With 5 Strength, 5 Willpower, and the Evasive keyword, he gathers 4 Lore when Questing, making him desirable despite the play cost
My biggest point of contention with The Swarmlord is that it lacks any type of keyword ability to provide evasion or some other additional bonus
Artifacts have been a major theme of both The Brothers' War as well as Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty , but aside from the aforementioned Grixis Ramp deck, most of the artifact synergy hasn't really come to fruition yet
That said he is not all that exciting, the +1/+1 buff is no way near as good as something like a Crusade as it is harder to put to good use and easier to remove from play for three and not two mana
What if an Equipped Creature Dies
Izzet Affinity (6.1% of the Winner's Metagame) 4 Fiery Islet 4 Spirebluff Canal 4 Urza's Saga 4 Kappa Cannoneer 4 Pinnacle Emissary 4 Engineered Explosives 4 Mishra's Bauble 4 Mox Opal 4 Weapons Manufacturing 3 Sink into Stupor 3 Tormod's Crypt 3 Metallic Rebuke 3 Claws of Gix 2 Emry, Lurker of the Loch 2 Arcbound Ravager 1 Island 1 Shadowspear 1 Steam Vents 1 Pithing Needle 1 Welding Jar 1 Aether Spellbomb 1 Skateboard 1 Shivan Reef 3 Damping Sphere 2 Whipflare 2 Galvanic Blast 2 Mystical Dispute 2 Consign to Memory 1 Grafdigger's Cage 1 Force of Negation 1 Vexing Bauble 1 Emry, Lurker of the Loch As the name implies, Izzet Affinity thrives on artifact synergies, quickly enabling metalcraft for explosive starts
