I just finished up what was going to be my first article for StarCityGames.com. It was an in-depth analysis of the post rotation field in Standard. It showed which decks lose the most, and which decks would survive the rotation without being touched. It added in a few Champions cards that can be added in to the remaining decks to make them stronger. I knew it would be a crowd-pleaser. I submitted my article last Thursday only to find that on Friday, Piemaster had beat me to the punch. After going through the first four traumatic emotions, I hit the fifth: acceptance. I realized that all joy in life was not lost, and I could write another article! Problem is, what would I write about? I wanted to do something new, exciting, innovative and different. That's when it occurred to me - I should write an article on Affinity!
So maybe it wasn't quite like that and yes, I understand that Affinity is like Ken Jennings - They both keep on winning and everyone hates them. Speaking of which, do you think Jeopardy is fixed so Ken will win to improve their ratings?... they have tripled. [Ooo, sounds very Quiz Show-esque. Where's Turturro when you need him? - Knut] Anyway, this is a different kind of Affinity. I have not seen anyone play it ever before. Surely some people have probably tried it, but it is not something that most people have tried out. Are you excited yet? What will I have done with Standard's pet aggro deck? Feast your eyes upon...
Fecundaffinity:
Creatures:
4 Disciple of the Vault
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Myr Servitor
4 Frogmite
3 Ornithopter
2 Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer
Spells:
3 Shrapnel Blast
4 Genesis Chamber
4 Fecundity
2 Spawning Pit
3 Chromatic Sphere
3 Night's Whisper
Lands:
4 Glimmervoid
4 Tree of Tales
4 Great Furnace
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Darksteel Citadel
-A sideboard is not listed, as this deck is to be for the post rotation Standard. New decks will develop, decks will evolve, and decks will cease to be Standard legal. For this reason, testing games were played without sideboards.
There it is, in all it's glory. The first thing you are probably wondering is where are the Myr Enforcers and/or Somber Hoverguards. Next, you probably want to know what's up with Spawning Pit. Don't worry, all questions such as these will be answered soon.
The first thing to note about this deck is that it is not as fast as the traditional Affinity decks which have dominated Type Two for half a year now. It relies on a steady application of pressure rather than a rush of power to win the game. This steady pressure teams up with staying power not seen since our beloved mistake, I mean Skullclamp, left the format. This deck still has the early rush of creatures, but it is backed up with an interesting group of cards. The most powerful of these are Genesis Chamber and Fecundity. Having either one of these cards in play gives the Affinity player numerous situations throughout a game where he or she can obtain card advantage. With both of these cards out together though, Affinity practically cannot lose. Again, this deck is designed not to be the turn 4-5 kill Affinity, but rather an Affinity with staying power after a board sweeping effect. There are some obvious cards that represent the staying power of the deck, such as:
Genesis Chamber
The Chamber is perhaps the best turn 2 play this deck can produce. If your opening hand has a Chamber and a free creature, such as an Ornithopter, hold it until turn 2 when the Chamber comes down. The other highlight of the Chamber is its synergy with this deck as a whole. It works well with a few other deck defining cards, such as
Spawning Pit
Spawning Pit is a card that I found when testing either wins the game or just sits there - hence only two copies are in the deck. Lets have a look at some of the things the Pit does. First, with a Genesis Chamber out, it turns every creature you control into a 2/2 when it dies provided you sacrifice the Myr token. This provides a strong defense against spot removal such as Electrostatic Bolt, and against mass removal like Wrath of God. With four creatures out, when the opponent casts Wrath of God, you will still have a pair of creatures ready to attack next turn. Second, the Pit produces a sacrificing outlet. While it's not a good idea to throw two creatures away for one 2/2, it is very strong with Fecundity out. Then, when you create Spawns from the pit, you can sacrifice them as needed to draw more cards off of Fecundity. I don't think I even have to describe what this is like when there are two Fecundities out, or a Disciple on the board.
Fecundity
Ah yes, the card for which the deck is named. Fecundity is my replacement for Skullclamp. Is it as good? No, not even close. But let's see what the Fecundity will do for the deck. As mentioned above, with a sacrificing outlet, it will give you the opportunity to draw three, four, or thirteen cards in a turn! (Actual results may vary.) Originally, I didn't add Fecundity as a combo for Ravager/Spawning Pit/Slobad. I actually didn't run the Genesis Chamber and Spawning Pit, or even Slobad until I realized how well the worked with a Fecundity. At first, I simply ran the traditional Affinity, but replaced Thoughtcasts for Fecundities because I wanted to see how the card could give Affinity a better midgame. In short, I wanted my opponent to Wrath of God, giving me three or four cards in hand like Skullclamp once did. Fecundity proved to be a strong addition, and giving the deck the engine-like nature came soon after.
Night's Whisper
Thoughtcast is Affinity's way of drawing more threats to reinforce pressure on the opponent. Since Fecundaffinity runs Green, a color had to be cut. Red provided Shrapnel Blast and Slobad, two cards which fit well into the nature of the deck, so Blue got the axe. Night's Whisper, as seen already in many builds of Affinity, is in mine as well.
Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer
Slobad's most useful ability is to sacrifice artifact creatures when you have out Fecundity. That whole indestructible thing comes quite in handy as well.
Myr Servitor
This little guy replaced the Arcbound Workers after I added in Spawning Pits, Slobads, and Genesis Chambers. At the end of the opponent's turn, provided you have out two of these little toys, you can Shrapnel Blast or sacrifice one of them to an Arcbound Ravager, or Spawning Pit, only to get it back next turn. Like every other interaction with this deck, this is even better with Fecundity out.
So how does it play against the field?
With Champions soon to be released, it was difficult to determine which decks would make up the field. I talked one of my most reliable playtest partner, Ed Pfender, and we agreed that DC Green, Tooth and Nail, and U/W Control could each only get stronger... and so, the testing began...
vs. DC Green:
DC Green is in my opinion going to be a strong contender after the upcoming rotation. It loses very little and so far, out of the few Champions cards we have seen, it gains quite a bit. Affinity has traditionally had about an even match with DC Green unless the DC Green player is maindecking too much hate. When I say too much, I mean so much that it hinders his performance against the rest of the field. Anyway, we found out one thing for sure in this matchup: Fecundity wins games. The one-for-one nature of DC Green is hindered by Fecundity, giving the Affinity player an endless river of cards flowing to his or her hand. Though still affective, Death Cloud loses a lot of it's"reset" power thanks to Fecundity. Much like Skullclamp, in pairs it wins games, as it does in this matchup. Another notable finding though, was that without Fecundity, the match was not nearly as favorable for Affinity, as DC Green is traditionally designed to destroy it.
Out of 25 games, Affinity took 15, making the match 60/40 in favor of Affinity. We did not play with sideboard however, because of the upcoming rotations, but I suspect the match will probably just slightly favor DC Green after boarding.
vs. Tooth and Nail:
We tested with our own Tooth and Nail, a G/W version. It plays out like G/W Control, but it runs Tooth. I think it is strong and probably underestimated. Wrath of God gives it an obvious boost in control, but so does Pulse of the Fields, which is very strong against a traditional Affinity build.
This match, much like the DC Green match, is highly dependent on Fecundity, as our Tooth deck, like most, had no way to destroy it outside of the Oblivion Stone. The early rush won a few games the way Affinity normally does. Other games were made nearly impossible to win thanks to a turn 3 Fecundity, making Wrath very inefficient. However, when the early rush did not win the game, and Fecundity was not in play, the games were more interesting.
Slobad and Spawning Pit also had very useful roles in this match. One game in particular, I had gone first and by the time Ed could Wrath, I had out a Slobad, Arcbound Ravager, an Ornithopter and Fecundity. His Wrath of God would have allowed me to keep the Ravager and lose Slobad and Ornithopter, drawing two cards. The point is, Slobad allows you to keep threats on the board. Suppose the Slobad was a Spawning Pit. In this case, though not as strong, I still would have drawn two cards and been able to create a 2/2 to replace the deceased Ravager and Ornithopter. This is why I think Fecundaffinity can revolutionize the field. It provides staying power. The last card to do that was Skullclamp and it is banned in most formats now.
Out of 25 games, Affinity took an impressive 18 games, giving it a 72% / 28% match percentage. I think this match - like DC Green - does not improve for Affinity after boarding. Even if Fecundaffinity ran Blue instead of Red, it still would not be an improvment, as Tooth and Nail gets a new land in Champions which makes sorceries uncounterable, rendering Mana Leak useless.
vs. U/W Control:
Our U/W Control had a few proxies. First, we used Reciprocate in the deck. Some people are considering it the new Swords. Now, you and I know this is not quite true, but Reciprocate is strong nonetheless. Also, we used the new impulse-like card, Peer Through Depths. It lets you look at the top 5 cards, and choose an instant or sorcery and put it into your hand just for a Blue and a colorless. Finally, we used the new counterspell, Hinder. Hinder costs two Blue and one colorless mana. It counters a spell and puts it on top or on the bottom of the library, what ever Hinders controller chooses. Note that he did not use any Onslaught block cards in his deck.
This match, though normally a more favorable match for Affinity, was not very promising in our testing. This match is where we learned what made Skullclamp so good. It was not drawing two cards instead of one, or that ultra-cheap equip cost. Skullclamp was strong because it could sneak into the game under countermagic on turn 1. Fecundity seemed to be Mana Leaked or Hindered every time I tried to cast it. Let's not forget either, that Ed was packing three maindecked Annuls. Almost every time Wrath of God was cast, it was as efficient as it was meant to be.
Reciprocate was a problem card as well. Though a Reciprocated creature could hit once, that was it, and if I didn't have out a Ravager or Spawning Pit to replace it, it was always a huge loss of tempo. Another problem card for Fecundaffinity was Pulse of the Fields. Even burning myself to get around it, he only needed to cast it once or twice to be safe. If Pristine Angel hit, the game was all over. The matches that I did manage to win were won primarily because I was able to lure him into countering a Disciple (probably because he did not have Wrath in hand) or because he did not have a counterspell in hand, allowing me to cast Fecundity.
Affinity managed to win only 9 games in this match, which is a 36% win percentage, versus 64% taken by U/W Control. Unfortunately, like most deck's I think U/W can only get stronger after SB.
Hopefully no one will have beaten me to the punch this time with such a dynamic decklist. I hope I got the gears up there spinning a little, and I hope you enjoyed the article. This one was far more informative than I like to be. I'd rather have some humor in an article, but there's not much room for it here. Next week I will write a little somethin-somethin' about the prerelease. As anyone who has played the game for more than three years/knows the rules/isn't mentally defiecient can tell you, prereleases are usually hilarious.
Thanks for your time! See ya next week.
-Pat Hepner
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