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

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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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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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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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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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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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.