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 It's impossible to read anything about the current Standard format without
the word "Affinity" popping up somewhere. Affinity this...
Affinity that... Affinity is the best deck in the format... If you can't beat
Affinity, don't play... Affinity blah blah blah. But how does the
deck stack up in Extended?
(silence)
You don't care? Hey, that's great. Just to spite you, I'm
gonna finish this article anyway.
Yet Another Affinity Deck
Creatures:
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Disciple of the Vault
4 Frogmite
4 Myr Enforcer
4 Ornithopter
Spells:
4 Browbeat
3 Mana Cylix
4 Shrapnel Blast
1 Skullclamp
1 Talisman of Dominance
1 Talisman of Indulgence
4 Thoughtcast
3 Welding Jar
Lands:
3 Darksteel Citadel
4 Glimmervoid
4 Great Furnace
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Vault of Whispers
Sideboard:
1 Artifact Mutation
3 Darksteel Brute
2 Hull Breach
3 Price of Glory
2 Propaganda
4 Terminate
Today's MVP's
Arcbound Ravager - This guy rocks. He's freakin' invincible. Well,
not really, but he might as well be. There wasn't a single time this
guy hit the table that he didn't devastate in some way.
Shrapnel Blast - It rocks too. This won a few games for me today, and
stopped me from losing one. Put four into any Affinity deck, whether
it's aggro or control.
Disciple of the Vault - Disciple + Ravager = Win. Usually.
Skullclamp - I opened this in a pack right before the tournament started. Didn't
draw it often, but when I did, it was a wrecking ball. I traded for
more of them.
Today's Losers
Mana Cylix - Don't laugh. It was an experiment. The only
time all day I actually needed these cards was one of the times I sided them
out. Come to think of it, I think I sided them out in every match.
Hull Breach - I drew these a couple of times, but never ended up playing them. That
should tell you something.
Price of Glory - Didn't use these once. Not that they're bad cards, I
just didn't play against anything that would be hurt by them.
Blah, blah, Affinity decklist, blah blah blah. How about something
that nobody else writes? Like a tournament report? Nobody
writes those things.
Round 1 - White Weenie (Jacob Schneider):
Game one was pretty straightforward. I killed him. Well,
it wasn't quite that simple, but I didn't have many problems. Arcbound
Ravager came through here, and when he ran out of chump blockers, the rest was
easy. Game two was going the same way for awhile... until he played
Parallax Wave. He removed my Disciple, Ravager and Enforcer from the
game, and his life total wasn't low enough for me to beat him at that point. His
remaining creatures killed me easily. Here we are, shuffling our
decks, getting ready for game three. "You guys have like two
minutes left," rings the voice of some certain judge. Needless
to say, that game ended in a draw. Good thing, too, because I was
mana screwed and definitely would have lost. I have never in my life
seen two aggro decks draw a match. Match: 0-0-1 Game:
1-1-1
Round 2 - Rock (Adam Whitlatch):
In game one, Adam's painlands helped me out by dealing him some early damage. Unfortunately,
it didn't win me the game (though I found out later that I could have). This
was a fun game, but in the end, Adam's creatures pretty much outfought mine. Oh
yeah, those Pernicious Deeds didn't help either. In game two, I had a
terrific start. Enter Pernicious Deed. Deed go bye bye,
Scott go bye bye. Scott reset. Deed again. I
don't remember how many Deeds Adam played that game (if you haven't noticed by
now, I'm writing this entirely from memory), but it was enough to make sure I
had about one permanent on the table when the game ended. Match:
0-1-1 Game: 1-3-1
Round 3 - B/W Control (Dave Nash):
Game one essentially consisted of Dave's Masticore trying to fight off a horde
of angry, animated artifacts. Needless to say, it didn't work. Ravager
always beats Masticore. I don't care if Masticore regenerates; sacing
an artifact in an Affinity deck is easier than paying 2 mana in (almost) any
deck. Game two was challenging, but a bit too much so. Parallax
Wave killed me again. Game three... Well, let's just say that our
third game would have been better off if it'd never existed. Me: I'll
play (insert name of artifact). Dave: I'll play (insert random
Affinity hate). Being that Dave was playing black/white, you wouldn't
think he'd have too much artifact hate... right? I'll let you
be the judge of that. Match: 0-2-1 Game: 2-5-1
Round 3.5 - Lunch at Fazoli's (Cory and Paul):
Game one was rather boring. We waited in line, ordered our food, and
paid for it. I lost that game because I had to wait on my food,
whereas Cory and Paul got theirs right away. In game two, I faced off
against two Pizza Monsters and the Breadstick Beast, and devoured my opponents
easily. Game three consisted of a trip back to Casey's realizing we
still had 30 minutes to spare when we thought we had to hurry. There
was something strange about this round, because I won all four games I played
after lunch. Memo to Self: Eat breakfast at Fazoli's on tournament
days.
Round 4 - A Red Deck (Robert Luken):
At this point, things are kind of in a blur, so I apologize for any errors I
make. (Again, I'm writing this from memory.) I made a
couple of small mistakes in game one, but apparently they weren't enough to cost
me the game, though it was close. Shrapnel Blast was the champ here. Game
two was a bit easier, but it was very similar to game one. The match
was very short (not surprisingly, being that we're both playing <I>aggro</I>). I'm
still amazed at how we drew in Round 1... Match: 1-2-1 Game:
4-5-1
Round 5 - Another Red Deck (Danyel?? [Sorry for slaughtering your name.]):
This was another fairly easy match. The only card that really gave me
problems was Blistering Firecat. In game two, I was actually down to
7 life when he played one. Luckily, I had a Shrapnel Blast handy to
save my butt. Other than that, his burn just wasn't enough to keep up
with my creatures. Straightforward beatdown in both games. Match:
2-2-1 Game: 6-5-1
Conclusion: I'm pretty satisfied with how the deck did today, even though I
didn't finish Top 8 (though I probably should have, but we all make mistakes). Affinity
has a much larger variety of hate to compete against in this format. If
you don't believe me, ask Paul Wang. Until then, leave your
Shatterstorms and Pulverizes at home. You don't need them.
-Scott Helvick
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