RE: Trinisphere
You seem to think Trini only hinders combo decks....not the case. Turn 1 Trini is as broken as Shop decks can get, and while it is infrequent it DOES happen and flat-out wins you games. It is useful against all decks.
Trinisphere is horrible against staxx, where I need to be able to pump out permanents, they can rebound easily, and crucible ends my day. Trinisphere is only marginally good against Fish, often only adding
to their spells, and considering I'm locking myself down in the process and exposing myself to waste effects, I consider this card symmetrical at best. The only two matchups Trinisphere is great in, is Control, which doesn't exist, and Combo, which I stated is why I run this on the side.
It even stops Ichorid's Dread Return and Therapy thereby greatly reducing Bridge tokens.
I need very very little help beating ichorid, as they have nearly no chance against me as is.
Winning is the goal, and I don't think that we have different "plans" with the deck in that regard. How can you say Trini hurts only combo and run 4 Chalice? Both those cards affect pretty much every deck out there. Hell, if don't want to change the list much AT LEAST take out 1 Chalice for Trini. Besides, CotV @ 1 and 2 seem like they hurt you plenty. Do you just set it at 0? (yes, I realize that Ravager can eat Chalice, but if you don't see him....)
CotV is in here for Chalice @ 1, which only shuts off Mana Vault, Sol ring, and Skullclamp. And as you mentioned, I can easily remove it with a ravager if need be. With Gat running 14+ 1 CmC spells, and Combo running 19+, CotV is the play to strive for. Also fish runs a very high cmc 1 count, and I can play CotV at 2 if necessary.
The point of that rant is that I don't think it is possible for you to convince me that Trini belongs as a SB card in any Shop deck. I couldn't care less that it makes you have to pay for Frogmites(as per your example). If you are ready to 'combo-out' why not just feed Trini to Ravager when the time is right? But do as you wish.
My goal is not to convince you of Trinisphere's position in the side. But I would hope you understand my argument for it.
As a final note on the Trinisphere concept, this deck runs very mana light. I am always always burning wastelands quickly and am tapping down nearly every turn. Strapping myself for mana hinders me as much as them. Hence why I have looked closer at non-symmetric cards such as Thorn and CotV. All that said, I'm not 100% convinced Trinisphere can't be on the Main, but in testing I have found my choice to run threat-high and mana-low jeopardizes my stability in running Trinisphere.
When I play decks like this I notice one thing; the deck pretty much fizzles if they counter your Clamp(and they usually do counter it if they can). Why does it seem to fizzle? Because so many cards are dependent on others. i.e. Ravager alone is only a 1/1, Frog is a 2/2, Retriever without Clamp or Ravager is lame, etc.
Let me introduce you to my friend Myr Retriever, the welder + Sculpting steel. Skullclamp is indeed one of the best cards in the deck, but its only a smoothing agent. Its like removing 4x Merchant Scroll from GAT. It will still win fine, it's just hindered a turn or two.
You say you are double-clamping Frogs and Factories? Kick ass then, it never went that way for me the majority of the time. Sometimes I felt fortunate to have one Clamp in play, it usually was countered or taken from my hand.
The point behind this deck is the ingrained synergy allows it to deal with any hardship. Double-clamping is only one of many avenues to victory. This deck is infinitely forgiving and requires 2+ permanent hate cards for it to be crippled beyond return. I highly advise playtesting it to see what I mean! ^_^
I was going to suggest Blinkmoth Nexus, but since you typically get 2 Clamps out then stick with Factory. Flying lands with +1/+1 counters are nice though...
I tested Blinky in the first few weeks of this deck. I also had them in my mono-black version I mentioned briefly in the history. What I found, was that the flying aspect was never needed. Often you are eating or clamping your own lands, and ifnot, you have many modular'd counters on your manland and flying matters not. Remember staff taps, and Trike clears the way. Again, the deck is infinitely forgiving.
Which brings me back to Sword. Sword is almost as counter-worthy as Clamp when you run that amount of creatures.
Sword of Fire & Ice requires even more mana to get going, often colorless mana I don't have. If I wanted to run SoF&I I would opt for a build similar to the one that won MTG Gambler's Open. A different deck concept.
Oh, I am going to assume you played the old Rivers Affinity deck, right? If not, you should definitely check it out. I'm not going to say the old list couldn't use a face-lift, but it's a great starting point.
I don't know the build. I'm not one for playing other's decklists, especially in a rogue architype. But I'll check it out.
I call this deck Janky because often your opponents not respecting and underestimating your deck's more unknown cards like Skullclamp, Retriever, and Frogmite will cause them to misplay and just hand you wins.
Sweet, you play with people who don't know how Clamp works? God I wish I could play some matches like that.
I'm not talking about people who haven't read or played against a Skullclamp. I think New England has more than its representatives of strong magic players. What I'm referring to is mostly people's unfamiliarity with Metalworker & Retriever mostly. There are times when countering a 1st turn Metalworker will lose you the game, and there are times when it is necessary to prevent losing the game. Often the only way of knowing this is in knowing cards in their opponent's hands. Retriever hitting the board means that any countered spell can be recurred easily. Skullclamp by itself will do nothing, and does not always merit a counterspell. The only way to determine which play is the correct one is through experience. Experience, which is often lacking in regards to this architype. The advantage of playing a deck with variable and adaptable wins is that there is rarely a best-play for your opponent, solong as you are withholding information from them.
That turned into a speech, and I didn't mean it to. I take a small bit of offense in insulting the capabilities of my opponents. I apologize for that.
Additionally, Instant speed is not necessary for any hate that's going to mess your Metalworker up. Ie. Hurkyle's. Flux is not a problem with a Metalworker.
Not that it really matters, but many decks run Chain and/or E.Truth maindeck(thanks a lot, merchant scroll). But post sb you are correct. I did read all the posts here, and Greaves still seems like it belongs on beefier creatures than you have.
The great irony behind Lightning greaves, is if you're forcing them to use their instants during your main phases, ie. in response to equip, your greaves will give haste to whatever bounced.
You do have to accept that sometimes your combo will fail and you have to go aggro on them.
As I mentioned the priority of the deck above, the main "combo" of the deck is simply Ravager + Triskelion. The Staff win is play C in the plans of attack.
Also congrats on winning the 4 power(equivalent) pieces, keep testing. That's the best way to go to find out what works for you.
I have been playing this deck for over two months now, and I suggest it to anyone who wants to play an adaptable and metagamed deck. My reason for posting this deck here in this forum is to share what has been a successful deck with others. Although I am looking for criticisms, my real goal here is to spread the wealth, because this deck is GOLD.
Keep posting! I look forward to responses!
::EDIT:: I found this thread about River's Affinity
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=23704.0 . I Think its interesting, but a different take. The mana-weakness is addressed there. And they opted for a more blue take which could eventually simply become platinum control, Control Slaver, or Sensei Sensei. I would think that if this deck (Rivers Affinity) was taken in a more "blue" direction, this deck would be the same taken in a "brown" direction. I do like the reference though. I may playtest the old Rivers Affinity list to get a grasp of how it feels. I stand by my behemoth that is the Italian Job though. ^^
