Playing Around Interaction

Preamble

In general, the easiest way to play around interaction is using discard and countermagic. However, because the core of the Tin Fins combo is Instant speed, there are a number of ways to play around different pieces interaction on the stack without those effects.

By playing patiently and knowing when to go for your combo, you can steal wins that would potherwise be missed.

Comboing at Instant Speed

Because the Tin Fins combo is Instant speed, you are able to combo off in response to interaction or hate, in response to your opponent's combo, or even in your opponents end step.

For example, a common line when playing against control decks is to combo in their endstep or in response to their cantrips and flash creatures. This dodges pitch-cast Force of Negation and allows you to draw 14 cards. This level of card advantage is nearly insurmountable for the control player in most situations and sets you up for the win on your turn.

Removal

Tin Fins is able to play around removal on Griselbrand fairly easily. Most players will wait until you activate Griselbrand the first time before casting a removal spell. Because of this, you can usually activate Griselbrand a second time to find a piece of countermagic to answer the removal spell.

If you're unable to counter the removal, such as Karakas, it is still correct to draw as many cards as possible before it resolves. Generally, drawing 14 cards is enough to allow you to combo again in the same turn, as discussed in the Playing the Deck section.

Graveyard Hate

Leyline Effects

These effects are the primary reason we play the Doomsday transformation in the sideboard. Nothing feels better than your opponent mulling to two or three for a Leyline of the Void and casting Dark Ritual into Doomsday on your turn.

While Leyline of the Void and Rest in Peace are functionally blank cards against the Doomsday plan, Dauthi Voidwalker still poses a threat. Because Dauthi Voidwalker allows the opponent to cast cards exiled with it, you'll need to be careful about what cards you cast, discard and mill. Notably, this affects piles using Consider when the card being milled could be useful to the opponent: Force of Will, Daze, Flusterstorm, or even Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.

Cards that Empty the Graveyard

Cards like Bojuka Bog, Endurance, and Faerie Macabre are some of the easiest to play around for Tin Fins. The general play pattern to beat these effects is to bin your Griselbrand, bait the interaction with a Shallow Grave, then simply cast a second copy of Entomb (or crack LED) to bin another Griselbrand after the effect resolves.

Note that Shallow Grave is required here, as it does not target a specific card.

Surgical Extraction

While similar to the previously mentioned effects, Surgical Extraction requires the inverse play pattern. Since Surgical Extraction exiles all copies of the chosen card, you can't allow it to resolve. To beat these effects, you will need two reanimation effects instead of two Entomb effects is you're unable to just counter the spell.

In this scenario, you can bait the Surgical using the first reanimation spell, then you can respond to Surgical with the second. Things can get weird if they have two copies of Surgical, but you also run discard spells and countermagic, so you can use those to force them to Surgical before you cast your reanimation or just counter their Surgical.

Other Hate

Teferi, Time Raveler

Teferi, Time Raveler is an annoying, but not necessarily difficult, card for Tin Fins to play around as it turns off our ability to reanimate Emrakul. The first option is to agressively discard or counter it. If those are not an option then the best available line is to reanimate Griselbrand as normal, go to combat and attack your opponent, the proceed with looping your deck to either hard cast Emrakul or loop Collective Brutality.

Post-board, keep in mind that this effect turns off Shelldock Isle, so avoid piles using that effect if your opponent is playing Teferi.

Narset, Parter of Veils and Hullbreacher

Resolved Narset, Spirit of the Labyrinth, and Hullbreacher effects are likely the most difficult non-graveyard hate for Tin Fins to beat. By turning off our ability to draw cards with Griselbrand, these effects disable most of what makes this gameplan powerful. Generally the best way to beat these effects is to never let them resolve in the first place. These are high priority targets for discard and must-counter spells when cast.

If you're not able to answer them preemptively, the next best option is to combo off with them still on the stack or remove them, generally through combat, after the fact. For Narset, you are able to just attack into her, then proceed with one of the deck loops to win the game. For Hullbreacher, you'll need your opponent to attack with it so you can ambush it in combat with a Griselbrand. Alternatively, you can just reanimate Emrakul and ignore these effects if your opponent is at a low enough life total or you have the ability to combo again naturally.

Containment Priest

Although it does not see much play currenty outside of the sideboard of Death and Taxes, Containment Priest completely disables the Tin Fins combo. Because of this, we almost always transform into Doomsday in post-board games against Death and Taxes.