After talking about some great Magic memories and trying my hand at a Grand Prix, it’s time to return to the world of Pauper. We’re continuing our journey through the land of metal and artifice to talk about different variations of Pauper Affinity! You may remember a few weeks ago, I went over a slight overview of the archetype. If you’ve followed my prior Pauper primers over the last few months, you might recall that my second piece talks about various card options you can utilize in the archetype. Talking about Affinity, however, is a little different.

The thing with Affinity is that the core is very tight and doesn’t have a whole lot of room to adjust. The deck always needs at least 16 artifact lands (with some lists going higher) and playsets of Springleaf Drum, Prophetic Prism, and Chromatic Star to fix your mana. It also runs four of both Frogmite and Myr Enforcer for strong quick Affinity creatures, four Carapace Forger for more cheap 4/4s, and a set of Atogs as a finisher. And virtually every build rocks four Thoughtcast and four Galvanic Blast to give the list some amount of play. Do you see the problem here? That’s 52 total cards, leaving a meager eight cards for flex slots. Those are often filled by cards like Flayer Husk or Fling that are generally standard but have been known to be left out, lessening possibilities.

You do see different kinds of lists from time to time. While the deck I referred to last time is more current and puts the focus more heavily on the aggressive strategy, some decks opt for different plays. Consider the list that was featured in this past week’s Pauper Gauntlet (the official overview is great, for the record, despite the Tron list being awful and the Dimir list being a weird amalgam of Alchemy and Teachings builds) which featured an old package of Perilous Research and Ichor Wellspring.

Affinity (Pauper Gauntlet)

This kind of list has fallen out of favor. For one, you’ll notice it uses fewer Prophetic Prisms in favor of the Ichor Wellsprings, which hurts your mana efficiency in favor of working towards drawing more gas. Not only do you get to use Perilous Research to sacrifice the Wellsprings for extra cards but you can sacrifice them to Atog in a pinch. While the list is solid at showing off the format—which is the goal of the Gauntlet—it’s a bit less consistent on the whole. Yes you can draw more power cards, but Affinity already has enough mana problems without weakening its ability to fix your colors.

Looking at the list from the last article, you’ll notice the addition of another card in the form of Metallic Rebuke. This card has been showing up in lists to give Affinity a little more interaction against decks that would seek to stop the deck from taking its victory lap. It helps clinch wins when you’re using Atog to ensure your Flings and Temur Battle Rages connect without getting blown out by one well-placed counterspell. Speaking of, Temur Battle Rage is also a fairly recent addition to the deck, allowing you to get in your damage without having to lose your Atog. It’s still good to have a split between the two in the event your opponent has maindeck Fog effects like Moment’s Peace in Tron.

What about something completely different, though? What would Affinity look like if it were able to use a similar package but put its focus in a slightly different direction. Can you get a list that seems comparable to the functionality of the Mirrodin-era Raffinity of yesteryear?

Grixis Affinity (Pauper League 2/9/2016 5-0)

I mentioned Grixis Affinity in my last article and felt it worth bringing up. While the deck is arguably less strong than the standard list that sees active play these days, it’s still a force to be reckoned with and can catch unsuspecting opponents off guard. You might notice that this list is from 2016 and is as such a bit dated. This was prior to the release of sets like Kaladesh and Aether Revolt which introduced Reckless Fireweaver to give the deck a little redundancy if you’re unable to put together the Disciple-sacrifice package. While I was unable to find a more recent list, this should give you a focused look at where you should start as far as how to build the deck should you opt to try out this variation.

There’s others still, like the Mono-White Metalcraft deck which, while different, occasionally gets lumped in as being similar to Affinity as an artifact-focused aggro deck. The deck dumps out smaller creatures like Ardent Recruit and Court Homunculus that get bigger as the game goes on, making it like an artifact based Stompy build in a sense. You also get access to cards like Auriok Sunchaser and Vault Skirge for some evasion, and others still like Tooth of Chiss-Goria to use the classic Affinity for Artifacts mechanic to generate extra damage.

As you can tell, there’s numerous flavors of Affinity and lots of ways to play the deck. Which is your favorite? How best do you prefer to use one of the strongest and most iconic mechanics in Magic’s vast 25 years? Next week I’ll be back to talk about sideboard options and how to utilize them against your opponent for different matchups. Until then, may your Atog sacrifice math always be perfect!

Kendra has been playing Magic since Urza block and never looked back. Playing a variety of formats and being known for championing Pauper in particular, the Elf Queen can be found hanging out on Twitter as well as streaming on Twitch, always seeking to better the community at large.