When the original Mirrodin block was released, letting lose Frogmite and Arcbound Ravager to the world, it represented a shift in what artifact decks were capable of.

Most artifact decks up until that point were interested in making tons of mana or being some sort of broken combo or prison deck, but when Affinity was born it showed that artifacts could beat down too! A dominant deck in Standard, Block Constructed, Extended, and eventually Modern back in the day, Affinity has fallen a bit by the wayside in recent years, but it was so ubiquitous that we now refer to almost any aggressive artifact deck as "Affinity," whether it has actual Affinity cards or not.

Which brings us to today's Explorer brew!

Time Stamps:

02:29 - Match 1

23:15 - Match 2

40:48 - Match 3

Boros Artifact Blitz | Explorer | @ScouterTF2

• Companion (1)
• 1 Jegantha, the Wellspring

• Creatures (23)
• 3 Steel Seraph
• 4 Bomat Courier
• 4 Gingerbrute
• 4 Ingenious Smith
• 4 Ornithopter
• 4 Patchwork Automaton

• Enchantments] (8)
• 2 All That Glitters
• 2 Yotia Declares War
• 4 Michiko's Reign of Truth // Portrait of Michiko

• Artifacts (9)
• 1 Shadowspear
• 4 Portable Hole
• 4 Springleaf Drum

• Lands (20)
• 1 Plains
• 1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 2 Roadside Reliquary
• 4 Battlefield Forge
• 4 Inspiring Vantage
• 4 Mutavault
• 4 Needleverge Pathway // Pillarverge Pathway

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Rest in Peace
• 3 Glass Casket
• 1 Jegantha, the Wellspring
• 4 Showdown of the Skalds
• 2 Destroy Evil
• 2 Rending Volley

Buy This Deck Export text format Export Arena format

This deck was original played to the Top 8 of a Pioneer challenge on Magic Online by player ScouterTF2, but it almost completely translates into Explorer on MTG Arena so I made some slight changes and we're off to the races.

While it's amusing that the most powerful payoff in the artifact deck is the enchantment Michiko's Reign of Truth // Portrait of Michiko, it's not so funny when your opponent dies on turn four. This deck has a lot of cheap and small enablers that power up the good stuff like Reign of Truth, Patchwork Automaton, and All That Glitters, while also dipping into the new Steel Seraph for some top end that can grand evasion or lifelink as needed.

These games could have gone a little better, but the person who cracks the artifact aggro code in Explorer/Pioneer will be well rewarded because there's a ton of potential in the archetype!