Affinity in T1, can it be done?

[Zach]

I've been fooling around with the idea with affinity in T1. Alot of people have written it off because there is alot of hate toward this type of deck. Null Rod, Pernicious Deed, Back to Basics, any artifact hate or anything else that can screw over artifacts. Right now after you read all of that you must be like why is this kid asking if affinity can be done in T1 if he just listed all of the ways it can be hurt. Well I think that this deck could be fast enough to get enough pressure out before they can hurt the deck. The deck list I have now is a little ruff around the edges but can be very quick. The only thing is that you may need to mulligan alot with this deck. This is the one thing i realy want to work on. Well here's the deck list.
   Affinity 2.0
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Seat os the Synod
4 Volcanic Island
1 Tolarain Acadamy
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Memory Jar
4 Force of Will
4 Duress
1 Timetwister
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Thoughtcast
4 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Future Sight
4 Juggernaut
4 Frogmite
4 Myr Enforcer
4 Broodstar

       I havent made up a sideboard yet sence I dont know what I should put into it. I've done some solitare testing to see if the land count is good and if everything is smooth. A few games I would just get screwed and not draw anything good. Others I would just explode and would have won by turn 5 or sooner. I want to see what every one thinks about this idea and how I can improve this deck.

[FreddieNDB]

I see the speed in this deck and I also see it's inconsitency. Unfortuantly, this deck is just asking for blue control ownage. Mana drain, especailly aginst myr enforcer and broodstar is a huge boost to any deck. And you're also very vulnerable to cards like hurkly's recall, nevinryyals disk, rack and ruin. The list goes on. There is just too much artifact hate, IMO, for this deck to be viable. But. i will test it out and see how it works. How has your testing gone?

[glenchuy]

greaves really deserve a slot in the maindeck, as it gives your nasties haste, and i really believe atog is better than juggernaut, especially if you have greaves in there.

[theorigamist]

Keep in mind everything I say is without any testing with this deck.

Affinity, in my opinion, is just useless in Type 1.  Let's look at the affinity cards you're using:

Thoughtcast: Best case scenario, this is a sorcery for U to draw 2 cards.  Brainstorm is better in almost any situation than Thoughtcast.

Thirst for Knowledge: This is also strictly inferior to Brainstorm in most situations, if not all.  I think in general you're sacrificing a lot of better card choices for synergy.

Frogmite: Who the hell cares about a 10 turn clock?  Sure, it could be a free 2/2, with 4 artifacts out.  But the cheap artifacts used in Type 1 are all mana anyway.  So 4 artifacts = 4 or more mana = Juggernaught/Su-Chi.  Also, if you're going to dip into other colors, green, white, red, and blue have much stronger, cheap weenies anyway, and black has much more powerful cheap creatures (Negator, for example).

Myr Enforcer: Turn 3+ this could be really strong.  But turn 1 and 2 Juggernaught or Su-Chi are stronger.  Also, everything I said about Frogmite applies here, pretty much.

Broodstar: Once again, I can see why this could seem appealing.  But for both Broodstar and Myr Enforcer you need to have an opening hand of almost exclusively artifact mana and card draw.  

It's hard to look at the list card for card like this.  Overall, I think it's pretty clear that this is just weaker than TnT/any similar deck.  In order to get the affinity theme (which doesn't make the deck any stronger than having better, non-affinity card choices) you sacrifice a lot of space in the deck and a lot of better cards.  Your description of the deck sounds exactly like what I would expect for this deck: it depends very much on the opening hand.  If you don't get nearly perfect hands, you will not explode.  I wouldn't like to play a deck like that.

[lilmidget]

don't forget that a mox monkey can also eat up your artifact lands for just 1 mana. that plus the ability to eat your moxen means that it can singlehandedly eat up half your mana sources for 1 each.

[bebe]

I know that a few of the European vernues have been playing this deck. Here is a list that went 3-1-1 in Moers ...

Andreas Klaas

4 Chalice of the Void
4 Sphere of Resistance

4 Frogmite
4 Metalworker
4 Myr Enforcer
2 Broodstar
1 Bosh, Iron Golem

4 Thoughtcast
3 Rush of Knowledge
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Tinker
1 Time Walk
1 Mind's Eye
1 Memory Jar

MaNA:
7 Solomoxen
4 Glimmervoid
4 Mishra's Workshop
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Tropical Island
1 Mana Crypt
1 Tolarian Academy
 
sb:
4 Naturalize
3 Chill
3 Choke
2 Serrated Arrows
2 Leonin Abunas
1 Rack and Ruin

What is noticicable in this list is the total lack of counters and reliance on CotV and Spheres instead.  Also Rush of Knowledge is used over Thirst for Knowledge ( this begs a question or two). Your list does looks to use Juggs over Metalworkers which is also a question needing answers.  
I do wonder why Mind's Eye and Tinker or absent in your list though as they make good sense.  
On to theorgamists points ... Frogmite is meta dependent. Roadblocks in some metas are quite useful. I like Toughtcast. it seems a good fit to me.
Is Affinity viable? Well it has appeared here and there in top eights. I just do not see it as a better choice over Stacker3 or neo-TnT. You have the cards. I even prefer WMud ( well, I did start Lock, Stock) which toad has done a great job on.  you have the cards to play any of these alternatives so i need to know what the advantage of playing this build is ...
Is it better agaiunst control ... Is it better against combo ... Is it better against aggro?  
Four FoWs and four Duress aree added to your build at the expense of CotV and Spheres ... I need convincing that this is an improvement.

[Zach]

The reason that I didn't use tinker was that I really only used it to fetch the jar. So when I would draw the jar and play it, I realy didn't have a usage for the tinker. I mean getting a juggernaut or enforcer for a mox or land is good and all but I didn't feel that tinker was strong enough in this deck. As for the Juggernauts instead of Metalworkers. I was trying to make this deck more aggro. I'm going to try to switch the frogmits for the metalworkers. The spheres and chalices I haven't tested in the deck yet. I don't like Minds Eye. I have Future Sight which gives me enough advantage. I'll also do some testing with the Rush of Knowledge. It costs 5 mana but it lets me draw many cards. If any one wants to help me test this deck. I have apprentice and would welcome any help I could get.

[theorigamist]

I find it very easy to believe that it has shown up in some Top 8s.  It's relatively new and decently powerful.  I have issues with its inconsistency and its reliance on good opening hands all the time.  I like the list you posted better (mainly because of Bosh, Mind's Eye, and Chalices), but I still think it's sacrificing some card drawing for unnecessary synergy.  I also agree with your point about roadblocks, but only as far as the list you posted.  The original list was more aggro, and thus shouldn't be putting out roadblocks, it should be putting out threats.  Also, I think Lodestones seem a logical addition to a deck comprising almost entirely cheap, quick artifacts.

But, basically, I agree with this statement:

I need convincing that this is an improvement.