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Main » Articles » A Modern Affinity Primer

A Modern Affinity Primer

Melissa DeTora
Posted on January 19, 2012
 Reddit

The Modern season has finally begun, and it’s time to switch focus from Standard to Modern. PTQs have already started, and the metagame is slowly beginning to evolve. In my next few articles, I’m going to focus on some Modern strategies, and I’d like to start with a deck that has been very dominant across many formats: Affinity.

Affinity has been a deck ever since the mechanic was released in Mirrodin back in 2003. At first, Affinity decks were much slower and played cards such as Broodstar and Assert Authority, but when Darksteel came out, we were introduced to cards such as Arcbound Ravager, Skullclamp, and Aether Vial. Affinity soon became the most broken deck in Standard. The deck was so good that artifact hate had to be played maindeck just to have a shot to win. Affinity showed up in Top 8s everywhere and usually took at least six slots of each Top 8. Right after Regionals that year, Skullclamp was banned from Standard. Here’s what Affinity looked like back then . . . before the banning of Skullclamp:

"Skullclamp Affinity"

Affinity evolved without Skullclamp, and it continued to dominate Standard. When Fifth Dawn came out, Affinity got another new toy: Cranial Plating. Affinity was already the best deck in Standard; it didn’t need that, too! Players became so frustrated with the dominance of Affinity that tournament attendance significantly dropped. WotC eventually figured out that something needed to be done about the dominance of Affinity, and eight cards were banned from Standard, including Arcbound Ravager, Disciple of the Vault, and all six artifact lands, effectively removing the deck from the Standard metagame.

Affinity could still be played, and it proved to be a force in Extended, winning Pro Tour: Columbus in 2005. In a metagame with cards from as far back as Tempest, a relatively new mechanic proved to be the best. Here’s the deck list that won the Pro Tour:

"Extended Affinity"

This deck was a powerhouse. The combo of Arcbound Ravager and Disciple of the Vault made it so you could kill your opponent instantly if his life total was lower than your artifact count. Also, Aether Vial allowed you to play creatures for free and at instant speed, and it got around counterspells. It also let you play Meddling Mage without hurting your mana base at all. More bannings happened, and Aether Vial and Disciple of the Vault got the axe. The deck was able to survive the bannings and was still heavily played in Extended.

Over the next few years, Affinity has always been a format staple in Extended. Although it was never the best deck, it has always consistently done well.

How can this deck make the leap to Modern? With most of the artifact lands banned, it may be difficult. However, with powerful burn spells like Shrapnel Blast and Galvanic Blast, and two different lands that become artifact creatures, it is still quite powerful. Here is an Affinity list for Modern:

"Modern Affinity"

Here’s a brief explanation of card choices:

The Lands

There are twleve artifact lands in the deck to help us cast our Frogmites early and to enable metalcraft. Although it costs a mana to activate the Nexuses, once activated, you can cast multiple Frogmites in a single turn. In addition, an activated Nexus helps us enable metalcraft for our Mox Opals and Etched Champions.

The creature lands are pretty self-explanatory. Extra creatures in an aggro deck are always good, and flying creatures can wield a Cranial Plating very well. An Inkmoth Nexus with a Plating equipped is usually lethal the turn it attacks.

We have ten ways to cast our colored spells: three Glimmervoids, four Mox Opals, and three Springleaf Drums. It really isn’t a lot, but we only need to draw one of those ten cards over the course of a game. Springleaf Drum doubles as mana acceleration, enabling some very powerful draws.

The Creatures

There are eight free creatures to enable our affinity and help with our explosive starts. Vault Skirge is in our 1-mana slot. It’s a good, evasive creature that’s great at carrying a Cranial Plating. The lifelink ability is often relevant as well.

Arcbound Ravager is insane. It usually survives in combat against most creatures, and its counters can move to any unblocked creature at instant speed. It’s a very versatile creature and the backbone of the deck.

Etched Champion is easily the best creature in the deck. Most decks have zero ways of dealing with him once you have metalcraft. If you equip a Cranial Plating on him, it’s game over against most decks. It also helps that he survives things like Firespout and Volcanic Fallout.

The Other Spells

There are four Cranial Platings and two Steelshaper's Gifts to find them. Cranial Plating is arguably the best card in the deck. Usually, a creature with an equipped Cranial Plating can attack for 10 or more damage, so it’s important to draw at least one every game.

There are eight efficient burn spells in the deck to end the game after your opponent has already dealt with all of your creatures. Shrapnel Blast deals damage equal to 25% of your opponent’s life total, which is a lot! There have been plenty of games I’ve played over the years in which I got my opponent to 10 life and just double–Shrapnel Blasted him out. And let’s face it: Sometimes, there are games in which you just need creature removal, and both Shrapnel and Galvanic Blast serve that purpose as well.

What Didn’t Make the Cut?

There are a few cards that are absent from this list, but arguments can be made for their place in the deck. The first card is Myr Enforcer. I’m a big fan of this card. It’s huge, survives burn spells, and is bigger than most creatures in the format. Without artifact lands, it’s a lot tougher to cast this guy for free, but he can usually be cast for 2 or 3 mana. If Etched Champion wasn’t around, Myr Enforcer would probably see play in the deck. The problem is that Etched Champion is so good—and is practically unkillable—so Myr Enforcer can’t make the cut right now.

Master of Etherium is another card that didn’t make the cut. Again, he is a card that is worse without the artifact lands in the format. He can also be difficult to cast because of his colored mana requirement. There are times when Master of Etherium can win games, but if I’m going to pay 3 mana for a creature, I’m going to want it to win games on its own and be very difficult for my opponent to deal with. Etched Champion makes the cut over Master of Etherium.

Signal Pest is another good card for this deck. It can create some explosive starts. The downside is that it’s bad on its own and is just an awful late-game top-deck if you have no other creatures or a Cranial Plating in play. I think Vault Skirge is just better right now in that slot, but I can see the argument for playing Signal Pest.

The Sideboard

This sideboard was built so that you don’t have to dilute the deck with many non-artifact spells. As you can see, most of the cards in the sideboard are artifacts, which is important because if you side out too many artifacts, your deck will become less consistent.

The Blood Moons are great in this deck. They shut down a lot of decks in the format and don’t hurt your mana base at all. With Blood Moon in play, the Darksteel Citadels still count as artifacts—although it is a Mountain, it doesn’t lose its types. Blood Moon shuts down your creature lands, but that’s a small price to pay when it can shut down an entire deck’s mana base. Most of the three-colored decks play only one or two basic lands, and sometimes they don’t play any at all. It also helps that your colored spells are all red. This is a very important sideboard card in this deck.

Ethersworn Canonist is the anti-combo card. It’s for the storm-based decks and for any deck that is trying to play multiple spell in a turn. Since the Canonist is both an artifact and a creature, bringing it in doesn’t hurt the strategy of the deck.

Tormod's Crypt stops any graveyard-based strategies. Crypt is better in this deck than cards like Nihil Spellbomb or Relic of Progenitus because those cards are too slow in a deck that is trying to cast creatures and beat down. Since Tormod's Crypt is free, you can still curve out with your creatures and not waste any time casting and activating a Spellbomb.

The Thoughtseize is for the hate out there. If anyone is packing any mass artifact removal—like Creeping Corrosion, Shattering Spree, or even Wrath of God effects—you want to bring in Thoughtseize. You don’t want your opponent messing up your plan, so this cheap discard spell is perfect. I wouldn’t side it in against decks with only spot removal. Thoughtseize isn’t very effective against cards like Ancient Grudge or Doom Blade–like effects. If our opponent is trying to two- (or more) for-one you, Thoughtseize is the card you want.

Finally, Whipflare provides us with additional removal for the aggro deck, and it doesn’t hurt our creatures at all.

As for what cards to side out, that obviously depends on the matchup, but it’s important to remember that your creature and artifact count can’t be too low. For example, if you are playing against control, and you’re bringing in Thoughtseize, you probably want to side out Galvanic Blasts. Siding out artifacts will just make your deck worse and inconsistent. You don’t want too many non-artifact, non-creature spells in the deck.

Just remember that although this deck is an aggro deck, it plays out very much like a combo deck. Usually, you play your entire hand in one turn. So in order to do that, your deck needs to be consistent with cheap artifacts and creatures.

I hope this primer gives you some insight into playing Affinity—or even how to play against it. I hope you try out this list at an upcoming PTQ. Affinity is very powerful in the current Modern metagame, and there’s not as much hate for it as there should be.

Be sure to look for more Modern articles from me in the upcoming weeks. Thanks for reading, and good luck at your PTQs!

TAGS articles, constructed, deck lists, modern, melissa detora

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