The worst matchups I've had so far was a deck that played ensnaring bridge, intruder alert, and steward of solidarity. He would just play his entire hand until my 2+ creatures couldn't attack, forced my geist to go undying which evolved my E1, and there was nothing i could do. He drew and played until he got the steward out and created infinite tokens.
I haven't played Affinity yet but I imagine I'll be reaching for my sideboard and have half of it dedicated to cheap/broad artifact/enchantment removal: Deglamor/Unravel The Aether (2x of each in case one gets removed) 1x Manglehorn, and 2x pithing needle.
The other half of my sideboard is devoted to lifegain, removal, and 2x Heroic Intervention to add additional immunity to boardwipes for the already hexproof-heavy deck I run.
I'm still considering replacing all removal with Beast Within...its more expensive, and with a downside, but it works against everything. For now I mainboard 2x dismember and sideboard 2x gutshot with 2x natures way.
I would definitely use it over Feed the Clan but I try to stick as close to the 1-cost spells as possible. I'll probably test it as a 1-of alongside Life Goes On for a while and see if the benefit outweighs the mana cost.
Although a part of my focus for this deck is not only resilience but broadly applicable main-board abilities so I'll probably be considering it more seriously. I do have a rule for myself that only one instant/sorcery can cost more than 1, whether that means sideboarding in or running in mainboard. So if I run that, I'd run cheaper artifact/enchantment destruction.
Going off on a bit of a tangent here, there's another part of me that is having a really hard time giving up Beast within for general permanent destruction utility. It's our most widely applicable removal spell and I don't see a point in running 1-2 of a bunch of other more specific removal spells when I could just run that and use the rest of my sideboard for a better chance at additional broad answers.
Something I've noticed about a lot of the sideboards in these threads is that they run 1-2 of a very specific and efficient answer. While it would be nice to draw that, there's just a really low chance of drawing what you need, when you need it at those numbers. I feel that it's better to run multiples of a broad answer (Beast Within, Creeping Corrosion, Back to Nature, Heroic Intervention, Pithing Needle) than it is to hope that you'll draw the 1-2 answers for a super specific situation that happens to be in your sideboard. When the more efficient spells hit at the right time its great, but what if Natural State wasn't enough? It's a dead card in hand.
Thanks for the extra info! It's good to see that Tireless Tracker is doing well.
Also, since most of the moving is done now, I now have some time to edit the primer again!
I want to add info on Tireless Tracker and Ghalta, Primal Hunger (what do I write about Ghalta?), maybe put Marrow Shards with the suboptimal choices? Any other cards I have forgotten that need to be added?
I also think that at this point, the white splash is the most important one, and the other splashes haven't 'settled' enough to write a section about. (I'm thinking mostly about any other single-colour splash, amicdeep's Abzan, and Temur evolve, which feels a bit too little like our stompy deck.)
I'm going to say that the splash section is good enough for now, and start working on the matchup section, since that is the last and most important part of the primer that hasn't been done yet.
Also, mistahARK, can you show us the list you're using?
I suggest you try Pulse of Murasa as well for the lifegain. Getting back a creature helps, and could win the game in certain situations... for example.. get back the leatherback baloth that the Burn player worked hard to kill. I stopped using feed the clans after testing pulse. Even if they skullcrack it, you still get a guy back from the yard.
Definitely going to try one of those as well, though the cost is a bit steep. Maybe one per?
Just played FNM with the standard list + Groundbreaker/Dungrove/Thrun. Ground breaker felt great when it connected with Aspect but I was getting absolutely destroyed with removal spells, especially against burn. I'm thinking about mainboarding Blossoming Defense in place Of Aspect of Hydra, dropping Groundbreaker/Baloth for 2x Rhonas and another Elder, dropping 1 Treetop village in place of another forest (for elder), and then I guess I'll keep one Baloth.
All I had for lifegain was Feed the Clan but I'll definitely be sideboarding at least 2x Life Goes On for Burn matchups because good lord was that brutal.
I did land a Vines on a doubly pumped InkMoth Nexus which the player very much did not expect, but I still want at least 2x Melira, Sylvok Outcast in sideboard for that matchup because I lost to infect twice. Probably another Dismember as well.
Another cool interaction I liked against Burn/infect was dropping Geist and then using Prey Upon to trade and force the undying trigger.
I hate to lose those incredibly satisfying Aspect plays but there were several times where I had a hand full of pump cards and a graveyard full of creatures who never had a chance to fight. I think I'd rather focus on increasing my resiliency/consistency rather than waiting around for Aspect to be relevant. Plus with less 3 drop devotion synergy, Aspect gets a lot less potent.
Excited to get Rhonas as well, I can see why he's valued so highly now.
But we need an ideal hand/draws to make this happen, if we don't get them, we're reliant on pump spells/Rancor. At which point, staying true to the aggro mindset of the deck, wouldn't it be more consistent to run Groundbreaker? T3 6/trample/haste, and if we wait until turn 4 we can pump him if needed.
I get that deathtouch+trample is incredibly powerful, but it feels like Rhonas is a bit too inconsistent, relies on too many conditions, and pushes this deck towards more of a midgame mindset. He also significantly reduces our 3drop devotion for Aspect, and can't attack until T4 at the earliest. This opens us up to Anger of the Gods and even more boardwipes every turn after that, and unless E1 is a 4/4 or Avatar is a 5/4+, we're kinda ****ed.
Groundbreaker seems glasscannon-y but I think if we really look at it, he's more consistent and better at what we're trying to do. The strength of this deck is and always has been fast, efficient, consistent damage to the face with evasion (and built-in hate/control).
If groundbreaker is too situational, Boggart Ram-Gang seems like a logical choice as well. Haste is extremely potent for us and core to getting as much damage in before the opponent. Wither also punishes blocking.
I know Groundbreaker and Ram-Gang are in the primer but I think they deserve a second look.
But hey, I've been wrong before and if I'm wrong I get to learn more lol so throw it at me.
GC and KT die to the same removal, but GC has built in evasion. In matchups where Baloth+Rancor is just not fast enough, having another creature with built in trample and good devotion might actually be better than having 3-4 scoozes, since having multiples of those on the field isn't really beneficial. Buffing GC with Aspect or Vines makes it a survivor, and can easily put out better early damage than a Dungrove Elder or even Rhonas, especially if you have two out (devotion).
We're not talking about replacing the Avatars, so saying GC is strictly worse doesn't really apply here. They're the Kessig Prowler of the two drop slot, and frankly I think they're far more functional than the Kalonian Tusker, which is what they should really be compared to.
Personally, I'd sideboard 2x for matchups where I'm concerned the opponent has faster creatures than me, if I'm not concerned about removal, or if the opponent is using land destruction.
Marrow Shards could turn the tide when used in place of Gut Shot. We lose the ability to ping the other player for the win, but it could be a cheap sweeper if blockers are assigned correctly.
Corrosive Gale or even Windstorm are incredibly powerful anti-flyer cards, and though not as multi-functional as the Bow of Nylea, have more potential to turn the tide against flyer decks, and with a better mana-to-damage ratio.
I was pretty surprised to see no real protection from sweepers. Wrap in Vigor seems to be the best option.
Against Blue, Choke, Eyes of the Wisent, and Guttural Response could be huge.
Is there a reason we're not using Sundering Growth for artifact/enchantment removal? Has the additional benefit of copying any one creature we control, still just a 2 drop like many of the others in the slot...If I really wanted to I could destroy my own Rancor to get another Baloth. Not sure if I'm missing something but seems like a better version of Naturalize and has great synergy with our archetype. I'm gonna be trying this.
I haven't played Affinity yet but I imagine I'll be reaching for my sideboard and have half of it dedicated to cheap/broad artifact/enchantment removal: Deglamor/Unravel The Aether (2x of each in case one gets removed) 1x Manglehorn, and 2x pithing needle.
The other half of my sideboard is devoted to lifegain, removal, and 2x Heroic Intervention to add additional immunity to boardwipes for the already hexproof-heavy deck I run.
I'm still considering replacing all removal with Beast Within...its more expensive, and with a downside, but it works against everything. For now I mainboard 2x dismember and sideboard 2x gutshot with 2x natures way.
Although a part of my focus for this deck is not only resilience but broadly applicable main-board abilities so I'll probably be considering it more seriously. I do have a rule for myself that only one instant/sorcery can cost more than 1, whether that means sideboarding in or running in mainboard. So if I run that, I'd run cheaper artifact/enchantment destruction.
Going off on a bit of a tangent here, there's another part of me that is having a really hard time giving up Beast within for general permanent destruction utility. It's our most widely applicable removal spell and I don't see a point in running 1-2 of a bunch of other more specific removal spells when I could just run that and use the rest of my sideboard for a better chance at additional broad answers.
Something I've noticed about a lot of the sideboards in these threads is that they run 1-2 of a very specific and efficient answer. While it would be nice to draw that, there's just a really low chance of drawing what you need, when you need it at those numbers. I feel that it's better to run multiples of a broad answer (Beast Within, Creeping Corrosion, Back to Nature, Heroic Intervention, Pithing Needle) than it is to hope that you'll draw the 1-2 answers for a super specific situation that happens to be in your sideboard. When the more efficient spells hit at the right time its great, but what if Natural State wasn't enough? It's a dead card in hand.
I'm working on it now.
Definitely going to try one of those as well, though the cost is a bit steep. Maybe one per?
All I had for lifegain was Feed the Clan but I'll definitely be sideboarding at least 2x Life Goes On for Burn matchups because good lord was that brutal.
I did land a Vines on a doubly pumped InkMoth Nexus which the player very much did not expect, but I still want at least 2x Melira, Sylvok Outcast in sideboard for that matchup because I lost to infect twice. Probably another Dismember as well.
Another cool interaction I liked against Burn/infect was dropping Geist and then using Prey Upon to trade and force the undying trigger.
I hate to lose those incredibly satisfying Aspect plays but there were several times where I had a hand full of pump cards and a graveyard full of creatures who never had a chance to fight. I think I'd rather focus on increasing my resiliency/consistency rather than waiting around for Aspect to be relevant. Plus with less 3 drop devotion synergy, Aspect gets a lot less potent.
Excited to get Rhonas as well, I can see why he's valued so highly now.
E1 > geist/druid/kessig > Avatar > Rhonas (two 4 power creatures)
But we need an ideal hand/draws to make this happen, if we don't get them, we're reliant on pump spells/Rancor. At which point, staying true to the aggro mindset of the deck, wouldn't it be more consistent to run Groundbreaker? T3 6/trample/haste, and if we wait until turn 4 we can pump him if needed.
I get that deathtouch+trample is incredibly powerful, but it feels like Rhonas is a bit too inconsistent, relies on too many conditions, and pushes this deck towards more of a midgame mindset. He also significantly reduces our 3drop devotion for Aspect, and can't attack until T4 at the earliest. This opens us up to Anger of the Gods and even more boardwipes every turn after that, and unless E1 is a 4/4 or Avatar is a 5/4+, we're kinda ****ed.
Groundbreaker also works exceptionally well with Mutagenic Growth and that would make Narnam Renegade even more powerful.
Groundbreaker seems glasscannon-y but I think if we really look at it, he's more consistent and better at what we're trying to do. The strength of this deck is and always has been fast, efficient, consistent damage to the face with evasion (and built-in hate/control).
If groundbreaker is too situational, Boggart Ram-Gang seems like a logical choice as well. Haste is extremely potent for us and core to getting as much damage in before the opponent. Wither also punishes blocking.
I know Groundbreaker and Ram-Gang are in the primer but I think they deserve a second look.
But hey, I've been wrong before and if I'm wrong I get to learn more lol so throw it at me.
GC and KT die to the same removal, but GC has built in evasion. In matchups where Baloth+Rancor is just not fast enough, having another creature with built in trample and good devotion might actually be better than having 3-4 scoozes, since having multiples of those on the field isn't really beneficial. Buffing GC with Aspect or Vines makes it a survivor, and can easily put out better early damage than a Dungrove Elder or even Rhonas, especially if you have two out (devotion).
We're not talking about replacing the Avatars, so saying GC is strictly worse doesn't really apply here. They're the Kessig Prowler of the two drop slot, and frankly I think they're far more functional than the Kalonian Tusker, which is what they should really be compared to.
Personally, I'd sideboard 2x for matchups where I'm concerned the opponent has faster creatures than me, if I'm not concerned about removal, or if the opponent is using land destruction.
A couple others I noticed though:
Marrow Shards could turn the tide when used in place of Gut Shot. We lose the ability to ping the other player for the win, but it could be a cheap sweeper if blockers are assigned correctly.
Corrosive Gale or even Windstorm are incredibly powerful anti-flyer cards, and though not as multi-functional as the Bow of Nylea, have more potential to turn the tide against flyer decks, and with a better mana-to-damage ratio.
I was pretty surprised to see no real protection from sweepers. Wrap in Vigor seems to be the best option.
Against Blue, Choke, Eyes of the Wisent, and Guttural Response could be huge.