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!

[forsmark]

I have not tested this deck obviously but here are my initial thoughts:

* I think Thirst for Knowledge is way better than Ideas Unbound in a deck like this.
* I like the tech with free creatures (Ornithopter and Memnite) and Paradise Mantle.
* I like that Ethersworn Canonist is run MD.
* Erayo lock should find its place here perhaps. It's an awesome lock :)
* I would try to squeeze Tezzeret, The Seeker in here if you can support the mana cost. He would be an absolute powerhouse in here.
* I would not run Force of Will or Aether Vial SB, seeing as you have way to few blue cards/creature cards respectively.
* I would try to find some artifact/enchantment hate in the SB, perhaps good old disenchant? Not sure.

Overall a cool idea, I would like to see where this is ends up.

- forsmark

[Karhumies]

Primer updated with answers to most of your questions. I had thought about them but forgot to write my reasoning/current stance.

Erayo is basically competing against the Thirst for Knowledge / Ideas Unbound slot. They are very different options for the deck to take, though. Main problem with Erayo is that ofen, you exlode T1 and then Erayo is just a weak non-artifact creature while TfK/IB provides more gas for the finish. 2xStoP or another catch-all solution from SB may end up here as well as "silver bullets".

Running counters SB could be overkill or unnecessary. This decision would allow cutting blue count from MD even further, and better enable a third color splash MD/SB.

Tezzeret is expensive. Not worth the 5 mana, IMO. Worth to test, though, I guess. Even if only to tutor 1x SB Pithing Needle every turn. Don't get me wrong, but he seems somewhat like a more expensive Stoneforge Mystic for the purposes of the main deck. When it comes planeswalkers, more viable options seem to be Elspeth Knight-Errant for +3/+3 flying (although this is probably win-more), Gideon Jura for getting rid of blockers/Peacekeeper (although 5 mana seems overcosted) or Jace tMS for draw engine, card quality improvement in drawn-out games and bounce. Actually, 1-2x Jace tMS might eventually end up in the deck if I can afford him eventually.

[Karhumies]

Current stance:

MD
-2 Ideas Unbound
+2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor (occasionally castable on T2 = beats the heck out of Erayo, also provides alternate win condition which is somewhat lol when put into "Affinity context")

SB
-2 StoP (unnecessary after MD Jace)
+2 Wipe Away

4 counters could become a splash color. If only I knew what the deck should splash for.

Primer updated.


EDIT: Jace is the absolute nuts this deck was missing. Blocker bounce, card draw engine, opponent top deck worsener (and potential win condition, lol) all rolled into one.

[Karhumies]

I did some IRL testing versus a couple of decent Legacy players yesterday. The deck consistently beats the heck out of Rb Goblins and mono-U Standstill Merfolk. 4c landstill is a much more difficult MU (possibly one of the hardest that can be expected to be present in reasonable numbers to warrant playtesting in the new meta), but I would say it's almost 50-50 before SB. Pernicious Deed is the problem card here. Ancient Tomb helps the deck significantly to recover (compared vs. traditional Affinity) because they don't have a decent clock to benefit from my life loss.

SB: should be changed/developed. 4x Trickbind is my #1 improvement. Helps vs Storm (they can't Chant or Xantid given that Chalice @ 1 -> Trickbind the Storm trigger ftw), landstill (Pernicious Deed, Engineered Explosives, counters even Jace ultimatum lol), some random artifact hate people may run (e.g. Serenity), can buy a turn vs Sneak Attack, and as an added bonus stops Ooze combo dead in its tracks. Krosan Grip could be another SB option; A.Tomb combined with a rainbow land and it would be possible to K.Grip Null Rod, but I think I'll just rely on no one running Null Rod in their 75.

MD:
1) 4x Darksteel Citadel could be 4x Mishra's Factory, 4x Wasteland, 4x Blinkmoth Nexus, 4x rainbow land for slash or 4x something else. I am open to suggestions here. The replacement needs to be non-destroyable by artifact mass wipe.

2) 2x Arcbound Ravager is not very efficient in this deck. They could be some other creature, e.g. 2x Ezuri's Brigade or 2x Leonin Arbiter. Further playtesting required here.

[Karhumies]

Removed 2x Arcbound Ravager/Lodestone Golem from MD. Ravager was pretty much useless. Lodestone was too slow/win more, and it shut down my own non-artifacts (especially Jace). Replaced with 2x Wasteland to raise land count to 18.

Chose 2x Wasteland and 4x Leonin Arbiter as SB cards.

Here is how to SB vs multicolored fetch-based combo (TES, welder-animator, Necrotic Ooze, Painter, etc.):

-2 Darksteel Citadel
+2 Wasteland
-2 Stoneforge Mystic (does not speed up the clock enough. also counter-productive with Leonin Arbiter)
-2 Etched Champion (useless)
+4 Leonin Arbiter (mana denial, insane T1/T2 drop on the play if opponent uses fetchlands)
-4 Thoughtcast (much more card advantage gained by shutting down the opponent)
+4 Trickbind (fetch, storm, hate)

Which results in a list like this:


//NAME: post-SB vs combo
// Main deck (60)
// Lands (18)
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Ancient Den
2 Darksteel Citadel
4 Wasteland
4 Ancient Tomb

// Mana (8)
4 Mox Opal
4 Paradise Mantle

// Non-creature artifacts (8)
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Cranial Plating

// Creatures (20)
4 Ornithopter
4 Memnite
4 Ethersworn Canonist
4 Leonin Arbiter
4 Master of Etherium

// Blue (6)
4 Trickbind
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

[Sleepless]

I quite like this deck. I have goldfished it a few times online and found a few things to say about the most recent list.

I like Stoneforge Mystic as a card, but 4 Cranial Platings make it seem out of place. I find myself drawing the Cranial Platings fairly often and typically just one will be enough to deal massive damage. I would suggest taking out 2 Cranial Platings and putting in Sword of Fire and Ice and/or Sword of Light and Shadow, but that makes the curve a bit heavy on the three drops. What I tried was replacing Stoneforge Mystic with two Leonin Arbiters in the main deck. Leonin Arbiter has some use against most every top tier deck. It also gives something else for the Entomb/Intuition Vengevine decks to deal with. That deck seems to be quite a threat.


I don't know if you have this problem, but I find 26 mana sources to be a lot, since that's nearly half the deck. I find myself with too much mana within the first few draws and nothing to do with it. The only thing is, though, that I don't know what to suggest otherwise. As you said, Arcbound Ravager is pretty much useless. Chalice at one limits many options from Swords to Plowshares to Pithing Needle. I want to say Thopter Foundry, though I've yet to even goldfish that, but it does turn 1/1 Memnites into 1/1 flying Thopters and one life.

I hope this deck can go somewhere.

[Oiolosse]

I hate to see you Jitte-less here. I know the power of cranial but one Jitte is a must since you use Mystics.

[Squirrel]

I quite like this deck.

I want to say Thopter Foundry, though I've yet to even goldfish that, but it does turn 1/1 Memnites into 1/1 flying Thopters and one life.

does this function with master of etherium because he makes your1/1 into 2/2 so sword of the meek dont come back?

[Nidd]

does this function with master of etherium because he makes your1/1 into 2/2 so sword of the meek dont come back?

MoE prevents Foundry + Sword from working.

[jazzykat]

MoE prevents Foundry + Sword from working.

You can either sacrifice the master or just have 2/2 flying beaters. But you are right.

[Karhumies]

@ Sleepless: SFM was initially chosen as CP #5-6, with the added benefits of card advantage and getting CP into the field through opposing counterspells (which can often mean a win). Traditionally, Affinity has had 12 key cards to win: 4 MoE, 4 CP, 4 Ravager. As I have cut the Ravagers, I tried to improve my kill card amount with 2x SFM 2x Jace so that I don't so often draw opening hands without kill cards or topdeck into multiple Chalice/Mox Petal/other useless cards while my opponent beats me with a resolved 3/3 or something. While Arbiter is a good card vs much of the field, he is almost useless vs Merfolk (slows down their splash color) - which is a deck I intend to beat the heck out of in the new meta.

The "extra mana" is there to ensure fast Chalice @ 1, and as protection vs opposing MD Wasteland/Pernicious Deed. I don't like to get color-screwed by my opponent. Also, 0cc artifacts are 0cc artifacts. Wasteland is something I am trying MD because I could not think of anything more useful. Waste either works as a "LD spell" without any intention to use it for mana gain or to dodge opposing Wasteland/Pernicious Deed (not an artifact, it is somewhat rare that opponent wants to waste my waste).

You are on point when you suggest dropping some equipment for other equipment. I have yet to test that out. With 2 SFM, it's easier to get one-ofs. 3 CP + 1 Jitte may work quite well (I hate drawing multiple Jitte due to Legendary status). Jitte's advantage over SoLS and SoFI is utility and cost-efficiency with Ancient Tomb. While SoFI and SoLS work better with Ornithopter, I already have protection from colors in Etched Champion. I don't really know which one of the three is the best in this deck.

Plating is nevertheless the most efficient due to its mana cost, so I am looking for another equipment mainly to diversify from opposing Pithing Needle "CP". Take for example the following: T1 Ancient Tomb, Memnite, Paradise Mantle, Chalice @ 1. T2 artifact land, CP, equip, swing for 6. T3 if you have another Plating, you can swing for 13 even with just that (+1 opposing fetch ftw).

SFM does have synergy with Sword of the Meek, and Thopter foundry is on-color and cc2. I have not even thought about testing that combo yet. But I fear it might dilute the aggro plan if it takes up too many slots (potentially slower-than-current win-more). Colored mana for Foundry can sometimes be problematic as well because 1 Mox Opal/1 Paradise Mantle only grants 1 rainbow mana and many of the lands are colorless.

However, you are spot-on in that I need to find an outlet into which I can pump endless amounts of mana for a gain (since I am producing so much of it). Thopter Foundry does exactly that - provided that I can get hold of Sword of the Meek.

Instead of running StoP, I would rather switch some of the Memnites for Shield Sphere in order to gain more time to stabilize. If only Sphere was allowed to attack with equipment attached... :(

@ Squirrel, nidd:

You can - - sacrifice the master

This.

[Karhumies]

Another advantage the deck has in the current meta is that everyone and their mother has been switching their SB Krosan Grips into Nature's Claims. This makes Chalice @ 1 even more effective than it was previously. Hopefully, the banning of Survival will not make people switch back to K.Grip in large numbers (to fight Counterbalance).

[lorddotm]

Another advantage the deck has in the current meta is that everyone and their mother has been switching their SB Krosan Grips into Nature's Claims. This makes Chalice @ 1 even more effective than it was previously. Hopefully, the banning of Survival will not make people switch back to K.Grip in large numbers (to fight Counterbalance).

People will be changing those Claims back into Grips.

Also, I love how you think you destroy combo with your synergy of Trickbind and Chalice. You forget you are an artifact deck against a deck that run Hurkyl's Recall. Just sayin'.

[Karhumies]

People will be changing those Claims back into Grips.

Also, I love how you think you destroy combo with your synergy of Trickbind and Chalice. You forget you are an artifact deck against a deck that run Hurkyl's Recall. Just sayin'.

I will be following up a Chalice @ 1 with a Chalice @ 2 vs Tendrils storm combo. Unless they run a full playset of Hurkyl in SB, I believe to have a reasonable chance in slowing them down in finding it with Leonin Arbiter or Chalice @ 1. I used to have 4x FoW in the SB instead of Trickbind, but the blue count is low for that.

As for Solidarity-type storm combo - I will most likely lose due to Cunning Wish, but the deck is not popular enough in my meta for me to care about that.

[Karhumies]

Also, I love how you think you destroy combo with your synergy of Trickbind and Chalice.

I will be the first one to admit that combo match-up will be the deck's weakest link. However, my frame of reference is the dismal 5 - 95 MU percentage of M10-era Affinity decks which ran either 4x Chalice @ 0 or 4x Ethersworn Canonist in their sideboard (or decided not to waste space for either and hope to dodge the MU). Therefore, I am overjoyed if I can turn this into 20-80 or - gasp - 30-70. I apologize if I have given a false expression about this in my previous texts: I was so happy of potentially okayish G1 performance that I forgot their SB contents. Oh well, I hope to get actual hands-on IRL play experience vs a newbie TES pilot later this week (before that I am merely speculating & I am not intending to seriously challenge experienced pilots).

I believe I should be more explicit about the specific goals I have for the development of this deck.

1) The deck should consistently beat two out of three most popular decks of my predicted meta:
- decently built and piloted Merfolk
- below-average piloted budget Zoo
These decks should show up in the largest numbers, so I expect to face them during the early rounds. They need to be close to a BYE to be successful = get to the top 8.

2) The deck should not completely throw away its combo match-up vs
- inexperienced TES pilots who have just picked up the deck with poorly planned sideboards (I expect this to be the 3rd most popular deck)
= I am expecting better performance than the frame of reference 5-95 in opponent's favor. Affinity was formerly known as a goldfish vs even the most inexperienced combo players due to complete lack of interaction.
I hope to get in a random win against one of these decks if I face such in the tournament. I rely largely on my deck's surprise factor. If I ever faced an opponent who was familiar with both his deck and my decklist, I would expect 10-90 in his favor or worse.

3) The deck should have 40-60 or better vs "the general Legacy metagame"
known decks I need to compete with (very good pilots): False cure, Rb Goblins, Imperial Painter, Dredge, 4c landstill, welder-animator
estimated other decks (I can live with 30-70 or better against these): countertop, enchantress, mono-brown stax
I need to be close to "coin flip range" versus these decks, because I expect them to make it into the top 8. Mainly because of these pilots' individual skill level amongst a field of inexperienced players.

4) I intend to completely throw away my "exotic combo MU"
- Belcher
- Spanish Inquisition
- Solidarity / Spring tide
- others
I do not expect these decks to show up.



Statistics about my deck:

Fundamental turn 4.5
Variance T3-T5, given that "non-slow opening hand". T3 is rare unless opponent self-inflicts pain.

"Slow hand" is defined as either
a) no way to generate 3+ mana on turn 2 (= Plating + Equip or Master of Etherium)
b) no "kill card" in opening hand (12/60 count as kill card)

The general game plan is to full-out aggro over control, and to throw some control elements in the way of combo and aggro decks to slow their fundamental turn down to T5 or slower. The deck does not plan to become a full-control deck, because that is practically impossible with artifact lands after opposing SB (it would lose to other control decks because of easily exploitable weaknesses).


The exact type of storm combo I plan to battle against:
-inexperienced player
-relies heavily on Ad Nauseam to combo off
-unfamiliar with IGG loops and decision-trees related to specific hate cards
-fundamental turn T3 (no hate), T4 (1 piece of hate), no play experience of fighting against 2+ hate cards in the same game
-game plan: dish out 2+ pieces of hate and kill opponent on turn 4-5 (expected to work one match per opponent; after that the opponent will know how to effectively fight me)

[TheDarkshineKnight]

This deck is beautiful. Seriously, I'm in love.

Question, though. How would the deck function if the Jaces were to be replaced with Tezzeret? Have you played around with him, yet?

[Sleepless]

This deck seems like it should do fine against Merfolk. Their most threatening card is Coralhelm Commander, but this deck has Ornithopter + Cranial Plating to deal with that. I don't see Merfolk beating this deck game one to consistently, unless they get the nut draw of multiple lords + Aether Vial.

Chalice @ 1 really helps versus Zoo, since that's where all of their removal lies. Etched Champion can deal with anything that they have, so it seems getting that out should be a priority. Basically it all comes down to whether or not Zoo can use their removal on you, since every one that they use takes out a creature from this deck with CMC less than three. Qasali Pridemage, of course, can take out most anything.

Goblins seem to be the weird one. It changes drastically depending on whether or not a Lackey connects, since a possible Siege-Gang Commander turn two is just devastating. Trickbind can be helpful here to stop Lackey/Ringleader/Matron.

Aggro in general should be fine though, at least I'd think so. Cranial Plating is just so devastating.

Would Meddling Mage be a viable option? Or is WU too much to ask for within the first few turns to shut out some cards from combo decks?

[Iranon]

I'm going to be shouted at for suggesting one of the most-denounced cards in Magic... but in a deck with so many cheap hit-or-miss cards Arcane Denial is about as good as Thirst for Knowledge as a draw spell, can turn filler into gas for two mana, be an Ancestral Recall when cast in response to a counter, wreck opponents playing combo and delay an opponent for long enough to win given the potential for explosiveness.

[Karhumies]

Current deck list I have been playtesting with (updated to the first post):

Main Deck changes:
-2 Wasteland
+2 Gemstone Mine
helps to cast Jace and SB Krosan Grip (new splash).

-2 Darksteel Citadel
+2 Blinkmoth Nexus
Experimental switch for extra flyers. Good with equipment.

-1 Mox Opal
-1 Ancient Tomb
Both are bad in multiples.

+1 Sword of Fire and Ice
+1 Sword of Light and Shadow
Fire and Ice improves the Goblin and Bant match-ups significantly (Merfolk was close to a BYE already). Light and Shadow gives life gain and is a nice topdeck in a drawn-out game.

Sideboard changes:
-2 Wasteland
-1 Jitte/Sword of something
+3 Krosan Grip
K.Grip helps a lot versus Counterbalance decks when there is a slow start. Also gives an answer to previously-unanswered opposing cards.


// Main deck (60)
// Lands (17)
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Ancient Den
2 Darksteel Citadel
2 Blinkmoth Nexus
2 Gemstone Mine
3 Ancient Tomb

// Mana (7)
3 Mox Opal
4 Paradise Mantle

// Non-creature artifacts (10)
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Cranial Plating
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow

// Creatures (20)
4 Ornithopter
4 Memnite
4 Ethersworn Canonist
// or 4x another creature in combo-light meta
2 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Master of Etherium
2 Etched Champion

// Blue (6)
4 Thoughtcast
// or 4x Arcane Denial, as suggested by Iranon
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

// Sideboard (15)
SB: 4 Trickbind
SB: 4 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 4 Leonin Arbiter
// or 4x Meddling Mage, as suggested by Sleepless
SB: 3 Krosan Grip