Hi all!
Here's my somewhat unique take on the Affinity archetype. I've seen heaps of awesome Affinity decks out there, and I believe them all to be very potent. I've taken pieces from decks I've seen, and more or less stuck to the usual affinity cards, but I've made a few changes.
I'll try to not make this a affinity overview; rather, I'd like to talk about particular cards and interactions. Towards the end of the description, there is / will be answers to some frequently asked questions, particularly why I have or haven't taken particular spells.
Thanks all! Please leave a comment if you can think of anything that might be useful, I'm trying to make this as potent as possible whilst still retaining some individuality.
Before we get into card breakdown, I'd like to point out how I interpret the Affinity Archetype.
*I believe affinity refers to many different subtypes of artifact decks. This is my take on Affinity Aggro, what I believe to be the most common. Art Control is my take on the Control subtype (note that there isn't an awesome description there yet). I've also seen Affinity Tempo and Affinity Midrange, but haven't been as interested in them
*In my Affinity Aggro, I've tried very hard to avoid hard mana costs. These are costs that are non-negotiable and usually expensive. I classify them as costs that are a) above CMC 1; and b) have no ways to be "cheated out" earlier. For "easy-costs", I'll list Phyrexian Mana, Affinity, and alternative payments as an example. On a complete coincidence, two of those three things are in this deck. A detailed explanation will come later, but I believe that if you're paying hard mana in aggro, it had better win you the game.
Alrighty, so card breakdown time:
Creatures
-Memnite, Ornithopter &
Frogmite
: The foundation for this deck. Cheap, plentiful, able to push damage through and be evasive. Purely by virtue of being artifacts, they enable the entirety of this deck: Master of Etherium gets bigger, Cranial Plating is more potent, Affinity becomes easy cost, and Metalcraft gets turned on. Awesome!
-
Vault Skirge
: great target for Cranial Plating. Wins games often, or makes them unloosable with mass life gain. Get in the habit of taking damage for it, because it's necessary nearly all the time.
Force Multipliers
-Signal Pest & Steel Overseer: While both relatively slow, getting the, down on turn 1 can be a nice bit of insurance in case the game goes long. Getting to use their abilities should nearly always force a win or your opponent conceding. These are very high targets, prepare for them to get Lighting Bolted, Abrupt Decayed, etc. Don't fight it, it will happen. Make yourself in a situation to benefit from their death (multiple threats), and perhaps side Welding Jar in next game.
-Master of Etherium is the big one here. An absolutely brutal mana-cost, getting him down on T1 / T2 is vital. He will win games on his own steam, and turns the rest of your creatures into absolute murder machines.
-Cranial Plating: It's possible to get a turn 2 win with this and
Inkmoth Nexus
, with the right string of mana sources and creatures. Very unlikely, but possible. This goes on something with evasion, and wins the game. Ideally early, so the opponent can do nothing. A handy trick is to leave BB open, attack with everything, and instant speed equip to anything unblocked. This removes the threat of Lightning Bolt in response to equip,
Combat Tricks
-Galvanic Blast can technically be used as a combat trick, and it's listed as such here, but really, it's more of a finisher. Have one in your hand? Don't drop Steel Overseer, it can't help you this turn. Attack with everything, animate your land and then Blast your opponent to death. It can also be used to finish off a tough beastie or planeswalker, but only do that if it's threatening to kill you before you kill your opponent.
-Mutagenic Growth: it's like Galvanic Blast, but heaps cheaper and does a little bit less.Can be used to turn your opponents favourable trades into ones favourable for you, but you're often better using it to push through 2 extra damage. Can be used for saving an important creature from burn, but if that's all it's being used for, you're better off taking Welding Jar.
Mana Sources
-
Mox Opal
& Springleaf Drum. Absolutely key here, allowing for huge mana acceleration. Multiple springleaf drums into a Thoughtcast on turn one is always nice, and they still switch on Master of Etherium, Cranial Plating, etc. They also provide actual, colourful mana outside of Glimmervoid, which is kind of important on the rare occasion that you feel like paying for something. Only two Mox Opals, because you never want two. If you do have two in your hand, consider the following handy hint: i) Drop the first one, tap it for mana; ii) Drop the second one. Legendary rule, sac the first, tapped one; iii) Tap the second one. You know are two mana ahead of where you should be.
-Darksteel Citadel & Glimmervoid: these two cards love each other. Glimmervoid is a painless rainbow land with Darksteel Citadel, and can only ever be countered in bizarre situations (return target land to it's owners hand, target land becomes an island, etc).
-Blinkmoth Nexus &
Inkmoth Nexus
: awesome lands. Late game finishers, immune to sorcery speed removal, and cheap. Less
Inkmoth Nexus
because it's the only poison, and unless I drop it on turn 1, normal damage is nearly always going to be faster. Blinkmoth Nexus also has a nice second activated ability. Also, a handy trick is to tap these things for mana, then use said mana to turn them into creatures ("animate them"). They can't attack, but they still count towards Master of Etherium, Metalcraft, etc. They can do this on the same turn they come down, aswell.
-Mana Confluence: Why not a last Glimmervoid? For those very rare occasions when you can't drop an artifact first turn, or you're worried your Ornithopter will eat a kill spell and you're left with no artifacts. Besides, the pain doesn't usually matter. Most games should be over by turn 3 anyway.
-Thoughtcast doesn't really belong in any of the above categories, but drawing two cards for one mana is just brilliant. Great for digging, and it's hilarious to run out a string of 0 drops followed by a Springleaf Drum and then drawing another two cards off of Thoughtcast.
Indepth Sideboard Tactica, aswell as a Sideboard breakdown will come soon, I promise. Again feel free to have a look at my other Artifact deck: Art Control. There's no description yet, but it's coming soon, I swear.
Please feel free to let me know what you think in the comments section, especially those who regularly play more traditional forms of Affinity. I'd love to hear what you've got to say. Also, if you're feeling generous, +1s are nice too.
If you've got a similar deck, feel free to link it somewhere, ideally on my wall, and I will greedily devour all the information present.
Thanks heaps everyone!
