While Standard is currently a bit of a garbage fire thanks to Vivi Cauldron, Magic’s other formats are chugging along nicely. Modern actually got a lot of new tools in Edge of Eternities, including some very potent additions to well-established Affinity lists. These newcomers really unlock the deck’s aggressive potential, making it even more explosive than it was before. Interestingly, these new cards have also prompted the return of a long-forgotten artifact, one that most would assume wasn’t even Modern-legal.
This blend of old and new is fascinating to see. More importantly, it also pushes Affinity into a stronger position in the current meta. While Boros Energy and Domain are still on top for now, Affinity is putting in regular results each week. Perhaps these new additions will be the pebbles that set off the avalanche of Affinity’s big Modern comeback.
Modern Affinity Post-Edge Of Eternities
Modern Affinity takes quite a lot from Edge of Eternities, but by far the most surprising addition is Weapons Manufacturing. This looked like a fun novelty build-around on reveal, but in practice, it’s been one of the most successful cards in the set. We’ve seen it show up in Standard, and players are testing it out in Pioneer, too.
In Modern Affinity, Manufacturing essentially doubles your artifacts on board in many cases. The deck plays a ton of zero and one-cost artifacts, all of which give you an extra artifact token on entry with this in play. This is obviously great for discounting your Affinity creatures, and for hedging against artifact sweepers. Your opponent is liable to take a lot of damage if they clear a board of Munitions via Meltdown, for example.
Of course, if you’d rather not wait for your opponent to make that mistake, you can always crack your Munitions yourself. There are a few ways to do so here. You can turn them into 2/2 Fliers with Synthesizer Labship, or sweep them away via Engineered Explosives. The best option, however, is Claws of Gix. This is a bizarre artifact from way back in Urza’s Saga, which serves as a sacrifice outlet for any permanent, including artifacts. For one mana at a time, this turns a board of Munitions into a terrifying machine gun.
Claws is a pretty inefficient outlet, all things considered, but it’s great here because of the other synergy it offers. As a zero-mana artifact, it helps trigger Manufacturing itself and powers your other Affinity plays. It’s also a valid tutor target for both Urza’s Saga and the new Tezzeret, Cruel Captain, which makes it easy to find when you need it.
Reaching The Pinnacle
This new Weapons Manufacturing Package gives Affinity an absurd amount of reach. Every Munitions token you make represents two damage to your opponent’s face in the future, which means your creatures on board don’t need to work as hard as usual. That said, Edge of Eternities also gives Modern Affinity a fantastic tool in this department.
Pinnacle Emissary is pretty much the ideal Affinity card. It’s an artifact creature that can Warp out for a single mana, which then rewards you with more artifacts on board for casting artifacts. Said artifacts are even 1/1 Fliers, which allows for a ton of early aggression. Like Manufacturing, this is a way to easily max out on artifacts for your Affinity/Improvise creatures. Both Thought Monitor and Kappa Cannoneer should be able to come down for one following an Emissary turn.
Speaking of Cannoneer, this card gets a huge glow-up from the new cards added here. Since it triggers whenever any artifact, token or not, enters under your control, it’s possible to make it truly massive with either Manufacturing or Emissary. Unblockable swings around the eight damage mark are totally reasonable here. Factor in Fetch/Shockland damage and a few Munitions tokens, and you’ve got the game locked down.
When you consider the powerful foundation Affinity already had, this new shell looks even scarier. There are some terrifying starts possible here, with a turn-one Cannoneer and a board of 1/1 Fliers more than achievable. Even better, the Manufacturing package gives the deck a ton of late-game reach, which prevents it from being a one-trick wonder.
We mentioned Tezzeret above, but its power here really can’t be overstated. Having four more copies of pretty much every artifact in your deck is huge, and makes an already consistent list much, much more so.
Manufacturing Success
Thanks to these new Edge of Eternities additions, Affinity has really been tearing it up in Modern recently. The list we looked at above came via Sfitz, who went 5-0 in Tuesday’s League, but there are a ton of other examples. There were three other 5-0 Affinity lists in the same League, for example, and a total of five the day before.
This new wave of success is down to a combination of factors. Firstly, the new cards, Pinnacle Emissary in particular, obviously help a ton. Second, because of how the meta looks at the moment. The current Modern metagame is very aggressive and board-focused. Boros Energy, Domain Zoo, and Esper Midrange are the top three decks at the moment, and they all care about establishing early board presence and creature combat.
A deck like Affinity is well-positioned here because it can essentially ignore all of that and go over the top. None of these decks do particularly well against Fliers, so Emissary tokens can mess them up in the early game. Cannoneer is also an unblockable, nigh-unkillable threat, which amplifies this issue. On top of that, being able to win via Munitions damage means Affinity can be played almost like a Combo deck, but one fast enough to compete with Energy and the like.
Affinity’s traditional weakness to artifact hate remains, but the new mass token generators really help shore it up. Since you can rebuild on a turn’s notice, a Meltdown or Wrath of the Skies is less of a death sentence now. I expect Affinity to continue going from strength to strength in Modern in the weeks to come.
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