Affinity, Eldrazi, Modern.

Hello all, welcome to this article. It's all about my love affair with Affinity.

First though, Eldrazi. They're everywhere, and trouble. Let's compare to Affinity, in every way. We'll be focusing specifically on PT OGW, which featured only 2 decks in the Top 8: Affinity (2 decks) and Eldrazi (the remaining 6).

Both are colorless, more or less. There is the blue/red Eldrazi deck, but by far and large the deck doesn't choke on it's mana very often. This is a huge benefit to both decks, as color screw is a smaller issue than it would be for something like Naya beatdown. Not that it's hard to fix colours in Naya beatdown, but having to pay 6 life for it leaves you at 14 by turn 2, is your aggro really worth that much self inflicted damage?

Both are aggressive as hell. Not that you build a 3/3 on the cheap then smash, but rather there's a huge presence all of a sudden, and we see monsters from nowhere. With Eldrazi this is more subtle, as it can spit out 2/2s and 2/1s for a few turns, then make a 4/4 that Better-than-Thoughtseize's you, but both do the same thing. Affinity can dump it's whole hand on turn 1 if it's really lucky, but that's just the speed of the format for you.

Both are like psuedo ramp decks. If they draw too much mana, but not enough "action cards" they flounder about the place. Every deck can do this, but there's nothing so upsetting as having 2 Springleaf Drums, a Mox Opal, another in hand, and a Darksteel Citadel supporting a lonesome Ornithopter. Ditto Eldrazi without an Eye of Ugin.

Both are resilient. Affinity can make a 5/5 Infect flier out of nowhere and suddenly you're on a one turn clock. Eldrazai have a 5/5 trample haste that's punishing to deal with.

One advantage Affinity has over Eldrazi is the lifegain from Vault Skirge. If Affinity can make a sizeable VS and give it a Cranial Plating they're in a better position to steady the board, and racing becomes a great idea.

Where Eldrazi have a hand over Affinity is the benefits the creatures come with. Haste is huge, Thought-Knot Seer is ridiculous (exile, no life loss, Thoughtsieze's range), a two mana "huge/huge" anyway. Eldrazi have their power up-front, while Affinity need to work at it.

I haven't played the Eldrazi deck myself, but I've played against it plenty online, and watched the coverage from PT OGW. Apart from being a great event (I love me some Magic coverage) it really show cased great plays. My favourite play was by Frank Karsten in a feature match, against Infect. Fearing a Viridian Corrupter (ETB kill your Artifact) he played a Blinkmoth and passed the turn. His other permanents were a Glimmervoid and Springleaf Drum.

It's subtle, but beautiful. If the Corrupter blows up the Springleaf Drum, there goes the Glimmervoid too, and the game. With an Inkmoth out (either manland would do) if the Corrupter play happens Karsten can tap either land to activate Nexus, keeping an Artifact around, then again next turn using the other land. It's risky, it gives up playing a load of Artifacts anyway, but the play was very aware of it's opponent's capabilities, respected them and played toward it. That's top level stuff and no what you'd expect to hear when people discuss their favourite plays from a Pro Tour.

Let's Ban It Already!

Now let's talk about the banning, because everyone knows there' something coming. If Eldrazi and Affinity seem so similar though, is it possible both could see a banning? I don't think so, but let's discuss it.

Eldrazi's biggest cheat is having 2 lands that make 2 mana. Eye of Ugin is super cheap cheatiness early on, with free 2/1s who're often 4/4 ot 5/5, and free 2/2s or bigger via Endless One. Eldrazi Temple is the least offensive of the cards, seeing it only gives you CC once a turn, but Eye of Ugin does it once-per-card. Easily the bigger offender, right?

The issue with selecting Eye of Ugin over Eldrazi Temple is that it unfairly nerfs UrzaTron at the same time (and where was THAT at the PT?). If you go ahead and ban the card it stops the "dump your hand" aspect of Eldrazi as well as stopping turn 2 Thought-Knot. While it provides the same gritty opening turns as Thoughtseize it really doesn't feel fair when it comes with a 4/4 attached. Sure you get a card if you kill the 4/4, but you know what it does? Takes the removal in your hand when it shows up!

I feel as though Eldrazi would still be fine with Eldrazi Temple as it's only 4 mana card, seeing it can play multiples and still have the occasionally bonkers turn. Nothing wrong with the opponent getting a great hand, but not when it comes with the consistency of 8 such lands.

The advantage to banning Temple over Eye dodges around harming an innocent bystander, leaving UrzaTron with it's favourite Legendary Land, but I think in this case it's better for the entire format to not have such an obvious best deck, even if two decks get clipped from the one banning. So my vote would be to acknowledge the hit to UrzaTron (sorry!) but ban Eye of Ugin.

Looking at Affinity, who was the only deck that looked fight to really even stand up against Eldrazi, I don't see a need to ban anything. The great thing about the deck is that it's already got three huge angles to attack it.

First, the deck is full of creatures. They're easy to kill, with Bolt, Path to Exile, Dismember, etc. Second, it's full of Artifacts. I think there's an Artifact wrath for every colour, or close to, or even multiples. Second, plenty of the creatures start off with only 1 toughness. Ravager, Vault Skirge, Signal Pest, Steel Overseer, you get the point -- you're at no end of answers to the deck, and none of the creatures are rewarding the Affinity player with a Thoughtseize or better for simply playing it. You can see the explosive Ravager turns, where everyone gets eaten on to a unfair duo of attackers, with BB open so there isn't a safe block, but the Affinity player has to put so much more work into getting that keen edge on their game, it's easily far more work.

If I think the deck has enough angles of weakness then let's look at the mana, seeing that's where I identified Eldrazi's biggest issue. Mox Opal is the only real double mana for the deck, being an artifact, costing 0 and providing mana. Even that isn't gaurenteed because you need Metalcraft. The second fast mana I can think of is Springleaf Drum, providing a mana as soon as it shows up, but only if you have a creature you don't want to attack with. That's two cards as well, sure, and one of them Legendary while the other not, yes, but both of them need other cards to work. Mox Opal without two other Artifacts does nothing but buff your Metalcraft, and Springleaf Drum without a creature is a Darksteel Relic without indestructible. Both are spells, and give the opponent a chance to counter them. I don't feel like you could attack Affinity for it's mana, nor it's cards, when considering where to ban things.

So where does that leave things? To be honest, I don't think any immediate action is needed. The Eldrazi menace is real, and here, and EVERYONE knows about it. That means we can adopt, either building our decks toward beating the deck, or switching to the deck ourselves. Suddenly a "4/4" becomes to norm for turn 2 plays, and Lightning Bolt is out of a job (that's gotta be scary for WOTC). Given time, and a few GPs, we'll see how people build your decks that win around it. If the deck is just too strong and it's not possible to build a way to interact with it, then action is required, and some kind of banning. How long is long enough to determine Eldrazi are worse for the format then not? I think that's a gauge for Wizards to decide for themselves, but it obviously needs listening to the social media out there, as well as tournament results. If Wizards made changes because people complained about a card they'd never print another set again -- every card has been complained about at some point guaranteed.

If we saw an event with 8 Eldrazi's in the Top 8, or over 50% in the Top 16, that's when warning flags go flying up and Wizards needs to perhaps exercise an emergency banning. I don't think anyone would want that, but it's better than leaving the Modern format with it's first genuine Rav-inity Mirrodin Standard. Ditto goes for seeing perhaps a similar mix of nothing but aggro, or a lopsided Top 8 like Eldrazi v Affinity as we saw in PT OGW. Likewise, if there IS a range of decks but they're all very heavily geared toward Eldrazi hate, we see a warping of the format that no one likes.

Compare that to the format without Eldrazi, with Splinter Twin again. I'm not about to say the deck is a missing hero at the moment, I never played it much myself nor against it, but it certainly was slower, and a poster child for the "Turn 4 kill" that Modern is aiming towards. Eldrazi is threatening to knock Thoughtseize and Lightning Bolt out of a job, and the only deck that's Top 8'd alongside is known as the best Game 1 deck in the format.

I'm all for shake up, and PT OGW was plenty of that, but not without a very measured and reasonable response afterward. I have no doubt Wizards have their finger on the pulse, but each voice out there helps provide a point of view, or give more volume to all the others, so that's why I'm posting my point of view here.

Now then, to "eat all my Artifacts and dump them onto an unblockable Signal Pest" (or to summarise, what evs):

I wouldn't ban anything yet, I'd give the format a chance to react, absorb and respond to the Eldrazi menace. If problems persist, THEN we've got an issue that needs addressing. This "wait and see" approach may seem unfair, if people are going to spend money buying into Eldrazi, only to be told very quickly afterwards the deck's no longer so playable, but that's just peanuts to the whole format, and all the decks that people like to play. Imagine you really like Merfolk, but just knew how poorly the deck played? You're already a Tier 2 deck, but against Eldrazi? It's almost like they're got their own Tier, Tier E.

What's Next for Fox Murdoch?

Oh right, me. Well I'm flying down to Melbourne for GP Melbourne, and it's going to be great. I have the deck, am a dedicated Affinity fan, would probably get a tattoo if I was into that, and suggest nothing but Daft Punk while you practice. I wouldn't fault anyone for playing Eldrazi, but I really hope people get behind their decks and look for ways to deal with the Eldrazi, keeping the format from warping horribly.

See you there!
Fox Murdoch.