just to answer your question, they are banned because affinity would become a tier 0 deck also it would make affinity break the turn 4 rule which it already flirts with as is. i would imagine a mod will either close this thread or just relocate it.
this deck is one of the few where variables matter a lot and SB bullets really hurt. We have practically everything to out our situation but lines of play from earlier in the match can actually prevent us from winning. the fact we get cross over hate from other decks being good is also a disadvantage. i would almost always take the ability to remove threats than turtle, obviously eldrazi match excluding since those threats are massive and we really dont have a way to deal with them outside of damnation. I honestly dont mind getting beat down while playing this deck to much as i know that one of the main win cons can bring us back out of dark situations.
on the seas since its only 2 of when i get them early they are great because that's really all i want is just to delay a turn or two so i can set up. in the tron match though i can see fountain doing a lot more work. i havent really had any issue whiring for KCI while it may seem like a lot usually you have made at least 1 or 2 thopters if you are tutoring for it anyway. ill have to try fountain as it does seem better in the long run. time seive has always seemed kind of win more to me but if you have 5 mana to make thopters i guess it plays a similar role to kci in that eventually your opponent just scoops from the infinite turns. push is your best out against a vast majority of decks honestly. i think the decks needs it to make it to the mid game reliably.
i havent had really any issues with land drops but there are still issues with getting 3 blue. Sometimes i feel like i get forced into bad fetching decisions when playing against decks that run magus of the moon or blood moon. i really havent needed visions because im running the 4/3 split on foundry most of the time i can stabilize and durdle till i find something without the extra draw/manipulation. that being said though cards like ratchet bomb and cage arnt always needed and can come up as just blank spots in game 1 where visions may have been a better card in place. this list felt nice though as a midrange/tool box that can just outright win with whir. Flooding does happen on occasion but it hasnt effected me to much. The top decks havent been bad either.
Lands tend to be hard to interact with and disrupt outside of bloodmoon. tron is one of those decks that doesnt really need to do anything. it just needs 3 lands and a good portion of the deck finds the lands within the first 3 turns. paired with the fact it powers out very large threats for minimal investment makes it rough to play against. also when your sitting across from a player that goes from having 2 mana to seven is really disheartening. they drop a karn and what do you do? play a goyf? mabey even a good draw possiblly get 2 pieces of a 3 card combo which gets dismantled by karn? people use to complain about titan bloom because it could get 10 mana on 2. while not nearly as fast 7 on 3 is still really good and doesnt require nearly as many cards to do it.
thought i would throw a tourney report out there and a list. so went 4-0 and split 5th round with this list. event was 20+ people
round1 vs eldrazi tron 1-0
game 1 im on the play and have a rather decent hand. im able to pithing needle exploration map on turn 1 and i assemble thopter combo naturally and whir into ironworks for game on turn 5. SB in spreading seas, disdainful stroke, and damnation
game 2 i keep a hand with needle and seas. i seas a temple and just dont draw anything relevant. thotknot and reality smasher destroy me.
game 3 i keep a slow had with hate. i get a thopter foundry in play and have a whir in hand. All is dust kills my foundry and im stuck durdling forever. the opponent has a ratchet bomb on 2 and im sitting with alot of lands. Ulamog comes down and exiles a land and a pentad prison as i dont have much on board. i sac inventors fair in respons to grab ensnaring bridge. im staring down ulamog, battered skull, and a endbringer. they uptick bomb to three to deal with bridge. i cast bridge, they try to ratchet it and i whir in a welding jar to protect myself. i draw into foundry and sword and one turn later whir in ironworks for the win. intense game 3
round2 vs little zoo 2-0
game 1 they have a slow hand and im able to push and brutality my way to the mid game. assemble thopter combo and whir in ironworks to seal the deal. SB in seas, spellskites, damnation
game 2 i seas a templegarden and the opponent just doesnt draw into any other color then white and tezz basically takes care of the rest
round3 vs B/W? 3-0
game 1 he plays a bitter blossom and i think he may be on tokens, i assemble thopter combo while being beat down by lingering souls and that bw manland. he taps out and i whir in ironworks for the scoop faze. see the trend? unfortunately i dont see enough of his deck to know what he is playing but i assume stony is coming in so SB out diggers, relic, and skite. in comes abrupt decay
game 2 i keep a hand with decay mana excel and tezz. he rips abrupt out of my hand im able to land a tezz on 3 and start making whatever artifacts i have in play 5/5s for beat down. he lands a stony but im already on the beatdown plan. he cant stabalize with tarpit and pentad beating him down.
round4 vs death and taxes 4-0
game 1 i assemble thopter combo rather early he says he doesnt think he has an out but continues playing to scout the deck. between having thalia, orther thalia, flicker whisp, and arbiter he has good creatures but ive whired in a bridge to grind it out. SB out diggers, relic, skite, 1 brutality, 1 jar. in comes abrupts and damnation
game 2 he keeps a greedy hand, i keep a pithing needle opener with questionable mana. he throws down a turn 1 vile. i pithing needle it. he doesnt get a land for 2 turns then drops a stony. i drop a tezz and start beating down with useless artifacts. tick tezz down all the way because whisps keep resetting my artifacts. eventually we get there.
i split for top. I made some mistakes in the games because i have a more casual nature. there were rounds where i could have won games early with tar pit activations but my lack of attention or over attention to opponent board states stop from choosing smarter lines. My take away from playing is that Ironworks pulls you out of unwinnable games a lot of times. the 1 of has earned its place. i need to test against more archetypes though. im confident in the shadow, abzan, aggro, burn, and control matches but i havent played against any collected counters, or scapeshift matches.
honestly hes great for closing out games after a balance but i think lingering souls just has more utility. with thassa though i could see it being alot better
I use to play a more blue build but after having issues with mana i settled on a more jundish build. like i have said earlier i think 2 is the right number for as foretold if you are running a cascade build. i also think running jund has more interactivity with the opponent. the meta i play in has a lot of variance so its hard for me to gauge if this is indeed a better build than the less cascade oriented versions. all that being said i like the more consistent mana base and havent had issues with it.
is there a reason no one is running a 1 of ironworks for infinite life/ thopters? i havent played the deck in awhile but it would seem like an auto include because whir can fetch it and close out games where you cant afford to durdle for a few turns.
they could just make removal and spells relevant again but what do i know? im sure wizards will just be like "people want spells back, what if we put spells on more creatures that way people will get their spells and newer players get creatures!! Genius" "ya mean like enchantment creatures?" then a dude gets thrown through a window from a high building. if they just made interesting cards people might actually brew again. they should look at standards that people actually liked take note and then go from there.
proxy out decks before you commit to buy. i have multiple modern decks and some i really like to play and others while they may be very good at winning i dont really like them because of the play style. Boggles is a good deck and would fit the play style you are looking for but like the other guy said people hate playing against it because it is prolly the least interactive deck in modern. also a really helpful tool is mtggoldfish it has a decent meta game breakdown and prices out decks for you.
round1 vs eldrazi tron 1-0
game 1 im on the play and have a rather decent hand. im able to pithing needle exploration map on turn 1 and i assemble thopter combo naturally and whir into ironworks for game on turn 5. SB in spreading seas, disdainful stroke, and damnation
game 2 i keep a hand with needle and seas. i seas a temple and just dont draw anything relevant. thotknot and reality smasher destroy me.
game 3 i keep a slow had with hate. i get a thopter foundry in play and have a whir in hand. All is dust kills my foundry and im stuck durdling forever. the opponent has a ratchet bomb on 2 and im sitting with alot of lands. Ulamog comes down and exiles a land and a pentad prison as i dont have much on board. i sac inventors fair in respons to grab ensnaring bridge. im staring down ulamog, battered skull, and a endbringer. they uptick bomb to three to deal with bridge. i cast bridge, they try to ratchet it and i whir in a welding jar to protect myself. i draw into foundry and sword and one turn later whir in ironworks for the win. intense game 3
round2 vs little zoo 2-0
game 1 they have a slow hand and im able to push and brutality my way to the mid game. assemble thopter combo and whir in ironworks to seal the deal. SB in seas, spellskites, damnation
game 2 i seas a templegarden and the opponent just doesnt draw into any other color then white and tezz basically takes care of the rest
round3 vs B/W? 3-0
game 1 he plays a bitter blossom and i think he may be on tokens, i assemble thopter combo while being beat down by lingering souls and that bw manland. he taps out and i whir in ironworks for the scoop faze. see the trend? unfortunately i dont see enough of his deck to know what he is playing but i assume stony is coming in so SB out diggers, relic, and skite. in comes abrupt decay
game 2 i keep a hand with decay mana excel and tezz. he rips abrupt out of my hand im able to land a tezz on 3 and start making whatever artifacts i have in play 5/5s for beat down. he lands a stony but im already on the beatdown plan. he cant stabalize with tarpit and pentad beating him down.
round4 vs death and taxes 4-0
game 1 i assemble thopter combo rather early he says he doesnt think he has an out but continues playing to scout the deck. between having thalia, orther thalia, flicker whisp, and arbiter he has good creatures but ive whired in a bridge to grind it out. SB out diggers, relic, skite, 1 brutality, 1 jar. in comes abrupts and damnation
game 2 he keeps a greedy hand, i keep a pithing needle opener with questionable mana. he throws down a turn 1 vile. i pithing needle it. he doesnt get a land for 2 turns then drops a stony. i drop a tezz and start beating down with useless artifacts. tick tezz down all the way because whisps keep resetting my artifacts. eventually we get there.
i split for top. I made some mistakes in the games because i have a more casual nature. there were rounds where i could have won games early with tar pit activations but my lack of attention or over attention to opponent board states stop from choosing smarter lines. My take away from playing is that Ironworks pulls you out of unwinnable games a lot of times. the 1 of has earned its place. i need to test against more archetypes though. im confident in the shadow, abzan, aggro, burn, and control matches but i havent played against any collected counters, or scapeshift matches.
1 breeding pool
3 watery grave
3 darkslick shores
2 creeping tar pit
2 darksteel citadel
2 ghost quarter
1 inventors' fair
4 polluted delta
1 flooded strand
2 island
1 swamp
creatures
1 spellskite
other
3 tezzeret, agent of bolas
4 thopter foundry
3 sword of the meek
4 whir of invention
4 fatal push
2 collective brutality
3 mox opal
2 welding jar
4 pentad prism
1 talisman of dominance
1 pithing needle
1 relic of progenitus
1 grafdigger's cage
1 engineered explosives
1 ratchet bomb
1 ensnaring bridge
1 krark-clan ironworks
3 abrupt decay
3 surgical extraction
2 damnation
2 spreading seas
2 disdainful stroke
2 spellskite
1 crucible of worlds
1 island
1 plains
1 mountain
1 swamp
1 forest
1 mistveil plains
4 terramorphic expanse
4 evolving wilds
Creatures
4 greater gargadon
4 simian spirit guide
1 emrakul, the aeons torn
2 metalwork colossus
3 restore balance
2 as foretold
4 violent outburst
4 demonic dread
2 kolaghan's command
2 maelstrom pulse
2 nahiri, the harbinger
4 veinfire borderpost
4 firewild borderpost
4 wildfield borderpost
4 fieldmist borderpost
2 wear // tear
3 leyline of sanctity
3 lingering souls
2 kor firewalker
1 kolaghan's command
2 anger of the gods
2 blood moon
proxy out decks before you commit to buy. i have multiple modern decks and some i really like to play and others while they may be very good at winning i dont really like them because of the play style. Boggles is a good deck and would fit the play style you are looking for but like the other guy said people hate playing against it because it is prolly the least interactive deck in modern. also a really helpful tool is mtggoldfish it has a decent meta game breakdown and prices out decks for you.