Unique Combo Brew Deals Infinite Damage Turn 3 with Commons

In the world of MTG, there’s no shortage of potent combo kills worth building around. Even in a format like Pauper, with a heavily restricted card pool, players keep finding innovative ways to end the game. In fact, just yesterday, one player boasted a solid tournament run with an unusual Dimir Affinity shell featuring an infinite damage win condition.

Taking Affinity a Step Further

Like most traditional Affinity shells, this Dimir deck constructed by Noooras incorporates a high density of value-generating artifacts and payoffs. Early in the game, cantripping trinkets like Cryogen Relic Cryogen Relic When this artifact enters or leaves the battlefield, draw a card.
{1}{U}, Sacrifice this artifact: Put a stun counter on up to one target tapped creature. (If a permanent with a stun counter would become untapped, remove one from it instead.) and the newly legalized Baleful Strix Baleful Strix Flying, deathtouch
When this creature enters, draw a card. let you build your artifact count at little cost. Then, once in play, these artifacts help reduce the cost of Affinity all-stars like Refurbished Familiar Refurbished Familiar Affinity for artifacts (This spell costs {1} less to cast for each artifact you control.)
Flying
When this creature enters, each opponent discards a card. For each opponent who can't, you draw a card. and Thoughtcast Thoughtcast Affinity for artifacts (This spell costs {1} less to cast for each artifact you control.)
Draw two cards. .

Where this deck gets really unique, however, is with the addition of Vedalken Engineer Vedalken Engineer {T}: Add two mana of any one color. Spend this mana only to cast artifact spells or activate abilities of artifacts. . Naturally, this card helps you accelerate your artifacts while leaving your mana untapped to hold up Eviscerator’s Insight Eviscerator’s Insight As an additional cost to cast this spell, sacrifice an artifact or creature.
Draw two cards.
Flashback {4}{B} (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost and any additional costs. Then exile it.) or Counterspell Counterspell Counter target spell. . You can even funnel Engineer’s mana into activated abilities, making Relic and Blood Fountain even more appealing.

On top of all that utility, Vedalken Engineer also serves as an infinite combo engine. When paired with Sewer-Veillance Cam Sewer-Veillance Cam Flash
When this artifact enters or leaves the battlefield, you may tap or untap target creature.
{3}{U}, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw two cards. and either Banishing Knack Banishing Knack Until end of turn, target creature gains "{T}: Return target nonland permanent to its owner's hand." or Retraction Helix Retraction Helix Until end of turn, target creature gains "{T}: Return target nonland permanent to its owner's hand." , generating infinite mana becomes trivial.

Simply start by targeting Engineer with Knack or Helix, then tap your creature to return Cam to your hand. This will trigger Cam, thus untapping Engineer. From there, tap the Artificer to float two blue mana, and use of it to recast Cam. When Cam reenters, you can untap Engineer, and start the whole process over again.

While this infinite mana can only be spent to cast or activate artifact sources, cashing in Relics and Cams for lots of cards makes it easy to churn through your library. Eventually, after finding Black Mage’s Rod Black Mage’s Rod Job select (When this Equipment enters, create a 1/1 colorless Hero creature token, then attach this to it.)
Equipped creature gets +1/+0, has "Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature deals 1 damage to each opponent," and is a Wizard in addition to its other types.
Equip {3} , you can use your infinite loop to ping your opponent to death.

Tradeoffs

As a whole, this archetype gets its biggest edge from its versatility. Like more traditional Affinity shells, this deck generates tons of value over the course of the game, giving it a shot to out-grind decks like Jund Wildfire or Golgari Gardens. Even though these strategies play a decent number of removal spells for Vedalken Engineer, they don’t apply much early pressure, giving you time to set up Counterspell backup.

At the same time, though, having access to a potentially fast combo draw is a huge luxury against other combo decks like Golgari Spy. Being able to win outside of combat also comes in handy against go-wide decks like Elves, which run little in the way of removal.

Unfortunately, leaning on a relatively flimsy combo over more robust win conditions like Myr Enforcer Myr Enforcer Affinity for artifacts (This spell costs {1} less to cast for each artifact you control.) is a big liability versus Mono-Red Madness. After all, Lava Dart tags every one of your creatures, and its Flashback ability makes it easy for Madness decks to beat counterspells. You don’t even run spot removal like Dispatch Dispatch Tap target creature.
Metalcraft — If you control three or more artifacts, exile that creature. , making a resolved Guttersnipe Guttersnipe Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, this creature deals 2 damage to each opponent. disastrous.

Notably, the Mono-Red Rally matchup isn’t much better, since the deck beats you down early and gives you no time to spin your wheels. Fighting through artifact hate in the interim is near impossible, too.

Given how popular the red decks remain, it’s hard to imagine this Affinity combo variant truly breaking out anytime soon. Still, the combo has value in the right metagame, so it’s certainly worth keeping in mind.

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