[Modern] Affinity

Creatures:
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Vault Skirge
4 Signal Pest
4 Ornithopter
3 Memnite
3 Master of Etherium
3 Steel Overseer
1 Etched Champion

Artifacts:
4 Mox Opal
4 Springleaf Drum
4 Cranial Plating
1 Welding Jar

Spells:
1 Galvanic Blast
3 Thoughtcast

Lands:
4 Glimmervoid
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Darksteel Citadel
1 Island

Sideboard:
2 Thoughtseize
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Spellskite
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Blood Moon
1 Torpor Orb
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Spell Snare
1 Wear//Tear
1 Rest in Peace
1 Relic of Progenitus

So at the tournament previous mentioned, it is a GPT and I ended up coming in Top 4 with this deck. Very pleased with the result along with my friend ending up winning the whole thing.

Why choose to play only 1 Etched Champion?

I too question that. Seems like one of Affinities best guys.

I was mostly choosing Master of Etherium because it seemed to be a better card against Melira Pod and Storm, putting a clock on as it hits the board. I expected more combo this time around instead of control or midrange, and I was right. The idea was to go for a 2/2 split, but having a 3rd Master was a last minute change because of pre-tournament fidgets. I thought it was the right call as I played more with it because the matchups I wanted Etched Champion more, I was already in a position to lose or win and the card wouldn't have been ground breaking at that moment. I never even got to draw my Etched Chanpion except in a matchup against BG Obliterator and I had to mulligan because of a crappy 4 land 2 Springleaf Drum hand.

Creatures:
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Vault Skirge
4 Signal Pest
4 Ornithopter
3 Memnite
3 Master of Etherium
3 Steel Overseer

Artifacts:
4 Mox Opal
3 Springleaf Drum
4 Cranial Plating
1 Welding Jar

Spells:
4 Galvanic Blast
3 Shrapnel Blast

Lands:
3 Glimmervoid
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Darksteel Citadel
1 Island

Sideboard:
2 Thoughtseize
3 Ancient Grudge
2 Spellskite
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Torpor Orb
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Spell Snare
1 Spell Pierce
2 Relic of Progenitus

Yesterday was a Modern Saturday Night Magic, which I ended up taking this deck since I have been siding out Thoughtcast more than normal lately. I thought of going back to the Shrapnel Blast deck just for a surprise and the fast plays it can make against Midrange and Control, which have been my weaker games lately. This deck dealt with more spot removal, turning the targets into a reactive game

The lack of Etched Champion is because I have been more pleased with putting up at fast clock than just resiliency. Master of Etherium does that for me and has been a lot better at doing so than what I originally thought. The more I use him, the more I have been pleased with the results. He is strong by himself and almost a must-answer by any other deck against him. Either Burn or Path to Exile have been the most notorious answers for him and he blanks Burn easily. When it comes to Path, I either can use Arcbound or Shrapnel Blast to turn that against the opponent. If I can't, then I am usually in a place to lose anyways. Etched Champion is going to be too slow a clock without Cranial Plating anyways.

I think I might keep this deck with little changes here and there, but otherwise, I have been decently happy with it in that tournament. I'll keep updates on how I change it when the changes are more notable.

Nice. Well, if it's working nicely for you, why change it? :3

Because keeping the same 75 is more hurtful than not within a tournament. And the deck was only put-together for that tournament with very little testing. I want to make sure I have the deck list right. The next Saturday Night Magic will have a bunch of the same decks and players, but the match ups will not be the same, so updating the list is going to help me within the play.

I was talking about the Etched Champion thing. If playing only one is working, it makes no sense to change it, so you're correct to keep playing Master of Etherium.

Taiga wrote:I was talking about the Etched Champion thing. If playing only one is working, it makes no sense to change it, so you're correct to keep playing Master of Etherium.

Well, I wanted to cut a card for Welding Jar. Shrapnel Blast seemed better as a 3-of, so I decided to cut Etched Champion. He is a nice card, but slow. I changed it because of that. It wasn't really that much of a help when I used him in this deck, but he was strong with Thoughtcast for a stronger and slower game.

I will probably work in at least 2-3 in the sideboard when I test more of the Zoo match up since he is an allstar in that, and having one or two against UW(r) doesn't seem like an entirely bad idea either. But I haven't tested those match ups with this deck enough to properly decide, it was only a few games.

+1 Glimmervoid
+1 Spellskite

-1 Mox Opal
-1 Memnite

Spellskite is being sideboarded left and right for me, so I thought I would place one in the maindeck. I was actually happy about do so since it provides essential provision against multiple decks, while just being a great Defender against Zoo. It slows down a lot of threats, and making the deck so much more focused on the aggro plan when I don't need to deal with threats as much. It is just really shitty against Ancient Grudge, as I have come to realize, but you can't expect a good card to be perfect. I think that having one main deck also gives me essential ability to run just one in the sideboard, so that I can have much more space for things against Combo and Control or just rouge decks. I am going to keep Spellskite in the deck for a long time, I assume, just for it being so spectacular as a one-of. I usually can surprise an opponent very well game 1 with it, if I happen to draw into it. And against Control, it is just so prevalent that they use more than one resources just dealing with my board before it comes onto the field.

The Mox Opal cut was mainly because I am not running Etched Champion main board anymore, it isn't as resourceful as it once was. The card is still amazing, but cutting one for a Glimmervoid was definitely a better plan since I don't need to cycle through mana sources as much as I used to with a 4th Mox Opal. This also makes sure that I don't draw into them consecutively, as Mox Opal is such a bad late game card. When I used Etched Champion, having non-creature artifacts was more important than anything since he was really the biggest threat against a lot of decks, and the other creatures were dealt with a lot easier than Champion ever was due to those non-creature artifacts.

The sideboard has changed as well.
I really just added Unified Will and Illness in the Ranks in the sideboard, while getting rid of an Ethersworn Canonist, Spell Snare, Relic of Progenitus. I could post the updated sideboard with reasoning later if desired.