Well, I was shocked when I realised there was no affinity primer here. So I figured I'd go ahead and make one. Affinity is one of the best tier 1 decks in the format, noted for absolutely CRUSHING most blue-based decks. It can have an easy combo win with Atog, or just attack with a bunch of 4/4s and still easily win. This is a meta deck, for the most part: if there is alot of delver blue, play affinity and get free tickets.
I like to call this version the rush version. It isn't perfect, though: it can get some god-awful draws and has problems dealing with mana pockets(like alot of decks). Anyhow, there are two other popular lists: I suppose you could call them the Sunchaser version and the mana rocks version. The mana rocks version is more based on combo with atog and fling. Personally, I don't like the mana rocks version, but thats just me. Sunchaser, if I remember correctly, is better vs removal-centric decks such as cloudpost and mono-black control. Lately, the sunchaser and mana-rocks version have been being combined. For fariness' sake, here is a sunchaser version:
I have a few critiques about this deck, mainly the sideboard. First, the lack of carapace forger and disciple of the vault is puzzling, but I suppose it's excusable with all the other creatures. My main gripe with the sideboard are Nihil Spellbomb and Rain of Embers. I would like to know what rain of embers is for: it might be nice tech. I would suggest exchanging the nihil spellbomb and the rain of embers(unless its important) for either 2 duress or 2 scar. The scar would be big for infect and stompy, the duress for storm, MBC, and cloudpost. 1 Nihil Spellbomb vs a rogue deck that hardly shows up doesn't sound very good, although I'm sure Vagar has his reasons and is a very good player.
The matchups are important with this deck, because, like I said, meta is an important decision in choosing to pick up affinity.
Good:
-Mono-blue control
-Non-storm based rogue decks
-Any other aggro deck without pump spells. An exception to this could be goblins, depending on how good the player is and the sideboard.
-Black/red madness&dredge
Acceptable to somewhat difficult:
-Cloudpost
-Stompy
-Infect
-Storm, if you have a good sideboard for it
Horrendous:
-Mono-black Control
-Storm, if you don't have much a sideboard for it.
-Green/black madness&dredge
Now, playing the matchups vs. the most important ones:
MUC-
Don't let their counters gain value. Play around daze, mana leak, spellstutter, and forcespike; and wait so you have the mana to cast more than one spell a turn so they just can't go counter, pass, pass, counter, etc. If you stick a 4/4 and they dont have a flipped like a pro delver, it's going to be very hard to lose. In importance of resolving are:
4/4s
Somber Hoverguards
Atogs
Frogmites
Disciples
Vs. most aggro decks, I would play the control the board game. Land the big men, kill off their creatures, and eventually start swinging in. This will all obviously be determined by board state and life totals.
Cloudpost:
This could be classified as a bad matchup. Play around condescend when you can, stick threats, and hope they don't have the god draw because if they do...you're dead.
Mono-black Control:
Either pray they are stupid or get a bad draw.
Storm:
Just pressure them to go off earlier then they should. Disciple is pretty good here due to all the mana rocks they sacrifice.
Affinity is a good deck, but it isn't as skilless as people think. There are important decisions and mulliganing in many matchups.
In later posts, I'll go over sideboarding, mulligans, and any questions people have.
My current list as of right now is
Lands:
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Great Furnace
4 Tree of Tales
2 Darksteel Citadel
Creatures:
4 Atog
4 Myr Enforcer
4 Frogmite
4 Carapace Forger
1 Somber Hoverguard
4 Disciple of the Vault
2 Fling
4 Galvanic Blast
Sorceries:
4 Thoughtcast
1 Rush of Knowledge
Other Artifacts:
4 Chromatic Star
4 Springleaf Drum
2 Prophetic Prism
3 Pyroblast
2 Ancient Grudge
4 Krark-Clan Shaman
3 Scar
3 Duress
I like to call this version the rush version. It isn't perfect, though: it can get some god-awful draws and has problems dealing with mana pockets(like alot of decks). Anyhow, there are two other popular lists: I suppose you could call them the Sunchaser version and the mana rocks version. The mana rocks version is more based on combo with atog and fling. Personally, I don't like the mana rocks version, but thats just me. Sunchaser, if I remember correctly, is better vs removal-centric decks such as cloudpost and mono-black control. Lately, the sunchaser and mana-rocks version have been being combined. For fariness' sake, here is a sunchaser version:
Land:
4 Ancient Den
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Great Furnace
4 Seat of the Synod
3 Vault of Whispers
Creature:
4 Auriok Sunchaser
4 Frogmite
4 Myr Enforcer
3 Somber Hoverguard
4 Atog
2 Quicksilver Behemoth
4 Thoughtcast
Instants:
2 Fling
4 Galvanic Blast
Other artifacts:
2 Terrarion
4 Prophetic Prism
4 Chromatic Star
1 Disenchant
3 Hydroblast
3 Krark-Clan Shaman
1 Nihil Spellbomb
4 Pyroblast
1 Rain of Embers
2 Standard Bearer
I have a few critiques about this deck, mainly the sideboard. First, the lack of carapace forger and disciple of the vault is puzzling, but I suppose it's excusable with all the other creatures. My main gripe with the sideboard are Nihil Spellbomb and Rain of Embers. I would like to know what rain of embers is for: it might be nice tech. I would suggest exchanging the nihil spellbomb and the rain of embers(unless its important) for either 2 duress or 2 scar. The scar would be big for infect and stompy, the duress for storm, MBC, and cloudpost. 1 Nihil Spellbomb vs a rogue deck that hardly shows up doesn't sound very good, although I'm sure Vagar has his reasons and is a very good player.
The matchups are important with this deck, because, like I said, meta is an important decision in choosing to pick up affinity.
Good:
-Mono-blue control
-Non-storm based rogue decks
-Any other aggro deck without pump spells. An exception to this could be goblins, depending on how good the player is and the sideboard.
-Black/red madness&dredge
Acceptable to somewhat difficult:
-Cloudpost
-Stompy
-Infect
-Storm, if you have a good sideboard for it
Horrendous:
-Mono-black Control
-Storm, if you don't have much a sideboard for it.
-Green/black madness&dredge
Now, playing the matchups vs. the most important ones:
MUC-
Don't let their counters gain value. Play around daze, mana leak, spellstutter, and forcespike; and wait so you have the mana to cast more than one spell a turn so they just can't go counter, pass, pass, counter, etc. If you stick a 4/4 and they dont have a flipped like a pro delver, it's going to be very hard to lose. In importance of resolving are:
4/4s
Somber Hoverguards
Atogs
Frogmites
Disciples
Vs. most aggro decks, I would play the control the board game. Land the big men, kill off their creatures, and eventually start swinging in. This will all obviously be determined by board state and life totals.
Cloudpost:
This could be classified as a bad matchup. Play around condescend when you can, stick threats, and hope they don't have the god draw because if they do...you're dead.
Mono-black Control:
Either pray they are stupid or get a bad draw.
Storm:
Just pressure them to go off earlier then they should. Disciple is pretty good here due to all the mana rocks they sacrifice.
Affinity is a good deck, but it isn't as skilless as people think. There are important decisions and mulliganing in many matchups.
In later posts, I'll go over sideboarding, mulligans, and any questions people have.
Closed. I never approved this primer.
-Memnarch
Your reach is the ability to deal 4 damage for R, or sac everything to atog and fling him.