[Deck] Affinity

[slave]

1 BATTERSKULL!!!!
I thought I'd try Batterskull instead of Tezz #3 because it's much faster and more relevant to get down against tempo decks such as RUG.

Love to know how it tests for you.
I've been giving a spin, so far I'm not so sure! It's killer when it hits, but I'm finding it's not too easy to get it into play. (SFM or not)

[AmishLuvah]

Hate to be a dream crusher, but the creature with SoFI will have protection from red, so you can't really give double strike to it with Boros Charm. Hope you have not done this, no matter how nutty it is, cause it's kind of illegal ;)

Woops! Thankfully it hasn't come up yet. Oh well, I'll just have to make do with massive plating hits instead. :)

[Shawon]

Love to know how it tests for you.
I've been giving a spin, so far I'm not so sure! It's killer when it hits, but I'm finding it's not too easy to get it into play. (SFM or not)

Nothing definitive, just a few observations:

- Unless you're facing Goblins, more specifically Krenko, then it seems impossible to lose in the red zone with a Plated Germ token. Apparently, Krenko (+Chieftain) scoffs at a 17/4 Vigilance Lifelinker
- If you attack with a Germ equipped with Leonin Bola, you can tap an opponent's only blocker at the end of the Declare Attackers phase (before they declare blockers) and hit 4 to your opponent's dome. Or, you can attack with your Germ as usual and then use Bola to tap out an opponent's attacker. Pretty useful tactics when those situations come up.
- You can get added value from the Germ's vigilance by tapping it for Springleaf Drum should you need the mana badly.

[Shawon]

With the rise of combo, I've finally motivated myself to move all my Tezzs to the board and go hardcore hate-mode with MD Canonists.

Mana
16 Artifact Lands
4 Drum
4 Opal
1 Mantle

Creatures
4 Memnite
4 Thopter
4 Master
4 SFM
4 Canonist
2 Skirge
3 Champ

Noncreatures
4 TC
2 Plating
2 Night's Whisper
1 Leonin Bola
1 BSkull

SB:
4 Cage
3 Tezz
3 MBT
3 O-RIng
2 Certarch

I'm giving the Night's Whisper a 2nd chance, because I feel it remedies the problems when Affinity just loses gas and draws into mana sources. Thoughts on new changes?

[slave]

With the rise of combo, I've finally motivated myself to move all my Tezzs to the board and go hardcore hate-mode with MD Canonists.

Mana
16 Artifact Lands
4 Drum
4 Opal
1 Mantle

Creatures
4 Memnite
4 Thopter
4 Master
4 SFM
4 Canonist
2 Skirge
3 Champ

Noncreatures
4 TC
2 Plating
2 Night's Whisper
1 Leonin Bola
1 BSkull

SB:
4 Cage
3 Tezz
3 MBT
3 O-RIng
2 Certarch

I'm giving the Night's Whisper a 2nd chance, because I feel it remedies the problems when Affinity just loses gas and draws into mana sources. Thoughts on new changes?

Nice list.
I have to ask;
Whats TC? I feel like I should know....

Also, I noticed you have 4 Master, 3 Champ. Whats the reason you've settled on this number?
I personally find the Master, hoever good they are, are usually harder to keep on the field.

Also, I've been playing Standstill. I've been finding it quite effective once our hand is empty, as quite often we have a much better board position, and our opponent is gonna be forced to crack it sooner than later.

[Shawon]

TC = Thoughtcast

Champion has become less important now that I am running less Platings in my deck. Furthermore, against combo, it is much worse than Master of Etherium in terms of putting your opponent on a clock.

I don't approve of Standstill in Affinity, naturally because I feel that it is only good if you build your deck around it (e.g. Landstill) or if Standstill happens to fit well into your deck (e.g. Merfolk). Furthermore, the best part about the draw 3 from Standstill in those blue decks is that you draw into Force of Will. Against combo, it doesn't matter if you draw 3 cards or 5000 if you're not drawing into any counterspells when they go off that turn. Also,
Standstill can be a very risky card to play. You could be handing out your own death sentence if you cast a Standstill and your opponent responds with a removal spell while Standstill is on the stack.

When you have your opponent's back against the wall, Standstill seems great because unlike the namesake, you're not putting your opponent in a standstill, but more of a "damned if you do, damned if you don't." But if you're using that to defend a card, then you're pretty much putting that card in the 'win-more' category of card evaluations.

[slave]

TC = Thoughtcast

I don't approve of Standstill in Affinity.....can be a very risky card to play. You could be handing out your own death sentence if you cast a Standstill and your opponent responds with a removal spell while Standstill is on the stack.
When you have your opponent's back against the wall, Standstill seems great because unlike the namesake, you're not putting your opponent in a standstill, but more of a "damned if you do, damned if you don't." But if you're using that to defend a card, then you're pretty much putting that card in the 'win-more' category of card evaluations.

TC = Duh! Oh man....

RE: Standstill. That's fair, I think you have a point, but try think about it this way;

You put a threat on the table (purging your hand) with all your mana sources on t1, then play standstill. I should explain too, my list is concentrating more on purging your hand on turn 1 or 2, less about mid-range threats.
Before they even get to play a single card, you're in front. I find Standstill so far quite good for coaxing out a Force too, much better that than Plating/Mystic etc. So in this context, I find Standstill quite good.
Now, I do conceed that as the game gets on, Standstill is less useful - but my list is concentrating on early game pressure and drawing enough cards to build and maintain that pressure quickly - instead of a mid-range approach.

[Shawon]

I'm thinking of writing an updated primer for Affinity. The primer at the beginning of this thread is dated to 2009, so it definitely needs a reboot. So why not do the job myself?

Anyway, I'm going about this primer by writing up the matchup analyses first, then writing the introduction, card choices, and filler last. What I have pasted here are my thoughts on the Miracles matchup that I typed today. Please post any constructive criticism anyone, even if you don't play Affinity. I don't like to make promises I can't keep, so I can't guarantee I'll have the whole primer written up anytime soon. So consider my excerpt here as a sample rather than an appetizer for the main course. Either way, let me know what you think!

Miracles
It’s easy to perceive how this matchup can be a nightmare matchup for Affinity. With Terminus alone, the Miracles player can wipe your entire creature offense on turn 2, with just one mana! What can Affinity players do against a one-mana Wrath of God? The answer isn’t that difficult: just remember how you played against Wrath of God. Against Wrath of God, your strategy was playing more conservative while still applying pressure, so that even if they do clear your offense, you can create another one next turn. Now, use the same strategy against Terminus. For example, if you have Memnites and Ornithopters in your opening hand, just play all of your Memnites. One, this minimizes your potential losses if your opponent resolves Terminus. Furthermore, if you resolve a Cranial Plating and you force your opponent to resolve Terminus, then any Ornithoper you land becomes a win condition because of Plating, and you have a good chance of connecting because Ornithopter has flying. Moreover, if you are running Springleaf Drum, and all of your creatures just got removed by Terminus, you want to use those spare Ornithopters to tap for mana to cast Etched Champion or Tezzeret that you might not have had the mana to cast otherwise if you overplayed your Ornithopters into Terminus.

One uncommon way of fighting Terminus is using Arcbound Ravager and Academy Ruins. If your opponent casts a Terminus, you can sacrifice all of your creatures to Ravager and choose to sacrifice Ravager to itself. Then, if you have an untapped Academy Ruins and mana available, you can use Ruins’ ability EOT. Otherwise, you can do it next turn. Even if you don’t have Ruins, you always want to sacrifice your board to Ravager in response to Terminus because if you draw an Academy Ruins, you have the option of rebuilding your offense if you can’t rely on topdecking to increase or maintain board presence. I currently don’t run Ravager, but I find this synergy between Ravager and Ruins to be one worth mentioning to anyone considering running Ravager.

Personally, my favorite way of fighting Terminus used to be countering it! Yes I said, “countering it!” Last year when Miracles took off as a Deck to Beat, I was an outspoken promoter of running MD Spell Pierce. It seems like a counterintuitive solution, considering Terminus costing 1 mana can allow your opponent to pay for Spell Pierce, or simply use Force of Will if they don’t. But from my extensive experience with playing against Miracles, waiting until turn 4 to cast a Terminus from their draw step and having two mana leftover is a luxury that you, the Affinity player, can deny them. If that wasn’t clear, that scenario is a luxury because of three things: 1) if your opponent tries to Miracle-cast Terminus with mana leftover to pay for Spell Pierce, then they need at least three lands and your opponent can’t use Top to set up Terminus in that turn, so the earliest turn they can create that scenario is turn 4; 2) like I mentioned about Top, using Top to set up Terminus on the same draw step gives them one less mana to pay for Spell Pierce; 3) you’re playing Affinity, an aggro deck that can win on turn 3 so your opponent won’t always be able to wait until turn 4 to safely cast Terminus. Even if you can’t use Spell Pierce to counter Terminus, you can use it to protect Tezzeret from countermagic as well, or counter Entreat the Angels.

The third way, and probably the best way, of fighting against Terminus is using Affinity’s favorite planeswalker, Tezzeret Agent of Bolas. If you have a board attacking for lethal next turn, and you drop Tezzeret, you effectively put your opponent into a Catch-22, as they will unlikely be able to stop both your offense and Tezz by the time you untap. Tezz is also great casting post-Terminus. Just by itself, ramping it up +1 counter allows you to quickly rebuild your offense as you are practically drawing 2 cards per turn. The -1 ability can be quite useful as well if your opponent is tapped out, because you can use that vulnerability as an opening if they have low life or an unprotected Jace.

As for dealing with the rest of the Miracles deck, there’s not really anything specific to deal with, but more of just being mindful of what win conditions the Miracle is running. If they are running the Stoneforge package, assume they run Batterskull and play against Miracles like you would against Blade Control while playing conservatively so as to not overextend into Terminus. At the time of this writing, the current flavor of the deck seems to be the one involving the Rest in Peace package. It’s not Rest in Peace that is important, but the cards that combo with it, such as Energy Field and Helm of Obedience. Energy Field is hard to answer without Tezzeret. This is why Tezzeret is the best card you can run against Miracles. Tezzeret’s ultimate bypasses the ‘prevent damage’ clause of Energy Field. Just remember, if your opponent has an Energy Field with no RIP to back it up, even if your opponent has a counterspell, you can effectively Disenchant Energy Field by casting Tezzeret and forcing your opponent to counter it, then trigger Energy Field’s self-destruction. Of course, if your opponent has both Rest in Peace and Energy Field down, then your only shot of winning is either removing Energy Field or resolving Tezz’s ultimate.

No matter what build of Miracles you are facing, Tezzeret is hands-down the best card you can run against them. Tezz is a proactive solution that ignores Energy Field and it allows you to shrug off Terminus either by reassembling your offense or threatening your opponent for lethal next turn. Personally, Tezzerets are the only SB cards I bring in against Miracles. They’re much better than running any specific narrow answers such as Krosan Grip et al.

[Mr. Froggy]

I played at my LGS and finished first with my Gobbos list, but I saw a guy was playing Mystic Affinity.

Vs Stoneblade, the game went to time and ended in a draw.

Affinity had 59 or so life, and Stoneblade had 28 life.

I never thought I'd see that from Affinity :P

[belflagor]

Hello all. I am attending SCG Milwaukee next weekend and I am taking affinity along. I know it isn't the most competitive deck but I wanna have fun. I am wondering what build you guys would recommend that has good match ups against RUG, Stoneblade, and BUG. I have been playing an Esper variant as of late that runs stoneforge and jitte along with a typical affinity build. If you guys would like to see the lists I was considering I will post them at a later time. Any comments suggestions and criticism are welcomed. Thanks all. :D

[Shawon]

Go with Esper Affinity. If you are anticipating RUG/BUG/Stoneblade, you need to maximize value on SFM. Run 4, and run an extensive package with Batterskull, Jitte, Leonin Bola (against Sneak-Show), of course Cranial Plating, and Paradise Mantle.

This is what I run. Cage could be interchanged with Relic if you're more concerned about fair decks (RUG) than combo (Reanimator).

Mana
16 Artifact Lands
4 Opal
4 Drum
1 Ruins

Critters
8 Free guys
4 SFM
3 Canonist
3 Champion
3 Skirge
3 Master

Rest
4 TC
3 Plating
1 Jitte
1 BSkull
1 Paradise Mantle
1 Leonin Bola

SB:
4 Tezz
4 Cage
3 O-Ring
3 MBTrap
1 Canonist

[waSP]

In case anyone is looking for alternative takes on Affinity, this one is fairly strong if the metagame swings another way.

Mana
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Mox Opal
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Springleaf Drum
3 Vault of Whispers
1 Island
1 Paradise Mantle
1 Swamp

Creatures
4 Master of Etherium
4 Memnite
4 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Dark Confidant
3 Ornithopter
2 Etched Champion

Draw/search
4 Thoughtcast
1 Steelshaper's Gift

Blowouts
4 Cranial Plating
4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
1 Fling

This list is a little bit old but has a different structure than I've seen on here. It's more midrange-y (extra lands!) and less susceptible to some common hate (Pyroclasm, Pernicious Deed, Terminus). This comes with the tweak to the landbase. 5 fewer artifact lands generally means you're winning a turn later. But you've got more resiliency with the manlands. Depending on how you play out matches, you may want Inkmoth Nexus over Factory. I usually don't get my opponents under 10 before I want to start attacking with lands, so Factory it is. They also can block Bears and survive (Snapcaster, etc.).

I think this runs fairly similarly in matchups as compared to most Affinity decks but will be better equipped if your opponent has a lot of hate. It has the inevitability (unless facing down a deed) that I think this deck lacks a lot of the time. If they can answer your first three guys, usually you're in trouble. Here, you've got a higher threat density (although slower).

Steelshaper's Gift is a bit of underutilized tech. It can be Platings 5-x if you're running aggro. It's nice to be able to search up the lone Mantle if colored mana is needed. Its low cost makes it superior to Stoneforge Mystic in most builds.

Fling is underplayed. I've succeeded with two in the past, but like Bob #3 more.

With the current meta, the Revokers should probably be Canonists. Not sure about that. Revoker is often quite good!

I don't usually get the chance to play this, so I wanted to offer it up to the community.

[Shawon]

Had some time this weekend to work on the primer. I think these are all the relevant and current matchups that I can think of (minus Stoneblade, will do that later). I have some stuff written on card choices, such as Stoneforge Mystic, but nothing primer-presentable yet.

Read the matchups and let me know if I should add anything specific (interactions, what cards to board out, or just more detail into the matchup). Keep in mind, this is still all rough draft.

Show & Tell (Sneak-Show, Omni-Tell, etc.)
Game 1 is usually an auto-loss, but play it out anyways. Remember Leonin Bola stops Emrakul cold, and remember that you can use your opponent’s Show and Tell to cheat your own Stoneforge Mystic into play. Then, you can use SFM to find Leonin Bola and safely Vial it in after you untap. Post-board, O-Rings are your best defense, but you don’t want to mulligan just because you didn’t draw O-Ring, since you should have other outs. As said before, Leonin Bola is a good out against Sneak-Show. Ethersworn Canonist makes your hands keepable if you know you are facing Omni-Tell or even Hive Mind.

There’s not much the S&T player can bring with them post-board, other than bounce or Pyroclasm. Don’t play into Pyroclasm by overextending your offense.

+3 O-Ring


Storm Combo
Again, another likely game 1 loss, but if you MD Ethersworn Canonist, you do have a shot sometimes. Mindbreak Trap is nice in that it makes your Storm opponent think twice before trying to goldfish on their first turn 1, but they can also choose to play more slowly and try to clear your hand of MBTs with discard. Bringing in Canonist alongside MBT is a very good complementary pairing as both cards require different sets of answers. Grafdigger’s Cage is another good option if you are playing against ANT since it also shuts off any kill via Past in Flames. Again, your post-board chances increase if you know what kind of Storm deck you’re facing.

+4 Ethersworn Canonist
+3 Mindbreak Trap

Miracles
Play conservatively. Every creature you decide to cast, think carefully about why you’re casting it. If you don’t, then you’re just throwing away creatures to your opponent’s Terminus that you could have saved. Say you have two Ornithopters in your hand, and you’re able to cast Thoughtcast for after just playing one Thopter. Do you need to cast the second Thopter? Just hold it back, because if your opponent resolves Terminus and you have Plating down, you can turn that extra Thopter into a powerful threat by itself. Play your most important threats last. Tezzeret is your best card against Miracles. The moment you resolve a Tezzeret, the game is YOURS. To make that happen, you have to bait Miracle to expend all their removal and countermagic to clear the way for Tezzeret.

+4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

Burn
This matchup isn’t as bad as people make it out to be. Just play tight, and don’t recklessly play lands you don’t need unless you want to be finished off by Price of Progress. SFM + Batterskull help a great deal, though. Oblivion Ring can be brought in to answer Sulfuric Vortex or simply stop Grim Lavamancer.

High Tide
Same as Storm, except only better since it’s apparently harder for High Tide to deal with both Mindbreak Trap and Ethersworn Canonist, backed up an aggro deck that can easily win on turns 4-5.

+4 Ethersworn Canonist
+3 Mindbreak Trap

Elves!
Game 1 can go either way, since they can combo out with Glimpse or you can simply overpower them if they choose to go aggro. Ethersworn Canonist effective roadblocks both their combo and aggro routes post-board. SFM + Jitte is also handy. Be wary of Natural Order. Grafdigger’s Cage is a good solution to NO and it conveniently stops Green Sun’s Zenith as well. Phyrexian Revoker is also a good sideboard card if you run it.

+4 Ethersworn Canonist
+3 Grafdigger’s Cage

Jund
Oh boy, is this a miserable matchup, more so if they run Punishing Fire + Grove of the Burnwillows. It’s usually a dogfight to see which deck is left standing, except Jund is usually left standing, but you can put up a good fight with SFM and Academy Ruins. Tezzeret is optionable to bring in post-board, but you just have to remember to animate Darksteel Citadel into an indestructible 5/5 the moment you resolve Tezzeret. Jund players can’t beat a 5/5 indestructible without Liliana. You might think this is crazy, but board out your Equipment above all else if you are sideboarding. This includes Cranial Plating. The Jund matchup is a test of the individual merit of your cards. Jund has plenty of creature removal, they will make your Plating useless by wiping out your offense. Keep one Plating in, though.

Belcher/Rogue Hermit
Mindbreak Trap and Canonist. Hope for the best.

Goblins
Etched Champion is king here. Like Burn, don’t underestimate the Goblins player because they will win out of nowhere if you do. If they have Lackey, always hold back at least two creatures, in case they try to surprise you with an EOT Gempalm Incinerator or Vialed-in Stingscourger. I just bring in only O-Rings post-board. Masters aren’t very useful as they will always get chumped and it does nothing against Piledriver, so they can be boarded out.

Maverick
Not really a good matchup, but luckily the deck’s popularity isn’t what it used to be. Etched Champion is amazing, but it can only buy you so much time. Maverick has easy access to Scryb Ranger with GSZ, and Scryb Ranger is a massive annoyance, which usually spells game over if it’s equipped with a Jitte. Post-board, the worst cards they can bring against you are Krosan Grip or they can run a E-tutor package including the god-awful card Serenity.

Delver
They will usually have Daze, so you have to play around it, because resolving a Stoneforge Mystic or Master of Etherium is going to be very problematic for the Delver deck since they run few removal spells. Canonist is very annoying against Delver decks since that deck relies on sequencing cantrips with threats and removal or countermagic.

+4 Canonist

Dredge
You lose G1, bring in Cages for G2 and G3. Not much to talk about here.

+4 Grafdigger’s Cage

Reanimator
Your worst fear is your Reanimator opponent casting EOT Entomb and Exhuming Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite on turn 2. Prevent this from happening with Grafdigger’s Cage, and if they try to go the Show and Tell route, stop them with Oblivion Ring. Don’t walk into Daze, so always keep one mana open when casting Cage.

[Smea.gol.lum]

Looks promising ;) Keep up the good work!

[EradiKate]

In case anyone is looking for alternative takes on Affinity, this one is fairly strong if the metagame swings another way.

Mana
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Mox Opal
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Springleaf Drum
3 Vault of Whispers
1 Island
1 Paradise Mantle
1 Swamp

Creatures
4 Master of Etherium
4 Memnite
4 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Dark Confidant
3 Ornithopter
2 Etched Champion

Draw/search
4 Thoughtcast
1 Steelshaper's Gift

Blowouts
4 Cranial Plating
4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
1 Fling

Do you find yourself having trouble with dead Opals in hand, seeing as you're running 4 and have Bob in addition to TC as draw engines? Would you consider running Ravager instead of Revoker?

[ehotonic]

Had some time this weekend to work on the primer. I think these are all the relevant and current matchups that I can think of (minus Stoneblade, will do that later). I have some stuff written on card choices, such as Stoneforge Mystic, but nothing primer-presentable yet.

Read the matchups and let me know if I should add anything specific (interactions, what cards to board out, or just more detail into the matchup). Keep in mind, this is still all rough draft.

I take it your primer here is for your Esper Affinity you posted above? I really like the looks of this one -- I had been running the straight-forward UB Tezzeret Affinity (but without the Ravagers -- just went with the ol' swarm and swing with Plating). Anyway, just got a playset of SFMs, so I'm going with your list to a couple local tournaments this weekend.

Few questions:

1. How often do you have dead draws with the Mox? I'm always worried about running 4 legendary anything... I'm gonna run 2 and I think a pair of Glimmervoid. I'm skeptical of the Glimmervoids since this build doesn't necessarily always dump a bunch of artifacts on the table first turn, but we'll see.

2. Have you messed with Spell Pierce in your SB at all?

Alright, I'll see how it goes this weekend and report back. There's a good amount of combo in my meta, so I love the Ethersworn Cannonist addition.

[Shawon]

1. How often do you have dead draws with the Mox? I'm always worried about running 4 legendary anything... I'm gonna run 2 and I think a pair of Glimmervoid. I'm skeptical of the Glimmervoids since this build doesn't necessarily always dump a bunch of artifacts on the table first turn, but we'll see.

It happens sometimes, but I just don't worry about it. Mox Opal is good you always you want it in your opening hand. Three Opals in your hand are better than none. Besides, you can still make use of your extra Opals if you just Legend-out your existing Opal and then play a new Opal and tap it. Granted, it's much sweeter to utilize extra Opals with Arcbound Ravager, but I think you're fine with running 4 Opal.

Don't run Glimmervoid, it's terrible. If you need extra colored mana besides 4 Opal/Drum, run Paradise Mantle.

2. Have you messed with Spell Pierce in your SB at all?

I actually MD'd Spell Pierces for a while. I cut them because Abrupt Decay came out. Running Spell Pierces could be revisited, but at the moment I don't think I need them.

[ehotonic]

Yeah, didn't think about chaining out the mox-es if I draw into them or have a couple in hand. I only own two at the moment, so that's how I'm going into it, hah Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes this weekend -- it will be a very broad meta, too, so it should be instructive.

[Geeksire]

Hello everyone. I have been in The Source for a while and have been fascinated with Affinity quite a lot! It is awesome! I spend quite a lot of time looking at the Goblin thread and GoboLord is quite awesome in providing feedback to us all. Now, it is time to make another deck and that is Affinity! The reason I am here is because I have seen Affinity change a lot and I was wondering, would you all critique my deck to see what is right or wrong?

Here is my list : D

Creatures [25]
4x Vault Skirges'
4x Memnites'
4x Ornithopters'
4x Signal Pests'
3x Etched Champions'
3x Master of Etheriums'
3x Stoneforge Mystics'

Artifacts [10]
4x Cranial Platings'
3x Mox Opals'
2x Springleaf Drums'
1x Umezawa's Jitte

Spells [10]
4x Galvanic Blasts'
4x Thoughtcasts'
2x Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

Land [15]
4x Ancient Dens'
3x Ancient Tombs'
3x Glimmervoids'
3x Seat of Synods'
2x Great Furnaces'

-----------------------------------
Sideboard [15]
4x Chalice of the Void
3x Ethersworn Canonist
3x Rest in Peace
3x Spell Pierce
2x Disenchants'

Hope this is good! I have been playtesting it in Cockatrice and found that it has worked very well, but I was wondering why nobody is running Arcbound Ravager and Disciple of the Vault anymore. Is it being countered too much? Thanks! On a side note, has anybody tried Infiltration Lens in Affinity? I have always wanted to try it since it can let our guys draw cards for what we need.

http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/ca...verseid=205480

From a fellow Goblin fan who wants to also make an Affinity deck!

[Shawon]

<List>

Hope this is good! I have been playtesting it in Cockatrice and found that it has worked very well, but I was wondering why nobody is running Arcbound Ravager and Disciple of the Vault anymore. Is it being countered too much? Thanks! On a side note, has anybody tried Infiltration Lens in Affinity? I have always wanted to try it since it can let our guys draw cards for what we need.

Times have changed, and no one is scared about Ravager + Disciple. Ravager is still good enough in Affinity, but Disciple is lackluster without Ravager.

Re: List

Cut Galvanic Blast. It's a sweet card, and it is by no means 'bad' in Affinity, but the more you play with Blast the more you will realize how little you need it in the matchups you are trying to improve (e.g. combo). Galvanic Blast is a really really good burn spell, but Affinity doesn't need Burn, (not in this metagame anyway).

Don't ever shave artifact lands, least of all Seat of the Synod. I can assume you are trying to make your manabase more resistant to extreme hate such as Energy Flux or Null Rod, but no deck you will consistently face (DTBs et al) are ever going to pack either of those two hate cards. Furthermore, you're just making the deck less consistent in general. Cut the Glimmervoids + Great Furnaces and add more artifact lands (4th Seat and 4 Vault of Whispers).

Signal Pest is such a cheap and aggressive card. I love the card, but it has horrible defense and it highlight's some of the deck's weaknesses you should try to avoid (weak toughness -> Punishing Fire/Umezawa's Jitte/Forked Bolt/Lots of other stuff). Signal Pest is also much better if you run 12 free guys (including Frogmite).

You need a total of 4 Tezzeret between all the cards in your MD and SB. They're much better than Disenchant against control, so take out Disenchants.

Rest in Peace is too slow, and requires white mana. Grafdigger's Cage is half the cost and an artifact, and thus much more likely to resolve or even cast against Reanimator before becoming irrelevant.

Infiltration Lens is way too conditional. BTW, you can wrap a tag (type [cards] in front of a card name and close it off with the same tag except with a backslash in front of 'Cards') that lets posters see a card's image above the card.