Affinity Blade

[LinkCelestrial]

Braindead 60 cards, 15 sideboard 4 {Ornithopter} 3 {Memnite} 4 {Arcbound Ravager} 4 {Vault Skirge} 4 {Etched Champion} 2 {Steel Overseer} 2 {Spellskite} 23 creatures 4 {Mox Opal} 2 {Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas} 2 {Thoughtcast} 2 {Welding Jar} 4 {Cranial Plating} 2 {Galvanic Blast} 2 {Springleaf Drum} 2 {Ghostfire Blade} 20 other 4 {Glimmervoid} 4 {Darksteel Citadel} 4 {Inkmoth Nexus} 3 {Blinkmoth Nexus} 1 {Island} 1 {Swamp} 17 land

I had to type this manually so Sideboard and 'deck tech' in separate post.

[LinkCelestrial]

{Ornithopter}: Metalcraft, {Crainial Plating}, {Ghostfire Blade}, {Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas}. Need I say more?

{Memnite}: See above.

{Arcbound Ravager}: My initial thought was "this card is kinda meh". So I constantly cut it in sideboarding and even debated removing it alltogether. It was never really relevant, I thought. Then somebody explained to me that it can sacrifice itself. Turning all your artifacts into +1/+1 counters on whatever is landing. I lost way too many games thinking it said "another artifact". It's a four of for days.

{Vault Skirge}: This is another card that had me saying, "why four?". Until I got a {Cranial Plate} on it and managed to swing for more than my opponent could deal until they died. I also had a mirror that went similarly.

{Etched Champion}: Pretty much nobody else runs it as a four of mainboard. Why not? Bad in the mirror? Yeah, but it's worth the risk for something you can just sideboard out IMO. So many games ended or survived because of this guy.

{Steel Overseer}: I wasn't skeptical on this card, but now I am. It has to stay on the board for quite a while to become really useful and you need other creatures out. I'm keeping it at four for now because it's a nice thing to be able to take one or two out for sideboarding.

{Mox Opal}: One of the best cards in the whole deck. Another neat thing that some of you may not know, you can tap it for mana, play another one and sacrifice your tapped one to the legend rule, then carry on. Has enabled some /insane/ T1s and helps with the colored whatevers.

{Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas}: Why are you running this? Affinity is aggro! Let me explain. First of all, if I can reasonably run a Planeswalker I do because /Planeswalker/. Second of all, the +1 can be some much needed card draw to break through stalemates. Third of all the -1 is {Ensoul Artifact}. 5/5 {Vault Skirge}, 5/5 {Darksteel Citadel}, 5/5 {Ornithopter}. Then he'll sit there and /demand/ that my opponent does something about it, and whatever they do to him they aren't doing to me or my creatures. Fourth of all, you only have to +1 once to be able to ult. Even if I just have a four land about two of which should be artifacts and whatever he drew that 6 damage I gain 6. Even if I have pretty much /worst case scenario/. I have never regret casting him, there are just a few times that I didn't have the mana to do so.

{Thoughtcast}: I have cast this turn one. Twice. I'm seriously debating bumping up the numbers but sometimes the mana base isn't so nice to me.

{Welding Jar}: Board wipe? Cool, I sack everything to {Arcbound Ravager} then regenerate him.

{Cranial Plating}: Read it. This is win on a stick.

{Galvanic Blast}: A {Shock} that's generally a better {Lightning Bolt}. Tell me why you aren't running four? (Don't bother me with "I can't get metalcraft. I know those decks ought not to run it.)

{Ghostfire Blade}: In order to earn the ultra cool name Affinity Blade I had to run this. Plus it's actually a very nice card in most situations.

{Glimmervoid}: Four Glimmervoid? Are you crazy? That's a suicide plan! Uh, no, actually. It's not. Because A: I play it when I need it which is generally safe. B {Darksteel Citadel}. C unless I'm sorely mistaken, I can use a Nexus and stack the triggers. (Have never had to so I haven't cheated if that's not the case). I have been screwed over for colored mana too many times.

{Darksteel Citadel}: Keeps {Glimmervoid} on the board, helps with Affinity and metalcraft. Win win win.

{Inkmoth Nexus}: Alternate win condition via infect! It's more often then not too slow but it has won me two games. I've also lost three because I decided to take the infect route and then got {Ghost's Quarter} or {Path to Exile}'d.

{Blinkmoth Nexus}: See above.

{Island}: Because island.

{Mountain}: Because mountain.

I've been debating swapping my mana base to the artifact lands from the Nexusess, but I do realize that {Fracturing Gust} will kill me 9/10 times if I go that way. Thoughts?

[Ekann1]

{Steel Overseer}: I wasn't skeptical on this card, but now I am. It has to stay on the board for quite a while to become really useful and you need other creatures out. I'm keeping it at four for now because it's a nice thing to be able to take one or two out for sideboarding.

Meh. Seems like a bad reason...

[fj76ts4]

{Ornithopter}: Metalcraft, {Crainial Plating}, {Ghostfire Blade}, {Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas}. Need I say more?

{Memnite}: See above.

{Arcbound Ravager}: My initial thought was "this card is kinda meh". So I constantly cut it in sideboarding and even debated removing it alltogether. It was never really relevant, I thought. Then somebody explained to me that it can sacrifice itself. Turning all your artifacts into +1/+1 counters on whatever is landing. I lost way too many games thinking it said "another artifact". It's a four of for days.

{Vault Skirge}: This is another card that had me saying, "why four?". Until I got a {Cranial Plate} on it and managed to swing for more than my opponent could deal until they died. I also had a mirror that went similarly.

{Etched Champion}: Pretty much nobody else runs it as a four of mainboard. Why not? Bad in the mirror? Yeah, but it's worth the risk for something you can just sideboard out IMO. So many games ended or survived because of this guy.

{Steel Overseer}: I wasn't skeptical on this card, but now I am. It has to stay on the board for quite a while to become really useful and you need other creatures out. I'm keeping it at four for now because it's a nice thing to be able to take one or two out for sideboarding.

{Mox Opal}: One of the best cards in the whole deck. Another neat thing that some of you may not know, you can tap it for mana, play another one and sacrifice your tapped one to the legend rule, then carry on. Has enabled some /insane/ T1s and helps with the colored whatevers.

{Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas}: Why are you running this? Affinity is aggro! Let me explain. First of all, if I can reasonably run a Planeswalker I do because /Planeswalker/. Second of all, the +1 can be some much needed card draw to break through stalemates. Third of all the -1 is {Ensoul Artifact}. 5/5 {Vault Skirge}, 5/5 {Darksteel Citadel}, 5/5 {Ornithopter}. Then he'll sit there and /demand/ that my opponent does something about it, and whatever they do to him they aren't doing to me or my creatures. Fourth of all, you only have to +1 once to be able to ult. Even if I just have a four land about two of which should be artifacts and whatever he drew that 6 damage I gain 6. Even if I have pretty much /worst case scenario/. I have never regret casting him, there are just a few times that I didn't have the mana to do so.

{Thoughtcast}: I have cast this turn one. Twice. I'm seriously debating bumping up the numbers but sometimes the mana base isn't so nice to me.

{Welding Jar}: Board wipe? Cool, I sack everything to {Arcbound Ravager} then regenerate him.

{Cranial Plating}: Read it. This is win on a stick.

{Galvanic Blast}: A {Shock} that's generally a better {Lightning Bolt}. Tell me why you aren't running four? (Don't bother me with "I can't get metalcraft. I know those decks ought not to run it.)

{Ghostfire Blade}: In order to earn the ultra cool name Affinity Blade I had to run this. Plus it's actually a very nice card in most situations.

{Glimmervoid}: Four Glimmervoid? Are you crazy? That's a suicide plan! Uh, no, actually. It's not. Because A: I play it when I need it which is generally safe. B {Darksteel Citadel}. C unless I'm sorely mistaken, I can use a Nexus and stack the triggers. (Have never had to so I haven't cheated if that's not the case). I have been screwed over for colored mana too many times.

{Darksteel Citadel}: Keeps {Glimmervoid} on the board, helps with Affinity and metalcraft. Win win win.

{Inkmoth Nexus}: Alternate win condition via infect! It's more often then not too slow but it has won me two games. I've also lost three because I decided to take the infect route and then got {Ghost's Quarter} or {Path to Exile}'d.

{Blinkmoth Nexus}: See above.

{Island}: Because island.

{Mountain}: Because mountain.

I've been debating swapping my mana base to the artifact lands from the Nexusess, but I do realize that {Fracturing Gust} will kill me 9/10 times if I go that way. Thoughts?

thoughts from a frequent affinity player:

I think you want a 2/2 split of {etched champion}/{master of etherium}- yes, champion ends games, but master ends them faster-and if they have removal, just side in the champions.

{Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas} isn't very good, mainly because it's hard to get enough artifacts on the field for Tezzeret to become a problem, and he also stretches the manabase quite a bit. You also want to be doing far more powerful things on turn 4- you should really be winning and not digging at this point. Ensoul Artifact comes down much faster, and does pretty much the same thing. The amount of bolts/flash creatures in the meta right now isn't helpful either-you play him, attack, they flash in a resto and suddenly you've got a dead tezz in 2 turns.

One welding jar is enough, the most commonly played artifact wipe is shatterstorm, which welding jar doesn't do anything against, and bolts you can play around by leaving mana up to move plating/saccing things to ravager. It also slows your deck down because it can't attack, and I think you would be better served playing more creatures.

You also don't want 4 galv blast because once again, you want more creatures. Affinity is a critical mass deck and functions on fast mana and being able to vomit your entire hand out in the first two turns or so, and in many cases a creature represents more total damage than a galv blast. that being said, it is amazing, but two is enough.

You can't run artifact lands that aren't darksteel citadel because they're banned in modern. They're also the reason Tezz works in legacy affinity- you can get to 10 artifacts a lot faster.

You have also opted to not run {signal pest} and {springleaf drum}, and I think that's a large mistake. Signal pest can represent 5+ points of damage, as affinity tends to go more wide than big (more small creatures vs 1 big creature), and is another one-drop creature to boot, and in conjunction with springleaf drum and other one-drops, allows you to dump up to 5 or 6 permanents on your first turn a good deal of the time. Also, having two signal pests on the board is absolutely disgusting. Springleaf drum also gives you much better mana, and lets you drop the non-island for another blinkmoth, which ups the potential artifact count.

Steel overseer isn't really that great, because he's 2 mana and dies to bolts, {forked bolt}s, electrolyzes, and a stiff breeze, and UR delver playing all sorts of removal makes him really, really bad now.

Spellskite isn't bad in the main now, given the amount of targeted removal in the format.

Well, that's my 2c. thoughts?

[imthelolrus]

^Agree with Steel Overseer being very bad in the current meta. Pest isn't that great ether sadly, {Springleaf Drum} is necessary to some explosive starts and can put you far ahead.

The best card in Affinity is easily plating, followed by Ravager. He makes their removal worse and can make it very difficult for your opponent to block correctly or at all. Often you must be very aggressive with Ravager and make sure your math is correct. He can help speed up your clock and turn worthless late game cards into damage. It also makes Living End sad It can be difficult knowing when to correctly sac to Ravager, so be patient

Anyway, it's a deceivingly complicated deck with many lines of play each turn. Thankfully it's also a forgiving deck that can have powerful starts. How long it' has survived in modern really proves it as a resilient deck. It's best when the meta isn't expecting it, and generally everyone has 2-4 dedicated sideboard slots of hate :/

[LinkCelestrial]

I'm liking the 2/2 split idea of {Etched Champion} and {Master of Etherium}. In which case SB the other two {Etched Champion}s, right?

{Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas} has proven his worth time and time again. He sides out vs Burn and Delver in most cases, but otherwise I've been very happy with him. I played an affinity mirror and the person I played against was so impressed with Bolas's performance that he's now running them mainboard as well. I'm not saying that your arguments are invalid, they are valid. I've just /never/ regret casting him and he's rarely ever clogging my hand. The reason for this is that he's four mana for three {Ensoul Artifact}s. So what if he gets blown up after only going off once? That's one less removal spell or swing directed at more important things. I never regret casting him because even if he dies right away he has done what I need him to do. And if he sticks on the board longer it's just game.

I've been happy with two jars. Helps towards insane turn ones and protects from the board wipes i've seen the most, {Supreme Verdict} and {Fracturing Gust}. It also saves /every single artifact/. Not just creatures. Keeping a {Cranial Plate} alive for basically discarding a card? I've been happy with it at two.

I cut two {Galvanic Blast}s for two {Springleaf Drum}s. I've been /really/ liking it so far.

Wasn't aware of this. Might have to make a Legacy affinity deck.

I'm sticking to no {Signal Pest}. I just wasn't impressed in playtesting. The only thing I'd cut it for is {Steel Overseer} and I like {Steel Overseer} better as the buff is +1/+1, instant speed and doesn't require me to attack.

Thanks a a ton.

Yes it's hard to pilot, but that's what makes me like Affinity Blade so much. I don't like typical aggro decks because they don't have the same level of depth that I've been enjoying with Affinity Blade. Timing the {Arcbound Ravager}, leaving mana open to slide around the {Cranial Plating}, figuring out the best way to get everything you have on the table and inflict as much pain as possible with it. It's fantastic.

[fj76ts4]

I'm liking the 2/2 split idea of {Etched Champion} and {Master of Etherium}. In which case SB the other two {Etched Champion}s, right?

{Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas} has proven his worth time and time again. He sides out vs Burn and Delver in most cases, but otherwise I've been very happy with him. I played an affinity mirror and the person I played against was so impressed with Bolas's performance that he's now running them mainboard as well. I'm not saying that your arguments are invalid, they are valid. I've just /never/ regret casting him and he's rarely ever clogging my hand. The reason for this is that he's four mana for three {Ensoul Artifact}s. So what if he gets blown up after only going off once? That's one less removal spell or swing directed at more important things. I never regret casting him because even if he dies right away he has done what I need him to do. And if he sticks on the board longer it's just game.

I've been happy with two jars. Helps towards insane turn ones and protects from the board wipes i've seen the most, {Supreme Verdict} and {Fracturing Gust}. It also saves /every single artifact/. Not just creatures. Keeping a {Cranial Plate} alive for basically discarding a card? I've been happy with it at two.

I cut two {Galvanic Blast}s for two {Springleaf Drum}s. I've been /really/ liking it so far.

Wasn't aware of this. Might have to make a Legacy affinity deck.

I'm sticking to no {Signal Pest}. I just wasn't impressed in playtesting. The only thing I'd cut it for is {Steel Overseer} and I like {Steel Overseer} better as the buff is +1/+1, instant speed and doesn't require me to attack.

Thanks a a ton.

Yes it's hard to pilot, but that's what makes me like Affinity Blade so much. I don't like typical aggro decks because they don't have the same level of depth that I've been enjoying with Affinity Blade. Timing the {Arcbound Ravager}, leaving mana open to slide around the {Cranial Plating}, figuring out the best way to get everything you have on the table and inflict as much pain as possible with it. It's fantastic.

Yeah, definitely SB the other two champions, they're great. I guess the rest is meta-dependant, my meta's too fast for Tezzerets

[LinkCelestrial]

I'm liking the 2/2 split idea of {Etched Champion} and {Master of Etherium}. In which case SB the other two {Etched Champion}s, right?

{Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas} has proven his worth time and time again. He sides out vs Burn and Delver in most cases, but otherwise I've been very happy with him. I played an affinity mirror and the person I played against was so impressed with Bolas's performance that he's now running them mainboard as well. I'm not saying that your arguments are invalid, they are valid. I've just /never/ regret casting him and he's rarely ever clogging my hand. The reason for this is that he's four mana for three {Ensoul Artifact}s. So what if he gets blown up after only going off once? That's one less removal spell or swing directed at more important things. I never regret casting him because even if he dies right away he has done what I need him to do. And if he sticks on the board longer it's just game.

I've been happy with two jars. Helps towards insane turn ones and protects from the board wipes i've seen the most, {Supreme Verdict} and {Fracturing Gust}. It also saves /every single artifact/. Not just creatures. Keeping a {Cranial Plate} alive for basically discarding a card? I've been happy with it at two.

I cut two {Galvanic Blast}s for two {Springleaf Drum}s. I've been /really/ liking it so far.

Wasn't aware of this. Might have to make a Legacy affinity deck.

I'm sticking to no {Signal Pest}. I just wasn't impressed in playtesting. The only thing I'd cut it for is {Steel Overseer} and I like {Steel Overseer} better as the buff is +1/+1, instant speed and doesn't require me to attack.

Thanks a a ton.

Yes it's hard to pilot, but that's what makes me like Affinity Blade so much. I don't like typical aggro decks because they don't have the same level of depth that I've been enjoying with Affinity Blade. Timing the {Arcbound Ravager}, leaving mana open to slide around the {Cranial Plating}, figuring out the best way to get everything you have on the table and inflict as much pain as possible with it. It's fantastic.

Yeah, definitely SB the other two champions, they're great. I guess the rest is meta-dependant, my meta's too fast for Tezzerets

I've managed to get them out vs everything but Burn. Even Affinity mirrors.