Sundering Affinity

[The Legacy Weapon]

Introduction

This deck is just a concept that I came up with after playing a lot of games against B/U Reanimater. My friend plays reanimater alot and likes Sundering Titan enough to run it as a 4 of. It really becomes a pain in the ass even if you deal with it seeing as it triggers coming in and leaving play. I play a lot of two and three color decks like Eva Green and Meathooks and the land destruction really hurts. I resorted to pulling out and dusting off my old Affinity deck and the gears started turning in my head. What if Sundering Titan could somehow be incorporated into Affinity? After thinking long and hard about it and almost dismissing the idea entirely, I think I may have broken ground on something.

The list

Land

4 Seat of the Synod
4 Vault of Whispers
3 Great Furnace
3 Glimmervoid
3 Blinkmoth Nexus

Spells

4 Careful Study
3 Thoughtcast

Artifacts

4 Cranial Plate
4 Chromatic Star
2 Tormod's Crypt

Creatures

4 Frogmite
4 Ornithopter
4 Disciple of the Vault
3 Myr Enforcer
4 Archbound Ravager
3 Sundering Titan
4 Goblin Welder

Deck analysis

I know it looks a little (maybe a lot) unorthidox but it's in it's first stages and is nowhere near a stage where most of the card choices are set in stone so bear with me. I've goldfished this about 15 times and the deck doesn't seem to suffer hardly any speed loss. I think this is due to me running 7 draw spells but I could be wrong. The objective remains the same seeing as you drop a bunch of artifacts on the table and try to swing 20 points through before the opponent can stabilize.

Goblin Welder - This is essentially the enabler for Sundering Titan but is not limited to just that one function. He can recover lost pieces to your strategy such as a busted Cranial Plate or a Ravager. He is fragile but I'd rather bait the removal to this guy rather than them using it on my lethal swing.

Sundering Titan - He is the other oddball in this Affinity build. You will probably never hardcast this guy, and if you do, you were going to win that game anyway. Again, this isn't the only way to win the game. It's just another way to win. You'll basically just pitch this guy to Careful Study and Weld him into play if you can. The best part about this strategy is that you get a 7/10 Artifact Creature that destroys none of your lands. If it gets Swordsed out or destroyed, they lose more land and you are down one creature.

This deck, for the most part, is standard Affinity with a slight twist. Most of the cards should be familiar to anyone who's ever played or played against Affinity so I'll save you the explanations of Archbound Ravager and friends. I have noticed in testing that sometimes it can be hard to find a discard outlet for Titan. That's why I posted this. I am looking for some ideas to make this strategy a little mor effective. I've tried to be as humble as possible so please don't get on here and post criticism without at least trying to lend a helping hand. I'm hoping that there might be a cheap artifact that can serve as an additional discard outlet that I don't know of. Thanks for looking at least.

[raharu]

Is there any particular reason that you run Careful Study over Thirst for Knowledge?

[The Legacy Weapon]

Is there any particular reason that you run Careful Study over Thirst for Knowledge?


Because Careful Study costs 1 and that makes things a lot easier to manage. That way you can do more on turn 3.

Edit: I guess it serves more as card selection than card advantage.

[Illissius]

So if you draw Careful Study and Goblin Welder and Sundering Titan and they don't get answered, then those three cards get a chance to do something other than suck?

To be constructive, I've tried to make something like this work before myself (Welder Survival in that case), but last I checked, the cheapest artifact creature discard outlet was Patchwork Gnomes for :3:. So I don't know of a way to make it work, but feel free to keep looking. (In any case, you're going to need more than four ways (directly or otherwise) to discard the Titan, and more than four ways to get him back afterwards.)

[The Legacy Weapon]

So if you draw Careful Study and Goblin Welder and Sundering Titan and they don't get answered, then those three cards get a chance to do something other than suck?

No suggestions? Did you read the whole post? I didn't post this to get people to play that list. I posted to get new ideas seeing as that list was the best I had come up with so far.

[The Legacy Weapon]

To be constructive, I've tried to make something like this work before myself (Welder Survival in that case), but last I checked, the cheapest artifact creature discard outlet was Patchwork Gnomes for :3:. So I don't know of a way to make it work, but feel free to keep looking. (In any case, you're going to need more than four ways (directly or otherwise) to discard the Titan, and more than four ways to get him back afterwards.)

I see what you are saying but I don't want to center the strategy around Sundering Titan and Goblin Welder. I just want them to compliment the tried and true Affinity strategy. I think adding one more discard outlet would probably do it but that's where I'm stumped.

[Illissius]

The problem you have is this:

If you don't draw Goblin Welder and Sundering Titan, Careful Study is mediocre.
If you don't draw Goblin Welder and Careful Study, Sundering Titan does absolutely nothing.
(Goblin Welder is at least decent with the rest of the deck, so he gets a pass.)

You need either more ways to interact with those two cards to make them not suck (not necessarily combo -- something as simple as Brainstorming them away would work, though four Brainstorms by themselves might not be enough), or more ways to fire off the one interaction you do have.

Cheap artifact discard outlets:

Lion's Eye Diamond
Anvil of Bogardan
Mask of Memory
Sliversmith
Toymaker

Sliversmith is probably the most promising of those, and maybe Mask.

[The Legacy Weapon]

I'm actually looking through some non-artifact creatures and I came across Oona's Prowler. I think that would suffice as a good, cheap discard outlet and it's a decent beater that flies. What do you think?

[raharu]

Mask of Memory is pretty ballin', as far as that list goes (and it's just sexy in general, it would see more play if agro didn't need to get turn 4 wins consistantly in this format).

[The Legacy Weapon]

If I added Mask of Memory, I would probably have to cut the Blinkmoth Nexus' and add Ancient Tombs in their place. The question is, what would I have to cut for Mask of Memory?

[Illissius]

I wouldn't cut the Blinkmoths. The problem with Mask is its unreliability: if they block or kill the creature you're attacking with, you don't deal damage, don't get to discard your Titan, and don't get to Weld it back, so your whole plan is foiled. Evasion helps, but Ornithopter can't deal damage by itself (though you have eight ways to make it), so Blinkmoth is basically your only reliable, evasive creature. Sliversmith can also be killed pretty easily before he can tap, so Anvil is pretty much the only really reliable outlet from my list, but that one doesn't actually do very much.

Prowler is decent enough, but it's (obviously enough) not an artifact.

[The Legacy Weapon]

Prowler is decent enough, but it's (obviously enough) not an artifact.

I know it isn't an artifact but it does help me out of my delemma of being stuck with Titan in hand and it also is another easy way to connect with Cranial Plate. I was thinking of running these as a 4 of and cutting Disciple of the Vault. That way, I wont be skimming too many artifacts off the list.

[The Legacy Weapon]

I just got through testing the deck with Prowlers in place of Disciples. The extra discard outlet works great and it's really nice to have another flyer. Especially one that can do damage without the Plate. I really think I should leave at least two Disciples in though. Ravager isn't nearly as potent without them. Maybe I should cut 2 Disciples and the 2 Tormod's Crypts. No, I think I'll cut 2 Disciples and 2 Chromatic Stars.

[Isamaru]

Enough of the suggestions of possible artifact discard outlets. I have something a lot more promising.

Copper Gnomes (http://magiccards.info/us/en/291.html). Put damage on the stack, or even surprise block.

I've been trying to see if they'd work in a mono-artifact 3sphere+Chalice Staxish deck as a win condition, but they sound much better in here.

Love,
Isamaru

[Illissius]

Four mana is a lot.

[The Legacy Weapon]

Four mana is a lot.

Yes it is. That's why I passed up copper gnomes and went into non artifact creatures for the solution. I really think Oona's Prowler is what the deck needs. It's a 3/1 Flyer for 2 mana and any player can discard a card to it to give it -2 -0 until EOT. That drawback won't matter at all if it has Cranial Plate on. It's also a good way to pitch other artifacts into the yard if you have an active Welder in play for surpris blocks or surprise instant equipping.

[Isamaru]

i iz inlitinned, thnx guyz

I thought we were trying to build an affinity deck that wasn't generic.

FatBottomedGirls and BaffSuicide are only like one month old, so I don't see how this is an update or an improvement. Put down the shells and design something new, or else realize that you're just rebuilding FatBottomedGirls and trying to add reanimator.

[The Legacy Weapon]

i iz inlitinned, thnx guyz

I thought we were trying to build an affinity deck that wasn't generic.

FatBottomedGirls and BaffSuicide are only like one month old, so I don't see how this is an update or an improvement. Put down the shells and design something new, or else realize that you're just rebuilding FatBottomedGirls and trying to add reanimator.

I don't see how this list is fat bottom girls. I'm not using Tarmagoyf and I still use the Frogmites and Enforcers. In referance to your last post, I would have to run something like Ancient Tomb to support Copper Gnomes.