[Deck] Affinity

[The Big Ragu]

I run just one Thopter Foundry. It's a fun, flavorful little card that gives you some solid options, but I've never seen it as something that really sets this deck on fire. Can't believe some people still refuse to run 4 Thoughtcasts. 2 cards for 1 blue mana is just bonkers.

[Pltnmngl]

Hello everyone. Im the guy that posted 16th at the scg in indy with my affinity list. after reading some of the posts about it on here, i figured i might as well post my two cents about the deck, explain some of the decisions and why they are correct, and some of the things i would change, as well as my report persay.
Maindeck:

Artifacts
4 Cranial Plating
3 Springleaf Drum
2 Thopter Foundry

Artifact Creatures
4 Arcbound Ravager
3 Etched Champion
4 Frogmite
4 Memnite
4 Myr Enforcer
2 Ornithopter
4 Signal Pest

Artifact Lands
4 Darksteel Citadel

Creatures
4 Disciple of the Vault

Legendary Artifacts
3 Mox Opal

Sorceries
4 Thoughtcast

Artifact Lands
1 Ancient Den
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Vault of Whispers

Lands
1 Blinkmoth Nexus
1 Glimmervoid

Sideboard:
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Nihil Spellbomb
4 Pithing Needle
3 Engineered Plague
2 Darkblast


First off, signal pest is amazing in this deck, it has the ability to put an opponent into serious trouble early. he is definitly better than ornithopter (every time i draw an ornithopter i get mad!), however ornithopter is a neccesary bad card because of springleaf drum. Ornithopter get sacced to foundry or to ravager as soon as they hit the board usually because it dies to every removal spell as soon as ravager or cranial plating hit the board.
Thopter Foundry is all around sick, it by itself wins your control match ups, and makes spot removal virtually useless against you, as well as combos with disciple, makes a huge flyer with ravager, makes your memnites better, gains you life in the aggro match, turns your mid-late game land draws useful, and is really sick with a signal pest on board. 2 was the perfect amount, i wouldnt go lower, and sword of the meek doesnt fit the deck well enough to make it relevant. we tested the hell out of it, in a blue moon it was good, the rest of the time it was just awful.

etched champion is amazing everytime you draw it. You are going to power it out turn 3, 5 out of 7 games its in your opener. It IS Progenitus, and CANNOT BE KILLED by and spot removal which makes it much better than master of etherium ever could be. i dont know if people running master are aware that there are cards called STP, Krosan Grip, Ancient Grudge, Vindicate, Putrefy, Smother, and Path to Exile running around in this format, which makes the card really bad because you have NO WAYS to stop any of this.

Glimpse of Nature does not belong in Affinity. Here are reasons why: 1. It allows you to keep really bad hands. Would you keep the following? memnite, memnite, ornithopter, seat of synod, vault of whispers, springleaf drum, mox opal? NO. it has no real action. If that springleaf drum was a glimpse would you keep it? YES. they force your glimpse and youre in the same boat as if you kept the first hand, no action. secondly it is green, and as we should all know by now there is only 1 good green card that has every been printed (tarmogoyf).

The land base was great all day too. Darksteel Citadel is your basic land for the deck, its the only one that cant be wastelanded, and since only 10% of your deck has color it makes sense to play it as a 4 of. kataki is also bad so 2 sources that arent artifact mana is better than none. I ran the 1 of glimmervoid to help with color fixing and 1 of ancient den to help cast thopter foundry. blinkmoth nexus is better than inkmoth, because if you have your opponent below 10 it makes sense to just kill them instead of giving them 9 infect.

I think i can sum this up best with the word synergy. Each cards function is synergetic with the next and thats why I was successful, and without mulling to 4 against elf combo game 3, and my opponent cheating with goblins twice, im positive that i could have went X-0 on the day. It was a blast playing.

Like I said before, I'm digging this list. Still not comfortable with the land choice, but I accept that.

If you don't mind giving us details, what went wrong?

Also, what adjustments would you make to the deck?

[Nidd]

Looks like after I've been advertising Thopter Foundry for what feels like months, people are catching up.
Seriously, forget Tezzeret. Thopter Foundry is the nuts.

[o.pala]

new tezzeret, top or flop ?

[the Thin White Duke]

To TJM:
It's a little shocking not to see Master of Etherium in your list. What's the reason he's not in there? CMC?

What are people's thoughts on Ichor Wellspring? Probably not for an aggro deck?

[dsck]

To TJM:
It's a little shocking not to see Master of Etherium in your list. What's the reason he's not in there? CMC?

What are people's thoughts on Ichor Wellspring? Probably not for an aggro deck?

Read what he posted...... Etheriums fights for same spot with Champions, but Champions dont die to every removal available.

[tjmorrison]

1st question regarding ancient tomb. Your lands already act as ancient tomb w/o the drawback. one of the benefits of this deck is you arent punished for playing your manabase unlike zoo. it also takes away from affinity.

2nd question, why not 3 thopter foundry? youre an aggro deck, and thopter foundry is your secondary win con, you dont want to draw it unless you need it. thopter foundry generally isnt a threat until you have a few damage in.

3rd, what went wrong? I didnt draw a second source of mana and had to mull to 4 so i lost against brian boss in round 5.

4th, what would you change? 4 pithing needles is too many so -1 needle, -4 chalice, +3 thorn of amethyst, +2 perish. maindeck, -1 ornithopter +1 etched champion.

5th, Tezzeret, you run 21 "land" or 18 depending on your build, why in the hell would you run a 4 drop?

6th, If youre going to play this, test the hell out of it and know your format, each of them you play differently, its not belcher, you dont go all in on turn 1.

Your match up key cards

Zoo, etched champion and signal pest (Frogmites become nacatyls, seems good to me) main deck, sb perish, and 2 needles (Jitte) 10-0 in games

Merfolk, 3 needle (jitte, commander, mutavault), DO NOT BOARD IN PLAGUE!!! maindeck key cards, champion, nexus, signal pest pst board 75% your favor

Goblins, 3 plague -2 foundry -1 memnite, champion is your go to guy 65% your favor

CBTOP, +3 needle 65 % your favor

[gnat]

1) Can you handle combo well enough with that sideboard? And what do you need darkblast for?
2) What do you think about more draw? Only 4x Thoughtcast is not much.

[tjmorrison]

depends on the combo deck, ant is really rough, but no deck is perfect against every deck in the field. show and tell is actually a good match up because youhit them fast early, and with a disciple of the vault, they kill themselves. ant i dont even consider a real deck, there are only 1 person i know that can play that deck right, and its ari lax. so in the 4-0 bracket hes the only one you will face. as far as the add'l draw effects, there really isnt any room for more. it would be 2 glimpse if i felt it was good enough, but its just too random, its not good every time you draw it, only on occasion. and it really sucks to draw it on turn 3 when your hand is dumped.

Darkblast is your only out to a kataki if they are running it, or a plague on spirits, unfortunately kataki costs 2 and plague costs 3 so it doesnt work. if i was to cut darkblast, it would be executioner's capsule

[Pltnmngl]

depends on the combo deck, ant is really rough, but no deck is perfect against every deck in the field. show and tell is actually a good match up because youhit them fast early, and with a disciple of the vault, they kill themselves. ant i dont even consider a real deck, there are only 1 person i know that can play that deck right, and its ari lax. so in the 4-0 bracket hes the only one you will face. as far as the add'l draw effects, there really isnt any room for more. it would be 2 glimpse if i felt it was good enough, but its just too random, its not good every time you draw it, only on occasion. and it really sucks to draw it on turn 3 when your hand is dumped.

Darkblast is your only out to a kataki if they are running it, or a plague on spirits, unfortunately kataki costs 2 and plague costs 3 so it doesnt work. if i was to cut darkblast, it would be executioner's capsule

Did you test Phyrexian Revoker? It seems like Pithing Needle is better for us in almost every situation in affinity.

[Greenpoe]

Did you test Phyrexian Revoker? It seems like Pithing Needle is better for us in almost every situation in affinity.

For builds running Steel Overseer and MOE, I would run a few maindeck Revokers. There's nothing like shutting down Vial/Pridemage/Top in game 1 on turn 1.

[1maarten1]

depends on the combo deck, ant is really rough, but no deck is perfect against every deck in the field. show and tell is actually a good match up because youhit them fast early, and with a disciple of the vault, they kill themselves. ant i dont even consider a real deck, there are only 1 person i know that can play that deck right, and its ari lax. so in the 4-0 bracket hes the only one you will face. as far as the add'l draw effects, there really isnt any room for more. it would be 2 glimpse if i felt it was good enough, but its just too random, its not good every time you draw it, only on occasion. and it really sucks to draw it on turn 3 when your hand is dumped.

Darkblast is your only out to a kataki if they are running it, or a plague on spirits, unfortunately kataki costs 2 and plague costs 3 so it doesnt work. if i was to cut darkblast, it would be executioner's capsule

Isnt Thoughtseize an option in place of Darkblast? Might need 3 thoughtseize tho, 2 is too less imo. Let me know what you think!

[The Big Ragu]

Thoughtseize/duress are bad choices for the deck. Affinity doesn't like to play contolish strategies very much. It wants to hit fast and hard, without worrying about creating a good defensive strategy. There are better options for the combo matchup (E. Canonist, Revoker, Chalice).

[RexFTW]

Thoughtseize/duress are bad choices for the deck. Affinity doesn't like to play contolish strategies very much. It wants to hit fast and hard, without worrying about creating a good defensive strategy. There are better options for the combo matchup (E. Canonist, Revoker, Chalice).

Thoughtseize is for Kataki, War's Wage, null rod , etc, and non storm combo (aka show and tell).

How successful were you with Thoughtcast? A long time Affinity staple, but there are so many other options I'm wondering if you'd consider it a core element of the deck, or something that might be a flex spot.

Thoughtcast is the best draw spell available in the format BY FAR. There is NO other spell that says u: draw 2 cards. on turn 2 or 3 when you are out of gas you can easily play thoughtcast AND the 2 cards you draw.

There is only 1 draw spell ever printed that is better than thoughtcast. Ill let you guess what it is..... and its banned in legacy.

[AggroSteve]

true, thoughtcast is the best carddraw at our disposal, but i would love to have another 2 slots for carddraw, and it should at least be allmost as good as thoughtcast

right now i am using glimpse, but it is true that it makes you keep hand you shouldn't, but is there a card better than glimpse ? maybe ichor wellspring ? it would be a cantrip and when you sac it with ravager or thopter foundry it is another cantrip, what do you guys think?

[RexFTW]

I would stick with Glimpse. Playing it correctly can be trickey though.

You may want to run 4, as the hands with 2x glimpse and a mox really crack wiiiidddeeee open. If you run the full 16 "free" guys your chances of hitting more each time you draw 2 is pretty decent.

[Sea R Hill]

depends on the combo deck, ant is really rough, but no deck is perfect against every deck in the field. show and tell is actually a good match up because youhit them fast early, and with a disciple of the vault, they kill themselves. ant i dont even consider a real deck, there are only 1 person i know that can play that deck right, and its ari lax. so in the 4-0 bracket hes the only one you will face. as far as the add'l draw effects, there really isnt any room for more. it would be 2 glimpse if i felt it was good enough, but its just too random, its not good every time you draw it, only on occasion. and it really sucks to draw it on turn 3 when your hand is dumped.

Darkblast is your only out to a kataki if they are running it, or a plague on spirits, unfortunately kataki costs 2 and plague costs 3 so it doesnt work. if i was to cut darkblast, it would be executioner's capsule

Well, it seems that you have a very weird end easy metagame.

Here Storm is all over the place and without Chalice and Ethersworn Cannonist you are a BYE. 3 Thorn of Amethyst is not gonna make you win even against a bad storm player.
And Kataki has never been played in Legacy, that is extended tech from many years ago...

[swordoffireandice]

Thoughtseize/duress are bad choices for the deck. Affinity doesn't like to play contolish strategies very much. It wants to hit fast and hard, without worrying about creating a good defensive strategy. There are better options for the combo matchup (E. Canonist, Revoker, Chalice).

I agree completely! these cards are good against more decks than just combo. Except for Chalice I play them maindeck.
I have 3 Canonist en 2 Revoker main.

[Bignasty197]

And Kataki has never been played in Legacy, that is extended tech from many years ago...

I play Bant and I actually keep 2 Kataki in the board just for Affinity. Its pretty brutal what Kataki does.
I had a game Saturday where I went turn 1 Needle on Cranial Plating, turn 2 Kataki, turn 3 Wasteland on a Great Furnace. I thought only Shrapnel Blast or Galvanic Blast could deal with him effectively, but it turned out he was running neither.

[swordoffireandice]

A quick question, say you sac everything, your entire board, to dump a crapload of counters on your etched champion and then attack? He doesn't have protection, right? Right.

Right.....without the Metalcraft no protection.