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4eak
08-13-2011, 06:32 PM
Aggro should be decent in this format. Affinity (or whatever we should call this) may be decent.

WoTC banned Colored Artifact lands, but they didn't destroy the deck. Porting from Legacy to Modern, I am forced to swap Seat and Vault for Glimmervoid and Nexus, which is an acceptable trade. Losing artifact lands makes Affinity, as a mechanic, weaker (Thoughtcast is the remaining Affinity card worth keeping). However, the scaling bombs (which are the actual threats of the deck) are all legal and still bomby, and even if they don't scale as well without artifact lands, they still are quite dangerous.

Modern Affinity:

// Lands - 16
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Glimmervoid
4 City of Brass
4 Darksteel Citadel

// Conditional Mana Sources - 8
4 Mox Opal
4 Springleaf Drum

// Glue and Mana Source Enablers - 12
4 Memnite
4 Ornithopter
4 Signal Pest

// Scaling Bombs - 16
4 Cranial Plating
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Master of Etherium
4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

// Other Bombs - 8
4 Etched Champion
4 Thoughtcast

// Sideboard
SB: 3 Krosan Grip
SB: 2 Thopter Foundry
SB: 2 Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 4 Disciple of the Vault
SB: 4 Phyrexian Revoker

Besides changing 8 land, I think Frogmite is taken out for one of the other Glue/Mana Source enablers, as Frogmite becomes much less consistent on turns 1 and 2, while the others are unharmed by the loss of artifact lands.



peace,
4eak

Aggro_zombies
08-13-2011, 06:38 PM
Is WW too much to ask for? If not, Tempered Steel might be an interesting option.

EDIT: Also, I would consider Inkmoth Nexus over Blinkmoth Nexus. Inkmoth kills people way faster with Tezzeret or Plating, and the 1-2 extra damage you get from sending in a Blinkmoth Nexus along with the rest of your team doesn't seem like it will be significant too often.

264505
08-13-2011, 06:44 PM
I was just about to post this. Other cards to consider are Tempered Steel, Dispatch, Court Homunculus, a possible discard effect in the board (Inquisition, Thoughtsieze, or Duress) or main in the form of Tidehollow Sculler.

4eak
08-13-2011, 09:14 PM
WW isn't too much if Tezz isn't too much. Any 2-color requirement (regardless of the combination) is equally as difficult to achieve. I've not tried Tempered Steel. I will try it though. My initial worry is that it isn't a threat (a common problem I've run into while playing various White Weenie decks trying to use Glorious Anthem type cards). +2/+2 is pretty sweet though. Tempered Steel pushes you to run as many creatures as you can (otherwise you won't get the benefit). I think it would need to replace Thoughtcast (the other option is Tezz, which I think is a giant mistake). What are your thoughts here?

Inkmoth vs. Blinkmoth is interesting. I like Inkmoth, but not for the reasons you've given. The fact is, when you have an active Plating or Tezz, it rarely matters whether you have Inkmoth or Blinkmoth. In most cases where the manland matters, the difference is that Blinkmoth lets you push through those last points of damage, and it working towards the same gameplan as the rest of the deck, which is about bringing down lifetotals. That said, Inkmoth let's you beat decks that don't give a shit about damage (life gain is a solid example). The problem is that I really don't expect to see many decks which don't care about damage. At which point, I think Blinkmoth is usually better.

Dispatch might be SB material, same for discard. I have strong worries about going for general disruption in an aggro-combo deck like Affinity. The cards need to be amazing (Revoker and Grip are solid examples) to have a home.



peace,
4eak

264505
08-14-2011, 12:19 AM
Most of the combo decks seem to be consistently winning by turn 4 or 5 (some can win on turn 3). I don't know if this deck has the speed or disruption to beat a good draw from combo. I've also never been a fan of running master and ravager in the same deck. I could see dropping ravager for 4 Tempered Steel.

rupus
08-14-2011, 12:21 AM
Yeah, I was thinking something like the Extended Tempered Steel might be a better way to go than trying to straight port Affinity. That deck was still blazingly fast and gets some good upgrades with the expanded format. Here's an old list that did well:

Land
4 Darkslick Shores
1 Fetid Heath
4 Marsh Flats
3 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
1 Swamp

Creature
4 Court Homunculus
4 Master of Etherium
4 Memnite
3 Ornithopter
4 Ranger of Eos
4 Steel Overseer
4 Tidehollow Sculler

Artifact
3 Mox Opal
3 Springleaf Drum
2 Thopter Foundry

Sorcery
2 Duress
2 Inquisition of Kozilek

Enchantment
4 Tempered Steel

As you can see this looks to abuse the artifact "lords" more than traditional affinity which I think isn't a bad idea seeing as Grove/Fires seems to be pretty popular.

This would be my attempt to port it to Modern:

Land
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Glimmervoid
4 City of Brass

Creature
3 Etched Champion
4 Master of Etherium
4 Memnite
4 Ornithopter
4 Signal Pest
2 Steel Overseer
2 Tidehollow Sculler

Artifact
4 Cranial Plating
3 Mox Opal
3 Springleaf Drum

Sorcery
4 Thoughtcast

Enchantment
4 Tempered Steel

Planeswalker
2 Tezzerret, Agent of Bolas

The curve seems a little higher than I would like it to be and I have no idea if the manabase will work (4eak's seemed pretty good and it's only 1 less than the original list). Steel Overseer might be too slow and better off as something else (Ravager maybe?). Still, I wanted to take more advantage of "lord" effects with this list. Sculler is really, really good. Tezz is probably too good to not play 4 but the curve was already getting pretty high. Dispatch is such a good card. I really want to fit some in. There are a lot of really good options for an artifact aggro deck. It can be super fast (even the extended ones could kill T3 and goldfished T4 on average) and Thoughtcast + Tezz gives it good staying power. Not to mention Revoker, Sculler, and Hex Parasite are awesome disruption with bodies that can become threatening really fast. Porcelain Legionnaire and Vault Skirge are more dudes to think about although the 2cc slot is pretty packed already. Skirge fills the one drop slot which seems to be missing and he's probably better than Court Homoculus. Man, so many options I have no idea how to build it the best.

SpatulaOfTheAges
08-16-2011, 06:59 PM
Okay so this list has been treating me really well in testing.

2 Island
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Darksteel Citadel
3 Glimmervoid
4 Mox Opal

4 Myr Enforcer
4 Frogmite
4 Signal Pest
4 Memnite
4 Master of Etherium
4 Arcbound Ravager

4 Thoughtcast
4 Gitaxan Probe
3 Paradise Mantle
4 Cranial Plating
4 Mishra's Bauble

Originally I was running Street Wraith AND Probe to increase the consistency of turn 1 plays but it was too much life loss.

I'm actually finding my ability to affinity into Frogmites and Enforcers fairly stable. Obviously the main threats are Ravager, Master and Plating, but a few cheap creatures with Pest gets there pretty often as well.

I have no idea how to sideboard with affinity. Tips?

4eak
08-20-2011, 10:53 PM
I think Probe/Bauble are plain bad cards in a deck which isn't abusing them for either being manaless (Manaless Dredge) or running much-fewer-than-60 card decks (Bauble Burn), both abuses require enormously consistent gameplans and overly redundant decks to make these cantrips worthwhile. Affinity doesn't meet those requirements. In addition, your mulligan decisions are simply too difficult - there is too much uncertainty.

Paradise Mantle is pretty bad. It does give you some affinity factor for free, but it is head and shoulders worse than Springleaf drum. You want to be able to tap Drum and whatever creature you want -- it will vary over the turns, and thus Drum's investment of 1 is simply better and more versatile.

Once you remove the bad cards, I think you'll find your affinity factor is much worse, and then you'll certainly remove Enforcer, and eventually you'll give up Frogmite as well.

Cards like Tezz and Etched Champion are pretty amazing in this sort of build. Etched champion is often better than Master of Etherium, and [Mox Opal/Drum/8-0cc creatures] mana-acceleration make Tezz worthwhile (converting otherwise bad initial cards into more useful ones).




peace,
4eak

Kanti
08-20-2011, 11:46 PM
Needs more Goyf I think.

264505
08-20-2011, 11:54 PM
Needs more Goyf I think.

IDK if this is a joke, but goyf wouldn't add much to the deck.

Pltnmngl
08-22-2011, 05:32 PM
Depending on how the metage progresses, goyf is not a bad card. But with the way everyone thinks this format is going, probably not a good option for affinity unless other aggro decks are just that better...

Tearnov
08-22-2011, 05:47 PM
With no counters, I think Hurkyl's Recall makes this deck very very sad.
granted that is more of a SB card.

Tearnov
08-22-2011, 05:53 PM
To add:
Blake McCracken's Affinity
Winner, StarCityGames Legacy Open in Dallas/Ft. Worth 2010

//Lands - 16
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Vault of Whispers


//Creatures - 25
2 Etched Champion
4 Frogmite
4 Master of Etherium
4 Memnite
3 Myr Enforcer
4 Ornithopter
4 Signal Pest


//Spells -15
4 Cranial Plating
4 Mox Opal
3 Springleaf Drum
4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
4 Thoughtcast


//Sideboard -15
3 Diabolic Edict
3 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Pithing Needle
3 Relic of Progenitus
3 Thoughtseize



This could easily be changed to Modern, it might not be as fast or good, but it's food for thought and displays how to build a winning affinity deck, imo.

SpatulaOfTheAges
08-22-2011, 07:30 PM
I think Probe/Bauble are plain bad cards in a deck which isn't abusing them for either being manaless (Manaless Dredge) or running much-fewer-than-60 card decks (Bauble Burn), both abuses require enormously consistent gameplans and overly redundant decks to make these cantrips worthwhile. Affinity doesn't meet those requirements. In addition, your mulligan decisions are simply too difficult - there is too much uncertainty.

This has simply not been the case in testing. The draw suite has proven highly effective at creating fast dangerous board situations and finding the real threats in the deck in higher numbers. Probe and Bauble are part of that.


Paradise Mantle is pretty bad. It does give you some affinity factor for free, but it is head and shoulders worse than Springleaf drum. You want to be able to tap Drum and whatever creature you want -- it will vary over the turns, and thus Drum's investment of 1 is simply better and more versatile.

This is the only part of your post that I agree with. Testing indicated that Drum was much better. The switch has been made.


Once you remove the bad cards, I think you'll find your affinity factor is much worse, and then you'll certainly remove Enforcer, and eventually you'll give up Frogmite as well.

Frogmite has been great. I did cut down the Enforcers to 2.


Cards like Tezz and Etched Champion are pretty amazing in this sort of build. Etched champion is often better than Master of Etherium, and [Mox Opal/Drum/8-0cc creatures] mana-acceleration make Tezz worthwhile (converting otherwise bad initial cards into more useful ones).

I'm getting consistent turn 4 kills. I feel pretty strongly that faster builds are the way to go with the format the way it is right now.

Current list;

4x Citadel
2x Island
3x Glimmervoid
4x Inkmoth Nexus
4x Mox Opal
3x Springleaf Drum

2x Myr Enforcer
4x Frogmite
4x Signal Pest
4x Memnite
4x Master of Etherium
2x Ornithopter (this spot is weak)
2x Arcbound Ravager
4x Cranial Plating

4x Thoughcast
4x Gitaxian Probe
2x Preordain
4x Mishra's Bauble

4eak
08-22-2011, 08:27 PM
With no counters, I think Hurkyl's Recall makes this deck very very sad.
granted that is more of a SB card.

Recall hurts, although it probably isn't the worst hate (this deck plays its hand out very quickly).

Several cards wreck this deck - like, make it unplayable 'wrecking'. Affinity will never be tier 1, it would just be hated out. Permission will never be the answer (not sure if you were suggesting it or not).



I'm getting consistent turn 4 kills. I feel pretty strongly that faster builds are the way to go with the format the way it is right now.

That is probably the most important issue you bring up, and I think it is a hidden crux of the debate and our difference in opinion concerning construction.

My goal isn't necessary to go for the fastest win possible. I'm inclined to drop speed for resilience and a better midgame. Obviously, I could be very wrong about that assumption, and perhaps going for raw speed might simply be best. I suggest testing red variants of the deck if your assumption is correct. Galvanic and Shrapnel blast (and Bolt, perhaps) seem good. Again, I disagree with the Cantrips, but there isn't much I can say when we seem to have conflicting experience. You might like a Red build for speed.

Perhaps (from the OP list):

-4 Blinkmoth Nexus
-4 Tezz
-4 Etched Champion
-4 Thoughtcast
+4 Steam Vents
+4 Frogmite
+4 Shrapnel Blast
+4 Galvanic Blast

I'm still preferring the list I've got above against Zoo, some mid-range decks and control. But, obviously, against combo, I'd prefer to have a faster build.


peace,
4eak

SpatulaOfTheAges
08-23-2011, 12:06 AM
I've switched from 4x Blinkmoth to half Ink half Blink. The ability to randomly cranial plating into lethal poison is nice to have and there's not much loss.

perm
08-23-2011, 12:30 AM
With no counters, I think Hurkyl's Recall makes this deck very very sad.
granted that is more of a SB card.

That will only see play if affinity as actually good enough to warrant SB against space, so I don't think that's reason enough to need counters

4eak
08-24-2011, 10:19 PM
Not to beat a dead horse, but to add to the argument I made for going Red, based on the pursuit of raw speed (which I'm not saying is correct) I just realized that Fling is in M12. Anyone looking to go for the fastest version of this deck (which I'm not necessarily advocating), should strongly consider Fling/Atog.


peace,
4eak

Kanti
08-25-2011, 03:06 AM
Fatal Frenzy is also legal. That card has definite potential with your original list. You can run Soul's Fire if you don't have balls.

An Atog list would be begging for Disciple maindeck. That might actually be really good as the lifeloss can add up rather quickly. Still what would you cut for it?

I would test -2 Etched Champion +2 Fatal Frenzy in the original list. Gives you some extra speed and you don't sacrifice too much consistency.

And to whoever said Tarmo was a joke, why would Tarmo be a joke? Tarmo has always been decent in Affinity. I never liked running him to much but he has made some top8 appearances in old Affinity lists. Top8 of PT Valencia for example.

Edit: Your combo matchup can probably be shored up by dedicating more sb slots to it. x4 Canonist seems like a good place to start. Thoughtsieze and Gaddock Teeg also seem decent.

perm
08-25-2011, 03:27 AM
the real answer to this deck is [card]Kataki, War's Wage[/cards], which zoo will run if this is a meta player. Zoo already runs pridemage, which is a huge thorn in this deck's side. Does anyone have MU results?

SpatulaOfTheAges
08-25-2011, 09:49 AM
It's a rough matchup, but CotV in the board helps tremendously.

edit: Again, reaffirming how nice it is to have Inkmoth available. There's a lot of life gain in this format, and the ability to bypass that is awesome.

SpatulaOfTheAges
08-31-2011, 04:34 PM
I have switched out the 2 Enforcers for Etched Champions.

Also, I found the anti-12-Post tech;

Quicksilver Fountain

264505
09-01-2011, 01:39 AM
Could a balls out Atog-Fling list be viable? There isn't a great deal of counter magic in the format at the moment.

luckme10
09-01-2011, 02:38 AM
Leak, I like some of you ideas here but what if we took them even further? First, in regards to the manabase, with the plethora of rainbow lands, banning colored artifact lands might be a blessing in disguise. Cards such as Null rod and Energy Flux are gone and unlike the artifact lands, the rainbow lands are not susceptible to complete sweepers by cards like Kataki, War's Wage and Shattering Spree. Furthermore, Ghost Quarters won't be as prevalent as wasteland in the format, so there is less of a deterrent to running rainbow lands. By running rainbow lands, Affinity should be able to pick from any color card they want.

Secondly, being further liberated from the color pie choices are not the only advantages of new affinity. Scalable power cards are more forgiving to run fewer artifacts than cards that require affinity to cast. Does it really matter if my Master of Etherium is an 8/8 or a 6/6? Or if my Cranial Plating gives +5 instead of a +7 to power? With the final depletion of most of the affinity mechanism cards, the opportunity cost of playing non-artifact cards is now lessened.

Therefore, by using more rainbow lands in our manabase, and with the total number of obligatory artifacts lessening, other random colored cards have become are more splashable. It's only a matter of finding the balance between finding how many artifacts are needed to pump Master of Etherium, Cranial Plating, Arcbound Ravager, and Tezzeret, with how many other non-artifact cards we could use. For the first time in awhile, questions like, "How many Dark Confidants can we squeeze in? Can we use Dispatch and Galvanic Blast with Tezzeret? And what about if can we hybridize Tempered Steel Extended with Legacy affinity?" should be encouraged more. I think this is the direction we should be heading.

264505
09-03-2011, 10:55 PM
Could a balls out Atog-Fling list be viable? There isn't a great deal of counter magic in the format at the moment.

There is one mono red list in the Top 8, looks like that version is viable after all.

264505
09-28-2011, 11:55 AM
Heres an interesting version that went under the radar

4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Glimmervoid
4 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Island
2 Seachrome Coast
15 lands

4 Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
4 Ethersworn Canonist
4 Memnite
4 Ornithopter
4 Signal Pest
4 Vault Skirge
24 creatures

4 Cranial Plating
3 Dispatch
1 Gitaxian Probe
4 Mox Opal
4 Springleaf Drum
1 Tempered Steel
4 Thoughtcast
21 other spells

Sideboard
4 Blood Moon
1 Dispatch
3 Etched Champion
4 Path to Exile
3 Spellskite

It has a lock combo to go with an affinity shell and it seems pretty capable of winning without it (albeit a lot less effectively)

264505
10-16-2011, 11:52 PM
So I have made the official switch of my legacy affinity deck to a modern version. I am using a Rg version of the Atog/Fling lists so I can splash for cards like Ancient Grudge and Seal of Primordium (to combat the white Null Rod). I'll post my updated list later.

Griselpuff
09-08-2012, 10:57 AM
Wow, I'm surprised nobody has made any posts on this for a year...

What do you guys think of the current lists (red-focused) running around?

I just won a small ML trial with Kuo's list from the Magic Player's Championship: http://magic-league.com/deck/78374/modern.html#Affinity39854

Anarky87
09-08-2012, 12:22 PM
I've been swapping my Legacy Affinity over to Modern since Legacy has all but died in my city. And I've been tearing it up with a straight red burn version. I'm surprised no one has been talking about this deck, being that its so brutal.

It seems you went Frogmite over Steel Overseer. How has that been? I was debating that slot between the Overseer and Frogmite and decided that if neither one got toasted, Overseer would probably be better.

Also been wondering about porting my straight UB Tezz list into Modern. Has anyone tried that more midrange-ish version, and how were their results?

Griselpuff
10-07-2012, 03:04 AM
How do people feel about its position in the post-RTR metagame? Here is a current list that has been doing quite well:

// Lands
3 [MBS] Inkmoth Nexus
2 [UNH] Mountain
4 [DS] Blinkmoth Nexus
2 [MR] Glimmervoid
4 [DS] Darksteel Citadel

// Creatures
4 [NPH] Vault Skirge
4 [MBS] Signal Pest
4 [DS] Arcbound Ravager
4 [SOM] Memnite
4 [M11] Ornithopter
4 [SOM] Etched Champion
1 [M11] Steel Overseer

// Spells
3 [LRW] Springleaf Drum
4 [SOM] Mox Opal
4 [FD] Cranial Plating
4 [SOM] Galvanic Blast
3 [MR] Shrapnel Blast
2 [FD] Steelshaper's Gift

// Sideboard
SB: 2 [NPH] Torpor Orb
SB: 2 [TSP] Ancient Grudge
SB: 3 [DK] Blood Moon
SB: 2 [NPH] Whipflare
SB: 2 [ALA] Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 2 [ALA] Relic of Progenitus
SB: 2 [ZEN] Spell Pierce

BlackFlameAshura
03-15-2013, 08:44 PM
A pretty good discussion that's been popping up at my LGS lately has been on whether or not to include Boros Charm in the deck. It really packs in a lot of mileage for the deck when you're running multiple Opals, Drums, and Glimmervoids. I even moved my one-of Island to a Plains because of it and the Disenchants on my side (Stony Silence is the bane of my existence). It either does four to the face, gives your biggest swinger double strike (makes Inkmoth Nexus far more lethal than it already is), or allows your guys to take an attack or block with ease and still get some damage through.

JDK
03-16-2013, 05:31 AM
Blasts should be enough reach and they don't stress your manabase. Plating should also be enough of a threat without Double Strike (which you most likely cannot even cast the turn you equip and swing in).

Pltnmngl
03-21-2013, 11:12 AM
I'm changing my Legacy Affinity into a Modern deck. Here's what I plan on playing against an open field:


4 Vault Skirge
4 Ornithopter
4 Signal Pest
3 Steel Overseer
3 Memnite
3 Arcbound Ravager
3 Master of Etherium
3 Etched Champion

4 Cranial Plating
4 Mox Opal
3 Springleaf Drum
2 Welding Jar

4 Thoughtcast

4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Darksteel Citadel
3 Glimmervoid
4 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Island

2 Dismember
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Spellskite
2 Torpor Orb
2 Whipflare
1 Etched Champion


Suggestions are appreciated.

SecondSunrise
03-30-2013, 05:20 AM
Hey Pltnmngl, I like your list, however after playing a similar list for a while I think you will find 6 3-drops to be a bit clunky at times.
I also would play a 4th Drum, it really helps smooth out your starting hands and helps immensley with Cranial Plating and Master.

Taking the recent Top 8 list from GP San Diego as a starting point a affinity player in my LGS and I discussed having needing a card that gives you a way to beat all the Junk/Jund Decks playing big dudes on Turn 2. While Etched Champion seems to do that pretty effecively, against the board hate it can seems lackluster, especially without Plating or if the opponent just answers all your other artifacts...

This is why weve been thinking about adding tempered steel to the deck. While maybe difficult to cast it doesnt get answered by many commnly played Sideboard cards (Corrosion, Grudge etc) an dmakes every creature you play into a serios threat. Especially in combinatioj with the alry hard to answer nexi (nexae?) it could give the deck the resilency it needs.

However, I have no idea how to integrate it into affinity, again looking at the San Diego list as a starting Point. I feel likeit at the same time competes for slots with champion, thoughtcast and galvanc blast, so im at a loss.

What are your ideas on this?

kombatkiwi
03-30-2013, 06:43 AM
Hey Pltnmngl, I like your list, however after playing a similar list for a while I think you will find 6 3-drops to be a bit clunky at times.
I also would play a 4th Drum, it really helps smooth out your starting hands and helps immensley with Cranial Plating and Master.

Taking the recent Top 8 list from GP San Diego as a starting point a affinity player in my LGS and I discussed having needing a card that gives you a way to beat all the Junk/Jund Decks playing big dudes on Turn 2. While Etched Champion seems to do that pretty effecively, against the board hate it can seems lackluster, especially without Plating or if the opponent just answers all your other artifacts...

This is why weve been thinking about adding tempered steel to the deck. While maybe difficult to cast it doesnt get answered by many commnly played Sideboard cards (Corrosion, Grudge etc) an dmakes every creature you play into a serios threat. Especially in combinatioj with the alry hard to answer nexi (nexae?) it could give the deck the resilency it needs.

However, I have no idea how to integrate it into affinity, again looking at the San Diego list as a starting Point. I feel likeit at the same time competes for slots with champion, thoughtcast and galvanc blast, so im at a loss.

What are your ideas on this?

In the PTQ season I tested a base white version of a deck that had ran tempered steel
You're right that you have to cut a lot of the other nonartifact spells though

I think the version I ended up on had 2 Tempered Steel 2 Steelshaper's Gift and 2 Dispatch as the only nonartifact spells.
The card has merit. In the end I decided to play eggs for the PTQ instead so I didn't test enough to find a build of affinity that I was comfortable playing.
The 2 Dispatch was a concession to Kiki Jiki decks but if you don't think this is needed you can try like 2 Steelshapers 3 Tempered Steel and 1-2 burn spells or something.
The other thing to note is that it really shines in postboard games because it doesn't die to artifact removal (as you noted) and isn't affected by stony silence at all. ("My ravager does nothing? Oh well it's still a 3/3" etc)

anonymos
05-24-2013, 08:00 PM
Yay for no reason to not run a full 4 Mox Opal! They're like baby lotus petals that can be reused.

cab0747
11-05-2013, 10:17 AM
A pretty good discussion that's been popping up at my LGS lately has been on whether or not to include Boros Charm in the deck. It really packs in a lot of mileage for the deck when you're running multiple Opals, Drums, and Glimmervoids. I even moved my one-of Island to a Plains because of it and the Disenchants on my side (Stony Silence is the bane of my existence). It either does four to the face, gives your biggest swinger double strike (makes Inkmoth Nexus far more lethal than it already is), or allows your guys to take an attack or block with ease and still get some damage through.

I realize this is an old question, but I tried this last night.

I wasn't thrilled. The double strike didn't ever tempt me as I needed the mana to activate and equip Inkmoth Nexus. The only time I thought it was useful is when I was scared of some removal the turn before I was going to swing for lethal. I don't think this is bad, but I like the Galvanic Blast better here for some spot removal of flyers.

Anyway, I am surprised this deck isnt getting more love. I have run this 2 weeks in a row. The first week, I won a local tourny, and just yesterday I came in second (9-2 overall)

cab0747
11-05-2013, 10:20 AM
Yay for no reason to not run a full 4 Mox Opal! They're like baby lotus petals that can be reused.

This card has gotten soooo much better with the new Legend rule. Unreal.

Shawon
02-23-2014, 01:30 PM
Had my first experience playing Modern this Friday. I play Affinity in Legacy and I profess to know my deck very well, but I took a disciplined approach to understanding Affinity in Modern and read up on a few articles to understand the SB. On Friday, I went 4-1, scooped a friend into 1st so we could split the finals.

List:

Mana
4 Darksteel
4 Blinkmoth
4 Inkmoth
4 Mox
4 Drum
3 Glimmervoid
1 Island

Critters
4 Orni
4 Skirge
4 Pest
4 Ravager
4 Overseer
3 Champ
3 Memnite
1 Master

Etc.
4 Plating
3 TC
2 Blast

SB
2 Spellskite
2 RiP
2 Thoughseize
2 Blood Moon
1 Blast
1 Canonist
1 Cage
(didn't have time to finish SB)

Matchups:

GR Monsters (Standard) 2-0
BRW Zombies/GY 2-1
UB Control 2-1
Red Deck Wins 2-1
UG Time Warp (split finals)

Notes:

- Rest in Peace is pretty solid graveyard hate. It's definitely better than Cage.
- I saw Blood Moon in game 2 against UB Control. He Mana Leaked it, but he would've been screwed if it had resolved. Thankfully, I still won that game and match. Despite stopping your own manlands, against certain decks Blood Moon just wins, so I think it's a mainstay in the SB.
- I ordered two Spellskite in the mail earlier in the week, and I still left them at home because I was in a hurry lol. The guy I split with lent me 2 for the tournament, and it saved me in my match against RDW. That's just RDW. Obviously, the card is good against other decks like Twin. I can see why it costs >$10.
- I scooped to the guy who lent me the Spellskites in the finals, but we still played a match for fun, and his deck was just amazing to watch in action. In game 2, he effectively took infinite turns with multiple Time Warps and he milled me with two ultimate activations of Jace Beleren. In game 3, Thoughtseize wasn't even enough to stop him. Spell Pierce is definitely needed in the SB against his type of deck because it stops his critical Time Warp when he's going off. So I am definitely running at least 1 Spell Pierce in the SB from now on.
- Torpor Orb was a card I was looking for before the tournament. It would've been relevant against RDW because it denies the Goblin Bushwhacker trigger.
- Perhaps the 3rd Blast in the SB was unnecessary.
- Canonist was pretty useless. But it may be useful against the current rise of Storm decks.

4eak
05-04-2014, 07:09 PM
I'm always surprised when so few people run MoE. I see many un-bomby versions of affinity now that just pray for Plating basically or eking it out with dorks. Further, I find these decks to be mana-starved at inconvenient times as well. I'm liking this:

// Land - 18
1 Island
1 Plains
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Mana Confluence
4 Glimmervoid
4 Inkmoth Nexus

// Conditional Mana - 9
4 Mox Opal
1 Paradise Mantle
4 Springleaf Drum

// Glue and Vehicles for Plating - 13
4 Ornithopter
4 Memnite
4 Vault Skirge
1 Flayer Husk

// CA/Q - 8
4 Thoughtcast
4 Steelshaper's Gift

// Win the Game - 12
4 Master of Etherium
4 Cranial Plating
4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

Basically, you have a more consistent mana base here, with 2 more lands, Paradise Mantle (and 4 Gifts), and then you just play bombs. Plating is made very consistent, and when you don't have it, you can MoE or Tezz (which gives you a substantial mid and late game the deck usually doesn't have to boot). Forget resilience (outside of Tezz), just go for the throat.


peace,
4eak

Shawon
05-04-2014, 08:51 PM
4eak, I've actually gone back to using MoE's, in both Legacy and Modern.

I went 3-2 at a Modern Starcity City Super IQ today. Missed top 8 due to breakers (16 ppl).

List

4 Blinkmoth
4 Inkmoth
4 Glimmervoid
4 Darksteel
4 Mox
4 Drum
1 Island

4 Thopter
4 Pest
4 Skirge
4 Ravager
3 Master
3 Overseer
2 Memnite
1 Champ
1 Spellskite

4 Plating
2 Thoughtcast
2 Galvanic Blast
1 Welding Jar

SB
2 Grudge
2 Thoughtseize
2 Eidolon of Rhetoric
2 Blood Moon
1 Spellskite
1 Spell Pierce
1 Illness in the Ranks
1 Torpor Orb
1 Whipflare
1 Grafdigger's
1 Dismember

R1: Melira Pod 0-2
R2: American Control/Midrange 1-2
R3: GW aggro 2-0
R4: GR Tron 2-0
R5: UR Twin 2-0

Illness was useless most of the day but it forced a Swan Song cast on it in my Twin match. I still need to take it out for Torpor Orb #2, because I wanted that card real bad against Pod and didn't draw one.

I attribute my losses mainly due to improper boarding and lack of knowledge against matchups. Today was the 2nd time I played the Pod matchup and I never played the American matchup, against any variant. I guess I just need to keep playing more competitive Modern events.

No Storm decks present, but I really like the Rule of Law Eidolon against Storm. It dodges Shatterstorm, the worst card they can bring against you, and it's even better than Rule of Law because it can attack and wear a Plating.

JediCheese
07-12-2014, 02:45 AM
I've seen a bunch of decks playing Welding Jar. Could someone explain the thought behind that play?

I'm very familiar with Affinity back when it was Extended season (before Extended got removed from the PTQ rotation) and was formerly playing the Atog/Fatal Frenzy version. It looks like the modern version is more flying and growing your creatures to medium size rather than going all in on an alpha strike fast victory.

Shawon
07-12-2014, 12:11 PM
I've seen a bunch of decks playing Welding Jar. Could someone explain the thought behind that play?

Welding Jar is effectively counters Abrupt Decay without actually countering it. Also, Welding Jar is a very fast and preemptive way to protect your artifacts without having to hold up mana or casting Spellskite as insurance. Because Steel Overseer needs at least one turn to be able to use its ability, you want to cast it as soon as possible, and if that's on turn 2, Welding Jar is able to be played the same turn (preferably before Overseer to avoid Overseer being targeted while Jar is on the stack) and protect Overseer.

Welding Jar also a good way to recover from sweepers that don't have anti-regeneration clauses such as Creeping Corrosion or Oblivion Stone.

YamiJoey
07-13-2014, 06:29 PM
People often cut a Memnite for it, as your fourth Memnite is often much less useful, and Welding Jar has some upsides the deck really needs.

But then, some people don't play four Galvanic Blasts. Those people are crazy.

Barbed Blightning
09-06-2014, 10:30 PM
I'm fooling around with this: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/05-09-14-PiP-affinity/

Any love for Tezz in Affinity?

Backno
01-30-2015, 03:17 AM
I'm fooling around with this: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/05-09-14-PiP-affinity/

Any love for Tezz in Affinity?

The problem with Tezz is we don't have the artifact lands. In the modern shell he ends up being really clunky and sometimes hard to cast in addition to the fact that he costs 4 mana. I tried him out as a finisher and found that it just didn't do enough to justify trying the spot. In legacy you have access to not only the artifact lands but Ancient Tomb and City of Traitors which means you can drop Tezz with some consistancy on turn 2 and regularly on turn 3. Looking at 5 cards on turn 2 is bonkers, on turn 4 or 5 like what happens in Modern not as much.