Dies to Removal

LP, is it cool if I use that tourney report in the OP under a spoiler tag?

So I played in my first Modern event in a pretty long while, and of course I played Affinity since it is one of two Modern decks that I own. (The other being fish.) I ended up going 5-1-1 in Swiss, losing only to the mirror nutdrawing me twice in a row, and drawing to UWr after my opponent slowplaying the shit out of me. So badly, in fact, that I had to have a judge observe our game 3. I played against Birthing Pod in the finals and got my ass whooped, but thankfully we were playing for fun since I scooped and gave him the invite.

I actually played a bit of a different list than what's in the OP. I scrapped the Shrapnel Blast version to play a more conservative Thoughtcast/Galvanic build. As much fun as it is killing your opponent from 10 life with spells, I had a pretty horrendous pod matchup and really wanted to have some play against
the deck because it was a new meta for me and I didn't know what to expect.

I played a list close to Alex B's, I saw his and realized how good Spellskite is against Pod so I figured I would throw one in the main and see how it went. The mainboarded 'Skite actually won me a game 1 that I should have otherwise lost against burn, so I'll consider it a success.

[deck]Brobots[/deck]

I played an extra land because I wasn't feeling comfortable getting Path'd that hard. I cut a
Memnite for it. It might be wrong but I actually kind of noticed the difference because I kept some pretty sketchy hands that drew into lands or baited out Paths, so it all worked out in the end.

Been testing using this list, and spell pierce and thoughtseize are friggin all stars post board. If you have them in opening hand with a reasonable draw you pretty much just win. People go all in on their hate cards post board and keep sketchy hands because affinity hate is so powerful. I've decided to go back to thoughtcast over shrapnel blast, even though I love doming people for 5. Being able to draw extra cards is too good.

We're on the Thoughtcast version of the deck as well.

and you only have 4 sources that can cast disenchant if they stick it.

You can float white off of your Mox Opal in response to Stony Silence being cast, and then Disenchant it after resolution.

Obviously this implies that you already had it in hand, but I figure if you didn't mulligan to it then chances are you aren't banking on it anyway.

You could play Disenchant. It helps with Stony Silence, and is also relevant against Birthing Pod and Splinter Twin.

Affinity was hindered pretty heavily by the fact that Deathrite Shaman was in the format, but now that she is gone the deck is seeing top tier recognition.

The deck is relatively inexpensive, with the most expensive piece being the Mox Opal at $40 a pop. If you think you're interested in the deck, proxy it up and give it a few runs before you start investing.

Well, Cranial Plating does literally nothing against Stony Silence. You can play it and contribute 1 to Metalcraft, but that's about it. Master of Etherium is still a playable lord that beats hard.

Stony Silence is such a beating, I sers. think 3x Master of Etherium seems correct - but at the same time if SS resolves the odds of casting MoE is slim .

I really need to clock some hours with the deck before I make any rash choices (kinda want to play 4x TS to combat hate postboard) but Robots isn't a deck you want to board out many non-artifacts spells.

In any matchup that's going to play Stony Silence, you could honestly just pull the Cranial Platings for Tempered Steel. I could see that being a real thing.

I read some of those articles, and the one thing I disagree with a lot of them on is cutting Etched Champions for Master of Etherium. If I was going to cut anything it would be Steel Overseers. Steel Overseer very rarely lives to tap for value anyway, and when it does chances are Master of Etherium would win you the game just as hard.

Yes, Etched Champion is only a 2/2 without Metalcraft, but it just has way more potential to be incredible than Steel Overseer, I feel.







I'll be putting some more time into this primer now that the deck isn't being hated out of the format by Deathrite Shaman. More to come in the coming week.

You play Steel Overseer over Master of Etherium for the synergy with Arcbound Ravager, basically. It's the biggest upside. However, being susceptible to removal for a turn does kind of suck about Steel Overseer, and is probably the thing I liked about him the least. While I'm not fond of Master of Etherium and I don't consider him a win condition, it's easier to compare him to Steel Overseer than it is to Etched Champion. The fact that he has a HUGE ass is an actual arguing point, and I don't think I'd judge someone for playing him over Steel Overseer. I can see wanting to have a hard-to-kill anthem.

I tried out Court Homunculus in a test build this evening (replacing Shrapnel Blast, with the logic that it SHOULD be able to do more damage) and wasn't impressed by it, so I removed it from the primer. If anyone else has different results that can push me back towards it, please come forward and prove me wrong, but
for now I'm going to stamp it as a stinker.

That's just sally. Etched Champion is a win condition, Master isn't.

Like I said, they're interchangeable. Spell Pierce is actually really good against decks like UWR and mono red, because the longer you keep your Vault Skirge from getting zapped, the more likely you are to flat-out win the game. If you manage to equip Vault Skirge with Cranial Plating and hit them even once, (at least in the case of mono red) they're pretty much unable to win the game.

If you expect to play those matchups a lot I could see playing them in the main. I personally hate playing against Electrolyze so I could see myself doing so.

I think Spell Pierce and Galvanic Blast are pretty interchangeable, I find that I board out Galv Blasts in matchups where I would want to play Spell Pierce, so I can imagine either one is fine.

I'm on EST, and I'm good enough at this game to play at a Pro Tour so I guess "decent" is an apt word. Of course, said pro tour wasn't constructed, and it was ages ago.

In all seriousness, I'm going to be playtesting this (newer) list a lot on Cockatrice unless someone has the cards for it on MODO and wants to let me smash it into their Modern list. If anyone wants to help me run the gauntlet I would greatly appreciate it, my playgroup mostly focuses on Standard, and since I've kind of fallen out of love with Standard I'm having a hard time testing.

Happening.

Literally none of the cards in the original lists have affinity.

So I had a little success playing this deck last weekend at a win-a-box for Modern Masters. I didn't win, we decided to split top 8 and just distribute the packs from the box evenly, but my swiss rounds were a clean sweep at 6-0. I deviated a lot from the list in the OP, and was playing a completely different sideboard. Here's what I played.

[deck]Classic Affinity[/deck]

I like it a lot, I beat down a lot of people with Inkmoth
Nexus. The land count is low but your ability to produce mana off of Mox Opal on turn 1 is really high, and it gets even better with Springleaf Drum.

Fair enough, and yeah, Glimmervoid likely is better than both. I don't really know how I missed that - especially considering that it's actually in the second list as a 2-of...

It's a pretty gimmicky card. I actually didn't like playing it because Shatterstorm made it really rocky postboard, but again, it's something that I'm sure people will decide on as personal preference.

I was thinking more of a 2-of sub so you still have Path insurance, but if it's that pervasive, I can understand wanting to keep it at 4.

It's totally personal preference.

The mana in the deck is pretty much the only thing that you can change around at will. Battlefield Forge is probably better than Sacred Foundries, but Glimmervoid is likely better than both. (Since it also works for Vault Skirge and Cranial Plating.)

[quote="[url=viewtopic.php?p=58142#p58142:3jfc6i39]redthirst » Tue Apr 30, 2013 12:03 pm[/url:3jfc6i39]":3jfc6i39]Love these lists - always been a big fan of Affinity.

Any reason not to play some number of Sacred Foundry or Battlefield Forge over basic Mountain? It gives more sources for Canonist post board but without interacting with Blood Moon or your red spells any less than a basic Mountain.

Is the life loss that important? And I'm honestly asking that because I don't know.[/quote:3jfc6i39]
Path to Exile immunity. Not playing any basics in your list turns Path to Exile into a super-[card:3jfc6i39]Dispatch[/card:3jfc6i39].

I was playing the deck at a PTQ back in Orlando a while back, and some UWR player literally Path'd me every single turn, 5 turns in a row.

I still won, but holy crap was I irritated afterwards.

The deck has lots of names. Affinity, Robots, Real Steel... but I like to call it Brobots. What is Brobots? It's a deck that intends to close out games before they even truly begin. It does this by playing a slew of cheap, synergistic artifacts that are ideal at having a super aggressive early game. So much so that generally you kill your opponent before they get the opportunity to stabilize.

What merits does the deck have over other more traditional aggro decks like Zoo? The deck scales. [
card]Cranial Plating[/card] is an effect that a lot of aggro decks don't have access to. Green-based decks will have Tarmagoyf, but Cranial Plating scales even farther than 'goyf, and this on its own can make even a lone Vault Skirge into an absolute beating against any aggro deck. It even excels against control matchups because Cranial Plating on an Inkmoth Nexus or Blinkmoth Nexus is a threat that's very difficult for control to favorably interact with. Steel Overseer also provides a similar "umph" that other aggro decks don't really get access to for the longer games.

The deck is also a tad bit "trickier" than other aggressive decks. Arcbound Ravager can be used to set up some very, very interesting combat steps,
and it's hard for your opponent to know exactly how you'll respond. Even if they do it correctly, there's no way for them to tell if they'll just die randomly to Shrapnel Blast.

Affinity sees a lot of competitive play even to this day. It placed 5th at Grand Prix Lincoln, and has seen various top 8s across the lifespan of the format. For interested parties, here's a video of Mary Jacobson obliterating Luis Scott-Vargas at GP Lincoln with the list. This video aptly demonstrates the raw power of the deck on the play, while also showcasing it’s obvious weaknesses on the draw.

I'm sure most of you are interested in at least a baseline decklist. This is a very similar list to the one that is being played in the video, with only very subtle differences. It's what I've personally played over the months, and it feels basically the same as it did before I
changed cards in the list. I'll post both lists for comparison's sake, but the differences are so minimal.

[deck]My list.[/deck]
[deck=Mary Jacobson's Affinity, 5th place GP Lincoln.]Creature (26)
2 Arcbound Ravager
4 Etched Champion
4 Memnite
4 Ornithopter
4 Signal Pest
4 Steel Overseer
4 Vault Skirge

Spells (18)
4 Cranial Plating
4 Galvanic Blast
4 Mox Opal
3 Shrapnel Blast
3 Springleaf Drum

Mana (16)
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Darksteel Citadel
2 Glimmervoid
4 Inkmoth Nexus
2 Mountain

Sideboard (15)
3 Ancient Grudge
3 Blood Moon
3 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Torpor Orb
3
Whipflare
[/deck]

What are some of the differences between her list and mine? Not much, I'm playing one less Mox Opal because of it being Legendary, and one more Shrapnel Blast instead. I also elected to simply play basics instead of Glimmervoid. This was a choice made based on UWR Flash being such a popular deck, where being fairly immune to Path to Exile is a little bit better than simply being able to move around Cranial Plating at instant speed.

Rather than be a full-blown primer where I talk about alternatives for each converted mana cost, instead I'm going to focus more on explaining why each card is already in the list, because the deck really doesn't have a whole lot of wiggle room for "alternatives." I believe that if there is to be discussion about alternative cards, it can be done in the thread itself.


[size=150:
23164jhe]Creature base[/size]
Memnite/Ornithopter: These two are in the deck for basically the same reason. They're zero drop creatures that activate your opening Mox Opal so that you can play Signal Pest or Vault Skirge on turn 1. In this regard, they're basically "little mana dorks." They also attack well with Signal Pest or a Steel Overseer activation, and make awesome fodder for Archbound Ravager. Occasionally you'll have to dump a bunch of +1/+1 counters onto an Ornithopter to win against an opponent with a lot of ground pounders, but winning is winning.
Etched Champion: This card is simply a beating
against almost every matchup you'll play against. It's generally immune to all colors, it holds +1/+1 counters better than almost any card in the deck, and is generally just a nightmare for your opponent to deal with as long as you're on Metalcraft. There isn't much more I can say about the card; anybody who reads the text on it can easily figure out just how it does what it does.
Signal Pest: This card is in the list to offer you the early aggression that the deck is known for. Playing multiple Signal Pests is often more than most decks can handle, and I'd go as far as to wager that this card has won me more games than any other individual creature in the list. Battle Cry is such a strong mechanic in any deck that can play so many creatures so quickly. He does have a giant target on his head for Path to Exile, however, so that's something to keep in mind.
[card:
23164jhe]Steel Overseer[/card]: Standard players will be intimately familiar with the effect that Steel Overseer offers, especially if they've played with or against Gavony Township. What does this card do for the list? It makes Archbound Ravager a much more "broken" effect, it makes aggressive swarm-like opening hands "go bigger," and it is even a fairly decent attacker too. The longer Steel Overseer stays on the table, the more likely you are to win the game.
Vault Skirge: is a painful little sucker. He and Cranial Plating do a lot of work on life totals. Lifelink isn't relevant in some matchups, but in others it has the potential to simply put the game out of your opponent's reach. Generally when Vault Skirge is good, he's very good, but even when he's not being
amazing, he's still a robot minion to do your bidding.
[card]Archbound Ravager:[/card]: And of course, the big daddy himself. This card is responsible for degenerate formats and having caused quite a number of players to quit Magic: The Gathering during his tour of the Standard format. In this deck he does many of the same things he was known for in Standard. Although this deck isn't playing Disciple of the Vault, it does have other ways to make use of Archbound Ravager. His Modular is not irrelevant, and it makes every artifact that you would want to be attacking with into an immediate threat. You're on the Inkmoth plan? Great, here's a 7/7 Inkmoth. Need to race life totals? Make that Vault Skirge a 10/10 and see if they can beat that. About to get board wiped? Pile a bunch of counters onto a [card]Blinkmoth Nexus[/card:
23164jhe]. It has so many uses in and out of combat that it can still appropriately strike fear into an enemy as soon as they see him.








Spells
Cranial Plating: This card obviously shouldn't need to be explained. It's one of the best cards in the deck, and will win you the most games out of any other card in the list. It should be noted that the "alternate" equip cost of . can be used at instant speed, so there are occasions where you'll be able to swap it mid-attack and pull out some really ridiculous damage.
Mox Opal: Basically an "enabler" card. It's the reason you can get away
with playing so few lands. This card allows for some pretty silly turn one plays if you've got any number of 0 drop creatures. Being Legendary makes it occasionally awkward to play with, but there will be times where you can just sac the first one and play a second one without blinking an eye, so that's something to keep in mind.
Springleaf Drum: This is basically just extra Mox Opals. Tapping a creature isn't a big deal usually. There isn't much to say about it though. It makes mana, provides Metalcraft, and allows you to play less actual lands.
Shrapnel Blast: A great finisher, this card gives you a lot of reach for closing out games. It turns Darksteel Citadels into Lava Axes once you're done using them, it lobs any creature that you might be getting removed at the head...etc. It's just all around nice to have, and reach is important in a deck that wants
to win quickly.
Galvanic Blast: Typical burn spell with an upside for metalcraft users. Made famous by Brian Kibler here.