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Thread: [CFB Article] Recurring Nightmares - Scar Tissue

  1. #21

    Re: [CFB Article] Recurring Nightmares - Scar Tissue

    Quote Originally Posted by Rico Suave View Post
    You seem to be missing the point. Here was the stated problem:

    "Affinity's biggest problem has been how rapidly its creatures become outclassed, especially when compared to a deck like Zoo"

    So I'll ask again, how does adding burn to the deck solve this problem? Burn isn't going to remove the problematic creatures. And it's not going to make Affinity faster than Zoo (big creatures + burn > small creatures + burn).

    So what gives? I asked for a bit of common sense and got a post telling me Steppe Lynx is holding off creatures. This just baffles my mind.
    The problem as stated is correct (of course it would be, since I stated it). There are two solutions to this problem that I can see:

    1) Try to prevent your creatures from becoming irrelevant.
    2) Accept that your creatures will become outclassed and find an alternate way to end the game once they are.

    The former would involve moving in the direction of a blue-white build with things like Master and Tempered Steel. While those two make your creatures very threatening, their destruction also opens up the possibility of being completely destroyed in combat. That seems like an unacceptable risk given the relatively high number of Grips and Pridemages in Legacy today, although it does seem like a really good plan against decks not using too many of either card.

    The other option is to accept that you can rush your opponent early, but that he will stabilize in the midgame and make it extremely difficult to attack. At that point, you need some way to end the game. That's why I added burn: you burn the opponent out.

    In other words, the timeline is as follows:

    Play guys.
    Attack with guys.
    Guys can't attack any more because doing so would wipe you out.
    Stop attacking with guys.
    Burn opponent.

    There's not much you can do to make Affinity's creatures bigger without running terrible cards, so you might as well accept that you can only attack for the first few turns, and then need a plan to finish the game once you can't attack any more. That plan is burning the opponent.

    That's not that hard, IMO.

  2. #22

    Re: [CFB Article] Recurring Nightmares - Scar Tissue

    I don't think you are understanding the problem correctly. You talk about Zoo "stabilizing" or something as if it was ever behind, which leads me to believe we have a fundamental disagreement about what is going on here.

    I am saying that Zoo's creatures are bigger and better as early as turn 1. Why would Zoo ever care about blocking? Sure maybe it will block with a Goyf once because it doesn't have haste. But Zoo wants to attack with its bigger and better creatures, and because they're bigger they will dominate the combat step and deal a lot more damage. What this means is Zoo will bring Affinity to burn range long before Affinity can do the same in reverse.

    Imagine for a minute that Zoo has a 10 second 100meter dash. And now imagine Affinity has a 12 second 100meter dash. Adding burn to Affinity drops it to a 11 second race, but it's still going to lose. Burn is not the solution.
    Suddenly, Fluffy realized she wasn't quite like the other bunnies anymore.

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  3. #23

    Re: [CFB Article] Recurring Nightmares - Scar Tissue

    Quote Originally Posted by Rico Suave View Post
    Burn is not the solution.
    Maybe. But then, adding a bunch of 1/1 dudes for zero and hoping to go into topdeck mode on turn two isn't the solution either.

  4. #24

    Re: [CFB Article] Recurring Nightmares - Scar Tissue

    Brad and I have conversed on Affinity before so he knows I really want the deck to be good. Here's the thing: if you're playing Affinity, you're doing so because you think it is the aggro strategy best-suited to beat the other non-aggro decks in the format. Right now, you want an aggro deck that beats Merfolk, Madness, and CB-Top while still having game against decks like Goblins and Dredge. Affinity might be that deck.

    However, if you're worried about playing Affinity against Zoo, you fundamentally have problem. Zoo is going to beat you, most of the time. If you're playing against Zoo, Affinity isn't the right deck. You can mitigate this to some extent, as you can SB Perish / Nature's Ruin and so on, but I'd still rather be on the Zoo side.

    Affinity deploys very quickly, making it ideal against some of the other problem decks that are geared to beat Zoo, not Affinity.

    Still, I think that I'd probably rather take my chances with Zoo in a month, when the format has stopped paying attention to it again, than try to battle with Affinity in the meantime. I say that knowing that I'll still put time into testing Affinity b/c I love the deck.
    Curious how I became a Magic writer? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onR9Y...eature=channel

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