I don't know about percentages, but I don't think Affinity loses to Oath as much as Whiffy thinks. The thing about creature decks vs. counterspell decks is that the creature decks have 20 or so dudes to run out. How many can you counter? One, two? For each one you miss, there's your clock. And it's not hard for Affinity to overwhelm with dudes or +1/+1 counters or whatever in a couple turns, even after getting some dudes countered / destroyed. So if you're sitting there tutoring for an Oath or Tinker or whatever, you need to do it right now cause you're dead in a turn or two.
I've been run over by Affinity when playing Oath and I've run over Oath when playing Affinity, so I've been on both sides and it's not a blow out match in my experience.
Confused though about you saying "it's no Beguiler of Wills" - I like that card! I'm hoping that a ton of people all think it sucks, so that I can grab a ton, and then someone makes an awesome deck that showcases it and then BAM I'm rich. Okay, that'll never happen, but I can dream, right?
so my choices WERE going to reflect that, until I delved deeper into the list. There are some pretty cool flavor cards here as well.
For flavor:
Chosen of Markov / Markov's Servant
Soul Seizer / Ghastly Haunting (especially the art!)
Zombie Apocalypse
Chalice of Life / Chalice of Death
Elbrus, the Binding Blade / Withengar Unbound (the idea of a demon bound into a blade is freaking awesome)
for commander:
Beguiler of Wills (my Animar deck will be stealing commanders :-D)
Sudden Disappearance (a combo end-game for all white decks)
Fiend Of the Shadows (semi-Praetor's Grasp on a stick)
Predator Ooze (I love me my indestructible creatures :-D)
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad (really really makes me wanna play with a new commander)
And while talking about the spoilers, talk about the strongest Morbid bonus on Tragic Slip - -1/-1 ... oh, wait, creature died, -13/13! There's almost nothing that it can hit that it can't kill at that point.
Pretty good overview, but sadly I don't think G/U self mill will be nearly as strong with DKA. The deck revolves around Spider Spawning, and losing a pack of Spawnings hurts a lot. Now if you go into G/U self mill, you are gambling your draft on seeing a Spider Spawning in the last two packs, instead of seeing one in the first few picks and then moving in. There are some cards that certainly fit in the archetype, but the closest thing to a Spider Spawning is Grim Flowering, which is nice but not the same.
2 colorless, 3 blue, 2 red, 2 white, 2 green, 2 black cards. Nice balance, but what worries me is that the three cards I think should have been also mentioned are all blue. Headless Skaab can bring a new archetype on its own. So far we have not seen so much self-milling, as most cards which count graveyards are not common, but this one can change it. A blue deck can come with 8 awesome creatures which exile creatures from the graveyard. Add some mill, some black for recursion (Ghoulcaller Chant for those Zombies you haven't exiled), some Delvers, and the deck is ready. Headless Skaab stops everything, while the fliers kill the opponent.
Griptide is the best blue removal, instant speed helps a lot. And Saving Grasp helps reusing etb abilities, it might bring back the control decks that stole so many hours of our life before the rotation of Zendikar... (luckily there are less good etb abilities now).
i agree w/ sebastion, and after seeing the sword of war and peace go up even more, i traded it just now for a garruk relentless and giest traft completing my set almost and happy there are sights like this to let me know when. thanks for the article. buy low sell high GOOD NITE AMERICA!
i would say 35/65 oath favor in the affinity match. And even serenity can be slow for affinity unfort.... in the champs i played affinity and game 3 i had turn 2 serenity and still on his turn 3 if i hadnt fow his ravager i woulda lost his turn 3 BEFORE my serenity went off.... First turn oath is the eek out the win for oath and jus an example i was playin cat in a de one time and she t1 oath and didnt win till she found vault/key several turns later as i was runnin through my deck looking for the factory to win which i did find and was going to put her on a 2 turn clock when she found it.
Why shouldn't I be offended by you calling me out as a hypocrite Dave? Especially since we haven't spoken in years? Especially since I have long since abandoned complaining about inequities in collections and decks. Please don't bother commenting again. I don't think we have much to say to each other.
no offense but with regards to your side comment there I have seen you on many occasions complaining about losing because your opponent had more expensive cards lol
good stuff though, it is funny how every new set brings everyone crying out how something is so OP or to quote you "the sky is falling"
I have! I think I even managed to win one week with that deck RW giants is FTW because you get so many wraths in Desolation Giant, Inferno Titan, and Thundercloud Shaman its pretty awesome with some Lightning Helix and fixing the high CC with Tauren Maulers... I really wish I still had the cards because I can only imagine its more gross by adding Ruhan of the Fomori...
I'd agree that its not OP (at least in this tribe), but does kind of defeat the joy of beating someone with that tribe. Winning it on the back of the creatures is a more satisfying win to me at least
Nice read. Thanks for the write up.
i like beguiler of wills too. 5 mana for a 1/1, i dont care. she takes over the game!
I don't know about percentages, but I don't think Affinity loses to Oath as much as Whiffy thinks. The thing about creature decks vs. counterspell decks is that the creature decks have 20 or so dudes to run out. How many can you counter? One, two? For each one you miss, there's your clock. And it's not hard for Affinity to overwhelm with dudes or +1/+1 counters or whatever in a couple turns, even after getting some dudes countered / destroyed. So if you're sitting there tutoring for an Oath or Tinker or whatever, you need to do it right now cause you're dead in a turn or two.
I've been run over by Affinity when playing Oath and I've run over Oath when playing Affinity, so I've been on both sides and it's not a blow out match in my experience.
Great article :-D
Confused though about you saying "it's no Beguiler of Wills" - I like that card! I'm hoping that a ton of people all think it sucks, so that I can grab a ton, and then someone makes an awesome deck that showcases it and then BAM I'm rich. Okay, that'll never happen, but I can dream, right?
so my choices WERE going to reflect that, until I delved deeper into the list. There are some pretty cool flavor cards here as well.
For flavor:
Chosen of Markov / Markov's Servant
Soul Seizer / Ghastly Haunting (especially the art!)
Zombie Apocalypse
Chalice of Life / Chalice of Death
Elbrus, the Binding Blade / Withengar Unbound (the idea of a demon bound into a blade is freaking awesome)
for commander:
Beguiler of Wills (my Animar deck will be stealing commanders :-D)
Sudden Disappearance (a combo end-game for all white decks)
Fiend Of the Shadows (semi-Praetor's Grasp on a stick)
Predator Ooze (I love me my indestructible creatures :-D)
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad (really really makes me wanna play with a new commander)
And while talking about the spoilers, talk about the strongest Morbid bonus on Tragic Slip - -1/-1 ... oh, wait, creature died, -13/13! There's almost nothing that it can hit that it can't kill at that point.
Pretty good overview, but sadly I don't think G/U self mill will be nearly as strong with DKA. The deck revolves around Spider Spawning, and losing a pack of Spawnings hurts a lot. Now if you go into G/U self mill, you are gambling your draft on seeing a Spider Spawning in the last two packs, instead of seeing one in the first few picks and then moving in. There are some cards that certainly fit in the archetype, but the closest thing to a Spider Spawning is Grim Flowering, which is nice but not the same.
GOOD ARTICLE
My top 5 contains 7 cards, these I like for different reasons, but don't want to cut any of them.
Secrets of the Dead
Gravecrawler
Undying Evil
Drogskol Captain
Havengul Lich
Chalice of Life/Death
Haunted Fengraf
since my current interests lie in pauper...
Undying Evil
Stormbound Geist
Ulvenwald Bear
Dawntreader Elk
Loyal Cathar
though love the multicolored lords
1. Zombie Apocalypse (Flavor)
2.Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
3.Gravecrawler
4.Black Cat (Flavor)
5.Chalice of Life
In no particular order:
Hollowhenge Spirit
Havengul Runebinder
Shattered Perception
Grim Backwoods
Drogskul Captain
RE: Music for theme. What kind do you need? There are lots of possibilities. Is this a formal contest? Are there any other criteria you'd like?
1. Secrets of the Dead
2. Thalia
3. Tragic Slip
4. Increasing Vengeance
5. Faithless Looting
1. Faithless Looting
2. Geralf's Messenger
3. Sorin
4. Lingering Souls
5. Secrets of the Dead
2 colorless, 3 blue, 2 red, 2 white, 2 green, 2 black cards. Nice balance, but what worries me is that the three cards I think should have been also mentioned are all blue. Headless Skaab can bring a new archetype on its own. So far we have not seen so much self-milling, as most cards which count graveyards are not common, but this one can change it. A blue deck can come with 8 awesome creatures which exile creatures from the graveyard. Add some mill, some black for recursion (Ghoulcaller Chant for those Zombies you haven't exiled), some Delvers, and the deck is ready. Headless Skaab stops everything, while the fliers kill the opponent.
Griptide is the best blue removal, instant speed helps a lot. And Saving Grasp helps reusing etb abilities, it might bring back the control decks that stole so many hours of our life before the rotation of Zendikar... (luckily there are less good etb abilities now).
Sssshhhhhhhh. You'll ruin everything XD
maybe it's me, but I don't see the Tarmo in the ooze lol
i agree w/ sebastion, and after seeing the sword of war and peace go up even more, i traded it just now for a garruk relentless and giest traft completing my set almost and happy there are sights like this to let me know when. thanks for the article. buy low sell high GOOD NITE AMERICA!
i would say 35/65 oath favor in the affinity match. And even serenity can be slow for affinity unfort.... in the champs i played affinity and game 3 i had turn 2 serenity and still on his turn 3 if i hadnt fow his ravager i woulda lost his turn 3 BEFORE my serenity went off.... First turn oath is the eek out the win for oath and jus an example i was playin cat in a de one time and she t1 oath and didnt win till she found vault/key several turns later as i was runnin through my deck looking for the factory to win which i did find and was going to put her on a 2 turn clock when she found it.
Thanks for the comments. Yeah Chalice is quite the beating. I can imagine your surprise when your son pulled that.
I played that deck a few weeks back, got manascrewed. A lot.
I was in and playing with EvaDepths until RL forced me to sell my cards and now Tarmos alone are 3x the price I paid for the set I had lol
Why shouldn't I be offended by you calling me out as a hypocrite Dave? Especially since we haven't spoken in years? Especially since I have long since abandoned complaining about inequities in collections and decks. Please don't bother commenting again. I don't think we have much to say to each other.
no offense but with regards to your side comment there I have seen you on many occasions complaining about losing because your opponent had more expensive cards lol
good stuff though, it is funny how every new set brings everyone crying out how something is so OP or to quote you "the sky is falling"
I have! I think I even managed to win one week with that deck RW giants is FTW because you get so many wraths in Desolation Giant, Inferno Titan, and Thundercloud Shaman its pretty awesome with some Lightning Helix and fixing the high CC with Tauren Maulers... I really wish I still had the cards because I can only imagine its more gross by adding Ruhan of the Fomori...
I'd agree that its not OP (at least in this tribe), but does kind of defeat the joy of beating someone with that tribe. Winning it on the back of the creatures is a more satisfying win to me at least