[Deck] Affinity

[Hanni]

I decided I'd like to revitalize this thread a little :)

Here is my holy trinity of Affinity:

Steelblade

// Lands (16)
4 [UNH] Plains
4 [MR] Ancient Den
4 [DS] Darksteel Citadel
4 [DS] Blinkmoth Nexus

// Creatures (20)
4 [R] Ornithopter
4 [NPH] Vault Skirge
4 [UL] Mother of Runes
4 [WWK] Stoneforge Mystic
4 [NPH] Puresteel Paladin

// Spells (24)
4 [MBS] Flayer Husk
1 [NPH] Batterskull
4 [FD] Cranial Plating
1 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
1 [DS] Sword of Fire and Ice
1 [MBS] Sword of Feast and Famine
1 [DS] Sword of Light and Shadow
4 [FD] Paradise Mantle
3 [SOM] Mox Opal
4 [NPH] Dispatch

// Sideboard (15)
SB: 1 [SOK] Manriki-Gusari
SB: 1 [M12] Swiftfoot Boots
SB: 1 [MBS] Mortarpod
SB: 4 [LRW] Oblivion Ring
SB: 2 [ALA] Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 2 [MBS] Phyrexian Revoker
SB: 2 [DKA] Grafdigger's Cage
SB: 2 [DK] Tormod's Crypt

This version plays like a white weenie deck, with a twist. You play the typical white weenie game with creatures like Mother of Runes and Stoneforge Mystic with equipments, but you combine it with the explosiveness of affinity. The deck is built around Puresteel Paladin, who gives the deck a massive card advantage engine and makes all the equipment costs free. Flayer Husk is this decks Arcbound Worker, and the deck has tons of artifacts to enable Metalcraft and Cranial Plating.

Metalboros

// Lands (16)
4 [ON] Flooded Strand
3 [R] Plateau
1 [UNH] Plains
4 [MR] Ancient Den
4 [MR] Great Furnace

// Creatures (24)
4 [SOM] Memnite
4 [MR] Frogmite
4 [CFX] Court Homunculus
4 [MBS] Ardent Recruit
4 [SOM] Auriok Sunchaser
4 [NPH] Porcelain Legionnaire

// Spells (20)
4 [R] Lightning Bolt
4 [SOM] Galvanic Blast
4 [NPH] Dispatch
4 [FD] Cranial Plating
4 [SOM] Mox Opal

// Sideboard (15)
SB: 3 [MBS] Phyrexian Revoker
SB: 3 [DKA] Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
SB: 3 [LRW] Oblivion Ring
SB: 3 [SC] Sulfuric Vortex
SB: 3 [DK] Tormod's Crypt

This version plays like a Zoo deck, with a twist. You're structured fairly similar to Zoo, with the appropriate curve of 1-drops, 2-drops, and 12 1cc spot removal spells, but the deck is capable of exploding with Mox Opal and Cranial Plating. The spot removal clears the way for the groundbound guys to push damage through, and the Sunchasers and Legionnaires are great Plating-wearers. Blast and Dispatch are much stronger than Chain and Path.

Esper Tezzerator

// Lands (17)
4 [MR] Seat of the Synod
4 [MR] Vault of Whispers
4 [MR] Ancient Den
4 [R] Underground Sea
1 [US] Gaea's Cradle

// Creatures (20)
4 [VI] Phyrexian Walker
4 [R] Ornithopter
4 [GTW] Vault Skirge
4 [PC2] Baleful Strix
4 [WWK] Stoneforge Mystic

// Spells (23)
4 [MR] Thoughtcast
3 [MBS] Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
4 [ARB] Thopter Foundry
1 [FUT] Sword of the Meek
4 [FD] Cranial Plating
3 [LRW] Springleaf Drum
4 [SOM] Mox Opal

// Sideboard (15)
SB: 4 [JU] Cabal Therapy
SB: 3 [LRW] Oblivion Ring
SB: 2 [SOK] Pithing Needle
SB: 2 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
SB: 2 [ALA] Relic of Progenitus
SB: 2 [SOM] Nihil Spellbomb

This version plays like the more traditional combo affinity lists, with a twist. Thopter Foundy gives this deck serious resilience to removal, both single target and mass effect. The insane amount of card advantage allow this deck to consistently find its combo pieces. The card advantage and Thopters give this deck an incredible amount of resiliency overall. This version is more of a combo/control version than an aggro version, but still uses Plating as its primary means of victory. Walker is used over Memnite because it holds back aggro against opposing creatures in the early game while it sets up its card advantage and combo pieces, but it can still attack with a Plating unlike Shield Sphere, and Thopter can turn it into a 1/1 flier later on.

---

If anyone would like a more detailed write-up on any of the lists, thorough card explanations, etc... let me know. These lists have been pretty thoroughly tested and optimized; they're not just some randomly thrown together piles that I thought would look cool.

[TheSleeper]

Hanni: always appreciate your posts. Definitely gives the Affinity lovers some food for thought. Can you elaborate on each variant fares versus decks to beat? Or which metas they can be played in? Do you favour a particular build yourself?

[Hanni]

Hanni: always appreciate your posts. Definitely gives the Affinity lovers some food for thought. Can you elaborate on each variant fares versus decks to beat? Or which metas they can be played in? Do you favour a particular build yourself?

Sure thing.

All 3 decks are based on Metalcraft, meaning all 3 still have the ability to have explosive openings with artifact lands, Mox Opal, and the 0cc creatures. This is the main aspect that deviates them from their traditional roles. Beyond that, each has is unique in playstyle. I'll do a little bit more thorough of an analysis on each one. I do not have a particular favorite, as I enjoy playing all 3.

I'm going to make a separate post for each one. I don't have the time to do all 3 right away, but I will make sure do a write-up for all 3 as time permits.

[Hanni]

Steelblade

Deck Overview

This version is built around Puresteel Paladin, which makes the title "Steelblade" rather suiting. The entire deck is structured around him; the deck is has 17 equipment spells maindeck, and an additional 3 more in the sideboard. This gives the deck a very strong draw engine, which is something that typical white weenie decks tend to lack. The ability it equip equipment's for free is also insane; the tempo boost is not to be underestimated. The fact you can pile up all your equipments on your offensive creatures, and then swap them all over to your defensive creatures after the combat step... priceless.

Other than that, this deck is structured in a vaguely similar way to what you might expect of other white weenie decks... a bunch of weenies, a small amount of spot removal, and some equipment's to make the weenies bigger. You have traditional white weenie creatures like Mother of Runes, which can be used both offensively and defensively, and Stoneforge Mystic to grab the normal tools you would expect, like Jitte and Batterskull. This deck can often just play the fair "large threat density" strategy (with strong card advantage engines, in this case), which tends to work well against aggro/control and control decks.

By fair aggro deck, I'm talking about simple plays like this:

Turn 1: Plains, Mother of Runes, Ornithopter.
Turn 2: Darksteel Citadel, Vault Skirge, EOT Dispatch.
Turn 3: Blinkmoth Nexus, Stoneforge Mystic, grabbing Batterskull (w/ protection)
Turn 4: Batterskull.

At the same time, this deck contains the explosive Affinity element. The overlay of Affinity cards with white weenie cards is a very smooth package, in this regard. Mox Opal and Paradise Mantle help to accelerate the decks early game much faster than the speed of a typical white weenie deck (in terms of board development), and Cranial Plating equipped to fliers (or protection from Mom) can speed up the clock dramatically, which improves the decks combo and aggro matchups. It is not uncommon to have extremely explosive starts.

By explosive starts, they can be as complicated as this:

Turn 1: Ancient Den, Mox Opal, Vault Skirge, and Mother of Runes.
Turn 2: Darksteel Citadel, Puresteel Paladin, Paradise Mantle, Flayer Husk, swing for 1 with Skirge (+2 cards drawn from Puresteel).
Turn 3: Plains, equip Mantle to Husk, Stoneforge Mystic, Cranial Plating, equip Mantle to Puresteel, Cranial Plating, Paradise Mantle, equip Husk and 2 Platings to Skirge, swing for 20 (+3 cards drawn from Puresteel + 1 from SFM).

...and that's coming from a white weenie deck. Of course, the deck doesn't get explosive openings like that all the time, and the average goldfish is definitely not turn 3. The other thing to remember, is that an opponent may hit the turn 1 Mother of Runes and Skirge play with a turn 1 Forked Bolt (vs the explosive start), cast a Force of Will on the turn 3 Stoneforge Mystic (vs the fair start), etc.

Card Choices

The manabase is structured around producing adequate white mana, while enabling Metalcraft.

With 4 Paradise Mantle and 3 Mox Opal, I feel that 16 lands is sufficient, since the deck doesn't want to get flooded with too many mana sources.

8 Artifact lands feel pretty comfortable; Ancient Den is pretty standard, and since the deck is monocolored, Darksteel Citadel makes sense as my other artifact land.

Blinkmoth Nexus gives the deck some manlands to add some resiliency against mass sweeps like Terminus, and the flying allows them to carry equipment over blockers. The can also tap and activate to give the deck another artifact in cases where it needs to hit Metalcraft for Mox Opal (for white mana) or Dispatch.

To round out the manabase, I added 4 Plains.

The deck currently has 15 sources of white mana, which has been sufficient for me so far; Puresteel Paladin is the only spell requiring WW. However, 15 is a bit low for hitting WW consistently sometimes, so I may look to cutting some Blinkmoths for more Plains (and 1 Karakas), in the future.

The ability to tutor for Mantle with SFM when I need WW for Puresteel works, altough it is a lackluster play.

Paradise Mantle is an important piece of the deck. At 0cc, it helps enable Metalcraft early, it can provide mana ramp (especially midgame with a Puresteel Paladin), and it provides white mana. There are better options for this spot for the early game, like Springleaf Drum, but the fact that it is a equipment is more important. Each Mantle is a 0cc cantrip with just a single Paladin on the table (with multiple Paladins, the deck usually goes nuts). They also attach for free with Paladin on the board, allowing a single Mantle to tap for a bunch of mana (where Springleaf would only tap for 1).

Mox Opal is ran as a 3-of, because the deck doesn't actually need the early accel due to its fantastic 1cc curve, and the deck does not have ways to pitch extras. 3 feels right, for now. I may move these up to 4 in the future.

Despite the creature base only having 20 creatures, the Flayer Husks and Batterskulls count as creatures too, so the deck is actually playing with 25 creatures.

I'm running Ornithopter's to help me enable Metalcraft more consistently and buff up Platings. I chose Ornithopter's because they have flying, and therefore carry equipment very well. The 4 additional 0cc bodies with flying make the deck feel alot smoother overall.

Vault Skirge is about the best equipment wearer one can ask for, since it carries it in the air with lifelink. Once equipped, the lifelink can quickly swing games around. They can be cast for 1 mana (and almost always are), which is wonderful for this decks curve, and they also help enable Metalcraft and bigger Platings.

Mother of Runes is a key component. This deck lacks ways of interacting with its opponent with cards like Force of Will or Thoughtseize, and so it needs a way to provide protection to its creatures. There are numerous uses for her both offensively and defensively, and there are quite a few high profile creatures that you want to try and protect at all costs, such as Puresteel Paladin. At 1cc, she fits the curve beautifully. She's your strongest assest against aggro decks, and spot removal in general.

Stoneforge Mystic is seen in a variety of decks these days, and it should be no surprise to find her here, in a deck with so many equipment spells. Not only does she provide card advantage, she has a big toolbox of equipment's to choose from, she can help cheat on costs, and she has great synergy with Puresteel Paladin.

Puresteel Paladin has already been discussed in the Overview. Basically, this guy is insane.

Flayer Husk to this deck is like Arcbound Worker to Ravager/Disciple lists of old. He may not look impressive, but he's an important piece to the deck nonetheless. Cheap artifacts are important for achieving metalcraft early. He's a 1/1 body that can wear equipment. He's also an equipment himself, which increases the decks density of equipment spells for Puresteel. Against creature removal, the equipment sticks around to maintain Metalcraft and keep the artifact count up for Plating, and can be equipped to other creatures (like Skirge) later on. The equip cost is a bit steep for just +1/+1, but even that minor buff can be a big difference when attached to a Skirge, and the equip cost is free with a Puresteel anyway. This guy is pretty much mandatory for this deck to function properly.

Cranial Plating gives the deck its combo element, and is what truly separates it from other white weenie decks. The ability to give a flier huge +power gains immediately after equipping speeds up the clock of the deck dramatically. With as many artifacts and fliers that this deck has, it would be wrong to not run 4 of these bad boys.

The singleton equipments are all strong in different situations. Batterskull is a nice play when the deck has a Mother of Runes in play but has no fliers and is light on creatures. It's great against decks like Merfolk too, which have little to no removal to deal with the SFM even without Mother of Runes in play. SFM into Batterskull is alot faster than SFM into any other equipment (besides Flayer Husk) when Puresteel Paladin is not on the board, as it comes down already equipped. Jitte is fantastic, and probably the equipment spell I fetch the most, since it doesn't matter if I can protect SFM, doesn't matter if I have fliers, and doesn't matter if I don't have a bunch of artifacts in play. Even a Flayer Husk becomes a serious threat when attached to a Jitte. The three Swords of X and Y all have varying uses, depending on the situation.

Finally, Dispatch is this decks Swords to Plowshares.

Cards Not Included

If people ask why I'm not running certain cards, I will update this section with why those cards were not included. There is simply too much ground to cover here without some discussion first.

Matchup Analysis

Not any differently than traditional white weenie decks (before the advent of hatebears like Thalia), this deck can have a tough time with combo decks. Fast combo decks like Belcher are absolutely horrible; luckily the format is full of Force of Will to keep those decks in check. Tendrils decks can be rough too. If they go off very fast and don't fizzle, or this deck gets a very slow fair start, we lose. Unlike traditional white weenie decks, we can sometimes get explosive openings that are able to race them. Sometimes. The Show and Tell and High Tide matchups are much better though, since they tend to be a bit slower at winning, which gives us more time to race.

Control decks like Miracles can be a bit tough. We have no way to stop a Terminus, and it can be hard to not overcommit in this deck. We are also susceptible to a Counterbalance lock after the wipe the board. However, this deck has several tools that help this matchup greatly. The first of which, is the sheer number of equipment spells, especially SoLS. It can be fairly easy to recover from Terminus if there are equipment spells on the board, since even a topdecked Flayer Husk can turn into a serious threat. SoLS giving our creatures Pro White is pretty huge here, although it can still be bounced by Jace. Control matchups with Pernicious Deed are usually awful. The only way we beat Deed decks is to kill them before they can stabilize with Deed. This can happen often enough against some builds, but there are also some that are nearly impossible to beat. Luckily, there are not alot of Deed decks seeing widespread play in the format right now.

Aggro matchups that are light on spot removal are pretty good (like Maverick), since we can dominate the ground with Mother of Runes and the large amount of equipment, and then swing in the air to close the game out. Jitte and SoFI are fantastic against Goblins, Jitte and SoFaF are great against Maverick, etc. Our ability to sometimes just combo off with a huge flier carrying a Plating can kill opposing aggro decks before they even get a chance to do much. Against aggro decks like Zoo, this deck has a rough time. If we cannot stick a Mother of Runes early, they can usually keep our board clear long enough to kill us before we can get established. If we can manage to stabilize though, we will dominate them since we have a much stronger midrange aggro gameplan.

Aggro/control matchups are the best matchups for this deck due to the large threat density, equipment, and Mother of Runes. They try to play countermagic or discard or whatever to try and steal some tempo and outrace us, but we just keep dropping creature after creature and overwhelm them with superior card advantage and better creatures (once equipped).

[Mr. Froggy]

My SB for Affinity consists of:

4x Relic of Progenitus
4x Duress
2x Oblivion Ring
2x Swords to Plowshares
2x Ancient Grudge

Relics: Graveyard-based decks, obviously
Duress: For combo/control
O-Ring: For big and fat things I don't want to see
STP: Random dudes I don't like
Grudges: For Null Rods, Pithing Needles, etc.

If someone could chime in and tell me my numbers are completely off? I'd be more than appreciative.

[ween]

STP: Random dudes I don't like

Why not Dispatch in place of STP? How often do you not have Metalcraft switched on?

Esper Tezzerator

Man, i LIKE that list. I love Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas and Baleful Strix, but they just seemed a little slow in my Affinity build. This slows it down just a hair more in favour of some broken interactions. Love it. Thanks :)

[Mr. Froggy]

Why not Dispatch in place of STP? How often do you not have Metalcraft switched on?

The life-gain the opponent gets from STP is kind of irrelevant I find, since my robots hit for so much. But I think I'll switch them for some Dispatches soon, since they're in all the lists I see.

[Shawon]

Relics: Graveyard-based decks, obviously
Duress: For combo/control
O-Ring: For big and fat things I don't want to see
STP: Random dudes I don't like
Grudges: For Null Rods, Pithing Needles, etc.

Relic: I prefer Grafdigger's Cage as the more permanent solution, but Relic at least takes something with it if it's removed by anything other than Krosan Grip. Also, being a one-shot solution isn't so bad for Affinity as you can use the window of opportunity given by Relic to defeat the opponent, with the help from drawing a card off of Relic. I might try it over Cage. If graveyard decks are a concern, 4 Relics are a fine choice.

Duress: Cabal Therapy is just plain better. Just practice with the card if you're not making the correct blind calls. I wouldn't go past 3 Therapies.

STP/Dispatch: What are your relevant targets that you need post-board STP effects? 'Random dudes' is really too vague an explanation for anyone to understand why you're running STP effects when you already run O-Ring.

[Mr. Froggy]

Relic: I prefer Grafdigger's Cage as the more permanent solution, but Relic at least takes something with it if it's removed by anything other than Krosan Grip. Also, being a one-shot solution isn't so bad for Affinity as you can use the window of opportunity given by Relic to defeat the opponent, with the help from drawing a card off of Relic. I might try it over Cage. If graveyard decks are a concern, 4 Relics are a fine choice.

Duress: Cabal Therapy is just plain better. Just practice with the card if you're not making the correct blind calls. I wouldn't go past 3 Therapies.

STP/Dispatch: What are your relevant targets that you need post-board STP effects? 'Random dudes' is really too vague an explanation for anyone to understand why you're running STP effects when you already run O-Ring.

For STP, I use them more for kind of a "catch-all" card, be it Bob, Goyf, etc.

Also, for Therapy, I kind of suck with it, lol. I like seeing what my opponent has in his hand, and actually being able to discard something, and not "hopefully" discard one.

[Shawon]

Why would you be concerned with Bob? It's just a 2/1. It's not significant enough that you have to answer it post-board. If they draw cards, they're drawing one extra card per turn and losing life. That's way too slow against you and Dark Confidant costing them life makes your job of killing them easier.

I used to suck with Cabal Therapy too, but if you're going to play Legacy for a long time you might as well learn how to play with Therapy. It's the most skill-intensive card you can run in black that is legal in Legacy. You can read Caleb Durward's primer on the card. Duress is easier to play than Therapy, but Therapy has too many benefits you simply can't ignore. Having the opportunity to cast Therapy twice and hitting multiple copies of a card is worth the chance of getting the Therapy wrong on the first try. Affinity runs a large enough creature base that it's very affordable to flashback Therapy.

[Mr. Froggy]

I just read the article, I never thought Therapy was that skill intensive... :O I might just need to run them.. You're right, Shawon..

[Hanni]

I apologize that I have not done a write-up on my other 2 lists yet... I just haven't had the time. I will get to it by the end of the weekend I hope.

@ Mr. Froggy
As for your sideboard, it is impossible to help without your decklist. The sideboard is completely dependant on your maindeck. You cannot just toss in some good cards and call it a day. You have to cut maindeck spells for sideboard spells, so there is no point in tossing stuff in your sideboard without first determining why you need those cards in the first place, and what you would replace them with.

Maybe it is the right call to go with Dispatch in the sideboard... it depends on your list.

(I cannot think of any Affinity lists that would not be able to support Dispatch, so you should be using these instead of Swords, if you do need them)

Regarding Therapy... well if the card is in your sideboard and you are cutting maindeck spells for it for games 2 and 3, you should know what cards to name... otherwise, why even bring it in? I'm assuming your running some sort of traditional list. In that case, you should have tons of bodies that you don't care about sacrificing for the flashback, even if the first one is a dud.

Therapy is much better than Duress in the matchups you want to bring it in against... it's this decks version of Thoughtsieze + Hymn to Tourach all in one.

@ween
Thanks, I'm very happy with where my Esper list is at right now. I cannot tell you how much time I spent working on that list. You don't notice Strix slowing you down at all because you aren't running 3 mana 2/2's, vanilla 4/4's, or any of the other typical aggro beats. Strix is basically your Thoughtcasts 5-8 that leave behind a 1/1 flying deathtouch artifact body for Platings, a body for Drums, creature control and/or protection for Tezz, etc. Strix may seem weak on the surface, but it's easy to see how important they are for that list, even after just a few games. I would actually consider them the strongest piece of the "engine"; they just do so many things that the deck wants, and does them all at the same time... on a single card.

Strix is teh nutz :p

I'll go into more detail on the write-up.

[Mr. Froggy]

My list is a traditional U/B TezzAffinity, but yeah.. I think I might cut my Duresses for some Therapies, everyone agrees they are amazing, and have been backing it up, can't argue with that. :)

[Shawon]

Mr. Froggy, I also want to add that 2 Dispatch will fall short for two reasons, one is not having it when you need it and the other is that having a one-for-one isn't enough in really bad situations. Actually, three if you are running Ancient Den to accommodate Dispatch, which makes you vulnerable to Wasteland if your opponent knows you are relying on Dispatch. If Goyf and other green creatures are a big concern, I would run Perish as it's in black and it's CA.

[Mr. Froggy]

I saw a couple SBs running Perish, I think I may have some lying around in my boxes. Switch the STPs for them? It's true that only killing one dude is not that helpful, usually. And I guess Perish is almost an auto-win vs. Elves?

[Hanni]

Before you go tossing in Perish... how is your Maverick matchup? I haven't seen your list, so I cannot tell. If you are using Master of Etherium , Frogmite, and/or Ravager, then yea, you probably want a sweeper. If not, you probably don't even need Perish.

Since your sideboard doesn't have Needle, Revoker, or Cursed Totem, I would actually suggest Virtue's Ruin (again, if you even need it). They run more white-only creatures than they do green-only, and those also tend to have a much higher impact. Thalia +Wasteland slows down your Platings and Tezzeret; Mother of Runes shuts down your Masters more consistently than Scryb Ranger. Ruin still hits Qasali (if they haven't popped it), Teeg, and Knight. You aren't playing mana denial to care about the mana dorks, and Ooze is pretty slow.

Ruin is also useful in the Stoenblade matchup (among others). If you want the Perish for RUG or Elves or something, then I would at least suggest a split. But again, is Perish something you actually need in those matchups? Resolving a 3cc sorcery against RUG seems a bit dumb (or rather, a Time Walk for them). Therapy would be alot stronger against RUG, for example...

So yea, anyways, tl;dr version is that I'm not even sure if you need Perish for Maverick, and if you do, I'd suggest Virtue's Ruin instead.

[Mr. Froggy]

I actually did read the entire post. :P

I'll test some more, and see what happens. I have a tournament this weekend, and I'm gonna use Affinity (I have Dredge built, too, but I don't think small tournaments want to deal with overpowered decks :P).

[Hanni]

I'll test some more, and see what happens. I have a tournament this weekend, and I'm gonna use Affinity (I have Dredge built, too, but I don't think small tournaments want to deal with overpowered decks :P).

If you build Affinity right, it feels just as overpowered as Dredge does. Maybe not quite as a fast (a turn or two slower maybe), but just as overpowering. Both decks are easy to hate out, but require specific hate (graveyard vs artifact), so you can keep switching it up on them until they start running hate for both.

[Mr. Froggy]

Not a bad plan, hehe. :P

But I don't think my build is "optimal" but I like it.

Also, I run 4x Memnite and 2x Ornithopter, should it be the other way around?

[Hanni]

I can't tell without seeing your list. If you look up at the 3 builds I posted, one runs just 4 Ornithopter, one runs just 4 Memnite, and one runs 4 of both. Gotta look at the entire list to be able to understand the context.