I had the same reaction to calvinwarning's Affinity for Affinity (Landless / Manaless) as I do with any interesting novelty deck I find: I wanted to see if I can turn the idea into something viable in the semi-competitive casual play which my group of friends enjoys. This reaction has come to pollute my deck list with a plethora of names which will forever live with a "P" sitting to their right as a mark of failure. Failure here is the case more often than not, so this experiment was naturally anticipated to never to see anyone's eyes but my own (hence the crude name). Then came the first playtest:
Initial Draw:
Salvage Titan
,
Myr Enforcer
,
Welding Jar
, Mox Opal, Gitaxian Probe, Ornithopter, and
Tooth of Chiss-Goria
T1: Cast Probe and drew Darksteel Citadel; played Citadel, Opal, Jar, Ornithopter, and Tooth; tapped Citadel and Opal for mana and cast Enforcer; sacced Ornithopter, Opal, and Citadel to cast Titan.
T2: Drew and cast Ornithopter; tapped Tooth and swung for 11 damage.
T3: Damn...
Thinking it was a fluke, I played the deck a few times more and, with much less OP starting hands, scored turn three and four wins left and right until finally hitting a pocket of turn five wins. Altogether it did pretty damn well for a deck with such an unintimidating gimmick. After a while the duct tape and chewing gum foundation which held it together became clear.
Let me break it down:
Salvage Titan
: Obvious win con which is very easy to get out and very difficult to get rid of. With limited exceptions you should play this card as soon you can.
Myr Enforcer
: Heavy hitter which can easily be played very easily (T1 if you draw Mox Opal or Darksteel Citadel).
Frogmite
: Mulligan if you can't play him T1. Two Frogmites can pull a T4 win if you play your cards right.
Memnite: Not just fodder for your
Salvage Titan
or
Myr Enforcer
, swing with an easily ignored 1/1, then buff it up with
Tooth of Chiss-Goria
or Mutagenic Growth.
Ornithopter: Functionally the same as Memnite, but with flying.
Street Wraith/Gitaxian Probe: It may seem as if there are too few win cons here, but remember that 20% of cards in this deck are drawing engines.
Mishra's Bauble: Use to feed your fatties, or to dig deeper into your deck.
Welding Jar
: Insurance, yo. Are you in good hands?
Mox Opal: Knocks two points off of affinity-based mana costs, and allows you to cast Mutagenic Growth or Gitaxian Probe without taking damage. Also, wins the award for most expensive card in the deck (I'll be using proxies for a while).
Darksteel Citadel: Doesn't count as a land. The deck name is still valid.
Bone Saw: Mostly used as fodder, though occasionally you can strap it onto another creature for some bonus damage.
Tooth of Chiss-Goria
: Mo' damage; turns Ornithopter into a threat.
Mutagenic Growth: Damage...
Decks like these are what make MTG enjoyable. Words fail to describe the level of satisfaction inspired when you put a turn 3 smack-down on your friends with a deck that contains only four lands. There are obvious weaknesses here such as any form of removal whatsoever (though
Salvage Titan
can survive most), but the overwhelming awesomeness of this deck should be enough to explode your opponent's heads before this becomes a problem.
