Modern Affinity (a tier one deck)

Modern Affinity Aggro Artifact

Newlamog789

Creature (26)

• 4x Arcbound Ravager
• 2x Etched Champion
• 2x Master of Etherium
• 2x Memnite
• 4x Ornithopter
• 4x Signal Pest
• 4x Steel Overseer
• 4x Vault Skirge

Land (17)

• 4x Blinkmoth Nexus
• 4x Darksteel Citadel
• 1x Glimmervoid
• 4x Inkmoth Nexus
• 1x Mountain
• 3x Spire of Industry

Artifact (13)

• 4x Cranial Plating
• 4x Mox Opal
• 4x Springleaf Drum
• 1x Welding Jar

Instant (4)

• 4x Galvanic Blast

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Sideboard

Artifact (5)

• 2x Damping Sphere
• 1x Grafdigger's Cage
• 2x Welding Jar

Instant (2)

• 2x Ancient Grudge

Enchantment (4)

• 2x Ghirapur AEther Grid
• 2x Rest in Peace

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Whipflare

Creature (3)

• 2x Etched Champion
• 1x Hope of Ghirapur

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Maybeboard

Sorcery (4)

• 4x Thoughtcast

Planeswalker (2)

• 2x Karn, Scion of Urza

Creature (1)

• 1x Hope of Ghirapur

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Main Deck

Business cards

Arcbound Ravager is absolutely amazing in our deck. It threatens to make any unblocked creature into a huge, if not lethal, threat on every turn. It turns your excess permanents, of which there are often quite a few, into extra damage. Have an extra Mox Opal? It’s now a 0-mana +1/+1 counter that you can move around onto other creatures at your leisure. Ravager does it all and is a huge payoff for loading your deck with artifacts. Easy 4-of.

Cranial Plating is the card that keeps Affinity on the map. Without it, Affinity would be a mediocre archetype that relied too heavily on Arcbound Ravager. The ability to move it at instant speed makes it unbelievably strong allowing you to equip it to the creature that isn't blocked. Although it cost double black the deck can regularly activate it. In combination with any creature it threatens to end the game quickly, and with Inkmoth Nexus, it might just take one hit.

Lords

Steel Overseer is interesting in that it’s a huge payoff for going wide, makes your 0- and 1-mana creatures significantly better, and is a great combo with the Nexus lands. It also costs 2 mana, which is actually on the expensive side for this deck, and has no impact the turn it’s cast. If it’s not dealt with immediately, however, the game is very likely over, especially against any fair strategy. It’s certainly not automatic to include 4 copies, but 2-4 should make the cut.

Master of Etherium is effectively a single use steel overseer for 3 mana instead of 2 and requires a blue. Although there is a huge payoff for using this card, firstly the master itself can grow absolutely huge (there are some games where mine has had 10 power and toughness) and secondly being mostly bigger than a 3/3 it doesn't die to bolt.

Cheap cmc creatures

Memnite and Ornithopter are artifacts that have no casting cost. That’s a pretty nice feature for a deck relying on the affinity mechanic, but that’s no longer the case for these decks. That doesn’t mean that these creatures have any less utility. They cost nothing to enter play and work perfectly with all of the payoff cards. Anything that can pump power, cares about the number of artifacts in play, or requires having an extra body to tap combines perfectly with these cards.

Signal pest Signal Pest already offers the deck a payoff for having creatures it can dump onto the battlefield on turn 1. As effectively an Anthem for only 1 colourless mana, it also adds to the artifact count to help cards with metalcraft. Signal Pest does nothing on its own, but is an excellent threat and a key piece of the deck. The evasion ability can combine with equipment or modular to be a huge threat without going wide. Another easy 4-of.

Vault Skirge doesn’t do anything special, but it’s deceptively good. A 1/1 flying lifelink for 1 mana that enables all your artifact synergies is incredible in a race. Great with Ravager, Plating, Overseer, Pest, and just about everything in the deck generally amazing although not always needed it’s still an easy 4-of.

Ramp

Mox Opal is broken. It’s a powerhouse in various Vintage decks, and the legend rule change to allow you to play a second copy despite having one in play, generating a Lotus Petal effect, has been fantastic for this deck. Accelerating your mana at no cost is a key difference in separating this deck from any other aggro deck in the format. 4 copies is a no-brainer.

Springleaf drum has some serious diminishing returns, each needing an additional creature to do anything, but that’s an acceptable condition in a deck with Cranial Plating, Arcbound Ravager and that can turn a 1-mana artifact do-nothing into damage so I would recommend playing 3-4 copies.

Lands

Blinkmoth Nexus and Inkmoth Nexus are additional payoffs for having cards that pump power in your deck. These help give Affinity some incredible consistency since they cast almost all of your spells on turns 1 and 2 before becoming serious threats on turn 3. At the worst these lands can just become artifacts for to help pump a creature using ravager or plating.

Darksteel Citadel is an a artifact land with indestructible it gets metalcraft online it can be sacrificed to ravager, it boost a creature power by one when plating is on the field it's absolutely amazing run 4.

Spire of Industry with any artifact on the field taps for a mana of any colour and this lets us play our Galvanic Blasts and Master of Etheriums run 4. This can be swapped out for Glimmervoid as if you prefer although I like to play it safe in case we get blown out.

Finally, access to a single Mountain is useful in a Path to Exile format

Flex spots

The rest of the cards in the deck vary dramatically. Galvanic Blast is very common since it’s an upgrade on Lightning Bolt in this deck this is great as it doubles up as our only removal spell in the game while also being able to deal 4 damage directly to your opponent to help close out games.

Thoughtcast actually does have the affinity mechanic the only card in most affinity decks that does. A single mana to draw 2 is solid, but even at that price, the fact that it requires a coloured blue mana makes Thoughtcast an occasional inclusion. In my meta there is little midrange (jund/abzan) and obviously if your meta has more midrange swap out some of the galvanic blasts for thoughtcasts.

Etched Champion is the toughest card to evaluate for this deck. There are matchups where it’s completely unbeatable, the best card in your deck, the focus of your game plan, and you absolutely want 4 of them. There are others where this is a 2/2 for 3 with no ability, which is unplayable in Modern and any Constructed format. Your expected metagame should dictate how many Champions you sleeve up, at least for your main deck. e.g if there is a lot of Jund/Abzan in you meta run 4

Sideboard

Jund/Abzan

Take out a 1 Memnite, a Master of Etherium and 2 Galvanic Blastfor 3 Etched Champions and a Welding Jar

Green/Red Green/Eldrazi Tron

Take out 3 Galvanic Blast and put in 2 Damping Sphere and and one 1 Ancient Grudge

Mirror

Take out 4 Signal Pests and and put in 2 Ancient Grudge and two Ghirapur AEther Grid

Jeskai/Azorius Control

Board out 2 Steel Overseer and a Memnite board in 3 Etched Champion and maybe board out something else to put in a if they are playing it Ghirapur AEther Grid to help get around stony silence

Hollow One

board out a Memnite then board in Rest in Peace

Dredge

board out a Memnite and 2 Signal Pests for a Grafdigger's Cage and two Rest in Peace

Storm

Take out 3 Vault Skirge and put in 2 Damping Sphere and 1 Hope of Ghirapur

The last thing to remember when sideboarding is if you are on the draw feel free to board out a land e.g the mountain if your opponent isn't playing path to exile

If you are interested in this deck but you don't quite have the cash check out my budget Ensoul Artifact affinity deck

Date added	5 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is not Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 2 Mythic Rares 24 - 4 Rares 22 - 7 Uncommons 9 - 2 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	1.30
Folders	decks i wanna do