Hello everyone, I'm not experienced with affinity but I'm playing in Madrid in the Team event, and my teammate is gonna play it. I was trying to understand affinity a bit better (namely card choices overall), and run into a couple of fun-ofs. I understand that more often than not it's personal taste, but maybe you could enlight me how those cards perform if you tested them and/or when you bring them in if it's not a clear hate-card: Hazoret, Bitterblossom, Dismember vs Dispatch, Rule of Law vs Eidolon, Pierce vs Denial.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Trophyless guy.
Thought of the Month: I gave up from trying to require the 'i' on my name: SolesticIo
Kataki is the only thing I’ve worried about from Humans. They’re typically dead to inkmoth kills easily as they don’t play removal. Overseer makes your board just as scary, if not more so, and while you clog up the ground you’re jamming in the skies.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
@RoboMemer on Discord
@Robo_Memer on Twitter, Twitch, Reddit, and YouTube
Feel free to PM me about Affinity decks in any format!
I have a team unified GP next year and im looking for some imput on the 75 im running and if there should be any changes.
It's a stock list for the mb 60 with the only spice being 3 steel overseer and 1 god pharaohs throne. Testing has shown me that gpt has been doing on average 8 damage when deployed and effects the game as soon as its deployed. It also gets around a stony silence.
Other then that im either going to run a 3x master and 1x champ split in the mb or the full sweet of masters. Its a faster clock and better agains't tokens decks, the mirror ect. My only concern is that i want be running a playset of gal blast and also running 4x masters in the mb puts my coloured sources at 8. Idealy we want to be at 7 mb coloured sources.
As for the sb is there a good consensus on a sb plan for team unified ? My sb currently looks like this.
2x Ancient Grudge
1x Bitterblossom
1x Blood Moon
3x Etched Champion
2x Ghirapur AEther Grid
1x Grafdigger's Cage
2x Rest in Peace
1x Rule of Law
2x Spell Pierce.
I prefer thoughtseize but our grixis ds player will need those in his list.
last weekend I played in the main event of GP Madrid. Below is a rundown of how my personal rounds played out. I might misremember the in which round I played which deck, but the result vs the decks should be accurate. The list from the previous page didn't change much, only -1 Champion +1 Bitterblossom in the SB to give me a 5th card for the mirror.
R1: 0-2 vs UW Control
R2: 2-0 vs Jund (maybe 5c) Shadow (Marcio Carvalho)
R3: 2-1 vs Burn
R4: 2-1 vs Slivers
R5: 2-0 vs Affinity
R6: 2-1 vs Dredge
R7: 1-2 vs Counters Company
R8: 1-1 vs Burn
R9: 2-1 vs RUG Moon
R10: 2-0 vs UWR Control (Lukas Blohon)
R11: 2-0 vs Dredge
R12: 0-2 vs UWR Control (Fabrizio Anteri)
R13: 2-0 vs Titanshift
R14: 2-0 vs Affinity
I'm pretty happy with my personal 10-3-1 record (my previous best was 10-5) and defeating two platinum pros, even tho the team ended 9-5. All of my losses were vs bad matchups combined with slow draws on my end, so there wasn't much I could have done differently.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Question for the lot of you: Is Affinity the largest deck in the Modern metagame or does it simply have the largest win percentage? Sources I've analyzed seem to point to it being the biggest but my thoughts about this have been contradicted recently.
I think the answer is probably that it is both a popular deck and one with a solid win-rate. Plus it has been very consistently successful over the past few years, perhaps more than any other modern deck.
Question for the lot of you: Is Affinity the largest deck in the Modern metagame or does it simply have the largest win percentage? Sources I've analyzed seem to point to it being the biggest but my thoughts about this have been contradicted recently.
I think the answer is probably that it is both a popular deck and one with a solid win-rate. Plus it has been very consistently successful over the past few years, perhaps more than any other modern deck.
It used to be much less expensive than some other archetypes. I'm not sure that's as true anymore since the success of Eldrazi and Big Mana decks have decimated Tarmogoyf's price.
Question for the lot of you: Is Affinity the largest deck in the Modern metagame or does it simply have the largest win percentage? Sources I've analyzed seem to point to it being the biggest but my thoughts about this have been contradicted recently.
I think the answer is probably that it is both a popular deck and one with a solid win-rate. Plus it has been very consistently successful over the past few years, perhaps more than any other modern deck.
It used to be much less expensive than some other archetypes. I'm not sure that's as true anymore since the success of Eldrazi and Big Mana decks have decimated Tarmogoyf's price.
This definitely played a part in it's populairty. I remember when I bought into it, it was as strong a deck as you could get for it's price tag. Both Mox Opal and especially Arcbound Ravager have both gone up in price considerably since then however.
I'll say this also - it's a very fun deck to play, it's a simple strategy but with plenty of complex lines to take. It certainly appealed to me when I bought into the format.
Affinity is a complex deck to play. It isn't a one trick pony at all. It can go big, wide or both at the same time. It can kill turn-three (I have heard it can kill turn-two but that's Magic Christmasland if not BS) and it can grind. It also has reach.
There are more ticks than can be mentioned in the brief amount of time I'm willing to devote to a forum post.
It's a bit of a glass cannon, but it has tools to fight the hate as well as the means to switch gears and grind.
Hello all! I've built Affinity about three months ago and I really loving it a lot! The deck is a complex deck to say the least, don't get me wrong, the deck can be picked up and played by most people and play it fine. I have managed to inflict 9 Infect damage by turn 2 once and it was so mean haha.
Needless to say, Affinity is still strong and a viable deck in just about any meta. The meta I am in around my area, has a lot of players that play white and thus nearly all play Stony Silence in sideboards and to say in a watered down way... it is extremely annoying. I have upped my sideboard hate for it by going to 2 Wear // Tear from before going to 1. My sideboard is looking as follows:
I am going to eventually change the Inquisition of Kozileks for Thoughtseize since it can better for getting rid of higher mana cost issues. I really like Ethersworn Canonist for matches that cast a lot of spell on top of one another {i.e., Storm, control, etc.). I see people always mention Blood Moon and understand it's usefulness in certain matches but I find it find can hurt with wanting to use Inkmoth Nexus and Blinkmoth Nexus.
What do you all think about my sideboard for Affinity? Especially if the meta I am in uses a lot of white based decks?
Here is my deck list for the deck currently as well:
Took a stock 60 with a sub-par 15 to locals last night, first time playing the deck (moxen just came in the mail over the weekend).
R1: BR Pyromancers Ascension/Waste Not (Storm?)
G1 I’m on the draw, he opens with a faithless looting and I put 2 memnite a drum, a pest and a mox into play (no land). He does some durdly stuff, I topdeck a citadel and cast + equip plating to a memnite for 7, the next turn I tear off another plating and take away the game.
G2 plays similar, except I have a t1 plating, t2 ravager, t3 Inkmoth kill.
2-0, 1-0
R2: Grishoalbrand
Pilot is a friend of mine, we test together and all that, so we both know the others deck (he knows I’m not playing Living End this week going in). He’s on the play, opens with t1 SSG-> Nights Whisper, passes the turn. I start with memnite, citadel, drum, skirge, welding jar in play. His turn 2 he cast a faithless looting and plays a Scryland. My t2 I play mox, overseer, pest. He flashes back faithless looting, ditches griselbrand and a land, passed. I rip off a plating, power up my dudes, attack for lethal with an Inkmoth
G2 played similarly, he jammed on 2 lands for an extra turn but he had t2 shattering spree, t4 anger of the gods, t5 shattering spree, and he gained 16 life with two of the Shoal cards. Ended him with an Inkmoth again.
2-0, 2-0
R3: Mirror match
He’s a really good affinity player and has been on the deck for ages. The whole thing is blinged out, masterpieces and foiled to the max. Needless to say I’m a little overmatched.
G1 he’s on the play, starts with ornithopter memnite pest. I start with triple ornithopter mox citadel overseer. He takes a turn, plays a ravager, my turn I play a plating and attack. He scoops after drawing.
G2 is close, I have grudge and a blast in hand but I don’t find a colored source until he’s got an overseer activation and a master in play. It’s over by exactsies the turn I find mox.
G3 I start with mox memnite MANA CONFLUENCE (I couldn’t find a glimmervoid) drum, shapers sanctuary, skirge. He puts a pest and a memnite into play with a mox and a spire. My turn I put an overseer into play, ship it, he blasts EOT and I draw a card. The board state gets more and more clogged to the following, with me at 12 and him at 20:
He has 2 signal pest, a plating, a thopter, 2 ravager, and some auxiliary stuff. I have a skirge, a memnite, a thopter, two overseer, two Inkmoth (with 4 counters) and a ravager. We pass back and forth for a couple turns when I draw a galv blast. I immediately thought I had the game, I say “galv blast your thopter animate two Inkmoth attack for game) without realizing he could sac stuff to ravager and then make the thopter an x/5. So he does. I had used drum and tapped my thopter to make the R mana, which was dumb, but I got hasty. I attack with two 5/5 overseer and a 5/5 memnite anyway, leaving back skirge, ravager, and double Inkmoth. He takes it and is basically dead on board. He draws, attacks out, does math for literally five minutes, then decides I win (and I do, but I had figured it out already in my head as I attacked). Shapers sanctuary drew me 3 cards total, and will remain in SB. Card is great
2-1, 3-0
R4: Some weird griselbrand vengeance/breach deck that also has emrakul for surprisies.
G1 I Inkmoth kill t3, g2 I Inkmoth kill t4. It was really uninteractive and I had welding jar t1 both games.
2-0, 4-0
Normally people split in the fourth round when undefeated because both players get $16 instead of $20 and $12 for winner and loser respectively, but last night all 4 undefeateds decided to play it out. First time out jamming with the deck and I rode it to a tie for first, I’ll take it!
Affinity is never poorly positioned. I’ve only recently picked up the deck, but it’s been a mainstay of the format since inception. Always tier 1. Sheer speed and power level combine with a great number of in-game decisions to make for a strong deck against any given meta.
What are you switching from?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
@RoboMemer on Discord
@Robo_Memer on Twitter, Twitch, Reddit, and YouTube
Feel free to PM me about Affinity decks in any format!
Heavy removal decks such as Jund, RWB, Grixis can be bad matchups but are certainly not unwinnable.
Many decks can sideboard powerful affinity hate, but games are still winnable.
The thing that seems to help is that there is something else that is getting attention and causing build and sideboard choices that reduce the afinity hate.
For instance, graveyard hate means nothing to Affinity, so when Dredge was huge, people were sideboarding more cards for that matchup.
If Affinity was the main threat, it would be easy to hate out. As long as there are other decks to wory about, people can't devote as much hate to Affinity.
In FNM, I have seen people maindeck Stony Silence, so I rotate decks.
Affinity is never poorly positioned. I’ve only recently picked up the deck, but it’s been a mainstay of the format since inception. Always tier 1. Sheer speed and power level combine with a great number of in-game decisions to make for a strong deck against any given meta.
What are you switching from?
Storm, deck is hard and there is so much hate for it.
Storm is arguably an easier deck to hate out. I own and play both, you get more free wins with Affinity due to Opp thinking hate without a clock will beat you (last week beat a t2 spree, t3 anger, t4 spree).
Storm also has to assemble a kill, affinity can just stumble into it with a bunch of cheap guys and 1 of 12+ payoff spells — or no payoff, just fast beats. Storm can’t stumble into a win.
The worst possible scenario for affinity, you’re a garbage player and manage to steal a few free wins by just going sideways. Worst possible case scenario for storm, you lose every game because you don’t know how the combo kill works.
Higher ceiling for storm, higher floor for affinity.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
@RoboMemer on Discord
@Robo_Memer on Twitter, Twitch, Reddit, and YouTube
Feel free to PM me about Affinity decks in any format!
Storm is arguably an easier deck to hate out. I own and play both, you get more free wins with Affinity due to Opp thinking hate without a clock will beat you (last week beat a t2 spree, t3 anger, t4 spree).
Storm also has to assemble a kill, affinity can just stumble into it with a bunch of cheap guys and 1 of 12+ payoff spells — or no payoff, just fast beats. Storm can’t stumble into a win.
The worst possible scenario for affinity, you’re a garbage player and manage to steal a few free wins by just going sideways. Worst possible case scenario for storm, you lose every game because you don’t know how the combo kill works.
Higher ceiling for storm, higher floor for affinity.
Same feeling I have. But I feel more confident with combat steps.
Been looking in for e tron, affinity, burn and infect.
Frenzy-Affinity-Ghost Quarter-Rock-Tokens- RGWPhyrexian Zoo- WVial KnightsStandard:
BW Knights(Rotated)Pioneer: RW Knights - BW Rally Zombies - UW Heroes
Commander:WUG
Jenara, Asura of War- WGSigarda, Host of HeronsCasualties of economicsLegacy: Good-night, sweet prince. Mono-R Burn
@Robo_Memer on Twitter, Twitch, Reddit, and YouTube
Feel free to PM me about Affinity decks in any format!
Thought of the Month:
I gave up from trying to require the 'i' on my name: SolesticIo
@Robo_Memer on Twitter, Twitch, Reddit, and YouTube
Feel free to PM me about Affinity decks in any format!
I have a team unified GP next year and im looking for some imput on the 75 im running and if there should be any changes.
It's a stock list for the mb 60 with the only spice being 3 steel overseer and 1 god pharaohs throne. Testing has shown me that gpt has been doing on average 8 damage when deployed and effects the game as soon as its deployed. It also gets around a stony silence.
Other then that im either going to run a 3x master and 1x champ split in the mb or the full sweet of masters. Its a faster clock and better agains't tokens decks, the mirror ect. My only concern is that i want be running a playset of gal blast and also running 4x masters in the mb puts my coloured sources at 8. Idealy we want to be at 7 mb coloured sources.
As for the sb is there a good consensus on a sb plan for team unified ? My sb currently looks like this.
2x Ancient Grudge
1x Bitterblossom
1x Blood Moon
3x Etched Champion
2x Ghirapur AEther Grid
1x Grafdigger's Cage
2x Rest in Peace
1x Rule of Law
2x Spell Pierce.
I prefer thoughtseize but our grixis ds player will need those in his list.
Thanks.
last weekend I played in the main event of GP Madrid. Below is a rundown of how my personal rounds played out. I might misremember the in which round I played which deck, but the result vs the decks should be accurate. The list from the previous page didn't change much, only -1 Champion +1 Bitterblossom in the SB to give me a 5th card for the mirror.
R1: 0-2 vs UW Control
R2: 2-0 vs Jund (maybe 5c) Shadow (Marcio Carvalho)
R3: 2-1 vs Burn
R4: 2-1 vs Slivers
R5: 2-0 vs Affinity
R6: 2-1 vs Dredge
R7: 1-2 vs Counters Company
R8: 1-1 vs Burn
R9: 2-1 vs RUG Moon
R10: 2-0 vs UWR Control (Lukas Blohon)
R11: 2-0 vs Dredge
R12: 0-2 vs UWR Control (Fabrizio Anteri)
R13: 2-0 vs Titanshift
R14: 2-0 vs Affinity
I'm pretty happy with my personal 10-3-1 record (my previous best was 10-5) and defeating two platinum pros, even tho the team ended 9-5. All of my losses were vs bad matchups combined with slow draws on my end, so there wasn't much I could have done differently.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Mahalek
I think the answer is probably that it is both a popular deck and one with a solid win-rate. Plus it has been very consistently successful over the past few years, perhaps more than any other modern deck.
It used to be much less expensive than some other archetypes. I'm not sure that's as true anymore since the success of Eldrazi and Big Mana decks have decimated Tarmogoyf's price.
Frenzy-Affinity-Ghost Quarter-Rock-Tokens- RGWPhyrexian Zoo- WVial KnightsStandard:
BW Knights(Rotated)Pioneer: RW Knights - BW Rally Zombies - UW Heroes
Commander:WUG
Jenara, Asura of War- WGSigarda, Host of HeronsCasualties of economicsLegacy: Good-night, sweet prince. Mono-R Burn
This definitely played a part in it's populairty. I remember when I bought into it, it was as strong a deck as you could get for it's price tag. Both Mox Opal and especially Arcbound Ravager have both gone up in price considerably since then however.
I'll say this also - it's a very fun deck to play, it's a simple strategy but with plenty of complex lines to take. It certainly appealed to me when I bought into the format.
There are more ticks than can be mentioned in the brief amount of time I'm willing to devote to a forum post.
It's a bit of a glass cannon, but it has tools to fight the hate as well as the means to switch gears and grind.
Frenzy-Affinity-Ghost Quarter-Rock-Tokens- RGWPhyrexian Zoo- WVial KnightsStandard:
BW Knights(Rotated)Pioneer: RW Knights - BW Rally Zombies - UW Heroes
Commander:WUG
Jenara, Asura of War- WGSigarda, Host of HeronsCasualties of economicsLegacy: Good-night, sweet prince. Mono-R Burn
Needless to say, Affinity is still strong and a viable deck in just about any meta. The meta I am in around my area, has a lot of players that play white and thus nearly all play Stony Silence in sideboards and to say in a watered down way... it is extremely annoying. I have upped my sideboard hate for it by going to 2 Wear // Tear from before going to 1. My sideboard is looking as follows:
2 Dispatch
1 Etched Champion
1 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Ghirapur Aether Grid
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Rest in Peace
1 Spell Pierce
2 Wear // Tear
1 Whipflare
I am going to eventually change the Inquisition of Kozileks for Thoughtseize since it can better for getting rid of higher mana cost issues. I really like Ethersworn Canonist for matches that cast a lot of spell on top of one another {i.e., Storm, control, etc.). I see people always mention Blood Moon and understand it's usefulness in certain matches but I find it find can hurt with wanting to use Inkmoth Nexus and Blinkmoth Nexus.
What do you all think about my sideboard for Affinity? Especially if the meta I am in uses a lot of white based decks?
Here is my deck list for the deck currently as well:
4 Cranial Plating
4 Mox Opal
4 Springleaf Drum
Creatures (27):
4 Arcbound Ravager
2 Etched Champion
2 Master of Etherium
3 Memnite
4 Ornithopter
4 Signal Pest
4 Steel Overseer
4 Vault Skirge
4 Galvanic Blast
Lands (17):
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Mountain
4 Spire of Industry
Any ideas? Additions? Changes? All comments are welcome and appreciated!
R1: BR Pyromancers Ascension/Waste Not (Storm?)
G1 I’m on the draw, he opens with a faithless looting and I put 2 memnite a drum, a pest and a mox into play (no land). He does some durdly stuff, I topdeck a citadel and cast + equip plating to a memnite for 7, the next turn I tear off another plating and take away the game.
G2 plays similar, except I have a t1 plating, t2 ravager, t3 Inkmoth kill.
2-0, 1-0
R2: Grishoalbrand
Pilot is a friend of mine, we test together and all that, so we both know the others deck (he knows I’m not playing Living End this week going in). He’s on the play, opens with t1 SSG-> Nights Whisper, passes the turn. I start with memnite, citadel, drum, skirge, welding jar in play. His turn 2 he cast a faithless looting and plays a Scryland. My t2 I play mox, overseer, pest. He flashes back faithless looting, ditches griselbrand and a land, passed. I rip off a plating, power up my dudes, attack for lethal with an Inkmoth
G2 played similarly, he jammed on 2 lands for an extra turn but he had t2 shattering spree, t4 anger of the gods, t5 shattering spree, and he gained 16 life with two of the Shoal cards. Ended him with an Inkmoth again.
2-0, 2-0
R3: Mirror match
He’s a really good affinity player and has been on the deck for ages. The whole thing is blinged out, masterpieces and foiled to the max. Needless to say I’m a little overmatched.
G1 he’s on the play, starts with ornithopter memnite pest. I start with triple ornithopter mox citadel overseer. He takes a turn, plays a ravager, my turn I play a plating and attack. He scoops after drawing.
G2 is close, I have grudge and a blast in hand but I don’t find a colored source until he’s got an overseer activation and a master in play. It’s over by exactsies the turn I find mox.
G3 I start with mox memnite MANA CONFLUENCE (I couldn’t find a glimmervoid) drum, shapers sanctuary, skirge. He puts a pest and a memnite into play with a mox and a spire. My turn I put an overseer into play, ship it, he blasts EOT and I draw a card. The board state gets more and more clogged to the following, with me at 12 and him at 20:
He has 2 signal pest, a plating, a thopter, 2 ravager, and some auxiliary stuff. I have a skirge, a memnite, a thopter, two overseer, two Inkmoth (with 4 counters) and a ravager. We pass back and forth for a couple turns when I draw a galv blast. I immediately thought I had the game, I say “galv blast your thopter animate two Inkmoth attack for game) without realizing he could sac stuff to ravager and then make the thopter an x/5. So he does. I had used drum and tapped my thopter to make the R mana, which was dumb, but I got hasty. I attack with two 5/5 overseer and a 5/5 memnite anyway, leaving back skirge, ravager, and double Inkmoth. He takes it and is basically dead on board. He draws, attacks out, does math for literally five minutes, then decides I win (and I do, but I had figured it out already in my head as I attacked). Shapers sanctuary drew me 3 cards total, and will remain in SB. Card is great
2-1, 3-0
R4: Some weird griselbrand vengeance/breach deck that also has emrakul for surprisies.
G1 I Inkmoth kill t3, g2 I Inkmoth kill t4. It was really uninteractive and I had welding jar t1 both games.
2-0, 4-0
Normally people split in the fourth round when undefeated because both players get $16 instead of $20 and $12 for winner and loser respectively, but last night all 4 undefeateds decided to play it out. First time out jamming with the deck and I rode it to a tie for first, I’ll take it!
@Robo_Memer on Twitter, Twitch, Reddit, and YouTube
Feel free to PM me about Affinity decks in any format!
Looking in the deck to make the switch tho. So I am realy curious about this.
What are you switching from?
@Robo_Memer on Twitter, Twitch, Reddit, and YouTube
Feel free to PM me about Affinity decks in any format!
Many decks can sideboard powerful affinity hate, but games are still winnable.
The thing that seems to help is that there is something else that is getting attention and causing build and sideboard choices that reduce the afinity hate.
For instance, graveyard hate means nothing to Affinity, so when Dredge was huge, people were sideboarding more cards for that matchup.
If Affinity was the main threat, it would be easy to hate out. As long as there are other decks to wory about, people can't devote as much hate to Affinity.
In FNM, I have seen people maindeck Stony Silence, so I rotate decks.
Frenzy-Affinity-Ghost Quarter-Rock-Tokens- RGWPhyrexian Zoo- WVial KnightsStandard:
BW Knights(Rotated)Pioneer: RW Knights - BW Rally Zombies - UW Heroes
Commander:WUG
Jenara, Asura of War- WGSigarda, Host of HeronsCasualties of economicsLegacy: Good-night, sweet prince. Mono-R Burn
Storm, deck is hard and there is so much hate for it.
Storm also has to assemble a kill, affinity can just stumble into it with a bunch of cheap guys and 1 of 12+ payoff spells — or no payoff, just fast beats. Storm can’t stumble into a win.
The worst possible scenario for affinity, you’re a garbage player and manage to steal a few free wins by just going sideways. Worst possible case scenario for storm, you lose every game because you don’t know how the combo kill works.
Higher ceiling for storm, higher floor for affinity.
@Robo_Memer on Twitter, Twitch, Reddit, and YouTube
Feel free to PM me about Affinity decks in any format!
Same feeling I have. But I feel more confident with combat steps.
Been looking in for e tron, affinity, burn and infect.
Affinity has fewer “standard lines” but more game in the face of diversity — when the plan goes awry, affinity can hodgepodge get there
@Robo_Memer on Twitter, Twitch, Reddit, and YouTube
Feel free to PM me about Affinity decks in any format!