The Perfect Affinity Build Guide Line!

[Garthan]

Well, I've been experimenting with my affinity deck for the past two months. I've rearranged it and implemented over 15 different strategies trying to see which one works the best and has the best psynergy. And through my efforts I believe I have discovered the forumla for a perfectly balanced affinity deck. All feedback, positive or negative I don't care, is greatly appreciated. So, without further adieu, here is the fruit of my efforts to build the perfect affinity deck.

Blue Spells:
Blue spells are vital to affinity. Without the many affinity-friendly counter spells you are a sitting duck against many decks and many cards. Akroma's Vengeance is a card every affinity player dreads. Blue also provides a lot of affinity-friendly spells that allow you to burn through your deck, looking for those cards. And I don't mean broodstar, because despite the majorities' beliefs Broodstar is NOT the basis of affinity. I'm talking about burning through your deck to get those Myr Enforcers and Frogmites that you can usually drop for free second turn, and even get one out first turn.

Blue spells should only take up 14 of the 60 cards in your deck space. Because artifacts are the basis of affinity you really don't want to get blue screwed. 1/2(7) of those spells should be counter spells. Mana leak and Assert Authority come highly recommended. Override is also pretty good. What you wish to include is wholly up to you. Another 5 should be cards that allow you to draw. I've found Thoughtcast very reliable. Most of the time it will only be 1 blue mana to draw two cards. Thirst for Knowledge can also work out quit well. Then, that final 15%(2) will be the powerhouse of Affinity: Broodstar. I've found that 2 is just perfect. If you have more than you usually end up with one or two in your hand before you have enough artifacts out to play it super cheap and super powerful. And instead of drawing those two uneeded Broodstars you could be dropping free Myr Enforcers or Frogmites and <pojo ownz><pojo ownz><pojo ownz><pojo ownz><pojo ownz><pojo ownz>-slapping your opponent.

Artifact Spells:
Artifacts(Excluding Mana Sources) should make up approximately 45%(28, Twice as many as the number of Blue Spells.) of the spells should be artifacts. There is no affinity without artifacts, duh. There must also be a nice equilibrium among the different types of artifacts. And by this I mean free artifacts(e.g. Chrome Mox), strategical, but cheap, artifacts(e.g. Pyrite/Aether Spellbomb), and offensive artifacts(e.g. Myr enforcer). 9, though an odd number, of Free artifacts is well balanced be good, and makes sure you can easily drop those enforcers for free. Welding Jar and Chrome Mox are also very good choices. You may even want to throw in a couple of Ornithopters. They're free and flying defenses. Phyrexian Walker is also another possibility. As for the Strategical Artifacts these include cards such as Pyrite Spellbomb, Aether Spellbomb, and Scale of Chiss-Goria(Which you can play as an instant when your opponent decides to block one of your attacking creatures with an equal 2/2 OR 4/4.). 11 of these will suffice. The final group is the offensive artifact spells. Include only 8. These are Myr Enforcer and Frogmite. I HIGHLY suggest including 4 of each in your deck.

Land:
Finally, the land, which may not seem like that much of an issue, but it is. You should include only 16 ARTIFACT lands in your deck and 2 Glimmervoids. 4x Seat of the Synod and 4x Great Furnace are the only two musts. And 2 Glimmervoids is plenty. 4 is just too much. Other than that, this part of constructing your deck is pretty clean cut and simple.

There you have it! Here's the breakdown without all that mumbo-jumbo talking.

14 Blue Spells:
7 Counter Spells
5 Drawing Spells
2 Broodstars

28 Artifact Spells:
9 Free Artifact Spells
11 Stregetic Artifact Spells
8 Offensive Artifact Spells

18 Land:
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Great Furnace
2 Glimmervoid
10 Any Other ARTIFACT Lands


There you have it! Hope this helps you! I've put a lot of work into perfecting the equality in my affinity deck and it has turned out great. Please let me know what you think!

[AKA:Battousai]

I'd like to see your views with the sideboard or the weak link in affinity what really hurts it or makes it better what part of it hinders it the most. I'm sure you have noted a few things more than others and try not to make mistakes but everyone does. how does it do agains tother affinity decks how many people have copied yours. I know it happens where I play someone brings a really good deck and everyone copies it.

[Garthan]

Ahh. The side board. This may be even harder to perfect than the deck itself. ^_^ But I have found one that I like and will most likely still with. I'll list it and explain why it is I used each card. Most people, in their side board will include like 6+ cards. In my opinion, that just isn't stable enough you will have a much lower chance of drawing it against the deck you need to.

4x Boil - Most people would include Flashfires, but this is SO much better. I included it in my sideboard to fend off U/W control. The reason I didn't choose Flashfires like most everyone else is because Boil costs the same, but it is an INSTANT. A very good advantage over Flashfires considering you can play it on your opponents EOT, either forcing him to tap a bunch of mana to counter it, or simply get screwed. If he does counter it then there's less of a chance that he'll have enough mana, or even the counter cards, to counter any thing you want to play on your turn.
4x Disciple of the Vault - This is mainly to screw Akroma's Vengeance. I've only been hit with Akroma's Vengeance once, but after I was I worked frantically to find a card that would be able to screw the user. And since, on average, by 6th turn you have at least 10-12 artifacts that can be game if you have 2 Disciples on the board, so he/she won't be playing any Akromas.
4x Circle of Protection: Red - This is, of course, to protect against Goblin damage until I can get a Broodstar out and fly over all of their heads for 8-12 dmg.
3x Sacred Ground - Sacred Ground. Ahh. It took me longer to get my hands on 3 of these than it did to get 4 moxes. This is to defend against R/G Land Destruction. You can do without land in affinity once you get yourself situated, but if they manage to screw you early on then this is a great help, considering you can get it out turn one with an Ancient Den and imprinted Chrome Mox.

That's about it for the sideboard. There are two things I've noticed that really drag an affinity deck down, one of which I have to solution to. For one, which I've tried to minimize, is the fact that you can get both BLUE and MANA screwed. All decks have that chance of getting mana screwed, but on top of being able to get mana screwed in affinity you can also get blue screwed by drawing a <pojo ownz><pojo ownz><pojo ownz><pojo ownz> load of blue spells but no artifacts. I've tried to minimize this risk by keeping the number of Blue spells at half the number of Artifact spells while still keeping the counters and draw cards stable. The second, which I see no solution to and hopefully you could help me out on, is the fact that there are very few creatures available for affinity builds. I've reduced the number of Broodstars to two because they aren't something you can drop two or three of at a pop if you have them in your hand. But Myr Enforcers and Frogmites you can, though sometimes you don't draw any, which can be a very big problem.

And finally: My Affinity Versus Other Affinitys. You may have noticed that in my side board I don't have any cards that can really mess up an affinity deck. That's because, not to sound <pojo ownz><pojo ownz><pojo ownz><pojo ownz>y or anything, I usually dominate other affinity decks. That's one of the factors that has boosted my ego and led me to believe this is a really good formula for affinity builds. Now, if I'm up against TogFinity I don't fare so well. That's why I'll usually swap out some cards for some Disciples. It usually makes my opponents a little less eager to sacrifice artifacts to their Tog.

Also, I don't usually let people look at my deck. They'll, of course, see what I run. But what I run is no different from any other affinity deck, except I've put a hell of a lot more thought into the specs of it than most people.

I hope this answers your questions. I'm happy to see someone who actually thinks. ^_^ LoL What I mean is somebody who doesn't just read over it and say like "Cool," or "That sucks."

[NickWhiz1]

You should honestly, honestly, HONESTLY play at least 3 Broodstar. 4 is the optimum number, but 3 is the bare minimum IMO. Being Affinity's #1 win condition, you should max out on it. The faster that you get a Broodstar, the better, as you need to get it online and try to get in a couple of swings before Wrath/Vengeance/Stone rip you a new one.

Also, 4 Glimmervoid is very good, as it helps you fix your mana base (which, with Affinity, can be shaky at times due to the amount of off-color artifact lands). Also, it will survive Akroma's Vengeance if you manage to keep at least one other artifact intact (read: Darksteel Citadel).

As for card drawing, the bare minimum should be 4 Thoughtcast and 4 Thirst for Knowledge. Between those 8, 4-8 Spellbombs, and potentially 4 Chromatic Sphere (wihch isn't a bad choice for mana fixing and cantripping), you can burn through your deck very quickly, either to get out the game-ending Broodstar or dig up a counterspell to counter Akroma's Scoo...Vengeance.

You don't want to go too much with the free artifacts. Yes, free artifacts are nice, but 4 should be the maximum, as you will often put in free artifacts that would be better suited for artifacts that cost 1 or 2 (Spellbombs, Talismans, Greaves, etc.). If you want to go aggro, Chrome Mox is the choice. If you want to go more control, Welding Jar or possibly Ornithoper are the ways to go, although Chrome Mox can power out a potential turn 2 threat with counterspell support. Chromatic Sphere is something I'd pick for this spot, personally (if I'm not using Chrome Mox). Yes, it may cost 1, but it's a mana fixer and cantrip in one, and that's pretty good.

More sideboard possibilities (all depending on your metagame, of course):

Persecute/Cabal Interrogator: Discard > control.

Pyroclasm/Starstorm: If Goblins really get out of hand and CoP: Red isn't helping that much. Starstorm for 1 also tells EOT cycled DoJ what they can do with it.

Stabilizer: Shut down Slide, Eternal Dragon, and Decree of Justice.

Dwarven Blastimer: Shut down the Urzatrain, Cloudposts, and Blinkmoth Nexii.

[Garthan]

Well, first, Broodstar is a very good card. BUT it just isn't as much of a game winner as everyone makes it out to be. The real game winner is when you have a Frogmite out first turn, a Myr Enforcer out the second, and another Myr the third. Don't think it's unrealistic, because I've done it more times than you'd believe.

I believe 2 Glimmervoids is fine because for most blue spells you only need one blue mana. Broodstar and Assert Authority are the only exception and Chrome Mox takes care of that.

I do not believe there is any bare minimum to drawing cards. I run 3 Thoughtcast and 2 Thirst for Knowledge. Thirst for Knowledge is very overrated. Three mana is quite a bit when you need to conserve your mana for countering your opponents heavy spells. I whole heartedly agree with you on the Spellbombs. I have 4 of both AEther and Pyrite in my deck. What I don't care for, however, is the Chromatic Spheres. They can be good, but you really don't need the extra mana because it is highly likely you will have at least two blue mana sources by the time you need to draw a card or two.

And the free artifacts, that I run, include 4 Moxes and 4 Welding Jars, but I'm sure I'll be taking out two welding jars and putting in 2 Ornithopters.

I did consider Persecute, though I decided against it just because of the BB in it's cost. Cabal interrogator I also don't like because it's only one card you get to discard. I believe Blackmail would work better, though I still wouldn't include that.

Pyroclasm is another card I considered though turned down because it'll kill off my Frogmites as well, and the overall effect can be greatly reduced if they have a sledder on the field.

Stabilizer is a good idea. I'll seriously consider including it in my side board. Thanks.

Dwarven Blastminer is just a little too rich for my blood.

Thanks a bunch for the input.


Also, I couldn't help but notice you live in Toledo, Ohio. ^_^ My cousin lives up there. How old are you?

[NickWhiz1]

Well, it all comes down to personal opinion, and which kind of affinity deck you play. I personally play a variant of Sarnia Affinity (8 creatures, 10 counterspells), so opinions that I make may not hold much water in a more aggro Affinity deck.

Glimmervoid's true potential, IMO, is when it comes to the sideboard. Glimmervoid makes it very easy to splash a 3rd, 4th, even 5th (if you are really crazy) color in the sideboard. Chromatic Sphere also helps along that vein. You could run CoP: Red, Cabal Interrogator, Naturalize, and Pyroclasm in the same deck if you wanted to.

I suppose you're right about Pyroclasm. It doesn't synergize well with Frogmite. CoP: Red is probably the more efficient hoser, although you really need a way to kill them, because it's possible for Goblins to overrush CoP: Red if given enough time.

I'm actually using Talisman of Progress right now in place of the Spheres, but I'm going to test the Spheres out. I think being able to fix Affinity's somewhat shaky mana base and thin the deck out are big pluses, but we'll see.

And yes, I am from Toledo. I'm 18.

[Garthan]

Hmm... You may not no him, but it's a long shot. Ever heard of a kid named James Cowell, or Jimmy Cowell. ^_^ He's my cousin.

[SoldierOfFortune187]

If there were any 'perfect' Affinity builds it would be played by everyone. What makes it so deadly is that any number of combinations can lead to a -viable- deck type. Some like to go for the throat and splash red for direct damage, others protect themselves with white, I've even seen green with fat creatures to supplement their free ones and artifact hate for the mirror.

There is no perfect build.

I am curious about the types of playtesting you did on your way to realizing this creation, with specific match reports about how this deck wins and loses, I think its every bit as important as saying, "Use this many of this spell, this many of that."

[VolCanon]

you also have to plan against a March of the Machines (which would destroy ALL of your lands and moxen), Furnace Dragon (hasnt really caught on yet but it might for non-goblin decks, and terror.

Infest/Decree of Pain/Echoing Decay shuts goblins down.

mono-black or BU affinity works quite well.

[Metalgarurumon]

Personally I like to use Shrapnel Blast in my affinity deck because it's great to burn the opponent and the one artifact sacrifce isn't to bad.

[Ex YuGiOh Convict]

shrapnel blast also disposes of the pesky platinum angel that may have slipped by. why isnt anyone here talking about raffinity?? red black raffinity is my personal favorite but thats me and what about white blue affinity control??
~me~

[Willie]

shrapnel blast also disposes of the pesky platinum angel that may have slipped by. why isnt anyone here talking about raffinity?? red black raffinity is my personal favorite but thats me and what about white blue affinity control??
~me~


Look at one of the dates of the posts...