“Affinity is this year’s U/G Madness.”
Chris Fox
Chris, local player and recent addition to my playtesting group the High Plains Drifters, is pretty much right on the ball, if you’ve played around with affinity-based decks. It’s much like the aggro-control U/G Madness decks – drop some early threats that are both undercosted and large, back them up with a pinch of countermagic, and win the game before it gets into a war of attrition.
The parallels between the two decks are astounding. Both have cheap 4/4 creatures (Arrogant Wurm/Myr Enforcer), soft counters (Circular Logic/Override), fat fliers (Roar of the Wurm tokens with Wonder/Broodstar), cheap card drawing (Deep Analysis/Thoughtcast) and a smattering of bounce (Unsummon/Aether Spellbomb). Spooky, huh?
And to think, you could have gotten four Broodstars for less than a buck about two weeks ago. You had your chance.
When I started playing with affinity, I started with mono-blue and what I thought was the right number of lands, twenty-two. It did decently, but I discovered that twenty-two lands were too many (!) and you needed more artifact lands to help fuel affinity. It also confirmed that Vedalken Archmage is no Verduran Enchantress.
Since rush decks presented the biggest problem, I added red for Great Furnace and Pyrite Spellbombs – but not Atog or Shrapnel Blast, which are counter to the central purpose of the deck, which wants more artifacts, not less.
More artifacts helped the affinity aspect considerably, but something was still missing. I needed more cowbell…Er, artifacts!
So which ones?
The U/R core of my affinity deck looks like this:
4 Mana Leak
3 Override
4 Thoughtcast
4 Thirst for Knowledge
3 Welding Jar
4 Pyrite Spellbomb
2 Aether Spellbomb
2 Lightning Greaves
4 Frogmite
4 Myr Enforcer
3 Broodstar
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Great Furnace
4 Glimmervoid
2 Island
A few explanations before continuing on to my choices to fill out the deck – or you can skip ahead a few paragraphs if the tension is too much for you.
Aether and Pyrite Spellbombs
Interesting creatures, these. Quite frequently, I’ll sacrifice these for cards rather than using them. Pyrite Spellbombs are great against Goblins and Silver Knights. I find I’m not using the Aether variety for bounce as much as I am for affinity costs and card drawing. Still, the ability to bounce a creature and counter it afterwards, or set up for a big alpha strike – not to mention the incredible cheapness of the card – means I find room for two, but only two.
Lightning Greaves
I forget who told me to try these in the deck. I scoffed at first-the deck isn’t that creature heavy, and do I really need this particular artifact over other worthy candidates? Turns out, yes. With the equip cost of zero, it’s not using any mana once cast; it provides haste, making those Myr Enforcers and Broodstars a scarier threat (if that’s possible) and makes creatures untouchable, meaning you’d better kill those creatures in response to equipping or it’s a world of hurt coming your way.
Frogmite
There are those who hate the Crunchy Frog, there are those who swear by him. Put me in the latter category. He’s been compared to Basking Rootwalla, but it might better be compared to Nightscape Familiar, filling the same role that that card did in early U/B Psychatog builds, ramping up to earlier Upheavals. In Frogmite’s case, he ramps you up to bigger Broodstars and Myr Enforcers.
A 2/2 for two mana, which is what it often costs on turn 2, is nothing to scoff at. Old-school Sligh decks would love to have a 2/2 for two with no drawbacks. A free 2/2, which you can get early, is pretty good too, and when equipped with Lightning Greaves, makes a very effective blocker against Goblins. Just don’t overextend against mono-black, which will make you pay with Infest or Decree of Pain.
Chrome Mox and Welding Jar
What, no Chrome Mox? Nope. That card is one of the most overrated cards, in my notoriously humble opinion, to come down the pipe in quite a while. Even in affinity, which seems like its natural home. The mana acceleration doesn’t outweigh the loss of card advantage.
If you just paid big bucks for four of them, in a month or two you’ll be kicking yourself – you could have used that money to go buy the Indiana Jones DVD box set – and still have money left over for a Mox or two.
There are those who argue that you can play it without imprint to accelerate affinity. To wit, I reply,”Then why wouldn’t you play Welding Jar?” Or if you say it’s good to feed to Thirst to Knowledge, then I ask,”Why wouldn’t you play Welding Jar?”
In addition to costing nothing, Welding Jar can save a Lodestone Myr or Myr Enforcer from a Shatter or other removal spell. An unimprinted Chrome Mox, on the other hand, sits there. Alone. In the dark. Wondering why nobody calls.
Similarly, even though you are running a three-color deck, you don’t really need Chromatic Sphere – another card that seems like a natural addition. I played around with it and found, heck, even being a cantrip, I’d rather use the Spellbombs as a one-drop artifact.
Lands
Glimmervoid’s drawback is almost never a drawback, thanks to the artifact lands. I tried a sixteen-land build, but found you needed a few extra blue sources to fuel counters and card drawing, so I added two extra Islands. Why not City of Brass? Because I didn’t want painlands, and these get around a potentially annoying Blood Moon.
The base is solid – 51 cards – but needs nine maindeck cards and a sideboard. Which color will be the splash? Black offers goodies like Tendrils of Agony, Persecute, and Dark Banishing. White offers Second Sunrise, Karma, and Circle of Protection: Red.
Green offers…nothing that red, white or black don’t already have. So green is out as the third color.
Which takes us to the first Affinity deck:
UBR Affinity
4 Mana Leak
3 Override
4 Thoughtcast
4 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Tendrils of Agony
3 Welding Jar
4 Pyrite Spellbomb
2 Aether Spellbomb
2 Lightning Greaves
3 Talisman of Dominance
4 Frogmite
4 Myr Enforcer
3 Broodstar
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Great Furnace
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Glimmervoid
2 Island
Sideboard
4 Shatter
4 Pyroclasm
3 Persecute
2 Dark Banishing
2 Assert Authority
Aside from the three Talismans of Dominance, which smooth out the mana base and get you the double blue and double black you need, the only notable addition to the main deck is Tendrils of Agony. This is an amazing finisher when you have a few cards in your hand. The ability to drop several free affinity spells, then this bomb, usually results in the end of the game-at least a twelve to sixteen point swing in life. There are times, though, that this card will come up and you can’t maximize it. That happens very infrequently, though, making this card worth running in the main deck. Two copies are about right, as you don’t want to draw it early, but later, when it can be used as your finisher.
Nim Shrieker has been suggested as an addition, and I strongly recommend not playing that card. An 8/1 flier can be pretty good…. But that one point of toughness means it’s dead meat against anything with burn. Or Infest. Or Decree of Pain. Far too fragile, Broodstar is the better choice, and when you have four mana to cast it, it’s a 6/6 flier – considerably tougher, albeit a Terror target.
The sideboard has Shatter for other affinity decks and as defense against other potentially aggravating artifacts, like Damping Matrix and Oblivion Stone – Shatter gets the nod over Annul since it can deal with threats in play, although this does mean you lose any defense you might have against enchantments. Persecute is good against MBC, mono-white, Goblins and U/W, playable on turn three and, with Glimmervoid and mana-producing Talismans in the deck, the double black is seldom an issue. Pyroclasm is anti-Goblin defense – and quite good it is, too.
The final four slots are still up for contention. Dark Banishing is there to handle large threats that get past your countermagic, like Exalted Angel or Rorix Bladewing, that can’t be taken care of via Pyrite Spellbomb. Dark Banishing gets the nod over Terror, since it can destroy other Enforcers and Grid Monitors. Assert Authority sucks when you draw it early, but does give you a weapon against graveyard recursion – and by the time you can cast it, costs as much as a Dissipate would. Still, against an aggro-control deck like affinity, by the time an opponent is bringing back Eternal Dragon or Hammer of Bogardan back from the graveyard, they should have lost. There are many other good candidates for the final four slots, including Stabilizer if Astral Slide decks are a worry, Terror, Scrabbling Claws, or even Detonate.
I don’t care for Damping Matrix, for while it does shut down opposing Oblivion Stones, it also shuts down a good portion of the affinity deck.
That’s one build. What about the white version? It’s a wee bit different.
UWR Affinity
4 Mana Leak
3 Override
4 Thoughtcast
4 Thirst for Knowledge
3 Welding Jar
4 Pyrite Spellbomb
2 Aether Spellbomb
2 Lightning Greaves
3 Talisman of Progress
4 Frogmite
4 Myr Enforcer
2 Lodestone Myr
3 Broodstar
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Great Furnace
4 Ancient Den
4 Glimmervoid
2 Island
Sideboard
3 Shatter
4 Pyroclasm
3 Second Sunrise
2 Tempest of Light
3 Karma
It doesn’t seem all that radically different – but what a difference a few cards make! The biggest alteration in UWR Affinity is the replacement of Tendrils of Agony with Lodestone Myr, which, I confess, I’m not completely sold on. It can be a house, a great finisher with trample to get past any defense, and very effective staying at home as a blocker. And sometimes it feels like a really overpriced creature. But it’s the best creature for that slot, at least for now.
In addition to Pyroclasm and Shatter in the sideboard, white gives the deck Second Sunrise as a protection-from-Wrath spell – one I’m not sure belongs, but it’s there for now. Stabilizer may take this slot eventually. Karma ends the game quickly against mono-black, and Tempest of Light was added for a pinch of enchantment removal the deck otherwise lacks.
Personally, while the version with white offers superior defensive cards, given the aggro-control nature of the deck, I feel the version with black is better in the current environment. However, this version is much stronger against Brian Kibler Aggro-Zombies than UBR Affinity – and Kibler’s version scares me.
There are a few other cards out there that scare me. Akroma’s Vengeance is one, obviously, since it would pretty much wipe out your mana base – but I don’t know how many decks will be playing what amounts to a more expensive Wrath. If Affinity catches on, maybe more. Blood Moon also has the potential to be a hoser, and one that Goblin decks could easily pack in their sideboards.
The card that scares me the most, though, is March of the Machines. This card would all but destroy Affinity. Outside of a deck built specifically around that card, though (and perhaps U/W control), there’s no deck that would run it.
So that’s Affinity. The deck is fast, it’s competitive and by God, it’s a lot of fun to play – and perhaps the rightful heir to the brokenness that was U/G madness.
Gentlemen (and ladies), start your engines.
* – If Frogmite is the Crunchy Frog, does that make Myr Enforcer the Cherry Fondle? Or Almond Swirl? Or am I just throwing out these arcane references for my own amusement?**
** – Yeah, probably.