With Pro Tour Rivals of Ixalan being the 1st Modern Pro Tour in almost 2 years, I’ve had to essentially learn Modern all over again.

Image Copyright:Wizards of the Coast

I recently played in the Team Unified Modern Grand Prix Madrid 2017 with Andrea Mengucci and Eduardo Sajgalik. They were big fans of Burn and Grixis Shadow respectively, which meant that I needed to find a deck that didn’t conflict with theirs. I ended up settling on Affinity and I found the deck to be quite enjoyable.

Today I’m going to talk about why I chose Affinity, why it was a good deck for me as a player rediscovering Modern, my experience with it at the Grand Prix, and how I feel the deck is positioned after the recent results in Madrid and Oklahoma City.

Why I chose Affinity

As I mentioned earlier, one of the reasons I chose Affinity was because it didn’t conflict with my teammates’ decks. Another reason why I chose it was because it’s one of the most powerful linear strategies in the format.

You have a low curve of creatures and spells that have great synergy. This made the deck feel a lot like playing a draft deck, which made me enjoy it and learn how to play it in time for the event. Andrejs Prost shared his list with me which I tested and eventually played in Grand Prix Madrid 2017:

I was very happy with the list and only found myself questioning the main deck 《Etched Champion》, and the 3rd and 4th 《Galvanic Blast》.

《Etched Champion》 is clearly the worst vs decks that can interact with or don’t need to interact with it, such as Tron, Valakut, Lantern, and the mirror. With all these decks rising in popularity, I think I would definitely replace it with a card like 《Master of Etherium》. However, it’s definitely a great card to have access to in your sb as it’s very important against decks like Abzan, Dredge, and Shadow.

As for the 《Galvanic Blast》, the reason why I only mentioned the 3rd and 4th ones is because I do think the card is good, but sometimes drawing too many can be bad. I found myself mulliganing quite a few double 《Galvanic Blast》 hands because it’s a colored spell that’s not essential to the game plan. Sometimes your opponent stabilizes on 4 or less life and that’s clearly where it’s great to have a card like that to close out games.

I’m still trying to figure out what I could replace them with, but I think maybe a card like 《Thoughtseize》 could find its way into the main deck as it’s great against a lot of the popular decks right now.

I’d also like to mention the fact the 2 《Welding Jar》 as most lists I’ve seen play either 1 or 0. The card massively overperformed for me and it’s one of those cards you always want 1 of in your opening hand, but can’t really afford to play more than 2.

However, the card led to some of the most broken draws the deck can have as it makes it easier for you to turn on a turn 1 《Mox Opal》. Also, being able to protect your 《Steel Overseer》 as it’s a removal spell magnet is huge. I’m fairly convinced for the time being that 2 is definitely where I want to be.

As for the sideboard, I liked everything except the 3rd 《Spell Pierce》. But had to run it over a card like 《Thoughtseize》 or 《Ceremonious Rejection》 due to Team Unified. I also think the deck needed some graveyard hate as well, as I found out that the matchup vs Dredge is not great, which is another deck that has recently been putting up results. So, I’d like a 《Rest in Peace》 over the 3rd 《Spell Pierce》.

With all these changes in mind, I’d highly recommend Patrick Dickmann’s list that he played at GP Madrid to a very solid 11-2-1 finish:

Image Copyright : Wizards of the Coast

His list was almost identical to the one that I played, but addressed the concerns that I experienced. I still like making room for the 《Rule of Law》 to have a card for the Storm matchup, but other than that, I think his list was great.

Going forward though, I’m going to be testing this Affinity list:

I feel that Affinity is definitely one of the better positioned decks at the moment as it has good matchups vs BG/Mono G Tron, Eldrazi Tron, Titan Shift, and Burn.

The other decks like Dredge, Abzan Company/Midrange, Storm, Jeskai Control, Grixis Shadow, and Lantern Control aren’t good matchups, but they’re all either close or slightly unfavorable.

Sideboard Guide

In a format as wide open as Modern, it’s difficult to construct a sideboard guide for each matchup. But I’ll give you some general sideboard tips as well as some in and out for the more popular decks in the format:

General Sideboard Tips:

《Signal Pest》 is not good vs decks with multiple 1/1 flyers, so you actively want to sideboard them out vs decks with《Lingering Souls》 and in the mirror match.

《Steel Overseer》 isn’t good vs decks with 《Stony Silence》 or a lot of spot removal so take out 3-4 vs those decks.

《Welding Jar》 isn’t great vs decks with little to no spot removal.

When in doubt, cut a 《Memnite》.

You generally want to be wary of how many-colored spells you present, as drawing too many can make it difficult to cast all your spells.

You generally want no more than 7-8 colored spells so look to sideboard cards like 《Galvanic Blast》, 《Thoughtseize》, and 《Master of Etherium》 if you plan to bring in colored spells out of the sideboard.

《Wear // Tear》is good against Lantern and Affinity as well as an answer to 《Stony Silence》.

Mirror