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01.05.04  -  Affinity and You.

 

Welcome again to Jason’s Deck Garage. Before we get started this week I want to answer a few questions from last week and cover a few things that have happened since then. If your not interested in what’s in the next paragraph or two just skip to what you came for, the deck fixing.

First, I received over fifty emails from Pojo readers and I actually did read everyone of them. I didn’t manage to respond to them all and for that I apologize. I am adjusting to a new computer and deleted some things I wasn’t supposed to so some of you did not get responded to. In the following week I will endeavor to make sure you all get responded to. If you didn’t get an email from me it doesn’t make your deck list anymore less worthy than the others I did respond to. If you didn’t here from me feel free to send your deck-list to me again and I will make sure you here from me.

Second, I was asked by a few people if I was going to use their deck for this weeks article. I will almost always wait till the end of the week before I decide what deck to work on in my article. I like to see a lot of decks so that I can give the best possible article. Another question that came up is what makes me choose a persons deck for the article. I look at all the decks and try to find some that have interesting builds, problems that can be addressed, and how interesting is the deck to the average person. I actually exclude more decks from being used if they are too good of a deck. Chris Cameron sent me in a really nice build of red/white slide that I decided not to use because all I could do was change the sideboard to fit his local play group. I did however include his deck list as a bonus at the bottom of the article. Its my way of giving you a bonus. So onto the deck fixing.

The deck-list that follows is a build of what is called Affinity. The concept behind the affinity deck is to beat your opponent with creatures that are able to come out cheap because of the Affinity ability and control the game with some counters and card draw. I would like to point out that Affinity is very popular right now and the drawback to play a deck that is popular is that many people will put cards in their decks that can give them advantages just against your deck.

Affinity/Myrs

Creature:

3 Mry Enforcer

3 Silver Myr

2 Iron Myr

3 Frogmite

4 Myr Retriever

1 Brood Star

2 Moriok Scavenger

1 Vermiculos

1 Ornithopter

3 Leaden Myr

Arifacts:

2 Talisman of Dominance

2 Cryptic Gateway

2 Necrogen Spellbomb

3 Nuerok Hoversails

1 Skeleton Shard

1 Thoughtcast

2 Aether Spellbombs

Lands:

4 Swamps

4 Islands

4 Mountains

4 Great Furnaces

4 Vault of Whispers

4 Seat of Synod

This deck is good example of what I get when a deck is sent to me. I wasn’t told what the deck was supposed to do so it becomes fair game for my own style of fixing. This deck also came with no sideboard so I will assume it is a casual deck. After I fix the deck you will notice that there are some better card choices for the deck , but I wanted to keep the deck as true to the original as possible while still making it what I consider better. Here we go.

3 Myr Enforcer

3 Frogmite

3 Broodstar

3 Silver Myr

2 Iron Myr

4 Myr Retriever

3 Thirst for Knowledge

2 Thought Cast

3 Mana Leak

3 Override

4 Shrapnel Blast

4 Aether Spellbomb

4 Island

3 Mountain

4 Glimmervoid

4 Great Furnace

4 Ancient Den

4 Seat of Synod

First things first I will talk about what I removed and why.

-3 Leaden Myr

-2 Necrogen Spellbomb

-2 Talisman of Dominance

-2 Moriok Scavenger

-2 Cryptic Gateway

-3 Nuerok Hoversails

-1 Vermiculos

-1 Ornithopter

-1 Skeleton Shard

-4 Swamps

-4 Vault of Whispers

Cryptic Gateway is a card that is nice when you want to get out a big creature with little creatures to do it. It really doesn’t fit in the deck when you look at the amount of mana in the deck. Skeleton Shard, Vermiculos, and Moriok Scavenger were pulled for the same reason in that they are recursion and a creature that doesn’t really need to be in the deck considering that black is very week in this deck. If Vermiculos could fly on his own that would make him more solid but the deck has Broodstar so he isn’t as good. The Ornithopter was pulled as well since he doesn’t do much in this deck except feed the vermiculos and affinity. The Swamps, Vault of Whispers, Leaden Myr, and the Talisman of dominance were also pulled because with black being week it doesn’t really need to be in the deck.

+2 Broodstar

+2 Thirst for Knowledge

+4 Shapnel blast

+2 Aether Spellbomb

+3 Override

+3 Mana Leak

+1 Thoughtcast

+4 Glimmervoid

+4 Ancient Den

The extra two Broodstar were added because with the removal of vermiculos an extra two of Broodstar is a great addition. The Thirst for Knowledge and additional Thoughtcast are in the deck to generate some more card draw when the deck slow down and card advantage is always good. The Mana Leak and Override are necessary to have in the deck because if you don’t have an answer to Akroma’s Vengeance you game is pretty much over. The extra Aether Spell bombs are just another safety net for your creatures and a way of dealing with your opponents threats. Now the Shrapnel Blast are my personal favorite. When you get lots of fast beats in with Frogmites and Myr Enforcers, the Shrapnel Blast will let you clean house.

Okay now this is a very basic deck fix. I have included some other deck list at the bottom of the article for some alternate builds of Affinity. I hope that this helps the person who sent me the deck-list, I would thank that person but they didn’t tell me their name and I wont refer to someone by their email name because I don’t want them to receive a lot of junk email. Remember to send you comments to Pojojason@hotmail.com

As I promised here is another Affinity build and Chris Camerons version of Astal Slide.

 

3 Atog
3
Broodstar
4
Frogmite
4
Mry Enforcer

4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Chrome Mox
2
Neurok Hoversail
2
Rush of Knowledge
4 Talisman of Progress
2
Temperol Fissure
4
thirst for Knowledge
2
thoughtcast
4
welding jar

2 override

4
ancient den
4 glimmervoid
4
seat of synod
4
great furnace

Chris Cameron - Astral Slide

3 Exalted Angel
3 Eternal Drago
4 Lightning Rift
4 Astral Slide
4 Spark Spray

4 Renewed Faith
4 Wrath of God
4 Starstorm
3 Decree of Justice

8 Plains
8 Mountain
4 Forgotten Cave
4 Secluded Steppe
3 Temple of the False God

Special Thanks go out to Chris Cameron for making me aware that I needed to let people know how the selection process goes for the Jason’s Deck Garage.

Jason Matthews

 

 

Send your deck list or if you would just like to ask me a question or send a comment to pojojason@hotmail.com

 

 

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