(Michifus) GP Richmond Recap & Notes on Affinity

Hey everyone. Pieter beat me to the punch for getting the GP Richmond Recap published first, so check out his post for a look at the event and weekend happenings.



We ended up running the same list that weekend and hammered out a 75 that we were both pretty happy with.

GP Richmond Affinity (Click to Expand)

4 x Darksteel Citadel

4 x Blinkmoth Nexus

4 x Inkmoth Nexus

3 x Glimmervoid

1 x Island



4 x Cranial Plating

4 x Springleaf Drum

4 x Mox Opal

3 x Thoughtcast

2 x Galvanic Blast

1 x Welding Jar



4 x Arcbound Ravager

4 x Vault Skirge

4 x Ornithopter

4 x Signal Pest

3 x Steel Overseer

3 x Etched Champion

3 x Memnite

1 x Master of Etherium



Sideboard:

3 x Thoughtseize

2 x Spell Pierce

2 x Spellskite

2 x Wear // Tear

1 x Ancient Grudge

1 x Grafdigger's Cage

1 x Relic of Progenitus

1 x Rule of Law

1 x Whipflare

1 x Illness in the Ranks

With this list, I was looking at the following gameplan:



vs. Jund

Good: Etched Champion, Spellskite, Relic of Progenitus, Thoughtseize, Spell Pierce

Bad: Memnite, Galvanic Blast



vs. Ajundi

Good: Etched Champion, Master of Etherium, Thoughtseize, Whipflare, Illness in the Ranks, Relic of Progenitus

Bad: Memnite, Galvanic Blast, Signal Pest, Steel Overseer



vs. UWR Control

Good: Etched Champion, Thoughtseize, Spellskite, Grafdigger's Cage, Wear//Tear, Rule of Law

Bad: Steel Overseer, Galvanic Blast, Memnite, Signal Pest



vs. UWR Midrange

Good: Etched Champion, Thoughtseize, Spellskite, Rule of Law, Ancient Grudge (if playing Blade Splicer)

Bad: Steel Overseer, Memnite, Signal Pest



vs. Zoo

Good: Etched Champion, Spellskite

Bad: Memnite, Steel Overseer, Thoughtcast



vs. Splinter Twin

Good: Spellskite, Thoughtseize, Spell Pierce

Bad: Steel Overseer, Memnite, Master of Etherium, Thoughtcast, Signal Pest



vs. Burn

Good: Spellskite, Etched Champion, Spell Pierce, Rule of Law

Bad: Memnite, Thoughtcast, Steel Overseer



vs. Melira/Kiki Pod

Good: Etched Champion, Thoughtseize, Whipflare, Grafdigger's Cage, Illness in the Ranks (if playing Lingering Souls)

Bad: Memnite, Signal Pest, Thoughtcast, Steel Overseer



vs. Merfolk

Good: Etched Champion, Thoughtseize, Wear//Tear

Bad: Memnite, Thoughtcast, Master of Etherium



vs. Soul Sisters

Good: Etched Champion, Whipflare, Thoughtseize

Bad: Signal Pest, Memnite, Thoughtcast, Steel Overseer



vs. GR Tron

Good: Thoughtseize, Spell Pierce, Spellskite, Ancient Grudge

Bad: Etched Champion, Thoughtcast, Galvanic Blast



vs. Scapeshift

Good: Thoughtseize, Spell Pierce, Spellskite

Bad: Etched Champion, Galvanic Blast



vs. Faeries

Good: Etched Champion, Thoughtseize, Illness in the Ranks, Whipflare

Bad: Memnite, Signal Pest



vs. Infect

Good: Thoughtseize, Spell Pierce, Spellskite, Ancient Grudge

Bad: Signal Pest, Thoughtcast, Master of Etherium



vs. Bogles

Good: Thoughtseize, Spell Pierce, Etched Champion, Spellskite, Rule of Law

Bad: Memnite, Steel Overseer, Thoughtcast



vs. Storm

Good: Rule of Law, Spell Pierce, Thoughtseize, Grafdigger's Cage

Bad: Thoughtcast, Galvanic Blast, Steel Overseer



vs. Blue Moon

Good: Thoughtseize, Spell Pierce, Grafdigger's Cage

Bad: Galvanic Blast, Steel Overseer



vs. Ad Nauseum

Good: Thoughtseize, Spell Pierce, Spellskite

Bad: Thoughtcast, Galvanic Blast, Steel Overseer



vs. Living End

Good: Arcbound Ravager, Etched Champion, Relic of Progenitus

Bad: Thoughtcast, Galvanic Blast, Signal Pest, Memnite



vs. Affinity

Good: Spellskite, Ancient Grudge, Steel Overseer

Bad: Memnite, Etched Champion, Signal Pest



---------------------------------



Quite a bit to go through and there were STILL decks I played against outside of this list. Anyway, here's the breakdown of each round:



Round 1 - Bye



Round 2 - Bye



Round 3 - Loss, 0-2 (All-In Twin)

Game 1 seemed pretty good, as I had the "dump your hand by turn 2 and start swinging" plan, but I was able to only get my opponent to 4 before he was able to go off with Pestermite + Splinter Twin.
Game 2 was a very grindy match with Spell Pierce keeping him off of combo, but hardcasting the Flash&Tap guys and a lack of manland+BB Cranial mana ultimately kept me off of significantly pressuring him.



Round 4 - Win, 2-1 (Affinity)

I won the flip, which is generally a huge factor in the mirror.  After the board started to get clogged up, having BB for Plating and a Galvanic Blast in hand allowed me to swing in for 12 damage + 4 off of the Blast to win me the game.

In Game 2, we had another long game where I had a misplay in allowing his Grudge to hit my Plating instead of redirecting it to Spellskite, as he didn't have a source of green until I would have been able to swing in.

Game 3 was a pretty east victory, as my opponent mulled to six and kept a very risky no-lander. After Thoughtseizing his Mox Opal, he was unable to gain any traction and two big swings were enough to lock the game down.



Round 5 - Loss, 1-2 (Affinity)

After an incredibly long mirror, I was treated to another one, which end to turns and ended on turn 5. In the first game, I had the coin flip AND the nuts, which wasn't event close, as it was 27-9 before my lethal swing.

Game 2 was his turn for the nuts, as he had a turn 1 Plating and a turn 2 kill with Infect.

Game 3 was incredibly long. I started to fizzle out towards the end, as I needed to draw some play and pressure, which I didn't end up seeing as my opponent kept gaining ground on me. As we went to turns, I thought I had the stall, but he was able to drop two more 0-drops to get around my blockers via Arcbound Ravager on Turn 5.



Round 6 - Win, 2-0 (Merfolk)

These were pretty easy wins with Etched Champion + Steel Overseer carried me through Game 1. Game 2 saw a Phantasmal Image copying my Spellskite and a Hurkyl's Recall, but I was able to play through those and get there with manlands and Arcbound Ravager to get the flexibility I needed to swing in through the air.



Round 7 - Win, 2-1 (Bogles)

My starting hand was pretty nuts and Arcbound Ravager + chump blockers was a stud against his pimped out Kor Spiritdancer.

Game 2 saw my opponent throwing down threats more quickly than I could answer them. The lack of lifegain on my end was a huge detriment, as our life totals were very swingy in this game.

Game three saw me dropping a Spellskite and my opponent have no answers for it, while Vault Skirge and Cranial Plating quickly put me out of reach if he did ever get the answer for it.



Round 8 - Loss, 1-2 (Reanimator)

This was honestly a rogue matchup that I wasn't expecting the late in the tournament, and it caught me with my pants down. In Game 1, he was able to combo off on turn 2, which I had no way of stopping whatsoever.

Game 2 saw Inkmoth Nexus get me there, as Thoughtseize and Spell Pierce held him off.

Game 3 saw an iffy keep on my end, as it had plenty of gas, but Thoughtseize was my only hate card in my 6. Ripping the Thoughtseize on T2 saw 2 Simian Spirit Guide, 1 Faithless Looting, 2 Goryo's Vengeance, a Darkslick Shores, and a Griselbrand, so nothing I grabbed would have kept him from going off. And off he went, and I was out of making day 2.



Round 9 - Win, 2-0 (Rock)

Losing the win-and-in on the final round stings a whole lot, but losing the round before and then having an incredibly easy matchup the next round certainly doesn't take too much of the sting away. Game 1 saw the T1 hand dump and Cranial Plating online by T2. My opponent played a Swamp and promptly scooped. I think it was a good call, but even playing that Swamp gave me a good amount of information to work on.

Game 2... black... scooped right away. Lots of discard effects? Lack of artifact hate in the main? I decided to go with an well-round sideboard approach and brought in 1 x Thoughtseize, 2 x Spell Pierce, 1 x Spellskite and dropped 3 x Thoughtcast and 1 x Signal Pest. It turned out to be a pretty good call, as I was able to counter his T3 Liliana of the Veil and swing for a ton of damage (getting him to 1) before he ripped a Creeping Corrosion the next turn. At that point, he was tapped out and I still had a Blinkmoth on board to activate and snout him with.





Overall, I was incredibly pleased with the deck. None of those losses felt like I was completely out of it, except for the Reanimator deck where I should have taken a more aggressive approach to my mulligans (though Thoughtseize seemed like it was enough to keep him from going off).



It's a bummer missing Day Two by one loss once again, but, for not playing Modern that much, I was incredibly pleased with the results and it was definitely nice to be running the same deck as a fellow teammate. Our combined experience and thoughts on the 75, lines of play, and sideboarding definitely helped, as we each had moments where we would have came up short if not for the other person's impact coming through.



Until next time, #donttilt and #showthemyourteeth,

-- Michifus





PS Pieter, Mason "The Mangler", and I will be back to podcasting on Monday. Look for our thoughts and discussions on Richmond, Modern, and more on Monday night.