I really think a high discardable card count is vital to the build- you win with discard, either from power gained via the discarder or power gained via the discardee.

My metagame doesn't necesitate Null Rod, so I run a build sans the rod and beefed up both in the aggro and control departments- I up the Deep Analysis count to four and capitalize on my second dual land by adding in a couple Angers. My land base is something like this:

4x Tropical Island
2x Taiga
2x Volcanic Island
1x Forest
1x Island
4x Wooded Foothills
1x Strip Mine
4x Wasteland

I can support the Angers, and improve my vital green manabase with no negative consequences.

So, redundancy > welder in this deck? Seems like a good idea.

I think 6 would be the perfect number of equipment, replacing them with more threats... but if you never have any trouble with this version, than go for it. You've definitely picked the right equipment to try- the sword provides everything you need in one handy package (evasion, card advantage, uh, damage), and the plating kills in 2 swings. I tried a deck similar to this a while ago, combining the Ravager with Triskelion (Ravangelion). Welder definitely doesn't add much, since you'll be sacking basically all your permanent advantage anyway, and so I'm not surprised to see him go in this version. Everyone's already said to try Trinisphere, so I'll just say nice work, and good luck with the deck!

I think the likelihood of it removing that many lock pieces is even lower than we've thought- if you draw a hand with, for example, serum powder, two volcanic islands, and four mishra's workshops, you don't want to keep it, but you certainly don't want to remove all your workshops from the game. However, you don't have to use the powder ability- you can still mulligan normally. So there's always the regular mulligan "panic button", even with a powder in your hand, if you can't keep the hand but can't lose the cards. So the likelihood of you losing three or four independent lock pieces is extremely low.

Got it, got it... and damn, it would be fun to see a Shahrazad tournament report. I propose someone bring back a report post-haste!

What did you think about Glimmervoid versus City of Brass? Any time where having one hurt you opposed to the other/vice versa? Would you play two of one or the other if you played The Whore at another tournament?

Does it really work like that? Duplicant adopts the power and toughness of the creature imprinted- this doesn't count +1/+1 counters, but if its toughness is changed by the imprinting, is that the same situation?

Ah, yes, Null Rod is a big meanie in general. I like your list- I'd run more Trisks, but considering you were playing this deck specifically to avoid the Null Rod Problem, I can't blame you for only running one. Can't think of much else to say... good report, sucks to lose to sligh no matter what the circumstance. Has Chalice or Trinisphere helped you more?

--Wollblad: Good point- didn't think of the manlands and such, or workshops/bazaars for that matter. Maybe the plan has more merit than I give it. I think more is murdered by Titan than Crucible still, but the presence of Stifle makes an ability to recur your wastelands without consequence extremely useful. So the Crucible goes in with my blessings.

Crucible might be usable in control, but with the welding capabilities a deck like this has, I would almost always prefer the Sundering Titan. And putting it as more than a one-of is just ludicrous. In a deck that can already lock them down, it's better to have a finisher that also ruins their mana base- crucible is not a clock, and it achieves the same mana-denial aim as the Titan.

1. Don't try to mash Stax and Slaver together- dropping a couple cards from another deck is the epitemy of "win more". This deck is based on locking the board, so concentrate on that and add in finishers that you can thirst and weld into play and just kill them outright (like the Titan).

2. Has Crucible helped you in testing? Drawing a second crucible is a dead draw, drawing a second wasteland under crucible is a dead draw, and if you put in Titans, the entire plan is unnecessary anyway.[/i]

The thing is, in this version there are still cards you'd probably want to choose a welder over- right now, I'd say it's the set of Sphere of Resistances (or Trinispheres, but we're not going to go into that argument here). 4 Spheres is generally sufficient, and being able to juggle end-of-turn tricks to skip upkeep pain is well worth the loss of one extra casting cost- it rejuvenates all your Tangle Wires (which generally end up tapping more than one mana source anyway), lets you turn moxen into any previously countered threat, and is simply a necessary choice to make this deck control the game in an entirely non-symetrical way.

It still seems that you could use more disruption... I think you should drop the Slaver route entirely, and scrap the Thirsts for Tanglewires. Since the combo in your deck was clunky, that's already gone, and really all you need is a Metalworker untapped to play whatever you feel like... but now I'm pushing it back to BSR, since the next suggestion would be protecting and enhancing the 'workers with Lightning Greaves. You draw enough angry crap in your opening hand to smash nearly anyone's face, and the draw seems like it could be put to a better use, especially since your abnormally high mana source count allows you to simply hardcast all your fatties anyway.

I'd really suggest scrapping the entire deck- if you want to play prison, tell us whether you're going to play budget prison, or budget prison, since brownish prison is really the only way to go, and Workshops are the big question there. There's a number of threads all around dealing with Mud and welderMud decks- there's a budget one a few posts up. But right now, you have a bad prison deck in blue- so, do you want make a blue deck, or do you want to make a prison deck?

If you remove one copy of the card from the game, along with 6 other random cards, the change in chance of getting the card is marginal- you're thinning out the deck on turn 0, which makes the repeat draw more likely. Plus...

...strange... had... other ideas... but must... watch... dancing... fat kid...

Transmute Artifact and Su-Chi shows even more brokenness- 2-mana Triskelions direct from the library, 4-mana Sundering Titans. And I agree with the Tanglewire idea- being able to cheat out of generally unfavourable situations with Workshop/Welder is always a good idea. I made a budget version of Stacker that managed to fit all the Stax goodies as well (quiet, oxymorons are cool). But I also like your approval of piling on Trisks and Titans. Trisks and Titans... T 'n T. Coolie.

Trinisphere and Tanglewire will both really help in this deck- your curve starts at 4, and you only need to untap one piece of fat a turn to hit them anyway. You NEED the disruption- draining a Titan is bad times, and any counter but Force would totally wreck your hand and board when used on Transmute Artifact. So keep them off the UU with Tanglewire 'n such.

I'd remove the Shrapnel Blast's for Tanglewires, and plan on a first-turn Su-Chi, Juggernaut, Trinisphere, or Welder.

I really like that version... Duplicant and Triskelion are a magical pair. However, I would like some sort of discard mechanism- if it's going to stay as monobrown as it is, I'd say Skullcap could fit in somewhere. Maybe two replacing a single Karn and Triskelion, since it will help you burn through to find a piece of fat quicker anyway. It also fits with the "running through countermagic with constant threats" approach, letting you find more stuff per turn. Still, I think that being able to slide big stuff past a force requires more than constant threats, and putting it directly into the graveyard is a must for that.

xerxes- your deck needs to be able to kill them somehow. Add a couple fat creatures to administer the finishing touch once your control has left them pillaged and burned.

riffy- Null Rod is a crazymean idea, but is it or Karn a better idea? It's single-investment disruption versus mana-investment destruction.

Razormane Masticore will not kill the Piledrivers in time. I would only really like to see the Razormane during the Fish matchup (Null Rods)- otherwise I reaaaaly like my Triskelions. I might be biased here, but I'd much rather keep the Razormanes in reserve for the couple Null Rod matches, and let Triskelion do welding tricks and kill the piledrivers during the one active turn they need (Razormane kills them one each upkeep, and you're biiiiiig dead by then).

Your deck runs no disruption maindeck, attempting to overwhelm the opponent with must-counters... but I think you could still fit in either 3spheres or chalices maindeck- they can be just as damaging and counter-drawing as a threat, and help to slow your opponent down for the rest of the game if they actually do hit, plus the distance you are slowed by a 3sphere or stopped by a chalice is negated by the manacurve-jump workshop and worker provide. This deck has a HUGE amount of acceleration- I think it'd be best to capitalize on that by dropping a 3sphere you can play around entirely. In your deck, it seems all low mana costs are very important, so I'd suggest the 4spheres/3chalices route.

Combo is negligible, and the field contains a great deal of aggro, making control an unsavory option.

Control is heavy- roughly half the field. Combo probably wouldn't be great either, except for perhaps FCG. It might never go off, but even as RandomRed.dec it's a force to be reckoned with, and it will own the other aggro.

TnT would be a very fun choice- the landstill/gayfish/r decks probably won't be able to handle your constant threats, and the aggro runs punier creatures than you. Plus, TnT is just a really fun deck to play, and the right tools will wreak havoc on any deck you may come across.

Wasteland > Glacial Chasm, and basically every deck runs Wastelands, so...

...so yes, Eon Hub does require a deck based around it. And yes, that deck would probably be prison-based. But I doubt it would be better then normal Stax, considering how much time and resources you need to set up anything close to a useful lock with this and smokestack/tanglewire/goblin welder/another goblin welder to weld it back in before they get a totally open turn.

But this is one of the most fun casual cards I've seen in a while, along with Vedalken Orrery.

You should have creatures that are castable outside of oath, but much accelerated by the oath (such as the angel... although that's really fast anyway. But hey, we're sticking with the oath theme here). Against any of those combo/control decks, you need to be able to control the combo and aggro the control- meaning more disruption, and more realistic offensive stuff. Drop the collosus- there's no way you'll be able to cast that in any realistic match.

Replace the Llanowar Wastes with Bloodstained Mires. They can be recurred through Crucible, and are just plain better in general.

Perhaps Pentavus as the final 1-of? It's a 5/5 workshop-castable body even with Null Rod on the table, and sans Rod it can make its own army, nullify the effect of pumping up a Smokestack, nullify any negative side effects you may suffer from a Tangle Wire, block any curious flying beasties heading your way, and smash face all in one. Against Null Rod the Pentavus takes a beating in quality, but at the very least it's a 5/5 body. And if they don't get out the Null Rod, Pentavus will punish them for it dearly. It almost seems to have more utility uses in a sacrificial prison deck then Slaver, and you can pump up a Smokestack to three or so counters without fear as long as you have a welder on the table. Plus you have free reign to make cool flying Pentavite tokens to humiliate your opponent with  

The problem with drawing it later on is that with a draw engine in place, you most likely already passed through and played one, and with 3sphere the second is a totally dead draw. With Sphere of Resistance the second is at potent as the first, and when you're cycling through your deck with a skullcap, you want to be able to use everything you find to its full effectiveness. A second 3sphere costs as much as a second Sphere of Resistance, and in a prison deck it's a very common occurence to run into a second copy of whichever sphere you're running.

The thing is, even with the deck you described built around it, welder would be the better choice. It's less risky to hardcast, and doesn't require much investment in the color.

Are you sure you need the ESG's? They're only used for one card, and you already have ten mana sources to drop a food chain as is. Plus, whenever you don't have a food chain they're slightly more than dead cards which could be more goblins to smash your opponents face with, since goblins are very fast by themselves and with the other acceleration you provide. You won't drop a food chain every game, and in games where you don't drop it you need to have as much power as possible on the aggro side of your deck.

If you want to add something, I figure they'd be easily dropped anyway, compared to the rest of the cards in your deck.

Great report (How did you get rid of EVERYTHING?!?!?)... You certainly shamed the rest of Team Weston. Ah well... next time, we'll be more prepared- TnT, Landstill, FCG, and...

Heh. R-G Beats. Aren't we consistent?

Ah, sneak attack... I remember almost-making a sneak attack-eureka build (green-red, with the wurms and such for lots of nasty tokens)... but too often I was stuck waiting to topdeck enough fat for the win. Sooo, I switched to TnT, and haven't looked back since.

I really can't see that you should sacrifice speed to add the disruption available from black. Ritual is not justification. With a deck like this, you have to outrun all the opposition, and to do that you want to streamline it to two colors, and make it so that when you play a spell, it's either an accelerant or a fat-funnel. This is the first reason I recommend a green-red build.

Anyway, Eureka would be suicide in the current environment, so you should definitely up the fat count of the most-often-needed creatures, cut the duplicant and (in my opinion) add in Oath. That way you'd have eight methods of dropping the fat into play, canceling out the rectors (which are another card to be countered, and are completely nullified by a stifle). This is the second reason I recommend a green-red build.

In fact, drop in a couple wurms, get rid of the Nicol Bolas (very fun to use, but not much fun to Oath for), add some green mana, and call it Secret Forcez. With an accent on the Z. Being able to use the name "Secret ForceZ" can be the third reason I recommend a green-red build.

-Bobduh