Magic the Gathering

Affinity

Affin­ity was intro­duced with the Mir­rodin block as a main mechanic for the block which was Arti­fact themed. It is also the name of a very pow­er­ful deck which uti­lizes this abil­ity to the great­est extent. Dur­ing it’s peak the DCI banned mul­ti­ple cards in an effort to curb the deck and return it to a man­age­able power level.

702.38. Affin­ity

• 702.38a. Affin­ity is a sta­tic abil­ity that func­tions while the spell is on the stack. “Affin­ity for [text]” means “This spell costs you {1} less to play for each [text] you control.”
• 702.38b. The affin­ity abil­ity reduces only generic mana costs; it doesn’t reduce how much col­ored mana you have to pay for a spell.
• 702.38c. If a spell has mul­ti­ple instances of affin­ity, each of them applies.

Rules Trans­la­tion

• 702.38a. — This is an always on abil­ity, it is not trig­gered, it is con­stantly mod­i­fy­ing and chang­ing any instances where it is applied.
• 702.38b. — This only decreases the cost by col­or­less mana, it does not remove any col­ored mana from the cost.
• 702.38c. — Affin­ity stacks so if you have a spell that some­how has Affin­ity 1 + Affin­ity 1 it actu­ally costs 2 less to play.