Affinity (ikky905) Masters - AKA: Factionless

Changelog
- 2023/04/16: -1 Caiphus, Wandering King, +1 Crystalline Wanderer: Crystalline Wanderer is a better Wasteland Broker, and a better Caiphus, Wandering King, when we have Grand Suppressor on the battlefield.

Affinity

I pilot this deck to top masters, and stay under top 50 every season.

This deck was inspired by the Modern format Affinity deck from Magic The Gathering.
In Eternal a more fitting name for it is 'Factionless'.
This is currently edition 6.0 of this deck; for more information regarding the history and changes please refer to my reddit post with the same name as this deck. Within that post we will also deep dive this deck a lot more. Here on Eternal Warcry I will detail decision trees, gameplay, and how to pilot this deck for maximum success. For theories and philosophies behind the card selections -again- refer to the reddit post HERE.

Thank you


MAINBOARD

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Horus Traver: Horus traver is our color enabler. We typically tutor him up with Traver's Farm. This card is a non-bo with Prism Golem. In an opener with both of these cards it will depend on the matchup whether it is correct to play Horus Traver on t1, or to hold so that your Prism Golem remains a 7/7. Roughly when playing against any deck that deals damage to remove threats you want the Prism Golem to remain a 7/7. Alternatively if you are the agro deck, you will want to run out Horus Traver on t1 to be more threat dense. Playing with Horus Traver requires a lot of metagame knowledge; as you may be dropping it and selecting color based only on a single power card from your opponent. If you have to drop him in the dark, it's best to always choose Justice as it gives you the most options moving forward. Refrain from holding back Horus Traver on t1 in the dark for better color selection later; our market access to inconsistent at best, and its better to get in the point of damage early.

Okessa's Audience: Unfortunately as of writing this there is no factionless sigil, and there is a current oversight where plundering with Okessa's Audience in a factionless deck always yields a Fire Sigil which is not always optimal for us. You will want to hold onto Okessa's Audience until you can plunder a unnecessary power into a Treasure Trove. You will want to run this card out right away if you are power light and need to curve out, even though it is at the expense of our Prism Golem. You will also want to run this card out without using it's summon ability early if there is a chance that popping Okessa's Audience will get you to the 5 card void-spike which we will discuss later.

Snipe: Snipe is best when we are on the draw; if our opponent drops a 1 drop, there is a good chance it has 1 toughness, and we typically don't do anything on our t1 anyways. It is great for swinging in to bigger creatures, as we can use it to finish off enemy blockers. It is correct to use Snipe as 1 face damage, only if we are curving out and won't have a chance to play it later, and it needs to be in our void to hit our 5 card void-spike to curve an Dragon Simulacrae.

Waystone Alignment: We are hoping to hit Waystone Alignment with Tempting Offer so that it is easier to play. Most of the time you will be dropping this for 1-3 power to kill cmc 1 or cmc 2 cards. It requires a perfect read on your opponent to drop this card in the dark, but it is possible to anticipate your opponent's next drop with enough mate-game knowledge. This card is sometimes also just Cast Iron Furnace fodder. Don't be afraid to burn this card if it allows you to active Cast Iron Furnace earlier, at the expense of being able to wipe threats later.

Grand Suppressor: This card is a non-bo with a lot of our deck, however other decks 'summon abilities' are so much more powerful than ours, that we are still ahead even if Grand Suppressor hurts both the opponent and us. There are also a number of work arounds for our cards that mitigate how Grand Suppressor affects our gameplan. Taking up the spot for the 2 drop with Varret, Hero-in-Training can be very difficult to determine which is proper to drop first. It is correct to always drop Grand Suppressor first when playing against Time/Shadow decks as it hurts them the most of all. It is also proper to drop Grand Suppressor first if you are going second, to deny a 3-cost market card. You might want to take an early lead with Varret, Hero-in-Training if you also have a Mask Maker in hand to change the mastery clock from 3 swings, to 2 for Varret, Hero-in-Training mastery evolution. Refrain from being scared to drop Grand Suppressor even if it looks like it's going to hurt you, most of the time this card is a lightning rod for kill spells and combat damage, and sometimes we are expecting it to die before we roll out our summons.

Petition: This card is essential to our deck and will require the most explanation as choosing the power to draw will cause the most variation in our lines. At this time I will also explain the power, since we are diving in to it anyways.

- Broken Contract: It is correct to find Broken Contract when you have a unit in your void and you need to be the agro deck. Sometimes waiting for a dragon will take too long and we want to start getting in for 4 damage early. If you know your opponent is running targeted removal, this is also correct as they will kill the Sellsword just the same as the Dragon Simulacrae.

- Cast Iron Furnace: Most of the time you will be looking for this card. The only time you will be looking for Cast Iron Furnace without being able to trigger the Dragon Simulacrae actiion, is when you desperately need to pop face-aegis or push 1 point of damage; either for the kill, or when threatening lethal on the following turn is more value that getting the Dragon Simulacrae

- Chairman's Contract: Is an enabler for Broken Contract and Cast Iron Furnace. It is a non-bo with Tempting Offer; when your opener contains both of these cards it is correct to play Chairman's Contract first. There are times when you will play Tempting Offer and then draw into Chairman's Contract, it is still correct to play Chairman's Contract even though we might be pitching 2 discounted cards. The only time this is not necessary to play Chairman's Contract into a -Tempting Offer discounted library- is when we already have our 5 card void-spike and we don't need any more power in order to get to 6 power.

- Seal of Devotion: You will want to play this card when you see it atop your library unless you need cards in the void, in which case you will play Chairman's Contract into Seal of Devotion revealed atop our library. You may also choose to play Cast Iron Furnace rather than play Seal of Devotion atop our library if we can get a Dragon Simulacrae. It is better to play Seal of Devotion over all other powers when it is at the top, even Tempting Offer, as getting another draw is worth more to us than discounts. Never look for this card using Petition, we want Seal of Devotion in our library.
*there is a corner-case where: if you have already drawn for the turn, and you only have one more draw before you die, and you are looking for a certain card to stay alive, and you see Seal of Devotion on top of your library, and you have Petition in your hand - then you might choose to draw Seal of Devotion to get it out of the way.

- Sealed Writ: Is one of our finishers, try to play this card last because we want it to turn in to Word of Sol.

- Star Charts: We want to find this card when the Power Burst will allow us to play a higher cmc card a turn earlier and the Power Burst can also be fuel for Cast Iron Furnace.

- Tempting Offer: Discounts our deck. It is correct to find this card when we have no hope of activating Cast Iron Furnace and we have already played a Tempting Offer and our hand is threat dense. Multiple plays of this card while we have a threat dense hand will allow us to run out our threats while playing discounted cards at the same time, we normally would not be able to play.

- Xultan Conclave: This card is a faction enabler but gives us the option of not taking a faction, which is significantly better than Diplomatic Seal because sometimes we do not want a faction. The downside is the 2 damage, but this only has drastic effects against agro, and we are mostly putting Stormhalt Knife in our deck first thing so we can skip the faction selection. It is correct to find Xultan Conclave when you will not otherwise get a faction enabler and you hand requires you to have a fection selected.

Seek Answers: Functions similarly to Petition but is a random power. Alternatively you can find a non-power card but this is only correct if you have a dead hand, when grinding, or 6 power. Try not to play this card to high-roll into a power card, but if it is your only out, you may need to go for it.

Varret, Hero-in-Training: One of our 2 drop beaters, very rarely will it complete it's mastery-evolve but when it does it's important to know which mode to choose.
- The least likely is Varret the Wise, but it is correct if playing against control, or if you already have your opponent dead-on-board and the only thing that saves them is a board wipe.
- You will want Varret the Stealthy when you have the game mostly wrapped up as a win, but could lose to direct damage off the top of the opponent's deck. You also want this when playing against agro, just watch out for Milos, Rebel Bomber.
- You will want Varret the Mighty most of the time. It can be a liability against 'steal-your-stuff' decks, or against Auren Condemnation.

Mask Maker: We mostly want to use this with Strangers, specifically Varret, Hero-in-Training because it changes the mastery-evolution to 2 swings, rather than 3. It is correct to use Mask Maker to pump a unit so it can trade, or swing without being traded. If this is not the case, go for the most effect. Be careful selecting stealthed Undercover Enforcer as it will pop their stealth, however if you select a Sellsword or a revealed Undercover Enforcer the stealthed Undercover Enforcer will get the buff and remain stealthed. It is also correct to run this out without a target as we can turn it into a Stranger later with Traver's Farm.

Prism Golem: This can be a wall against agro, or a good damage pusher. Watch out the non-bo's with our faction enablers. It is correct to gain our faction when it will hurt our Prism Golem if our faction is necessary to our survival.

Undercover Enforcer: The deck lacks removal and interaction, Undercover Enforcer shores up that weakness; it is a good catch-all for us. It is not correct to swing with a stealthed Undercover Enforcer unless the 2 damage pushes lethal, or we know without a doubt we won't need to activate it. Feel free to be liberal with the activation as it will create a Disrupt for our void, which may help us hit our 5 card void-spike,

Traver's Farm: Having sites in our deck is very important, it allows us to threaten multiple axis. Triumphant Stranger is a win-con for us, but it's very rare it comes out, and if it does, we are probably winning that game anyways. You might want to invest resources to keeping Traver's Farm alive if you are playing against control. When playing against decks with known board-wipes make sure to play a lot of threats before Triumphant Stranger comes down, your opponent will have a hard decision of wiping your board, or wiping your board after stranger; this decision may lead your opponent to later die from a Word of Sol.

- Stranger's Mark: Use this on our already played Mask Maker to pump on-board strangers, or as a way to pump our Grand Suppressor as well as our Dragon Simulacrae as they are both simulacrae. Use this to pop aegis on our opponents units. Use this to change the creature type of our opponents creatures to Stranger; effective against Valkyrie and Yeti decks, but has other applications aswell.

- Reunite: Most often the first choice as it gets value. Horus Traver costs 0 when Traver's Farm is in play, so keep this in mind if you need a blocker to defend the site right away; this combo often allows us to play Traver's Farm into a board where it would otherwise die the next turn. Discounted Varret, Hero-in-Training also cost 0 when this is in play, but you can not guarantee this, however it is worth trying to high-roll if needed.

- Unity Within: Use this the same as you would a Mask Maker.

*All of the cards created by Traver's Farm are colorless cards, they may get you to your 5 card void-spike. Sometimes you may need to play Traver's Farm as a damage sponge that puts cards in the void.

Wasteland Broker: Playing this card will require a lot of metagame knowledge. You will often have to select a card to be put into your deck preemptively before the need for it arises; more on this later. Don't be afraid to play this in to a Grand Suppressor, we typically only need one activation of Wasteland Broker so multiple copies are fine to roll out as a 4/4 for 4.

Caiphus, Wandering King: A high-roll top end card that we are hoping gets discounted. Playing this into a Grand Suppressor hurts the most out of all of our summons, but it is correct; try to get the Grand Suppressor killed first if you can. If this card is going to activate it's summon, always play it pre-combat on the chance you get 'charge'.
*If for some reason you have the chance to play the specific Caiphus, Wandering King that has already triggered its summons a second time, it will get 3 new abilities, this comes up occasionally with The Speaking Circle or if Caiphus, Wandering King has revenge.

The Speaking Circle: Included to attack on multiple axis, as a high-roll finisher, or a desperation hail-mary. There will be games where you ultimate it and get The Queen of Glass, most of the time this becomes a win-more situation. All of your cards become 'awakened' while the Queen of Glass is on the field, keep this in mind for unit-type pumps.

Wrath of Caiphus: Used to reload in grindy matchups and works very well with Tempting Offer. If your opponent has a face aegis, the effect of Wrath of Caiphus will only work on you, and it will pop their aegis, 'Eternal: Card Game' determines the effect to be a hostile, not beneficial. Keep this in mind as sometimes you will want to let your opponent keep face-aegis until this gets played. Mostly this is just our 9th power card find after Petition and Seek Answers.


MARKET

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Builder's Decree: Our silver bullet against control; stopping a wipe before it comes down. Also useful against other decks trying not to interact with the board and then do something massive to swing the game.

Edict of Makkar: Time and Justice targeted removal. Also included because it can possibly clear a blocker for lethal.

Edict of Kodosh: Fire and Shadow targeted removal. Also a desperation silence for troublesome units.

Draconic Ire: You will mostly be wanting to use this with a Dragon Simulacrae created from Cast Iron Furnace, You will only use this with Wasteland Broker against relic heavy decks, and even then only if you are desperate.

Stormhalt Knife: Is free as long as you have 10 health or less, this includes its faction requirement. So it becomes a 5/5 weapon we can play against aggressive decks. Refrain from trying to get 2 Justice influence to play this fairly, doing so will likely cause more harm than good and we probably want Fire influence to kill Depth Charge with Draconic Ire anyways. It is correct to preemptively put this in to your deck when you identify you are playing against agro.

Thanks for reading this and I hope it helps you bring your dreams of playing factionless to life.
If you have any questions please ask them on the reddit post; I love factionless and enjoy explaining the deck to people.