Pauper: Jeskai Affinity Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide with LOTR updates

Jeskai Affinity may look very similar to other types of decks that already exist in the current metagame. This is true, but sometimes glueing two decks together makes them better. This maybe the case here!

Decklist

Our deck today takes cores from popular lists like the Myr Enforcer / Thoughtcast from Grixis Affinity. And Kor Skyfisher / Experimental Synthesizer from Boros/Mardu Synthesizer.

This gives us pros and cons of each archetype and other game plan or sideboard options being different color combinations.

So why Jeskai?

Cutting the potential of Black cards isn't free! Deadly Dispute and Blood Fountain are great cards for a deck with Myr Enforcer and a lot of artifact fodder in them.

The idea behind the White is that you get access to better lifegain options like Navigator's Compass and Lembas because we can run Glint Hawk and Kor Skyfisher. Not only that, our Draw Engine includes very real threats that all fly. These changes give us an advantage against Faeries and Mono Red.

Looking deeper at the card choice's helps understand where the power level of the deck lies.

The Creatures

Kor Skyfisher is still an incredibly powerful card in pauper. A 2 mana flying 2 / 3 is a great stat line and the "downside" of returning a permanent can and will be an upside pretty much all of the time.

This and Glint Hawk are the cards that impact our card choices we put in the deck. Thisnis because turning their downsides into advantage is how you end up burying your opponent.

Glint Hawk is your Kor Skyfisher 5-8 for the most part. The main interaction this shines over Kor Skyfisher is when in the mid game you can chain Glint Hawks with Experimental Synthesizer a lot sooner and a lot more efficient, costing one Mana really brings the power out the power of the Interaction.

Frogmite is the best filler creature for this sort of deck. However, it does alot more in this build of Affinity than the traditional one you are used to.

Helping you bridge the gap between 4-7 to cast your Myr Enforcers is the main reason this is here, especially when we run a lot more non artifact permanents. But Frogmite also lets us commit our Glint Hawks and our Kor Skyfishers early, when we need to play for the board. When against an Aggro deck or we need to become the Aggressor against a Combo deck.

Myr Enforcer: the threat everyone fears. A free 4/4 Creature. What is not to fear here?

This is your true payoff for all the artifacts. This Card can come down in multiples or even just slots into play whilst you are drawing through your deck. Avoids a lot of traditional removal like Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning. Myr Enforcer army can stone wall a wide board allowing you to stabilize, can also turn the corner and kill your opponent in a matter of turns.

Kenku Artificer is a threat that against some archetypes just closes out the game. Making 3/3 indestructible bridges is game changing. The strength for this card against traditional Affinity is recurring with Blood Fountain. We don't have access to that, but we are able to buy it back with Kor Skyfisher. This is obviously much more susceptible to removal but if they're killing your Kenku Artificer, the Kor Skyfisher is usually surviving, along with a flying bridge. Seems like a lose - lose situation for your opponent.

The Removal

Running Artifacts. Check. Killing the Opponent by attacking. Check. Galvanic Blast is the removal spell of choice. The card is incredibly strong for any deck running the amount of artifacts we are running. The card kills prety much anything in the metagame outside 5/5s out of Dimir Tolarian Terror. It also points upstairs in a pinch and costs 1! Card is incredibly strong and free to include.

Journey to Nowhere fixes the gaps inbetween. Anything bigger that can't be killed by Galvanic Blast this answers. I find having more than four removal spells is necessary because we are playing Experimental Synthesizer. Sometimes we are going to reveal a Galvanic Blast when we don't want to, so having more than four makes that not a big problem.

It also has a nice interaction with Kor Skyfisher. You can play Journey early with no real worries. If something more problematic comes along, return Journey to Nowhere to your hand and replay it.

Makeshift Munitions is the final removal spell. But it plays more like a threat, It gives you inevitability. If your opponent can't answer it you can simply throw all your creatures, spare artifacts and even lands upstairs. Not to mention this card is just game winning against any deck like Faeries.

The Artifacts

Experimental Synthesizer is well known for its power level since been added in neon dynasty. It synergises well with Deadly Dispute and Kuldotha Rebirth as shown in two of the best decks, Affinity and Kuldotha. It also Combo's well with Kor Skyfisher and Glint Hawk as seen in other decks like Boros and Mardu Synth. We are utilising it as the latter engine.

The card can be a top deck in the late game, next thing your opponent knows, we have cast 3 creatures, drawn 5 cards and removed their threat. Building this deck you can see Synthesizer was in my mind the entire time. The most expensive card costs 3 Mana, everything above that usually costs 0-1. This card along with the creatures really allows us to compete with the rest of the metagame.

Navigator's Compass may look like an odd choice, maybe even a bad one. However, it fills a slot that we really need. That is an early artifact to play, that gains life and fixes our mana. Chromatic Star is the card you would usually find in that slot, because combined with Deadly Dispute it gives you an extra card and gains you a Treasure. Due to being Jeskai we don't have the ability to flood the board full of artifacts as much as Grixis can due to the absence of Blood Fountain. We want all our artifacts to stay in play unless we are throwing them at our opponent with Makeshift Munitions. This makes Navigator's Compass fill that slot perfectly.

Following the same logic, Lembas is another artifact that gives you card advantage with Kor Skyfisher and Glint Hawk when you can't find your Synthesizers. The scry has been super relevant instead of Golden Egg's blind draw. Other Affinity lists would usually have Ichor Wellspring in this slot, but that really isn't necessary here with no sacrifice outlet. We utilise the extra lifegain when we can instead.

The Spells

Thoughtcast has been pushed to the side as the best draw spell in artifact based decks by Deadly Dispute. However, Deadly Dispute isn't worth splashing a 4th Color for. Kenku Artificer is the reason we play Blue in this deck and having access to Thoughtcast is just an added bonus. Card is still strong, just Ancestral Recall is better than a 1 mana Divination.

The Lands

I am going to just talk about all the lands together, as they should be self explanatory. I find we need to run all artifact lands because not every permanent is an artifact and it can prove awkward sometimes to get the count high enough for Myr Enforcer. We are almost maximising on Bridges so we have the best targets for Kenku Artificer.

These land choices does make us a lot worse postboard to Dust to Dust and Revoke Existence but we make up for it by having the Kor Skyfishers and Glint Hawks be powerful cards against most white decks.

This deck has a simple game plan against every deck, the main difference is when we execute that game plan.

Identifying what your opponent is playing early on is key. Some games you want to use Glint Hawk and Kor Skyfisher to return Navigator's Compass other games you need the card advantage gained from Experimental Synthesizer.

There are some games where going wide as fast as possible is key, so returning a Frogmite or a Myr Enforcer can be useful as you mitigate the downside of the fliers and can quickly redeploy these threats. So it is very much a choice to Identify what sort of game plan you need to execute.

A hand i would keep is one with a few early artifacts to play, a removal spell, a threat and a draw spell. Like this;

Even though the hand has no blue, the Navigator's Compass provides that. If needed you can easily Glint Hawk to recast the Compass if you believe life will matter.

Overall, these types of hands are very solid keeps as they allow you to play your game plan but also allow you to adapt if needed.

Cast into the Fire is a great new tool from LOTR. It allows you to condense your sideboard slots even further as it acts like a Revoke Existence and an Electrickery all in one card. Would run 6 if I could.

Dust to Dust is the best Artifact hate spell to have in your sideboard if you are able to play white. This being able to exile 2 Modern Horizon Lands or 2 Myr Enforcers is great value. Not running anymore is to have game and sideboard slots against others.

Barbed Batterfist may seem like a strange card choice to have in the sideboard. However, there are certain matchups where it is a pure race or who can gain the most on board presence/ value. This is where Barbed Batterfist shines.

Krark-Clan Shaman is a great tool at controlling the board. It isn't as great in Grixis Affinity, as we have less fodder to sacrifice. However, having access to the card is game winning in some matches. Very versatile when you don't know what to expect.

Relic of Progenitus is a solid card choice to fight against Tolarian Terror. Being an artifact is great for Myr Enforcer and it also replaces itself in a pinch.

Blue Elemental Blast is a card to deal with the Red menace. It is the best card to have access too when wanting to have a game against Burn. Deals with anything you need to worry about, and counter any spell that could be an issue.

Vs Mono Red

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OUT:

The reason behind these changes, is to remove cards that are slower and not as impactful, for life gain and Blue Elemental Blast.

Match up can be fairly difficult, but it is very reliant on finding Navigator's Compass and rebuying it as many times as possible with Kor Skyfisher.

Vs Mono Blue Faeries

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OUT:

This matchup should be fairly solid. Your draw engine is flying creatures and resolving these are key to stalling the game to let Myr Enforcer and Kenku Artificer take over the game.

The Cast into the Fire has overperformed for me against Fae. Killing all the X/1s has been great to stop the going super wide, and let the Kor Skyfisher and Glint Hawk do the rest of the work.

Vs Dimir Terror

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OUT:

This matchup is very dependent on how fast the Terror player is out the gates. You need time to set up and get your engine going. To clog the board to trade with annoying creatures.

Kenku Artificer is your real MVP here and having an infinite blocker will buy you lots of time. Relic of Progenitus is here to mainly provide you some interaction with annoying cards with Flashback like Deep Analysis and Chainer's Edict and to overall just slow their game plan down.

Vs Bogles

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OUT:

This is the type of archetype where the versatile sideboard cards are for. Revoke Existence hitting Ethereal Armor and even exiling Rancor so it doesn't go back to their hand is pretty useful. However, moving forward to Cast into the Fire has caused losses in Smash to Dust and Revoke Existence which has made this matchup a lot worse.

Krark-Clan Shaman being able to answer pretty much the entirety of their Hexproof creatures with very low effort, Moving forward having access to more might be needed as we have moved away from Dawnbringer Cleric and Revoke Existence.

The reason we are cutting Galvanic Blasts over Journey to Nowhere is the consideration that our opponent has access to Freewind Falcon. Both are overall pretty weak, but having access to what your opponent could have in their board is pretty important.

Vs Affinity

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OUT:

All these cards should be fairly self explanatory, all are good at dealing with the artifact lands.

Putting the opponent down to 1 land is fairly common.

Ensuring you hit your land drops and disrupting your opponents land drops, seems to be the best route to victory.

I have considered a lot of different options in the main and the side. All help deal with certain decks just to depend on what you expect to face.

Kuldotha Rebirth and replacing Lembas with Ichor Wellspring can provide early aggression and allow you to close games out quickly. However, in testing many archetypes were prepared for all the 1/1s, so ultimately decided to remove it from the list.

Gorilla Shaman is a fairly simple card choice, it is mainly another option against affinity, it is a solid option to use when combined with Dust to Dust. It additionally has other uses in other matchups where you can destroy Blood Tokens, Treasures and other Mirrodin Artifact Lands.

Metallic Rebuke is a card that doesn't really fit this deck like the rest of the cards do. I have changed the amount I play through testing and brewing this deck. One video has me playing 2 of these, but it's just so anti synergistic. When all your artifacts either attack or have activated abilities it's really hard to get this to be a 1 mana Counterspell. Having access to this card is however an important catch all. So putting this back in the list could change in the future though.

Red Elemental Blast is a generally good card to have access to. Great at dealing with Tolarian Terror or forcing a card through, by countering a Counterspell. The card also doubles up to deal with Faeries.

Dawnbringer Cleric is a card choice I like because it is never really bad. A 1 / 3 Body that can exile a Chainer's Edict or Ephemerate is good. Gaining life and being able to deal with problematic enchantments.

Revoke Existence is similar to Dust to Dust, being able to exile Modern Horizons Lands and and Myr Enforcer. It is worse than Dust to Dust being able to exile only one, but can be cast a turn earlier. Additionally, being able to hit enchantments is good against Bogles.

Smash to Dust similarly to Dawnbringer Cleric is rarely dead. Destroying an artifact is never a bad option to have access to. Doing an Electrickery impression helps clear up Faeries too. The final mode is never really that useful but killing walls and even Sunscape Familiar or Thermo Alchemist.

Omen of the Dead is probably the card that I really want to fit in this deck. Even though it is black, being able to cast it off Navigator's Compass and being able to constantly rebuy it with Kor Skyfisher is an incredibly powerful effect.

Overall, this deck is a great alternative over standard affinity. Don't sleep on the power of Kor Skyfisher in an affinity shell. Thoughtcast is still a powerful draw spell too. Navigator's Compass is a good option to fight against the Red Menace.