Introduction
I recently had a chance to play in two MD5 qualifiers at Pro Tour: Seattle. Both times I played Affinity, and both times people thought I was crazy. First and foremost, they thought Affinity wasn't viable because of all the artifact hate in people's decks. Green decks were everywhere and they were all packing at least Oxidize, Viridian Shaman, and Eternal Witness. So when I showed them my deck, people were shocked by my decision.

I wasn't playing Cranial Plating.

Well, that isn't exactly true. I did have Plating in my sideboard. However, the choice to board-in the most powerful new card for this archetype is definitely unorthodox. So what led me to the conclusion that this strategy was correct?

The Initial Build
It all started while I was sitting at the side event tables at U.S. Nationals with my teammate Bryan Petersen. It was Saturday night, and Skullclamp was about to become officially banned. This is what prompted us to start testing the new MD5 environment. I still had my Affinity deck from Nationals, and we decided a good place to start would be swapping the Skullclamps for Cranial Platings. I also added Ornithopters and cut out the Welding Jars. Bryan had just built Kai Budde's Krark-Clan Ironworks deck, so we played a bunch of games.

We discovered very quickly that Cranial Plating was nuts. It allowed the Affinity deck to win a lot of games as early as turn 4, often before the KCI deck could execute its combo. The Affinity deck ended up stomping the KCI deck into the ground by winning a large majority of the games we played. Without Plating, these numbers would have been drastically different in favor of the KCI deck.

The Evolution of the Metagame
Up to this point, all our testing showed that Cranial Plating was the core of the new, faster Affinity archetype. We figured that Affinity and KCI would be the two top decks. But then we started testing the Green decks. We discovered KCI was very vulnerable to having its lands destroyed. While Kai's version featured a lot of card drawing that would ensure victory in the long game, it had a hard time surviving the land destruction all the Green decks got for free. As long as the Green deck put pressure on KCI, it was very difficult for them to win. We concluded that KCI would not be a popular deck for this reason. Until the deck actually made Top 8 in an event or someone published a new version, we decided to put it on the back burner.

Ironworks Sucks, So Now What?
Without being too concerned about KCI decks, our focus shifted to beating the myriad of Green-based strategies. All of these decks had one thing in common: they were able to unleash an unprecedented amount of artifact removal within a very few turns. We played our Affinity build, which featured Ornithopters and Cranial Platings, against various versions of Green decks.

Most Green decks rely on blocking to control creatures. This means evasion creatures have gone up in value. This is part of the reason Ornithopter is good right now. A flying creature equipped with Cranial Plating is usually too much for a Green deck to handle. However, we found that Ornithopter ended up looking silly in the face of so much artifact destruction. Cranial Plating was useless if your opponent drew an Oxidize, and even when it did deal some damage, a Shaman would finish it off on the following turn. Also, having your Cranial Plating destroyed usually cost you a lot of tempo. Hands that started out looking amazing were reduced to crap. Basically, if the Green deck could neutralize your flyers then you were bound to lose.

This testing did teach us that Somber Hoverguard was much better than it used to be. The Hoverguard's non-artifact status makes it extremely resilient versus the Green strategies, and its flying would win games on all by itself.

The Two Options for Ravager Affinity
With KCI losing and Green gaining in popularity, it seemed to me there were two paths for Affinity to follow. One option was to stay aggressive and hope to overpower the artifact hate. The primary plan was to win through doing consistently more powerful things than your opponent. Kai's build of Affinity represents a good version of this strategy:

AggroAffinity
By: Kai Budde
Main deck:
4 Ornithopter
4 Disciple of the Vault
4 Myr Servitor
4 Arcbound Worker
4 Arcbound Ravager
3 Atog
4 Frogmite
2 Myr Enforcer
4 Cranial Plating
3 Shrapnel Blast
4 Thoughtcast

4 Glimmervoid
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Great Furnace
4 Darksteel Citadel

Sideboard:
4 Annul
4 Electrostatic Bolt
2 Myr Retriever
3 Terror
2 Thirst for Knowledge

The other option for Affinity was to focus more on card drawing and pure efficiency. Night's Whisper was an excellent addition if your goal was to draw more cards. The problem that arose was how to fit the Whisper into an already tight deck list. While I was busy contemplating these issues in the back of my head, I stumbled upon this deck list that placed 2^nd in a PTQ:

Capless Affinity
By: Greg Kelly
Main deck:
4 Disciple of the Vault
4 Arcbound Worker
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Frogmite
4 Somber Hoverguard
4 Welding Jar
4 Thoughtcast
4 Night's Whisper
4 Shrapnel Blast
4 Chromatic Sphere

4 Glimmervoid
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Great Furnace
4 Darksteel Citadel

Sideboard:
4 Damping Matrix
4 Electrostatic Bolt
2 Island
3 Qumulox
2 Terror

At first, I was confused by the exclusion of Cranial Plating. How could Greg Kelly do so well when his deck left out such a powerful card? Then I started thinking about our own testing results. The Green decks were abusing the Plating-based Affinity builds. Artifact removal exposed the inconsistencies of that strategy. However, Greg Kelly's Affinity list was immune to this type of plan. Not only did it have Somber Hoverguard, a resilient flyer, but it also featured eight card-drawing spells and twenty lands. Eight of the twenty lands were immune to being destroyed by artifact destruction. This setup meant that the Affinity deck could often draw four or six extra cards fairly quickly, and this type of card advantage usually beats a heavy-removal strategy. Additionally, with the slightly higher land count and abundance of cheap spells, Green decks often were wasting their time destroying the lands.

An Unusual Sideboard
We started playing this new Affinity build against our other decks. It smashed them all a majority of the time. Any game where the Affinity deck drew Somber Hoverguard early was difficult for the Green deck to win. Even if no flyers were drawn, the card drawing quickly took control of the game.

Deciding to leave the main deck as is, we turned our attention to post-sideboard games. My first instinct was that the mirror match would be the most important. After all, they would have access to Cranial Plating and Ornithopter and our build didn't have an answer to that. My fears were confirmed when we played Kai's Affinity list against Greg Kelly's. In any game where Kai's deck drew Plating early, it won. This began to worry me.

Next, we tested several sideboard strategies for the mirror. The two most obvious are the Furnace Dragon plan and the Electrostatic Bolt plan. The Dragon plan involves brining in Seething Song and Furnace Dragon. Based on our testing of Standard for Nationals, we found this plan to be inconsistent. You would often draw Seething Song without Dragon or vice versa. Sometimes this plan just wins the game as early as turn 3, but we found this didn't happen enough to make it obviously the correct choice.

The Electrostatic Bolt plan involves keeping your deck nearly the same and bringing in four Bolts with which to kill key creatures. Disciple of the Vault and Arcbound Ravager were the traditional targets, but now even Ornithopter and Somber Hoverguard were dangerous.

While trying these various plans, I noticed a problem with how the deck functioned. There were a lot of games in which this Affinity build would draw a large amount of colored cards and be very slow to develop. This decreased the overall consistency of the deck and thus countered the advantage this build was supposed to have. I soon concluded the main deck was already pushing the envelope as far as colored cards were concerned. When I sideboarded, I was actually increasing the colored card count, which lowered the deck's consistency. This helped me realize that sideboarding with this particular build of Affinity was even more hazardous than past versions.

In step with my previous testing of Affinity, I decided that being the most efficient and consistent was the way to win the mirror match. My first instinct in that line of thinking was to board Myr Enforcer in to replace the Somber Hoverguards. Myr Enforcer was usually better in the mirror because of its size and artifact status. This also reduced the overall colored card count, which helped consistency. More importantly, it helped me to realize something important: this deck didn't need to sideboard against the Green decks.

This Affinity deck has basically replaced a few cards that are bad against Green decks (Myr Enforcer, Cranial Plating, Ornithopter) with cards that are much better (Somber Hoverguard, Night's Whisper, Welding Jar). However, when you aren't facing a Green deck, you really would like cards like Enforcer and Plating. It made sense to sideboard these cards and bring them in whenever appropriate. I started to bring in additional threats against decks like Mono-Red Control, and I was able to increase the consistency of my deck in the mirror while gaining access to my own Cranial Platings.

The other two strategies that posed the most threat were KCI and March of the Machines. Annul is an excellent card versus both of these strategies. I decided to round out the sideboard with some Shatters to help fight opposing Platings and I ended up this list:

Capless Affinity v2.0
Main deck:
4 Disciple of the Vault
4 Arcbound Worker
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Frogmite
4 Somber Hoverguard
4 Welding Jar
4 Thoughtcast
4 Night's Whisper
4 Shrapnel Blast
4 Chromatic Sphere

4 Glimmervoid
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Great Furnace
4 Darksteel Citadel

Sideboard:
4 Myr Enforcer
4 Cranial Plating
4 Annul
3 Shatter

Versus Affinity
The first game is all about neutralizing their Cranial Platings. The best way to do this is to kill them before they can draw it. Shrapnel Blast and Disciple of the Vault are incredibly important to this strategy, as is Arcbound Ravager. If they do manage to get a Platinged Ornithopter, there isn't much you can do.

Sideboarding:
-4 Somber Hoverguard, -4 Welding Jar, -2 Night's Whisper, -1 Darksteel Citadel
+4 Myr Enforcer, +4 Cranial Plating, +3 Shatter

When you aren't facing Green, the twentieth land isn't necessary. After boarding you both should have the same types of cards, but you have an advantage of Night's Whisper over most traditional builds. Shatter is also excellent in the mirror as it gets rid of Cranial Plating. This matchup often comes down to creature superiority, and Myr Enforcer helps a great deal with that.

Versus Mono-Red Control
Mono-Red Control poses an interesting threat. While their deck isn't as powerful as yours, they have the ability to burn you to death from out of nowhere. Pulse of the Forge can turn the game around in an instant, while Arc-Slogger is also a significant threat. If you have the ability, you should Shrapnel Blast it before they can untap (assuming they aren't at a low life). Your direct damage cards are surprising good. This is amplified by the fact Flamebreak has become the defensive card of choice. Flamebreak deals three damage to each player, and this makes the difference more often than you'd think.

Sideboarding:
-2 Somber Hoverguard, -1 Darksteel Citadel, -1 Night's Whisper
+4 Myr Enforcer

Your sideboarding is light. Myr Enforcer helps to raise the threat count of the deck. One of this deck's biggest problems is that sometimes it doesn't get enough threats. It can draw cards all day long, but if it doesn't get the creatures, then it is bound to lose. Night's Whisper is slightly weaker in multiples versus their burn, so I cut one in favor of an Enforcer. Again, kill Arc-Slogger on sight with Shrapnel Blast and try to outlast them. They have at least as much burn as you do, so remember that and try to mana burn properly to minimize the effect Pulse of the Forge has on you.

Versus Green-Based Decks
For the sake of clarity, the most prominent Green-based strategies are Tooth and Nail, U/G Shard, and Mono-Green Beatdown. Your strategy is the same against all of them.

Your plan for games one and two does not differ. Do everything you can to survive a barrage of removal. There is no room for error when facing a Green deck. Your best mana draws involve a Darksteel Citadel and a Glimmervoid. With these two lands, you are sure to have all the mana you need and they can't really stop you from casting spells. You should always lead with your Citadels when you have them, and try to only expose your colored artifact lands when you are going to use them immediately. In the past, Great Furnace was your best land and it was the most likely to be destroyed, but now it's actually your worst (since you have eight cards in both Blue and Black). You can often use this fact to your advantage and lead with the Furnace. Your Red mana only becomes relevant later in the game when you are hoping to Shrapnel Blast them out, but often times you'll have either a Chromatic Sphere or a Glimmervoid by then.

Somber Hoverguard is your best creature, and if you draw two of these early you pretty much auto-win. Triskelion, Duplicant, and Sword of Fire and Ice are the main cards they could have that will destroy your Hoverguards. Disciple of the Vault is also amazingly good, as is Shrapnel Blast. In fact, all the cards that were good against Elf-and-Nail are even better here.

You don't ever want to go all-in on your Ravager unless it is absolutely your only chance. Their abundance of removal means that Ravager often dies immediately. The only other use is in combination with Disciple.

Sideboarding:
No change

Versus KCI
Judging by early results, KCI is the deck you probably won't face. However, you definitely need to be prepared for it, as it is extremely powerful when unchecked. In game one, you have to hope you get the nuts draw. Multiple Disciples are going to win the game, but anything less than a turn five kill is probably going to lose.

Sideboarding:
-4 Welding Jar, -4 Night's Whisper, -4 Somber Hoverguard
+4 Cranial Plating, +4 Annul, +4 Myr Enforcer

I choose to bring in Myr Enforcer over Hoverguard because it can be deployed more consistently, is an artifact for Ravager and Disciple, and it is generally better when it can't be blocked. The Hoverguard's flying ability can actually be relevant, however, when they get off their combo but give you one more attack phase. In the end, it is a very close call and you could easily leave Hoverguard in.

Night's Whisper proves to be the wrong thing against KCI. You are playing an extremely short game, and the card drawing just isn't fast enough. The good news is after boarding you have Platings to win quickly and Annul to slow them down so this match up becomes much better.

Versus March of the Machines Decks
There are a few versions of this deck floating around, but they aren't all that popular yet. The main thing you can do is to draw a couple Glimmervoids and get a good set of creatures quickly. It is possible to win if you keep some mana and you have already played most of your spells when they cast March.

Sideboarding:
-4 Welding Jar, -4 Somber Hoverguard
+4 Annul, +4 Myr Enforcer

Conclusion
Beginning to notice a pattern? This deck doesn't have specific sideboarding strategies as much as it boards against particular aspects of your opponent's deck. Do they have a lot of blockers? If so, Hoverguard is good. If not, Enforcer is better. Do they have a lot of artifact removal? If so, Jar is good. If not, another card from the board is better.

The MD5 environment is a bunch of half-decks. Each list is usually just two half-decks combined into a full strategy. When you are playing this Affinity build, your job is to identify the two deck halves your opponent is using, and sideboard appropriately. You must constantly straddle the lines of the build that is best against Green and non-Green decks.

Overall, Affinity represents a risky deck type. Even with this anti-Green build, you still can lose to their best anti-artifact draws. What you get in exchange for this risk is the most consistently powerful deck. No other deck does as many ridiculous things.

You may go down, but at least you'll go down in flames.

Josh Lytle
lytle@hotmail.com