frogger42
10-22-2013, 05:36 PM
Hello! So I decided to split this thread from my old Balls of Steel thread, as the two decks were pretty vastly different (though they both relied on curving out a 2-drop Turn 1). So the idea of this deck is to drop a game-changing two-drop Turn 1 and see if your opponent can deal with it, or not. It runs a similar creature base to Stoneblade (Conf and SFM), but it's a little faster, runs Thoughtcast, and even worse, has Thopter Combo. Which, of course, is very difficult for Control Decks to deal with. You side it out vs. Combo:
4 Mox Opal
4 Chrome Mox
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Ancient Den (signed!)
4 Darksteel Citadel
1 Vault of Whispers
1 Academy Ruins
1 Karakas
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Cranial Plating
1 Batterskull
1 Sword of the Meek
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Ornithopter
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Expedition Map
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Thopter Foundry
4 Trinket Mage
4 True-Name Nemesis
4 Thoughtcast
4 Force of Will
This deck, of course, isn't typical Aggro Affinity. It's more controlling, with SFM and Chalice. It's got good long game in Thopter Foundry. It's got decent-good MUs vs Combo/Show and Tell, etc - Cranial, Chalice. It's got bad MUs to Deed (and Decay, Maelstrom Pulse). Also hard to deal with Reanimator, as they can Force your T1 Chalice and still Griselbrand next turn. Nerts.
So the heavy-hitters here are Chalice, Stoneforge, and potentially Confidant (sometimes Cranial if you have 4x with 4x Ornithopter) in that order. I've been running some version of this list with fair success, and have usually been running Force of Will, too. Note Force always stops a card, and Med Mage doesn't.
Other cards to consider - Lotus Petal - Allows the T1 plays, but heavy disadvantage. Especially if your SFM gets Forced. I'm doing Chrome Mox instead because it's important to have that mana available turn after turn.
-Trinket Mage - Great with Chalice, Engineered Explosives. EE hurts you a lot, though, so I've been trying to stay away from that.
-Phyrexian Walker - with Trinket Mage, Elesh Norn!!
-Leonin Arbiter - Could be in place of Confidant. Then the Vaults could be Darksteel Citadels, which would certainly help a bit. I'm of the opinion that Arbiter isn't always relevant, and plus it slows down your Stoneforges. But consolidating the manabase never hurts. (Sometimes the flash-equip on Cranial is relevant, though, and the black helps you play Foundry). I would probably replace Glimmervoids with 2 Tundras / Adarkar Wastes / Karakas at that point.
-Thalia - slows your own Cranials and Moxen. I've actually found opposing Thalias to be relevant against me, so I'd probably not want to play them. Thoughtcast would need 5 Artis to be U to cast.
-Spirit en-Dal - really good with Cranial and Batterskull. Allows things like Jitte to connect through Skirk Prospector and the soon-to-come True-Name Nemesis. I'd probably run it in a UW version in place of the Tezz.
Notes - you'll need around 16-18 cards to imprint to Chrome Mox. Thopter Foundry unfortunately doesn't. This list runs 20, so that should be kosher.
-This deck also runs Chrome Mox/ Chalice of the Void/ 12 Arti Lands / 1 Thopter 2 EE for Metalcraft. So with Mopal, that's 27 cards. It's all probability: sometimes you get it and sometimes you don't. I want to say about 60-65% you have Mopal, you can Metalcraft off it. Chalice is just soooo flexible in this build, it's unbelievable, and I'm sticking with it.
-Med Mage also stops Decay and Deed. Deed is the main reason I wanted to run Force. Again, Mage suits up much better than Force!
-The manabase isn't as great as Stone/Deathblade, because it's like running all basics. You can be weak to Wasteland some hands, which stinks. Sometimes you're not, with Mopal and/or Chrome. In any case, be very careful with the lands you leave open to being Wasted, as you generally want to hold back your Ancient Dens for SFM.
Oh, and the name is because I hate typical affinity. I wanted to run good creatures ;) So feel free to shoot comments my way. Thanks for looking!
4 Mox Opal
4 Chrome Mox
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Ancient Den (signed!)
4 Darksteel Citadel
1 Vault of Whispers
1 Academy Ruins
1 Karakas
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Cranial Plating
1 Batterskull
1 Sword of the Meek
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Ornithopter
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Expedition Map
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Thopter Foundry
4 Trinket Mage
4 True-Name Nemesis
4 Thoughtcast
4 Force of Will
This deck, of course, isn't typical Aggro Affinity. It's more controlling, with SFM and Chalice. It's got good long game in Thopter Foundry. It's got decent-good MUs vs Combo/Show and Tell, etc - Cranial, Chalice. It's got bad MUs to Deed (and Decay, Maelstrom Pulse). Also hard to deal with Reanimator, as they can Force your T1 Chalice and still Griselbrand next turn. Nerts.
So the heavy-hitters here are Chalice, Stoneforge, and potentially Confidant (sometimes Cranial if you have 4x with 4x Ornithopter) in that order. I've been running some version of this list with fair success, and have usually been running Force of Will, too. Note Force always stops a card, and Med Mage doesn't.
Other cards to consider - Lotus Petal - Allows the T1 plays, but heavy disadvantage. Especially if your SFM gets Forced. I'm doing Chrome Mox instead because it's important to have that mana available turn after turn.
-Trinket Mage - Great with Chalice, Engineered Explosives. EE hurts you a lot, though, so I've been trying to stay away from that.
-Phyrexian Walker - with Trinket Mage, Elesh Norn!!
-Leonin Arbiter - Could be in place of Confidant. Then the Vaults could be Darksteel Citadels, which would certainly help a bit. I'm of the opinion that Arbiter isn't always relevant, and plus it slows down your Stoneforges. But consolidating the manabase never hurts. (Sometimes the flash-equip on Cranial is relevant, though, and the black helps you play Foundry). I would probably replace Glimmervoids with 2 Tundras / Adarkar Wastes / Karakas at that point.
-Thalia - slows your own Cranials and Moxen. I've actually found opposing Thalias to be relevant against me, so I'd probably not want to play them. Thoughtcast would need 5 Artis to be U to cast.
-Spirit en-Dal - really good with Cranial and Batterskull. Allows things like Jitte to connect through Skirk Prospector and the soon-to-come True-Name Nemesis. I'd probably run it in a UW version in place of the Tezz.
Notes - you'll need around 16-18 cards to imprint to Chrome Mox. Thopter Foundry unfortunately doesn't. This list runs 20, so that should be kosher.
-This deck also runs Chrome Mox/ Chalice of the Void/ 12 Arti Lands / 1 Thopter 2 EE for Metalcraft. So with Mopal, that's 27 cards. It's all probability: sometimes you get it and sometimes you don't. I want to say about 60-65% you have Mopal, you can Metalcraft off it. Chalice is just soooo flexible in this build, it's unbelievable, and I'm sticking with it.
-Med Mage also stops Decay and Deed. Deed is the main reason I wanted to run Force. Again, Mage suits up much better than Force!
-The manabase isn't as great as Stone/Deathblade, because it's like running all basics. You can be weak to Wasteland some hands, which stinks. Sometimes you're not, with Mopal and/or Chrome. In any case, be very careful with the lands you leave open to being Wasted, as you generally want to hold back your Ancient Dens for SFM.
Oh, and the name is because I hate typical affinity. I wanted to run good creatures ;) So feel free to shoot comments my way. Thanks for looking!