Looking at the recent Pro Tour Edge of Eternities, it seems that if you want to dominate in Magic: The Gathering‘s Modern format you either have to pull out a massive angel from your graveyard or combo off with a goblin cannon in a landless deck. However, Affinity also remains a popular strategy among players, and a new card from the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set could help push the deck back into some Top 8s.
Affinity has been considered one of the strongest mechanics in Magic ever since its first appearance in the Mirrodin set in 2003, because it rewards players for doing something they usually already want to do: play a lot of permanents. Making each card you play cheaper based on the number of artifacts on the battlefield, Affinity enables explosive starts that often leave opponents in the dust before they can mount a defense. It’s the reason why the untapped artifact lands are banned in Modern, but the introduction of the bridges cycle (indestructible artifact lands that enter tapped) and of new, powerful Affinity cards made the deck popular again.
Unfortunately, Affinity struggles to find a spot among the top decks of the format at the moment, but that could change with the arrival of Krang, Master Mind, from Magic‘s upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover set. For six colorless and two blue mana, Krang is a 1/4 legendary artifact creature with Affinity for artifacts. He also gets +1/+0 for each other artifact you control. Its most impressive feature, however, is an enter the battlefield (ETB) effect that makes Krang’s controller draw cards until they have four in hand. This means that, if Krang is your last card in hand, you will immediately draw four as he enters. Nasty.
Affinity decks are really good at emptying their hands, but then they often struggle once their initial flurry has been somewhat mitigated. Besides the classic sorcery Thoughtcast, the deck can rely on Thought Monitor, printed in Modern Horizons 2, to draw cards while putting a body on the field, but Krang is a vastly superior upgrade. Drawing three or four cards while deploying another massive threat is just the kind of play that would make any Magic player happy, and Krang does it for two blue mana, assuming you have enough artifacts on the field (which should be a given).
Keeping in mind that Affinity got another great tool in the form of Pinnacle Emissary from Edge of Eternities, and that blue-red artifacts is a theme that will be developed in TMNT too, it’s entirely possible that Modern Top 8s will soon see a return of one of the most popular (and loathed, if you are on the other side of the table) archetypes in Magic: The Gathering history once this new expansion arrives on March 6, 2026.