Wiki / MTG Deck Themes / Affinity
Here we are at article 2 of 99.
As with all decks it is also important to keep in mind the intentions of the creator. My intentions with this and following articles is to build casual theme decks based around the ability or concept specified in the beginning of each article. In addition, I have been playing long enough that I have no desire to stop using cards I am used to though, the power 9 is a bit excessive, so the format for most of my decks will be legacy. I hope that you all enjoy this.
Affinity
Affinity is a keyword that means a casting cost is reduced by {1} for each card you have in play of the specified cardtype. For example, a Frogmite costs {4} and has affinity for artifacts. This means that if you have three artifacts in play the Frogmite now costs {1}. Most of the 20 cards with affinity in print have affinity for artifacts and are either blue or artifacts themselves, some notable ones seen below:
While there are a few cards that have affinity for different card types or that belong to other colors, examples below:
Affinity has been around for a while and has made quite an impact on play, expescially during Mirrodin block standard. When many players think of affinity, they recall decks very similar to or exacty like Aeo Paquette's Affinity deck from the 2004 quarterfinals. For a while there affinity was very popular so there are not that many new concepts and decks like Paquette's can't even be played anymore because of the banning of diciple of the vault. So where do we go if we want to make a casual, legacy legal affinity deck. Well we can go in a couple of different directions, some a bit more casual than others.
Brainstorming
When I began looking at affinity I decided to do something that I haven't seen before. There are no new ideas out there, but at least one that I have never seen or played against. At first I figured that maybe I could use one of the affinity for land type cards. Sadly they all seemed boring and not really viable. The next thought was to try and construct some loops that I could take advantage of.
The first one I thought of was a take on an old standard: Atog, Enduring Renewal, Ornithopter. So this is not a real original idea like I first endevored for but, I will try to work with it some and develop a better concept got the next idea.
The next thing that strikes me is the card Mycosynth Golem. This 11 casting cost affinity giant can really be out on turn 4 or so regularly and it gives all other artifacts affinity for artifacts. This card gave me ideas for a loop. If I could infinitely bounce an artifact that I give affinity to then I could keep casting it for free and take advantage of the loop.
So now I have two different engines to work with. Now it is time to continue brainstorming with what can make these engines do something other than just have loops of artifacts coming into play.
Idea 1
I am going to start with the Enduring Renewal engine. I wanted to avoid using Disciple of the Vault as we all know how that goes. Well since I need to get the creatures to my graveyard to really take advantage of the loop here, I can go for an infinite mana loop. I am thinking that I can use Krark-Clan Ironworks to launch off a Banefire for any amount I want with some affinity creatures. That is an easy combo, so I will go with that. The three key cards will be:
Idea 2
While I do not want to to use the Enduring Renewal engine for all the decks here, I saw a great idea, when searching through artifacts, Grinding Station. With a Grinding Station and [[enduring renewal] out I could potentially infinitely mill any number ofopponents I want. This combo going off would win a multiplayer game by milling everyone. I love that idea. Ok, so this deck will have two key cards:
Filling the concept
For this stage in the building we must take a look at making our concepts really work and flow in each of the decks. If thereare more than one card that do the same or similar things, this is where/when I need to look into it. Clearly all of these decks will work because of creatures having affinity, but I have not yet discussed which affinity creatures will be used. Also this is where we start looking at room in our decks. I assume that about 22 lands will be in each deck. So that leaves me with 38 spaces in a 60 card deck. I usually leave between 8-16 spaces in for contingency cards. This means that after a concept is filled in I want to have about 22-30 filled in. So let's take a look at how I get there with these decks
Idea 1
For this deck we have a baseconcept of Enduring Renewal+Krark-Clan Ironworks+Banefire+affinity creatures. I am actually thinking that a change to Banefire to Fireball as it will sweep the board if needed and can win a multiplayer games just the same. Now I need to consider the affinity creatures I need. I have a tendency to always use Frogmites a 2/2 that drops at latest on turn two and is usually free by turn three is hard to beat. Along with that Myr Enforcer which usually drops by turn 3 and will be free soon therafter. Now fortunately when I was brainstorming the grindding station deck, I remembered that Blasting Station exists. This card will give us an alternate and even easier win as it only requires two cards to work. Because it is both a blocker and a time bomb in this deck I decided to add Cinder Elemental. In addition I would like to put some comet strorms in there to burn and control even more, while it acts as another Fireball. The Banefires that were removed will be sideboarded for playing against blue. This leave me with finding quantities, I am going with 4x Enduring Renewal, 4x Fireball, 3x Comet Storm, 4x Cinder Elemental, 4x Frogmite, 4x Myr Enforcer, 4x Blasting Station, 4x Krark-Clan Ironworks. That gives me a total of 31 cards. This is a tiny bit over my norm but I am ok with it here. I may change that when I playtest it.
Idea 2
For this deck, the concept was to mill opponents via Grinding Station+Enduring Renewal+ some affinity creatures. Similarly to before. My main creatures will be Frogmite and Myr Enforcer. This time I am adding a few Ornithopters as well. I thought for a bit about Hedron Crabs to speed up the milling, but since I already have a graveyard flavor happening here, I decieded that Extractor Demons with some arcbound ravagers could make for fast mill or an alt win condition. For a bit more beef and to make the Arcbound Ravagers free, I throw in a couple of Mycosynth Golems. Pretty simple and straighhtforward deck so far. I now have 4x Grinding Station, 4x Enduring Renewal, 4x Frogmite, 4x Myr Enforcer, 2x Ornithopter, 4x Arcbound Ravager, 4x Extractor Demon, and 2x Mycosynth Golem. That puts me at 26 cards in this deck and ready to move on to the next.
Fears, Threats, and Contingencies
In this section I try to figure out what troubles this deck will have, what types of cards will put a stop to this deck and then figure out ways around them.
Idea 1
This first deck is a burn combo deck, both of which are majorly suceptable to counter spells, minorly weak against speed aggro, and since this is affinity, enourmously afraid of Shatterstorm. So for a little help to speed up the combo, I am adding in 3x Enlightened Tutor. I am also adding in 4x Lightning Bolt for early removal. unfortunately that takes up the remaining mainboard spots. In the sideboard, I already added Banefire to deal with counter spells. I will also add 4x Guttural Response and 3x Red Elemental Blast. For the Shatter effects i will put in 4x Mana Tithe. That fills all of my spots and my sideboard. Just lands left to go here, onto the next.
Idea 2
In this deck I do not have a lot of specific concerns. Speed will be an issue here. I am puttin in 2x Enlightened Tutor and 2x Diabolic Tutor for combo fetch. I am going to add some acceleration with 4x Dark Ritual. Sideboard 4x Darkness for serious speed aggro decks. I will sideboard 3x Mycosynth Lattice for Shatter protection. I will mainboard 2x Scourglass for sweep of opponents cards. Lastly, 4x vindicate in the sideboard for spot removal.
Land
Now when it comes to land in my decks people constantly badger me about how expensive my land base is. Well in legacy it should be, there is no substitute for the right lands. They are a free drop every turn and your deck functions based on them. Land is important and yes I have owned most of the old ones that I use here; anyway, this is casual play. Proxy if need be, just use the best ones.
Idea 1
In order to make affinity work well artifact lands are almost a must, so I will start with four each or Ancient Den, Darksteel Citadel, and Great Furnace. To generate the rest of the colored mana I will use 4x Plateau, 2x Mountain, and 4x Glimmervoid. Arid Mesa will be in there to grab Plateaus and to thin the deck. That should do it.
Idea 2
Here again, the main concern is to use artifact lands. I start with 4x Ancient Den and Vault of Whispers each. I am not as concerned with more artifact lands so I will concentrate on filling out the chart of evenly produced mana with 4x Scrubland, 3x Swamp, and 3x Plains. Again I will put in the sac lands for deck thinning, so 4x Marsh Flats.
Finishing
So here are the finished decks. Please take a look and make comments as you see fit.
Idea 1
Idea 2
Expect the next article in about a week, featuring the ability Amplify.