This week’s video will be a Modern Daily event using an Affinity brew. For reference, here is the list:
Creatures (27)
Lands (16)
Spells (17)
Sideboard
While Affinity hasn’t really seen as much play as it should, the deck is definitely powerful, though it has some pretty glaring weaknesses. If the opponent doesn’t pack a decent amount of hate, you should be able to overwhelm them pretty easily.
The maindeck has a few cards I wanted to test out, namely Dark Confidant and Thoughtseize. I’ve been playing with Etched Champion and Shrapnel Blast in those slots, but I just didn’t like either of those cards very much. While Etched Champion was pretty good, costing three is just a bit too much, and you can’t really afford to wait that long to cast an evasive threat.
I haven’t really liked Ornithopter too much in the deck, but I really never have. It is a necessary inclusion due to Mox Opal and Springleaf Drum but still one that I am not happy about. At the very least, you have a lot of cards that make it actually do something, but as a standalone it is just the worst, hence why I am playing only three copies.
As for the board, I expect to face off against Affinity at least once per Daily, and having Ancient Grudge filled out is pretty sick. There are other decks that play artifacts, but Affinity is the main reason for running this particular card.
Ethersworn Canonist is specifically to combat Storm but is okay against most combo decks. Without the ability to cast a second spell, most combo decks won’t be able to “go off” in a single turn.
Blood Moon is for a variety of control decks, but really just comes in against any deck that it can lock out of the game. Blood Moon is almost unbeatable for a lot of decks, so playing it just seems correct. With Mox Opal and Springleaf Drum to cast your spells while still under Blood Moon, the effect is marginal against you at best. Shutting off your Blinkmoth and Inkmoth Nexus is not fun, but I would rather lock my opponent out of the game.
Spellskite comes in against Jund and Splinter Twin, since it acts as a Lightning Rod of sorts, and blanks a lot of removal to boot. Thoughtseize is a pretty solid catch-all answer to combo and control, and comes in whenever you have some mediocre cards to side out.
Overall I think Affinity is probably the best aggressive deck in the format, but it doesn’t have some obvious drawbacks. There are a lot of cards you can draw that are do-nothings, but you still have to play them. When combined with the other cards in your deck, these do-nothings form a powerful machine, but one that can easily be disrupted. A single Ancient Grudge can be devastating, so keep that in mind if you decide to pick up Affinity for the next PTQ.
Deck
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Hope you enjoyed!
Thanks for watching.
-Todd
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