laaaame.
2 mana to only discard one card is waaaaay behind the curve of what we want to be doing, if it was draw 2 discard 2 at random he would be.... ok. I would love to jam Tibalt into a deck and win with it, but it's never going to happen.
Frank Karsten has run the numbers on hollow one hits off of our random discard effects, plus it is useful to know that a turn 1 burning inquiry with no hollow ones in hand only has a 10-15% chance of paying off.
The calculations do not account for the delve or recursive creatures, but still pretty good.
How are (RB) people siding for Affinity? I'm struggling with this match-up. We have a number of options that can be relevant, but it's not clear to me how to balance the best options with maintaining our core plan of attack.
Really want to play this deck this weekend but I have no idea how to sideboard with it. What do I pull out when I bring in cards? What is something I never pull out etc?
If you are referring to the black red build, the flex slots are generally the collective brutality/ lightning bolt slots. If you swap out too much elsewhere you start to dilute the main gameplan.
Collective brutality is less easy to cut, as it is a great discard outlet, but there are matchups where it is low enough impact that you may need to swap them out.
Firstly, I agree that the fastlands are less good here and I would much prefer to have 5c lands such as City, Confluence or gemstone.
Secondly, I think that Scourge Devil is a super loose include in the deck and doesn't really do enough to justify its mana cost (both front end and unearth). The deck has 12 creatures that can return a Amalgam more efficiently, so I think it is by far the worst card in the deck. The reason I am posting here is because I have multiple options to replace these 2 slots and I want to hear your thoughts. In no particular order, they are:
Ghor-Clan Rampager
Pros - Allows our larger creatures to punch through trample damage, can trade for a blocking Tarmogoyf and generally further supports the all in approach of the deck.
Cons - Bloodrush ability costing two mana does not support early Hollow One casts very well.
Collective Brutality
Pros - Acts as a discard outlet, snipes out cards like Anger of the Gods/ Settle the Wreckage, all modes are generally useful.
Cons - -2/-2 only clears small blockers and not larger problem creatures.
Dismember
Pros - Kills almost everything for one mana.
Cons - No other synergy with the deck.
Gurmag Angler
Pros - 1 mana 5/5...
Cons - most of the deck is made up of recursive creatures, would feel real bad to have to delve away Vengevines.
Cathartic Reunion
Pros - Discard outlet, draw machine, general gas.
Cons - One of the worst cards to play into a counterspell in the format.
Simean Spirit Guide
Pros - Helps cast early creatures/ chain creatures to trigger vengevine
Cons - Doesn't interact with anything and backup mode of a 3 mana 2/2 is laaaame.
What do you guys think?
Since we have access to green through stomping ground, I would just run back to nature if bogles is a concern.
The dream.
Frank Karsten has run the numbers on hollow one hits off of our random discard effects, plus it is useful to know that a turn 1 burning inquiry with no hollow ones in hand only has a 10-15% chance of paying off.
The calculations do not account for the delve or recursive creatures, but still pretty good.
If you are running a similar build to the pro tour list, swap your 2x Collective Brutality out for 2x Ancient Grudge. Lightning Bolt is good against all of their creatures bar Etched Champion, so keep all four in for post board games.
Then play the most aggressive lines available to you and hope to win the race.
If you are referring to the black red build, the flex slots are generally the collective brutality/ lightning bolt slots. If you swap out too much elsewhere you start to dilute the main gameplan.
Collective brutality is less easy to cut, as it is a great discard outlet, but there are matchups where it is low enough impact that you may need to swap them out.