UWx Metalcraft Control

[Karhumies]

Ux Metalcraft Aggro-Control - an aggressive artifact-based combat deck which runs some MD control elements to combat combo

I have developed this deck for a while, but did not feel like making a thread because the general Legacy meta was unfavorable for it. With Survival banning, I hope that Counterbalance decks will make a comeback, lifting Affinity from tier 2 into tier 1.5 (able to crush a suitable meta, given that little to no hate present). After all, Affinity is famous for crushing blue decks with its threat density; and infamous for auto-losing against Dredge, Storm combo and Belcher because of Affinity's "slow" fundamental turn 4 (combat phase) and no interaction to delay the opponent.

This UWx build has been developed in the spirit of the once-successful AfFoWnity, in that it chooses not to sacrifice its combo match-ups, but rather expects them to be present in the meta. The trade-off is explosiveness vs other aggro decks. With Vengevine aggro severely weakened, and Merfolk with TES & co. still at the top of the metagame, it seems like the perfect time for an aggro-control approach.

What eventually made me write this primer was Hanni's work on UGx Madness (aggro-control) development, transforming the Survival core into a faster Intuition-Vengevine engine. He has initially chosen to sacrifice the combo MU to gain explosiveness, and made an offhanded and poorly grounded comparison to Shards of Alara-era Affinity decks which mostly did the same. I beg to differ, and would like to provide an alternative aggro-control build. My goal here is to show that Affinity is nowadays able to combat combo, and that aggro-control decks absolutely NEED TO be prepared to take the control role vs faster (=combo) decks in order to be successful in any healthy Legacy metagame.

...

Why not post this in the Vial Affinity thread?
- the deck does not run AEther Vial MD
- the only card with Affinity mana cost is Thoughtcast (although Cranial Plating and Master of Etherium also benefit from artifact count)
- the strategy is not straightforward "balls to he walls". Simply put, the deck is not running red MD and even attempts to incorporate FoW from SB (although not successful - as of yet).
- IMO, the Metalcraft cards Mox Opal and Etched Champion have contributed much to the development of this deck. Previously, I have also tried out Auriok Sunchaser, Carapace Forger and Ezuri's Brigade, but found them lacking.

January 2011 update (Mirrodin Besieged)
Here's a rough, untested draft version of a UB list:

// Main Deck 60
// Mana 23
4x Seat of the Synod
4x Vault of Whispers
4x Ancient Tomb
4x City of Traitors
3x Underground Sea
1x Island
3x Mox Opal
// the 1-of Island is for opposing Path to Exile
// Darkslick Shores cand be used over Underground Sea if you fear opposing Islandwalk (=Merfolk)
// Multiple M.Opals without A.Ravager = bad, therefore not 4-of.

// Non-C. Artifact 8
4x Chalice of the Void
4x Cranial Plating

// Creature 22
4x Shield Sphere
4x Ornithopter
4x Phyrexian Revoker
4x Esperzoa
4x Master of Etherium
3x Etched Champion
// Shield Sphere chosen over Memnite to help stabilize the early game. This Metalcraft deck list is not as aggressive on turns 1-2 as more traditional Affinity lists.
// Esperzoa wins more games than Myr Enforcer or Frogmite. A.Tomb and C.ofTraitors help to cast it, and Chalice @ 1 shuts down most opposing targeted removal spells.
// Note that Etched Champion gets blocked to death by Mishra's Factory and Mutavault. Still, I think he is worth running as our "extra-costly Mother of Runes" / "extra-costly Signal Pest" / "extra-costly Frogmite".

// Planeswalker 3
3x Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
// Multiples in opening hand = bad.

// Blue 3
3x Thoughtcast
// Could be upped back to 4x if extra room is found in the list.

// Very rough sideboard, work in progress (15)
4 Tormod's Crypt
4 Arcane Denial
4 Trickbind
3 Chains of Mephistopheles

// Other SB possibilities:
Mindlock Orb
Shadow of Doubt
Force of Will
Complicate
Perish



Comments about the newly chosen cards:
1) Tezzeret 2.0 is worth the black splash all by himself. He's superior to Trinket Mage despite the higher and more difficult casting cost. Provides an alternative win condition, which we were seriously lacking because we didn't play A.Ravager + D.ofVoid combo.

2) Phyrexian Revoker is the best artifact creature for our deck. Reasoning:
- A.Ravager sucks without D.ofVoid, which would get countered by our Chalice @ 1
- S.Overseer sucks because we play Shield Sphere over Memnite, we don't spam the board with and creatures (most notably: Signal Pest), we don't have Glimpse of Nature and we don't even have Modular creatures (e.g. A.Worker, A.Ravager).
- Painter's Servant was the third-best guy in the A.Creature slot, but he sucks without Grindstone, which again would get countered by our Chalice @ 1.
+ P.Revoker solves the issue of not having access to P.Needle (except Wasteland and other problematic activated lands, of course).
+ P.Revoker helps significantly versus E.Explosives and P.Deed. In fact, it helps us so much we might receive additional SB slots because the SB Trickbind is kind of pointless now.
+ With 4x A.Tomb + 4xC.ofTraitors in the list, running a creature which costs to cast makes a whole lot of sense.
+ I think among the best "blind guesses" are Engineered Explosives (@0 destroys our Chalice, artifact lands and some creatures) and Pernicious Deed, because those two are both widely played and very problematic cards for us. Against more combat-oriented decks, Umezawa's Jitte is a fine choice (sometimes, Jitte is the opponent's only possible response to our Etched Champion!). Against comboish, Lion's Eye Diamond.

Some synergies:
Esperzoa + Shield Sphere for extra wall life
Esperzoa + P.Revoker to correct the naming of a blindly named nonland card
Etched Champion + Cranial Plating when the opponent has a big bad flyer to block with

Please, give the deck a goldfish whirl in your aquarium of choice (Apprentice, etc.) before you comment. Thank you!