Alchemy: Edge of Eternities might not be highly anticipated by the entire MTG community, but there’s certainly some strong cards coming out of the set. Between a new, powerful two-card combo, and a white Thoughtseize effect, Alchemy: edge of Eternities offers players a selection of interesting new toys to play with.
Just a few days after release, MTG Arena players are already experiencing the impact of Alchemy: Edge of Eternities in Historic. Despite Mox Opal being banned from the format due to power level concerns, Affinity has discovered a powerful new tool in Drix Interlacer.
Drix Interlacer
The unexpected star for Affinity decks appears to be Drix Interlacer. You need a lot of smaller artifacts in your deck in order to maximize Drix Interlacer, but with lots of zero-mana artifacts, like Ornithopter and Mox Amber, as well as artifact mana rocks that easily replace their mana values, like Springleaf Drum, Drix Interlacer can become a powerful payoff for the Affinity archetype. Just think of your Drix Interlacers as an extra four copies of Thoughtcast, one of the strongest payoffs that Affinity has ever received.
In a successful attempt to show off the power of Drix Interlacer, MTG Arena grinder Nytox created and piloted this list to Mythic #33 on Arena, and other players have used this as a springboard to try similar decks in Historic. The deck offers consistent, powerful starts backed with interaction that can keep up with the rest of the format. After playing it a decent amount myself, this deck felt competitive against various top archetypes like Eldrazi, Auras, and Control.
Adding even further incentive to play Drix Interlacer, this artifact pairs extremely well with Pinnacle Emissary openings, easily getting the card up to four counters. Pinnacle Emissary will create a Drone for each artifact you cast and, since Drix Interlacer cares about artifacts entering, it will essentially get two counters for every artifact you cast.
Having virtually eight copies of Thoughtcast makes Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student a lot stronger in these Affinity shells. It becomes very easy to flip Tamiyo on turn two, and with some sequencing, you can generally flip Tamiyo on the turn you play it. The Clue tokens generated by Tamiyo even give Intensity to Drix Interlacer.
Even as a mediocre topdeck later in the game, Drix Interlacer has its uses. The card can help pay for Metallic Rebuke, help Improvise for Kappa Cannoneer, and add to your Affinity count. All of that, with some clever deckbuilding, you can take Drix Interlacer a lot further.
Taking Advantage of Starting Intensity
More often than not, cards that get a sort of ‘charge’ from other effects like Drix Interlacer are one-use effects, but in this case, Drix Interlacer can be used multiple times thanks to the power of Alchemy mechanics.
When Drix Interlacer changes zones, Starting Intensity does not reset. This allows you to draw an obscene number of cards with the Interlacer if you can find ways to get it back after using it. This makes Emry, Lurker of the Loch a kill on sight card since it will essentially offer a repeatable Ancestral Recall turn after turn, so long as you had a strong opening sequence with a Drix Interlacer.
Emry already slots perfectly into Affinity anyway, and Drix Interlacer gives players an incredible reward for playing it. The card does feel a bit odd in Nytox’s list, however, because if you don’t have a good opening with Drix Interlacer, Emry generally doesn’t do very much. This suggests that there could be even more refinement opportunities in future Historic Affinity lists. Adding White for Portable Hole, for example, should be supportable with Historic’s resources.
How it Performs
After playing some games with this Affinity list, I would say the deck is reasonably well-positioned in the current metagame. Many opponents have no real way of dealing with Kappa Cannoneer, which gives you a strong matchup against any creature-based strategies, like Eldrazi and Dimir Frog decks.
Your best matchups are against noninteractive decks that don’t have incredibly fast clocks. Here, you can simply resolve an Emry, Lurker of the Loch and draw a ton of cards with Drix Interlacer. This sets up a fast clock with Kappa Cannoneer, and grants lots of counterspell disruption. For this reason, Mono Green Nykthos is potentially the best matchup for Affinity, even with Karn, the Great Creator in the deck. Lotus Breach might be a bit trickier since they can outspeed you if you don’t have interaction, but this matchup should feel even in theory.
Really, the only problematic matchup appears to be Auras. You can have draws where you keep your opponent’s creatures at bay, but both of your clocks are rather comparable, and Auras will win a race thanks to obscene amounts of Lifelink. This forces Affinity to answer what Auras is doing, and makes a lot of the early advantage they get somewhat meaningless. The deck can also struggle against opponents who have answers to Kappa Cannoneer. Uncounterable removal spells and sacrifice effects can remove your win condition, making it much more difficult to get over the finish line. This allows some matchups, like Izzet Wizards, to get much more difficult post-board.
Overall, Drix Interlacer Affinity seems like a very competitive deck that should be able to win a majority of your Historic games, provided that you can sequence your opening plays optimally. Drix Interlacer is an incredibly powerful artifact in the deck, and may even empower the Affinity archetype in formats beyond Historic in the future.
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