As ex-Mathematicians have a tendency to do, Si Hodges and I sat down a couple of weeks back and did some serious thinking.

We knew most of the veteran London players would likely be trying their luck at Grand Prix: Lyon last weekend. We also knew from testing that the Standard metagame in London was wide-open: Affinity was a very strong deck that a lot of the remaining players were seriously underestimating. Kai Budde had helped our cause further by posting up a damn fine Affinity listing that played entirely differently from our own.

This was a real opportunity to claim that highly sought-after piece of glassware for ourselves. It was time to take a break from our busy schedules of drinking and to sit around in bars playing cards instead.

Anyway, this was the result: Our winning Affinity deck from the London"State" Championships last weekend. It featured a lucky first-place finish from me and a less-than-lucky 9th place finish from Si.

"Wide Lode" Affinity

3 Lodestone Myr
4 Broodstar
4 Myr Enforcer
3 Frogmite

4 Aether Spellbomb
3 Talisman of Progress
3 Talisman of Dominance
4 Mana Leak
4 Thoughtcast
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Skeleton Shard
2 Bribery

4 Glimmervoid
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Ancient Den
4 Great Furnace

The first thing that you should notice about this decklist is that we have a penchant for bad puns. The second thing you'll notice is that we also appear to have a liking for some bad cards, too, so let's justify some of those questionable choices before I start off.

Lodestone Myr
This is the namesake of the deck for a good reason. People really undervalue him, even though he's the biggest creature (by +1/+1 as an attacker, if you do the math). Most importantly, though, Affinity isn't spoiled for choice for creatures, and can sometimes just run out of gas. This guy adds another badly-needed, tough-to-kill, significant threat to the deck, and increases the artifact count to boot. You also get the occasional comedy win where your opponent forgets the trample or just doesn't notice what a big fat ass this guy is going to have after you untap. The downside is that the benchmark for affinity is 4/4s for zero or 8/8s for UU, so the cost of four is huge - hence the rather strange three-of.

Bribery
This is a pretty silly card, but it can show its worth against MBC (which can't handle its own A-Bombs) or Goblins (which rather generously run 6/5 hasted dragons). These were easily the most common decks in London last weekend. Against Astral Slide or any form of deck with islands, it's obviously a liability and you should never try to cast it.

Skeleton Shard
I guess I don't have much of a leg to stand on here. Recycling the Frogmites or Enforcers is cute against Goblins and it helps you recover from Oblivion Stone or Wrath of God quite nicely, too. No doubt, though, this is, at best, a high-quality Limited card - and playing even one in Standard was a brave move. A"correct" list would probably go four Frogmites or two Lightning Greaves. However, I like to keep some diversity and the element of surprise.

Overall, the deck plays rather differently from Kai Budde's now-infamous combo build (and has a much easier ride against Goblins as a result). This is much more aggro-control than combo, and often you have to hold back with Mana Leak on an otherwise-explosive early turn rather than risk a Akroma's Vengeance, Siege-Gang Commander, or other such nonsense resolving on the other side of the board. Mid-game, of course, you play your men for free and holding mana back is really easy.

That's enough preamble for now; let's get to the good stuff.

Round 1: Matthew Hawker, Goblins (2-1)
Game 1: Matthew sits down, introduces himself, wins the coin flip, and promptly draws up. He looks pretty happy with his hand and keeps it. I peel a dubious hand off the top of my deck: double Vault, and a slew of blue card drawing. I take no risks and mulligan. The mulligan leaves me with a Seat, Frogmite, Spellbomb, double Talisman, Thoughtcast hand that I have to live with - I'll be fine with just one more land. Sadly, I don't get it and the red men make short work of me.

I have to hope that Matthew didn't notice the discarded Thirst and Lodestone and so doesn't board into Shatter.

Game 2: We're five minutes into the match, so there's plenty of time for sideboarding. What sideboard, you ask? Well, I guess have to keep some element of surprise for my next tournament.

My goblins sideboard isn't exactly top-secret tech, though: I board in two Circle of Protection: Reds, a Worship, three Terrors, and an Override in exchange for Thirst and Bribery.

The game gets going, a Circle comes down on my side on turn 3, on turn 4 I counter the only Siege-Gang that Matthew draws, and after that there's not much else he can do. A Broodstar cast on turn 6 finishes him off.

Game 3: Matthew has had a chance to suss out what I'm playing now, and he spends some more time boarding. Again, neither of us mulligan and we both get to a good start, me with Enforcer and Frogmite, him with a Goblin Sledder, Goblin Piledriver, and Goblin Warchief. On turn 5, I counter his Clickslither and topdeck to play a Circle. It's looking good; I've walled up the game, drawn some extra cards, and played out most of my hand.

Then a couple of turns later, he taps out and presents me with a Confusion in the Ranks. A good solution to the Circle, but I have the Override in hand, and win a few turns later with a 10/10 flying monstrosity.

Round 2: Rayan Alessio, Goblins (2-1)
Game 1: Again, I lose the flip, but I'm still feeling lucky. Rayan rips off seven cards and keeps them.

I take mine and suppress a big grin: I've drawn two artifact lands, Spellbomb, Talisman, Thoughtcast, and double Enforcer. That's a good hand whatever your opponent is playing.

Rayan drops a Sledder, then a Skirk Prospector turn 2, but it gets better yet for me as I drew into land and Enforcer, and play Thoughtcast into a Broodstar and Talisman on turn 2.

Rayan looks confident when he lays a Warchief and comes in with the team for four, but those little red man have no idea what's in store for them. On turn 3, I rip yet another Enforcer. I drop the second Talisman, play an Enforcer for one, drop two more for free, do the math and slap the 9/9 on the board for UU.

"Go."

Rayan picks up his cards in disgust.

Game 2: Rayan has sensibly boarded in the Shatters and takes me apart with them. He wisely targets my artifact lands, and going first, takes me down to 1 land on turn 3. I fail to play another. When Clickslither hits turn 4, followed by Siege-Gang turn 5, I can't do a thing, and I'm under way too much pressure for the Frogmite I drew to make a difference.

Game 3: This was a close game. Again, Rayan attacks my land with Shatter, but this time I've managed to get a Talisman on the board and I've played out an Enforcer and recycled a Frogmite with Skeleton Shard. Broodstar comes down, but Rayan casts Threaten on it and tries to kill me. Of course, it's just a 0/0 on his side of the board, so I get to live.

A few turns later, I have cast another Broodstar and drawn into Worship, but Rayan has kept my mana to just five sources, and I'm at eight life and facing down a newly-cast Siege-Gang with my Broodstar and Enforcer. Options are looking limited, and I'm contemplating the heinous crime of bouncing the Siege-Gang with Aether Spellbomb. Next turn I Thoughtcast into an Override and suddenly using the Spellbomb is quite an attractive option. Rayan tries to call my bluff and recasts it, but walks into the Override, allowing me to drop Worship and secure the game next turn.

Round 3: Rachel Gilbey, MBC (2-0)
Game 1: Rachel wins the flip, but takes a mulligan and gets stuck with three lands. A Oblivion Stone turn 3 is quite threatening, but much less so when the Enforcer I draw is still beating down on turn 6.

Game 2: This time Rachel's deck gets going, but then I think she starts to realize what a tough time Mono Black's removal has against Affinity's creatures. I beat her down to sixteen before a Stone clears away my turn 4 Enforcer, and I promptly follow up with a Frogmite and a Lodestone. She gives the Lodestone card a quick scan and triumphantly lays Visara.

Sadly, though, I draw some cards from a Thoughtcast and decide to put Visara back into Rachel's hand with a topdecked Spellbomb - the Lodestone and Frogmite take her to eight. Things are looking tight for Rachel, and she throws down an unentwined Promise of Power to chump the fatboy. Unfortunately, he also tramples, so that doesn't save her.

Round 4: Tom Lowish, Slide (0-2)
Game 1: I'm pretty scared of Slide, and rightfully so. I know that all I have to do is save the counters for Akroma's Vengeance and not get greedy. Unfortunately, drawing into the four Mana Leaks isn't a precise science, and sometimes Slide can just pay an extra three anyway.

So I'm not surprised how this game turns out: Tom throws out an early Astral Slide and Lightning Rift, while I put on the pressure and hit him down to eight. Cycled cards clear the board and I put down Broodstar. Tom goes for Vengeance, but I stop it. Next turn comes another Broodstar and he stops the first from killing him with a cycled Eternal Dragon. The heat is on. Unfortunately for me, Tom topdecks a Vengeance, I don't have another counter, and he clears my board.

Game 2: I draw nothing but land and two Mana Leaks. When turn 7 comes, Tom casts Vengeance with three mana to spare thanks to two Temple of the False God. To my disdain, I have only one blue mana out of my seven lands in play, so Tom cleans up.

Round 5: Simon Hodges, Wide Lode Affinity (ID)
Si and I decide that some food is in order, so ID and head off to BK.

Si will be at 3-0-2, and I'm at 3-1-1. After this point, we'll both need to win in round 6 to make the top 8.

Round 6: Gary Manuel, Goblins (again) (2-0)
Game 1: I've become something of a pro at taking out the red men today, so I'm not at all intimidated to see Si's round 4 opponent wielding yet another Goblins deck. What I didn't know about at the time was the four maindeck Shatters!

I go first with a good draw featuring Spellbomb, Frogmite, Talisman and Enforcer, but Gary takes me by surprise a little by reducing the Enforcer to little shards of metal with Shatter. We both stall out a little, but with all that card-drawing, I favor my chances. Broodstar hits the board a couple of turns later and flies over some 1/1s for the win.

Game 2: Again, I get a good artifact draw to answer the goblins, and Gary doesn't get any of his four Shatters or two sideboarded-in Detonates early enough. A Circle locks up the game for good, and soon a Broodstar gets to do what it does best.

After the sixth and final round of Swiss, I'm in second place with thirteen points, so I'll get a chance to play for the lump of glass. Si got drawn against another Goblins deck in round 6, but wasn't as lucky as I was. His opponent, Chris Stocking, did give Si a chance to get in with a generous ID, but at 3-0-3 Si just misses out and finishes 9th.

Quarterfinals: Sean McNally, Goblin Bidding (2-0)
Sean is a London regular, and it's no surprise to see that he's made it this far too. His Goblins deck also features Patriarch's Bidding, and although that's quite a threat, I figured that it would make the matchup slightly easier than standard Goblins because of the slight loss of consistency in the early game.

Game 1: Sean gets a slow hand and is stuck on four land when he dies to an assault of Myr Enforcer and Lodestone Myr, after casting only Sledder, Prospector, and Warchief.

Game 2: Again, neither of us mulligan, but both of us get a fairly slow start. Sean beats me around a bit with Sledder and Warchief, I drop the Lodestone as my first creature on turn 3 and hope to wall up. Unfortunately, Sean drew a Dark Banishing and sends it to my graveyard. Next turn, I respond with a Terror on the forthcoming Clickslither and the Warchief trades for a Frogmite. Following that, I drop a Broodstar and the red men keep on coming into the red zone.

I untap, I'm at six life to Sean's fifteen, with the trusty Broodstar in play and a Spellbomb on the board, Worship in hand - but I'm facing down a new army of Siege-Gang Commander, Prospector, and three tokens. I topdeck an Enforcer, and the play seems fairly obvious: I pound in the air with the Broodstar and try to wall up the ground with Worship and Enforcer. Sean taps out and throws a Shatter at the Enforcer - how rude!

Now, Sean launches an alpha strike on me to reduce me to one - as far as Worship will allow until he can handle the Broodstar. Sean passes the turn with a card in hand.

On my turn, Sean is forced to make the first move, as the Broodstar will kill him. He plays his card, tapping out and cycling Gempalm Incinerator to do six (of eight ) to the Broodstar. This is a damn fine play, as the combination of Siege-Gang and Prospector will let him kill me in short order.

Unfortunately for him, I'm paying attention and activate the Spellbomb on the Siege Gang Commander in response to the Gempalm trigger, which means that in order to use the Siege Gang's ability, he would have to sacrifice men before the Gempalm's ability resolves. That's enough to keep the Broodstar alive and it flies over for the kill.

Semifinals: Rachel Gilbey, MBC (2-0)
Rachel is kind of annoyed to see my face again, and knows this will be a difficult one to win. I'm extremely glad to see her here, as she had just taken Dave Ball out of the tournament. Dave was running a highly teched-out nearly-mono black build capable of decimating my mana with a maindeck March of the Machines. Lucky that I didn't have to play him!

Game 1: Just like the previous match, Rachel's deck plays the old mana joke on her. This time, she plays two Swamps, a Temple of the False God, and then gets starts getting savaged by an Enforcer that just won't die thanks to a Skeleton Shard.

Game 2: This time, I counter Rachel's early Oblivion Stone, lay an early Enforcer, and then start casting a lot of card drawing. Amusingly, I notice Rachel has sided into Scrabbling Claws to deal with my first pick. When Rachel's turn 5 Mind Sludge and turn 6 Visara are countered as well, the game starts to look very one sided, and her only answer on turn 7 is a Riptide Replicator for four, which I decide to allow. With two Spellbombs to deal with tokens and an Override in hand, there isn't much she can do about the Enforcer.

Finals: Alan Mai, Kai Budde's Affinity (2-0)
Alan has just beaten Tom Lowish's Slide deck in the other Semi, so again the matchups have worked out in my favor.

We get the trophy out and put it at the side of the table so we can see what we're playing for.

Game 1: Alan wins the flip and starts reaching out for the trophy already (we both know that going first is huge for Affinity decks).... But two inches towards him is as far as it's going for now.

Neither of us mulligan, and Alan kicks off with a beautiful Chrome Mox start and drops a Neurok Hoversail. I stick to my more conventional weaponry, and play out a Spellbomb turn 1, and a Talisman on turn 2 to even up the mana.

We each lay an Enforcer and Si observes on turn 4 that it's eight permanents for Alan to my six."True," I point out,"But Alan's are all s**t."

Staring down at Alan's motley crew of Welding Jars and Chromatic Spheres, the audience agrees.

I Thirst into Broodstar and play it out, threatening game next turn. The Broodstar peeking back from under Alan's turn 1 Chrome Mox is looking rather foolish now, as the Broodstars turn out to be key cards in this matchup.

Alan has an Atog and makes a desperate attack, but I hadn't forgotten about my Spellbomb so we move on to game 2. I move the trophy back over to my side of the table.

Game 2: Neither of us take a mulligan and we kick off. I get a solid aggressive start with double Frogmite and an Enforcer.

By turn 4, Alan has a pile of cards in hand, five mana on the board, and not much life. But he's gearing up for a combo win from Temporal Fissure, and is confident enough to pick up the trophy and put it in his bag. Unfortunately, he screws up the play and miscounts the mana for Thoughtcast thanks to a Glimmervoid. When the judge decrees that he must play it for two instead of one, he's lost his only chance of putting my men back in my hand, and has to resign.

Not the most satisfying final win, but a good day all in all. The tournament was organized bloody efficiently, so we're done by 9:30 despite starting at 1:00. Plenty of time left to go out and party!

'Til next time,
Simon

Finally..

I'm sure there's a load of other Magic players out there in London who would have loved to come and play but just didn't know the event was happening.

Jason Howlett runs absolutely loads of Magic events in London, keeps a regular series of booster drafts going on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays and does a damn fine job of everything. Check out his website at www.thegamesclub.co.uk, sign on to the mailing list, and find out about all the other good stuff that you're missing out on!