affinity and finding answers to null rod?

[tooMuchCoffeeMan]

Have been reading the thread in the type 1 forum regarding affinity.  Nameless' version seems to be quite a good build.  However, even he admits it will roll over to null rod.  His decklist is:

19 Mana Sources
1 Black Lotus
3 City of Brass
3 Glimmervoid
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
4 Seat of the Synod
1 Sol Ring
1 Tolarian Academy

24 Artifacts
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Arcbound Worker
4 Frogmite
4 Myr Enforcer
4 Ornithopter
4 Skullclamp

6 Black
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Disciple of the Vault
1 Yawgmoth's Will

6 Blue
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Thoughtcast
1 Time Walk

5 Red
1 Burning Wish
4 Shrapnel Blast

SB
4 Artifact Mutation
4 Duress
1 Regrowth
1 Tendril's of Agony
4 Tormod's Crypt
1 Vindicate

Would 4 seal of cleansing in the board fix this battle?

Another option, since there's the wish, could be primitive justice.

[TheFram]

I think that a better solution would be to find room for 3 main deck cabal therapy and 2 maindeck oxidize (or something on those lines). That package would at least leave you with outs available when Null Rod hits.

-Avi

[VGB]

Gate to Phyrexia might be interesting, but I don't see how Artifact Mutation, Vindicate, and Duress don't already address the issue.

[rozetta]

To be honest, MD artifact mutation doesn't seem like a bad plan either, since you can cast it on your own Myr Enforcer for 7 x 1/1 creatures as a combat trick or EOT if your opponent doesn't run any potential targets. I'm assuming that if you can support four of these in your sideboard, maindecking them in place of, for instance, shrapnel blast, would not be difficult.

[Plognark]

I can confirm that maindeck artifact mutation is good. Purple hat will back me up on this  

[Jacob Orlove]

This is a newbie-level discussion. Moved.

[Colossus]

The answer is obviously to kill the null rod.  With a deck that runs 3-4 colors (I've never seen a white affinity deck), you should be able to come up with something.  Oxidize is my personal favorite since it costs only 1, but whatever works for you.

[Sheik al Kaji]

Is it possible to squeeze Crainial Plating in there? The killing turn comes so much faster.

[the boogie man]

Heres my affinity build:
Lands:13
1x tolarian academy
4x mishras factory
1x seat of the synod
1x glimmervoid
1x darksteel citadel
2x gemstone mine
3x city of brass

artifacts:32
mana
5x solomoxen
1x mana crypt
1x sol ring
1x lotus petal
1x black  lotus
1x LED
1x mana vault

other
4x arcbound ravager
2x arcbound worker
4x skull clamp
2x genesis chamber
4x froggie
4x myr enforcer
1x memory jar

blue:9
1x timetwister
4x thoughtcast
1x ancestral recall
1x tinker
1x time walk
1x cunning wish

black:4
2x disciple of the vault
1x demonic tutor
1x yawgmoths will

green:1
1x crop rotation

sideboard:15
1x oxidize
3x tormods crypt
3x pyrostatic pillar
1x brain freeze
1x rack and ruin
1x naturalize
1x red elemental blast
1x blue elemental blast
2x fire/ice
1x arcbound crusher

 With this build I think that you can handle threats like null rod much better than with a burning wish by wishing in response. and i cut some of the arcbound workers because too often were they just sitting idle, just adding to the affinity count.

Also, the brain freeze in the side is for the comboing out if need be, or that would be pimp if you just played it in response to some draw spell against combo, and they removed most of their library and drew into nothing.

but the real pain in the [deleted] for this deck (completely hypothetical, as I've never come across it) is blood moon, which single handedly takes out much of the mana base. The saving grace is that you can wish for a response, or you can hope that you draw into a ton of artifact mana.

One of the cooler things about this deck is the ablity it has to "combo out". Im not talking about the brain freeze, but the shere ability to power out artifacts and just sacrifice it all to ravager to deal a ton of damage to the oponent, and if a disciple of the vault is out, its almost always certain death.

And Im really fond of the arcbound crusher in the side, which I pull in for heavy artifact oponents. this guy can get really big really quick. with a genesis chamber out, every creature that comes inot play on you side gives him two plus 1/plus 1 counters.

If I forgot something, please inform me.

[Unearthly]

Blood Moon is a pain in the ass....? Are we playing the same deck?  Your artifact lands are still artifacts, they still produce red mana which means you can cast all of your artifacts and whatever red spells you run. I've actually contemplated putting Blood Moon INTO my sideboard, as a way to solidify control mathcups.  How can it shut you down that much?

[the boogie man]

Ive updated my deck, but the point is that my deck isn't really red based
Most of my lands tap for any color mana, and if they can only produce red it hurts real bad.

 The thing that I found out is that the artifact lands are far too fragile. Null rod kills them, wastelands kill them, and shaman kills them. I found that with the multi tappers, I can easilly survive a null rod and still be able to play a ton of the spells that I planned to play anyway. The cards that null rod shuts down in my deck are:
darksteel citadel( for the strips and wastes)
Ravager
Skullclamp
and the power


The really underrated card in this deck are the genesis chambers. They can quickly double your army even under a null rod.

Heres the new list:

Lands:14
3x darksteel citadel
1x tolarian academy
3x glimmervoid
3x mishras workshop
4x city of brass

artifacts:29
4x arcbound ravager
4x myr enforcer
4x froggie
4x skullclamp
2x genesis chamber
1x black lotus
5x solomoxen
1x mana crypt
1x mana vault
1x sol ring
1x lotus petal
1x lions eye diamond

blue:8
1x ancestral recall
1x timetwister
4x thoughtcast
1x time walk
1x cunning wish

black:7
2x disciple of the vault
3x duress
1x demonic tutor
1x yawgmoths will

red:1
1x wheel of fortune

green:1
1x crop rotation

sideboard:15
2x naturalize
3x tormod's crypt
3x pyrostatic pillar
1x rack and ruin
2x red elemental blast
1x blue elemental blast
2x fire/ice
1x oxidize

If you noticed, I cut tinker and memory jar. in the play testing, the tinker was often almost useless if I had the memory jar in hand or if I already hard cast it, and the deck really has no other things that win games to fetch.

Also something that I would really like to do is to make a high enough blue count so that I could ad the force of wiil. The first three cards to get cut if I do wiil be the three duresses. Does anyone have any quality feedback?

[rozetta]

Has anyone tried a more simple mono-blue version?

This thing works pretty well:

//Draw
        1 Memory Jar
        1 Windfall
        1 Tinker
        1 Timetwister
        1 Ancestral Recall
        4 Skullclamp
        4 Thoughtcast

//Creatures
        4 Frogmite
        4 Myr Enforcer
        4 Ornithopter
        4 Genesis Chamber
        1 Darksteel Colossus
        4 Cranial Plating

//Mana
        1 Lion's Eye Diamond
        1 Lotus Petal
        1 Mana Vault
        1 Mana Crypt
        1 Sol Ring
        1 Black Lotus
        1 Mox Sapphire
        1 Mox Ruby
        1 Mox Pearl
        1 Mox Jet
        1 Mox Emerald
        1 Tolarian Academy
        4 Seat of the Synod
        4 Ancient Tomb
        4 Mishra's Workshop
        2 Island

There's no sideboard as of yet, but it could include only blue or artifact cards. It empties it's hand pretty quickly, and it fast enough to not be _too_ concerned with Null Rod. Something like Hurkyl's Recall or chain of vapor would be a possible sideboard answer.

I got this idea when tinkering around with trying a splash in the mono-brown modular decks posted here. Obviously this one is about speed and contains no disruption. However, it can put 10 power out on turn 1, so who cares?

[the boogie man]

I have personally cut up most of the deck so that it is mainly blue, but why don't you run force of will?

Heres the new decklist if any 1 cares.

Lands:14
1x tolarian academy
3x mishras factory
3x darksteel citadel
3x glimmervoid
4x city of brass

Power:10
7x (solomoxen)
1x lotus petal
1x mana crypt
1x mana vault

Blue:13
4x force of will
4x thoughtcast
1x windfall
1x timetwister
1x ancestral recall
1x cunning wish

Red:1
1x wheel of fortune

Green:1
1x crop rotation

Black:3
2x disciple of the vault
1x demonic tutor

Artifacts:18
1x memory jar
4x myr enforcer
4x froggie
4x arcbound ravager
3x skullclamp
2x genesis chamber

Sideboard:15
2x tormod's crypt
1x oxidize
1x rack and ruin
1x naturalize
2x red elemental blast
1x blue elemental blast
3x pyrostatic pillar
2x tsabo's web
2x fire/ice