Balls of Steel - The $200 Solution

[frogger42]

http://blip.tv/scglive/scgri-leg-rd-...oberts-6137288
Actually, I think that link is busted. Try this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Bu7HFWlrhQ

Just a bit of video. Completely different deck, FYI. Someone wanted me to post it up like a year ago, just been lazy about it. (Proof that I am a good deckbuilder/really awful player). I took 9th place... uuuuuugh...

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Gentlemen! Just the usual ground rules before reading:

-Be polite! I know most people are, so this is for those who spend their time in the basement posting all day.

-Keep your comments constructive. "Card X is garbage" is useless to me, you, and the oxygen you spent. Please explain why the card mentioned is ineffective in the meta, during certain matchups, etc.

-And it's a game! So don't take it personally!


I'm trying a new Affinity-inspired list, and will post it here. I've got the original post below this.

So! Sphere of Resistance... it was great against storm, and on certain occasions have shunted my opponents from playing spells (when spheres > their lands). Still, I was never a fan of Sinkhole, so I went back to the drawing board. Here's what has been working for me the past year or so:


4 Mox Opal
4 Chrome Mox
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Ancient Den (signed!)
4 Vault of Whispers
2 Glimmervoid

4 Chalice of the Void
4 Cranial Plating
1 Batterskull
1 Sword of the Meek
1 Umezawa's Jitte

4 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Trinket Mage
4 Thopter Foundry
4 Ornithopter
4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

4 Thoughtcast
4 Force of Will


SB: Phyrexian Revoker 4, Detention Sphere 4, SoFI and SoLaS, Tormod's Crypt, Engineered Explosives, stuff.


So here's how the deck plays out - it tries to scrap up 2 mana Turn one and drop something significant, Chalice or SFM (or Cranial with Ornithopter - pretty rare). That makes Turn 1 a Do you have Force? moment, and you can even go Force right back, though usually you don't want to. Generally, play Chalice first - to get Bolts and StoPs out of the way - then SFM, then, if you run him, Confidant. He's the right kind of card for this deck, a hefty 2-drop for your first turn plays, but Thoughtcast and Force make him somewhat angry. Just note you've got Foundry and Batterskull to help with - but not fix - that. The 4 Opals, 4 Chrome (and potentially 2-3 Lotus Petal) help with your turn 1 plays; and 14 arti lands is ideal, though I'm doing 12 and 2 Glimmervoid. I wouldn't go lower than 14 lands.
Basically, compared to Esper Stoneblade, you're trading a bit of consistency and resilience to Pernicious Deed for a bit more speed and power. It makes a big difference if you're playing first.


The basic shell is this - 7-8 Moxen, 14-15 arti lands. SFM, Chalice. The deck is currently in development, so the other slots are technically in the air, though suffice it to say Force, Thoughtcast, Trinket Mage, and the basic equip will likely stay. But work it around! Figure out what's effective! Lotus Petal and Ornithopter are probably the best 0-drops for Metalcraft. Dark Confidant is a strong choice, or you can go more Cranials. There's some flexibility as long as you know which cards to look at.


Some Strengths:
Much faster than Esper Stoneblade. Thoughtcast > Brainstorm (generally). Tezz AoB > Jace TMS
-Thopter Combo smashes Control MUs
-Chalice + Trinket Mage + Force smashes Storm combo.
-Cranial is the best equip in the game - if you can play it. More efficient than Jitte, and usually hits for 5-8 more dmg right away (no need to wait on charge counters). This pounds control/ other combo MUs like 12 Post, Show and Tell
-I've never found a need for actual removal. Usually your cards have a slight edge to theirs on the board (Cranial, Tezz), and you attrition through Cranial + Foundry, or some other means. Try to save back a blue for Force, though.


Some weaknesses: the manabase. Sometimes you come short a color, as happens with Affinity (10 sources per color + Chrome Mox, which is usually blue). This is really frustrating, and Wasteland can take you home, too. Usually you have a play you can make, but it might not always be the one you want to do. Be very careful with which color arti land you drop (due to Wasteland).
-Mox Opal. How frustrating to get two in the opening hand! Also, there are Opal + 1 land hands that are really hard to let go. (Note - new legends rule makes this card much better now, der)
-Mulligans are brutal. It's because of Mox Opal usually, you get a hand that doesn't quite produce 2 mana. If it does produce 2 mana and has a spell, you pretty much have to keep it. 6 is tough, and 5 is almost impossible, though I have won one.
-I had difficulties with the FoW/ Chrome Mox requirements, but that seems pretty solved by now. Just note that you probably want to imprint a Force onto Chrome, as you usually don't have enough cards to play both. Force often gets hardcasted in midrange/control MUs.
-Tezz. I haven't had trouble casting him at 4 mana, but I can imagine getting screwed on 2 colors fairly easily. He's a new inclusion, and Detention Sphere probably has the same problem with it, though that's usually being Showed in.
-Elesh Norn/ Punishing Fire. I swapped Tezz back and forth with Confidant, and running Confd is faster, though much weaker to those two bad boys. Reanimator is really difficult to get through.
-Abrupt Decay, what a pain! Usually your opp has 2-3 targets they need to hit per Decay, though.


So fire away! Here's the original and hilarious post.


*****************************************Original Post*************************************************

Okay then, here's the theory behind the deck: Affinity is terrible. Let's make it good again. Why? Because I bought 2 dozen playsets of Sphere of Resistance, and I'll be damned if it doesn't crack $30 ea this year. Here's the deck I took to 35th (arg) at the GP Atlanta this past weekend. That's 35 out of 900, and moreover, I play like a chimp (video can be provided). I'll put up the link when the decklists are up prob this week, so if you see it before me, please put it in this primer:


4 Lotus Petal
4 Mox Opal
4 Chrome Mox
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Ancient Den
4 Darksteel Citadel
2 Ancient Tomb

4 Frogmite
3 Myr Enforcer (grrr!)
4 Somber Hoverguard
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Riddlesmith

1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Batterskull (see below)
1 Sword of Fire and Ice

4 Thoughtcast

4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Chalice of the Void


So the big problem I'd seen with Affinity is that it gets blown out by a single hate in a turn. Hence: Chalice and Sphere. Chalice @1 mucks up every deck in the format a lot, and another @2 defeats Delver and a few other major decks. Sphere makes the deck play like reverse-tempo: instead of generating tempo during the game, you make your opponent lose theirs while losing (almost) none of your own. If people like playing Sinkhole, why wouldn't they like one that 'activates' for each spell they play? And is colorless?
I guess this deck fits in the "Light Prison Aggro (with combo splash)" genre. It drops light prison elements. Those hurt. So do a couple Frogmites on board. You're not going to lock your opponent out with this deck, well, very rarely, but you put significant pressure through super-aggro creatures, and severely limit the spells your opponent can play. Generally you drop stuff that effects the board, and your opponent plays Brainstorm for 2 mana; sucks to be them. Just so you know, 4 artifacts + 1 Sphere still makes Frogmite 0 mana to play. Trinisphere mucks that up for you, so don't run it.

The trick: get down a prison piece T1. That means each prison piece you run in here must be CMC 2 (or less, obv). Then you need accelerants to hit that: Chrome Mox, Petals, Mox Opals (commonly known as Mopals, b/c they make me mope when I've got 3 in hand). Mopal isn't always the bomb T1, but you can activate it off a Chalice @0. Not a great option, but it's there if you need the extra punch. It's fine if you're going to lead up with creature pressure.

Other prison pieces I'd considered: Suppression Field. Some idiot told me it sucked, but it's only ever been a total beating in my hands. I wanted access to Jitte through SFM, though, but it's still pretty great.
Cursed Totem -> Posb SB card
Chains of Mephistopheles -> way too narrow, but kinda neat to consider
Basically anything CMC 2 or less that makes your opponent want to cry. The more tears the better. Just build your deck around it afterwards.

As for card choices, they're limited by the Spheres. Which is great, because it also limits your opponent's plays, too. With Sphere, the deck can only play affinity dudes or non affinity cards up to CMC 3, otherwise it'll never hit the table in time to make a difference. So, as much as I'd love to Armageddon with this build, the 4 mana is unlikely to push through 2 spheres. It hurts but I can't effectively run Lodestone Golem either.

Also limited by the # of cards to imprint to Chrome Mox. I run 16, and I'd really love to run 18. So keep that in mind with tinkering.

High % of mana. If you have a prison piece in hand, you need to drop it T1 on the play fairly effectively. This manabase does that, but it's also got 26 "lands." Riddlesmith is a total freaking house in this respect, in that you keep the 3-4 you want and loot the rest away. 2 Riddlesmiths almost always allow you to convert your cards in hand -> creatures on board + more Thoughtcasts, but keep in mind this meta likes Forked Bolt. Don't get Forked.

And throwing this out there: Salvage Titan. Total house with Riddlesmith. Also shrinks Goyfie, should always trade with it too (and come back home for more). Other good cards: Dismember, Dead // Gone. That last one's hilarious vs Misdirection, hint hint.
Thalia's fine, too. I liked her with SFM -> Cranial Plating, but too dependent on both those cards to make a difference on the board.

General way to play: drop a prison piece T1. Everything else can come after that. Chalice @1 protects your SFM pretty good. Riddlesmith never hurts, but try to save him for a turn where you'll loot at least once. And someone told me 3/2 fliers for U are pretty good in this format. Sometimes you don't have a prison piece in your opening hand, so hitting up 4+ power turn 1 seems fine, too.

Bad MUs: your worst enemy. This guy will spoil your balls pretty quick, and he's got a few other cousins: Noble Hierarch, Green Suns' Zenith @0, Goblin Lackey. So Elves and Mav hurt pretty bad (1-1 vs Elves, 0-1 vs Mav). Goblins is pretty nightmareish too, but keep in mind a good Gob player wants to lead with Aether Vial over Lackey in every G1. This helps you out immensely, as you don't really MD Bolts or anything. Vial will get there eventually, but you're generally faster than that kinda stuff, and Gobs is why I dropped Myr Enforcer #4 for the SoFI, which never failed to make me smile.

Batterskull, however, felt like a 'win more' most of the time. You can't cast it through a Ball, which is a problem. It helps in Goyf MUs, but so does that 4th Enforcer. ROFL all ur Mongeese, took maybe 5 dmg from those dudes all day.

SB plan: you don't run FoW. It's not bad in this deck, but I opted out of it. Which means you can get blown out by T1 Win strategies, like Dredge, Reanimator, and Charbelcher (just make sure to win the die roll). Show and Tell sometimes stinks too, and I won't suggest an optimal SB plan overall, but you'll see what I threw in and figure something out in your meta. The counters are solely to stop Affinity hate (haha, a funny!) and generally come in against combo-ish decks just because they're there. Arcane Denial wouldn't be too bad here, either. Stop hate or just Jank-cestral FTW, I guess.

That's all I feel like typing up right now. Feel free to take the deck for a spin, and buy up a ton of my balls!