Magic Mechanics Overview: Affinity

Posted on September 20, 2024

If you were to take a snapshot of the affinity mechanic at the time it was released, you might think it was the most broken mechanic ever printed.

And you might have been right. It was for a good while. In fact all five of the artifact lands (Ancient Den, Great Furnace, Seat of the Synod, Tree of Tales, Vault of Whispers) are still banned in Modern, in part because of the strength of their interactions with the affinity mechanic.

Magic as a game has always had an issue with spells and abilities that reduce costs or make spells free. This was the exact purpose of affinity.

In 2003, Mirrodin was released and with it came the affinity mechanic. This mechanic said "This spell costs {1} less to cast for each artifact you control." So clearly the strategy was to play a bunch of cheap zero- to one-mana artifacts, then plop down the biggest creatures with affinity you could find.

The biggest creature in Mirrodin with affinity was often Broodstar and he saw some play in the very beginning. But players quickly streamlined their decks, and it became not so much about the size of the creatures, but the quantity.

Collecting all of the smaller, efficient creatures, like Somber Hoverguard, Myr Enforcer, and Frogmite became the goal, and they were shockingly easy to deploy with a couple of artifact lands or zero-mana artifacts.

Affinity | Standard | Kai Budde, 2nd place Grand Prix Brussels

Instants (2)
2 Thirst for Knowledge

Sorceries (7)
3 Shrapnel Blast
4 Thoughtcast

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Eventually, Darksteel released and Affinity as a deck became the deck to beat. Powered by cards like Arcbound Ravager and Disciple of the Vault, the deck would sacrifice all of its cheaply-played artifacts to the Ravager, dealing damage from the Disciple with each one, then attack with a huge creature. The deck was so prevalent that other decks in the format were running four copies of cards like Molder Slug and Oxidize in the main deck because there would be six to eight copies of Affinity in most Top 8s.

Additionally, Creatures weren't the only cards with affinity Scale of Chiss-Goria and Tooth of Chiss-Goria were both artifacts with affinity; Thoughtcast was a heavily-played sorcery with affinity that often drew two cards for one mana; and then we had instants, such as Blinkmoth Infusion and Assert Authority.

Later on, affinity would grow out of solely being an artifact-based mechanic, and "affinity for artifacts" would branch out into "affinity for tokens" on Junk Winder in Modern Horizons 2. We'd then eventually see affinity in a ton of different varieties, that weren't just limited to card types:

Omniclown Colossus, affinity for clowns (Unfinity)

Urza, Chief Artificer, affinity for artifact creatures (Brother's War Commander)

Goldwarden's Gambit, affinity for equipment (Phyrexia: All Will Be One Commander)

Banquet Guests, affinity for food (Tales of Middle-earth Commander)

Banish to Another Universe, affinity for historic permanents (Doctor Who)

The Dalek Emperor, affinity for Daleks (Doctor Who)

Tomik, Wielder of Law, affinity for planeswalkers (Murders at Karlov Manor)

Hellspur Brute, affinity for outlaws (Outlaws of Thunder Junction)

Pearl-Ear, Imperial Advisor, grants affinity for auras (Modern Horizons 3)

This might be one of the best parts of the affinity mechanic. When it was first released, it was entirely focused on artifacts, and premiered in Mirrodin, the artifact set. But the way they worded the mechanic, "affinity for artifacts," rather than just calling it "affinity," left the door open to give affinity for any card type or subtype. Comically, after Mirrodin's initial release in 2003, they didn't print another affinity card for 18 years, until 2021. I imagine the prevalence of Affinity decks in both Standard and Modern must've put the fear in them.

Affinity is another one of those rare abilities that was never fully revisited. There have been cards with affinity added here or there - Plated Onslaught in Phyrexia: All Will Be One; Nahiri, Forged in Fury in March of the Machine: The Aftermath; Banquet Guests in Tales of Middle-earth; and a good number sprinkled into Modern Horizons sets - but the mechanic never had another full set devoted to it. In fact, there are only 45 cards in total that have or reference the affinity mechanic. Compare that to something like flashback, where there are over 190 cards with the ability.

Will we ever set another set fully devoted to affinity? It seems unlikely. It doesn't seem safe to have an entire set revolve around a mechanic that reduces the cost of abilities, but it's still fun to see the ability pop up from time to time, and I'm glad they started that trend.

Frank Lepore

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