Affinity in T1. Filling out the core.

[Vegeta2711]

So Affinity/Arcbound decks have seemed to make some impacts in testing circles and overseas tourneys lately. Now despite there being like three or four threads in the Open forum discussing it, the only person’s responses worth reading are Dozer’s. So as a result I’m posting here to try to get a bit of work done on the Affinity deck. In the small amount I’ve been able to play with the thing, as I’ve told quite a few people, I compare the deck to a faster FCG, but far more hateable.

For reference, here’s a T2 Ravager Affinity deck which is pretty standard (No real tricks, no running MD hate, etc.) from Alex Doehring  winner of the Baden-Wuertenberg-Regional.

Creatures
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Arcbound Worker
4 Atog
4 Disciple of the Vault
4 Frogmite
4 Myr Enforcer
4 Ornithopter
Other Stuff
4 Pyrite Spellbomb
4 Shrapnel Blast
4 Skullclamp
4 Welding Jar
Land
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Glimmervoid
4 Great Furnace
4 Vault of Whispers

On a proper T1 Affinity build, you nearly just port a PT: Kobe deck or a T2 Regional winners deck and add some broken stuff in there. For those of you who need it laid out for you, here’s basically a ‘core’ of a Affinity deck.

-4-of: Arcbound Ravager, Arcbound Worker, Disciple of the Vault, Frogmite, Myr Enforcer. These things are all either cheap beats of creatures with awesome abilities. Disciple can usually drain 7-10 life by itself on a good day and Ravager can become huge and make another creature huge. All the other stuff is just good for the price you’ll pay for them.

-Some form of evasion creature is always nice to have, just in case someone does have a creature to block with. Four Arcbound Stinger or Ornithopter fits this role very well, though for Affinity you’d probably want to go with Ornithopter.

-4 Skullclamp, just because it’s one of the best draw engines you could possibly use.

-I think some number of Atog, possibly Shrapnel Blast if your running heavier red, could be useful. Not sure how well it transfers to T1 though.

-8-12 Artifact lands, when combined with the artifact mana they make dropping Frogmite first turn very easy and Enforcers can reasonably come down turn two for 0-2 mana. They also power up Thoughtcast if running blue and are awesome to sacrifice to Ravager, Atog or Shrapnel Blast. Powering up your Affinity, artifact creatures and using Disciple all at the same time is good I hear.

-Badlands can replace Glimmervoid since your only running two colors anyways. A TA should find it’s way into the deck simply because it can produce a ton of mana. Of course if your running 3 colors, Glimmervoid is certainly superior.

-As for blue options JP listed a R/B/U Affinity deck, which is a fine example of what blue cards are worth running and backs up the general core of the T1 Affinity deck.

JP-RA
Land
4 Glimmervoid
3 Vault of Whispers
3 Seat of the Synod
2 Great Furnace
1 Tolarian Academy
Mana
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
Critters
4 Ornithopter
4 Arcbound Worker
4 Disciple of the Vault
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Frogmite
4 Myr Enforcer
Draw and Stuff
4 Skullclamp
4 Thoughtcast
1 Windfall
1 Timetwister
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Yawgmoth's Will

-Blue basically gives you the classic broken draw and Thoughtcast which basically reads Sorcery: U – Draw 2 cards. Is it worth running all the extra draw over extra threats? I have no idea, since I haven’t played with T1 Affinity enough to tell you.

Here’s what I think a T1 R/B Affinity deck would look like. (Ok, the build I've been playing with in my spare time)

Creatures: 26
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Arcbound Worker
4 Disciple of the Vault
4 Frogmite
4 Myr Enforcer
4 Ornithopter
2 Atog
Draw: 5
4 Skullclamp
1 Wheel of Fortune
Other Stuff: 5
1 DT
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
3 Shrapnel Blast
Mana: 9
7x SoLoMoxen
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault
Land: 15
4 Great Furnace
4 Vault of Whispers
3 Darksteel Citadel
3 Badlands
1 Tolarian Academy

As for sideboard options, REB, Tormod’s Crypt, are always good options and Overload is good at trashing Chalice @ 0 or Null Rod. Gorilla Shaman and Goblin Welder are also options against Slaver as JP pointed out in his last article.

Note nearly 50 cards are the same as JP’s build and both of us have a huge chunk of the deck from the T2 Affinity builds. What I’m asking, is out of those 10 open cards slots or so, what’s worth running in them? I’m specifically posting here so I don’t have to deal with some god awful responses, so please keep it civil and if you have a question just ask.

[Dr. Sylvan]

For R/B:

One of the main vulnerabilities is (derfderf) artifact hate, so why not run Duress / Mind Twist? I'd rather rely on the ever-accumulating army to take down Wurms/Juggs as opposed to Shrapnel Blast (card disadvantage) and instead prioritize control and combo matchups. Gorilla Shaman strikes me as a viable maindeck choice given the total burnination wrought by a Null Rod on this deck. The Atogs seem weakest and most replaceable to me given that the Ravagers are already there.

[jpmeyer]

I know that Shaman and/or Welder needs to be in the SB.  There's a good enough answer to Null Rod in Ravager.  Null Rod only sucks when you don't get a turn before it hits.

[Eastman]

I tested this archetype about a month ago.

The deck showed promise, but could NOT stand up to hate and there were no obvious ways to fix that so we moved on.
 

The deck I tested was built to be as fast as possible in the hopes of racing the hate. It may be possible to find another way around it.

[ELD]

Couple comments.  Why no tinker/jar.  It seems to me that this would be stronger than windfall.  I mean tinker/jar is so one sided and won't lose you the game vs combo.  Worse case scenario, you can tinker out a creature or clamp.  

I've thrown several affinity decks together.  Every time I do, they tend to degenerate into a slow combo, usually goldfishing turns 1-5 with the average somewhere on turn 3 or 4.  I guess that's why I get rid of them, as they end up feeling like a subpar combo deck.  I guess I'm just not a huge fan of aggro.  

One card that contributed to the combo feel was helm of awakening.  If you're running the arcbound workers, it may be worth checking out.  I'm not a fan of 4, but it may be better than mana vault if you don't opt for tinker/jar.  It can allow you to have some really sick draw 7 turns, playing several workers/ravengers for free.

[MuzzonoAmi]

I've been toying on and off with this idea, and I really like the Blue in the deck. The extra draw is awesome, and it lets you run Forces as defense, which is never a bad thing. Also - Welders belong SB.

[Fishhead]

Stepping back one step:  Is it possible to play a deck with a sketchy artifact mana-base in T1 when certain common matchups are going to have Goblin Welders and Karn?  And where every other deck is packing 4-5 slots of artifact hate against the aforementioned decks post-SB?  It seems like Affinity accidentally runs into the buzzsaw here.

I've played against a bunch of different Affinity experiments with TnT in recent tourneys; despite my expectation (that "combo" with a critical turn of 3-4 would beat TnT) I haven't had much trouble.  Karn is great, Trike is great, Welder is great and post-SB Rack & Ruin is double-great.  Maybe TnT is just a bad matchup, but I also won easily with Control Slaver this week, again due to Welder.  (Well, and Slaver of course.    

My point is that Affinity might be an interesting deck to work on, but it's not a good time for it right now in T1 IMHO.

Thoughts: Maybe this is an interesting way to approach the question; by asking "What weaknesses does Affinity need to shore up to move to T1?"  So, here are some from observation:

1) Affinity needs a way to deal with Land Destruction in the form of artifact hate; some of it (like Karn) infinitely reusable.  
2) Affinity needs a way to deal with Welders before they smash your Skullclamps and/or summon Trike or Karn.  (This makes me prefer the list with Shrapnel Blast and Spellbomb)

[Vegeta2711]

Dr. Sylvan: Duress in this deck isn't that hot, it doesn't hit Welders, contribute to killing my opponent or drawing me more cards. Also I don't always have colored mana turn 1 anyways, which is obv. when you'd want to use it. Shaman is decent boarded, but MD as a anwser to Null Rod? No way, you'd be lucky to have one-two mana still working, let alone the 5 necessary to kill a rod.

As JP mentioned, if you have a turn or two to drop stuff before Rod, most of the decks that run Rod will fold to a heavy critter onslaught. Plus your Affinity creatures can still come down for free after the fact.

Shaman/Welder's are def. good SB material.

ELD: I can't speak for JP. But for me, Jar was crap in this deck by itself and since Tinker only has like 2 viable targets (Ravager or Jar) it's actually hard to justfiy taking up 2 card slots on it. Though I haven't extensively tested w/ a Blue splash, so grain of salt there.

Helm isn't even worth it in the combo Arcbound decks. And the avarage goldfish I've gotten is turn 3.

Fishhead: Karn/Shaman... ew. 2nd turn Karn would destroy me I'm sure, much like a 3rd turn Menmarch. Welders strike me as annoyances, they don't bother me as much as LD and I've never had a problem running opposing creatures over. The one exception to the rule is Menmarch, because he can actually steal my guys.  

Trike is great? Seriously? It kills Disciple sure, but nothing important. Hell the Arcbound dudes just move counters when they bite it anyways.

The only real solution to the whole LD problem is to run a smaller (6 or so) contingent of Artfiact Lands, since Duals are still decent replacements. But it just weakens the deck so signifcantly I really doubt it'd even be worth it.

My point is that Affinity might be an interesting deck to work on, but it's not a good time for it right now in T1 IMHO.

I disagree.   It's not like the problem decks will just go away, they may recede a little, but you'll still see them T8. So now is as good a time as any to get started on the deck and Affinity/Arcbound stuff as a whole.

[Triple_S]

Have you tested Genesis Chamber as an option?  It feeds the Ravagers for free, more fodder for clamp, etc.  Its worth taking a look at.  In the build I've been playing around with (its more combo based building for a huge drain with disciples), I've used Workshops to accelerate the deck.

[Vegeta2711]

I've tried a Workshop version before w/ Genesis Chamber. It was more based off the Arcbound combo decks, except instead of full combo I added some Affinity junk.

If you run Workshops, I think they're worth keeping in. W/O the extra boost to drop them and a creature first turn though, I think they're a little too slow for the Affinity builds.

Now that you reminded me about them though, I'll give them another shot if I have the time.

[Lockdown]

What's the reason for running the Darksteel Citadel?  Is Pernicious Deed/Gorilla Shaman/other artifact destruction that big in your meta that you need an indestructible artifact land that you'll end up saccing to the Arcbound Ravager anyways?  If you continue to play B/R, why not play Mishra's Workshop/Ancient Tomb/City of Traitors instead?  The additional mana provided by those lands should outweigh the ability to sac the Darksteel Citadel, shouldn't it?

What Darksteel Citadel can do:
-Can be used to cast Atog, Wheel of Fortune, Demonic Tutor, Yawgmoth's Will, Shrapnel Blast
-Can be sacrificed to the Arcbound Ravager, Atog, Shrapnel Blast, and causes the loss of life through Disciple of the Vault

What Workshop can do:
-Allows for very explosive first turn, even without any other acceleration.

So, after looking at the advantages of each, which one is better?  You've mentioned running Workshops w/ Genesis Chamber, but you haven't explained why you wouldn't run Workshops in the deck in the first place.

[Fishhead]

Welders strike me as annoyances, they don't bother me as much as LD and I've never had a problem running opposing creatures over.

I should probably expand on some of my experiences:

It seemed like there are two important cards in the Affinity deck; Skullclamp and Ravager.  It also seemed that junk artifacts quickly piled up in the 'yard, so that I'd happily weld stuff like Arcbound Worker back into play to be rid of Skullclamp for instance.  So Welder allowed me to shut off Affinity's tricks, essentially fizzling the combo aspect, which bought me the time to get my board set up.  And then, since Affinity can't interfere with the Survival->Anger->Welder->Karn plan, I have a relatively fast victory condition of my own.   (The wonder of Karn really never ceases; the fact that he is a 0/8 blocker is so sweet here.)  A similar thing happened with the Slaver deck; I'd weld away the problem artifacts for long enough to stabilize and then take a bone-crunching Slaver turn.  (Ravager puts Tog to shame in terms of "most dangerous creature to be Slaved" ).  

Is this arguement convincing?  It's the core of my feeling that Affinity needs something much more to move to T1; there are so many top decks with Welders now that you can't afford to have a bad matchup because of them.

On Trike's greatness: Trike was really cool in a matchup where my opponent was trying to go infinite by generating tokens and then Skullclamping them.  Trike also seemed really good against the more aggro versions; in the same way he is against all aggro decks.  He quickly cuts down the number of Modular outlets to one which has good synergy with Welder.

Unexplored Directions: How do you feel the matchups are against some of the top non-Welder decks?  Maybe that would help us focus on what improvements need to be made.

[Vegeta2711]

since Affinity can't interfere with the Survival->Anger->Welder->Karn plan

The fact is I haven't seen/played anyone actually using TnT in months. So I can't really argue against any of this logic, because by the looks of it, with that set-up I would be hardpressed to win.

I simply haven't had as horrible a time against them as these other unfortunate affinity players. Though, if they are as bad as you say, you've already given me the anwser to the problem by simply running MD Pyrite Spellbombs. You could even SB Ghastly Demise, Vendetta or some equivalent as well.

It's the core of my feeling that Affinity needs something much more to move to T1

You convince me on the point I probably need to care more about Welders. I am not convinced that Affinity needs to heavily change from the T2 core, mostly because every attempt to do that has failed miserably.

I'll fill out my match-up's sometime later, I want to test out a little more stuff before saying anything I can be held accountable for.

@Lockjaw.
I use it for the two reasons you mention and two others.
3. It powers the Affinity critters
4. It cannot be destroyed by Wasteland (For something with a mighty 15 land, it's incredibly useful to have something survive past turn 1)

Workshop doesn't fly in normal affinity builds, because there's enough non-artifact stuff to cause problems. There's 12 cards in my build I can't use w/ Workshop and it can't be used to work with Skullclamp. If you run blue, you have even more problems. The 2 mana lands each have their own set of problems that make me exclude them.

BTW, right now I've heard a good deal of noise about Tangle Wire in 1.x Affinity decks and in theory it fits alright into the curve. (we all know Affinity certainly has enough perm's to not care about tapping a few) So what is everyone else's thoughts on possibly adding it to the deck? Cuts back your opponents amount of mana for the h8.

[jpmeyer]

I had to cut Citadel in mine because otherwise I just couldn't get the colors to work out.

With an affinity deck like mine, Workshop actually probably doesn't even give you mana.

[MuzzonoAmi]

My experience is the same as JP's. I'm down to 17 lands (4 Furnace, 4 Seat, 4 Vault, 4 Glimmervoid, 1 Academy) and I've had no problems getting the right ammount of mana or the right color of mana.

I also found that I'm liking Thrist for Knowledge more than Skullclamp. That may be because I've dropped the Ornithopters, though.

[waSP]

I started testing the deck like many of you are, with Disciples allowing you to "combo" off.  I found that I didn't really like the Disciple all that much.

I think that an underconsidered accelerant for this style deck is Dark Ritual.  Right now, my version only plays 2 Dark Rituals, but I still like it.

I have one question about the creature base.  Why are you all playing Arcbound Worker over Myr Moonvessel.  The synergy with the Arcbound Ravager is better than the free mana from the Moonvessel?

My testing so far has been limited to what's available online and "goldfishing."  I usually go off turn 3 or so with Tendrils, barring ridiculous or harrible (pronounce hhhar-ih-bull) hands.  Also have you all considered Green for Crop Rotation and Fastbond or aren't you ever lacking mana?  I've really taken this deck a different way, so I don't believe it would be right to post a decklist, but if anyone is interested, they can pm me.

I think the Blue is optimal (Thoughtcast > Ornithopter) but I'm still trying to fit all the cards I want in here.  I have a feeling that it is inevitable that I drop the green, and then I will be able to run some basics.. maybe.

My last thought is this:
Is anyone finding that the deck is utterly reliant on drawing Skullclamp in the early game?

[jpmeyer]

I don't know if it's reliant on specifically having Skullclamp, but I will mulligan hands more often than you'd think if they don't have some kind of draw spell in it.

[Matt]

Definitely - I'll mull to 5 easily to get a draw spell - even a Thoughtcast if it's the hand has something good as well, though Clamps and draw7s are best.

[Vegeta2711]

I'll generally aim for getting one/two of three cards in my opening hand,  Disciple, Ravager or Skullclamp. That or I'll keep if I can dump my whole hand turn 1 and then hopefully follow up with Tangle Wire. (Which btw, kicks so many decks in the nuts)

[Triple_S]

I like using Consultation and Spoils to insure I get a combo piece I need...usually the drawback isn't that severe and I usually have enough gas left in the deck to win.

But the deck is very easy to disrupt.

[MuzzonoAmi]

Here's the list I've been testing - I agree that most builds are disrupted too easily

Mana(22)
5 Moxen
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Vault of Whispers
3 Seat of the Synod
2 Great Furnace
4 Glimmervoid

Creatures(20)
4 Arcbound Worker
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Frogmite
4 Disciple of the Vault
4 Myr Enforcer

Brizzoken/Draw(15)
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Timetwister
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Tinker
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Memory Jar
1 Time Walk
4 Thoughtcast
3 Skullclamp

Protection(4)
3 Duress
1 Mind Twist


OMG SHE BUILT A DECK WITH POWER!!1!!1!!!!one


Yeah, I actually can do that


First promblem: it's 61 cards - 2 Duress just don't work well enough. 2 Skullclamps are slightly better, but not much.


Second Problem: Sideboard - Welders are an obvious choice, but what else. We need someting to fight NBLH, but without going into white or green, it's tough to kill enchantments. Trike is in as crown control, and as an additional way to kill off a beefy Ravager.

I'm not running Atogs because they demanded too much of a red committment to work well. They don't come down every turn 1, and by turns 2 and 3, I have more potent threats to drop. Also, is there a better option than Duress for protection? I don't think that there's enough blue to support Force of Will.

[Matt]

Cabal Therapy would be pretty boss with Disciples and arcbounds.

Why do you care about NBLH? You have lots and lots of nonland mana, and most of your deck is immune to Blood Moon. Rod and Trinisphere are the scariest cards.

I really don't know about Tinker/Jar. It's really bad to draw a Jar, and Tinker isn't a draw7 when Matrix or Rod is on the table. However, this may be a moot point, because a resolved Rod is practically game-winning anyway.

I definitely would rather run the fourth Duress than Mind Twist, because there's usually only one card in the opponent's hand you really care about, and rather than spend your first or second turn Twisting, I'd rather be dropping threats. Duress is also more sure to hit that Rod or whatever, and Duress isn't totally negated by casting a draw7.

Also, you're running ten black cards, but only eight black sources (nine if you count Lotus). That seems low. It would be nice to cut the Furnaces for the fourth Synod and Vault, but this would basically negate the sideboard Welder plan. However, do you really need to run Welders? They might be necessary against Stax, but they're not very good against Slavery.

Blue and black have several ways to combat Welders without just trying to meet Workshop decks head-on, trying to close the "Welder gap". With something like Engineered Plague, you only need to resolve it once to deal with ALL Welders - if you resolve one Welder, you've only dealt with your opponent's first Welder (and sometimes not even that, if they can weld a Triskelion or Mindslaver into play). Plague also has the happy ability to ignore most of your creatures - Frogmites and Arcbound guys don't have creature types, Enforcer lives through Plague, and god help you if you need to name "cleric" in type one.

[MuzzonoAmi]

I've been liking the Twist, since it's a must-counter in and of itself alot of times.But the rest of your stuff, I'm going to try.

- 1 Tinker
-1 Memory Jar
-2 Great Furnace
-1 Thoughtcast
-1 Wheel of Fortune
+2 Cabal Therapy
+1 Seat of the Synod
+1 Vault of Whispters

[Matt]

You're taking out six cards, but only adding four...? In particular I'd keep the Wheel - five/six red sources is okay for one red card, especially when it's one of the best cards you could want to resolve (Twister is better because it can fuck with opposing graveyards).

[MuzzonoAmi]

Well than. Now that we all know I can't count...

I cut the wheel just to get room for the Therapys - something had to go, or so I thought.

In that case...

+1 Wheel

[Vegeta2711]

So anyways, a few things of general note I'd like to mention.

1. Blue def. deserves it's place in the deck as the 4-5 really good blue cards it brings is just great. Thoughtcast is also good if you can fit it in, something I'm currently having issues with. (At this point I'm probably cutting Ornithopters to have Wire and Thoughtcast as 4-of's.)

2. Tangle Wire is amazing in this sort of deck and I really think it should be a mainstay. Expect it in almost every 1.x version when it comes out in that format... and that lacks moxen.

3. E. Plague or/and Pyrite Spellbomb are solid anwsers to Goblin Welder.

4. Null Rod is suprisngly less painful than I imagined it would be. It really kills you if can't get Ravager down before Rod comes online, but otherwise you've got a chance. Shaman is just annoying as all hell and Rack and Ruin (Which it seems like EVERYONE is running now) are my main issues now with hate.

Any ideas to help deal with that?

[MuzzonoAmi]

Have the Tangle Wires been that good to you? I tried them, but prefer using both Cabal Therapy and Duress as opposed to one or the other + Wire. Engineered Plague has been very solid against opposing Welders.

[Vegeta2711]

I love Wires, but I'll def. give Duress and Therapy another try. I think I kind of skirted by them, because they didn't seem to be doing enough on the whole.

E. Plague is just underused.

[Rico Suave]

Yes, Wire is amazing.  It feels like there is no drawback to it, just like in something such as Stax.  It's really nice because you also don't have to worry about it fading away, since you win before the opponent ever gets a chance to come out from under it.

[Matt]

Ornithopters are definitely the place to start cutting. I cut one for Demonic Tutor (I wanted a higher draw7 density*, and I kept drawing double-Ornithopter hands, which totally blow) and would feel no problems going down to one or even zero. This deck makes the best use of Ornithopter that any deck ever has, but I'm afraid it's just not enough - there just aren't matchups where having a flying creature is that important.

I've been boarding Overloads for Null Rod, but U/G Madness is a real problem matchup because they can protect the Rod, either by countering the Overload or by Wasting Glimmervoids on sight (which is DEFINITELY the right play), or both.

I've been playing the 1.x version about as much as the t1 version, and I can say that Deed is much less a problem than Null Rod, because you can hold back arttilands against Deed, but not vs Rod. Also, the 1.x version has space enough for Darksteel Citadel, which (along with Glimmervoid) give you a chance to survive a Deed. Rod is a problem - maybe adding Viashino Heretic would be best? Though he still has the problem that's he's dependent on Glimmervoid to activate. What we need is a Rod solution that works even when Rod is backed by Wasteland - and there's precious few of those. Mogg Salvage or Crash or something could work, but you can't run enough mountains.


*Because the deck never gets to five "real" mana, adding Tinker/Jar would only effectively include one more draw7 (the Tinker) while taking up two spaces.