Introduction
Affinity sucks. I know, I know, the mechanic is awesome, and does deserve to be the king of legacy just like it was in standard back in the day. Ok, perhaps not quite that good, but at least not shit. Affinity as it currently stands is a kind of weak version of belcher: it shits out some guys onto the field which then watch as you die to any number of considerably more effective or concrete strategies. That's just the way it is. But it doesn't have to be that way, does it? I certainly hope not. I've been trying to make a playable affinity deck for years. I've rolled off more lists than I could care to count and played a thousand practice games with a variety of different lists, very few of of which I think deserve to see the light of day. Eventually, I began to move on from my failing Affinity project. Sometimes its good to just let something sit. Instead I began testing a standstill list I'd seen kicked around on the interwebs featuring Ninja of the Deep Hours. The deck was obviously subpar against a legacy field, but it featured a number of cute interactions, creating a large amount of card advantage that was offset by the overall low quality of said cards. In retrospect, the decision seems obvious. I had stumbled across a deck with very similar sorts of cards to Affinity, but a very different problem. The struggle with affinity has always been that once you are blown out, you can often no longer with the game. Back in the day this disadvantage was offset with the power of Ravager and Disciple, but in legacy, this strategy is merely decent. As a result of this, legacy Affinity requires extremely delicate play so that you don't just auto-lose to mass removal. I felt the decks strategies complimented each other, and so with a lot of quite awkward number juggling, I combined the two decks. In the combination, affinity lost some all-stars, but kept Cranial Plating, as probably the most powerful affinity card in existence right now. The deck has been working very well for me, and while I do not believe by any means the it is ready to perform at its highest abilities or levels yet, I think most of the cards are near their optimal concentrations. Lets look at the list:
Deck List
Weenies
4 Ornithopter
4 Frogmite
4 Memnite
3 Signal Pest
3 Mistblade Shinobi
Draw
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 Thoughtcast
4 Standstill
Counters
4 Spell Pierce
4 Force of Will
Artifacts
4 Cranial Plating
2 Mox Opal
4 Chrome Mox
Land
4 Island
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Darksteel Citadel
Why This Deck?
The deck stays true to its Affinity roots in one major way. With most hands, you will want to dump your grip on the table as fast as possible. The most powerful card in the entire deck is standstill, and I believe standstill is at it's most powerful in this deck. With an affinity start, followed by a standstill on that or the next turn, opponents will find themselves forced to pop the still or lose quickly. One of the great things in this decks favour is that standstill is so strong. While standstill is nearly always a good draw, the deck still functions well without it, and is capable of such blazing fast starts that in some games it isn't even necessary. To cover part of the control goals of the deck Mistblade Shinobi is your catch all answer to any creature you care about that hits the battlefield before you can still, or makes it past your counters. The deck has a whopping 12 of the most efficient draw spells ever printed to get you whatever you need. However, numbers are extremely tight in this deck, and while I can think of dozens of cards I'd love to add, I can think of nearly none that we can afford to remove.
Card by Card
Ornithopter (4) - The bestmana artifact creature in existence. I'd cut Memnites years before I'd cut a single Ornithopter. It carries Cranial Plating beautifully, comes down before still or even on the same turn, and is extremely easy to ninja away.
Frogmite (4) - The best
Memnite (4) - A distant third to Frogmite and Ornithopter, we play Memnites because the DCI won't let me play 6 Ornithopters and 6 Frogmites.
Signal Pest (3) - Now our Ornithopters have power! Pest also carries Cranial quite well, but ninjutsus a whole lot better. Pest plus a few other
Mistblade Shinobi (3) - This is the perfect number for these in the starting sixty, you never want multiples, but one is pretty much always at least a good option.
Ninja of the Deep Hours (4) - If left unchecked, this card generates insane card advantage. Ninjutsuing it past a blocker will nearly always making it a 1 for 1. Extremely powerful, it even carries plating in a pinch.
Thoughtcast (4) - It's been said before, but I'll say it again. This card is 2/3rds Ancestral. It draws cards for practically nothing, what more do you want from it?
Standstill (4) - The best card in the deck. It's very rare that I don't feel safe with a still on the board.
Spell Pierce (4) - This slot is very flexible as far as what U counter/counters should be here. Even something like Stifle might be good here. When the deck had a higher island count, this slot was Daze.
Force of Will (4) - This deck often ends up with extra blue cards in hand, making FoW's downside into much less of a concern. FoW is an essential part of the deck, exiling an extra Mistblade Shinobi in order to stop most of your opponents shenanigans, and synergizing beautifully with standstill.
Cranial Plating (4) - Arguably the best Affinity card right now, this makes any of our little guys into a palpable threat capable of killing them in a turn or two.
Mox Opal (2) - If it wasn't for that legendary clause this card would be broken nuttacular juiced. As it is, it's just very good. As this deck has really no way to get rid of excess Opals besides discarding down to max hand size, an extra opal can be a very important waste of a card. I cut Opal to two when it became apparent that Thirst for Knowledge couldn't make it in.
Chrome Mox (4) - This slot could be Springleaf Drum. The disadvantage is less so in this deck for the same reasons Force is good. Drum does not go up a mana, but wether that is truly necessary I am unsure. We have only eight creatures that cost
Island (4) - Blue is very important to the deck. We play Thoughtcast over Brainstorm so fetches aren't really necessary. The deck's mana base is quite difficult to hate against, and these basics are part of why.
Seat of the Synod (4) - While vulnerable to artifact removal, Seat of the Synod makes blue, lowers our affinity count by one, boosts our Cranial Platinged dude, and isn't affected by Choke.
Darksteel Citadel (4) - Probably our best land, does everything that Seat of the Synod does except make blue, but is also freaking indestructible, nullifying both wasteland and artifact removal.
Sample Hands
These are here to give a basic idea of how the deck plays, they were the totally random first four hands I dealt myself.
Cranial Plating
Chrome Mox
Thoughtcast
Thoughtcast
Standstill
Ornithopter
Darksteel Citadel
This is probably a keep. Our opening is definitely Ornithopter, Citadel, Chrome Mox exiling Thoughtcast, but then what? We can now play any of the cards in our hand, however due to the fact that we could thought cast for 1 mana next turn, plating is probably the play. Whatever we draw, we can play a standstill next turn and put our opponent at risk of just dying to our 4/2 flying creature. Isn't ornithopter sweet? Depending on our draw though, we can Thoughtcast for an extra two cards and see what we pickup before we slam the still.
Thoughtcast
Thoughtcast
Ninja of the Deep Hours
Mox Opal
Frogmite
Mistblade Shinobi
Darksteel Citadel
This may be a mulligan, but playing it out grants you a less exciting start of Opal, Citadel, Frogmite, with a turn two NoDH all ready. This deck maxs out on early draw efficiency very well, as many cards make this hand pretty nuts. Thoughtcast is already draw 2 for, and the combination of them and NoDH should get us to a Still or Plating.
Ornithopter
Thoughtcast
Standstill
Spell Pierce
Ninja of the Deep Hours
Thoughtcast
Island
On the play, this hand is an instant mull, sadly it lacks the second mana source necessary to play the hand. On the draw, it may be a keep, depending on how aggressive your matchup is.
Cranial Plating
Frogmite
Spell Pierce
Chrome Mox
Seat of the Synod
Seat of the Synod
Ornithopter
This hand is nearly always good enough to keep. How you play it out is very matchup dependant though. Seat and Ornithopter will definitely hit the board, but wether it's worth Slamming the Mox, exiling Pierce for plating and dropping the frogmite as well, or playing more defensively holding the spell pierce back to protect your plating is based on a lot more than just the deck's goldfish.
Hope the deck piques some interest, the harder you guys critique, the better it should get.
Edit1: Example two is wrong, and has been edited to show my shame.
Last edited by Gako; 02-21-2013 at 02:35 AM.
Mox Opal has a Metalcraft - your second example should be a mulligan, because you only have access to 1 mana.
In general I like the idea of incorporating Standstill into Affinity builds. I don't like the Ninjitsu mechanic and I don't see it as good enough for Legacy - that will require some goldfishing to see how it plays out.
Try tapping the Citadel to play the Frogmite, and that'll fix your problem there. As for the ninjas, try em out and don't be disappointed.Originally Posted by civet five
Edit: NVM, I'm just bad at magic. My sincerest apologies.
Last edited by Gako; 02-21-2013 at 02:17 AM. Reason: I suck
Civet's right - you can't play Frogmite. Citadel and Mox will reduce its cost to 2, which you can't afford with one Citadel.
Very interesting deck, though, and I can see how it can blow people out with Turn 1 dudes Turn 2 Still. Is there really no space for Etched Champion here? I thought it was pretty insane in Affinity.
Right you guys are, don't know how I missed that so many times. Etched Champion is sweet it's true, but I'm pretty sure the numbers are just too tight to allow a 3CC guy that doesn't synergize with still. The deck also only has 18 mana sources (12 land), making 3 mana by turn 3 often unachievable. The only slot simliar to EC is Plating's, and I'm sure you can agree Plating is vastly superior for many reasons.
I like the Ninjutsu interaction with Standstill a lot, but it doesn't seem like there's much of a path to victory beyond Cranial Plating. Your small creatures are outclassed easily without it. I honestly am not keen on Thoughtcast in this deck. You have a few solid methods of drawing cards already, and I would like more threats in addition to Cranial Plating.
The main thing that jumps out at me, though, is you're playing 8 blue-producing lands, which means you'll be leaning heavily on Chrome Mox for help. All your good plays aside from a fast Cranial Plating require blue mana, so this seems potentially perilous.
From my experiences playing around with Sea Stompy, I can say that having Force of Will and Chrome Mox competing for blue cards is often problematic. I also have some experience, on either side of the table, with Mox Opal, and the card isn't that hard to disable. If you open a hand with no land and mulligan to Seat of the Synod, Mox Opal, Ornithopter, Memnite, Mistblade Shinobi and Force of Will, can you actually keep that? That seems like you're destined to a loss against any deck running Wasteland.
I like some of the things this deck has going on, but I don't like others. When you get some matches in with the deck, I'd be interested to hear how they went.
Thanks for the feedback ESG. I have played a number of games with this list, and many many games with the many variants this list took to get were it is now. Please keep in mind this is not an entirely untested list. I've gone through numerous mana bases and find this one surprisingly resilient. Yes the deck only runs 8 lands that produce blue, but the deck only runs 12 lands in total. All it's artifact mana producers make blue, so in fact, the only mana source that doesn't make blue is Citadel. You may be correct that Chrome Mox is wrong for the deck. Your experience with it and FoW is valued. Thoughtcast is phenomenal, but you may be right in that it could be one of the more flexible spots in the deck. As for threats, you are forgetting to list Standstill alongside cranial. In many ways they do the same thing in this deck, allow your little creatures to kill your opponent.
Some words on Wasteland. I don't know why you think Wasteland is any good against this deck. The only card it can hit is Seat, and in a deck that draws either one or two land (or a bajillion thanks to all your draw spells) The chance of us having a Seat, and them having a wasteland, and us having no other mana sources, and them wasting a Seat, and us actually giving a shit, is ridiculous. Plus, we play standstill, so many players are gonna end up holding their wastes for Mishra's that aren't in the deck. Wasteland also puts them down a mana, which is something that fucks them a lot more than it fucks the deck that plays 22 of its spells for free.
Your sample hand is tricky, with no prior knowledge, game 1, on the play, it may be a mulligan to 5. On the draw I'd be much more likely to keep. Any of our 12 draw spells go a looong way to making the hand sweet. Also, if I was playing against combo, the hand would be a snap keep, as Mistblade or FoW answer most combo decks, and you have two dudes in play already to ninjutsu around with. I'm not sure why you think wasteland is good in that example, as it doesn't even cut me off a color, since I have Opal with Ornithopter and Memnite backup.
I really dig the idea of Standstill in Affinity. Might have to test that one out my self.
What is the reasoning behind 2 Mox Opal 4 Chrome Mox split? Isn't this an artifact deck? Aren't you ruining your hand by pitching value cards to Chrome Mox? This deck just seems really inconsistent. I understand if you love Force of Will and standstill, but I think they're not needed for every deck, and certainly not for affinity.
Opal is infinitely more legendary than Chrome.
Have you thought about using erayo? The games you don't have standstill erayo provides coverage and ca. Affinity seems to be one of the only decks that can abuse it, it pitches, and activating it gives you a huge tempo advantage.
lol at this being an upgrade over typical affinity decks. Your title is too arrogant buddy! Your only real threat is plating. Aside from plating, I wouldn't want you to draw one of your 8 counters. I wouldn't be worried about poping standstill in most cases given the power level of the 60. I almost think hesitation would be an upgrade over standstill here! Inkmoth nexus, Etched Champion and/or ravenger would up your threat count. Maybe even SFM over ninja package (or some ninjas) to get cp.
I like how you tested the deck comprehensively before you judged it. I like how you obviously copy pasted the list into your favorite mtg playing program and took the deck for a spin. I like how it's obvious you know everything about magic and your comment somehow nullifies all the testing I ever did with the deck. I bow to you and your authority Oh mighty "theillest." How ironic even your name betrays your skill at this game, to look at a decklist unlike anything you've ever seen before and know intrinsically that my "only real threat is plating" despite my claims that standstill is also a wincon. Obviously you know so much more than me about the deck I've spent the last two years trying to make competitive that I might as well delete this thread right this instant. On second thought, perhaps I'll leave it around so people can laugh at how stupid I was to post a decklist with confidence. Next time I'll post something, I'll make sure to claim it's shit.
Edit: Sorry Boogie_Man, didn't see your post there, Erayo is a really neat idea, but I think the fact that you usually want to dump your hand ASAP, not hold onto it for after a resolved Erayo may work against him in this deck. However, definately worth a playtest.
Last edited by Gako; 02-22-2013 at 10:29 PM.
Man, if you can't handle idiots posting in your threads you probably shouldn't make threads at all. It happens all of the time and you shouldn't even respond to them as it gives them more stuff to post about (see above).
On topic, I tried a faery/ninja deck that I wasn't happy with but I like this one a lot better as it seems to have more synergies going on. Have you considered a couple copies Jitte for the sideboard in case of Mom and other corner cases? The counter magic might be enough but you never know.
Sorry dude, I enjoy flaming trolls, its a bad habit I know.
Jitte is stellar in the deck and for a long time was in the main. Unfortunately, Plating turned out to be just better on average, also costing 3 to equip on a turn over 4. I want to get the starting 60 down pat before I work on a board, but when I do there will definately be Jittes in it.
Here are some example games from a certain highly mediocre card playing application. Playing and writing is a lot harder than just playing, and I think my play suffered a little because of it. I'll post more games like this as regularly as I can to give y'all an idea of how the deck plays.
Vs. Reanimator
I draw an opening 7 of Mistblade Shinobi, Cranial Plating, Seat of the Synod, Ornithopter, Chrome Mox, Seat of the Synod, Spell Pierce.
He wins the roll, mulls to 6 and plays underground sea, then entomb for Griselbrand. I think for a bit after drawing Mox Opal and play just a Seat and an Orni before passing the turn. Hopefully he's a little confused. He draws, taps the sea and entombs again, I mistake it for a Reanimate and snap counter it, then use my eyes and immediately regret using the pierce. Fortunately he misses his land drop, and on my turn I draw a force, rewarded for my bad play. I play Opal, Plating, Seat, and swing for 5 taking him to 15. He brainstorms on his turn, plays an island and passes. I draw, slam a Memnite off the top, swing for 6 taking him to 9. He draws an island, plays it and taps out for Exhume. Unsurprisingly, I Force it, at which point he says "spell pierce and force main in affinity? fuck you" and leaves the game.
Vs. Storm
Opponent goes LED, Opal, Lotus Petal, Tolarian academy, brick for a bit. I google the ban-list to make absolutely sure, and then tell him. He leaves.
Vs. Belcher
G1 He wins the roll, and I mull Force, Plating, Mistblade, Chrome, Thoughtcast, Pierce and Darksteel into Orni, Chrome, Pest, Pierce, NodH and Pierce, definitely a keep on the draw. My game plan at this point is to go deep with NODH.
He Gitax Probes me, exiles Simian Spirit Guide, goes Rite of Flame, Desperate Ritual, Desperate Ritual, and plays Goblin Charbelcher. He Gitaxs again, draws his card and passes. I draw and exile a Mistblade Shinobi, play an Ornithopter and a Chrome Mox. He draws and passes. I draw an Orni, play it and pass. He draws and passes. I draw and play Memnite. I pass, he draws and passes. I swing 1 with the Memnite and play the Frogmite I drew. He goes to 19. Get there! He tries for a petal and I Pierce. He passes and I draw a Citadel. Game time. I swing 3 (he goes to 16), drop the pest and pass. He draws and Gitaxs me seeing pierce and NODH. I draw a Still, decide not to risk it, swing him down to 9 and pass. I figure the force I may draw off the still would be slightly worse than the pierce I have up already. He draws and concedes.
G2 My opening 7 is Thoughtcast, Spell Pierce, Island, Seat, Thoughtcast, NoDH, Force.
He plays cause he lost the last game, and I keep counters against the combo deck. He tries to vomit his hand onto the table. He exiles a Simian Spirit Guide, then reveals his hand to Grant, showing me Chrome Mox, Desperate Ritual, Pyretic Ritual, Grant, and Rite of Flame. He grabs his land and goes Petal, then Rite of Flame, I do some mana math and then Force the Rite. He plays Chrome exiling Pyretic and passes. I play the island I need to Pierce, and the Memnite I drew. He draws and passes. I draw Orni, play a Seat, swing 1 and Thoughtcast. I draw an Orni and another NoDH, play the Orni and pass. Opponent reminds me that islands aren't artifacts and that I can't cast Thoughtcast for blue. Fuck… way to throw away the easy win. I tap the extra mana and watch him make 8 goblins on his turn off two Desperates and a Pyretic. I draw Cranial, and go for Orni attack, ninjutsu NoDH. He takes 2 and I draw another NoDH off the NoDH, play the Orni and pass. Looks like I still got a shot in this game even after my misplay earlier. He draws, swings 7, leaving 1 at home. I block with my two Ornis, trade away the Memnite and take 4 going to 16. I draw another Plating and swing with an Orni and ninjutsu NoDH again, taking him to 16. I draw a standstill. Hmmm. Orni, pass. He draws, sits there with his 7 goblins for a bit. He decides not to attack and passes back to me. I draw a Chrome Mox. I swing with an Orni, and ninjutsu my third NoDH and he his life total hits 14. I draw a Mox Opal. That's nice. I play Mox Opal second main, Chrome Mox exiling Spell Pierce and barely remember to slam Orni just before the Still. At this point, triple NoDH should prove to be enough on board and any Ninja i draw wins me the game. He draws and passes. I draw Plating number three. I pass. He draws and passes, and I draw Mistblade, then attack with the flying Orni to ninjutsu in the Mistblade. His 6 gobs now lose to my team in a few turns. He draws, realizes he can't beat Still with triple NoDH and potential Force and Pierce backup. He concedes.
Neat deck concept, Gako. I've been running a couple different Affinity lists for the past year or so, so I'll give you some input and you can figure out whether it'll help your building.
I noticed right away that you've got Ninjas and Equip, which are kinda frenemies. Even if a Plating helps a Memnite connect through a Goyf, it's still kinda mana inefficient to reequip after the attack again. You run kinda low lands, so a double equip might be your play for the turn.
I still like manlands with Standstill. And I think nowadays Standstill is outrun by Delver of Secrets, who's just always causing problems. I can forsee a resolved Delver giving you problems with your own Stills.
I run Chrome Mox in my Affinity, and here's the reason why: I have about 12 2-mana spells I want to cast right away. Chalice of the Void, Stoneforge Mystic, and Cranial (sorta). I run full Chrome and Opal to give me a chance to resolve one of those turn one, as (except for Cranial) it makes a significant difference when they hit the board. IE my opp can either Brainstorm or Spell Snare when I'm on the draw; FoW when I'm on the play. I'd run Dark Confidant too if I weren't obsessed with Force of Will in my list.
So here I only count Standstill as your power 2-drop (Cranial can really wait a turn), and I think 10-12 power two drops is the right # to give you a reason to pitch cards to Chrome and still come out ahead. You could maybe run Chalice too and rearrange some of your card choices. Might be good synergy with Mistblade, too.
Good luck with the list,
-Frogger
Final Ritual: "I was your round 14 opponent with the 3 giant goyfs. I didn't know what the fuck you were piloting."
Drunken Master strategy. If I don't know what I'm doing, how would you?
It seems like springleaf drum is vastly superior to chrome mox since your already using force and a hand with both of those in hand seem bad
Thanks for the feedback Frogger. The deck runs 7 ninjas, 4 equipments and 15 other dudes to either ninjutsu, or equip. Unless my opponent has truly absurd amounts of removal, having guys left to cranial or ninjutsu rarely seems to be a problem. The only land I could cut for manlands is Island, and that just seems terrible to me, I really need U at all times.
As for Delver: Unflipped, he just doesn't match up to us. Flipped, he barely matches up to us, and under a standstill he is easily outclassed by my ninjas, or plating. Stoneforge for Batterskull on the other hand is terrifying for this deck, our only answers being Force and Mistblade. This will be one of the card interactions I look at closely when I build a board for the deck.
Because this deck is aggro control, what a power drop consists of resolves too delicately around matchup etc. for me to quantify what I really need to resolve on what turn. Due to the explosive power of the deck, there are times when signal pest could be considered a power drop, and I'm often very happy to power out a pest on turn one with the chrome mox. By your logic, I think I do actually still work within the realm of reliably coming out ahead when I cast Chrome Mox.
Chalice is cool and I card I hadn't thought much about, and I should try it out if I can fit it in.
Drum doesn't go up a mana, or down a card. Mox goes up a mana, but down a card. You can pitch Forces for Chrome Mox, but not the other way around. I will test drum in Chrome Mox slot when I can. If it is powerful enough, I'll either replace it, or go for a 2-2 split or something.
Unfortunately, my testing has been curtailed by the German lawyers, but I'm sure I'll have the deck on a more reliable service soon.
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