I wouldn't touch an opponent's deck without permission. What if they blame you for bending a black lotus or something? Better to call the judge over if you think they did a shifty shuffle. And even though pile shuffling seems dorky I think its a great way to shuffle. Just takes longer.

I always shuffle my deck in the couple of minutes before the match round begins in front of my opponent. In my opinion if they gave 3 minutes for deck shuffling [barring battleofwits.decs] I think this would be sufficient. I've never felt that paranoid that I had to shuffle my opponent's decks, but as long as he/she shuffled in front of me I felt comfortable with that.

How about using this in a lock or prison deck? They tap out to play their spells, and then you play tangle wire, B2B, winter orb, or some other lock type card. It has nice synergy with tangle wire also since it doesn't shut off when it becomes untapped. Also, do you think the Mono-U Morphling/Ophidian family of decks would consider boarding this for the mirror?

What about running red in this deck? Currently I am trying lightning bolts and welders and have replaced skullclamp and chamber. I'm not using any typical welding targets but I'm trying to offset enemy welders.

Question, would forcefield be a good sideboard or maindeck choice for this deck?

Purple Hat,

I lost to a round one two land belcher deck that used tendrils as an alternate win condition. Since I didn't recognize the deck on site I thought it was tendrils but was surpised to see belcher game 3 (i won game 2, i think).

Afterwards I practiced with him and found that resolving a Sphere of Resistance in my opening hand led to him just saying 'Go' each of his turns followed by me hitting him with factories/thopters/crusher/frogs/etc. In fact whenever I got out a Sphere of Resistance at Waterbury I either won the game or made them fight like the devil to win.

Basically my opponent who I practiced with said I should basically mulligan until I get a sphere and a mana source to play it!

I was thinking about the die roll also as I happened to lose it a lot in Waterbury. Let's suppose the following course of events happen:

Player A & B, A wins the coin flip. A wins the game.

Ok, so A has won one game, and he also was granted his choice of playing or drawing by luck only (no skill involved).

Player B must win the next game or he has lost the round. Note, the chips are sitting with A right now even though B is playing first because A has already won one game out of 3.

Let's suppose Player B wins game 2. Then Player A gets to decide to play or draw AGAIN! Not only did he or she get granted extra luck for game#1, but A also gets a bonus decision for game 3!  Clearly, I think the coin flip awards the winner too much. I would propose the following "quick fix":

Round procedure
1. Flip to determine who goes first game 1
2. If Player A wins round 1, skip to step 4.
3. Player A wins round 2. (despite not having decision of play||draw)
    Player A may have won, but at least Player B got to decide game #2.
    Round determined.
4. Player B wins game 2.
5. Flip to determine who goes first game 3
6. Round determined. Note that player A doesn't get a free decision here.

In my opinion, the skullclamp-chamber engine didn't work for me in Waterbury because I never had both a Chamber and a Clamp out at the same time [game never lasted that long]. I believe this engine can be cut out and replaced by something else.  I was constantly sideboarding it out in games 2 and 3 because it didn't work for me.

I ran the deck as initially stated, however, I didn't care to purchase a Mana Crypt at the time. My ten proxies in waterbury were 4 mox, 1 lotus,  and 4 workshop, 1 mana crypt.

Sideboard was 6 mountain, 3 Pyroblast, 1 REB, 2 Juntu Stakes, 2 Tormod Crypt, 1 KCI.

In my experience, had I been able to spot remove enemy Welders from the board before they could activate, I would have won several additional rounds in which I only won one game out of 3.  Counterspells and force of wills were a non-issue for me since this deck has quiet a variety of threats.

I heard about someone winning with a Lava Dart. Well, it just might be what this deck needs. In addition it may need instant speed artifact destruction in the maindeck to take care of belcher. This deck probably also has zero chance against a tendrils win condition deck - even if you have a turn 2 10/2 ornithopter up and running, it won't matter if you didn't go first (another problem for this deck).

Are T1 events outside of Gencon ever sanctioned?

Looks like that wasn't my crusher you read. I didn't decide to use wire in my deck. Perhaps I should have.

I think this deck has a lot of potential. Its pretty easy to get a 10/2 ornithopter up and running by turn 2 or a 5/5 crusher on turn 1. It just has to deal with welders.

PS, When I ran this deck at Waterbury, three individual people all had to read Arcbound Crusher to see what it did. I really found that funny especially when it beat them 1 game out of 3. I don't know what they sided in - I never saw I sideboarded card of theres in all 5 games.

Well, in my opion, this will be hard to get off, as it costs 3WW and double white mana isn't easy to pull.

Yeah. I ran crushing chamber and dropped after I went 1-4 at the mana drain open today at waterbury. Some rounds I won 1 game out of 3 but couldnt get the final damage in I needed to win. I came very close alot.  I think this deck needs Ravagers in the sideboard for sure. I want even more threats to run now.  Definitely 4x tormod crypt there. Almost every deck was carbon copy welder/tinker for darksteel colossus or pentavus.

Threats work better when you have mana to play them.  

1. Well, here was the plan. I need to resolve a metalworker against Smemmen blue on turn 1 via either work shop, mox-tomb, mox-mox-land, or lotus [all seem viable enough to me]. Then, I play whatever threats I can for that first turn, and then start playing crusher and chamber and what have you. When the INEVITABLE B2B/Flux comes down I will have the hero of the day, Metal Worker, there to save me because I will have extra mana to spend for the upkeep. Then hopefully I will be able to resolve a REB/Pyroblast and take out the Flux/B2B.

2. The number of times I've "gone off" with Jar has been kind of low. usually I tended to draw lots of ueselss things, like excess Wastelands, Crucibles, that went to the graveyard...

I'd like to up the number of red cards appearing in the sideboard. After discussing this with a fellow Mana Drain reader [don't know if he posts here] he pointed out  that one of the initial premises behind the deck, which is immunity to Null Rod, is not true. Null rod will cancel out being able to equip Cranial Plating (one of the kills) and in addition will cancel out Skullclamp (the draw engine). In additional Chalice for 2 will stop Cranial Plating and Genesis Chamber, two key cards in this deck.

So I'm thinking this deck needs red primarily for the metagame. I realize making it more flexible for the metagame will slow it down a little, but the problem is the field is currently full of Workshop hate and this deck can't just rely on winning fast all the time. I'd like an out if they resolve a B2B/Flux/Chalice. So I propose the following sideboard, with quantities of the cards being undecided:

U Red Elemental Blast
V  Pyroblast
W  Rack and Ruin (to kill Null rod & Chalice)
X Juntu Stakes   (to stop Fish and Welder)
Y  Tormod Crypt  (to stop graveyard reliant decks, which iis probably 80% + of T1?)
Z Metal worker

Well, as I've been testing the deck, a resolved Energy Flux or Back to Basics = good game. So I think Metalworker is definitely an answer since you can use it to pay for Energy Flux's upkeep or B2B emergency mana.

Also, policehq mentioned running 4x REB and 4x Pyroblast. I was thinking about it this morning and I think this might be a great idea. But somehow I don't know how you will fit them in. I think Myr Enforcers can be dropped because I noticed they are a little slow. Basically if I have enough artifacts to put out a cheap Myr Enforcer I am winning or about to win anyways due to Cranial Plating damage.

So I'm entering the land of horrible speculation here. Let's see. I have a lot of crazy ideas here and feel free to shoot me down...

(possible main deck modification...)
----------
Drop 4 Myr Enforcer for 4 basic mountain (?)
Drop 3 Mox (white,green,black) for 2 Paradise Mantle (!!),  1 Lotus Petal (?)
----------
The hope... Basic mountains will grant some resiliency to cruciblewasteland if you dont get yours out in time... Mountains will allow us to cast Pyroblast and REB... Paradise mantle will turn 1/1 myr tokens into birds of paradise, and add to affinity count... Lotus petal will also help sneak a REB or Pyroblast out if they resolve B2B...
-----
Sideboard, 4 Red Elemental Blast, 4 Pyroblast, Welder hate (Stakes, Tormod Crypt)
-----

Ok, let's say your playing Smemmen blue. I know some people will disagree with me but personally I think this is probably the best deck in the field right now overall... Game 1, maybe you win, maybe not.  Ok, time to sideboard. You know 4x energy flux and propaganda will be coming in. So,

Side out:
2x crucible (they're useless against Smemen blue I think. If they can use LOA they are going to beat you anyways)
4x wasteland
1x strip mine
1x memory jar(?)  - giving smemmenU cards = horrible idea...?

Side in:
4x REB
4X Pyroblast

Comments: 7 mana sources already in the main deck ready to play REB/PB which both cost R
I havent actually tried any of this yet....

i think so. i think metalworker might be the key to holding this deck together in case you dont get your way with crucible.

ps ive been playing this deck a lot on magic workstation but i cant find opponents who are very good. either that, or they play obsolete decks. or a combination of the two. anyone have any advice for finding good magic workstation opponents

well, i think smemmen blue will keep the # of wastelands in competitive decks in check.

Hopefully this type of discussion is permitted here. I'd like to discuss this card with you all which will be in the next Magic set, Champions of Kamigawa. The card was confirmed on MTGNews today by Rancored Elf who is the rumormeister there and has never(?) been wrong about a confirmed card in the past.

Boseiju, Who Shelters All
Legendary Land
Boseiju, Who Shelters All coms into play tapped.
Tap, Pay 2 life: Add 1 to you mana pool. If that mana is spent on an instant or sorcery spell, that spell can't be countered by spells or abilities.

So, the drawbacks of this card:

(1) Comes into play tapped. You can't use it to win with your combo or to get a key combo piece out on turn 1.
(2) Costs 2 life to use
(3) Is Legendary. Per the new Legendary rules as roughly stated by MaRo, if your opponent plays this it will be a "Neo Strip Mine" on your land and destroy it. Could be a real interesting war if both sides have crucibles.
(4) You can't use this to play artifacts (Crucible), creatures (Welder...), and Enchantments (Deed) and get the uncounterable effect
(5) Any sorcery or instant which doesn't require colorless mana as part of the casting cost won't be uncounterable

Benefits:
(1) Land's don't use the stack and can't be countered by spells/activated abilities
(2) The spell you use to cast this mana with is uncounterable

So I'm thinking at least 2 of these will appear in all decks and maybe 4 in all combo decks like Belcher. Strip mine/wasteland will become more important then ever (?). Maybe Tog/heaval could some how make it to type 1 with this land?