Purple Venom (Pauper Affinity Tier 1 PRIMER)
Artifact (14)
Instant (8)
Creature (18)
Sorcery (4)
Land (16)
Sideboard
Creature (5)
Sorcery (2)
Hello everyone! Today I bring an iconic Pauper deck to the table, one that has been around for years: Affinity. Affinity is a fast deck that is very strong in game 1, but there are powerful sideboard cards against it such as Gorilla Shaman, Smash to Smithereens, Natural State, et cetera. The reason why I love affinity is that it's a powerful deck that plays lots of 4/4 creatures, it has a lot of synergy, and a combo finish. With Chromatic Star, Prophetic Prism, and Springleaf Drum, Affinity has all the color fixing necessary to play 3 colors while only rarely being stuck with the wrong mana. Without further ado, we jump into the deck:
Game Plan
Affinity in Pauper uses full playsets of Artifact Lands (which are banned in Modern) that help out that affinity count for free, this means running 0 basic lands. In pauper Affinity, our game plan is to rack up our affinity count as fast as possible, casting cheap spells like Springleaf Drum, Chromatic Star, Flayer Husk into free Frogmites and Myr Enforcers. Our affinity count turns Thoughtcast into 2/3 of an Ancestral Recall, Carapace Forger into "the Goyf of Pauper", and Galvanic Blast into the best removal spell in the deck. We use these cheap creatures to beat down on our opponent until we can close out the game with a 2 mana Gearseeker Serpent, or a combo finish by sac'ing all of our artifacts to Atog, casting Temur Battle Rage, then swinging with easily a 41/42 with trample. In previous years, I've used Fling instead of Temur Battle Rage, which is nice because we can Fling in response to say, Journey to Nowhere or Doom Blade and kill them then, but in general Temur Battle Rage is better because they can't chump block the Atog, and even if our opponent blocks with everything they have we usually still win. So whether or not you'd like to replace Temur Battle Rage with Fling is up to you.
The Cards
In my affinity list, we're running 3 Prophetic Prism, the full playset of Chromatic Star, and 2 Springleaf Drum for mana fixing. In previous years, we've been running 4 Springleaf Drums, and while they help us ramp they take down our blockers and attackers in the sake of mana. By the time we draw a 3rd Springleaf Drum, we already have enough mana to win the game. While on the rocks, we run 2 Ichor Wellspring, because with an artifact sac outlet in play those turn into a 2 mana Thoughtcast and protection from our opponent Lightning Bolting Atog.
For creatures, we run 4 Frogmite because they turn into 0-drop 2/2's as early as turn 2, giving us Atog fodder and adding to our affinity count for Myr Enforcer. A 0-drop chump blocker isn't bad, either. We run 4 Carapace Forgers which quickly turn into an un-boltable threat that beats down for 4, like a mini Tarmogoyf. The 4 Myr Enforcers turn into better Frogmites, and even a 2-drop 4/4 is amazing in this format. We have 2 Gearseeker Serpent that require 2 burn spells to destroy and swing for a hefty 5 damage, while having affinity for artifacts as well. Finally, we have 4 Atogs, which are the core of the deck. They eat all our artifacts in play to swing for lethal. We can swing in for 1, opponent chooses blockers, then we decide how many artifacts to sac and if we want to cast Temur Battle Rage to save Atog and possibly trample over with lethal damage. Flayer Husk serves as a creature, giving us something to tap with Springleaf Drum and increasing our affinity count, and you can chump block with the germ or even sac it to Annihilator triggers.
As for our non-artifact, non-creature spells, we have 4 Galvanic Blasts which serve as one of the greatest burn spells we can run. It removes Delver of Secrets
, Stompy's creatures, Kiln Fiend, Nivix Cyclops, and almost every other creature we need to worry about with this deck. We have 4 Thoughtcasts that we can use to find more lands, Frogmites, Myr Enforcers, combo pieces, or anything else. We have 2 Metallic Rebuke, which is great for countering say, Apostle's Blessing in Izzet Blitz or Fangren Marauder against tron, and most burn spells. While it doesn't have affinity, it has improvise which we usually tap down Flayer Husk itself or extra Springleaf Drums to cast for 1. There's an argument to run Mana Leak instead, but more often than not you can cast Metallic Rebuke for 1. Finally we have 2 Temur Battle Rage, which as aforementioned serves as our win con when faced with many chump blockers.
And lastly we have our lands, running 16 Artifact lands. These are banned in modern, but make the pauper affinity list so much better. We have full playsets of Seat of the Synod, Tree of Tales, and Great Furnace for our colored mana, and Darksteel Citadel to play around artifact destruction. The biggest weakness in Affinity is that all your lands are vulnerable to artifact destruction, which is why most affinity lists run Darksteel Citadel over Ancient Den or Vault of Whispers.
The Sideboard
In the sideboard, we run counters and hate cards. For the mirror matchup, we have another Ichor Wellspring to draw faster and 2 Gorilla Shaman, which is insanely powerful against affinity as it can wipe out their entire manabase for a lowly 4 mana (this is why I run Darksteel Citadel). For tokens matchups like Boros Monarch or Orzhov Tokens, we have 2 Blazing Volley and 3 Krark-Clan Shaman, which can completely wipe their board and make room for our ground attackers. Against Delver, we bring in 3 Hydroblasts and 2 Pyroblasts, so we can counter Delvers and Bolts, as well as the occasional Gorilla Shaman. Hydroblast is especially good against burn because if we counter a Fireblast for 1 mana, they're left with 2 sacrificed mountains and a wasted spell, which is absolutely phenomenal. It also destroys Firebrand Archer and Thermo-Alchemist. Against Stompy, we again bring in the 3 Krark-Clan Shamans, as we can stack the ability to deal 2 damage to each creature and player, leaving in our Carapace Forgers, Myr Enforcers, and Gearseeker Serpents.
The Downsides
There are a couple downsides to playing affinity. Number one is that it isn't very cheap, but it can be if you shop around and get good deals. Number 2 is that almost every sideboard has artifact removal, whether that deck was expecting to play against affinity or not. Metas with lots of affinity decks will have Gorilla Shaman in the sideboard of almost every deck that can produce red mana. Green decks have all sorts of artifact hate, such as Natural State, Naturalize, et cetera. Reason Number 3 is that Affinity almost always loses to Tron, because of Ulamog's Crusher eating away at the board, Roiling Thunder one-shotting us, and Fangren Marauder completely outrunning the Atog game plan by gaining 5 life whenever an artifact hits the graveyard. Against Tron, I've usually had to just hope they get stuck on lands and don't cast a Fangren Marauder. I've considered putting Act of Treason into the sideboard against Tron, that way I can gain control of a Fangren Marauder, sacrifice all my artifacts to Atog, then cast Temur Battle Rage and swing with all of that and gain one hell of a lot of life. Maybe? It all depends on my meta.
Conclusion
Thank you all for reading my primer! Affinity is a complex deck that can be amazing in the hands of the right player. Please hit that upvote button if you like the deck! I will take any suggestions for how to beat tron in the comments section. Thanks!
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| Date added | 5 years |
| Last updated | 5 years |
| Legality | This deck is not Pauper legal. |
| Cards | 60 |
| Avg. CMC | 2.89 |
| Tokens | Phyrexian Germ 0/0 B |
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