MTG Salvation

Hello everybody.
How do you feel about mainboard removals?
Premise: I am an inexperienced player and i have mostly played the budget robots version, so my P.O.V. on the deck can be totally wrong.
That said, i don't feel particularly satisfied with Galvanic Blast or Dispatch in the mainboard. It's nice to blast the bird or some annoying creature, but usually we're either fast enough to just race them or their creature is too big to be killed or it is recursive(and in both cases Blast is "just" reach). [card]Dispatch[/card is likely a better PtE, but imho it's too narrow and slow to be in the MB and i'd rather try to close the game before they can deploy their bigger threats.
Then again, i see that almost any traditional affinity list on Mtg Top8 runs 3-4 Galvanic Blasts, except some spicy list with Ensoul Artifact, Stubborn Denial and/or Thoughtcast (which i tried and liked as virtual additional threats, but never totally convinced me), so i am probably wrong.

Four Galvanic Blasts for me please. I have never even side-boarded Dispatch but I am considering it now and have done from time to time.

Blasts go to the dome and are also key to the Infect match-up; without one, you'll probably lose.

Thoughtcast is a respectable card and I have even played with Day's Undoing with some success. The later ultimately was dead a little too often but on occasion it would draw me two Blasts; who cares whose turn it is then?

It's been a while, but I have played with Ensoul Artifact. There are ways to avoid getting hit two-for-one, but Affinity isn't really about playing around things.

Stubborn Denial is a fine side-board card but I have not yet tried it. Here again, I have considered it.

All opinions stated in this post are my own and therefore subject to being completely wrong; I have no claim to any credential that would lend any gravitas to my ramblings.

So, the more I played Affinity the more I felt we were lagging behind. The power of Ancient Stirrings and Faithless Looting is both enormous and undeniable, and I strongly feel both of these are currently the best cards in Modern (along with Vial); if you're not playing any of those, you're simply a step behind. With that in mind, we're one of the decks that can afford to play Stirrings. Hardened Scales, although not the same deck / playstyle, is pretty similar to classic Affinity (same threats except switching Plating for HS itself), makes good enough use of the cantrip, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I've started with the following list:


Haven't entered any serious tournament yet, but testing at FNM level has given me pretty good results. Currently I'm favoring maindeck Masters over Champions since the meta is pretty fast, and the ability to race is better than the resilience Champ offers, while it also protects the board against Dredge's Conflagrate. Maindeck Karn is still pretty good, and finding one turn 1 with Stirrings and dropping it turn 2 speeds the clock a lot against any unfair deck, while giving you the upper hand against anything remotely fair. I'm missing 2-3 Blasts though, as Storm, UR Phoenix and Spirits feel nigh unwinnable without going all in on a Inkmoth Nexus + Arcbound Ravager plan (which is easier to accomplish thanks to Stirrings itself) and even then Phoenix could just simply flip Thing in the Ice in your turn and Spirits can just flash in more blockers. 1-2 RiP in the side should be Grafdigger's Cage since it can be found with Stirrings, but I currently have none at my disposal yet.

I'm totally at a loss at what to do about Spirits, seems like we simply can't win that matchup. The deck seems to be on the decline, and when someone asked me what decks I like to sit in front off, the only response I could muster was simply Tron. Any ideas?

In my experience, we are faster than Spirits. I just race that deck and feel no need for specific answers. I played the list with 4 Master and 4 Thoughtcast.

Quote from hinterweltler »

In my experience, we are faster than Spirits. I just race that deck and feel no need for specific answers. I played the list with 4 Master and 4 Thoughtcast.

How does your deck feel with only 16 lands? Have you ever been stuck with Karn / Master in hand due to missing the 17th land?

Quote from Zephyr Scarlet »

Quote from hinterweltler »

In my experience, we are faster than Spirits. I just race that deck and feel no need for specific answers. I played the list with 4 Master and 4 Thoughtcast.

How does your deck feel with only 16 lands? Have you ever been stuck with Karn / Master in hand due to missing the 17th land?

Sixteen lands was the standard until fairly recently. It's probably not enough if one has four-drops.

My problem still is to have more lands in my opener than I want :/

Quote from wtyyy »

As someone who faces affinity all the time, how much does grave hate affect the hardened scales build? I am wondering if it's worth siding Leyline of the Void in.

Sometimes it does a lot (Modular & Hangarback), sometimes it does nothing (everything else). I think it's not worth it, you are better off trying to clear the board and keeping Fatal Push or some other non-damage removal spell for the last creature with all the modular counters

Anyone have any experience with Bomat Courier in Experimental Frenzy builds? Seems like an easy way to skim bad cards off the top to keep your Frenzy hot.

Quote from Soot »

Game 3: Crazy close game. He gets Chalice down on one, but a turn too late. He controls the board until I get Frenzy down and play some cards. He plays bridge with 0 cards in hand and has an Eidolon of the Revel on the board preventing me from attacking or playing any cards. I know that under the Frenzy I have one artifact removal spell in hand so eventually I decide to destroy Frenzy to get the cards back. Destroying the bridge and getting some creatures out leaves me at exactly 1 life. He sacs his Chandra for her ultimate Emblem (deal 5 whenever you cast a spell). Due to Eidolon my clock is slow needing at least 2 turns to kill. He draws land two turns in a row. My face ->

Wouldn't you have lost if he did the +1 ability to deal 2 damage instead of the emblem?

I've been trying out ethersworn canonist, along with tempered steel with a land base similar to what you see in the hardened scales version. Canonist is a md hoser against a lot of decks right now and tempered steel makes your creatures good against stony.

Hey guys, long time lurker for this thread. Just popping in to say I've launched a blog for affinity content titled "The Robot Army", and I'd like some input from other people dedicated to the deck.

I'm also looking for co-authors for strategy pieces on the deck, so if anyone wants to submit articles over -- feel free to DM me!!

My New Years resolution was to take content creation more seriously, so this is the first step for me.

Here's my first blog post, a brief write-up of the 75 I just took to back-to-back $1k IQ Top 8s, and barely missed Regionals Top 8 with a 6-3 record, along with my thoughts on the list moving forward in preparation for SCGCOL Team Modern event this weekend:

https://therobotarmyhome.wordpress.com/2019/01/03/starcitygames-invitational-qualifier-top-8-12-29-2018

I think your opinion about Experimental Frenzy is correct and will be the way to go in the future. I test with the following 75 actually, with good results. Frenzy ist mostly game. I tried the following:

Main (60)
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Cranial Plating
4 Darksteel Citadel
1 Etched Champion
3 Experimental Frenzy
2 Frogmite
4 Galvanic Blast
4 Inkmoth Nexus
2 Memnite
1 Mountain
4 Mox Opal
4 Ornithopter
1 Plains
4 Signal Pest
2 Spire of Industry
4 Springleaf Drum
4 Steel Overseer
4 Vault Skirge
Sideboard (15)
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Dispatch
3 Etched Champion
2 Ghirapur Aether Grid
2 Rest in Peace
1 Spellskite
2 Thoughtseize
1 Wear // Tear

Just published an article "State of the Army: Affinity in 2019"



I talk briefly about some strategies and tactics that are useful to keep in mind for Traditional Affinity vs KCI, UR Phoenix, and Hardened Scales.

I also briefly touch on Experimental Frenzy, and arguments both for and against it.

Here's the link:

https://therobotarmy.home.blog/2019/01/14/state-of-the-army-affinity-in-2019/

Why don't we just play Smuggler's copter instead?

Looting isn't the same as playing cards off the top of the deck. Smuggler's Copter requires you to have bad cards in your hand to discard to be useful. Copter is useless in this regard if you are hellbent.

Experimental Frenzy is useful only when you are hellbent. It can allow multiple cards to be played at a go with the low land count in Affinity coupled with the low casting cost. The worst thing that can happen is you turn over another frenzy.

It is easy to get hellbent in Affinity, you could hold up things like extra Mox Opals and Springleaf Drums, but you could probably just cast them and except for the Opals, you probably want to cast everything to increase the artifact count. There aren't enough lands to count on using them, and again, they are mostly artifacts or can become artifacts so you don't want to hold on to them either.

Looting doesn't seem like a good strategy in Affinity. Playing off the top of the deck just might be.

Quote from pzbw7z »

Looting isn't the same as playing cards off the top of the deck. Smuggler's Copter requires you to have bad cards in your hand to discard to be useful. Copter is useless in this regard if you are hellbent.

Experimental Frenzy is useful only when you are hellbent. It can allow multiple cards to be played at a go with the low land count in Affinity coupled with the low casting cost. The worst thing that can happen is you turn over another frenzy.

It is easy to get hellbent in Affinity, you could hold up things like extra Mox Opals and Springleaf Drums, but you could probably just cast them and except for the Opals, you probably want to cast everything to increase the artifact count. There aren't enough lands to count on using them, and again, they are mostly artifacts or can become artifacts so you don't want to hold on to them either.

Looting doesn't seem like a good strategy in Affinity. Playing off the top of the deck just might be.

What about The Antiquities war?

Quote from alanyuan0408 »

What about The Antiquities war?

I haven't tried it and I'm probably not going to. It's four-mana.

Quote from alanyuan0408 »

What about The Antiquities war?

What should it be good for? I tried it, was helpful against slow Decks until Assasins Trophy entered Modern. It is bad against control due to Terminus and Cryptic Command. An well timed TitI will bounce your complete Board, against other Decks you wouldn't need it.

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