Dubffinity: Bringing suffering to our foes through the power of W/U/B(s)
Presenting Dubffinity, or W/U/B Affinity, my "Magnum Opus" which is an atypical Affinity build that does not focus on hard aggro but rather attempts to eliminate threats before utilizing an infect or beat down strategy to achieve victory. To date the deck has lost no battles of attrition due to its value pulls and abnormal card advantage. Credit to my friend 18bobman who came up with the Deck's primary name 'Dubffinity', due to the former Skrillex-esque Dark Confidant present in the deck.
[Main]
Affinity Shell: Show
Memnite / Ornithopter: Ensures our
metalcraft is online for
Mox Opal and
Dispatch as well as reduces
Thoughtcast's mana cost through its
artifact affinity. Considered to be our weakest artifact creatures late game we often utilize Memnite and Ornithopter to chump block or, if we're in desperate need of damage, enchant them with
Ensoul Artifact although we will often reserve the enchantment for
Vault Skirge or
Darksteel Citadel.
Mox Opal: Serves to assist in dumping our hand out early. Mox Opal offers both mana ramp and fixing, for some of our sideboard answers. Often our first turn plays will consist of playing a land, three artifacts (including Mox Opal & 0 CMC creatures), as well as multiple 1 CMC creature or single 2 CMC creature.
Springleaf Drum: Enables us access to early plays like a turn 1 Ensoul Artifact on a Darksteel Citadel by allowing our summoning sick/useless creatures to tap for valuable mana. Springleaf Drum has also proven to assist with keeping 1 land hands and grind through land destruction, which is prevalent against R/G Ponza
Vault Skirge: Assists in our sustainability. Due to our use of the Esper Wedge we may hit some land shocks, Spellskite and Dark Confidant triggers, as well as Vault Skirge casts early on which can hit us for 5 damage within the first few turns. To combat the aforementioned the Vault Skirge can restore our life total through pings or with the Vault Skirge+Ensoul Artifact which turns the Vault Skirge into a 5/5 with flying and lifelink.
Arcbound Ravager: Ravager is an affinity classic assisting us in getting value against spot removal and chump blocks. Arcbound Ravager is also vital to beating decks with Ensnaring Bridge, such as pattern control, as we can swing in with our 0/2 Ornithopter and pump the thopters for lethal. Arcbound Ravager has plenty of ways it can pull out a surprise victory but always be cautious of how much we sacrifice since our opponent may be baiting us to destroy our boardstate for a greedy win.
Etched Champion: Our highest CMC creature, Etched Champion is usually a mid-game cast that is difficult for our opponent to remove. Due to The possibility of multiple Darksteel Citadel it is usually guaranteed to remain metalcraft active. Etched Champion should always be our go to attacker in stalled boardstates as well as the primary defender against large coloured beaters. Remember that once Metalcraft is active we can not attach Ensoul Artifact to it.
Control Engine: Show
Mana Leak: Provides our main answer to most problem cards. Formerly Stubborn Denial occupied this slot but was promptly removed due to its unreliability, since we only play our bombs such as Ensoul Artifact or card:Archbound Ravager late game, or before opponent's counter mana is live. Mana Leak provides to be a solid answer at all points in the game with no drawback besides our opponent anticipating a counter. The opponent casts a board wipe? Surprise Mana Leak!
Dispatch: Our strongest and only mainboard removal, Dispatch is guaranteed to come online due to the Affinity shell. Unlike Path to Exile, Dispatch does not allow your opponent to get a land play which can be crucial versus most control and aggro strategies, reducing the amount of spells that can be played per turn to disrupt your board state.
Chalice of the Void: A majority of cards which often pose a threat to Affinity are 1 CMC be it: Path to Exile, Lightning Bolt, Delver of Secrets
,
Thoughtsieze
, and Inquisition of Kozilek. Due to our lack of 1 CMC cards we can easily maneuver around playing a Chalice of the Void in the early game giving us uninterrupted access to our opponent's life total. Due to being present in the Side Board as well we utilize Chalice of the Void to combat: Storm, Delver, Goblins, Burn, and Affinity.
Draw Engine: Show
Unlike most affinity decks, we utilize both Blue and Black which have some major card draw power houses such as...
Thoughtcast: The main reason we play with an Affinity shell. Thoughcast lets us stay ahead of our opponent in the short and long term, often providing us with two extra cards when we dump our hand turn 1 which can both A. Demoralize our opponent, and B. Ensure we have answers or plays for the next turn.
Unique [Uncategorized] Cards: Show
Bitterblossom: The "Elephant in the room",
Bitterblossom is a powerful card in affinity giving us access to a steady stream of: Blockers, Attackers, Tap-able creatures for
Springleaf Drum, and
flying targets for
Cranial Plating. The damage sustained from
Bitterblossom is easily mended by a
Vault Skirge hit each turn. Another key factor is, due to the lack of a high enchantment meta and playing Affinity, our opponents often lack the Side Board hate to remove it.
Ensoul Artifact: Nothing is more gratifying then creating a potential 5/5 on turn two! Ensoul Artifact gives us the ability to severely threaten the board by applying it to Ornithopter or Vault Skirge for added life gain. If metalcraft is not active we can target Etched Champion making it an unblockable 5/5 later on. Against any decks which seek to destroy our creatures before we cast
Ensoul Artifact
simply target Darksteel Citadel for a 5/5 Indestructible.
Ensoul Artifact
is a power card, it can get "Two for One'd" but in the times where there are no answers, it is well worth a top deck.
Spellskite: Keeps board disrupting spells away from the rest of the field. Spellskite, especially in my local meta, is a must mainboard card as it ensures we hit no disruption which could lose us the first game. Due to our use of the Esper wedge we are able to pay off Spellskite's ability when we have free mana.
Plains: The single Plains deserves its own special mention because we primarily keep it to prevent disruption from enchantments, such as Blood Moon, and other artifacts with Disenchant.
[Side]
Ghost Quarters: Run this in counter to Valakut, Tron, and Eldrazi strategies. Usually substitute with Inkmoth Nexus to avoid disrupting the mana pool.
Disenchant: Our solution to card:Stoney Silence or card:Bloodmoon. This will often go into a flex slot, such as Dark Confidant, versus most aggro strategies which run these cards. It is important that we ensure a Mox Opal or Plains is on the field as early as possible to get Disenchant live.
Inquisition of Kozilek: Don't know what our opponent is playing? Then cast Inquisition of Kozilek! Usually replacing Dark Confidant, we play this against any heavy control/combo decks to give us more time and much needed knowledge.
Ancient Grudge: For use in the mirror match or to beat out Lantern Control's Ensnaring Bridge.
Tormod's Crypt: Effective versus: Dredge, and Decks utilizing Snapcaster.
Whipflare: For those decks that go wide, Whipflare will easily clear away goblins, tokens, and anything with two toughness. Make sure you side out Bitterblossom for this, as it will kill our Faeries.
[Old Content] Show
[Main]
Stubborn Denial: Is our main counter spell due to its ability to benefit from: a +1/+1 counter loaded Arcbound Ravager any artifact with Ensoul Artifact attached, and any creature artifact with Cranial Plating equip to activate its potent Ferocious. However, it can also be replaced with Spell Pierce which removes the added need to have a pumped creature but this affects our ability to counter spells late game.
- See 'Mana Leak' under 'Control Engine' for more details regarding removal.
Creeping Tar Pit: Provides a solid method to bypass opponent's creatures to throw in damage when we are on the defensive against fatties.
Because of 'enters tapped' Tar Pit often results in mulling a hand.
Due to its mana cost to sustain Tar Pit can significantly slow down our other plays since we will often run a game with only three mana available on board.
Dark Confidant: Provides us with a continuous draw edge over our opponent by providing an extra card per turn in exchange for life, which we can easily obtain via the Vault Skirge+Ensoul Artifact or Vault Skirge+Cranial Plating combo. Since we are revealing this card it is recommended to cast these immediately to prevent our opponent from knowing what is in our hand. However, there is one major crux to having an active Dark Confidant... We run a 31.5%+ chance of drawing a Thoughtcast which severely burns us for 5 damage on reveal.
Unfavourable draw against aggro heavy meta.
No evasion; poor target for Cranial Plating.
Easily killed via removal spells, often wasting us a turn trying to cast it.
[Side]
Dismember:
- With the fall of Eldrazi Winter the need for more removal versus high toughness creatures is no longer necessary.
Information as well as other pieces regarding previously utilized cards within the deck which I have found to be no longer viable, but, may be of use to you for the purpose of mastery and brewery.
[Sources]
A list of links for where I've done my research to build the Deck, some sources also include inspiration for the construction of the Deck.
MtgGoldfish, Affinity Deck
MtgSalvation, Affinity Mod:eAn Primer
MtgSalvation, Affinity Legacy Primer
Youtube, Tolarian Community College Affinity Guide
By subbing out the land base with Artifact lands, Dubffinity becomes a capable Legacy deck which has won 2nd place at FNM.
Thank you for your time; may you draw well in future matches!
