Blue Affinity in Vintage with new ALA cards?

[Troy_Costisick]

There are two cards that have been spoiled recently that I think could make an Affinity deck viable in Vintage.  They are:

Etherium Sculptor  1U
Artifact Creature - Vedalken Artificer 
Artifact spells you play cost 1 less to play.
1/2

and

Master of Etherium  2U
Artifact Creature - Vedalken Wizard 
Master of Etherium's power and toughness are each equal to the number of artifacts you control.
Other artifact creatures you control get +1/+1.
*/*

Combine these with Seat of the Synod, lots of draw spells like Windfall and Thoughtcast/TFK, and some counter magic and/or spheres to stop Hurkyl's/Rebuild and you have a very nice little aggro deck.  What do you guys think about these cards?

Peace,

-Troy

[Purple Hat]

The problem with affinity in vintage has always been null rod.  Null rod turns off your deck, your manabase stops working, your creatures don't do their thing, and really, a bunch of free 2/2's and 4/4's aren't all that scary, especially when you can drain them for 7 mana.  Building affinity with a non artifact land manabase could work, but it slows the deck down which takes away from the whole reason you were playing affinity anyway.

[Grand Inquisitor]

The problem with affinity

Even more than null rod, the fatal flaw in the deck is interdependence.  What I'm talking about is the dark side of synergy; you need too many things to succeed in combination to have an effect that reaches an appropriate power level for T1.  Not only null rod, but a well timed mana drain, pithing needle, FoW, ancient grudge, or anything can usually bring the deck down to a level where it can no longer compete with the opposing strategy.

This is why strategies like workshop aggro have been more successful- spheres with waste effects will only hold for so long, but if you resolve a single juggernaut or trike, it may go the distance.

This being said, when new cards enter the pool, by all means test and see if an opportunity is there that wasn't before.  We're just mapping out for you why it hasn't worked before.

[the boogie man]

I think that affinity could possibly be viable, but it definitely needs non-artifact pieces to overcome the presence of rod and lessen the dependence on itself. I think that manaplasm ( green splash, possibly rootmazes and oxidize) or glaze fiend go a long way towards this. I know that the fiend is an artifact, but rod doesn't touch it. frogmite, enforcer, thoughtcast, fow, and arcane denial all have good synergy with the deck, especially manaplasm, which gets lethal quick. frogmite, thoughtcast, swing for 10. and with the current unrestriction of chrome mox may add enough to the deck. and with all of the blue, fow is definitely doable.

[Harlequin]

Ive been testing a deck that runs March of the Machines and Psionic Blast.  Not so much affinity, but instead blue-shop combo.

March doubles as disruption against moxen and chalice, and it allows you to psi-blast null rods.  But also it becomes 1 sided disruption if you have the Master of Etherium in play.

Psionic blast aslo one shots Tezz.

March aside, Master of Etherium doubles as null rod hate because he is will quickly become a monster.  Decks running null rod can't frequently deal with a 7/7.

[LotusHead]

The problem with affinity in vintage has always been null rod.  Null rod turns off your deck, your manabase stops working, your creatures don't do their thing, and really, a bunch of free 2/2's and 4/4's aren't all that scary, especially when you can drain them for 7 mana.  Building affinity with a non artifact land manabase could work, but it slows the deck down which takes away from the whole reason you were playing affinity anyway.

Null Rod and Mana Drain are rarely, if ever, in the same deck.  A teammate of mine plowed through 6 rounds of swiss with Crushing Chamber a few weeks ago.

It's a gamble, but often times people just hope not to play against Shops with a real clock.

I am excited about these new Alara blue artifacts. (Orb at 4 is better than Orb at 3U I'll admit)
 I am annoyed that Painter decks can REB these artifacts without Painter online. Then again, Chalice for 1's stock just rose.

[CHOZO]

Could you post this Crushing Chamber list?

[LotusHead]

Maindeck
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Mishra's Workshop
3 Ancient Tomb
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Ornithopter
4 Frogmite
4 Myr Enforcer
3 Arcbound Crusher
1 Triskelion
2 Arcbound Ravager
4 Skullclamp
4 Cranial Plating
4 Genesis Chamber
3 Tangle Wire
1 Memory Jar
Sideboard
3 Crucible of Worlds
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Triskelion
3 Duplicant
3 Thorn of Amethyst

This list is obviously mono-brown and was actually built by Purple Hat a long time ago (if I recall) more or less.

[Tobi]

I played a similar list some time ago. It was surprisingly good and even won me a game against storm 

Speyer 28.04.2007
- 25 players

4. Tobias Egelhof
playing Grow-a-Crusher

Maindeck (60):
Spells (44):
4 Arcbound Crusher
4 Arcbound Ravager
1 Black Lotus
4 Cranial Plating
4 Frogmite
3 Genesis Chamber
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
2 Myr Enforcer
4 Ornithopter
1 Sol Ring
4 Sphere of Resistance
2 Sword of Fire and Ice
3 Tormod's Crypt
1 Trinisphere

Lands (16):
2 Ancient Tomb
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Wasteland


Sideboard (15):
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Engineered Explosives
4 Jester's Cap
3 Pithing Needle
1 Tormod's Crypt

[Purple Hat]

Maindeck
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Mishra's Workshop
3 Ancient Tomb
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Ornithopter
4 Frogmite
4 Myr Enforcer
3 Arcbound Crusher
1 Triskelion
2 Arcbound Ravager
4 Skullclamp
4 Cranial Plating
4 Genesis Chamber
3 Tangle Wire
1 Memory Jar
Sideboard
3 Crucible of Worlds
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Triskelion
3 Duplicant
3 Thorn of Amethyst

This list is obviously mono-brown and was actually built by Purple Hat a long time ago (if I recall) more or less.

that is essentially my build.  Seriously, you'll never do anything quite as much fun in magic as swinging with a 17/1 ornithopter on turn 3.  Also, I'd play crucible main so that you can use the nexuses to ancestral yourself every turn. (play nexus, animate, clamp use crucible to repeat)