Affinity was never very big in Legacy. Back in 2011 it won a major tournament which put it on the map, but even then it was probably no better than tier 1.5.
Since then Affinity has gotten very little help while the rest of the format has gotten upgrades like Delver, Terminus/Entreat, Pyromancer, Stage/Depth, DRS, Mentor, and more. Affinity has more or less been left in the dust.
That said, I think there are very few people brewing/testing/pushing the archetype. Day's Undoing and Black Vise are both cards now, and I think Affinity has more potential than is indicated by its results.
You tend to see it in 20-30 player events in the UK- lots of people own the Modern version and can build it easily, its decent enough without being top tier, people here tend to have less issues about playing a deck that is not top tier, we tend to be less blue than some countries. It tends to be run with Tez to give it access to boarding into more of a Tez control list.
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I haven't really been to any real legacy events yet but this kinda surprises me as it's a popular modern deck and shouldn't be hard to port into legacy, unless there's something I'm missing?
I haven't really been to any real legacy events yet but this kinda surprises me as it's a popular modern deck and shouldn't be hard to port into legacy, unless there's something I'm missing?
Legacy is more hostile to it. The most popular control deck plays a 1 CMC wrath, there are numerous combo decks than can win faster, and other creature swarm strategies are much more disruptive. The blazing fast starts are also a lot less reliable with free countermagic available, so it has to slow down a little bit to not get blown out. It's not a bad deck. It's mostly just facing more difficult competition.
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I haven't really been to any real legacy events yet but this kinda surprises me as it's a popular modern deck and shouldn't be hard to port into legacy, unless there's something I'm missing?
Legacy is more hostile to it. The most popular control deck plays a 1 CMC wrath, there are numerous combo decks than can win faster, and other creature swarm strategies are much more disruptive. The blazing fast starts are also a lot less reliable with free countermagic available, so it has to slow down a little bit to not get blown out. It's not a bad deck. It's mostly just facing more difficult competition.
I guess that's true, the fast starts in modern are probably helped due to the lack of free counter magic
Most blue decks play countermagic or at least cheap interactive cards that are also good against affinity. Or just outright faster like blue combo putting in a griselbrand usually wins the game against affinity short of affinity having a stacked board including arcbound ravager to prevent brand lifegain.
Day's undoing is not good in affinity. For one mana more you get tezz, which actually just kills the turn after it lands with its ult and doesn't draw the opponent a fresh 7 that could just kill you on the spot, find something like hurkyl's recall, or give your opponent a 7 that is just plain better than your 7, which is pretty easy since ornithopter, springleaf drum, etc. etc. are not good on turn 4 usually. You'd probably be better off with compulsive research or perilous research and those certainly aren't good. Would definitely play 4 thoughtcast before any other card draw spell by default as U to draw 2 is hard to beat in efficiency in affinity.
I'd say affinity is tier 3 at best. Lots of decks exist in legacy, but a lot aren't played a whole lot like enchantress/affinity/tons of other fringe strategies.
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I played Affinity for quite a while in Legacy. Shelved it, haven't seen any new cards to warrant me dusting it off.
Affinity just has much stronger opponents in Legacy, and now that Chalice, Thorn etc. are more prevalent, Affinity is going to struggle to get it done on the draw.
Affinity is neat because it is one of the few Modern decks that can vomit its whole hand onto the board by turn two. In Legacy, you will walk into a Terminus or have your modular trigger get Stifled or the Eldrazi just out-muscle you or none of it matters because you play an Oops All Spells player and your only hope is aggressive mulling to sideboarded Surgicals.
Deck is dead in Legacy, nobody will miss it. A good game vs. Affinity is still less satisfying than a bad game vs. one of the tiered Legacy decks.
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Since then Affinity has gotten very little help while the rest of the format has gotten upgrades like Delver, Terminus/Entreat, Pyromancer, Stage/Depth, DRS, Mentor, and more. Affinity has more or less been left in the dust.
That said, I think there are very few people brewing/testing/pushing the archetype. Day's Undoing and Black Vise are both cards now, and I think Affinity has more potential than is indicated by its results.
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I guess that's true, the fast starts in modern are probably helped due to the lack of free counter magic
I use affinity often in my lgs.
Day's undoing is not good in affinity. For one mana more you get tezz, which actually just kills the turn after it lands with its ult and doesn't draw the opponent a fresh 7 that could just kill you on the spot, find something like hurkyl's recall, or give your opponent a 7 that is just plain better than your 7, which is pretty easy since ornithopter, springleaf drum, etc. etc. are not good on turn 4 usually. You'd probably be better off with compulsive research or perilous research and those certainly aren't good. Would definitely play 4 thoughtcast before any other card draw spell by default as U to draw 2 is hard to beat in efficiency in affinity.
I'd say affinity is tier 3 at best. Lots of decks exist in legacy, but a lot aren't played a whole lot like enchantress/affinity/tons of other fringe strategies.
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Affinity just has much stronger opponents in Legacy, and now that Chalice, Thorn etc. are more prevalent, Affinity is going to struggle to get it done on the draw.
Deck is dead in Legacy, nobody will miss it. A good game vs. Affinity is still less satisfying than a bad game vs. one of the tiered Legacy decks.
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