Affinity may or may not rank among the most powerful and feared decks at a given local game store, but all the same, this deck is a household name among Magic: the Gathering players for a reason. Using an army of low-cost and high-synergy cards, Affinity can dump its entire hand by turn two or three, and get incredible value from cards such as Arcbound Ravager, Inkmoth Nexus, Cranial Plating, and Etched Champion. Sometimes, Etherium Master makes an appearance in Affinity decklists, too.
But this powerhouse Modern deck relies heavily on artifacts and activated abilities, so many decks are packing some land hate and artifact hate in their sideboards to help keep Affinity honest. Some of the best anti-Affinity card appear in a variety of colors, too. Which are the top 10 best card to side in against this aggressive artifact deck?
10 Ceremonious Rejection
How do you keep an Arcbound Ravager from devouring a bunch of artifacts and passing around its +1/+1 counters? Easy: don't let it show up to the party to begin with!
Ceremonious Rejection can be sided into any deck that can reliably have one blue mana open by turn one or two, and it stops colorless spells cold. This makes it pretty good against Eldrazi, too (minus their "when you cast") triggers.
Note: This won't stop Master of Etherium or Galvanic Blast.
9 Steel Sabotage
In many ways, this Mirrodin Besieged common is a sort of upgraded iteration of Ceremonious Rejection. Like that other card, it's a counterspell that costs just U, and it can hit any artifact that your opponent casts, even Master of Etherium. It can't hit Eldrazi, but that's not going to matter against Affinity.
Better yet, if you draw Steel Sabotage after your opponent resolved a nasty artifact, this card can simply bounce it! That fills in one of the biggest blind spots in countermagic: what to do if your opponent resolves a spell before you draw the counterspell? Against Affinity, every turn counts! Sabotage that steel for all it's worth!
8 Hurkyl's Recall
If you think it's a smooth move to bounce an Affinity player's best artifact with Steel Sabotage... why not bounce them all? Hurkyl's Recall is an instant costing 1U, and it packs a lot of power into two mana. Once it resolves, this card will return all artifacts to their owner's hands, including yours, should you have any.
Since this is an instant, feel free to cast the Recall when your Affinity opponent swings for what they think will be lethal damage. Tempo counts for a lot here, and some of the costlier artifacts may take time to cast again. This will buy you all kinds of time, especially if you can cast it again with Snapcaster Mage.
7 Pithing Needle
This one-drop artifact is a fine anti-Affinity option for decks that cannot access certain colors for sideboard tech. Affinity likes to use activated abilities, mainly on Cranial Plating, Arcbound Ravager, and the man-land brothers Inkmoth Nexus and Blinkmoth Nexus.
It may be best to name the Ravager with the Needle, but if a man-land is applying serious pressure, feel free to name it instead. One sharp poke, and that land won't hurt you ever again. It just taps for mana now, like most land will. No fun for the Affnity player, and that's the idea.
6 Ancient Grudge
This card saw reprints in Innistrad and Modern Masters 2017. While it doesn't have the same card advantage potential as Shattering Spree, the Grudge does have its merits. For 1R, you can destroy any artifact you don't like, and at instant speed. Later, you can flash it back for just G and take out another artifact. You can flash it back in the same turn, but if mana is tight, feel free to flash it back on a different turn.
In short, Ancient Grudge destroys two artifacts for 1RG, but not necessarily all at once. And not all decks can make enough red mana at once to get the most out of Shattering Spree anyway.
5 Shattering Spree
It's not an anti-Affinity list without Shattering Spree and its replication madness! While Ancient Grudge can get the job done, Shattering Spree can turn it up to 11, granted you have the red mana for it. Burn decks might, for example. At sorcery speed, this sideboard card can generate impressive card advantage and take out three, four, even five artifacts at once if the game reaches that point.
Should you survive to turn five or six against Affinity, your opponent may be running out of steam, and Shattering Spree will wreck everything they have minus their man-lands and Etched Champion (due to its protection from all colors). Now the game is yours.
4 Kataki, War's Wage
Red and blue mana have a lot of options for artifacts, but white has a few answers of its own to offer. White mana is generally known for attacking enchantments and large creatures, but we also get this Saviors of Kamigawa rare. It's a modest 1/2 Spirit that gives each artifact this text: "At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice this artifact unless you pay {1}."
That's saying a lot, with how many artifacts Affinity wants to control at once. Your opponent will either tie up all their mana each turn to keep their best artifacts alive, or simply lose them all. True, Arcbound Ravager can simply eat them, but this card can pressure your opponent into making tough choices they'd rather not make.
3 Kolaghan's Command
This is one of the five Commands from Dragons of Tarkir, and it has by far made the biggest splash in Modern. Jund, Grixis builds, and more like to run this card both in the mainboard and sideboard, and Affinity players will soon feel the heat!
The two most relevant modes are to destroy target artifact, and deal 2 damage to target creature. This often results in two dead creatures, such as targeting Master of Etherium with the "destroy" effect and a Signal Pest or Vault Skirge with 2 damage. This Command costs 1BR to cast, though, so be a little patient for the payoff.
2 Blood Moon
Many decks in Modern will be concerned when this hits the battlefield, and that includes Affinity! Once this three-drop enchantment resolves, an Affinity player's Inkmoth Nexus and Blinkmoth Nexus cards are just plain old Mountains now, impossible to animate into flying attackers.
This can also hit Glimmervoid, cutting off a source of flexible mana. Make sure that your own deck can survive Blood Moon, though, such as throwing in a few basic lands to fetch for... at least before the Moon arrives.
1 Stony Silence
As mentioned earlier, Affinity loves to use a variety of activated abilities, and many of the best ones are on artifacts. But unlike Pithing Needle, this white enchantment affects every single artifact in play, and it even shuts down mana abilities!
Once Stony Silence is resolved, it negates Arcbound Ravager, Cranial Plating, Mox Opal, and Springleaf Drum, along with whatever other shenanigans the Affinity player has. It won't hit Inkmoth Nexus or Blinkmoth Nexus, since they're lands. But really, hitting Cranial Plating and especially Arcbound Ravager is the real payoff here. Shutting down the Opal and Springleaf Drum also ruins an Affinity deck's mana acceleration.