Affinity is a deck which is a combination of both Aggro and Combo. You play many cheap 1 drop artifacts that in turn make the cost to play other cards cheaper. The deck uses these synergies to put creatures on the field and over run your opponent. The deck utilizes the artifact lands to increase the affinity for faster casting of creatures. Affinity generally is a 4/5 color deck because of this we use things like Springleaf Drum, Prophetic Prism, and Chromatic Star for mana fixing.
Why play Affinity?
You like multiple decision paths
You enjoy casting things for nearly free
You like having options of turning sideways while also comboing.
So, what exactly is in the Affinity deck?
Core:
Atog:Atog makes use of our artifacts as food to make him grow to epic proportions. He gains +2/+2 for each piece he eats. When there is an opening he can swing in for a huge amount and then be sacrificed withFling for the finisher.
Fling: Fling can be used most of the time as a 4+ damage removal as we fling our creatures at the opponent or at their creature. Swinging with a big Atog and then flinging him can be a 1 turn finisher.
Disciple of the Vaults: With a deck full of artifacts this creature can ping out an opponent and has great synergy with Atog. The more Disciples on the field the greater the carnage he can cause.
Myr EnforcerFrogmite: Affinity for artifacts makes casting these two virtually 0 mana most of the time.
Thoughtcast: Draw 2 for a U is amazing and adds fuel to our hands to keep the battle going.
Carapace Forger: Forger is a 4/4 for 2 in our deck. It provides early beats and is unmatched in most early games.
Galvanic Blast: Blast most likely is going to be 4 damage for R in our deck. Aside from turn 1 metalcraft will be active. Blast is our main removal spell while also being capable to do 4 to the head.
Springleaf Drum: One of our several mana fixers being that we typically will have a creature on the field to utilize it.
Chromatic Star: Mana fixer and cantrip in one. Has synergy with Disciple to dish out damage while drawing a card.
Prophetic Prism: Mana fixer and cantrip similar to sphere, but has no built in sacrifice mechanic and cost 2.
Terrarion: Mana fixing and cantrip. Synergy with Disciple similar to Chromatic Star except cost 2 and comes into play tapped.
Optionals:
Somber Hoverguard: Flipped delver is good right? We have our own we can include. A 3/2 flyer which will usually just cost us a U.
Porcelain Legionnaire: 3/1 first striker for 2/2life or 3 Artifact creature to up the number of artifacts for affinity.
Vedalken Certarch: A nice control option as the ability to tap down a land or a high mana producing creature during upkeep can be great.
Krark-Clan Shaman: Shaman has the ability to clear the way of blockers as most of the time his 1 damage does not affect most of our creatures.
Ardent Recruit: 3/3 for W. As long as we have metalcraft which should be always past turn 1.
Auriok Sunchaser: 3/3 flyer for 1W, assuming we're at metalcraft.
Rush of Knowledge: Can be used late game to refill our hands so we can finish off the opponent.
Sideboard:
Gorilla Shaman: Dropping this guy in the mirror is an instant game winner. You will be able to destroy every land they put into play for 1. Very deadly to play against.
Pyroblast: Blows up blue permanents and allows us to counter permission decks.
Electrickery: Very nice for elves type decks that flood the field with 1/1's
Raze: Destroys posts to help take away their mana. Very nice vs Karoo lands as well.
About time Affinity got some primer-loving. Great primer, though I feel it could use some polishing. More in depth with the creatures and how to play affinity is important for new-comers to the format and the archetype in general. It's important to maximise your affinity-potential. This means always playing lands first, constantly consider the amount of artifacts you have in play, playing your "free" creatures first, never play an affinity card if you have a 1cc artifact in your hand that can reduce its cost, etc. These are important aspects of affinity, something that you can't deduce merely from looking at the cards themselves.
Some of the cards could do with some more in depth descriptions too. Although you mention the card in the description of Atog, you don't have a section for Fling
Lastly, I feel the need to point out the subgenres of Affinity. Are we playing the Certarch variant, some more metalcraft heavy builds, etc. A brief history of the evolution of the deck could also be good - from the glory days of unbanned cranial plating, to the introduction of metalcraft in Scars of Mirrodin, etc.
Affinity was one of my first decks and I would love to write parts of the Primer if you want me to.
I just started playing around with Affinity this weekend and I'm really enjoying it so very pleased to see this thread.
As a newcomer to the archetype the one thing I would like more than anything is a bit more of a sideboard guide. Lots of matches I'm not really sure what to swap. More often than not its relatively clear what needs to be added but the more difficult part is what to remove.
Welcome to the party. I'm working on a sideboard/matchup guide to put on the primer.
I'm looking to try something new and relatively rogue. I was thinking of a metalcraft deck, but is there any reason to play, say, UWR Cogs, over standard Affinity other than a more consistent mana base?
I'd drop Disciple/fling from absolute core to some kind of sub-core level, or at least mention that there is a variant that drops them in favor of a purely beatdown plan. See Vagar's deck in the March 3 daily report - link below - a 3-1 that runs 4 Atog, 3 Forger, 4 Sunchaser, 3 Hoverguard, 4 each Enforcer/Frogmite, and 0 Disciple and 0 Fling.
Rush of Knowledge seems to have dropped off of the current lists after being popular for a while as a late-game reload card that lets you just win if you cast it with an Enforcer or even a Frogmite out. Actually, looking at the March 3 daily again, bradyoo's list runs one Rush of K.
Scale of Chiss-Goria gets some sideboard play, I think as a response to decks that load up on Flame Slash and maybe for the mirror.
Cool primer. But I hope it's still a work in progress, eg. it needs some actual strategy discussion (why would you pick X card over Y, do you want a mix of this and that creature, what are the big in-game decisions that you commonly face, how many lands do you use and what thought goes into the mix of lands, including using darksteel citadel over coloured lands, are there different versions of the deck?) as well as matchup/sideboarding analysis. At the moment it's basically just a pretty basic list of all the cards that get used, which is fine and obviously better than what's in the primer section now, but it'd be great to see it expanded into a real article.
i've been playing an affinity deck for some time on mtgo, and i was quickly tired of the inconsistency vs aggro and control in atog and disciple of the vault.
so i began trying bonesplitter, vault skirge and auriok sunchaser, and upping the number off krark clan shaman in main deck (which usually hurts just himself, frogmites and the enforcer)
can't post a list now, will do sometime soon though.
flayer husk is a nice addition, would be swapping bonesplitter for them to have a 1 drop to use with springleaf drum (and then i should rethink about vault skirge, lifelink with just +1/+1 equipment isn't quite enough. any thought on what to replace it with?).
any thoughts about glaze fiend? if the landfall guys are used in ww, i can't see how this is any worse.
The thing about Atog is that he can turn your lands into damage which is an incredibily powerful effect for a creature deck and he's a very difficult card for many decks to block/attack into. Disciple on the other hand is often a 1 mana do-nothing if you don't draw Atog alongside him so I could definitely see the merit in not playing him. But Atog is just too good of a late game card for this deck to not run I think.
Can someone tell me why there is so much affinity hate all up in main boards?
I've been playing against [CARD]
Fangren Marauder [/CARD] and MonoU for about 100 days straight and they are just too powerful. Any ways to challenge it? I've tried 4x pyroblast 4x electricity for MonoU, but they have answers for everything.
It seems like once the second island comes down, I get pretty much destroyed and can't do much.
Can someone tell me why there is so much affinity hate all up in main boards?
I've been playing against [CARD]
Fangren Marauder [/CARD] and MonoU for about 100 days straight and they are just too powerful. Any ways to challenge it? I've tried 4x pyroblast 4x electricity for MonoU, but they have answers for everything.
It seems like once the second island comes down, I get pretty much destroyed and can't do much.
After the ban of classic Storm decks/weakening of Infect, Affinity has become a significantly larger chunk of the metagame than previously. The artifact hate is also useful against Post variants ~ stopping their manafixing/draw tricks with Prisms and Serrated Arrows/Crusher.
The rise of StormPost is probably another reason, as it does run a lot of Baubles to wrack up a Storm count. Artifact and enchantment hate often overlap, which means it could also be a side effect of trying to combat UG Storm/GW Hexproof decks. A lot of top decks run some Artifacts sideboard ~ mostly stuff like Relic/Nihil Spellbomb/Lifestaff/Bonesplitter, and the use of Spire Golem by MUC/Delver is an issue for decks unable to run stuff like Flame Slash/Doomblade.
After the ban of classic Storm decks/weakening of Infect, Affinity has become a significantly larger chunk of the metagame than previously. The artifact hate is also useful against Post variants ~ stopping their manafixing/draw tricks with Prisms and Serrated Arrows/Crusher.
The rise of StormPost is probably another reason, as it does run a lot of Baubles to wrack up a Storm count. Artifact and enchantment hate often overlap, which means it could also be a side effect of trying to combat UG Storm/GW Hexproof decks. A lot of top decks run some Artifacts sideboard ~ mostly stuff like Relic/Nihil Spellbomb/Lifestaff/Bonesplitter, and the use of Spire Golem by MUC/Delver is an issue for decks unable to run stuff like Flame Slash/Doomblade.
Hope that helps :3
No problem, I was just wondering if it was just me that was going crazy, thanks for the little tidbit. Saves my mind from going crazy.
I played against an Infect deck with maindeck Tel-Jilad Fallen http://magiccards.info/som/en/130.html which I thought was kind of weird. I'm not sure if this card is included in many Infect decks but I was kinda reacting the same way you do.
That's kind of an unconventional choice, but you can still Galvanic Blast it or kill it with Krark-Clan Shaman so it's not that big of a deal.
Is anyone else having problems with the Mono-green Stompy MU? They just always seem to be faster and have more gas. I've tried being very defensive and being very aggressive and nothing seems to work
Try to stabilize early. Krark clan Shamans are pretty much an instant win if you can maintain a high life total. Don't fall for combat tricks. If an attack seems dumb to you, they probably have pump backup. Atog/Fling and Disciple shenanigans are your primary wincon against Stompy, unless they're obviously on defense against your horde of 4/4's. Try to Galvanic Blast away Rancors. Without Rancor even the combat tricks are only 1-for-1's. There's no 100% strategy, Stompy is a very good deck. Even if you manage to stabilize, you could still get morbid Hunger of the Howlpacked onto a Pit Skulk or Ledgewalker, which spells certain death a majority of the time.
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Scale of Chiss-Goria is actually pretty lame against Burn, whose spells almost all deal three damage; it's really used against decks that have the ability to kill a 4/4 with one card, but not a 4/5, which is mostly Affinity and :symur:Post.
I'm not sure four Krark-Clan Shaman on the sideboard is more correct than one main and three side. The advantage to these guys is your 4/4s, who can survive the meltdown and then attack into the clear board. I would also not be running more than one or two Electrickery with him; there is approximately one deck (Delver) where Electrickery is better than Krark-Clan Shaman, and that deck tends to have trouble controlling your undercosted 4/4s.
In either case, if you're facing a swarm deck, you usually board out something worth much less in that matchup - probably Fling, since sailing over their blockers isn't as strong as killing them all.
Standard Bearer is mostly for stopping Stompy, at this point. He eats their pump spells, and they usually can't kill him.
Those are all the ones I have experience with, anyway.
EDIT: The wording on Standard Bearer is a little strange, but the effect is basically, "Your opponent must target Standard Bearer whenever possible." So when he goes to cast Gather Courage or whatever, the only legal target is Standard Bearer. Note that SB doesn't work against Temporal Fissure, for reasons which I can only characterize as "stupid".
VVVV
Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
I'm trying to come up with a at least mediocre, budget sideboard for my Affinity deck and since it is budget i'm not willing to spend money on cards like Pyroblast, Gorilla Shaman and not Raze either. I checked the suggested sideboard cards in the starting post of this primer and wonder if this would be an OK sideboard?
3 Electrickery
4 Krark-clan shaman
4 Stone Rain
4 Ancient Grudge
Other cards I thought of is Scale of Chiss-Goria when against burn decks but i'm not sure if it is that common overall? I noticed Standard Bearer in some lists, is it for combo decks and should it take a few spots instead of something in the list I made?
My reasoning towards the chosen cards:
Ancient Grudge - For the mirror. Not sure what to remove for this. Perhaps 1 Prism/Star, 1 Drum & 2 Blasts?
Krark-Clan Shaman & Electrickery: Not sure if the right thing is to go with 3 Electrickery and 4 Shaman or vice versa? These should go in against Goblins I guess, perhaps Electrickery in when against Delver? Also if facing random elves deck that creates alot of tokens! What to board out for these?
Stone Rain - Swap out Blasts for these when facing Post decks I guess?
Please help me if you think I should change anything or tell me if you think it could work!
That's a fine sideboard on a budget but Pyroblast really does add a lot. Another good card you could consider is Duress if you're running black for Disciple, it does a lot of good things in the Post matchup.
So, I have been playing some affinity and wanted to share my opinions and see what people thought.
The Great:
4/4 beaters that come down turn two are super sexy. I always feel like the big deck on campus.
The Good: The Drum and Prism are fine ramp/fixing/cantrips respectively. I also like Blast and Thoughtcast for their roles of draw and spot removal/4-to-the-face. Frogmite is solid.
When Atog is good he is fantastic, opponents end up chumping every turn for fear of getting smacked in the face for infinity, however I still have a bunch to learn about using him optimally. Also he tends to be iffy in multiples, I'm thinking about cutting him to three.
The Meh: I'm not so hot on the star. It does it's job of getting a spell on the board, and Atog sacing it is a neat interaction, but it just feels clunky in general.
I'm also really not sold on disciple. While I understand what they do it just seems like when I'm winning it's because I'm beating down with 4/4s. If I get stuck with a draw of Atogs and Disciples I either get ran over by their horde, or can't do enough damage to win before post gets their infinite combo online. So far I have liked Auriok Sunchaser in his place. He swings for three every turn against most decks, and is big enough to eat goblins, elves and humans much of the time. But I need more testing and wanted opinions.
The Ugly: Gorilla Shaman. It just destroys the deck. I'm honestly not sure how the deck has grown to become #2 in the meta when it just scoops to a 1 cmc creature. Sure, Standard Bearer is big trouble for stompy, but it can at least wait to draw removal and trade/chump in the meantime. Once Gorilla resolves unless we are holding Galvanic we can expect to never have more than one mana again.
I'm currently thinking about cards to fit Disciple slot besides the Chaser. Thundering Tanadon as another fatty? Although probably too slow at 4 mana. Might try the old Legionnaire out too.
Rancor for the Atogs? Making them no longer chumpable. Likewise on the 4/4s.
Rush of Knowledge is bonkers when you drop your whole hand turn 4, then draw 7 cards and do it again on turn 6 or so. And it's junk when your stuck on four mana for 10 turns or with a 2cmc prism as your biggest thing.
Perhaps just another burn spell like Thunderbolt for removal or reach?
P.S. Shouldn't this thread be in the Established forum?
I got two 3-1 finishes today running two slightly different lists - which is quite decent I believe being its the first time I played affinity in dailies in a very long time.
Here is my final new list which I created after those dailies:
I really think Flayer Husk is a decent choice here. Pumps our creatures, is a creature, and is sac fodder when you're going for lethal. Gonna have to test it myself and see if it works my way.
I like it a little better than the Scale, since it comes with a point of power and the ability to attack on its own; but the Scale lets you catch people by surprise, which can matter a lot in faster, closer games.
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Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
I really think Flayer Husk is a decent choice here. Pumps our creatures, is a creature, and is sac fodder when you're going for lethal. Gonna have to test it myself and see if it works my way.
Its important to note that he is also a 1 drop artifact which we can play on turn one which can lead to some really silly turns :D.
I went 3-1 again with the list I posted above facing:
G1: Affinity (2-1)
G2: Delver (0-2) we had a close R1 but I was stuck on 1 land for R2
G3: Goblins (2-1)
G4: Affinity (2-0)
when you guys have a chance can you post your SB plan for the mirror? ATM I'm siding cards which I feel that I really shouldn't
played all day without atogs and disciples, using vault skirges, a couple bonesplitters and auriok sunchasers. the 3x flayer husk never disappointed me.
i regard the atog + disciple of the vault as a winmore combo, as it either wins you the game when you already had an edge (be it not enough creatures removed, or no life gained from the opponent) or can't put you in a better situation when you are behind.
the reasoning here is that there are just two creature sweepers in pauper, krark-clan shaman, which doesn't touch fliers (and the reason i run 2 main and 2 side), and crypt rat, or whatever it's called, which costs a lot of mana. i just don't get why all affinity decks i see don't run the cards i just mentioned, and rather have atog and disciple which are bad topdecks if you are losing, and can cause more mulligans than necessary because of the need for colored mana.
I'm not an affinity player, but I have definitely lost to atog plus disciple (or in one case to 2 x disciple plus krark-clan) in long grindy games where more creatures would have meant nothing at all.
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What is Affinity?
Affinity is a deck which is a combination of both Aggro and Combo. You play many cheap 1 drop artifacts that in turn make the cost to play other cards cheaper. The deck uses these synergies to put creatures on the field and over run your opponent. The deck utilizes the artifact lands to increase the affinity for faster casting of creatures. Affinity generally is a 4/5 color deck because of this we use things like Springleaf Drum, Prophetic Prism, and Chromatic Star for mana fixing.
Why play Affinity?
So, what exactly is in the Affinity deck?
Core:
Atog:Atog makes use of our artifacts as food to make him grow to epic proportions. He gains +2/+2 for each piece he eats. When there is an opening he can swing in for a huge amount and then be sacrificed withFling for the finisher.
Fling: Fling can be used most of the time as a 4+ damage removal as we fling our creatures at the opponent or at their creature. Swinging with a big Atog and then flinging him can be a 1 turn finisher.
Disciple of the Vaults: With a deck full of artifacts this creature can ping out an opponent and has great synergy with Atog. The more Disciples on the field the greater the carnage he can cause.
Myr Enforcer Frogmite: Affinity for artifacts makes casting these two virtually 0 mana most of the time.
Thoughtcast: Draw 2 for a U is amazing and adds fuel to our hands to keep the battle going.
Carapace Forger: Forger is a 4/4 for 2 in our deck. It provides early beats and is unmatched in most early games.
Galvanic Blast: Blast most likely is going to be 4 damage for R in our deck. Aside from turn 1 metalcraft will be active. Blast is our main removal spell while also being capable to do 4 to the head.
Lands:
Great Furnace, Seat of the Synod, Tree of Tales, Vault of Whispers, Darksteel Citadel, Ancient Den : Some combination of these 6 lands will be used in most Affinity lists. The artifact subtype is what grants us the high artifact affinity early.
Non-Creature Artifacts:
Chromatic Star: Mana fixer and cantrip in one. Has synergy with Disciple to dish out damage while drawing a card.
Prophetic Prism: Mana fixer and cantrip similar to sphere, but has no built in sacrifice mechanic and cost 2.
Terrarion: Mana fixing and cantrip. Synergy with Disciple similar to Chromatic Star except cost 2 and comes into play tapped.
Optionals:
Porcelain Legionnaire: 3/1 first striker for 2/2life or 3 Artifact creature to up the number of artifacts for affinity.
Vedalken Certarch: A nice control option as the ability to tap down a land or a high mana producing creature during upkeep can be great.
Krark-Clan Shaman: Shaman has the ability to clear the way of blockers as most of the time his 1 damage does not affect most of our creatures.
Ardent Recruit: 3/3 for W. As long as we have metalcraft which should be always past turn 1.
Auriok Sunchaser: 3/3 flyer for 1W, assuming we're at metalcraft.
Rush of Knowledge: Can be used late game to refill our hands so we can finish off the opponent.
Sideboard:
Pyroblast: Blows up blue permanents and allows us to counter permission decks.
Electrickery: Very nice for elves type decks that flood the field with 1/1's
Raze: Destroys posts to help take away their mana. Very nice vs Karoo lands as well.
Ancient grudge: Reusable artifact removal
Electrostatic Bolt: Removal that is better vs Artifact creatures.
Scale of Chiss-Goria: Used as protection vs burn on our creatures can be used in the mirror to help chump effectively.
Please let me know of any grammar / spelling mistakes. Affinity needs a primer as it is one the top decks hopefully this can be that primer.
Sample Decklists:
4 Great Furnace
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Tree of Tales
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Atog
4 Carapace Forger
4 Disciple of the Vault
4 Frogmite
4 Myr Enforcer
2 Porcelain Legionnaire
4 Galvanic Blast
4 Chromatic Star
4 Prophetic Prism
4 Springleaf Drum
4 Thoughtcast
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Dispel
3 Duress
3 Electrickery
4 Krark-Clan Shaman
2 Raze
4 Great Furnace
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Tree of Tales
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Atog
4 Carapace Forger
4 Disciple of the Vault
4 Frogmite
1 Krark-Clan Shaman
4 Myr Enforcer
2 Somber Hoverguard
4 Galvanic Blast
4 Chromatic Star
2 Prophetic Prism
4 Springleaf Drum
4 Thoughtcast
1 Disrupt
2 Duress
2 Electrickery
3 Gorilla Shaman
3 Krark-Clan Shaman
4 Pyroblast
2 Darksteel Citadel
4 Great Furnace
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Tree of Tales
4 Atog
4 Auriok Sunchaser
3 Carapace Forger
4 Frogmite
4 Myr Enforcer
3 Somber Hoverguard
4 Chromatic Star
4 Prophetic Prism
2 Springleaf Drum
2 Terrarion
4 Thoughtcast
1 Dispel
1 Hydroblast
3 Krark-Clan Shaman
1 Negate
4 Pyroblast
2 Raze
2 Standard Bearer
1 Stone Rain
Matchups coming soon!
I'd like to have community input to put into the primer so feel free to write up anything and I'll include it!
Sure that'd be great to have more input.
Welcome to the party. I'm working on a sideboard/matchup guide to put on the primer.
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Digital/MagicOnlineTourn.aspx?x=mtg/digital/magiconline/tourn/5088704
Rush of Knowledge seems to have dropped off of the current lists after being popular for a while as a late-game reload card that lets you just win if you cast it with an Enforcer or even a Frogmite out. Actually, looking at the March 3 daily again, bradyoo's list runs one Rush of K.
Scale of Chiss-Goria gets some sideboard play, I think as a response to decks that load up on Flame Slash and maybe for the mirror.
Saw it today, looked pretty nifty :3
so i began trying bonesplitter, vault skirge and auriok sunchaser, and upping the number off krark clan shaman in main deck (which usually hurts just himself, frogmites and the enforcer)
can't post a list now, will do sometime soon though.
flayer husk is a nice addition, would be swapping bonesplitter for them to have a 1 drop to use with springleaf drum (and then i should rethink about vault skirge, lifelink with just +1/+1 equipment isn't quite enough. any thought on what to replace it with?).
any thoughts about glaze fiend? if the landfall guys are used in ww, i can't see how this is any worse.
I've been playing against [CARD]
Fangren Marauder [/CARD] and MonoU for about 100 days straight and they are just too powerful. Any ways to challenge it? I've tried 4x pyroblast 4x electricity for MonoU, but they have answers for everything.
It seems like once the second island comes down, I get pretty much destroyed and can't do much.
After the ban of classic Storm decks/weakening of Infect, Affinity has become a significantly larger chunk of the metagame than previously. The artifact hate is also useful against Post variants ~ stopping their manafixing/draw tricks with Prisms and Serrated Arrows/Crusher.
The rise of StormPost is probably another reason, as it does run a lot of Baubles to wrack up a Storm count. Artifact and enchantment hate often overlap, which means it could also be a side effect of trying to combat UG Storm/GW Hexproof decks. A lot of top decks run some Artifacts sideboard ~ mostly stuff like Relic/Nihil Spellbomb/Lifestaff/Bonesplitter, and the use of Spire Golem by MUC/Delver is an issue for decks unable to run stuff like Flame Slash/Doomblade.
Hope that helps :3
No problem, I was just wondering if it was just me that was going crazy, thanks for the little tidbit. Saves my mind from going crazy.
That's kind of an unconventional choice, but you can still Galvanic Blast it or kill it with Krark-Clan Shaman so it's not that big of a deal.
Fires :symr:f Salvation
I'm not sure four Krark-Clan Shaman on the sideboard is more correct than one main and three side. The advantage to these guys is your 4/4s, who can survive the meltdown and then attack into the clear board. I would also not be running more than one or two Electrickery with him; there is approximately one deck (Delver) where Electrickery is better than Krark-Clan Shaman, and that deck tends to have trouble controlling your undercosted 4/4s.
In either case, if you're facing a swarm deck, you usually board out something worth much less in that matchup - probably Fling, since sailing over their blockers isn't as strong as killing them all.
Standard Bearer is mostly for stopping Stompy, at this point. He eats their pump spells, and they usually can't kill him.
Those are all the ones I have experience with, anyway.
EDIT: The wording on Standard Bearer is a little strange, but the effect is basically, "Your opponent must target Standard Bearer whenever possible." So when he goes to cast Gather Courage or whatever, the only legal target is Standard Bearer. Note that SB doesn't work against Temporal Fissure, for reasons which I can only characterize as "stupid".
VVVV
That's a fine sideboard on a budget but Pyroblast really does add a lot. Another good card you could consider is Duress if you're running black for Disciple, it does a lot of good things in the Post matchup.
The Great:
4/4 beaters that come down turn two are super sexy. I always feel like the big deck on campus.
The Good: The Drum and Prism are fine ramp/fixing/cantrips respectively. I also like Blast and Thoughtcast for their roles of draw and spot removal/4-to-the-face. Frogmite is solid.
When Atog is good he is fantastic, opponents end up chumping every turn for fear of getting smacked in the face for infinity, however I still have a bunch to learn about using him optimally. Also he tends to be iffy in multiples, I'm thinking about cutting him to three.
The Meh: I'm not so hot on the star. It does it's job of getting a spell on the board, and Atog sacing it is a neat interaction, but it just feels clunky in general.
I'm also really not sold on disciple. While I understand what they do it just seems like when I'm winning it's because I'm beating down with 4/4s. If I get stuck with a draw of Atogs and Disciples I either get ran over by their horde, or can't do enough damage to win before post gets their infinite combo online. So far I have liked Auriok Sunchaser in his place. He swings for three every turn against most decks, and is big enough to eat goblins, elves and humans much of the time. But I need more testing and wanted opinions.
The Ugly: Gorilla Shaman. It just destroys the deck. I'm honestly not sure how the deck has grown to become #2 in the meta when it just scoops to a 1 cmc creature. Sure, Standard Bearer is big trouble for stompy, but it can at least wait to draw removal and trade/chump in the meantime. Once Gorilla resolves unless we are holding Galvanic we can expect to never have more than one mana again.
I'm currently thinking about cards to fit Disciple slot besides the Chaser. Thundering Tanadon as another fatty? Although probably too slow at 4 mana. Might try the old Legionnaire out too.
Rancor for the Atogs? Making them no longer chumpable. Likewise on the 4/4s.
Rush of Knowledge is bonkers when you drop your whole hand turn 4, then draw 7 cards and do it again on turn 6 or so. And it's junk when your stuck on four mana for 10 turns or with a 2cmc prism as your biggest thing.
Perhaps just another burn spell like Thunderbolt for removal or reach?
P.S. Shouldn't this thread be in the Established forum?
Here is my final new list which I created after those dailies:
01x Darksteel Citadel
04x Great Furnace
04x Seat of the Synod
04x Tree of Tales
04x Vault of Whispers
Creatures 22
01x Krark-Clan Shaman
01x Somber Hoverguard
04x Atog
04x Carapace Forger
04x Disciple of the Vault
04x Frogmite
04x Myr Enforcer
04x Chromatic Star
04x Springleaf Drum
02x Prophetic Prism
02x Flayer Husk
Spells 09
01x Fling
04x Galvanic Blast
04x Thoughtcast
02x Doom Blade
03x Krark-Clan Shaman
03x Hydroblast
03x Ancient Grudge
04x Pyroblast
Some highlight matches (click to watch):
Affinity vs Affinity I misplay badly but this MU does showcase how powerful Flayer Husk is in the mirror
Affinity vs Burn
Please leave comment or suggestion on what you'll change with deck and why :).
Also what do you Sideout in mirror? I'm finding it really tough to pick.
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Modern:
Bant Eldrazi
Merfolk
Abzan Company
EDH:
Mono-Green Omnath
Mono-White Odric Soup
Mono-Blue Muzzio
Mono-Red Feldon
I like it a little better than the Scale, since it comes with a point of power and the ability to attack on its own; but the Scale lets you catch people by surprise, which can matter a lot in faster, closer games.
Its important to note that he is also a 1 drop artifact which we can play on turn one which can lead to some really silly turns :D.
I went 3-1 again with the list I posted above facing:
G1: Affinity (2-1)
G2: Delver (0-2) we had a close R1 but I was stuck on 1 land for R2
G3: Goblins (2-1)
G4: Affinity (2-0)
when you guys have a chance can you post your SB plan for the mirror? ATM I'm siding cards which I feel that I really shouldn't
Another 3-1 running a slightly different list:
01x Darksteel Citadel
04x Great Furnace
04x Seat of the Synod
04x Tree of Tales
04x Vault of Whispers
Creatures 21
01x Krark-Clan Shaman
04x Atog
04x Carapace Forger
04x Disciple of the Vault
04x Frogmite
04x Myr Enforcer
04x Chromatic Star
04x Springleaf Drum
02x Prophetic Prism
03x Flayer Husk
Spells 09
01x Fling
04x Galvanic Blast
04x Thoughtcast
02x Doom Blade
03x Krark-Clan Shaman
03x Hydroblast
03x Ancient Grudge
04x Pyroblast
Click to watch videos.
R1: MDU’s Flayer Affinity vs Stompy
Sideboard
+02x Doom Blade
+03x Krark-Clan Shaman
-04x Disciple of the Vault
-01x Atog
R2: MDU’s Flayer Affinity vs UR Post
Sideboard
+04x Pyroblast
+03x Hydroblast
-01x Atog
-01x Krark-Clan Shaman
-01x Fling
-04x Disciple of the Vault
R3: MDU’s Flayer Affinity vs Delver
Sideboard
+04x Pyroblast
+02x Doom Blade
-01x Krark-Clan Shaman
-01x Fling
-03x Flayer Husk
R4: MDU’s Flayer Affinity vs Delver
Sideboard
+04x Pyroblast
+02x Doom Blade
-01x Krark-Clan Shaman
-01x Fling
-03x Flayer Husk
Any suggestion or comments about the SB are welcomed. (I'm really liking 03x Flayer Husk atm)
- - - - - - - - - - -
EDIT: I got a 4-0 running:
01x Darksteel Citadel
04x Great Furnace
04x Seat of the Synod
04x Tree of Tales
04x Vault of Whispers
Creatures 23
01x Krark-Clan Shaman
02x Somber Hoverguard
04x Atog
04x Carapace Forger
04x Disciple of the Vault
04x Frogmite
04x Myr Enforcer
04x Chromatic Star
03x Springleaf Drum
02x Prophetic Prism
02x Flayer Husk
Spells 09
01x Fling
04x Galvanic Blast
04x Thoughtcast
01x Krark-Clan Shaman
02x Electrickery
03x Hydroblast
03x Ancient Grudge
04x Pyroblast
Videos will be up shortly, so just click the link when they turn blue.
R1: Stompy
R2: Stompy
R3: Elves
R4: Delver
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i regard the atog + disciple of the vault as a winmore combo, as it either wins you the game when you already had an edge (be it not enough creatures removed, or no life gained from the opponent) or can't put you in a better situation when you are behind.
the reasoning here is that there are just two creature sweepers in pauper, krark-clan shaman, which doesn't touch fliers (and the reason i run 2 main and 2 side), and crypt rat, or whatever it's called, which costs a lot of mana. i just don't get why all affinity decks i see don't run the cards i just mentioned, and rather have atog and disciple which are bad topdecks if you are losing, and can cause more mulligans than necessary because of the need for colored mana.