Much Abrew: Pinnacle Affinity (Modern)
Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of Much Abrew About Nothing! This week, we're heading to Modern to play one of the format's oldest archetypes but with a massive Edge of Eternities twist: Pinnacle Affinity! How busted is Pinnacle Emissary in Modern, backed by a ton of free artifacts and Affinity payoffs? Let's get to the video and find out; then, we'll talk more about the deck!
Much Abrew: Pinnacle Affinity
Discussion
- Record-wise, we technically went 4-2 with the deck. We went 3-2 in a league, but one of the matches was lost due to a technical issue, so I started a second league and won the first match, giving us a 4-2 record overall.
- Record aside, Pinnacle Emissary is hilariously busted in Affinity. The main goal of the deck is to warp a Pinnacle Emissary on Turn 1 and then follow it up by playing as many free artifacts as possible, like Memnite, Ornithopter, Mishra's Bauble, Mox Opal, Tormod's Crypt, and Springleaf Drum. Each artifact we cast will come along with a kicker of a 1/1 flying Drone artifact creature token. Making a few 1/1 fliers might not sound all that exciting in a format as powerful as Modern, and in some ways, it isn't. We aren't likely to literally win the game by attacking with Drones, but they are incredibly helpful in powering up our finishers.
- The true power of Pinnacle Emissary is that every artifact we cast with it on the battlefield makes another artifact, making it one of the most powerful affinity enablers we've ever seen. The Drones not only chip in for some damage but also quickly turn on cards like Thoughtcast and Thought Monitor to help us draw even more artifacts, as well as Metallic Rebuke as a cheap counterspell.
- The Drones also turn on our finishers Kappa Cannoneer and Cranial Plating. Technically, we can play Kappa Cannoneer as early as Turn 1, although Turn 2 is more likely. And a Turn 2 Kappa Cannoneer is almost unbeatable for most decks. Ward 4 makes it almost impossible to kill with targeted removal, and growing and becoming unblockable whenever we play another artifact mean that Kappa Cannoneer typically kills our opponent in just a couple of attacks. Meanwhile, Cranial Plating has mostly been cut from Modern Affinity, but it works so well with the Drones that it is back. The equipment's ability to pump a creature equal to the number of artifacts we control turns any random Drone into a massive, potentially game-ending threat!
- And that's basically the deck. My biggest piece of advice if you decide to pick up Pinnacle Affinity is to mulligan aggressively. The deck really wants to get off to explosive starts. The best involve Pinnacle Emissary and Mox Opal, but anything that lets us dump our hand and then refill with something like Thought Monitor or Thoughtcast is also fine. Just don't keep a hand full of a bunch of expensive affinity cards but not enough cheap artifacts to actually get them onto the battlefield.
- So, should you play Pinnacle Affinity in Modern? I think the answer is yes! We'll have to see how much staying power the deck's new build has—Simulacrum Synthesizer was also super hyped in Modern when it was first released but pretty quickly faded away—but I think it has legs. Being able to warp it for just single mana is incredibly explosive. If you are an Affinity fan or just like incredible Turn 1s, give the deck a shot! It's a blast!
Conclusion
Anyway, that's all for today. As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com
