I attended Worlds Friday and got in some random drafting/trading.  I returned to Worlds again on Saturday at 11:15 to sign up for the Legends/Chinese sealed but they ran out of spots.  Thus, I was stuck drafting/trading again until the real reason I attended Worlds....

I played this:
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
3 Intuition
2 Fire/Ice
4 Goblin Welder
1 Platinum Angel
1 Mindslaver
2 Sundering Titan
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Volcanic Island
3 Underground Sea
2 Island
4 Polluted Delta
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Library of Alexandria
7 SoLoMoxen
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Ancestral Reccall
1 Time Walk
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Tinker
1 Mystical Tutor

SB:
1 Pentavus
1 Triskelion
2 Tsabo's Web
1 Coffin Purge
2 Fire/Ice
1 Red Elemental Blast
2 Pyroblast
2 Rack and Ruin
2 Viashino Heretic
1 Shattering Pulse

Yea yea, no brainstorm makes baby Jesus cry or whatever.  I've always been an agnostic anyways.  In all seriousness, I've never liked brainstorm in this deck due to its raw drawing power from the ak/intuition engine and 4 TfK.  In there place, I maindecked mystical tutor which was SOOOOOOO good to me all day, 2 Fire/Ice to improve the fish matchup and having a maindeck solution to goblin welder can't hurt either, as well as Platinum Angel which was in theory my way of stealing games.


Round 1 Nick T playing TnT
Game 1
He wins the die roll and I believe goes workshop + mox -> Su-Chi.  I get an INSANE hand and go LoA -> draw -> jet -> lotus -> tinker.  I resolve my first turn sundering titan and he remarks that he's never seen a titan come in and not destroy anything.  Anyways, Su-chi doesn't race Titan very well.

Game 2
He goes turn 1 Workshop -> Sol ring -> Masticore.  I have no solution for the masticore and I just drop mana sources while his core beats me down to about 8.  I then topdeck DT -> shattering pulse.  I start buying back shattering pulse on his masticore during his upkeep after he discards.  For some reason, he keeps his regenerating (and tapping) masticore around for a couple of turns allowing me to eventually draw into bustedness for the win.  (After the round he said something about how he thought I was playing a different deck and thats why he wanted the core around but I still don't really get the logic)
1-0 (2-0)

Round 2 Jason Jaco (Jaco) playing TnT?
Game 1
We go back and forth for a while before I pseudo mindslaver lock him using up my 3-4 moxen to buy myself some turns.  Eventually I cast an intuition w/ an active welder which is enough for him to scoop it up.

Game 2
I keep a pretty good hand that only has a volcanic island and 2 moxen for mana.  He then plays a turn 1 heretic to my surprise.  I thought I was the only one that played heretics over lots of rack and ruins.  I think I play my volcanic and moxen and thirst for knowledge into no more mana sources.  He proceeds to go wasteland -> mox monkey and I never recover.

Game 3
I get a sundering titan into play that is beating on him.  He attempts to cast artifact mutation (!) on my titan and I rack and ruin my own titan and I believe one of his moxen in response.  This is enough to basically armageddon both of us.  At one point, he has to survival up a mox monkey to destroy his own mana crypt.  I perform one of the most pathetic wills ever since he is only at 4.  Will -> Land + Mox Emerald which activates my lone Tolarian Academy.  With my 3 mana I tinker into platinum angel and he doesn't have the solution.
2-0 (4-1)

Jaco was a really nice guy and while we are talking after the match, I point out TheLegendOfMagic to him.  Interestingly enough, TheLegendofMagic was actually carrying around a sign that said "TheLegendOfMagic" and putting it down before he played every match.  

Round 3 Bryce T Playing MonoBlue
Game 1
He resolves an early phid (Turn 1 or 2) AND has an active library.  Amazingly, I somehow resolve a tinker into a titan that is beating on him.  He then scoops up to an intuition w/ an active welder on the board.

Game 2
He AGAIN resolves a first turn ophidian and once again begins his massive card advantage trip.  I have an active library but it gets wastelanded and I get run over by card advantage.  At one point, I mistakenly cast Yawg Will while he is stuck at two lands.  He casts mana drain on the Yawg Will and I then proclaim that its sad that at this point I care less about the yawg will as opposed to the mana he will be gaining.  I mana drain his drain and he forces.  Lo and behold on his turn he drops morphling and starts going to town.  At one point out of sheer desperation, I tap out and hardcast Platinum Angel into his full hand.  My friend and I are debating whether its gonna be forced or drained and a laugh comes from the crowd watching our match when he mana leaks it instead.  

Game 3
We have 3 minutes before the round ends so I decide I have to kill him as quickly as possible.  I set up a hand that can actually kill that quickly but he counters my time walk and well, mono-blue doesn't exactly kill quickly.  We draw.
2-0-1 (5-2)

These were some very interesting games and there was a lot of friendly banter between us.  We attracted a decent crowd around us due to our antics.  It was definetely one of the most entertaining matches of T1 I've ever played.

Round 4 Shawn L playing Madness
Game 1
He goes for an early survival and I think I am playing TnT again.  It turns out he is playing madness but he doesn't kill me quickly enough and his wild mongrel + empty hand doesnt trump sundering titan.  Interestingly enough he cast 2(!) maindeck rack and ruins on me this game which almost forced me to roll over.  

Game 2
I go DT -> tinker -> titan.  He still has an active bazaar on the board though and he discards rack and ruin w/ enough mana to cast it.  I know I am in trouble and he proceeds to artifact mutation.  I mise my way through this one by hardcasting the last card in my hand FOW with exactly enough mana.
3-0-1 (7-2)

At this point, I am pretty excited because I only need to win 2 out of my 3 next rounds to get into the T8.  Of course, I shouldn't have started thinking that.

Round 5 Luis playing Stax (He T8'ed I believe)
Game 1
He plays a crucible turn 1 and starts wastelanding me away turn 2.  A titan makes me pack it up.

Game 2
He once again gets a turn 1 crucible and a turn 2 wasteland.  To make things even better he resolves a smokestack.  My 2 basic islands almost carried me through this game because I could maybe race with my platinum angel with time walk in hand.  His rack and ruin ensures that will not happen.
3-1-1 (7-4)

At this point, I get pretty dejected because I have to win out.

Round 6 Didn't Catch His Name playing TnT
Game 1
I force an early crucible and survival of the fittest.  We both have hands of little action left and he casts wheel of fortune.  I take that as a good opportunity to cast mystical tutor and my savage topdecking ( ) of tinker gets me a titan.  When my welder starts welding his Su-Chi for another Su-Chi on his attack steps, he scoops.

Game 2
My first 7 have no mana sources except for a tolarian academy.  I mull into a hand with no mana sources at all.  I mull again into a hand with no mana sources except academy again.  Worst Academy EVAR.  I mistakenly keep this hand and of course get run over with no permanents but an academy.

Game 3
He plays an early survival of the fittest, which I force.  He attempts a second survival which i contemplate.  I have another force in hand but I'd have to pitch my TfK that is my only non mana card.  Do I force this survival and go into topdeck mode or do I hope to draw into something good with my TfK?  I don't force the survival and he slowly starts to gain advantage from it.  He resolves a viashino heretic which causes me huge problems.  We fight over board position by the number of active welders we have.  Eventually I get trumped because well survival + anger >> randomly drawing welders.  I scoop it up as triskelion comes in and my moxen are being eliminated.
3-2-1 DROP (8-6)

I am REALLY disappointed at this point because of my awful draws game 2 and I made a few mistakes in the final game.  I'd really want to blame it on fatigue (it was about 1 and I had been there about 14 hours already) but I don't think I had any business winning that last game anyways.

My thoughts on the deck were it was pretty solid all day.  Mystical tutor was very, very good to me.   I don't think I would play this deck in a tournament anytime soon until I find a solution to viashino heretic.  He is a HUGE problem for this deck and 2 Fire/Ice isnt exactly efficiency.  

Props
My (mostly) cool opponents all day.
Wizards for actually deciding to add prize support to t16.

Slops
Freakin hot worlds.
Starting 7 round tourneys with cut to top 8 at 5 pm.
Tolarian Academy for being inactive for me ALL FREAKIN DAY.

Actually I have been considering this as well.  The more I played with cities the more I disliked them.  




You are only playing w/ 6 mountains AND added gorilla shamans?  Not all that often but sometimes I get stuck without any red mana and it seems like this could cause some problems.  I was thinking of cutting one mana source as well but maybe cutting a city/tomb instead.  Have you really not had problems casting them?

Yes, the mindslaver was janky and it so far has been more of a test card.  It will probably be cut.  Finally, I was thinking about putting lavamancers in instead of where you placed shaman.  It kills opposing welders/workers and random aggro that shows up at time.  (I forgot to mention that I expect landstill/fish decks as well.)  Obviously, it doesn't have a lot of synergy with welder but wastelands and other lands in the grave don't really have any other purpose.  Have you heard of anyone testing lavamancers?  If so, how have they performed?

Finally, when you play against hulk what do you typically side out for the blood moons?

I have been playing welder mudd/stax for a while.  At first I just playtested it on workstation but I completed the deck a couple months ago.  Anyways, I think I have become pretty proficient in playing the deck but I have always had problems with one aspect of the deck.  Sideboarding.  The deck list is so tight that I always have some real problems trying to figure out what to cut.  Before I continue this is what I have been playing.

1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Tolarian Academy
2 City of Traitors
7 Mountain
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine

4 Smokestack
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Tangle Wire
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Grafted Skullcap
1 Memory Jar
1 Mindslaver

2 Karn, Silver Golem
4 Goblin Welder
4 Metalworker

SB:
3 Rack and Ruin
3 Jester's Cap
2 Null Brooch
4 Tormod's Crypt
3 Triskelion

There a few decks in my metagame that I consider prominent that will typically show up:  (These decks are fully powered/updated)
Hulk
Mudd
Dragon
TnT
The following decks are things that might appear and I need to be ready for but not as severely as the above decklists.
Lil kid.dec
Keeper
Ophidian (u/r)
Affinity
Nether Void
Rector
TPS

My sideboard is pretty self explanatory except I think I might be overdoing it on the crypts/triskelions.  I am not sure if 4 crypts is too many or if I am probably better off cutting one to open space for something else.  Also the 3 Triskelions are there for random kids/aggro that shows up but I think having 3 might be too many considering its CC.  

Are there any suggestions to changes in my deck/sb for the 4 major matchups that I listed?  Also what would be a typical sb'ing strategy towards those decks?  If possible please list reasonings why you took out something over something else because like I said earlier the decklist is so tight I have problems siding stuff out.

Sorry if this stuff has been asked/covered before in another area.  I haven't had the free time to read as much as I would like lately.  Thanks for any assistance.

Altron