Affinity

[rgbeatskeeper]

        Ok I haven’t posted in awhile and a friend convinced me to go play a type one tournament at a local store, the only cards I had were left over junk form rgbeats and old type two affinity and with a 10 proxies limit I was able to put this deck together.


1 Mana Crypt
        1 Mox Emerald
        1 Mox Sapphire
        1 Mox Ruby
        1 Mox Pearl
        1 Mox Jet
        1 Black Lotus
        4 Glimmervoid
        3 Vault of Whispers
        3 Great Furnace
        3 Seat of the Synod (20 mana sorces)
        4 Spell Snare
        4 Red Elemental Blast  (8 counter magic)
        4 Frogmite
        4 Arcbound Worker
        4 Arcbound Ravager
        4 Myr Enforcer
        4 Disciple of the Vault
        3 Dark Confidant (23 men)
        4 Brainstorm
        4 Skullclamp
        1 Ancestral Recall (9 ways to draw cards)

SB:  4 Chalice of the Void
SB:  4 Lightning Bolt
SB:  3 Pyroblast
SB:  4 Overload

       This deck is pretty tight I really enjoyed playing it I seriously haven’t had so much fun playing magic in like a year (I won the tourney). Everyone was playing a tier one deck went 5 rounds top 8, not everyone knew what they were doing though. This is an auto lost to anyone who plays oath unless you draw more counter magic than the oath player which probably won’t happen. But vs normal control decks it just runs them over it was great.

   I like spell snare/REBs in this version of affinity, countering null rod against fish decks is huge and with all the blue everywhere I thought the REB was a good choice main deck.

        Dark Confidant/Brainstrom/Skullclamp, Oh Dark Confidant the little wizard that could. The only reason he would suck in a game is if you reveal a myr enforcer other than that he is the nuts, only reason I don’t run four is because Skullclamp > Dark Confidant. People has asked me “why no thoughtcast” well you cant do that on turn one like you can brainstorm, and I can also respond with spells with brainstorm, so that’s why brainstorm is here over Thoughtcast. As for Skullclamp well it’s the only reason I decide to play, this is the only format its legal in lol.

        As for the 20 mana sources, affinity never needed more than 20 in old type two I figured with moxen that 20 should be enough even with wasteland/stripmine around.
The side board I kinda just threw together, I ran overload to kill null rods, the one R was the only reason I'm running it seeing how if null rod is in play ill have to play it off a glimmorvoid. Well that’s the deck any subjections? Other than demonic tutor and Ywin? I didn’t think either was necessary I might run the tutor but I don’t know what to cut.

END

[AJFirst]

Brainstorms with no fetches requires specific deck conditions to be acceptable. This deck does not have those conditions.

Why play spell snare over duress?

If you're playing blue, isn't time walk a must?

Darkblast seems like a must in the board since gorilla shaman and goblin welder both give you a one way ticket to frown town.

Chromatic Star will allow you to play less seats for more red and black sources and still be able to splash ancestral and walk.

Cranial plating seems better than myr enforcer. This makes flipping a ton to bob not possible, and should up your fundamental turn by at least .5 against combo.

Here's what I'd be looking at with that limited of a cardpool for T1:

5 Mox
1 lotus
1 crypt
4 glimmervoid
4 vault of whispers
4 great furnace
1 seat of the synod
4 red elemental blast
4 duress
2 atog
4 worker
4 ravager
4 disciple
4 bob
4 star
4 skullclamp
4 chromatic star
1 ancestral
1 walk

sideboard
4 lightning bolt
1 pyroblast
4 overload
3 spell snare (even though it might be hard for the mana, it also hits hurkyl's recall in addition to rod, so it's kind of necesary to fight hate. it's also good against oath and fish)
3 darkblast/pithing needle

overload is definitly the best answer to rod though even if you can only cast it off voids on the draw, but if they don't have turn one rod on the play, you can float the red off something else and cast it. Hope this helped. Good luck.
-AJ

[gotinput]

Initially I read throught your list and didn't see the moxes and noticed you weren't playing shops.  I was quite baffled.  Congrats on the win!  You mentioned 5 rounds, and Tier 1 decks, but you never mentioned how many people were at the event, nor any other specifiics about the other decks except for fish/oath.  What were some of your other matchups?

Where is Tolarian Academy? 

Have you tested shattering spree or repeal in place of the overloads?  It might help if they got a chalice for 1 down on you cutting off 25 cards of your maindeck.

You mentioned problems with oath, have you considered chain of vapor? 

Have you considered pithing needle to stop gorilla shaman defensively, or bazaar etc to disrupt opponent?
-or Darkblast as AJ suggests

gotinput

Edit: Removed commentary already covered by AJ.

[LotusHead]

http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=18620.0 is where "Crushing Chamber" or mono-brown aggro was discussed for a while.  It may give you leads in to other angles in Affinity decks.

I ripped a list from page 3 or 4, and have it built to this day 12 proxies. (the thread is 2 years old)

[rgbeatskeeper]

I dont like workshops because it doesnt provide the the color mana needed to run this deck, also i cant use it to move the clamp around, as for acadamy, opps my bad.
i like the chain of vapor, no offece but I'm going to try aetiher spell bomb, seems good, i played againets oath it as my only lost, he ended up scubing out to fish decks than ran main deck leonin bloa...TECH lol jk. So yeah thanks for the responces.

[wethepeople]

where are the Pithing Needle, Jitte, and Tormod's Crypts in your board? Artifacts that ruin your opponent are basically tech in Affinity, and since Monkey, Welder, and those guys practically own you, Needle is a must.

I once played a list that I found on another Forum when trying to get a Timespiral patch for MWS and it was an Affinity-based Legacy deck that ran Bob, Ravager, and a bunch of janky artifact that costed very little. Without Moxen, it sucked. But I converted it into at Vintage deck by adding all the busted accel making it 1020359 times better, especially with Tolarian Academy. Erayo was in the list also because it was ridiculously easy to flip. I will try to find the link so you can make a bit of a comparison.

It also ran some Equipment that gave your dude +X+0 where X = number of Artifacts you control. I don't recall the name right now, but all I remember is my Frogmites being 16/2's within the first three turns quite often.

[netherspirit]

It also ran some Equipment that gave your dude +X+0 where X = number of Artifacts you control. I don't recall the name right now, but all I remember is my Frogmites being 16/2's within the first three turns quite often.

Cranial Plating?

Just an idea, but Machinate might be worth trying. I used to run it in my casual affinity deck and it was just insane!!

[rgbeatskeeper]

Question? I hate sounding noobish but I haven't played mtg for over a year, kinda started playing holdem :/ (I'm at 3 tables while I'm writing this) but ne anyway, bob? What does that stand for? Sorry but I can't test with cards I can't look up.

Please use capitals and apostrophes where appropriate.
-Godder

[netherspirit]

Bob is Dark Confidant, unless I've been missing something for a long time.

[rgbeatskeeper]

//NAME: Affinity
SB:  4 Lightning Bolt
SB:  2 Duress /oxidize/ drak blast
SB:  4 Overload
SB:  1 Pyroblast
SB:  4 Spell Snare
        4 Glimmervoid
        1 Seat of the Synod
        4 Great Furnace
        4 Vault of Whispers
        1 Black Lotus
        1 Sol Ring
        1 Mox Sapphire
        1 Mox Ruby
        1 Mox Pearl
        1 Mox Jet
        1 Mox Emerald
        4 Red Elemental Blast
        4 Pithing Needle
        1 Time Walk
        1 Ancestral Recall
        4 Cranial Plating
        4 Skullclamp
        4 Chromatic Star
        4 Arcbound Worker
        4 Arcbound Ravager
        2 Atog
        4 Dark Confidant
        4 Disciple of the Vault

This has been testing well, I didn't like the duress main deck, because well mox monkey sent me to frowny town and I can sac it to my boys. People might question the overload over the OXY, but I can respond to null rod by floating mana. It's like the only reason why, because other than that I'm playing those spells off a glimmer void.

Please take the time to write better and to use capitals and punctuation as appropriate.
-Godder

[forests failed you]

Interesting decklists.  I toyed around with a few Affinity lists a while back, and always felt that they were very close to being a very competative archetype.  The main problem with Affinity is that because of the great dependence of the deck on its high number of artifacts, it really gets hit hard by a lot of splash damage aimed at Stax. 

I really like the maindeck Red Elemental Blasts.  Perhaps the most devestating play this deck can face in game one is a random Hurkyl's Recall, or Rebuild from a Gifts deck; which is nicely answered by REB.  Not to mention, that REB is very good against the high numbers of Gifts, Slaver, and Fish floating around.  The Pithing Needles also answer other problematic cards, such as opposing Welders and Gorilla Shamans.

I had a few comments and suggestions that you guys are more than welcome to consider for your lists.

Null Rod and Kataki hit this deck extremely hard, and there are really very few outs in this deck should an opponent resolve either of those cards early.  Bounce works nicely to remove a Null Rod while you get some business going, also it can answer a turn 1 Tinker for DSC, which it doesn't seem the deck has many outs to. 

Also, have you guys considered Goblin Welders in the maindeck.  They were always quite good in the lists I had played with.  City of Brass might also be a card one would want to consider instead of Glimmervoid. 

Here is the list I was playing before.  I don't have REB, but I get to play Cabal Therepy instead, which is awesome.

4 Underground Sea
3 Vault of Whispers
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Vault
1 Tolerian Academy
1 Strip Mine
2 Wasteland

4 Chromatic Star

4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Frogmite
4 Arcbound Worker
4 Disciple of the Vault
4 Dark Confidant

2 Duress
4 Cabal Therepy
1 Yawgmoth's Will

4 Skullclamp
2 Crainial Plating

1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk

SIDEBOARD

4 Chalice of the Void
3 Myr Enforcer
3 Umazawa's Jitte
3 Darkblast
2 Echoing Truth
When I was testing out this list, the Cabal Therepy was really, really good.  Especially the Synergy between Free Frogmites on the first turn.  Just something that might be good.  My list also doesn't have answers to Kataki, or Null Rod in the maindeck.  The plan is pretty much just to try and win before they have it, or to therpy for those cards early if you know what they are playing.

Cheers,
FFY